Huckleberries: Denial of Newtown school shooting shattered

Believe it or not, there are people out there who claim the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary (Newtown, Connecticut) massacre didn’t take place. The deniers say that we’ve been told a cover story for an elaborately staged government hoax. One of those who raised questions about the massacre is an individual who used AP photos of bullet holes in school glass as the basis for a loopy conspiracy theory. Wealthy entrepreneur George Mason told the Newtown Post-Examiner that the glass pictured in crime scene photographs was not “correct glass for a school or public building.” Which brings in Matt Roetter, president of Roetter Window and Door Co., of Hayden. An article in the Post-Examiner Sept. 21 calls Roetter “the nation’s leading forensic expert on the analysis of fenestration components, such as doors and windows (who) has been retained on more class-action cases than any other fenestration expert witness or consultant in the country.” Roetter had this take on Mason’s theory, for the Post-Examiner reporter who called him: Horse feathers. Bingo.

Spy on a pole?

And the answer is: A JamarTech device. Question: What was that weird instrument attached to a telephone pole on Ninth Street, near Interstate 90, Thursday? Coeur d’Alene police use JamarTech to measure traffic volume on certain streets. It helps the local boys and girls in blue gauge high-traffic periods and set up patrols for speeders. JamarTech comes in handy when CPD gets a complaint from a resident about speeding vehicles in the ’hood … Sightem: A young woman carrying a young man piggyback on the Coeur d’Alene Resort Boardwalk during the lunch hour Thursday. Lake Wobegon isn’t the only place where the “women are strong” … Larry Walter was the Coeur d’Alene parks employee who was spreading Coeur d’Green compost on the thriving new McEuen Park lawn Thursday. Coeur d’Green, of course, is the compost product made in the Lake City that comes from the wastewater treatment plant. Which comes from, ah, never mind.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: The sun is sliding southward,/the autumnal line’s been crossed,/you better find your long johns/cause we’ll soon see Old Jack Frost – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“He’s On His Way”) … If you’re a wanted guy, it’s probably a good idea not to wear a fluorescent yellow jacket into the Department of Motor Vehicles. It makes it easier for the local gendarmes to spot you, after fielding a call from DMV, like they did for the scofflaw in Coeur d’Alene Wednesday … Former U.S. Sen. Larry Craig made headlines twice last week – for being ordered to repay about $242,000 that he snagged from his campaign fund to pay legal bills in his infamous toe-tapping incident at the Minneapolis airport. And for being tapped to be finance chief for the Idaho Republicans. Who’ll forgive you anything except for being a Democrat … Shazam! A short time after guv debate concluded in Coeur d’Alene Friday, Huckleberries received a news release from OtterforGovernor declaring as winner (drum roll, Puh-LEEZ) – the Republican incumbent! … It’s no surprise that uber-red Idaho doesn’t want to “go green” and embrace that California ban on plastic grocery/shopping bags. But it is a surprise that only 52 percent opposed the idea in a Huckleberries blog poll Thursday.

Parting shot

Huckleberries is trying to get its mind around the push by Coeur d’Alene Councilman Dan Gookin to tighten regulations on the town’s growing food truck industry. Panhandle Health District inspects the trucks. So why bother this fledgling industry? Before upgrading to Republican, Gookin was a Libertarian who ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate. Don’t Libertarians, and most Idaho Republicans, believe in less government?