Bloglander

ON INLANDER.COM
Guns and Dems
How a Democrat-controlled Legislature is tackling gun control — and how they're not.

Expansion pack
The Riverfront Park bond projects aren't finished yet, but the Park Board is already looking at cool privately funded add-ons.

IN OTHER NEWS

They dreamed a dream
Around 200 people marched for "Dreamers" and immigrants through downtown Spokane last night.  (Spokesman-Review)

Hacking with a hacksaw
WSU is being sued for negligence in allowing data to get stolen, the old-fashioned way. (Spokesman-Review)

Not from Spokane
That school shooting threat you may have seen on Facebook is probably a hoax, possibly stemming from Ohio. (KXLY)

Guns before beers?
Florida Gov. Rick Scott supports raising the minimum age for gun purchases to 21. (Washington Post)

Opening the Gates
Former Trump campaign advisor Rick Gates is pleading guilty, possibly as part of a deal with Robert Mueller. (New York Times)

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: "Health homes" will provide stable, affordable housing for the developmentally disabled.

NEWS: As everyone prepares for the trial for the Spokane Police Department cop accused of rape, here's a look at his defense's strategy. 

NEWS: The first ever black-owned business expo is happening this weekend, with at least 20 businesses gathering at the Emmanual Family Life Center.

ARTS & CULTURE: Gonzaga's Jundt Art Museum curates a memorable pop art showcase from its own collection.

IN OTHER NEWS

Taking the heat
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and an NRA spokeswoman stood in front of a heartbroken, angry crowd in Florida in a forum on gun control measures following the shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The nationally televised broadcast featured Rubio repeatedly being scolded and heckled by people directly impacted by the shooting after Rubio expressed his opposition to a ban on assault weapons. (New York Times)

Meanwhile, survivors of school shootings shared their stories and calls to action with President Trump at the White House, before Trump raised the idea of allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons.  (New York Times)

Inslee calls for gun restrictions
Gov. Jay Inslee says the state Legislature should make it harder to buy a military-style semi-automatic rifle and require buyers of such weapons to be at least 21. (Spokesman-Review)

Out of space
The Kootenai County jail is low on beds as its jail population grows. Even though construction is underway to expand the jail, officials say it might not be enough. (KXLY)

Keeping it private
Democrats, who now control all three chambers of the state Legislature, are using their majority to roll back the state's Public Records Act. (The News Tribune)

HAMMERED HEROES NAILS KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

A trio of local, beer-loving game designers have finally reached success with a third attempt to crowdfund their multiplayer card game, Hammered Heroes.

There’s still time to back the locally-made game on Kickstarter — the campaign runs through next Wednesday, Feb. 28, which might be, at least for the foreseeable future, one of the only ways to get your hands on a copy.

Hammered Heroes was designed by Adam Boyd, Clancy Bundy and Adam Harum. As its name implies, the game is heavily themed around beer, beer puns and the drinking of it, though imbibing is not a requirement to play.

“The game functions like that old card game War — for each round, a player plays a Hammered Hero card with a number value, hoping to win the round with either the highest or lowest card, depending on that round's condition,” Boyd explains.

“It’s a ‘take-that’ style card game within the same vein of Munchkin, Smash Up or even Exploding Kittens. And because the overall theme of the game is fantasy meets drinking culture, we have some optional rules to play with drinks.”

The last time witnesses saw the woman, she was being held up by then-Spokane Police Sgt. Gordon Ennis as he walked her to a guest bedroom, according to court records. Moments before, witnesses say, the woman and Ennis had embraced in a hug after a drunken house party had settled down.

Witnesses have told detectives that earlier in the evening, the woman was so intoxicated that she threw up, was given a change of clothes and passed out in a guest bedroom.

The woman, who is also an SPD officer, does not remember much of that night in October 2015, but she does remember waking up with Ennis sitting on the edge of the bed with his fingers inside her, according to court documents.

Ennis is now charged with second-degree rape, and his trial begins this week in Spokane. In pretrial motions, the nature of that hug he shared with the woman emerged as a crucial point of dispute between prosecutors and Ennis' defense team, headed by attorney Rob Cossey.

In court documents, Cossey argues that the nature of the hug is a major component of Ennis' defense, speaking to the issue of consent.

Spokane prosecutors Kelly Fitzgerald and Kyle Treece had initially argued that SPD Officer Doug Strosahl, who hosted the house party, should be prohibited from describing for the jury the nature of the hug, which he witnessed.

In June 2017, prosecutors argued in court documents (emphasis added): "While it may be permissible for Doug Strosahl to describe what he witnessed, the legal issue is presented when he is asked to interpret the meaning of what he saw. Specifically whether or not the actions of the victim indicated a desire for sexual contact. Not only is this speculation, it also involves a legal conclusion regarding the defendant's behavior, which is ultimately a conclusion only the jury must make."

Then, in February 2018, prosecutors again argued in court documents: "Consent is a core issue in this case as counsel has indicated they will be proffering this defense to the jury. Doug Strosahl's conclusion as to the nature of the intent/purpose of the hug is speculative. Doug Strosahl has no way to know the victim's state of mind at the time of the event. In addition, there are other equally plausible explanations. ... It could have been the result of the victim being highly intoxicated and having difficulty maintaining her balance."

Prosecutors have since withdrawn the request to limit Strosahl's characterization of the hug.

Ennis, through his attorney, had argued that Strosahl's interpretation of the embrace with the woman shortly before the alleged assault was necessary to give the jury context and "a clearer picture of the events."

"None of the jurors will be able to see the type of contacts that occurred between the defendant and alleged victim on October 25, 2015," Cossey writes in court documents. "The state ... suggests that the court prohibit any and all witness testimony that may tend to illuminate the alleged victim's relationship with [the] defendant. The alleged victim's appearance and demeanor is a key component of understanding the facts at issue in this case."

According to witness accounts of the moments before the alleged assault, the woman was passed-out in a guest bedroom and then walked into Strosahl's kitchen around 2:30 am where he, his then-fiancé Heather Lickfold and Ennis were gathered. Both Strosahl and Lickfold saw the woman and Ennis embrace in a hug.

Lickfold told detectives that she "did not know if the hug was flirty or just due to [the victim's] intoxication."

Strosahl and Lickfold went to bed shortly after. The last thing either of them saw was Ennis walking the victim back to the guest bedroom, records state.

"[The victim] had her arms around Gordon [Ennis]'s neck and he was holding her up," Lickfold told detectives. "[The victim] was 'looking around, kind of engaging, and stumbling but not falling down.'"

This week, attorneys are picking from an unusually large pool of about 125 potential jurors. Prosecutors could call up to 20 witnesses, including party guests, forensic experts, Spokane police officers and Spokane County Sheriff's detectives who investigated the alleged rape, according to court documents.

Cossey's list of witnesses names six people including Doug Strosahl and his now-wife, Heather Strosahl, as well as SPD Sgt. Michael McNab, who was the victim's supervisor at the time of the alleged rape. Ennis is not on the list.

UPDATED: This post has been updated to reflect the fact prosecutors recently withdrew their pretrial motion arguing that Doug Strosahl be prohibited from characterizing the nature of a hug between the alleged victim and Gordon Ennis.

As Black Panther smashes box office records — and will likely continue to do so — an otherwise ho-hum February wraps up with new films starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as witless suburbanites, Natalie Portman as a gun-toting biologist and Harry Potter as a DEA snitch. Here are the week's new releases.

ANNIHILATION
Alex Garland made a striking debut with 2014's Ex Machina, and he's back with another heady sci-fi trip. Natalie Portman fronts a team of badass biologists that infiltrates an environmental disaster area to determine what happened to the soldiers who have gone missing there. Rated R.

BEAST OF BURDEN
Daniel Radcliffe stars as a man who agrees to infiltrate a drug cartel for the Drug Enforcement Agency. In return, his sick wife’s hospital bills will be paid for. But things go awry when the bad guys uncover his plan. Rated R.

EVERY DAY
A fantastical twist on the teenage romance, with a 16-year-old girl falling in love with a being that manifests itself in a different body every 24 hours. From the YA bestseller by David Levithan. Rated PG-13.

GAME NIGHT (3 stars)
An evening of board games and merlot amongst friends is interrupted by violent thugs and kidnappers. The only problem: Everyone thinks it's all a gag. Critic Eric D. Snider reports that the comedy goes to dark places, but it's never nihilistic or mean-spirited, and the actors all play to their strengths. Rated R.

Also Playing


The Oscar-nominated live-action and animated shorts only played for a week at the AMC, but they're returning to the Magic Lantern this weekend. Here is our breakdown of both shorts packages, which screen separately.

Spokane's first ever Black Business Expo is happening this weekend. At least 20 local businesses will gather Sunday, Feb. 25, from 2-5 pm, at the Emmanuel Family Life Center for the inaugural event. 

Businesses signed up so far range from restaurants, barbershops and beauty supply stores to birth and labor services, a bridal boutique, an urban farming biz and more. Sandy Williams, publisher and editor of Spokane's African-American newspaper the Black Lens, and a sponsor of the event, hopes that number will climb past 30 by Sunday.

"I bet most people don't know how many black-owned businesses there are in Spokane," Williams says in a prepared statement. "This year, for Black History Month, we want to change that. Our goal is to identify and celebrate at least 30 black-owned businesses, so that we can give them the support they need."

The event is free for attendees and businesses, according to a news release, though business owners are asked to preregister online at blacklensnews.com. Mini workshops during the expo will touch on generating wealth through real estate, give cosmetology tips and answer the question: What is a doula?

The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Black Lens, the Spokane Ministers' Fellowship, the Spokane NAACP and Spokane's African American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American (AHANA) Business and Professional Association.

"The Black Business Expo is very important because it increases awareness and exposure for black businesses in the Spokane market, particularly in the black and multiethnic population," Ben Cabildo, the founder of the AHANA Business and Professional Association, says in prepared statement. "The success of black businesses is crucial to the economic betterment of Spokane's black community, but also to the enrichment of the Spokane community in general."

Find the registration form here.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: The Rev. Billy Graham, a pastor to presidents and the nation’s best-known Christian evangelist for more than 60 years, died Wednesday at his home. He was 99.

NEWS: White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is resisting giving up access to highly classified information, prompting an internal struggle with Gen. John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, over who should be allowed to see the nation’s most sensitive secrets, according to White House officials.

SPORTS: Zag fans should be cautiously optimistic entering the final week of the regular season... but don't let that outweigh the optimism, writes Will Maupin.

IN OTHER NEWS

Ban on bump stocks
Under pressure from grieving students from a Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people last week, President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department on Tuesday to issue regulations banning so-called bump stocks, which allows for even more rapid fire. (New York Times)

Midterm interference
Top Democrats are calling on Congress to give the FBI $300 million to fight potential foreign interference in this year’s midterm elections, a request that comes just days after the Justice Department indicted Russians for meddling in the 2016 presidential contest. (Washington Post)

Rifle raffle in Idaho school
A school in Post Falls, Idaho, plans to move forward with a previously planned raffle for an AR-15 rifle, the same gun that was used to kill 17 people at a recent school shooting in Florida. (Spokesman-Review)

Walkout
Students in the Spokane area plan to participate in a national walkout to press lawmakers for stricter gun control. (Spokesman-Review)

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Why Spokane City Councilwoman Kate Burke has a policy to vote no on any last-minute amendments.

NEWS: As temperatures drop to single digits, the city of Spokane asked its two 24/7 shelters to not turn anyone away.

NEWS: Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell refuses to tweak language that unfairly impacts immigrants, saying, in essence, that if people don't like how he runs his office, then they should stop committing crimes.

IN OTHER NEWS

'Abortion is murder'
A group of students encouraging a bill that Planned Parenthood says would allow women to receive up to a 12-month supply of birth control and would promote better sex education in college tried to meet with Idaho state Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow. He refused, and when they saw him in the hallway, he yelled "abortion is murder" and threatened to call law enforcement if they came back. (Idaho Statesman)

Purse snatchers
An older woman went to a Walmart in Spokane for some caramel popcorn, but a man in a car stuck his arm out the window and grabbed her purse. She was stuck, so they dragged her for about 20 feet, police say, breaking her pelvis. Police believe the purse snatchers are responsible for a string of similar crimes. (Spokesman-Review)

Russian bots exploit tragedy
Just hours after 17 teachers and students in Florida were killed in a school shooting, Russian bots on Twitter used the opportunity to spread inflammatory messages meant to further divide the country. (New York Times)

The blame game
A Washington Post-ABC poll finds that a majority of Americans blame President Trump and Congress for not doing enough to stop mass shootings. Nearly 60 percent say stricter gun control laws could have prevented the Florida shooting, and nearly 77 percent say more effective mental health screening and treatment could have prevented it. (Washington Post)

On the morning of Saturday, Feb. 10, Gonzaga was a game behind archrival Saint Mary’s for first place in the West Coast Conference standings. Quite a bit has changed in the nine days since, and Zag fans should be cautiously optimistic entering the final week of the regular season.

When Gonzaga defeated Saint Mary’s 78-65 on that Saturday evening, the Bulldogs moved into a tie with the Gaels atop the league standings. Each team had just one loss in conference play: Saint Mary’s won in Spokane and Gonzaga won in Moraga. The Gaels, though, were still in control when it came to the race for the top seed in next month’s WCC tournament.

But then, last Thursday, Saint Mary’s lost to San Francisco. And with that result, the only team capable of stopping Gonzaga’s run of conference championships from extending to six straight years became none other than Gonzaga itself.

To the cohort of community organizations asking Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell to reconsider his stance on a courtroom agreement that could unfairly impact immigrants, the prosecutor has a suggestion.

"It is neither the duty of the law nor the prosecutor to take personal steps to ameliorate the consequences for committing crimes in our community," Haskell writes. "To do so would reduce the effect of, and respect for, following the law in the first place. If a criminal defendant has concerns about consequences of unlawful conduct, I strongly encourage law-abiding behavior."

Put another way: If people charged with crimes don't like the way Haskell runs his office, he suggests they stop committing crimes.

Haskell is writing in response to a letter signed by Rick Eichstaedt, the executive director of the Center for Justice, and 15 other community leaders. The letter requests a meeting to discuss his previous refusal to tweak the language used in court agreements, known as Stipulated Orders of Continuance, that allow defendants to avoid jail time if they stay out of trouble.

Their concern is that while the agreements can benefit U.S. citizens, they can also be used in federal immigration court to start deportation proceedings. Additionally, the letter states, Haskell's policy is out of step with other prosecutors.

Benton, Walla Walla and King counties have used "immigrant-safe" language for these agreements without issue. Spokane City Prosecutor Justin Bingham has allowed "immigrant-friendly" changes to these types of agreements in city cases, though only on rare occasions.