Voices

The fourth annual Southenders Oktoberfish derby ended Sunday afternoon with four winners. Fred Munson of Clark Fork, caught the largest rainbow trout, with a 9-pound, 10-ounce fish. Second prize, the largest mackinaw, was won by Doug Sheldon, of Rathdrum, with an 11-pound, 5-ounce fish caught just under the wire, prior to the 4 p.m. deadline. Third prize, second-largest rainbow, was caught by Jim Brewer, bragging a 9-pounder. Paul Bel, of Spirit Lake, caught the second-largest mackinaw to win fourth place.

When it comes to talent and determination, Elysia Villanueva is the ultimate winner. Villanueva, a junior at Mead High School, has traveled around America to audition for “American Idol.” Her latest travels took her to New York City after winning a regional competition. Villanueva’s first audition for “American Idol’s” eighth season was in San Francisco, where more than 20,000 people auditioned. Next she headed to Phoenix, but was not selected. Then she found her break right here in Washington.

Four people and three organizations were presented awards Monday night for their contributions to the arts in Spokane. This was the 17th time the Spokane Arts Commission handed out the annual city of Spokane Arts Awards.

John Moyna – perhaps the biggest underdog in any of this year’s state legislative elections – agrees a little with Republicans, a bit with Democrats and a bit more with Libertarians. Many of his platforms, however, clearly aren’t supported by any well-known political party.

The South Hill Kiwanis is having a German Fall Feast on Saturday at the Southside Senior Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave. The feast includes either a luncheon at noon or a dinner at 6 p.m. The feast will have a silent auction, raffle and live entertainment.

Give credit where credit is due I am writing to inform you of your Valley Voice so-called sports page.

A countywide vehicle license tax for road work might be OK if local needs came first, Spokane Valley City Council members said Tuesday. The council also heard staff proposals to raise municipal fees, to revise and introduce a variety of regulations, to develop a neighborhood park next to the Park Road swimming pool and to ban parking on part of Shannon Avenue.

MEDICAL LAKE – Industrial development and multifamily housing wouldn’t be allowed on certain lakeshores in Medical Lake under a proposal that would be the first update of the community’s shoreline master plan in 41 years. The Medical Lake City Council had its first reading of the new shoreline master plan ordinance Tuesday night.

When your mother is a writer, your life can be an open book. Just ask my sons. Their names regularly appear in this space as well as in books that are sold all over the world. And readers often ask if the boys are embarrassed to have their lives discussed so publicly. I get a kick out of that. The fact is they love to see their names in print. “Am I in this column?” they’ll ask, and if I say no, they don’t bother to read it. I often run stories by them to make sure they’re OK with the content, and not once have I heard, “Please don’t share that.”

Volunteer coaches are urgently needed for the Midnight Basketball League. For the past eight years, Hoopfest has partnered with Spokane Public Schools and conducted the Midnight Basketball League. The program is for students in grades 6-8 who attend schools within the district’s central urban neighborhoods. The first coaches meeting will take place next Thursday, and the league will run from Oct. 23-Nov. 15. One-hour practices will be on Thursdays with games and workshops on Saturdays.

Thursday DJ JASON (HIP-HOP/TOP-40) – 9 p.m., Mik-n-Mac’s Lounge, 406 N. Fourth St., Coeur d’Alene, 667-4858.

The reclaimed steel sculpture looks such a part of the West Central Neighborhood that one onlooker told artist Steffan Wachholtz she couldn’t believe she’d never noticed it before. Wachholtz was recently in the process of installing his Nettleton’s Addition Historic District marker near A.M. Cannon Park.

If you followed the popular “Scanner Traffic” feature at Huckleberries Online last week, you’d be the first one in your ’hood to know that a fiftysomething man had local pols edgy. It all started around 11:15 a.m. Thursday when the distraught man entered a local Bank of America to withdraw some money. He told the clerk he wanted the money to buy a gun to “shoot a politician.” Why? The congressional bailout of the nation’s financial institutions had driven him over the edge. In days gone by, of course, a situation like this might have been dismissed out of hand. Not today. “The way things are now,” Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Kim Edmundson told Huckleberries, “we have to take these things seriously.” Duane Rasmussen, the vice chairman of the Kootenai County Repubs, certainly did. Not only did he alert the staffers at the GOP HQ to be careful, but he trooped down to Huckleberries Central to make sure that I knew about the possible threat – and to ask that I use the blog to warn his Demo counterparts to keep their heads down. He had tried and failed to contact local Demo chief Thom George. Who’d already read about it on the blog and told Demo HQ to close down for the day. Later, County Clerk Dan English read the blog post and commented: “Hey, thanks for letting me know when I read this at 10 p.m. at night.” Which underscores this key lesson. Friends make sure friends read Scanner Traffic. Every weekday. Scanner Traffic

The Inland Northwest Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society will host the 13th annual Octobrewfest Brews and Bids on Oct. 18 at the Spokane Fair and Expo Center. The microbrew tasting and auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. and includes food, wine, root beer and, of course, microbrews.