“If you are holding children hostage in a drug environment, we are coming after you.”

— Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk, announcing the continuation of a federal Drug Endangered Children grant that will help his agency and the Spokane Police Department go after parents and guardians whose drug involvement endangers their kids.

“My God, let’s fix a piece of road that we’ve been talking about for years and stop killing people.”

— Idaho state Sen. Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, telling fellow senators what he thinks they would hear from the 29 people who died last year on U.S. Highway 95 if they could testify about an ambitious highway-upgrade plan.

“We have spent more than $20,000, and we’re not against development.”

— Five Mile area resident Mirna Tohmeh, one of a group of neighbors who have gone to court in their dispute over the city of Spokane’s approval of a housing project near their homes.

“Players that are guilty of taking steroids are not only cheaters, you are cowards. You’re afraid to step on the field to compete for your positions and play the game without the aid of substances that are a felony to possess without a legitimate prescription, substances that have been banned from competition at all levels of athletics. You are cowards when it comes to facing your fans and our children.”

— Donald Hooton, whose son Taylor, a standout high school pitcher, committed suicide after steroid abuse, testifying at a congressional hearing on steroid abuse in Major League Baseball.

“I think this thing has more smoke and mirrors than a funhouse at the fair.”

— Washington State Medical Association CEO Tom Curry, commenting on a Democratic legislative proposal to deal with medical malpractice problems without imposing a ceiling on damages that plaintiffs could recover for non-economic damages.

“They’re not a $5 tin-can-eating animal anymore.”

— Dairy farmer Pat Hendrickson of Napavine, Wash., testifying in Olympia in favor of a bill that would make it a felony to steal goats, some of which are worth thousands of dollars.

“Whoever did this needs help, obviously.”

— Bill Ould, a church adviser at Opportunity Baptist Church, one of five Spokane Valley locations struck by a series of suspicious fires last weekend.

“I’m so used to being poor that I don’t know what to do with this much money.”

— Leonetta Garcia, a dietary department worker at the Washington state veterans home in Retsil, after recovering the $3.645 million winning lottery ticket she had inadvertently thrown in a store’s trash.