Merle Haggard, SCC sexist lecture, the men behind the Panama Papers and other news

Merle Haggard, SCC sexist lecture, the men behind the Panama Papers and other news
Merle Haggard died at 79

ON INLANDER.COM 

• Come on over to Allyson Amstutz's (and her roommates') house in Pullman, there's some skull-rattlin' music in their basement and everyone's invited.

Charter schools are legal in Washington state (for now). Staff writer Wilson Criscione checks in on Spokane's PRIDE Prep.

• Local novelist (and Spokesman-Review columnist) Shawn Vestal on influences for his new novel. (Bonus: read his new piece in the New Yorker.)

IN OTHER NEWS: 

• A Spokane Community College criminal justice professor's PowerPoint slides used in class reveal sexist attitudes. The professor, Mike Prim, is a former Spokane police lieutenant and the chair of SCC's Criminal Justice program. One of his former students filed a Title IX complaint against him. (Spokesman-Review)

• Country music legend Merle Haggard died at 79. Take a minute and soak up some "Workin' Man Blues." (Or maybe "Mama Tried" is more your jam.)

• WSU football coach Mike Leach and Donald Trump's unique relationship.

• The New York Times digs into the founders of the law firm behind the Panama Papers — one the son of a former Nazi, the other a novelist.

• Two men, one with ties to Spokane, have escaped from Western State Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Pierce County. 

• Obama's fight for his Supreme Court nominee continues as he returns to the University of Chicago, where he used to teach. Obama will use his talk to pressure Senate Republicans into a vote on whether to approve his nominee, Merrick Garland.