Bloglander

Inland Northwest

Train runs off rails near Sandpoint (KREM)

The revolution starts here (SR) 

Alleged pregnant woman stabber found incompetent (KXLY) 

None of the above

Seven soldiers dead in Afghanistan air crash (ST) 

Jay-Z reigns over the new Nets (NYT) 

Facebook insider trading? Could happen (LA Times) 

What morning doesn't need Jamiroquai?

The city of Spokane will not renew Police Ombudsman Tim Burns's contract, a city spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday.

Burn's contract ends on Aug. 24, but spokeswoman Marlene Feist says the mayor wants to reconfigure the police ombudsman's job description rather than renew the contract.

"Tim's going to stay on with us at the end of September [or] the beginning of October for a transition plan for a new person to serve in that role," Feist says. "He could potentitally reapply for this position."

Burns was hired in 2009 to act as an oversight for the Spokane Police Department. The City Council granted him independent investigatory powers in 2010, but then stripped him of those powers the following year after an arbitrator ruled that those powers had been granted without consultation from the Spokane Police Guild.

Burns is on a three-year contract with an option for one renewal, Feist says. In a phone call, Burns confirmed that his contract was not being renewed, but wasn't available for further comment.

The city is trying to find a new police chief and awaiting a report from the Use of Force Commission, which spent most of the past year holding hearings on the police's actions. It is also negotiating a contract with the guild.

Feist says the mayor wanted the police ombudsman's job to reflect the commission's recommendations, and he wanted to consult with whoever is the new police chief before refilling the position.

Rick Eichstaedt, executive director of nonprofit the Center for Justice, which advocated for the ombudsman position, says he think Burns did as good of a job as he could.

But he's concerned that the community wasn't consulted on Burns's departure.

"We have an ombudsman ordinance, we need to give people an ombudsman. Who is going to serve in that role?" Eichstaedt says. "It's almost like throwing the baby out with the bathwater when we don’t know when they're going to refill the tub."

Boise had a handful of headline-grabbing spa raids last week, but the police department there took a different approach than we've seen in Spokane.

Police raided six massage parlors they believe were fronts for prostitution and arrested six women who allegedly either ran the operations or who were working as prostitutes. In the Spokane-area investigation, police arrested the owners of the spas, but not any women who worked in them. Many in law enforcement say they've begun to focus on people who facilitate prostitution rather than the prostitutes themselves (more not that in our story here).

But Boise police spokesperson Lynn Hightower says her department doesn't have a guiding philosophy on that.

"That is certainly a good community discussion. This is a community issue, and a community quality of life issue," she says. "But the police department is charged with solving problems and enforcing laws. When activity rises to level of causing citizen concerns and complaints, we are obligated to do what we can to enforce the law."

The women arrested are being charged with misdemeanors ranging from prostitution to violating city business licensing code.

The investigation came about after citizen complaints alleging criminal activity. Unlike Airway Heights' 14-month "Operation Red Light," Boise PD spent one day undercover before arresting the suspects.

"Detectives reported when they entered the massage parlor and paid for a massage, they were also offered sex for money," a department press release says.

Hightower says the issue isn't new for the department. Some of the businesses that were busted have been raided before, but the charges haven't been enough to shut them down and they've reopened under new ownership or new names. Still, prostitution isn't something the department deals with much, Hightower says.

"The unit that enforces this also enforces major drug crimes, and, quite honestly, they've got their hands full with that," she says. "[Prostitution] could be out there and could be happening on a daily basis, but officers go where the problems are that attract citizen complaints."

Around here

Man arrested for black market piranhas (SR)

Political candidate goes creepin' on opponent's lawn (SR) 

Dems protest move to rid Kootenai Co. of voter choice (Cda Press)

Over elsewhere

Chemical bombs in Boise (KREM)

West Nile virus spreading faster (USA Today) 

People choosing planes over the shittiness of flying (NYT) 

Flowers

The great TV drama is almost always thematic. The Wire, about the inevitably corrupting nature of system. Deadwood about the construction of genuine community from the most unsavory of elements.

And Breaking Bad about the loss of the soul. That’s always been the plan – to turn Walter White’s meek teacher into a murderous kingpin. TV has the power of gradual development, over hundreds of episodes, and Breaking Bad was always going to be about that.

Chemistry, season one Walter White tells us, is the study of change. This show hasn’t just shown Walter changing: now, the soul of every main character is at risk.

We’ve given each character a moral checkup, identifying not just their ability to do the right thing, but their ability to continue to feel right from wrong.

Hank Schrader:

Hank may be the only character on Breaking Bad to become more moral as the show’s ebbed on. At the beginning he’s loud, brash, and a little bit offensive. But then tragedy hits. He suffers from PTSD, he struggles at work. He makes the right choice and resigns after beating a suspect.

Then he gets shot, and barely survives. Yes, he’s awful to his wife during therapy – who wouldn’t be. But gradually, Schrader has pulled back his machismo and his rash decisions. He’s become more cautious, more sensitive.

If he survives Breaking Bad, he will surely pay a price professionally for being unaware that his brother-in-law ran a meth empire. But ultimately Hank’s grown so much that he’ll survive – able to give up that professional pride.

Breaking Bad's arcs of Walter White and his brother-in-law Hank run in opposite directions. As Walter is morphing into a monster due to his pride, Hank’s become the good guy through the power of his humility.

Soul remaining: 9/10.  

Skyler White:

There is a distance, I suppose, between evil and the bookkeeper of evil. It’s often choosing intentional ignorance, choosing to look the other way, choosing to draw the line in the sand at relatively-arbitrary places. Yes, Skyler became a willing accomplice of Walt’s drug trade last season. She even, at times, relished her skill at it. But this season, she shows the revulsion over the actions of her husband. Better than that, she experiences the revulsion of the consequences of her own actions. She’s horrified to see the consequences her actions have left her former boss paralyzed. She’s terrified of the man her husband has become.

And, in a sense, she is willing to sacrifice herself to the whims of a man she despises, to protect her children. She may do horrible things as the season progresses. But she, unlike Walt, is truly doing it for her family. If she dies this season – and the foreshadowing is overwhelming – she’ll likely do so a hero, not as the wet-blanket shrew that Internet commenters had her pegged as.

Soul remaining: 6/10

Jesse Pinkman:

Guilt forgives a lot. Or rather, guilt speaks to an inherent aspect of your humanity. It reminds you that your crimes are crimes, your sins and are sins.

And Jesse is full of it. He’s still a complicit meth cook, he’s still a criminal, he’s still responsible for horrible things happening. But he still – and the importance of this cannot be overstated – feels bad about it. Watch his face screw up as he cries over the fact that he almost “mistakenly” shot his partner. Watch him scream out, horrified, as a child is shot in front of him.

That’s not the scream of someone who’s thinking “this will get us in trouble.” It’s someone who still doesn’t want to see an innocent hurt. The moral differences between Walter White and Jesse Pinkman may not be vast, but this aspect is: Jesse is still capable of being redeemed.

Soul remaining: 4/10

Mike Ehrmantraut:

Mike’s an interesting case. Among Breaking Bad characters, he’s well liked. After all, he’s pragmatic, intelligent, and, perhaps most crucially, a badass without being a jerk.

He is not, however, a good person. Being a hired hit man is almost always worse. It’s dispassionate, it’s removed, it’s soulless. Mike’s given Walt lectures on no longer using “half measures,” in other words, not leaving loose ends untied. He’s said that there are two types of heists: “Ones where they get away with it, and ones where they leave witnesses.”

He’s a murderer. But yet, with his genuine (albeit extremely inconsistent) concern for Jesse’s well-being (after trying to kill him in season 3) and his momentary decision to let a mother with a child live, he’s not completely lost.

Of course, then he nearly killed the woman anyway after making an incorrect assumption. If Mike’s killed this season, in other words, it won’t be a murder as much as poetic justice.

Soul remaining: 2/10

Walt, Jr.:

Sure, the kid has his flirtation with the immaturity and pettiness of youth. But he still gets up in arms when his dad doesn’t get his just allocation and orientation of birthday bacon. You can’t get much more innocent than that.

Soul remaining: 10/10

Walter White:

Breaking Bad has always been the story of the moral degradation of its central character. It’s a tale of everyday pride and pettiness twisting into the worst sort of evil.

But witness the moral struggle he undergoes, when – in the first season – he chokes a drug dealer to death with a bike lock, for immediate self preservation. And witness the paralyzed hesitation he as he decides not to save Jane as she chokes to death on her own vomit. There, it’s less a decision to be made to protect his life, and more a decision to allow an inconvenience, an unpredictable variable, to be removed. In the next season, he distances himself, plays the part of the objective observer to trivialize the consequences of his misdeeds.

Yes, he takes risks to save Jesse and to save his brother-in-law. But in that moment as he lays in the crawlspace, feeling his life his doomed, letting out an insane, otherworldly laugh, he breaks. His soul is dead.  He’s able to poison a child (lightly, he would tell you) to bring about a shift in alliance. He’s able to blow up a room in a nursing home to kill his rival.

This season brings the final transition: There’s no hesitation, no moral struggle, no need for roundabout justification. His conscience is charred all the way through, devoid of feeling. He walks and talks like a man freed from the weight of a moral burden.

He just knocks, and then kicks open the door, ready to do absolutely anything he desires. 

Soul remaining: 0/10

Here

Police troubles in Sandpoint (BC Daily Bee) 

Body found in E. Spokane (KHQ) 

Save the nuns! (KXLY) 

There

Undocumented immigrants line up for Obama deferral (NYT) 

Cal Ripken Jr., on life. Well, mostly baseball training (WashPo) 

Hypersonic futuristic waverider aircraft to be tested (ST)

Drunk in a boring video game

Inland Northwest

Idahoans ease off on the meth (KXLY)

And now they're hallucinating (CdA Press)

The vandals have overtaken Riverfront Park (KREM)

Points elsewhere

Nobel economist says inequality at root of America's troubles (Newser)

Charlotte braces for Democratic convention protests (NYT)

We used to have Olympics for art and literature. Why did we stop? (Smithsonian)

Thank God It's Thursday

Media outlets (here and here) been reporting that Spokane Mayor David Condon is taking his full salary in his recession budget proposal that includes layoffs.

First, the news isn't new. The Inlander reported in March that Condon would be taking his full salary.

Second, Condon would save the city less than $70,000 — in a $164 million budget — if he took the pay cut that former Mayor Mary Verner took. (And, causing headaches, subsequently asked for back.)

If we're talking in terms of sheer revenue, increasing the property tax levy by 1 percent which the city has done nine out of the past 10 years, would raise $400,000.  Most of that would go toward the general fund that pays for police, firefighters and the library. Condon is against that increase.

Third, there are other budget issues that probably have more consequence. Like the property tax levy mentioned above. Or the fact that Condon hasn't accounted for any increase in firefighter salaries, even though such an increase will almost certainly happen.

Lastly, by eliminating 19 vacant police positions, the city police force stands to shrink next year. Condon may insist he's not cutting from the force because there are no police layoffs. But given the time it takes to train new officers, if any (or some, or all) of the 47 current officers eligible to retire (there are about 275 police officers total) decide to leave, the force could shrink. 

Now, that's not to say a reduced salary could help save one or two city positions. Or that Condon actually deserves to be paid $169,000. But the magnitude of cuts needed to close the up to $10 million budget shortfall — as well as the unwillingness to raise revenue — make Condon's salary look like small beans. Any solution to avoid mass layoffs or more department eliminations (Arts, Weights and Measures) will need a much more creative solution.

Read about those issues here in this week's story.

For more tidbits on City Hall, head here. 

Shelly O’Quinn has raised nearly $50,000 for her campaign. She has the endorsement of all current county commissioners and the support of sheriff Ozzie Knezovich. She’s running as a Republican, in a conservative area.

Yet, with a preliminary percentage 35 percent of the vote, she took second to Daryl Romeyn, the former weatherman, who, at this point, doesn’t even use a cell phone. According to the Public Disclosure Commission, Romeyn’s raised less than $2,500 for every dollar he raised, in other words, O’Quinn raised 20  and hasn’t yet spent a dime of it.

He got 42 percent of the vote.

He could at least partially thank Spokane County Treasurer Rob Chase, O’Quinn’s opponent who came in third. Each of the three candidates have run  and lost  for positions before. They all had the name recognition, crucial in a primary.

In 2002, Chase ran against George Nethercutt as a Libertarian. Here, he ran as a Republican, possibly dividing the vote-for-any-Republican contingent of primary voters.

But even Chase says he was surprised by how well Romeyn did.

“I thought that Daryl would draw at least a third from the Democrats,” Chase says. “[But] I thought I was going to pull the independents.” Chase suspects that some independent voters might want to break up the purely Republican bloc on the board of commissioners.

O’Quinn, however, says Romeyn’s success isn’t shocking.

“I think it turned out how I expected it would,” O’Quinn says. “I had already done my homework and knew that Daryl would get at least 39 percent. “

 Before the race, she studied previous voting trends in the district, and discovered that, no matter who runs, about 39 percent vote Democrat.

Yet, she says she’s not going to take anything for granted in the general election. Where before only those in District 3  the south-east third of the county could vote for O’Quinn in the primary, the entire county votes in the general.

Romeyn is quite aware of that.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Romeyn says. He says he’s “obviously happy” with his result. He credits his success to old fashioned door-to-door campaigning work.

“I went to every event,” he says. “I spoke to every group, etc. that invited me. I’m not sure the other candidates can say that.”

In debates, he and O’Quinn have already clashed on a number of issues. He wants to use the funding given to Greater Spokane Incorporated elsewhere, O’Quinn thinks cutting that economic-development funding would be foolish in a recession.

Either way, despite Romeyn’s primary win, financially, he’s still the 20-to-1 underdog.

“All I had was the little yard signs,” Romeyn, “I just don’t have the funds to have the big billboards and all those sorts of things.”

Well, for the 27 percent* of registered Spokane County voters who managed to mail in your ballot, here are the candidates who will be heading to the general election in November.

Governor: Jay Inslee (D) and Rob McKenna (R)

Senator: Incumbent Maria Cantwell (D) and Michael Baumgartner (R)

Congress: Incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Rich Cowan

State Senate District 3: Andy Billig (D) and Nancy McLaughlin (R) 

State House District 3: Marcus Riccelli (D), with Bob Apple (D) currently in second. More here. 

State House District 4: Incumbent Matt Shea (R) and Amy Biviano (D)

State House District 6: Dennis Dellwo (D) and Jeff Holy (R)

Spokane County Commission: John Roskelley and Todd Miehlke

Spokane County Commission: Shelly O'Quinn and Daniel Romeyn 

* Secretary of State Sam Reed predicted 46 percent turnout. Statewide, turnout averaged 22 percent. I hope they count ballots better than they make predictions.