Bloglander

ROADS?! Where we're going we don't need roads!

Wait... No. We need roads, but maybe not drivers. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Gonzaga civil engineering professor Rhonda Kae Young will discuss this idea at length next Tuesday in her presentation titled “Transportation Engineering: From Neighborhood Greenways to Driverless Interstates.”

Finally, the future is here! Total Recall’s Johnny Cab will finally be realized.

If this is a terrifying prospect to you, you’re not alone. In fact, a Gallup poll shows that a majority (54 percent) of Americans say they are unlikely to use self-driving cars, 59 percent would be uncomfortable riding in self-driving cars and 62 percent would be uncomfortable on the road with self-driving trucks. (However, Gallup’s number decreases the younger and more educated the survey participants are.)

There are some obvious hurdles to overcome. Professor Young recognizes this too.

"It's the big jump,” Young told the Inlander last in February 2017 in our cover story on this very subject. “We've always been forward-thinking, but we recognize now the pace and the jump that we're seeing. It's like the automobile and horse-drawn carriage kind of leap."

For Young, this is the future: A network of vehicles traveling and communicating with each other, using sophisticated maps, radar and sensors to avoid accidents.

More than 7.2 million vehicle crashes were reported to the police in 2016, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Commission. Among those were 37,461 fatalities and more than 3 million injuries. And while the technology could improve human safety in the long run, it could also have major implications on commerce.

Young will discuss her research into this topic at the event. She is currently leading Gonzaga’s team in a seven-university partnership with a $14 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Per Gonzaga:

Under her leadership, students explore the benefits of “connected” vehicles that monitor roadways and share information via short-range frequency. The future of connected vehicles (driverless or human-controlled) can alleviate traffic congestion, generate safety messages, signal poor road and weather conditions and enhance trip planning.



Additionally, Young works with the city of Spokane and Gonzaga civil engineering students to plan the community’s first “greenway” on Cincinnati Street. A “greenway” is a street with limited access that is designed for biking, pedestrians and public transportation.

The Washington state Auditor's Office has released a final report on student outcomes in so-called "Alternative Learning Experience" courses — courses, often online, involving some level of instruction away from traditional public school.

The grade? Incomplete.

Citing a lack of available data from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Auditor's Office could not evaluate student success in ALE programs as mandated by the state Legislature in 2013.

"We identified data challenges that meant we were unable to measure student outcomes in a quantitative way," says Kathleen Cooper, spokeswoman for the state Auditor's Office.

In Washington state, more than 30,000 K-12 students attend ALE programs either part time or full time. The programs are funded by the state. Last year, the Inlander reported how for-profit companies came to dominate the landscape of online education in Washington, while delivering poor student outcomes. Those online schools are considered ALE programs.

School districts can attract students to their ALE programs even if the students are from another part of the state, boosting that district's enrollment numbers and sometimes allowing them to balance their budget.

But are those ALE programs effective?

That's a question OSPI and the Auditor's Office can't answer with evidence. It's partly because they're so different, from not only traditional schools, but from each other. An ALE program can be a simple credit-recovery course, or it can be a full-time online school. That makes it harder to separate ALE students from traditional students, since they can be both.

And that means auditors couldn't effectively measure ALE graduation rates or other individual outcomes.

Instead, lacking reliable data, the auditors visited eight ALE programs, held focus groups and surveyed students. Representatives from ALE programs themselves, of course, told the auditors that the programs provided "flexibility" and new approaches to students seeking an alternative to traditional school.

"Our qualitative analysis shows the professionals who work within these programs believe they do help increase individual student success," Cooper says.

This isn't the first time the Auditor's Office pointed out issues with data for ALE programs. Its first report after the 2013 mandate was supposed to assess 2013-14 ALE students. But then, too, it found problems with the data system managed by OSPI called the Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS): Of the districts with ALE programs, 65 percent claimed more ALE funding than the actual number of students.

The ALE staff told the state auditors that it was a misunderstanding of reporting requirements. The auditors have recommended that OSPI ensures its CEDARS data is complete and accurate.

Nathan Olson, spokesman for OSPI, says the agency has been working with auditors on this.

"We know there are issues with data, and data collection needs to be improved," Olson says.

The report from the Auditor's Office, he says, showed that collection and reporting of accurate data is the "key stumbling block" to evaluating student success in ALE programs. OSPI says it is taking steps to address the issue, including improved communication on requirements and potentially asking the Legislature for changes to state ALE course definitions.

But OSPI, Olson says, is confident that ALE programs are effective, even without the data.

"I think we acknowledge data would help us get even more information, but we are finding they are effective," Olson says. "More students are taking the courses and they are passing the courses."

In Spokane Valley's Terrace View Park, Shaundra Russell faced a crowd of more than 100 students who had walked out of class in protest of gun violence, ready to cheer her on.

To her right, a group of more than a dozen counter protesters stood with a Trump flag, ready to shout her down.

Russell grabbed the megaphone.

"We are the students of Spokane Valley," began Russell, a junior at Central Valley High School. "And we demand change."

So began the rally organized by University and Central Valley high school students on Friday morning, part of a National School Walkout to call for gun reform. Elsewhere in the Spokane area, Lewis and Clark, North Central and Ferris high school students led a rally at Riverfront Park. Students at Freeman High School, where a school shooting took place in the fall, walked out and gathered on their football field.

At the Spokane Valley walkout, more than a dozen counter protesters attempted to disrupt the rally. Marissa Kenney, a CV student who helped organize the walkout, says in the days leading up to the rally, students who called themselves the "Central Valley Alt-Right" told her they planned to counter protest. Two of them bumped into her in the hallway and harassed the rally organizers online, she says.

"We've been called some things on social media I will not repeat out loud," Kenney says.


During the event, several student speakers spoke in favor of gun control. They handed out packets with ideas to reduce gun violence. The ideas included passing gun laws like gun-violence restraining orders to temporarily bar a person from buying firearms, making buying a gun more like buying a car, investing in smart-gun technology, eliminating funding restrictions for research and ending legal immunity for gun manufacturers.

Russell says there needs to be more mental health counselors in schools to focus on the behavioral and social needs of students. She says a "village of support" should be created for students. If they're at risk of harming themselves or others, then firearms should be immediately removed from the household.

"How many people will die?" Russell asks. "How many more school shootings and suicides will it take before we are going to change?"

Izabella Roullier, a senior at CV, says she doesn't feel safe when she leaves her house to go to school. She said more guns leads to more crime and more deaths.

"Here in our tiny corner of America," Roullier says, "we will not be silenced."

But during each speech, the counter protesters tried to make their own voice heard. They yelled "America first!" and "Keep our guns!" The rally-goers responded with their own chant, "Kids not guns!" drowning out the counter protesters.


The counter protesters were led by Trent Carlton, a junior at CV. He wrote in black marker "MAKE WHITE MEN GREAT AGAIN!" on the front of his white T-shirt. The back read "ALT RIGHT" and "HAIL VICTORY" above the symbol for Identity Evropa, a white supremacist group. He shouted the loudest in protest during the speeches and each time the crowd cheered even louder so his voice wasn't heard.

Carlton calls himself a "strong white nationalist." He tells the Inlander that the best way to prevent school shootings is to arm every teacher who wants to volunteer and go through training. He says there should be more armed veterans in schools, yet he also agrees with the idea to put more mental health counselors in schools.


Sierra Stinson, a University student, says she was upset when she first saw Carlton and his shirt.

"It breaks my heart to see there's still people like him," Stinson says.

But when she and her friend went over and talked to him, they were able to find some common ground, she says.

"He actually agrees with us for most of it," Stinson says. "He believes that we're banning guns, but that isn't what we want. So in the end we're arguing the same thing."


Spokane Valley City Council member Linda Thompson, who attended the rally, says the best way to enact change to prevent gun violence is to empower the youth to speak out. She was encouraged by the way rallygoers handled the counter protesters.

"It has to start person-to-person," Thompson says. "Nobody is trying to take anybody's guns away. We're trying to protect students and stop the violence in the community."

She urges for the community, and the country, to come together.

"That's the hardest thing: to come together and work together," Thompson says.

Ask Hannah Camacho where she's from and she hesitates a little.

"My dad was a traveling preacher, so technically when I claim a homeland it feels a little hypocritical, cause we would move every week to a new church and he would hold revival meetings," Camacho says.

So before she and her husband moved their family to Spokane a few years ago, she was sorta from Wisconsin and sorta from all over the place.

Camacho says the nomadic lifestyle of growing up in a 40-foot fifth-wheel trailer with her four siblings — "my mother was a saint" — forced her to learn how to make fast friends and dive right into interesting conversations.

"I think it was certainly hard, because we weren’t really able to create a lot of relationships long term," she says. "But I think in many ways it’s made it easier for me to get to know people just because you have a week to make friends."

That might explain some of her success in landing long-form interviews with people who've worked on some of the biggest shows and movies in Hollywood for her podcast Basic Brainheart, a passion project she started about a year ago.

She started the podcast in part to push herself to keep learning and improve her own storytelling and art, and in part to look at what makes people successful.

"I think a lot of times there’s this assumption there’s some secret sauce, there’s some magic that people are just born with and they automatically are somehow a great storyteller but nobody knows how or why," she says. "I want to maybe demystify what that process looks like to become a better storyteller, better artist, a better creative."

On top of interviewing animators and artists who've helped create major films and shows, she's also interviewed Oscar-nominated screenwriters and directors.

"You can find a million interviews on the people who are in front of the camera," Camacho says, "but if it wasn’t for the people behind the scenes, there would be no story."

Over the course of each roughly hour-long episode, recorded from her Liberty Lake home, Camacho learns from makers like Inside Out writer Meg LeFauve and Eric Heiserrer, who adapted the screenplay for Arrival, as they explain how they got where they are now. 

Her biggest takeaway so far is that mostly, creative success comes down to hard work.

"It’s very refreshing to hear that everyone’s story comes back to: It’s just really hard work and learning to hone your craft. It’s really the people that stick to it and learn and are willing to accept feedback that break through," Camacho says. "It’s a relief to hear that there’s no secret sauce, you know what I mean?"

That's especially meaningful to Camacho, who works by day in marketing and communications for Numerica Credit Union and spends most of the rest of her spare time with her husband and three kids, who are 10, 8 and 7.

"It’s encouraging and kind of puts a fire under my tush, in terms of keep learning, keep going and be open to feedback, and eventually you’ll create something that’s great," she says.

She also wants to set a good example for her kids to encourage them to work toward the things they're passionate about.

"As a mom of three, I'm passionate about learning things for myself and want to show and model what it looks like to set a goal and meet it and that really the only thing between you and that goal is hard work," Camacho says.

Her show has also put an emphasis on women in creative fields. Because of her work, Camacho has been signed on as an official partner of Women in Animation, an organization that pushes to get more women into careers in animation and support those who are already doing that work.

Being a wife, a mom and having a career and aspirations of her own, Camacho says it's inspiring to learn how other women make it work.

Largely, she wants to encourage women and girls to get into these creative fields that have a significant cultural impact in setting models for people to follow.

"I think storytelling sets the tone for our culture, and if there’s not representation behind the scenes, that will not translate into stories that matter in terms of setting the tone for our culture," Camacho says. "Right now there’s a lot of males that are crafting those stories they think everyone wants to hear, but they’re ignoring the female voice, or they’re just not bringing that in. So women behind the camera are just as important as women in front of the camera."

Basic Brainheart is available on iTunes and Soundcloud, and you can check out some of Camacho's own illustrations on her Instagram. Here's some of her work that we've shared with permission:

A rare bird sighting. ☺️ #dragon #visdev #castle #visualdevelopment

A post shared by Hannah Camacho (@hannah_camacho) on Apr 4, 2018 at 5:19pm PDT

#conceptart #visdev #visualdevelopment

A post shared by Hannah Camacho (@hannah_camacho) on Feb 28, 2018 at 7:17pm PST

🐉 💎 #dragon #diamond

A post shared by Hannah Camacho (@hannah_camacho) on Mar 26, 2018 at 5:35pm PDT

Sometimes people will ask Ami Strahan how many kids she has, but she struggles to answer.

Well, she had two kids. She gave birth to two kids. But now she only has one.

"So do I say I have one? Or do I say I had two," she says to a room of about 120 people gathered April 19 at the McGinnity Room downtown. "If I say I had two, how do I explain how I only have one? It's weird, and it's heartbreaking, but it's real."

Strahan's 15-year-old son, Sam, was shot and killed by another student in the halls of Freeman High School last September. Just three months before, her husband died after an accident in their driveway. She was asked to share her story with those gathered at the inaugural event for a new local nonprofit, Art 4 Reform.

The organization was started by two mothers driven to take action after a shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school. In February, a 19-year-old shot and killed 17 students and staff and injured several more inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Within about 30 days, Carolina Johnson and Janelle Carney established the nonprofit and scheduled an event to raise money to support gun safety. Proceeds from yesterday evening are going toward Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Carney says.


Before yesterday's event, Johnson painted a portrait of Sam, as well as portraits of each of the 17 victims in Parkland, which were on display.

The day before students across the country prepare to walk out of school to support gun reform and remember shooting victims, Strahan tells the crowd that years ago on her wedding anniversary (which is today), "two boys walked into their high school, and they started killing people. That was Columbine."

She describes the void left by her son and husband, Scott Strahan. She lists the milestones that Sam will miss: homecoming, driver's ed, graduation.

"He never got his braces off," she says. "Which may seen silly, but I never got to see that smile without braces."

Then, motioning to the wall of portraits behind her, she says she's not unique.

"Since that day, so many more students have died while they were at school," she says. "Writing this sounds just absurd to think that kids die going to school."

At the same time, she knows that gun law reform is polarizing, and in particular around assault-style rifles.

The boy who shot and killed Sam brought an AR-15 and several magazines of ammo into Freeman High School in September 2017. The rifle jammed, and the 15-year-old boy shot Sam and three other students with a pistol. The three other students survived.

"I can't be sold on the issue that all of this is related to mental health," she says. "Not every mentally ill person shoots and kills people. So I don't want to categorize mentally ill people that way. And not all people who own guns kill people, right? I think both of those are true, but the common denominator is the gun itself."

She goes on to say that gun owners have a huge responsibility to keep firearms out of the hands of children and those who can't appreciate their potential.

Finally, Strahan addressed the children in the room: "I just want to tell you that you make me really proud, and I'm so relieved that you're paying attention," she says. "Thank you for insisting on what should be the right of every student and becoming socially active in your fight for it.

"You have the right to go to school, have a blast, learn something and be better for it. But I also want to remind you that the great majority of your parents are doing the very best they can. They try really hard, and they're human. We're all human. We make mistakes, we have good days, we have bad days. But at the end of the day, we love our children and you never know when you will get the chance to talk to your parents again. So talk to 'em."

Ferris High School teacher Mandy Manning has been named National Teacher of the Year, the Council of Chief State School Officers announced this morning.

Manning, who has been a teacher for 18 years, currently teaches English and math to newly arrived immigrants and refugees at Ferris. As the winner of the award, she will spend a year traveling across the world representing and advocating for teachers. Later this month, she will visit the White House.

"This year I hope to engage the nation in a conversation about how we can encourage students to experience things outside their understanding," Manning says in a news release. "This is the first step in creating a more hopeful, safer and kinder society where everyone can be productive, global citizens."

Manning was already the 2018 Washington Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching immigrant and refugee students, she also teaches fast-pitch and girls basketball, advises the writing club and co-advises the Gay-Straight Alliance.

Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal says he is "thrilled the rest of the country will have an opportunity to get to know Mandy."

"She is an exemplary leader in our state because of her dedication to each of her students and for her love of continuous learning," Reykdal says. "We have a legacy of excellent teaching in our state that Mandy strengthens with her passion for students."

Kim Mead, president of the Washington Education Association, says Manning "embodies great teaching, dedication, union activism and, most of all, compassion for every student and everyone who is lucky enough to spend time with her."

"Her work welcoming immigrant students is a fundamental building block to their process of becoming U.S. citizens," Mead says.

The winner of the award typically gets to visit the White House and President Donald Trump. Read about what Manning would say to him in our feature story on her from January. Watch a video Spokane Public Schools put together about her classroom here.

ON INLANDER.COM

GREEN ZONE: Our former intern Tuck Clarry reviews the nuances behind improvised bongs.

NEWS: Why Washington state doesn't build condominiums.

IN OTHER NEWS

Weed spreads
Spokane Valley's big marijuana grow operation gets bigger. (Spokesman-Review)

Channeling grief
Sam Strahan's mom becomes a gun control activist. (Spokesman-Review)

Murder investigation
The roommate of the woman who was found dead on a conveyor belt in Spokane's recycling center turns himself in to police.  (KXLY)

Have you ever tried to whip up enthusiasm for a Democratic midterm... on weed?
Democratic Sen.  Minority Leader Chuck Schumer come out in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. (Washington Post)

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!
Rudy Giuliani looks to join the Trump legal team.  (New York Times)

The Comey memos are out
Do they live up to the hype? (New York Times)

A FarCry from demographically accurate
Vice asks a pivotal question about Montana-set Far Cry 5: Why are there so many black people, but no American Indians? (Vice)

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: It's almost Earth Day and in this week's Green Issue Inlander writers tell you about everything, from how to reduce your impact on the climate, to how farming could help trap carbon dioxide in the soil, to how Hangman Creek could finally get the cleanup it needs.  

NEWS: He's a man of God and an anti-fossil fuel activist, and he'll get to argue to the court that he had no other choice but to block the train tracks in 2016 to try to stop climate impacts from oil trains that daily make their way through Spokane.

IN OTHER NEWS

Condon before ethics commission
In a hearing before the Ethics Commission Wednesday, Mayor David Condon denied allegations he lied about why former Police Chief Frank Straub was fired. (Spokesman-Review)

Washington salmon case hits Supreme Court
Washington state argues it shouldn't have to replace road culverts that block salmon migration as required by a court decision from a suit filed by Northwest tribes. But it didn't look like the U.S. Supreme Court would side with the state after hearing the case Wednesday. (Associated Press)

Riddled with errors
Chicago's database of suspected gang members is likely in need of some serious cleanup: ProPublica reports that more than 160 people in the data base are in their 70s and 80s, and a few are supposedly more than 100 years old. (ProPublica)

Former WSU associate athletic director left amid sexual harassment complaints
John Lucier, who settled with Washington State University for $31,000 and left his job last year, used inappropriate language in the workplace and violated other Title IX rules, according to investigative reports. (The Daily Evergreen)

Hard to believe, but it's been 20 years since Joel and Ethan Coen's quirky crime comedy The Big Lebowski first rolled into theaters, introducing the world to L.A. slacker Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski and a colorful supporting cast of oddballs and weirdos.

We'll be celebrating the milestone with a screening of the beloved cult film at the Bing Crosby Theater on Wed, April 25. And because we're not into that whole brevity thing, we'll also be supplying beer from Iron Goat Brewing and free popcorn from our sponsors at Horizon Credit Union. You'll have to supply your own sarsaparilla; save the White Russians for after the show.

The brews start flowing at 6 pm and the program itself begins at 7 pm. The movie is rated R, and children under 17 will not be admitted without an adult guardian.

But that's not all. Come to the show dressed as your favorite Lebowski character and you could win prizes. Ratty bathrobes, bowling shoes, cowboy hats and viking helmets are all encouraged (Saddam Hussein costumes? Not so much.) Our own gang of nihilists will be judging which likenesses are the most striking — it'll be, like, just our opinions, man — and the winners will be featured in a commemorative Lebowski-themed photo that'll also be printed in the paper. It'll really tie your room together.

Purchase your tickets here, or contact TicketsWest at 325-7328.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Two local mothers are taking action to prevent gun violence by raising funds for Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. They are hosting an event on Thursday through their nonprofit Art 4 Reform.

NEWS: Also scheduled for Wednesday (today), the father of a Sandy Hook shooting victim will be at Gonzaga to discuss his efforts as a neuroscientist to understand violent behavior.

"When we were faced with this infinite heartbreak, we decided to take a scientific approach to see if we could fund studies understanding the risk factors and changes in the brain that leads to violence,” he says.

IN OTHER NEWS

Bye-bye, Barbara...
First Lady and First Mother Barbara Bush dies at the age of 92. (The New York Times)

The Two Koreas
South Korean officials confirmed that they are in talks with North Korea to formally end the Korean War, which began more than 60 years ago. Nuclear disarmament will likely be a major factor in the negotiations. (The New York Times)

News also surfaced that CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the Easter weekend. (Vox)

No School Left Unevaluated
New changes to Washington state education will now allow “parents to look up every test score at their children’s school and compare them to other schools in the district and the state” according to the Spokesman-Review. The change will help individual schools better understand what improvements they need to make, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said. (Spokesman-Review)

Des Moines deportation
Federal authorities are (once again) trying to cancel DACA protections against a man arrested in Des Moines. Daniel Ramirez Medina, 25, was picked up last year and placed in deportation proceedings despite his participation in DACA. Though he has committed no crime, he was among the first people in the program arrested after Trump took office. (Associated Press)