Bloglander

The Spokesman reported in mid-February that Trader Joe's new location in the Lincoln Heights shopping center was awaiting permits.

Those permits have apparently come though. Ed Clark, a local marketer who runs a business eNewsletter, is reporting that they've broken ground today, and that the store will be open by October.

So how's about it? Anyone got any pictures of demolition? A hole in the ground? Send them our way.

In the meantime, there are lots of events this week in connection with the Big Read.

And what's that, you ask? 

The Spokane version of the Big Read 2011 — a nationwide event, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, which encourages entire cities and smaller communities to read and enjoy the same book, more or less simultaneously — is focusing, this month and next, on O’Brien’s semi-autobiographical account (which was first published in 1990). Here's some of what's coming up this week:

Platoon
To get a view of Vietnam that’s complementary to O’Brien’s vision, watch Oliver Stone’s 1986 film (starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and yes, a much younger Charlie Sheen). Downtown Library, 906 W. Main Ave. Wed, March 23, from 5:30-7:30 pm

Discussion panel on The Things They Carried
Experts about such topics as disabilities, engineering, media and military affairs will share their perspectives. EWU Riverpoint Campus, Phase One Building, Room 122. Wed, March 23, from 6-8 pm

Book discussion at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 51
A U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman will lead a discussion, open to all ages and backgrounds. VFW, 300 W. Mission Ave. Fri, March 25, from 5-7 pm

“Things We Still Carry: Veterans Reflect on the Big Read”
Two Vietnam vets and two Gulf War vets, all members of the Spokane chapter of Veterans for Peace, share their perspectives on O’Brien’s novel. Community Building, 25 W. Main Ave. Fri, March 25, from 7-8:30 pm

VETS: Portraits of Veterans and Their Stories
John Thamm shares his book as poets and visual artists provide additional perspectives. Visit johnthammstudios.blogspot.com. J.F. Thamm Gallery, 11 S. Washington St. Sun, March 27, from 3-5 pm

The American Experience: My Lai
An 80-minute documentary examines the 1968 massacre through the eyes of survivors on both sides; a panel discussion follows. Moran Prairie Library, 6004 S. Regal St. Wed, March 30, 6:30-8:30 pm

Book discussion at Barnes & Noble (Spokane Valley)
Everyone’s welcome in the cafe to discuss O’Brien’s novel. 15310 E. Indiana Ave., in the Market Pointe Shopping Center, Spokane Valley. Thurs, March 31, from 7-9 pm

Book discussion for EWU students
Student-led discussion of The Things They Carried. EWU, Morrison Hall, Cheney. Sun, April 3, from 5-6:30 pm

Fairchild AFB book discussion
For military personnel only. FAFB library. Tues, April 5, from 6-8 pm

Visit neabigread.com or ewu.edu/getlit, or write dward@ewu.edu or call 359-6977.

Cops on camera: Police, local officials debate use and cost of video cameras for police. (SR)

Electric City, Spokane: STA pushes electric trolley from Browne's Addition to U-District. (SR)

March Madness 1: Gonzaga women face 3rd-seeded UCLA tonight at 6:30 in Spokane. (SR)

March Madness 2: NIC women return home with Juco national championship. (CdA Press)

March Madness, the dissection: Few, John Stockton describe getting Jimmered. (Denver Post)

And now for something completely different: "Hobbit" begins filming in New Zealand! (BBC)

Photographer Holly Pickett took a sharp turn towards adrenaline a few years ago during deep rounds of layoffs at the Spokesman-Review, choosing to leave Spokane under her own steam and heading to Cairo to set up shop as a freelancer.

We've written about her before as she's worked in the Gaza Strip, Iraq and Afghanistan. A week ago, the decision had her sprinting for the ridiculously scant cover of a small mound of dirt in the North African desert as a Libyan Air Force warplane was bearing down to bomb rebel positions near the coastal oil town of Ras Lanuf.

The following information comes from an e-mail exchange today between Pickett, briefly back in Cairo, and The Inlander (except where noted):

"The air strikes happen very fast — you hear the plane and then you have a couple seconds to look for cover. But nobody knows where the bomb will land," she writes. "The person who took that photo [above, Paul Conroy/Reuters] was already on the ground next to a mound of dirt, which was where we were all headed."

It's almost comical to imagine five shooters and their gear dog-piling onto the Reuters guy behind a little dirtpile. But Pickett tells msnbc.com it was the most chaotic, intense situation she has ever been in. And she's been in some intense situations.

“Bulletswere whizzing past us. You could see the dust stirring on the groundfrom bullets zipping past our legs. I’ve never taken this much firebefore,” she told the site in a phone interview from Cairo.

The photo was taken mid-afternoon on March 11. It was Pickett's first day of shooting in Libya. She had driven three or four hours through the desert from the rebel-controlled city of Benghazi after crossing into Libya illegally from Egypt. At Ras Lanuf, then the front line in the battle between rebels and forces loyal to Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi, Pickett met up with other western photographers, including Lynsey Addario (far left) and Tyler Hicks (right, in glasses) of the New York Times. —-

In fact, the only reason this particular photo became widely circulated is because it is the last-known image of Addario and Hicks before they disappeared Tuesday along with two other NYT staffers, presumably taken captive by forces loyal to Qaddafi.

At Ras Lanuf a week ago, "We were shooting the rebels preparing for battle, reacting to air strikes, bringing in their wounded and dead, and we were trying to get a sense for how it is going from their side. Are they winning or losing? Are they outmatched? Is morale suffering?"

Pickett says the Westerners also discussed darker issues.

"We discussed capture, friendly fire, injury, kidnapping, death. We always talk about possible situations before they happen so that we can prevent them from happening, or at least consider the odds of them happening. We actually thought there was a good chance of being killed or seriously injured if captured by Qaddafi loyalists. A BBC crew was badly beaten and subject to a mock execution when they were captured by Qaddafi forces in Zawiyah."

At the right edge of the photo, Libyan rebel fighters are seen bailing out of the antiquated, hand-cranked anti-aircraft guns that they seemed to have by the score, either on mobile platforms or bolted to the beds of pickup trucks.

Pickett comments:

"Yes, the rebels had a lot of anti-aircraft cannons, but most of the time we couldn't see the plane, so they were shooting blindly into the air. They were constantly firing their personal weapons into the air, either because somebody died, or seemingly just for the hell of it. They lit tires on fire to try and provide some cover from the bombs."

By the end of last Friday, the loyalist forces, with warplanes, helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks, had the rebels in full retreat.

"They seemed unorganized to me. Really they are civilians with revolutionary passion, but without military training," Pickett writes.

During the chaos, the photographers kept working.

"When we reached the mound of dirt, we were still trying to take pictures. Not much else to do."

And, she says, with the promised cease-fire in Libya as of today, she is headed back there tomorrow.

Yesterday, we wrote about how the Republican-dominated House of Representatives voted to eliminate federal funding for National Public Radio. This morning, we called McMorris Rodgers' office, and got Communications Director Todd Weiner. He explains that the congresswoman's support for eliminating NPR's federal funding isn't from concerns about bias — it's about basic budget cuts. She "really has no reservations against it," he says.

"This isn't about punishing 'political opponents.' It's about doing what the taxpayers want us to do," Weiner says. "We're borrowing $5 billion a day, and we'll run a record $1.6 trillion deficit. It requires tough choices. And the congresswoman felt that since families and small businesses are making those tough choices, the government should do the same. She felt this would be an appropriate place for savings."

Where other congressional representatives have concentrated on the secretly recorded video of former NPR fundraiser executive Ron Schiller insulting the Tea Party, Weiner focuses on another Schiller comment.

"Well, frankly, it is very clear that we would be better off in the long run without federal funding," Schiller was recorded as saying, "NPR would definitely survive and most of the stations would survive."

Weiner argues that some people at NPR would welcome the increased programming freedom that the lack of federal funding would provide. With only about 10 percent of NPR affiliates' funding coming from the federal government, Weiner says, there's good reason to believe NPR will be just fine. In fact, Weiner suspects that, because of all the controversy, NPR may actually come out ahead.

"It's been in public consciousness," Weiner says. "Donations will increase."

This weekend, you can (theatrically) meet Vietnam grunts, lost children, angry Jews, and gangsters disguised as pastry chefs.  

OK, all you Big Readers and Get Lit-ers and Spokane theatergoers who didn't want to make the trip out to Cheney to see the new stage adaptation of the Vietnam War novel by Tim O'Brien (pictured)  ... you've got no excuses left. The Things They Carried. Tonight. Free. At the Bing. Last chance. 7:30 pm. Be there.

Jeff Sanders, lecturer in theater at EWU, has adapted O'Brien's novel into an effective show. His wife Sara Goff is directing it. EWU theater prof emeritus Gene Engene is playing O'Brien. And several folks have written in or commented that this is a show worth seeing. Again, it's tonight at 7:30 pm at the Bing, and money isn't a problem.

The Handsome Little Devils, a vaudeville show, will be performed tonight at 7:30 pm at the Panida in Sandpoint, Idaho. $20. Visit panida.org.

Hansel and Gretel gets the Spokane Children's Theater treatment on Sat-Sun at 1 pm at SFCC's Spartan Theatre. $12; $10 for kids. Call 328-4886. Closes April 3.  

No one in our area has done that delightful, old-fashioned musical within a musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, but it closes Sunday up in Kettle Falls (admittedly, an 80-mile drive north of Spokane). Performances at the Woodland Theater (at the only stoplight in town) on Fri-Sat at 7:30 and Sun 3 pm. Tickets: $15; $12, seniors and kids. This show was on Broadway less than five years ago — such is the distance from NYC to KF.

Portia and Antonio and all the nice, loving Christians gang up on an ostracized but bloodthirsty Jew in The Merchant of Venice. See it in Ignite's readers theater version tonight at 7 pm at GU's Foley Center; or on Sat. at 7 pm at St. Mark's Lutheran, 24th Ave. and Grand Blvd.; or on Sunday at 2 pm at the Blue Door Theater, 815 W. Garland Ave. Donations requested. 330-1066

Wallace, Idaho, is just an 80-mile drive east from Spokane. The Sixth Street Theater there (located in a former bordello) is offering Southern Hospitality — a comedy about three sisters in a dying small-town Texas trying to lure a manufacturer by staging a big, impressive festival with about 15 people — on Fri-Sat at 7 pm and Sun 2 pm. Closes March 27. Tickets: $15; $13, students. It's at 212 Sixth St. Call (208) 752-8871.

Coming up:

A Streetcar Named Desire at GU's Magnuson Theater (east end of College Hall), 502 E. Boone Ave., on Wed-Sat, March 23-26, at 7:30 pm and on Sunday, March 27, at 2 pm. 313-6398; $15; $10, students. 

9 to 5: The Musical will play the INB Center on March 24-27. Tickets: $32-$61. Read a preview and an alternate version.

An edgy feminist stage adaptation of The Scarlet Letter will run at Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d'Alene from March 25-April 3. 

Zags make it look easy — The Gonzaga men's basketball team passed the first round of NCAA play by beating St. John's University 86-71. (SR)

State budget deficit grows — The forecast for Washington's two-year budget came in $780 million lower than expected, raising the budget gap to $5.1 billion. Forecasters cited increasing global financial uncertainty and the fact that Japan, now struggling to recover from disaster, is one of its major trade partners. (SR)

Medical marijuana supplier convicted — Scott Shupe, who we wrote about last week, was convicted of drug trafficking. The case was watched closely by those looking for guidance on how to enforce the state's medical marijuana laws. (SR)

Don't take anti-radiation pills — Gov. Gregoire has advised citizens not to take potassium iodide pills as protection against the wave of Japanese nuclear radiation, as the pills could have an adverse health effect. (KXLY)

When it looked like National Public Radio was under attack by the Republicans in Congress, Spokane Public Radio General Manager Dick Kunkel wrote a letter to his representative, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, asking her to help preserve Spokane Public Radio.

It didn't work.

"I got a fairly negative response," Kunkel says. "It was boilerplate." Something about how these are unprecedented times, we need money to balance the budget, Kunkel says.

Today, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives voted, 228 to 192, to pass a ban on federal funding going to NPR. McMorris Rodgers, as Kunkel expected, was one of the 228.

Kunkel says the ban not only prevents NPR from receiving federal funding, it bans local public radio stations (like Spokane Public Radio) from spending Corporation for Public Broadcasting money to purchase ANY outside programs. (This is a change from the earlier House bill attacking all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in general.) So not only NPR, but Public Radio International or the Northwest news network Spokane Public Radio uses for regional news would be banned. Some Republicans have argued it's a cost the country can't afford right now, while others attacked what they saw as liberal bias from NPR.

It may be possible, Kunkel theorizes, to rejigger how funds are spent – using CPB money to pay for salaries, and use the money now used to pay for salaries to buy NPR programs – and not see any difference. But for many rural stations, some of which have public radio as their only source of radio news, it poses a much bigger problem. 

"Basically it could destroy or disassemble the public radio system," Kunkel says.

Of course, any celebration or lamentation is too early. The NPR funding-banning bill would also have to pass the Senate, where – dominated by Democrats – it doesn't stand much of a chance. Kunkel suspects his station will be all right. It's much more likely, he says, that Congress will end up simply cutting the amount local public radio stations receive from the CPB.

"That's not unfair," Kunkel says. "If that's what comes out of it, we went through that in 1995."

Update: This morning, we called McMorris Rodgers' office, and got Communications Director Todd Weiner. He explains that the congresswoman's support for eliminating NPR's federal funding isn't from concerns about bias – it's about basic budget cuts. She "really has no reservations against it," he says.

"This isn't about punishing 'political opponents.' It's about doing what the taxpayers want us to do," Weiner says. "We're borrowing five billion a day, and we'll run a record 1.6 trillion deficit. It requires tough choices. And the congresswoman felt that since families and small businesses are making those tough choices, the government should do the same. She felt this would be an appropriate place for savings."

Where other congressmen have concentrated on secretly recorded video of former NPR fundraiser executive Ron Schiller insulting the Tea Party, Weiner focuses on another Schiller comment.

"Well, frankly, it is very clear that we would be better off in the long run without federal funding," Schiller was recorded as saying, "NPR would definitely survive and most of the stations would survive."

Weiner argues that some people at NPR would welcome the increased programming freedom that the lack of federal funding would provide. With only about 10 percent of NPR affiliates' funding coming from the federal government, Weiner says, there's good reason to believe NPR will be just fine. In fact, Weiner suspects that, because of all the controversy, NPR may actually come out ahead.

"It's been in public consciousness," Weiner says. "Donations will increase."

Here's a link to our recent story on the controversies that have dogged NPR, and recent managerial conflicts at KYRS Thin Air Community radio.

click to enlarge

The petition drive to legalize marijuana in Washington kicks off this weekend when volunteers load up their clipboards and fan out to grocery stores, malls, public events and the downtown Spokane Library to gather at least 241,153 valid signatures.

Petition sheets for Initiative 1149 will be distributed Friday night, but are not expected to arrive in Spokane until Saturday, says David Bilsland, a local coordinator for Sensible Washington.

Bilsland says so far there are 25 volunteer signature gatherers in Spokane.

The petitions are due back at the Secretary of State’s office by July 8. If backers collect enough valid signatures, the initiative will be on the November ballot.

There is more information at sensiblewashinton.org., or at the Sensible Washington Facebook page. Locally, people can e-mail Bilsland atbilibamboo@yahoo.com.