From our editorial today:

The furor over police videos and a report that surfaced late in the legal process directs the spotlight once again on the Spokane Police Department. And, once again, competing stories will battle for public opinion. Critics say the episode shows that the department cannot be trusted. The department says honest mistakes led to the trial delay for a protester arrested at a July 4 rally in Riverfront Park.

The best-case scenario for the department was uttered by spokeswoman Jennifer DeRuwe, who said the delay resulted from "the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing." The department, she says, takes full responsibility and will investigate how this mishap occurred. A day later, it was revealed that a report citing the existence of the video had not been turned over to the prosecution or the defense.

Sounds like a job for that independent ombudsman the city has been promising to deliver. Unfortunately, formation of the position has been dragged out for months. It is especially frustrating to have to rely on a police inquiry into a situation where possible evidence wasn't turned over in a case involving an anti-police protest.

(AP Photo)

Dreams are, by definition, cursed with short life spans. -- Candice Bergen

Bergen: Born May 9, 1946.

Opinions -- short or long-lived -- welcome here.

I worked more cleaning on back porch. Harl came over and put up the shelf for plants. Emeline had it all cut and ready. He did a nice job -- it's so solid.

E. arranged the plants and colored vases on it. We think it's quite ornamental.

About this photo: This is a photo of Keo's brother-in-law, Charles Cowan, taken in 1908 at his law office, likely in the Radio Central Building in downtown Spokane. Don't you love the typewriter and the secretary's hairstyle?

You know the drill.
Drive safe, even in your own home.
More, as always, tomorrow.

(Keo as a young woman, possibly in the 1890s, long before her journaling days.)

Dressed my hair and put on makeup first thing when I got up. Seemed to give me more pep for the day.

Io called up in afternoon and told us what a good show was on at the Band Box. The picture My Gal Sal was surprisingly good.

(In this AP photo, a baby is held by her mother as they wait for free rice from the government following devastating cyclone Nargis in the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar.)

Some predict that the destruction and death toll in Myanmar will turn out to be much wore than the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed nearly 230,000 people.

But so far, it doesn't feel as if the world is having the same kind of response. Part of it is Myanmar's leaders who are shunning U.N. efforts, but wondering if a world weary of war and increased natural disasters can't gear up as easily as it did in 2004 (when the Iraq War, by the way, was just in its infancy.)

Your theories?

From the Associated Press:

The situation in Myanmar is worse in some ways because more people suffered severe injuries from strong winds, high tides and flooding. And he noted that after the tsunami, food and water could be obtained from inland areas that were not hit by the killer waves.

Tens of thousands of people die every year in Myanmar, also known as Burma, from tuberculosis, AIDS and diarrhea. Malaria alone kills about 3,000 people annually in the country.

In 2000, WHO ranked Myanmar's health system as the world's worst after war-ravaged Sierra Leone. There are hospitals, but most people cannot afford treatment because about 90 percent of the population lives on just $1 a day.

(S-R file photo of a county Crime Check/911 operator taken before Crime Check was downsized in 2002.)

Our editorial today endorsed Proposition 1, a 0.1 percent sales tax that would update the county's emergency communications equipment and restore Crime Check.

With today's soon-to-be obsolete equipment, local firefighters, police and sheriff's deputies often have trouble talking to one another when they're working the same emergency. The resulting risk to them as well as the public is not conscionable.

Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission will not allow local governments to continue using their analog equipment after 2013. Everybody in the country is required to go to a 700-megahertz, narrow-band grid. You don't need to speak the lingo to understand that conversion is not negotiable.

Proposition 1 would give the county funding to make the change, upgrade equipment, restore Crime Check and establish a reverse 911 feature with which authorities could alert residents to neighborhood emergencies. And with respect to other funding sources, the county already has a federal interoperability grant that must be used by 2010. Out of $19.1 million the state had to distribute, $2.3 million came to Spokane County, based on the quality of its plans. In Proposition 1, Spokane County commissioners have offered voters an emergency communications system that's modern, effective and affordable. For 10 cents on a $100 purchase, it's a heck of a buy.

Did you ever use Crime Check?

(AP Photo)

Jealousy is the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius.
-- Bishop Fulton Sheen

Sheen: Born May 8, 1895.

Anyone out there remember his TV show?
Share your genius or jealousies this morning.
Blog lines officially open.

Thanks for the driving tips from yesterday...More welcome.

Enjoy the evening.

Emeline has a couple of men on the string to rent out the storeroom -- a Mr. Holly and Mr. Beagle.

I started to clean back porch, took down all the old papers at windows and replaced with clean ones. My muscles are cramping tonight from the twisting around. Have taken an aspirin.

Love this entry because it captures so much in so few words. There was already the beginning of the housing shortage as World War II was ending. It would really escalate as fighting men returned home.
And notice the formality. The renters (of a storeroom!) are Mr. Holly and Mr. Beagle.
And aspirin, the cure for everything. Now, it's Advil for tired muscles....

(UPDATE: The post below was done on March 4 ... right around Super Tuesday. Since then, there's been Wrightgate, Bittergate and several more races ... and Obama has expanded his lead. More delegates. More money. More popular votes. More states. To reiterate: It's over for Hillary Clinton. Or, is this prediction still premature?)

No, I don't have any insight into today's voting. I just know that if she wins the next 16 races in a row, she'd probably still trail.

Check out this analysis that uses an online delegate counter. It gives her some big upsets in states like Vermont, Mississippi, North Carolina and Oregon. And large margins of victories in Pennsylvania and other states. Yet, she would still be behind by 58 delegates.

Huckabee believes in miracles. Clinton better, too.

(Photo by Christoper Anderson/The Spokesman-Review.)

We debuted our Civic Elder feature today. It will run the first Wednesday of the month for a year and possibly beyond.

Our editorial explained why we're doing it.

The elders among us offer wisdom and calm in crisis times. They understand how budgets, programs and personalities cycle through municipalities. They have demonstrated the value of stepping into leadership roles when asked or called to it. And they all somehow managed to balance family, work and civic life.

And one of my favorite lines from the interview with David Rodgers, who served as Spokane's mayor from 1967 to 1978:

Could an Expo happen today? It would be pretty tough. That was back in the days when U.S. Sen. Warren G. Magnuson, "Maggie," knew his way around federal government. He had an entrée to the White House. Nixon was president. We didn't have the open meeting law. If a bunch of councilmen wanted to have lunch together, they could. You developed an understanding of where we were going. It was better the old way – as long as you were dealing with honorable people.

Listen here for how quickly the business community and City Council acted after voters turned down an Expo '74 bond issue.

Do you know any civic elders still around? We're always open to suggestions.

Frank, Dan and a few other regular commenters have a good police discussion going on Loose Thread Monday (the one with the JFK photos).

Check it out. And thanks, guys, for keeping it fairly civil.

The grand Perhaps!
We look on helplessly.
There the old misgivings, crooked questions are.
-- Robert Browning

Poet Robert Browning: Born May 7, 1812.

Any grand Perhapses out there this muggy morning? Or crooked questions? Or old misgivings? Blog lines officially open.

Do you have any "secret" ways to drive to avoid the insanity on Ash/Maple and farther up North or to get through construction anywhere?

Tips appreciated.

Here's mine: Take Post Street to get North-South and vice versa. Not many motorists think of it.

Had to put them on again.

That's the single-line entry for today's date. By "them" Keo meant her winter stockings. The weather in May was just as hot-cold as our current May weather.

About today's photo: This is a picture of Iowa, Keo's sister, date unknown. Can anyone guess from the fashions she's wearing? I know it was taken in the Duncan Gardens at Manito Park. When I was growing up here, pre-Expo '74, we always took visitors to Duncan Gardens first thing. (Now a lot of people probably go to Riverfront Park first, the other parks later.)

Where's one of the first places in Spokane you show out of town visitors?

*What are the Keo Chronicles? Read rest of entry.

Rush Limbaugh is urging Republicans in Indiana to cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton, with the idea being that a voter for her prolongs the race and damages the eventual Democratic nominee.

Would you vote strategically if given the chance? Did you ever do that when Washington state had an open primary?

(Photo by Jim Sulley/Medialink Wirepix)

Police video emerges at last second. Trial delayed.

Spokane County District Judge Annette Plese ordered the two attorneys to submit briefs by this afternoon and show up for a hearing Wednesday on whether the case should be dismissed and sanctions levied. She called the emergence of the videos “disheartening to the court system,” noting she had a jury pool of 30 people waiting and a week on her court calendar blocked out for the trial.

Explanation for Maytag comment here.

Our editorial today examined how domestic violence legislation has changed over the years to make it easier for law enforcement -- not the family members involved in a fight in the home -- to determine whether a crime has happened.

In bygone days, when arguments turned violent, even next-door neighbors ignored the obvious. If the people involved said, "This is a family matter," most often it was left at that. Not anymore.

Anyone remember those bygone days? Perhaps couples next door whose loud fights were ignored? Ever wonder what happened to the kids in those households? Blog lines are open.

(AP archives)

I don't pray because I don't want to bore God. -- Orson Welles

Welles: Born May 6, 1915.

No gods here, and we welcome, and write, all varieties of opinions, boring and not.

If it starts raining fish out there, let us know.
Stranger things have happened. Raining frogs is not a myth, see here.

Be safe in traffic tonight, come fish or frogs or Spokane drivers.

Red Cross work at the Y. Show at the Fox -- I'll Be Seeing You -- with Ginger Rogers, Shirley Temple and (Joseph) Cotten.
Then to our book club. Mrs. Puckett gave a chat on late books. Franny Crosby brought us home in her car.
Today I'm dead on my feet. No wonder. It's warm. Left off my winter stockings.

*What are the Keo Chronicles? Read the rest of the entry.

Has anyone else noticed that downtown Spokane has a fishy smell today? I was in a meeting on the fifth floor of our building when I first smelled it. I thought someone might be microwaving leftover fish somewhere down the hall.

Then I drove to the Arena for the skating announcement, stepped out of the car and the smell was overwhelming. Could it be something from the Waste-to-Energy plant? I have toured several landfills in my 30 years as a journalist (I love to write about garbage systems) and the smell reminded me of a landfill smell.

Conspiracy theories -- and any other kind -- welcome.

Ret. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez has a book coming out that details his time in Iraq. Time magazine has an excerpt showing then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at his political worst.

But Sanchez wasn't buying Rumsfeld's efforts to paint himself as a victim of bad communications:

"Mr. Secretary, when V Corps ramped up for the war, our entire focus was at the tactical level. The staff had neither the experience nor training to operate at the strategic level, much less as a joint/combined headquarters. All of CFLCC's generals, whom we called the Dream Team, left the country in a mass exodus. The transfer of authority was totally inadequate, because CENTCOM's focus was only on departing the theater and handing off the mission. There was no focus on postconflict operations. None! In their minds, the war was over and they were leaving. Everybody was executing these orders, and the services knew all about it."

Starting to get a little worked up, I paused a moment, and then looked Rumsfeld straight in the eye. "Sir, I cannot believe that you didn't know I was being left in charge in Iraq."

(AP photo)

1. Do you believe Sanchez?

2. Do you think it's OK for him to discuss this while we're still at war?

... shoot a sea lion.

OK, that's not official policy, but somebody shot six of the sea lions that congregate at Bonneville Dam to gorge on salmon.

What should be done with the sea lions who swim up the Columbia to the man-made trap?

(AP photo at Bonneville Dam)