Bloglander

On Wednesday afternoon, Eastern Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers celebrated the passage of her bill that would protect four Lower Snake River dams.

In a joint call with fellow Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse, whose neighboring district covers much of the Columbia River from Grand Coulee Dam south, McMorris Rodgers thanked her fellow representatives in the House for their support. The bill, H.R. 3144, passed 225 to 189.

"It’s really recognizing the role that the dams play in the Pacific Northwest and that dams and fish can coexist," McMorris Rodgers said. "It's a story we really need to tell not just to the Northwest but to the entire country."

If passed through the Senate and signed by the president, the bill would stop additional water spill over eight dams that was started in early April. The additional spill was required after a federal judge and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that it was necessary to protect juvenile salmon and help them move out to sea.

The legislation also would put in place a 2014 plan put together by federal agencies, regional tribes and others to protect salmon and steelhead trout while operating the dams. The courts rejected that plan and the federal government was ordered to go back and study other ways to protect the species, including looking at the potential to breach the four Lower Snake River dams.

But the new legislation would instead put that 2014 plan in place through 2022, when it would be up for review again and require an act of Congress before agencies could study breaching the dams.

McMorris Rodgers said putting the 2014 plan in place would still protect fish while ending a lengthy court process.

"We’ve been in court now for 20 years," McMorris Rodgers said. "Some have said that this is a bill that would ensure that salmon go extinct. It’s actually just the opposite: This is a bill that will provide us certainty to move beyond studying and move into implementation."

Newhouse also wanted to underscore that the 2014 plan was the product of "painstaking negotiation" all the way back to the Bush administration. He warned that Bonneville Power Administration had estimated the additional spill could cost utility payers an extra $40 million per year and that the agency was now concerned about the potential for blackouts during the summer.

"I urge my colleagues in the U.S. Senate to come forward and support saving our salmon and saving our dams," Newhouse said.

Environmental groups have criticized the legislation for thwarting the court process and say that salmon and steelhead runs would benefit from breaching the four dams in question in the court ruling.

Save Our Wild Salmon and other environmental groups also recently funded a poll of Washington voters that found that most people were willing to pay between $1 and $7 more per month on their electric bills to remove four dams on the lower Snake River to help restore wild salmon and improve water quality.

Ryan Miller has a show. It’s a show about… something.

To be fair, it’s even hard for Miller to explain. Billed as “an experience,” "Lights Like Us" wasn’t, however, created by the Spokane-based graphic designer to be intentionally mysterious to its intended audience.

“People think I’m being mysterious in not describing what it is, but I’m really not,” Miller says. “It’s just hard to compare it to something.”

The closest comparison that comes to mind for Miller is that of a TEDx presentation, but longer. Local artist Jesse Pierpoint is set to make an appearance during the show to create a live art piece. Another friend of Miller’s is set to perform a song.

Looking back, the show — set for Thursday, May 3 — was a bit of a impulse for Miller.

“So it’s kind of one of those bucket list things,” he says. “I don’t know what made me do it. I just one day was like ‘let’s lounge around at the Bing [Crosby Theater] and tell some people and see what happens.’”

During the show, Miller plans to share his thoughts and views on the world. He envisions two ways of viewing the reality we live in:

“One is that it’s really crappy and everything’s going to hell. And the other way is that it’s already good and we’re just not seeing it,” Miller says. “And I think the second one is a little bit more optimistic and hopeful, inspiring and empowering at the end of the day."

When it comes to giving presentations and public speaking, Miller is no novice. In 2010 he started Branches Church in Mead, and has spoken at many of its events. His goal for "Lights Like Us" is to be able to discuss topics in ways that he couldn’t do otherwise in a church setting. 

“I was in the church world for a long time — every week — and those have to be a certain type of presentation in a certain box with certain language,” Miller says. “So with ["Lights Like Us"], I get to be out of that box.”

Miller has made quite the career for himself in the art and design world. In 2014, he and his wife founded 08Left, a design venture known for its aviation and airport-related art.


He’s probably, however, more well known for his work on video games. Miller contributed to the story for the computer game that his brothers Robyn and Rand Miller created, Myst, which sold more than 12 million copies.

Miller also plans to incorporate some of his talk from "Lights Like Us" into a presentation that he’ll use to audition for this year’s TEDxSpokane.

For those still confused about what to expect during "Lights Like Us," consider this last thought from Miller: “It's an opportunity to do something different, at a cool place in town, with some cool, other cultural things happening that don’t always happen. Which, I admit, is still pretty kind of vague.”

"Lights Like Us" • Thu, May 3 at 7:30 pm • $20 • Bing Crosby Theater • 901 W. Sprague • bingcrosbytheater.com

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Trump’s pick to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, Dr. Robby Jackson, has an allegedly shakey background. His confirmation hearing, scheduled for today, has been postponed.

CULTURE: Local couple Michael Rideout and Kayla Cartelli upcycle discarded fire hoses into can holders, flags and other items. They both work full-time jobs in addition to spending 40 hours a week working for their business, American Fire Co.

NEWS: National Perscription Drug Take Back Day is Saturday. From 10 am to 2 pm, you can take any expired, unused or unwanted prescription medication to disposal sites throughout Eastern Washington.

IN OTHER NEWS

Judge thwarts Trump
A federal judge in Spokane issued an injunction that prevents the Trump administration from cutting funds to Planned Parenthood that would go to a teen pregnancy program in the Western states, the Spokesman-Review reports. “The court determines that the public interest weighs in favor of (Planned Parenthood), as it would prevent harm to the community … and prevent loss of data regarding the effectiveness of teen pregnancy prevention,” Judge Thomas Rice wrote in his decision. (Spokesman-Review)

Judge thwarts Trump AGAIN
And another one. This time, a federal judge in D.C. ruled against the president’s legal rationale for ending DACA, which provides individuals who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children relief from deportation. The judge gave the Trump administration 90 days to come up with a better rationale for ending the program. (Vox)

Getting handsy
What is with President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron? Despite their disagreements, the two leaders seem to be in love. (The New York Times)

California gun deaths decline
California gun deaths declined between 2000 and 2015, according to a recent study on gun violence. The decline is likely due to the decline in gang violence in the state, especially in Los Angeles, the study says. (Associated Press)

What some may see as old, worn out or garbage, Spokane couple Michael Rideout and Kayla Cartelli see as opportunity. 

The two use every bit they can salvage from retired fire hoses to turn into handmade products. Generally, fire departments either auction off or throw away old fire hoses no longer fit for service. Rideout and Cartelli have started American Fire Co. with the goal of finding creative ways to recycle that would-be trash into treasure.

The couple's business serves as a great example of finding uses for items that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Other creative recycling tips, ideas and examples can be seen in the Inlander's Green Issue.

Since setting up shop two years ago, more than 3,000 can holders, 84 decorative flags and many other products made from fire hoses have been sold online to people across 49 states and five countries. In other words, business is booming.

“Instead of it [fire hoses] sitting in a dump, we’re giving it new life,” Cartelli says. “It’s a different medium. It’s a form of art. It’s just a different way to make something pretty.”

Do you have drugs? Like old drugs that you don't want anymore? The DEA wants 'em.

This Saturday, April 28, is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. From 10 am to 2 pm, you can take any expired, unused or unwanted prescription medication to disposal sites throughout Eastern Washington, no questions asked. But they only want your pills and patches. No liquids, needles or sharps.

Disposal sites are: Kennewick Police Department, Pasco Police Department, Pullman Police Department, Richland Police Department, the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office and the Walla Walla Police Department, West Richland Police Department and Yakima Police Department.

The Spokane Valley Police Department (12710 E. Sprague) is a year-round disposal site, open 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.

During drug-take-back efforts last fall, Americans handed over 456 tons (912,00 pounds) of prescription drugs, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Washington state accounted for 15,473 pounds of that total haul. All told, 14 previous Drug Take Back Days have yielded 9 million pounds of pills, according to the news release.

Can't make it this weekend? That's cool. The Food & Drug Administration has some handy tips for how to safely dispose of certain meds. While some pills could be flushed down the toilet, others probably should not.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Stinkbugs are invading Washington state, and they're coming for your crops.

MUSIC: The Spokane Arena wants to hear what band or artist you'd most like to see on the arena stage (besides Garth Brooks, of course).

IN OTHER NEWS

What's in a name?
It took months and months of deliberating over the name of the bridge being constructed downtown to connect the University District to East Sprague. It's been called the University District Gateway Bridge in the meantime, but city leaders have finally settled on a name: the University District Gateway Bridge. Creative! (Spokesman-Review)

Road to prison
The second man involved in the murder of William "Bo" Kirk during a road rage incident pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder and robbery. Justin Booth can now be sentenced up to life in prison. David E. Hutto, the other defendant, was sentenced to life in prison last year. (Spokesman-Review)

Hart family's abuse allegations
Two mothers and their four adopted children — referred to as the "Hart family" —  have been confirmed dead after an SUV they were in crashed from a 150-foot cliff in Northern California. Now, the Oregon Department of Human Services has revealed that it investigated allegations of abuse in the Hart family but found "insufficient" evidence of abuse or neglect. (Seattle Times)

10 killed in Toronto
At least 10 people died when the driver of a white van plowed through pedestrians on the street in Toronto. The driver asked officers to "shoot me in the head," but he was subdued without shots fired. Authorities have said the act was intentional, but they haven't called it terrorism. (New York Times)

Vaping in class?
Teenagers have taken to using an e-cigarette that looks like a computer flash drive and can be easily hidden in school. The Food and Drug Administration has launched an effort to crack down on the brand who makes it. (Associated Press)

We open on Karen Bernhard, a horticulture and entomology specialist with Pennsylvania State University, investigating a curious infestation in Allentown. For five years, homeowners had been complaining of bugs in their houses. The residents had seen stink bugs before, but not like this. Not this many. These weren't the usual stink bugs.

So Bernhard calls in the experts: She sends the bug to a Cornell, where a curator mans one of the largest insect collections in the world: And he finds a match. It was the same bug found in Harima, Japan, in May 1916: A brown marmorated stink bug.

Before that moment, there had never been a brown marmorated stink bug officially identified detected on our shores.

But it wouldn't be the last.


Today, there are so many stink bugs reports flooding in that Michael Bush, an entomology and pest management researcher at the Washington State University Extension - Yakima County,  can't keep track of them all.

"I kind of got overwhelmed," Bush says. "I’m sitting here, trying to wade through about 300 reports I’ve gotten since last month. That's probably two-thirds of what we’ve gotten in the last six years."

Some of that may be simply a result of increased media attention to the stink bug problem. But it's also evidence of just how far the pesky pest has spread.

"The closest find of brown marmorated stink bug a few years ago was in Portland, in Oregon," Bush says. "The first one found in Washington state was in [bordering] Clark County."

Stink bugs can fly, yes. But even more importantly, they can hitch a ride.

"These stink bugs are amazing hitch-hikers," Bush says. "They are attracted by warmth. They will get into cars and SUVs and RVs, there are some thoughts that that's one of the ways they have spread."

The cold months send even isolated stink bugs scurrying toward warmer areas, where they're likely to meet other stink bugs. Then they create a lot of stink bug babies.

By 2014, the WSU Master Gardeners had put out a poster: "Wanted: Dead or Alive," encouraging those who encountered the brown marmorated stink bug to send information to Bush.

On Feb. 20, 2015, the first brown marmorated stink bug was spotted in Spokane. By that July, a WSU entomologist found an egg mass writhing with 28 newly hatched brown marmorated stink bug nymphs.

"In 2017 we found nearly 30 individual brown marmorated stink bugs in Manito Park and in Riverfront Park,"  Bush says. Stink bugs, he says, love deciduous trees. So they love parks. 

So why are stink bugs a problem? First, there's the obvious.

"These things really earn their name. They stink," Bush says. "When they invade households, people find them creeping in around in their house. When they try to remove them, they stink. They stink in protest."

Injure them? Hurt them? Squish them? They still stink.

The exact nature of the odor is in the nose of the beholder, Bush says.

"I think it smells bad, some people don’t," Bush says. "Some people say it smells like rotten cilantro. Others say it smells like dead grass."

And while Washington's agriculture hasn't been impacted yet, the impact in other states has been concerning. The stink bugs come equipped with big long proboscises they stick into plants to suck up the juices of produce plants like tomatoes, apples, apricots or hazelnuts. In the process, Bush says, the stink bugs also vomit up a little bit of bug juice.

"When they do that, they do cause some deformation if it’s early in the season," Bush says.

The produce can rot inside. They can contaminate the plant, altering the flavor. They can also leave a thin layer of white film underneath the skin of the fruit

"People cut it open, and there’s this little white layer between the skin and the rest of the tomato," Bush says. "People tend not to like that when they see it."

Researchers across the country, including several from WSU, have been funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to research the problem, trying to figure out exactly how to stop the spread of the stink bugs.

So they're looking at pheromone-based traps. But one even cooler idea they're looking at? Basically, a miniature Kaiju battle, introducing another bug that can battle the stink bug. The samurai wasp, an exotic parasitic wasp out of Asia, lays eggs inside the stink bug eggs, which then devours the stink bug progeny from the inside.

Savage.

The battle is already happening. A samurai wasp has already been detected in Walla Walla, Washington.

And if you see any brown marmorated stink bugs? Don't send the bugs to Bush. He's already overwhelmed. Instead, email tfrec.reportbmsb@wsu.edu. They have graduate students tasked with dealing with this sort of thing.

The Spokane Arena wants to hear from you.

The Arena has reintroduced its "Bucket List" poll, which allows folks a chance to sound off on who they'd most like to see grace the Arena stage. Voting is open now, and you can choose three of your favorite acts here. You have through May 9; the most requested artists will be announced shortly thereafter.

This isn't just another fun survey. The Arena uses the results as a jumping-off point for future bookings, and a number of acts who have appeared on past Arena bucket lists have eventually made it to Spokane: Foo Fighters, Elton John, the Eagles (performing May 8), Metallica (performing in December) and country superstar Garth Brooks, who topped the 2015 list (and — maybe you heard — sold out seven shows here last year).

Of course, we can't tell you who to vote for — though Garth would probably come back if you asked nicely enough — but here are a few suggestions from the Inlander music brain trust:

Bruce Springsteen — None of the Boss' major tours have ever made stops in the Inland Northwest, which is a shame, since we love a blue collar anthem as much as the next city. If we start yelling "BRUUUUUUUUCE" now, will he hear us by the time his Broadway residency is over?

Paul McCartney — Same goes for Sir Paul, who played Missoula in 2014 and Seattle in 2016 but has never given Spokane a shot. We're basically smack dab in between those two places, so maybe he'll throw us a bone next time.

Kendrick Lamar — The recent Pulitzer Prize winner is a commanding live performer, and he's arguably contemporary hip-hop's most vital voice. The Arena doesn't book rappers all that often, but surely they'd make an exception for Kendrick.

Beyoncé — Her already-legendary Coachella set proved that no venue can contain her, so getting Queen Bey to go anywhere is a feat unto itself. She was last here with Destiny's Child in 2005; let's hope the giant Radio Flyer intrigued her enough to come back.

U2 — Few bands know how to make a big room feel intimate like these Irish legends. While known for their elaborate stages and special effects, it's the deep catalog of stirring anthems that makes a U2 show special. When the do an arena run instead of playing football stadiums, how great would it be to see them in Spokane?

Lady Gaga — Whether she's going "full Gaga" and throwing a hyper-theatrical show, or simplifying things for jazzy collaborations with Tony Bennett or songs on her singer/songwriter-y most recent album Joanne, the woman is a mesmerizing performer who would draw from well beyond Spokane. 

Bruno Mars — You've seen the pop hitmaker kill it at the Super Bowl halftime show, and his tunes are unavoidable on radio. An Arena Bruno dance party could be one of the best shows of the year.

Iron Maiden — It appears the British metal masters haven't played Spokane since 1988 at the old Coliseum. Thirty years seems long enough, let's get Bruce Dickinson and Co. back to Spokane!

Saturday night at Northern Quest Resort & Casino, I got educated by Dee Snider, the man most of us know for his years as frontman for pioneering glam-rockers, Twisted Sister. It was a lesson I was happy to get, and a reminder of a similar experience a while back.

Several years ago, after years of ignoring and/or dismissing Alice Cooper, I went and saw the man in concert. And that was all it took to understand that I had been missing out, that Cooper had the songs to match the showmanship. Snider emphatically reiterated that point Saturday — that before you dismiss one of these "classic" acts for being merely a remnant of some long-ago pop culture moment, go see them in concert.

Like the case with Cooper, I was always more of a casual observer of Snider's music than a fan. I grew up in MTV's heyday when Twisted Sister's mainstream breakthrough came courtesy of cartoonish videos for "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock."


At Saturday's show, Snider proved that his music is worth more serious consideration than being relegated to the dustbin of '80s nostalgia. The 63-year-old looked and sounded great, and even without the makeup and crazy stage clothes of Twisted Sister's MTV years, he was fun to watch commanding the stage. And the songs were powerful, straightforward hard-rock tunes impossible not to get swept up in.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: It's not clear if alternative class styles, such as those taught online, are helpful to students, according to a Washington state audit.

NEWS: Students across the nation walked out on Friday, April 20, in protest of gun violence, and some, including in Spokane Valley, were met with counter protests. 
WHAT'S UP: Is the future in driverless cars? Gonzaga professor Rhonda Kae Young will talk about her research into the automated auto future tomorrow.

ARTS & CULTURE: Growing up, Hannah Camacho's dad was a traveling preacher, which meant she and her four siblings learned how to make fast friends. Now, Camacho is exploring her interests in art, animation and illustration with her podcast Basic Brainheart, where you'll hear her interview writers, directors and other creatives who've brought us some of the largest movies in Hollywood all from her Liberty Lake home.

IN OTHER NEWS

Car found in Spokane River
Spokane police found a car that went into the Spokane River over the weekend, but it wasn't clear if there was anyone inside and conditions have made it too hard for a dive team to try to get to the vehicle. (KXLY)

Shogun destroyed in fire
Early Sunday morning a fire destroyed Shogun, a Japanese restaurant off Third, east of downtown, that served sushi and offered guests the option of having meals prepared at their table. (Spokesman Review)

Waffle House shooting in Nashville kills four, gunman on run
A man who shot up a Waffle House in Nashville on Sunday, killing four people and wounding others, is still on the run. The shooting could have been worse had one man not tackled the gunman and taken the gun from him before he ran off. (New York Times, CNN)

Deadly airbags still on roads
Tens of thousands of vehicles equipped with airbags that could explode and spray shrapnel in a crash are still on the roads. The Washington Post explores why the recall process has taken so long and stories of those who were needlessly killed. (Washington Post)