Shawn Vestal

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News >  WA Government

Shawn Vestal: A half-century after the people demanded transparency, ‘secrecy creep’ flourishes

Sun., March 17, 2024

In 1972, citizens mounted an initiative to crack open the secrecy surrounding the people’s business.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: So long, and thanks for reading

Fri., March 15, 2024

I wrote my first newspaper column when I was 14 years old.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Spokane County tweaking release program as final stage in MacArthur funding approaches

Sun., March 10, 2024

Last January, Spokane County launched a pilot program that attempted to connect some nonviolent criminal defendants with services addressing problems such as poverty, drug addiction and mental illness.

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Opinion >  Column

Camp Hope is gone, but Julie Garcia keeps going

UPDATED: Sun., Feb. 4, 2024

When Julie Garcia was 39 years old, she had her second heart attack.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Yes, Elon, the Patriot Front was unmasked in Coeur d’Alene

Tue., Jan. 23, 2024

The man hailed as the savior of free speech, who pledged to create the “most accurate source of information in the world,” has stepped in it again – a big, soft pile of very free, very dumb, very wrong speech.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: A little bad luck, and a flood of good

Thu., Jan. 18, 2024

It was one day of waterless misery, two minutes of fleeting joy and an hour of soggy panic, followed by an exhilarating rescue by the heroes of the city water department and our plumber.

News >  WA Government

Washington’s right-to-counsel law alters the eviction process

Sun., Jan. 7, 2024

It’s a Tuesday morning, and the eviction docket is full in Judge Michelle Szambelan’s courtroom.

News >  Local business

Shawn Vestal: As Washington’s pandemic protections ended, evictions soared

Sun., Jan. 7, 2024

When Katie Vozzy went into the hospital in July, she expected she’d be off work for a couple of weeks.

News

Shawn Vestal: Before becoming a boy in the boat, rower grew up hard in Spokane and North Idaho

UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 22, 2023

There is a fascinating Inland Northwest origin story that didn’t make it into George Clooney’s new film.

News >  Higher education

Shawn Vestal: As EWU reviews programs, calls to revisit athletics spending rise again

Sun., Dec. 10, 2023

More than three years after a faculty report urged Eastern Washington University to rethink its spending on athletics – and particularly football – at a time of widespread budget cuts in academics, a new universitywide program review is making a similar recommendation.

News >  Family

Shawn Vestal: A Peaceful Valley man is transforming himself into Black Santa after suffering a devastating loss this year – ‘We’ve got a little extra love to give’

UPDATED: Sat., Dec. 2, 2023

Jerry Lancaster has been preparing diligently for his starring role.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Seeking out wonder – and the ‘small self’ – helps us see the world anew

Thu., Nov. 23, 2023

It was Thanksgiving break. Moscow, Idaho. Sometime in the dimly remembered – at least by me – middle of the 1980s.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Winning candidate sees a turning tide in CdA elecions

Sun., Nov. 12, 2023

In the wake of Spokane’s elections, there was an important development across the border you may have overlooked.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The big money fell short, up and down the ballot

Wed., Nov. 8, 2023

So we’ve got a good idea how the candidates and issues fared.

News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: Spokane City Council quietly repealed requirement to wear bicycle helmets

UPDATED: Mon., Nov. 6, 2023

When the Spokane City Council adopted a law in 2004 requiring people to wear helmets while riding a bike on city streets, it came after a robust public debate.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Immigrant’s journey at heart of film to be featured at Latinos en Spokane’s first official fundraiser

UPDATED: Thu., Oct. 19, 2023

News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: Nonprofit criticizes City of Spokane for lack of progress on moving downtown shelter

Sun., Oct. 15, 2023

In April of 2022, Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward announced during her state-of-the-city address that the House of Charity homeless shelter would be moving out of downtown – and that Catholic Charities would reopen a larger, better facility elsewhere in the city.

News >  Health

Shawn Vestal: Reclaim Project helps steer men away from the ‘lion’s den’ of addiction

Sun., Oct. 8, 2023

It’s a sunny autumn afternoon, and Lucas Torresdal is using a small chainsaw to trim away limbs and trunks from invasive elms clustered around a power pole in a vacant lot in the Spokane Valley.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The story of sheriff and the pilfered books needs a new ending

Wed., Oct. 4, 2023

It’s called stealing, sheriff.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Arguments around anti-camping initiative sail into sea of legal uncertainty

UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 18, 2023

The anti-camping initiative on the November ballot for Spokane voters has been pitched as narrowly focused on protecting children – outlawing camping anywhere within a 1,000-foot radius of a school, day care center, park or playground.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: A former U.S. attorney’s journey of 1,000 miles, one step at a time

Sun., Sept. 17, 2023

Joseph Harrington retired from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Spokane and has undertaken the famed Via Francigena pilgrimage, hiking from England to Rome. He's learning a little something along the way, too.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The consensus on warming and human activity is ‘unequivocal’

Wed., Sept. 13, 2023

If you’re a regular reader of this page, then you’ll understand that a review of the actual, undistorted climate science, and the role of human beings in warming the planet, is in order.

A&E >  Music

Shawn Vestal: Exuberant Yo-Yo Ma spreads joy to symphony, students in Spokane

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 6, 2023

Fifteen-year-old cellist Owen Peterman put on a white shirt and black tie and showed up looking sharp at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox on Wednesday afternoon eager to “see just how amazing a musician can be.”

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: In the year before girl’s death, a series of calls from neighbors and school officials

Sun., Sept. 3, 2023

The last time Daniel Herrera saw Meela Miller – the girl he had helped to raise like a daughter – was July 2022.

Opinion

Shawn Vestal: Shea’s blessing a political curse for the mayor who joined him onstage

Tue., Aug. 22, 2023

Just how politically radioactive is Matt Shea these days?