Wild Card/Saturday -- 7/5/08

Looks like local Demo Chairman Thom George found a convert for Barack Obama while trolling among Repub Duane Rasmussen's friends during the Fourth of July Parade. Above, Thom and Beth are dressed in Demo blue as part of a 150-strong Demo contingent that formed an entry in the annual parade. Meanwhile, MamaJD has photos of Woody, Councilman MikeK, Thom George, and Ken Howard on her blog today here. I plan to get out on the lake again this week with brother-in-law Tom in his two-man canoe. We're thinking about buzzing Duane Hagadone's digs that are under construction on the Gold Coast. We'll see. I spent too long re-creating Friday to think much about posting. So I'll be lazy and simply drop another Wild Card on you ...

Raffle Dazzle

Pride Foundation is at it again, giving away money to the Northwest's favorite non-profits. In the Raffle With A Twist if you enter and win, the organization of your choice can win up to $1,000.

The local choices abound -- the Inland Northwest LGBT Center, Spokane AIDS Network, Odyssey Youth Center, CAE-PAC, any other 501(c)3 you can think of.

Good luck to Eastern Washington orgs!

WSU testing distance education in the world of Second Life

By Tom Sowa
Staff writer
Washington State University bookkeepers scratched their heads this spring when David Cillay submitted an invoice, for about $50, for an island. It was awhile before they learned he was buying land in “Second Life,” the online immersive virtual world where WSU has begun offering courses for students from across the globe.

Cillay, an assistant dean for distance education at the Pullman campus, launched WSU’s first full-fledged course in “Second Life” this spring. The graduate-level course in instructional design had seven education program students logging on and communicating with one another over the Internet.

In “Second Life,” people choose an avatar – a physical representation of themselves – with a distinct name. The bald, close-shaven Cillay chose the name Cdpe Voom. Cdpe is the acronym for Center for Distance and Professional Education.

Jesse Helms passes away...

Good morning, Netizens...

Senator Jesse Helms, who passed away July 4 at age 86, once wrote:

"I shall always remember the shady streets, the quiet Sundays, the cotton wagons, the Fourth of July parades, the New Year's Eve firecrackers. I shall never forget the stream of school kids marching uptown to place flowers on the Courthouse Square monument on Confederate Memorial Day."—Helms writing

Some called Helms a racist; others simply said that he was misunderstood by anyone from outside the South.

Do you have any memories of Jesse Helms?

Go Fourth...and take the quiz

So you think you’re a good patriot. You wear a flag pin on your pajamas, know that the last two words to the Star Spangled Banner are not “Play Ball,” and bleed red, white and blue.

On July 4, we all feel that way.

So try your hand at this American history quiz by clicking here
(And remember, just because you heard it when you were growing up doesn’t make it so.)

Want to quibble with the answers. Click here for details.

No stopping Minnerly

I couldn't even jinx him with Thursday's feature story. Minnerly's ability to scramble, throw on the run, throw with precision, run bootleg and option-pitch and occasionally go long, coupled with clock management, proved the difference in the East's comeback 17-14 win over the West in the All-Star Summer Classic football contest in front of a full house at Central Valley. CV's Tyler Cochran led all tacklers with seven solo and two assists.

"Minnerly, what can you say?" said coach Dave Carson. "What a great competitor, one of the great ones to come from Spokane. He has a great knack for making plays."

The Ferris senior enabled Gonzaga Prep's retiring coach to go out a winner.

"That's the way it should be," said Carson. "No regrets. The assistant coaches did a helluva job. It was a helluva game."

My game story for tomorrow's Spokesman follows.

Kaylee Cole gets Sound approval

Kaylee Cole got full-page layout love and a favorable review for her recent live performance at Seattle's Cha Cha Lounge in the sheets of Seattle Sound Magazine.

In the review, Mark Baumgarten writes: "If the songwriter’s unabashed giddiness confirmed her youth and inexperience, the beauty of her craft and ease in front of a discerning and unfamiliar crowd bellied it."

Here's the online version of the full review: Woot!.

Bozo is dead

Spotted on Huckleberries (here) and moving on the wires...the original Bozo the Clown has died. Larry Harmon created the original Bozo and then licensed the character all over the world.

The debate in the newsroom tonight: Is Bozo a Page 1 obit, an inside obit for Friday's paper or an obit we hold until Sunday when we do a deaths-last-week roundup?

I voted for Page 1, but was talked out of it by Managing Editor Gary Graham. There are hundreds of live Bozos left in the world, he argued. (Some would say that there are a limitless number of Bozos in this world in all walks of life. But that might be an exaggeration.)

But I vetoed holding the obit to Sunday.

If Bozo isn't a live news obit, these days, who is?

steve

The Drive at 5

(S-R file photo)

Wow. The long weekend is almost here.
The day sped by as we shoveled copy and wrote some stuff to fill those shovels. Our fearless leader was off this week and we never realized before how much he does on a Friday. (How's that for buttering up?)

Anyway, I was surprised how many people seemed to be at work today, too. Not just in the newsroom but elsewhere as we made some calls and e-mails for information.

Anyway, enjoy the celebrations, wherever you find them! Thanks for chatting with us this week. Duck in over the holiday weekend. We should have some brief posts there, if our home computers haven't been devoured by a virus that's circulating.

But one area's still doing well...

Despite uncertain economic times, it appears that one state revenue source in Idaho is clipping along just fine: People still are buying lottery tickets. “For us here, we have maintained the kind of sales levels that we’ve forecasted,” said Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson. “We’ll end up the current fiscal year somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 percent over last year.”

The annual announcement of the “dividend” – the amount of lottery proceeds raised for Idaho schools and a state building fund – is scheduled for Monday, and it sounds like it’ll be rosy news. Asked what the correlation is between lottery ticket sales and the economy, Anderson said it varies from state to state. “Some jurisdictions are doing better than that, others are not, and typically the ones that are not doing as well are in states where citizens have other options for gaming entertainment, whether it be tribal casinos, riverboat, slot machines, card rooms, that kind of stuff. So in Idaho we’re kind of isolated in the sense that we don’t have a lot of casino action going on, and people who enjoy the type of entertainment that we provide, it’s the only game in town.”

He added, “For the state, every play pays, whether you’re a winner or a non-winner.” Since it started in 1989, the state lottery has raised $367.5 million for public schools and state buildings; last year’s dividend was a record $34 million. Lottery players in Idaho also have benefited from something of a stroke of luck in the past year, with 15 “Match 5” jackpot winners in the multistate Powerball game, when Idaho’s share of the game statistically should have yielded only seven winners. Said Anderson, “It’s just how statistics work – it’s the luck of the draw, if you will.”

And they're in...

I-1029 has turned in nearly 317,000 signatures, according to campaign manager Jeff Parsons.

Parsons said he's confident that the measure will withstand any challenge regarding the initiative-to-the-legislature wording error on the form. (See below)

"With almost 317,000 people signing this, it's definitely something people want," he said of the initiative, which would mandate more training and background checks for some home health care workers. "Let the people decide."

Newsroom news

The aforementioned newsroom efficiency study is rolling along. Eight younger journalists, 11 days, kind of like an extended reality TV show, without any cooking or exhibit A or Paris Hilton. Their requirement is to produce a proposal for change in newsroom structure, two or three hours a day until the deadline of July 10. There's an open meeting on Tuesday for other newsroommates' input.

Insider and sports videographer Nick Eaton gives the scoop.

Spokesman Radio

Here's one of two new radio signs, matte decals on the wall outside the studio. A bigger one will be attached on the inside wall. Expect a one-hour radio show soon... August.

The Envy of downtown Spokane

I thought I'd pass along a note from Noel Macapagal, of Raw Sushi and Island Grill and Studio 23 fame, about a new project the Cuisine Northwest crew will launch this weekend.

Here's what Macapagal had to say about Envy (via e-mail):

"Artisan Room cocooned itself into Studio 23, now it’s time for our Butterfly to fly away (landing somewhere else sometime soon) and make room for a new room in a familiar space ... introducing Envy. We’ve packed up the bedroom and replaced it with the lounge. Soft seating, patio seating, and the mad beats now spill into the streets. Eric is running the show this weekend so pop back in and check out what we’ve done to the place. Oh and yes, Big Ron is back at the door, say hello to the proud Papa!"

So there you have it. No more Studio 23. Time to taste some Envy.

'Wanted' is better than you might expect

I try to avoid using clichés. I tell students that if you can’t find a fresh way of saying something, then just write it straight. But I sometimes break my own rule.

At times I do so because I’m in a hurry and the offending phrase doesn’t seem all that offensive. Other times, though, I do so because the phrase has a sense of power that’s unique.

One of those phrases is … style over substance. Not only does it own the required poetic quality (repeating sibilant sounds), but it is immediately understandable: something looks good even though it may not particularly original, intelligent or in any other sense worth considering.

That phrase, style over substance, comes to mind when I think of the film “Wanted.” We’d all been subjected to weeks of trailer punishment before this film finally hit the theaters. Oh, sure, watching professional assassins James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie frolic around, making bullets curve and the like, was better than watching the latest Lexus or Coke ads. But not that much better.

What I never checked out, though, was who was behind this seemingly insipid action film. And it wasn’t until I was reading the reviews that I stumbled over the name Timur Bekmambetov – the Russian-speaking director responsible for one of my favorite action films of the past few years: “Night Watch.”

Care center rises in Post Falls

Courtesy of Life Care Centers of America Inc.

The structures, called Garden Plaza Post Falls, are rising next to the Wal-Mart off Interstate 90.

“We’re hopeful to be installing the furniture by the middle of August,” said Linda Cross, senior project manager for Cleveland, Tenn.-based Life Care Centers of America Inc.

The approximately 63,000-square-foot, one-story assisted living center, Life Care Center of Post Falls, will include a library, ice cream shop and beauty shop, Cross said. The other roughly 270,000-square-foot building will provide 147 independent-living beds and 95 assisted-living beds. It is slated to offer a fitness center, indoor swimming pool, large meeting room and putting green.

The roughly $50 million project is expected to bring about 170 jobs, according to Life Care. The larger center will be operated by Century Park Associates LLC, of Chattanooga, Tenn.

The Colombian hostage drama

The dramatic rescue of hostages in Colombia received major play in several South American newspapers on Thursday, especially those published in Colombia.

In the States, the story made the front pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post and a variety of others. The Globe and Mail in Toronto gave it top play as well.

Kids at camp preserve dying art

Penmanship, letter writing – talk about old school. Does anybody still practice these ancient art forms?

Besides those folks in the county jail or the convalescent center, I have only been able to come up with one small sliver of society that persists in this archaic form of communication: kids at summer camp.

Limbaugh signs new contract worth HOW much......

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who celebrates his 20th anniversary next month as the nations most listened to radio program, has reportedly signed a new long term contract worth 400-million dollars.

Limbaugh's show attracts 20 million people a week, and is carried on 600 stations across the country.

-dan

Can You Pass the Citizenship Test?

Around Independence Day, everyone has our country on their minds. But how much do you really know about it?

You can find out by answering 20 of the hardest questions from the test immigrants must take to become citizens.

Take the test here, and report your results in the comments. (I got one wrong, if you really want to know.)

Beef recall for Idaho Fred Meyer shoppers

This morning's news includes a ground beef recall Frey Meyer shoppers in Idaho should know about.

Fred Meyer’s parent company is recalling ground beef sold in Idaho stores under the “Private Selection Natural” label.

The “sell-by” dates on the product were July 11 through July 21, 2008.

The beef has been linked to Omaha-based Nebraska Beef, which supplied products connected to E. coli illnesses in Michigan and central and northern Ohio.

Check the ground beef in your refrigerators and freezers, they have at home in their refrigerators and freezers. It can be returned to the store for a full refund or replacement.

Couples + Children = Happiness?

In a special feature this week titled “Global Literacy 2008: The Stories We Tell Ourselves,” the editors at Newsweek pose the following question: True or False: Having Kids Make You Happy

The answer might come as a surprise.

Does this reflect your reality?

Chapter 22

With Lewis and John truly gone, it wasn’t long at all before some of those in our remaining party began questioning why they should stay at this weak desert spring to await their return.

“All I know is they’ll be damn fools if they come back,” said Buck Earhart after only three days had passed. Buck’s grown son Erroll was quick to agree with his father and uncle Ned.

Life in the Fast Lane

Produced by Dan Pelle

Competitive Edge Racing School fulfills the need for speed. Students can learn the basic principals of car racing in the morning and be strapped into a car flying around the track in the afternoon.

The Talk Market: A DIY Approach to Online Commercials

The bedroom is dimly lit, with walls painted a deep orange. A hand-held camera pans across the interior, revealing a muscle-bound man in a tight T-shirt perched on the edge of a bed. The glow from a television flickers across his face.

“Check out that joystick,” he says, his rough Brooklyn accent rising above a techno soundtrack.

I cover my eyes as the scene unfolds on my laptop, half-expecting a scantily clad blond with double-E implants to enter, stage right.

But wait, this isn’t amateur porn—it’s a Web commercial with some Italian stallion demonstrating a Star Wars video game (complete with Millennium Falcon gaming joystick) on sale for $18 plus shipping and handling.

Why no coverage of impeachment debate?

Q. Just wanted to pass on to you that after a five- hour marathon on CSPAN discussing the impeachment of GW Bush, I was appalled not to see one mention of this in the press. I personally, as did my neighbors, thought that the points brought up on this program were pertinent and timely for our country. I personally was most disturbed by the civil rights issues.

It seems to me that if I gave birth to a rabbit tomorrow I would probably get international press. Why can't we discuss what's happening in this country? Please answer.

Pat

A. We have received a couple of inquiries from readers wanting to know why we haven’t done more with the impeachment issue.

We published a lengthy Associated Press story in Thursday’s newspaper, reporting that the House has voted to send articles of impeachment against President Bush to a committee that is not likely to hold hearings before the end of the term.

While the House floor debate may have been interesting, it’s pretty clear that the impeachment measure has little chance of moving foward. Nancy Pelosi, a leading Democrat and the Speaker of the House, has declared the prospects for impeachment hearings “off the table.”

As our editors decide each day on which stories they publish, they weigh their importance, the seriousness of the issues and the likelihood that the story will gather momentum or sustain a reasonable level of consideration. Reading the signals of various Congressional leaders, it would appear the impeachment story is going to die a quiet death.

As I noted, we didn’t ignore the House debate. But until there’s significant movement in the House, we’re not likely to publish much more about prospects for impeachment.

Fighting words

I figured out one of the things that I hate about reality television. I made this discovery while trying to watch "The Salt-Pepa Show" (yes, THAT Salt-N-Pepa.)