Bloglander

ON INLANDER.COM 

• Come on over to Allyson Amstutz's (and her roommates') house in Pullman, there's some skull-rattlin' music in their basement and everyone's invited.

• Charter schools are legal in Washington state (for now). Staff writer Wilson Criscione checks in on Spokane's PRIDE Prep.

• Local novelist (and Spokesman-Review columnist) Shawn Vestal on influences for his new novel. (Bonus: read his new piece in the New Yorker.)

IN OTHER NEWS: 

• A Spokane Community College criminal justice professor's PowerPoint slides used in class reveal sexist attitudes. The professor, Mike Prim, is a former Spokane police lieutenant and the chair of SCC's Criminal Justice program. One of his former students filed a Title IX complaint against him. (Spokesman-Review)

• Country music legend Merle Haggard died at 79. Take a minute and soak up some "Workin' Man Blues." (Or maybe "Mama Tried" is more your jam.)

• WSU football coach Mike Leach and Donald Trump's unique relationship.

• The New York Times digs into the founders of the law firm behind the Panama Papers — one the son of a former Nazi, the other a novelist.

• Two men, one with ties to Spokane, have escaped from Western State Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Pierce County. 

• Obama's fight for his Supreme Court nominee continues as he returns to the University of Chicago, where he used to teach. Obama will use his talk to pressure Senate Republicans into a vote on whether to approve his nominee, Merrick Garland.