Bloglander

McEuen Park gets green light — The Coeur d'Alene City Council voted 5-1 last night to develop the 15-acre park downtown, a plan that has divided the town for months. (CdA Press)

Let the pain begin — Legislators in Olympia finally closed the state's budget gap in special session. The Spokesman has the details on what got cut to do it. (SR)

Fingerprints for school children? — Rather than presenting their lunch cards and slowing down the line, Spokane Public Schools could just scan their fingerprints. (KXLY)

Snakes on a plane — A 25-year-old Florida man was fined $5,000 for masturbating on a United Airlines flight from Spokane to Denver. (Chicago Tribune)

Three Seattle police officers suspended for 'gutter language' (Seattle Times)

Charles Dickens could have written a book about how lame this week's releases are. Not even the official kickoff of the cloud drive wars can make me say differently.

DVD
I Am Number Four

James Frey, the truth-stretcher who wrote the lie-laced mega-selling memoir A Million Easy Pieces, wrote a teen alien sci-fi romance novel under the nom de plume Pittacus Lore in 2010. D.J. Caruso turned it into a horrible movie the very next year. Timothy Olyphant, TVs biggest badass, continues his run of improbable and even absurd film roles. Fire your agent, dude. Rated PG-13

Gnomeo and Juliet
Exactly what you think it is, though probably half as good as you'd hope. James McAvoy and Emily Blunt are wasted in this weird, digressive adaptation of Shakespeare. Rated G

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MUSIC

This Is Country Music | Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley is the best thing pop country has going for it. Is it weird to say that? If there was any current gen country star who deserved to title his album "This Is Country Music," it's Paisley. 

I Was Born This Way | Lady Gaga
You missed the $.99 cent Amazon cloud-drive purchase yesterday, so pony up, sucker. 

Strange Negotiations | David Bazan
Wash St.'s favorite conflicted indie songwriter comes back with more songs merging Christian apologetics with the dour worldview of Eeyore.

Brilliant! Tragic! | Art Brut 
Everyone's cheeky Brit, Eddie Argos tries something on Art Brut's fourth studio album he's never done before: singing. Results are mixed. 

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VIDEOGAMES

Dirt 3 | PS3, XBox, PC
The Dirt franchise has become like a ralley-based, arcade-fueled version of Gran Turismo. A gorgeous, massive, detailed simulation that has enough action to be fun for more than obsessives and customization sluts.

Witcher 2 | PC (XBox and PS3 later in 2011)
Missed this last week, somehow — maybe it was the total lack of week-of reviews — but this has emerged as a critically beloved, punishingly difficult hardcore American-style RPG. Aparently an absolute bastard in the early going, the game grows with the character, telling a story that critics say is gorgeous, moody and as unique as any in recent memory. The interface — like many american RPGs, unfortunately — is clunky and problematic, but that wasn't enough to keep one reviewer from proclaiming it "The Empire Strikes Back of video games." A huge improvement over the original that leaves the player salivating for Witcher 3.

Kung Fu Panda 2 | PS3, XBox, Wii, DS
This will sell well, because children have bad taste in things. 

Day four in our countdown to VOLUME — just two days away!

Today's video features Ocean, Dan Ocean, Dan Cuccia — whatever you want to call him, he seems to respond. Ocean's was a square peg in our Bands to Watch deliberations from the time he was first mentioned. He's a DJ, but not quite how you'd think. He pairs up with rappers, but he's not really hip-hop. And — before last Friday — he'd never performed live. The local beatmaker plays in the dark arts, combining the bass-iest and dingiest elements of witch house with dragging pop samples. It's dark, but somehow totally dance-able. Read our profile of the man here — and check out the video on Ocean below. 

Two days from today — on Thursday, May 26 — we'll host Volume: The Inlander's Local Music Extravaganza, featuring our five Bands to Watch, which you can read about in this week's Local Music Issue: Horse Thieves, Silver Treason, Whiskey Dick Mountain, Ocean and K. Clifton. The show is FREE. It's all-ages. It will be awesome.

UPDATE: Samantha13950 says she isn't interested in "[getting] involved in a news story," but she did tell us where the footage was taken, and with what:

"I will let you know that we were in downriver park where the big hill starts to flatten out down by the river. The video is from my iphone. I was filming my friends slapping at ginormous mosquitoes and trying to get through some thick weeds."

There's no visible slapping of mosquitoes in the video, but it would be reasonable to edit that out when the focus of the video shifted from insects to a giant lumbering figure in the woods. The comment string on the video is already full of cryptid hunters debating the merits of the video, so we'll leave the analysis to them. (The best conversation happens between someone named BFResearchSE and someone named DistendedPerineum, for what that's worth.)

We'd just ask someone to let big foot know that the disc golf course is on the other side of the river.

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Original post:

It's not wreaking havoc like the Mississippi River by any means, or all those little creeks in southeastern Montana that are really screwing people on the Crow reservation, but the Spokane River has officially topped flood stage, and may just haveflushed one of nature's most (only?) elusive (fictional?) man-apes into the open.

Yesterday, a YouTube user with the handle Samantha13950 posted a video that shows hikers wending their way down to the river. The video then goes dark and asks, "did you see it?" The video resets and plays again, in slow motion. Yep, sure enough. In the upper right corner — conveniently and beautifully illuminated by a ray of sunlight — a black, hulking man in a gorilla suit real effing sasquatch!!!???!! figure of unknown provenance walks through the frame:

Samantha13950 says on the post that no one noticed Big Foot until after they got home and checked the video (if they taped the entire lumbering hike that must have made for a less than exhilarating editing room sesh).

The Inlander has a team of 80 forensic videographers checking on the authenticity of this. In the meantime, though, can I just make a plea, on behalf of Big Foot, for humanity to step up its game?

The sasquatch have been playing hide and seek with us for millenia, and it's pretty obvious who's winning. I mean, they're always right there, crossing into a clearing — dappled sunlight creating a halo of light that may as well be a flashing "Big Foot here" sign — just as there's a camera rolling.

And yet, besides John Lithgow, no one has ever nabbed one.

Shameful.

No new property taxes — The Spokane City Council decided last night that raising property taxes to help bridge the budget gap might not even bring in revenue, given sagging property values. (SR)

Dogs recovered from puppy mill — Twenty-five filthy, malnourished dogs were recovered from an apparenty puppy mill in Newport, Wash., yesterday. (Daily Bee)

Parents upset over proposal of class-size increase — Parents of Spokane Public Schools students were given several options for closing a $12 million budget gap. Increasing class sizes, one of the most effective options, was one of the least popular. (KXLY)

Obama hits Buckingham Palace — As part of a European tour that yesterday saw him chugging a Guinness in Ireland, the president arrived in London and was greeted by the newlywed Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. (NYT)

Bad rapture math — Preacher Harold Camping said he was slightly off when he guessed the world would end on May 21. It will actually end on October 21. That gives you five more months. (KREM)

Missouri tornado the deadliest in the U.S. since 1950 (Seattle Times)

Josh Ritter and Michael Franti will return this summer to the Festival at Sandpoint, which announced its lineup on Friday. Ritter, who will publish his first novel in June, will share the bill with fellow Idahoan Darren Smith, while Franti will be joined by singer-songwriter Jason Spooner.

Other highlights include Rickie Lee Jones, Rodney Crowell, Brandi Carlile, Chris Isaak, Lukas Nelson and classical performances from the Spokane Symphony Orchestra and the Sandpoint Youth Orchestra.

Go here for more details.

McEuen vote tomorrow? — The Coeur d'Alene City Council is scheduled to weigh plans for downtown McEuen Park tomorrow — an issue that has polarized the city for months. (CdA Press)

Bomb trial delayed — A federal judge has delayed the trial of accused MLK Day pipe bomber Kevin Harpham until Aug. 22 but says this will be the last delay. (NWCN)

Jail rates cause dispute — The Spokane County jail charges its government customers $125 per inmate per day, but the state doesn't want to pay that rate. (SR)

College shuts down unexpectedly — Students at Alpine College in Spokane Valley showed up to class recently to find the doors locked and a sign announcing, "Sorry for the inconvenience, Alpine College is permanently closed for business." (KHQ)

Lawmakers scramble to fix budget — With the special session in Olympia scheduled to end on Wednesday, legislators are desperate to bridge the $5 billion shortfall in Washington's budget. (KREM) 

Sinkhole in north Spokane — A broken water main at Perry and North Foothills started gushing water at 4 am and created a huge sinkhole. (KREM)

Tornadoes rack Missouri, at least 89 dead (NYT)

Red starting area; black shorts; white vest. Not sure if I am the one you saw as w/50K people, that could describe at least 1/2 of the women running, however I was pushing my grandtr.in a stroller & my youngest daughter walked w/me. I am single. I did finish & was bummed I couldn't run. Lunch is hard to do (wk schedule), however could meet you sometime for a drink.