Bloglander

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Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna will announce his run for the governorship tomorrow, the AP reports.

The state hasn't had a Republican governor since John Spellman, who left office in 1985, which may explain why McKenna is announcing so far in advance of the November 2012 election.

Gov. Chris Gregoire is in her second term of office and has yet to announce if she's running or not, even if there are a few Democrats on the sidelines waiting to hear her intentions. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, from Spokane, told The Inlander in February that she would make a decision on her political future sometime this spring. Puget Sound-area U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee is also expected to run.

Cancer causers clog crap-cleaner construction-- For now, permission to build a big new sewage treatment plant for Spokane County is being withheld. The concern of the Spokane Tribe is that no limit is set on PCBs -- potentially cancer causing agents. Those PCBs can infect fish, making them inedible. (SR)

Cougflation -- At Washington State University, despite efforts to increase revenue by dramatically increasing the number of students, tuition is going up 16 percent, over 5 times the rate of inflation. At the considerably cheaper Eastern Washington University, tuition is only increasing about 11 percent. (KREM)

Congressional creep -- By now, everyone knows that Congressman Anthony Weiner lied a whole lot about sending naughty pictures to young woman throughout the nation. As he finally admitted, he's carried on six such cybersexual relationships in the last three years. This link shows him lying, bald-faced and angrily, to an ABC News reporter. (ABC)

Cookware criminal -- A man is standing trial, accused of stealing but a single sheet of tinfoil. His confrontation with a Rite Aid employee went sour, and now he's being charged with first-degree robbery. Foiled again. (KXLY)

Karen Kearney is once again aiming for the Spokane City Council.

"These are serious times and they need serious people," says Kearney, who is running in District 3. To date, only Steve Salvatori has announced his intentions to run for the seat being vacated by Steve Corker, who is running to become the council's president. "I really wasn't going to do it. But people kept asking me."

Kearney ran two years ago in the same district against incumbent Nancy McLaughlin and lost by a wide margin. She says this time is different, mainly because of Salvatori.

"I've looked at his info. He doesn't know this district," she says. "What has he done for my district? Has he visited the schools? Has he gone to the women's and kids' free restaurant? What has this man done?"

But, she adds, she's planning on keeping the race civil: "He's my opponent. He's not my enemy." 

Asked to identify another candidate running for any contested seat in this year's city elections that she supports, Kearney was quick to point to just one: Mayor Mary Verner.

"I'm not endorsing anybody for anything except for Mary Verner," she says. "She's made some hard decisions. She's put in more than 100 percent. She's taken a cut in her salary. She's walking the walk in that way."

Kearney says she'll make her candidacy official tomorrow morning. This is the one week that candidates have to file with the elections office to get their names on the ballot. Other candidates that made it official this week were Verner, council president hopeful Ben Stuckart, mayoral candidate Mike Noder and Corker.

Bails out -- Even if your bail is substantially high, your payment to a bail bond agency, in the state of Washington, is pretty cheap. And after a man who paid only 4 percent of his bail murdered four police officers in Lakewood, legislators debated setting some sort of standard. Even 5 percent, where industry standard is 10 percent. But other legislators pointed out that big bails, by their very nature, hit the poor far harder than the rich. The legislation did not pass. (SR)

Stark mad, raving–  Friday night, a rave – which apparently still happen – was held at the Lincoln Center. One problem: The Lincoln Center only holds 700 people, and there were about 500 more who had purchased tickets. Some ravers didn’t take this too well – some proposed they swap “rave” for “riot” and by 10:40, the cops were called. Crowds inside and outside were sent home, which was lame for everybody involved. (KREM)

Grant this request – Already in Kootenai County, $15 million in the budget come from grants taxpayers don’t have to pay. County commissioners have hired a consultant to figure out how to bump that number even higher. (CDAP)

Border clash -- Soldiers fired upon Palestinian protesters who attacked the border fence near Syria. Protesters say engaging the soldiers is an intentional strategy for “ending the occupation” of Palestine. (NYT)

After NOW President Terry O'Neill and other leaders in the movement sent a letter to the White House demanding more female representation at budget talks, O'Neill noticed that McMorris Rodgers attended a meeting with the president and her compatriots in the House Republican leadership, John Boehner and Eric Cantor.

"She voted the straight party line against women's reproductive health and supported the Ryan budget to 'gut and cut' programs," O'Neill wrote on the website. "She has a zero rating from NARAL and near zeros from AAUW and NOW. She voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay bill, for goodness sakes. Wonder just how much she stuck up for women in that confab" at the White House.

O'Neill took everyone at the meeting to task for making women shoulder the burden after social services get cut.

"Women are the majority of recipients of vital public benefits, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, childcare subsidies and other family friendly support programs," she wrote. "They are underpaid for the work they do and often hold down two or three part-time/near-minimum wage jobs while their spouses look for work. We cannot balance our budget or reduce our debt without understanding the effects of these cuts and slashes on the lives and livelihoods of our nation's girls and women."

Money (That's what he wants) — Spokane mayoral hopeful David Condon entered controversial territory when he attacked pay rates at City Hall. He reportedly says he doesn't like all the city staffers making over $100,000, but he made well over that figure working for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and could be making far more than that as mayor. (SR)

Public Market opens — Which is awesome because private markets suck. (KXLY) 

Hospital shake-up — Leadership roles at Providence Health Care are changing, further evidence that the health care landscape in Spokane is undergoing some dramatic transformations. (SR)

Remember John Edwards? — Because the man who could have been vice president is boiling in hot, deep water. (Atlantic Wire) 

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Courtesy of ROOST

The downtown business owner whose 300-pound Bigfoot statue went missing Tuesday says she’s relieved to know he’s safe.

Biggie the Bigfoot was found at Medical Lake High School around 7:30 pm on Wednesday, says Joy Arch, owner of Roost, a furniture and antique store on West Main Avenue.

Arch says she is now trying to figure out how to get the 8-foot-tall steel sculpture home from the Medical Lake Police station. Police did not tell her if they have any suspects, but Arch says she thinks it was “probably just a prank.”

“It’s just a little inconvenience, but we’re glad he’s back,” Arch says.

The less fortunate now porch-less — Due to lack of funding, Spokane's House of Charity is closing its sleeping porch for the homeless this summer. (KXLY)

Sasquatch is back! — But he's fake. (KXLY) 

Buckets of rain, buckets of mud — Spokanites have so many buckets destroying their homes. (KREM) 

Glenn Beck is gone — The blustery pundit is leaving Fox News at the end of this month. (Atlantic Wire) 

Courtesy of ROOST

Joy Arch is hoping for a Bigfoot sighting, and she’s willing to pay $100 for it.That is, if it leads to the return of Biggie, the 8-foot-tall, 300-pound steel Bigfoot statue stolen from outside her antique store, Roost, on Tuesday morning.

A regular customer and family friend saw the statue on his daily 4 am walk Tuesday, but it was gone when Arch arrived to open the store at 10 am.

In the empty lot on the corner of Main and Division, under a towering Holiday Inn Express billboard, all that remains are a few pieces of broken chain that used to hold Biggie to the brick wall.

Arch says the thieves must have used a large truck to pull the statue from the 3-inch bolts holding it to the ground and haul it away.

“A lot of thought went into this — the timing, the manpower, how to get it out,” she says. “Somebody wanted him really bad, but I want him back worse.”

Arch’s husband, Matt, a metal fabricator by trade, made a handful of the sculptures last summer and sold all but the one mounted outside the store. Arch valued each at about $800.

The Bigfoot has been outside the store since it opened about a year ago, and has become a mascot for the business, drawing customers to the store and tourists to a photo op, Arch says.

Arch says she doesn’t know who might have taken Biggie, but her only guesses are Spokane Community College students (the school’s mascot is a Bigfoot) or late-night drunks downtown.

Arch reported the crime to the Spokane Police Department but says there’s not much they can do. She expects the thieves will have trouble concealing the massive statue and, because of that, she hopes it will turn up soon, she says.

Matt Arch can’t make another Bigfoot because he sold his equipment last fall, and Joy says they don’t plan to replace Biggie with anything if he’s not found.

“Nothing could really replace him,” she says. “There’s nothing quite as unique.”

Kootenai County homes lose $900 million — For the fourth year in a row, homes in Kootenai County lost value, much like in rest of the nation. The depressed housing prices are reportedly endangering the economic recovery. (SR, WSJ)

Too many inmates — Ah, Memorial Day. What a great time to remember the men and women who died serving our country... and get arrested doing so. After a lengthy three-day weekend with 144 arrests, the Spokane County Jail inmate population reached "emergency" levels. (KXLY)

Idaho the worst — In terms of per pupil spending, Idaho comes in almost dead last. That's 50th place. Only Utah fares worse in the rank of 51 states and the District of Columbia. (SR)