Huckleberries Blog

For the record, I'm wearing a gray Hawaiian shirt with green palm trees, black jeans and black skechers as I type this. No tutu (for those checking in from Bonner County). What did you wear to work today? You can answer that question or start a thread on any subject under this Wild Card ...

Coeur d’Alene police stopped a red Ford pickup and ordered two men out at gunpoint during the noon hour today on Northwest Boulevard in front of The Spokesman-Review office. One man was ordered on the ground, handcuffed, put in a patrol car and questioned by officers. According to police spokeswoman Christie Wood, they received a report of the men in some kind of altercation and that one of the men had a knife. Officers located and pulled over the truck, and detained both men for questioning. (SR photo: Scott Maben)

• 1:22 p.m. Drivers of crashed Ford Excursion and black Toyota Tundra refusing to speak to each other @ w/b I-90/MP 2.5 (Pleasantview/Post Falls).

SR colleague Pia Hallenberg tweets: "Looking for truthful creepy #spokane #spider stories - feel free to share at piah@spokesman.com"

Question: If you have a creepy spider story, feel free to share it here.

... Greg Lee and I saw three workers setting up orange fence to block casual observers from entering Ironman Coeur d'Alene tent city and bike transition area at City Park/Beach during our noon walk today. They were pulling pieces of the orange fence from a big yellow park parked on the Centennial Trail between City Park and City Beach. Elsewhere, four workers were hanging advertising banners from the portable white fence now separating the east end of City Park from North Idaho Museum. A white fence now stands on the edge of the sidewalk on Northwest Boulevard in front of Park View Towers. Few people on the watefront today, as a result of the rain. Greg asked an older swimmer standing on City Beach about the water. He said it was fine, maybe 63 degrees. Good for Ironman. One swimmer in a wet suit was splashing on the lake.

DFO: The old Ironman Coeur d'Alene route north of town was a bother re: trying to get around the area. But I do miss hanging out at the Coeur d'Alene Bible Church barbecue while watching the bicycle portion of the ride.

Question: Do you plan to watch any portion of Ironman Coeur d'Alene?

These earrings were made out of shotgun and .22-caliber shell casings by Spokane artist Lisa Maddux, who makes art from the objects she finds on hiking, camping and fishing excursions. Her materials include copper, clay, paper and driftwood as well. "Art for me has always been a bridge to life," she said. "When I create, I feel energy and a connection. It is a celebration of my life's journey through the world." SR story by Jennifer LaRue. More here.

Question: Describe the earrings you are wearing at the moment.

Turks, some of them reading and the newspaper headline reading "Standing men," stand in a silent protest in Guven Park in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday. After weeks of sometimes-violent confrontation with police, Turkish protesters have found a new form of resistance, standing still and silent. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Question: Have you ever participated in a political protest? Care to describe it?

• 11:31 a.m. Honda Civic & Ford Taurus involved in noninjury crash @ e/b I-90/Pleasantview, PF.
• 11:06 a.m. 26YO male suffering chest pain after checking heart rate @ 157/138.
• 10:19 a.m. CPD Blue reports fire hydrant broken off & needing repair, unknown location.
• 9:59 a.m. BOSS hit on stolen silver BMW from Washington n/b on H95/CdA.
• 9:44 a.m. Durango driver has followed possible DUI driver in red Dodge Dakota from Post Falls to McGrain Clinic @ KMC. Dakota driver almost hit parked cars & drove over one curb.
• 9:22 a.m. Parent asks to see CPD Blue @ Coeur d'Alene HQ re: custodial interference problem.
• 8:42 a.m. A patient may be having a stroke @ Northwest Specialty Hospital.
• 8:23 a.m. Older male in yellow Toyota Tercel speeding, reckless @ w/b I-90/Cataldo area.

Some farmers in the Walla Walla area have already started harvesting their Walla Walla sweet onions. KVEW reports the harvest is starting about a week-and-a-half early. The Walla Walla sweet onion is the official vegetable of the state of Washington/Associated Press.

• Read Cindy's story for Alaska Airlines on eastern Washington & Walla Walla onions here.

Question: I ♥ onions, especially Walla Walla ones (which I plant annually). Mebbe it's the whole bit re: how fun it is to say Walla Walla. How about you? Do you love/hate to eat onions in your food?

From left, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Vice President Joe Biden applaud during a ceremony to dedicate the statue of Frederick Douglass, seen behind them today in the Emancipation Hall of the United States Visitor Center on Capitol Hill in Washington. Boehner will be the focus of a fundraiser in Coeur d'Alene in which 1st District Congress Raul Labrador wasn't invited. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S Speaker of the House John Boehner will visit Coeur d'Alene Friday for a private fundraiser in Congressman Raul Labrador's 1st District. According to organizers, Labrador is not attending the private event, and he's not talking about it either. "Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you," said Labrador's spokesman Todd Winer, responding to repeated inquiries about the event. "We don't have any comment on the story you're working on." Ron Nilson, CEO of Ground Force Worldwide, is helping to organize the event at the local level. He said Ed Schweitzer, CEO of Schweitzer Engineering in Pullman, is hosting the event/Jeff Selle, Coeur d'Alene Press. More here.

Question: Hmm. Let's read between the lines. Why would Congressman Raul Labrador not attend (not be invited to?) fund-raising event in his district that features House Speaker John Boehner? Pay back?

As the Pentagon unveiled plans to reverse a ban on women serving on the front lines, a poll released Wednesday found that most registered voters believe women should be eligible for a military draft if one is reinstituted. The survey conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research shows that 59 percent believe women should be included if a draft becomes necessary again, compared to 38 percent who say they should not be included. The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon and the news site CapitalSoup.com to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the U.S. military draft, according to the website/David Sherfinski, Washington Times. More here.

Question: Do you agree that women should be eligible for the draft if this country reinstitutes it?

• Tuesday Poll: A majority of Hucks Nation sez it has major concerns re: the proposed Unified Land Use Code being considered by Kootenai County. 67 of 122 respondents (54.92%) say they are very concerned about ULUC. 18 of 122 (14.75%) say they are "somewhat" concerned. Only 28 (22.95%) say they're not concerned at all. 9 (7.38%) were undecided.
• Today's Poll: If the military draft is reinstituted, should women be drafted, too?

Officers from Shoshone County Sheriff Department stand by the scene of a fatal shooting last Wednesday on I-90 at milepost 72.8 near the Idaho-Montana state line east of Mullan. An Idaho State Police trooper shot and killed a motorist along Interstate 90 at Lookout Pass as a sheriff's deputy struggled with the man over a gun. The identities of the officers involved in the shooting are listed below. (Coeur d'Alene Press photo: Gabe Green)

• Idaho Records/Sherry Adkins, SR
• Idaho toddler dies after being left in car/AP
• Officers involved in fatal Lookout Pass shooting ID'd/SR
• Parents' Facebook ruse halts kidnap of daughter/Kip Hill, SR
• ALS victim's response to offensive skit/Honora Swanson, KREM
• St. Maries murder suspect Herrera takes stand/David Cole, Press
• Idaho GOP seeks halt to cities' antibias laws/Sven Berg, Statesman
• Judge: Idaho terror case evidence 'classified'/Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise

On her Facebook wall, Teri Runge Nipp posts: "Hanging out downtown today I was asked three times if I was competing in the Ironman. I am very proud that I brought it here to CDA; however, not sure if I could ever endure the challenge. What an amazing accomplishment for all the athletes involved. I could do the swim and call it good."

Question: Has anyone mistaken you for an Ironman participant?

Moving across a rooftop, a wild turkey becomes a fowl shot while photographed as it emerges from behind a basketball hoop in the front driveway of a Walla Walla, Wash., home on Tuesday. You write the cutline. (AP Photo/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Jeff Horner)

Tuesday Winner -- CindyH w/10 votes: "These cyclists discover what the travel brochure meant by "no private bath.'" You can see Tuesday photo & all 19 cutline entries here.

Digger (re: Rasor's gays in tutus goes viral): "This is where I differ from "the community" ... I often get my hand slapped for saying things that aren't in the agenda's talking points... but where does Rasor get the idea that gays wear tutus? Media? The internet? Watching any gay pride parade? I'm out and proud and won't deny who I am to anyone. But you won't find me in pink briefs walking down Main Street Moscow waving a rainbow flag. I think thats kinda counterproductive to our cause of proving we're "normal" just like everyone else."

Question: Do you know anyone who wears a tutu to work?

Idaho prison leaders are looking for a new company to run the state's largest prison after Corrections Corporation of America admitted to understaffing and overbilling for its work operating the Idaho Correctional Center. But the Idaho Department of Correction won't be allowed to submit its own bid or take over operations at the prison south of Boise, because Board of Correction Chairwoman Robin Sandy said that would amount to expanding state government. The three-member Board of Correction made the decision during a meeting Tuesday evening, opting not to let an automatic two-year extension of CCA's $29.9 million contract kick in when the current contract expires on June 30, 2014/Rebecca Boone, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: The Idaho Department of Corrections won't be allowed to submit its own bid b/c the board chairman doesn't want to expand state government? Are. You. Kidding. Me?

• Action: Tired of waiting for the Legislature to act, six Idaho cities have passed ordinances that prohibit discrimination against citizens in housing, hiring and public accommodations based on sexual orientation.
• Reaction: Idaho Republican Party leaders have called on the Legislature to void those ordinances and prevent other municipalities from passing similar ones.

• Action: Last fall, Idaho voters – via three referendums – successfully overturned education-related laws adopted by the Legislature.
• Reaction: The Legislature passed a law making it more difficult – some say impossible – to gather enough signatures to place an initiative or referendum on the ballot. Then lawmakers ignored the will of the voters and passed some of the education items anyway.

That’s life in Idaho, where about four out of five lawmakers are Republican, the right to petition the government is trampled and local rule is overruled. More here.

Question: Now repeat after me, fellow Republican: "It's time to quit voting straight-ticket Republican until the Idaho Republican Party begins listening to Idahoans instead of extreme activists." Got it?

Melanie Strandberg shaved her head to support her sister, Marisa Lowe. (SR photo: Dan Pelle)

There was no doubt in Melanie Strandberg’s mind when her sister was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer. She had to shave her head. She’d already done it once. Marisa Lowe, now 24, was first diagnosed with cancer in February 2012, and Strandberg shaved her hair to support the sister she calls her best friend. This time, when 25-year-old Strandberg’s employer told her she had to hide her bald head with a wig, there was no doubt in her mind what she had to do: She resigned. In a move that rapidly went viral, Strandberg quit her job as a salon supervisor at La Rive Spa at Northern Quest Resort and Casino last Thursday/Kaitlin Gillespie, SR. More here.

Question: Would you shave your head to support a friend diagnosed with cancer?

We have been visiting your area a couple of times per year for almost a decade. We love the small town charm, spectacular scenery, slower pace and warm and friendly people. This trip, we drove into town and noticed a building boom, including a new McDonald’s. OMG…what are you thinking? A McDonald’s on that beautiful entry to your city! I’m sorry to say the charm is disappearing way too fast. I watched what happened to Lake Tahoe and now you can barely drive through that town in the summertime. Coeur d’Alene, please slow down a little, or is it too late?/Kathleen Blakeney, Moorpark, Calif., letter to Coeur d'Alene Press editor.

Question: I think I agree with the letter writer re: a McDonald's at the mouth of Riverstone. What were they thinking?

Kootenai County officials went back to the drawing board Tuesday after failing in their first attempt to hold planning commission hearings on the controversial Unified Land Use Code proposal Monday evening. "The meeting didn't go exactly as planned," Community Development Director Scott Clark told the board of county commissioners. "We had a big crowd, bigger than expected. It was a pretty busy place." Coeur d'Alene Fire personnel interrupted the hearing Monday night to inform the county planning commission that it was over capacity in its meeting room and said that many of the attendees would have to leave. Planning Commission Chairman Wes Hanson opted to adjourn and continue the Monday hearing "to a date uncertain" rather than asking half the attendees to leave. There will be no more hearings this week/Jeff Selle, Coeur d'Alene Press. More here.'

• Larry Spencer: "Seems the property owners have come to understand that this "wonderful new code" is really just a transfer of control and use of their property to the planning department."

Question: Obviously, organized opposition is going to greet every meeting held to discuss the Unified Land Use Code. At this point, are these hearings an exercise in futility? What would you do if you sat in a county commissioner's seat?