A shiny dime to the first person who complains about the heat. And, for everyone else, today's loose thread. Comment at will.
(Protect yourself, Will.)

Times change. Communities adapt. Today's "Our view" discusses how Idaho's Silver Valley has gone about it.

Just returned from listening to Pierce Murphy, the Boise ombudsman, field questions from the City Council. Mayor and chief were there. He said many of the things that have been reported in the newspaper.

Two things I'd like to mention:

1. He said that it was important for the credibility of the office that the ombudsman be able to conduct investigations. He doubted he could've established the office's independence if he had to tell people, "Sorry, I can't look into this." He said as time has gone by the investigations have become less important because those conducted by Internal Affairs have gotten better (more professional). He actually spends more time on audit reports and studying and advocating for "best practices."

2. He noted that he and the chief will disagree on matters and that's fine. But it's important that the public know what the issues are. Once he files a report, he's done. He doesn't lobby for changes.

One example: There was an incident in 2004 where an officer was called to a house where a teenage boy was exhibiting scary behavior. When the officer arrived, the kid was out front with an antique rifle with bayonet. The officer intervened and the kid charged at him. The officer shot him and the kid died.

The ombudsman ruled that the shooting was justified (self-defense), but he recommended a different approach in the future. It's called the Memphis Model, where a crisis intervention team is called and people with mental illness training try to diffuse the situation.

The Boise chief disagreed, but the council disagreed with the chief. And Boise will soon be implementing the Memphis Model, he said.

That reminds me of one more thing. The ombudsman reports to the council, not the mayor.

As a grade schooler in the '50s, I took a couple of trips to San Francisco and Portland when he led his commercial art students there on extended field trips. Despite my provincial upbringing in a small southern Oregon town (where my friends and I would take our .22's on a Saturday to prowl the surrounding hillsides), Dad frequently left me to roam the cities alone while he and his class were touring some advertising agency. Today, I suppose, he'd be hauled in by CPS. There were never any horror stories.
I reflected on those days after hearing about this Web site.
Columnist Rosa Brooks will have more to say on Friday's Opinion page, but the theme has to do with whether we are smothering our kids these days.

My column today urges people to get comfortable with stereotypes, because they're not going away any time soon. In fact, growing less angry and more understanding of what they represent might help us to get past them more easily.

...let's reconsider the innumerable platitudes about judging based on appearances. Sometimes appearances are all we have, and sometimes we have no choice but to make conclusions based on them. Sometimes, 200 words isn't enough to do people the justice we feel is owed. And sometimes, perhaps, the other writer is limited by the same constraints.

I contend that stereotyping only becomes a sin when we are unwilling to change our conclusions and judgments when further evidence is available.

Human rights warrior Tony Stewart will reveal today what his plans are after retiring from North Idaho College where he's been a faculty member for 38 years. Today's editorial salutes him.

Heard much about vouchers and school choice lately? Probably not. The promise of injecting market forces hasn't been fulfilled where it's been tried, according to this article in the Washington Monthly.

Excerpt:

But in recent months, almost unnoticed by the mainstream media, the school voucher movement has abruptly stalled. Some stalwart advocates of vouchers have either repudiated the idea entirely or considerably tempered their enthusiasm for it.

Exhibit A is "School Choice Isn't Enough," an article in the winter 2008 City Journal (the quarterly published by the conservative Manhattan Institute) written by the former voucher proponent Sol Stern. Acknowledging that voucher programs for poor children had "hit a wall," Stern concluded: "Education reformers ought to resist unreflective support for elegant-sounding theories, derived from the study of economic activity, that don't produce verifiable results in the classroom."

His conversion has triggered an intense debate in conservative circles. The center-right education scholar Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and a longtime critic of public school bureaucracies and teachers unions, told the New York Sun that he was sympathetic to Stern's argument. In his newly published memoirs, Finn also writes of his increasing skepticism that "the market's invisible hand" produces improved performance on its own.

Howard Fuller, an African American who was the superintendent of schools in Milwaukee when the voucher program was launched there, and who received substantial support from the Bradley Foundation and other conservative institutions over the years, has conceded, "It hasn't worked like we thought it would in theory."

Anyone doing a study to measure the popularity of biking to work with whether the workplace has showers (and whether the route to work is uphill or down).
Just one of many areas for reflection on this, today's loooooooose thread.

Today's editorial questions the wisdom of a policy, promoted by the Washington Education Association, that prevented three Spokane-area high schools from accepting millions of dollars in grants to promote advanced placement courses.

Barack Obama keeps getting asked about his running mate. He keeps deflecting the question by saying he hasn't won the nomination (yet) so it would be premature of him to talk about a vice presidential choice.
Hmm. He hasn't been elected president yet, either, but he doesn't refrain from talking about what he'd do about health care, taxes, the war in Iraq if he is.

Campaign workers in Indiana hear some ugly reasons for not supporting Barack Obama.

"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,' " recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."

One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"

"White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."

And on and on ...

Ralph Nader is suing Arizona state election officials over the difficulty he's having getting himself on the ballot as a third-party candidate. That issue has become a standard part of every presidential election. What about it, should Americans just accept the two-party system or is a reform needed to open the gates?
Or is there something else on you mind. Here's today's loose thread so you can let us know.

I have been thinking how I will spend the money from my stimulus check. I will not spend it on buying gas to have it end up in the hands of the Arabs. I will not spend it toward the purchase of a new car or a new pair of shoes to have it end up in Japan, Vietnam or China. I will not follow the example of our leaders and politicians and spend it on prostitution and beer. I will keep it locally and help the economy by putting it in a tin can and burying it in my backyard. -- Dean Coats, Colbert

I'm trying to decide if I'll do something deliberate with my rebate rather than just letting it get mixed up with my income (and outgo), and in a way I feel the way this writer does about the money accomplishing the purpose for which it is intended. Maybe certain charities will be able to spend it initially in a less frivolous way than I would, but what about where the money goes then?

Bipartisanship on an environmental issue? Who'd have imagined? We're pleased. We're very pleased.

Looks like the former congressman from Georgia is going to be the Libertarian nominee. What will this mean for the dynamics of the race?

1. Pull conservative votes away from McCain? Is this the guy for small-government fans of Ron Paul?

2. Pull anti-war votes from the Democrat? Is this the guy for anti-war fans of Ron Paul?

3. Both.

4. Neither.

Let's see if we can combine two things that people obsess about -- the cost of gasoline and "When I was a kid...."
After a TV anchor recalled this morning when gas was only $1.50 a gallon, my wife and I recalled instead when it was about a quarter.
Altogether now, how many of you remember the phrase, "A dollar's worth of regular, please."
If so, what was the likely response one got to such a request? (Answer later today.)

You've read about it. You've worried about it. You've been nagged about it. But have you ever seen the Spokane-Rathdrum aquifer? As Monday's editorial notes, you can grab a peek here and there.

On Tuesday evening as the margin in Indiana's primary was narrowing, I was following it on MSNBC, where (along with most other channels, apparently) the concensus among commentaters was that Hillary Clinton would soon be stepping aside. The only questions were how and how soon. Only radio talk show host Rachel Maddow of Air America was reading the chicken entrails differently. Hillary is in it 'til the end, she predicted. Things could still change, of course, but so far, Maddow alone seems to have had it right.
I have to admit, I've become a fan of the woman's humor and insight. It has nothing to do with her far-left views. But I do appreciate the way she can be impassioned and still be both civil and good-natured.
Actually, I think a team of Maddow and conservative Tucker Carlson would blow Hannity and Colmes out of the water. (Of course I make it a point not to watch Hannity and Colmes.)

Don't forget to coddle Mom this weekend, but take a moment, when you can, to post your thoughts here. In fact, give Mom first dibs on the computer to have her say.

From our editorial today:

The furor over police videos and a report that surfaced late in the legal process directs the spotlight once again on the Spokane Police Department. And, once again, competing stories will battle for public opinion. Critics say the episode shows that the department cannot be trusted. The department says honest mistakes led to the trial delay for a protester arrested at a July 4 rally in Riverfront Park.

The best-case scenario for the department was uttered by spokeswoman Jennifer DeRuwe, who said the delay resulted from "the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing." The department, she says, takes full responsibility and will investigate how this mishap occurred. A day later, it was revealed that a report citing the existence of the video had not been turned over to the prosecution or the defense.

Sounds like a job for that independent ombudsman the city has been promising to deliver. Unfortunately, formation of the position has been dragged out for months. It is especially frustrating to have to rely on a police inquiry into a situation where possible evidence wasn't turned over in a case involving an anti-police protest.

(AP Photo)

Dreams are, by definition, cursed with short life spans. -- Candice Bergen

Bergen: Born May 9, 1946.

Opinions -- short or long-lived -- welcome here.

I worked more cleaning on back porch. Harl came over and put up the shelf for plants. Emeline had it all cut and ready. He did a nice job -- it's so solid.

E. arranged the plants and colored vases on it. We think it's quite ornamental.

About this photo: This is a photo of Keo's brother-in-law, Charles Cowan, taken in 1908 at his law office, likely in the Radio Central Building in downtown Spokane. Don't you love the typewriter and the secretary's hairstyle?

You know the drill.
Drive safe, even in your own home.
More, as always, tomorrow.

(Keo as a young woman, possibly in the 1890s, long before her journaling days.)

Dressed my hair and put on makeup first thing when I got up. Seemed to give me more pep for the day.

Io called up in afternoon and told us what a good show was on at the Band Box. The picture My Gal Sal was surprisingly good.

(In this AP photo, a baby is held by her mother as they wait for free rice from the government following devastating cyclone Nargis in the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar.)

Some predict that the destruction and death toll in Myanmar will turn out to be much wore than the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed nearly 230,000 people.

But so far, it doesn't feel as if the world is having the same kind of response. Part of it is Myanmar's leaders who are shunning U.N. efforts, but wondering if a world weary of war and increased natural disasters can't gear up as easily as it did in 2004 (when the Iraq War, by the way, was just in its infancy.)

Your theories?

From the Associated Press:

The situation in Myanmar is worse in some ways because more people suffered severe injuries from strong winds, high tides and flooding. And he noted that after the tsunami, food and water could be obtained from inland areas that were not hit by the killer waves.

Tens of thousands of people die every year in Myanmar, also known as Burma, from tuberculosis, AIDS and diarrhea. Malaria alone kills about 3,000 people annually in the country.

In 2000, WHO ranked Myanmar's health system as the world's worst after war-ravaged Sierra Leone. There are hospitals, but most people cannot afford treatment because about 90 percent of the population lives on just $1 a day.