Bloglander

It's been 47 days since a new law went into effect in Washington making texting or talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device a primary offense. (Before the law went into effect, law enforcement officers could ding you for the offense if they'd already stopped you for something else. Now, they can pull you over just for that.)

But an infographic from freeinsurancequotes.org suggests that law enforcement isn't taking the text offense too seriously yet. At least not in the first 28 days.

The graphic indicates that police are way more likely to ticket you for talking than T9-ing. And there's a good chance that, at least so far, they'll let you off with a warning.

Anybody here run afoul of the new law yet?

Koch — known for his evil clowns, rockabilly style and grease monkey-inspired designs — hit up the Con for a day (avoiding exhibition hall stabbings) to be on-hand with Toy2R when they unveiled his a prototype of his new Qee design for the geeks to drool over. He's one of eight designers customizing Qees for Toy2R's new Skelanimals Artist Collection Series — and certainly the most high-profile of the bunch. The series will go on sale soon, Koch says, on the Toy2R website.

If Qee, Toy2R and vinyl are words that are totally foreign to you, check out the story we wrote on Koch and the vinyl community in Spokane last summer here. 

Bart Mihailovich, best known for his Spokesman-Review blog Down to Earth, has been selected as the next Spokane Riverkeeper.

Mihailovich will replace Rick Eichstaedt, who became the first Riverkeeper last year. Eichstaedt will remain in the organization to provide legal advice. 

"Frankly, we're doing more and more and it was getting to be too much for one person to handle," Eichstaedt said in a statement. "Part of my new job will be dealing with the legal side of it, and part of Bart's will be working with volunteers getting samples and getting the good data to support the legal side of that effort."

Mihailovich will move away from Down to Earth and begin his new job in August. 

This photo comes to us from photographer Caleb Skytte, who was up front for the Swell Season show at the Knitting Factory last Thursday. (We wrote about the show on Friday morning, here.) Says Skytte:

This photo is important to me because I was able to see The Swell Season in South Korea, but had to get a seat way in the back of the auditorium. This time, I was able to get in the front row of the venue and get up close and personal with Glen [Hansard, pictured], Mar, and the rest of the band. It also means a lot because I was not allowed to bring a DSLR into the Knitting Factory, but I was able to purchase a point and shoot (from Craigslist) the day of the concert in order to take this photo and many others. The Swell Season is a truly moving band, and it's impossible to get a sense of this through just listening to their songs on your own. The energy and the emotion of the band's live performance is impossible to match, in my opinion.

You can see more of Skytte's shots from the concert here.

Calling all local photographers! We’re looking for interesting images to post on Bloglander and in the Photographer’s Eye feature in our print edition. Send your entry to joels[at]inlander[dot]com, along with when and where you took it, and your name and phone number. (The Inlander reserves the right to re-publish submitted photos on the web or in the newspaper.)

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We mistakenly wrote on Bloglander yesterday that tickets for Josh Ritter's November 5 show at the Knitting Factory go on sale on Friday. Nope. We were wrong. They are on sale today. TODAY! Right now! Head over to Ticketfly to nab some.

How Matlock of him! Defense attorney Mark Vovos breaks out the rhetorical big guns in a Colville murder trial, saying detectives were involved in a "classic cover-up" and that the trial would be "a story of police who rushed to judgment. It's not what they did do, but what they didn't ... in order to to make the story fit." Yowza. (SR) 

What a beachin' summer! Yesterday, the state Department of Ecology gave a big thumbs-up to Spokane's long-haggled-over shoreline master plan update, which integrates zoning laws and rules for natural habitat and prevents development from happening too close to the Spokane River and Hangman Creek. If only we could save the river from tubers... (SR)

Bad news for the SPD In 2007, Joshua Levy spent more than 20 hours on the edge of the Monroe Street Bridge, threatening suicide. When he did finally step away from the ledge, Spokane police officers tasered him in an attempt to disable him. Instead, Levy jumped to his death. Yesterday, his family filed suit against the city. (KREM)

They did know Bin Laden's whereabouts!? When the Wikileaks bomb dropped over the weekend, people started calling them the Pentagon Papers, part deux. Now, as folks are starting to read the 90,000 military files put on the whistleblower website, we're learning that Osama Bin Laden has been located, including in August 2006 in Quetta, Pakistan. Good luck with that war, Mr. President. (BBC)

And if Osama wasn't bad enough... The Pentagon can't account for losing $2.6 billion belonging to the Iraqi government. But don't worry. There's no thievery involved. Just "poor record-keeping and lax oversight." Oh. Good. (Washington Post) 

Local photographer Chris Jones sent us this shot of two intrepid floaters on the Spokane River earlier in July. Lucky for these two, they were wearing life jackets. The Spokane County Sheriff's Department says they handed out more than 45 tickets to jacket-less river-goers this Sunday alone. 

Calling all local photographers! We’re looking for interesting images to post on Bloglander and in the Photographer’s Eye feature in our print edition. Send your entry to joels[at]inlander[dot]com, along with when and where you took it, and your name and phone number. (The Inlander reserves the right to re-publish submitted photos on the web or in the newspaper.)

Check out what we had to say about So Runs the World Away here. (Our earlier impressions are here.)

Saturday marked the second anniversary of the fire that gutted the Joel building in downtown Spokane, shuttering Churchill's Steakhouse for 19 months.

This week, the restaurant (which reopened in March) hopes to honor the efforts of the firefighters who saved the building from complete destruction with a drink special. Quaff a mixed drink in the Churchill's lounge any time through Saturday and one dollar will go toward the Muscular Dystrophy "fill-the-boot" campaign, the fire department's go-to cause.