Bloglander

Spokane police checked another U.S. Department of Justice recommendation off the list — an update to its use of force policy. 

The new policies, which went into effect Jan. 1, added several techniques to the list of reportable uses of force, among other changes. 

Lt. Kevin King, training director for SPD, says the new policies will cause a jump in the department's reported uses of force, though that doesn't necessarily mean officers are using force more often. 

"We don't have a use of force problem," King says. "We had a documenting problem."

Specifically, officers are now required to tell supervisors when they use pepper spray, batons or any type of neck restraint. Officers previously were only required to report neck restraints if a suspected was rendered unconscious as a result. 

Here are some of the other major changes: 

• A new Use of Force Review Board will meet monthly to review uses of force. The board's function is similar to the Deadly Force Review Board, which is already in place. The Use of Force Review Board will not make decisions on whether the officer was right or wrong in his or her decision, rather its members will evaluate the larger picture to suggest further policy and training updates. Additionally, if an officer has four or more uses of force within a year, the Review Board will take a special look at those incidents, King says. 

• Officers will document de-escalation techniques, successful or not, such as verbal commands. King says most officers were doing this already, but now it's officially codified within the department's policy. 

• Officers will now report if they point their gun at a suspect, even if it's not fired. This requirement has been in place for more than a year, King says, but now it's official policy.  

• Patrol officers are now required to carry at least two non-lethal weapons. They can choose from pepper spray, a baton or a Taser. King says the previous policy required pepper spray and a baton, but left the Taser optional. 

"Everybody goes through training and annual recertification on all three," King says. "And nothing precludes officers from carrying all three." 

ON INLANDER.COM

Lobby hobby
• Here's what the City of Spokane wants from Olympia this year. 

OTHER LOCAL NEWS

Records Request 
• In a move that really irritated Gov. Jay Inslee (the governor who oversaw the Department of Corrections where a computer error went unfixed for years, resulting in inmates being incorrectly released from prison early), Senate Republican leaders have begun to issue subpoenas to figure out what went wrong. (Spokesman-Review)

Community Building 
• Washington state, like Idaho, really, really sucks at getting kids to go to college. Will making Community College 'free' help? Or will it just encourage kids to spend six aimless years in college, playing paintball, building blanket forts and playing Dungeons & Dragons? (KHQ)

Worthy Successor?
• Walt Worthy, of Walt Worthy fame, has been dabbling with the notion of selling his local hotel empire that includes the Davenport and the recently constructed Grand Hotel. (Spokesman-Review)

• Identity of shooting victim revealed
The young man shot and killed outside The Palomino nightclub was Eduardo Villagomez, a 21-year-old junior at Eastern Washington University. (Spokesman-Review)

In Other News

Celebrity Apprentice
• In a speech that often resembled slam poetry (How ‘bout the rest of us? Right wingin’, bitter clingin’, proud clingers of our guns, our god, and our religions, and our Constitution. Tell us that we’re not red enough?) more than prose, VP-pick-turned-reality star Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump. Conservative pundits' despair began cracking into something like a maniacal madness, like in the end of the "Crawl Space" episode of Breaking Bad. It went so well that Palin apparently just decided not to show up for a scheduled campaign stop today.

If only there were some way to make it up to him...
• Atlantic journalist (and liberal superstar) Ta-Nehisi Coates didn't hear back from Bernie Sanders' campaign when he asked about racial reparations, earning the candidate, already struggling with black voters, a stark rebuke from Coates. Coates has a few thoughts on reparations himself. 

Dear John
• John Kasich, self-described "Prince of Light and Hope," and the one guy on the Republican debate stage who sounds anywhere close to liberal, is suddenly doing very well in New Hampshire. 

BOSWORRRRRRTTHHH! 
• Anthony Bosworth, the guy who got in trouble for refusing to leave while open-carrying at the Federal Courthouse, appears to have been escorted out of a community meeting in Burns, Oregon. 

The 2016 session of Washington State Legislature kicked off earlier this month. This session is expected to be a short go-around focused primarily on education funding.

But the city of Spokane is still hoping to get some things out of Olympia. In November, Spokane City Council passed a resolution declaring its legislative wish list that it’s since updated and now includes about 30 wide-ranging changes to state law or ways it’d like to see state money spent.

The city’s top priorities include:

Stable funding for the long-sought-after medical school that’s slated to be opened in Spokane.
The school could open as soon as next fall. Getting legislative approval was a big win for Spokane, and city leaders want to see it through.

A bill that would amend state law to make it easier for Spokane, and other cities, to implement their police body camera programs.
It’s generally unlawful to record private conversations without the consent of all parties under state law. Body camera footage is also subject to the state’s public record law, which has led to situations where members of the public request voluminous and burdensome amounts of footage. The bill, which stalled last session, would change the two-party consent rule and restrict the circumstances that body camera footage is subject to disclosure.

FROM INLANDER.COM

• Spokane Civic Theatre announces its 70th season lineup
• From blue to green: The BlueStar building is now a weed-processing facility 

Husband says wife was shot accidentally

A woman was shot and killed at a Spokane Valley home yesterday, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. The woman’s husband, reportedly a reserve deputy in another county and former military police officer, claimed the shooting was accidental. Detectives continue to investigate the women’s death. (KXLY)

Washington state lawmaker asks teens about virginity
State Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, asked a group of Pullman-area teenagers if they were virgins, the Seattle Times reports. Dye later prepared an apology reading, in part, “In hindsight, a few of the thoughts I shared, while well-intended, may have come across as more motherly than what they would expect from their state representative.” (Seattle Times)

Supreme Court to review on Obama’s immigration order

The U.S. Supreme Court says it will consider challenging President Obama’s executive action intended to spare up to five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Obama ordered the creation of program called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA, fourteen months ago. (New York Times)

World’s oldest man dies

The world’s oldest man has died at the age of 112. (AP)

Eagles guitarist also dies

Glenn Frey, co-founder and guitarist of the Eagles, has died at the age of 67. CNN compiled some of his greatest hits: 

Ever since former Washington State quarterback and Spokane native Connor Halliday bailed out of Washington, D.C., the night before the start of his rookie training camp — a camp that could have potentially landed the undrafted free agent in the NFL, a lifelong goal of his — there have been questions about just what happened to the tall, cool QB The Inlander and others considered a real gunslinger and near-lock for a pro career. 

The questions actually go back further for those of us surprised the kid didn't get drafted after having one of the most prolific passing careers in college football, but the injury that cut short his senior season seemed to be ample reason for NFL teams to wait before taking a chance on Halliday, rather than using a valuable draft pick. HIs mom even wrote a powerful essay about watching her boy's injury, and how the NFL was still his goal, just before Draft Day last year. 

Now comes a new piece via Newsweek, in which reporter John Walters tries to find out what happened in D.C., and what's next for Halliday on his rocky road to the pros. Ultimately, the reader is left still wondering what went wrong, and whether Halliday has what it takes to still make a go of it in pro football. 

This is all the explanation we get of why he bailed out of his rookie training camp: 

He spent nearly two weeks at the Redskins’ facility in Ashburn, Virginia, ingesting coach Jay Gruden’s playbook. Like a law school grad cramming for the bar exam while his mind is plagued with self-doubts about practicing law, Halliday was easily distracted. Mentally and emotionally, he had tapped out. On the eve of the three-day rookie training camp, he bought a one-way ticket home.

“I felt bad about not telling coach Gruden face-to-face,” says Halliday. “But I also felt like they told me that they were going to draft me, and then they didn’t.”

Halliday’s flight out of Dulles International Airport departed before dawn. His cab arrived at 3:45 a.m. As the taxi approached the on-ramp of the highway, a lone vehicle pulled directly in front of it: a BMW 760, just like the one he had dreamt of owning. “It was right in front of us,” says Halliday. “Then the driver floored it. He must have been going 100 to 120 miles per hour. And that was my dream disappearing in front of me.”

There's new info about his brief — as in, one day — career in the Canadian Football League, a brief — as in, two months — marriage to his childhood sweetheart, and Halliday's struggles to get a "regular job" in Spokane while he mulls what might have been. 

“I am disappointed that I’m one of those stories,” says Halliday in the article. “‘Do you know Connor Halliday? He had all the talent in the world, but it just didn’t work out for him.’”

Hopefully there's still a chance for Halliday to inspire a better story, or at least a better ending to his own. 

Read the full Newsweek article here. 

This weekend during the opening of the seductive and witty Les Liaisons Dangereuses on the main stage, the Spokane Civic Theatre's artistic director Keith Dixon announced the lineup of shows slated for the community theater's 70th season, starting this fall. 

Starting things off with a bang, as always, the 2016-17 season opens with a local staging of the Broadway musical Beauty and the Beast, opening Sept. 9. Coincidentally, the touring Broadway production is also coming through town later this spring, April 5-6.

Here's the complete list of the shows scheduled for the Civic's landmark 70th season:

Main Stage shows:
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; Sept. 9 through Oct. 9
A Streetcar Named Desire; Oct. 28 through Nov. 13
Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings; Nov. 25 through Dec. 18
A Little Night Music; Feb. 10 through March 5, 2017
Noises Off!; March 31 through April 23, 2017
Kiss Me, Kate; May 19 through June 11, 2017

Downstairs, in the intimate Firth J. Chew studio theatre, the shows are:
Rocky Horror Show; Oct. 14 through Nov. 5
Vanya & Sonya & Masha & Spike; Jan. 27 through Feb. 19, 2017
Holding On, Letting Go; March 17 through April 9, 2017
The Taming of the Shrew; April 28 through May 21, 2017

Pricing and the directors of each production are yet to be announced.

I woke up this morning wondering why I didn't have that same sinking, dreadful, world-ending feeling I've had the last two times the Seahawks were bounced from the playoffs. Both of those losses (last year's Super Bowl bed-shitting, and a loss in Atlanta after an epic comeback in 2012) felt like guaranteed wins at one point and yesterday's loss in Carolina seemed like it was over before people who made the most of their Saturday nights had even gotten out of bed. That was part of it.

But the 31-24 loss also didn't sting as much because the Seahawks probably shouldn't have been in the playoffs to begin with. They'd lost four of their first six games, key players went down to injury and they generally looked like a raging garbage fire until mid November. Everything after the 16-game schedule felt like gravy or icing or the fake butter movie theaters now irresponsibly trust customers to apply to their own popcorn.

In a way, and I'm not the only person to make this comment, the improbable-but-too-little-too-late comeback yesterday after the worst first-half drilling the Seahawks have experienced in the Era of Russell was a microcosm of Seattle's entire season. You screw things up and get yourself in a massive hole, but then somehow manage to get yourself almost out of that hole, only to fall short at the end.

Or perhaps my lack of complete emotional devastation was because the entire first half, during which the Seahawks forgot to play football and allowed touchdowns in all ways conceivable, had allowed me to progress through the grieving process early. Still though, I couldn't have been the only one who knew they wouldn't just let us off like that. They would have to score a bunch of points somehow, because the Seahawks somehow never get blown out. For some, the fact that everything somehow came down to a Stevie Hauschka onside kick that looked very promising at first didn't make the loss any easier to accept.

If you want to think of what could have been, just consider that, down three touchdowns early, the Hawks never got to really run their offense, not even in that gutsy second-half rally. So we never got to see what the repaired Marshawn Lynch could do — and there were a few signs he might have been able to do something — or what Seattle could have done with more time on their side in that first half. And those two interceptions Wilson tossed in the first quarter? That's the game right there, especially the pick-six.

For local audiophiles, one of the best times of the year is swiftly approaching. The KPBX Recordings & Videos Sale, an annual fundraiser for the station, happens once again at the Lincoln Center, Feb. 20-21. But before you start lining up for that packed-out event, the public radio station, which relocated to the the former Fire Station No. 3 on North Monroe and Sharp, needs your donations. 

The Recordings & Video Sale Donation Day happens Sat, Feb. 6 from 10 am to 2 pm. Local music and movie enthusiasts are encouraged to swing by the new digs and drop off gently used items that can perhaps be better served in a new home. Donors can expect coffee and cookies and even a tour of the building. 

Here is a list of the accepted donation materials: 

· Vinyl records with covers
· CDs in cases with any covers or booklets
· Classic audio equipment with documents and accessories, including owner’s manuals and necessary cables
· DVDs in cases complete with text inserts; multiple-part sets should be in original box and cases
· Audio cassettes in cases complete with the label
· Boxed sets should be in the outer box complete with books and other accompanying items
· VHS tapes in box and rewound 
· Please note that the station does not accept computers, computer software, or music accessories. Home-recorded materials are also not accepted.

Basically, this is not the time to "donate" items that are no longer working. Instead, donate items you wouldn't mind finding in one of the hundreds of dusty bins that fill up Lincoln Center at the R&V sale. For those unable to drop off at KPBX, other approved donation drop-off sites include 4,000 Holes in Spokane, the Long Ear in Coeur d'Alene and Bicycle Time & Music Too in Cheney. All donations must be in by Feb. 12 to be accepted. 

In April 2014, Dan Olson, kicked Erick Hansen, the CEO of BlueStar Digital Technologies who's currently on trial for fraud, out of the Commercial Building downtown. 

"I evicted Erick and changed the locks in the doors so he couldn’t get in and couldn’t get out," Olson says. "When someone owes you money, that’s what you do, right?"

Olson said Hansen hadn't paid his rent in two months when he was evicted. It took a while to fill the space. But last summer, he finally did with two companies in the cannabis industry. 

He's part of the first company, Odo, a marijuana oil processor allowed under Washington state's marijuana-legalizing Initiative 502. The company focuses purely on extracting the oils from marijuana plants. 

"We sell that to other processors who want to refine that further and turn it into edibles or topicals or smokables," Olson says. "It’s actually the most sophisticated I-502 processor in probably the entire state. It’s also one of the largest."  

Originally, his team had looked at constructing another building elsewhere. But when they saw the Commercial Building's clean room — constructed to produce BlueRay discs without contamination — they realized it was perfect for extraction purposes.

"Once we got the [BlueStar] equipment out of here it was a matter of getting it all set-up and having it ready," Olson says. In the future, Olson hopes to add more machinery to increase Odo's production. 

FROM INLANDER.COM
• What to do this week: Labyrinth encore, Touré at SFCC, Jewish Film Fest and Luke trial for Death Star destruction
• Differing opinions: Two experts analyze Spokane police shooting
• TV: 24 and Prison Break are coming back. What do they need to be good?

• One person is dead in North Spokane after an early morning shooting
Shots were fired early Monday morning after an argument outside of the Palomino Club. The victim hasn't been identified and the shooter is at large. (KXLY)

• A seven-story mixed-used building is proposed on the lower South Hill
Developers hope to break ground this year on the so-called Vinegar Flats Public Market project. (Business Journal)



• Seahawks score 24 second-half points
... And still lose to the Carolina Panthers, who racked up 31 in the first half. The Hawks vowed another run next year, but face at least 17 unrestricted free agents.

• Iran and U.S. swap prisoners
The move comes as $100 billion in sanctions are lifted against Iran, following landmark nuclear deal.

Clinton and Sanders trade barbs during debate
It was the final Democratic debate before early primary voting begins: