“We are not to that level of emergency.”

– Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, explaining in Spokane on Thursday that although she had declared a snow-related emergency for 15 Eastern Washington counties, the purpose it would serve would be to loosen red tape, not to provide extra state funds.

“It wasn’t like there was a need for a policy to affirmatively say you have to follow the law.”

– Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, explaining why the city’s policy and procedures manual has nothing to say about the kind of field strip searches that courts have called illegal and that led to a $1.25 million lawsuit against the city of Spokane.

“I’m surprised we haven’t had more of these seniors say, ‘You know what, I give up.’ “

– Central Valley School District administrator Evan Sorenson, admiring the diligence with which high school students work at passing the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, known as the WASL.

“The first thing is, this is a right-to-work state. You can fire a person for any reason.”

– Idaho state Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, an opponent of legislation proposed in the Legislature to make sexual orientation one of the considerations that could not be used to discriminate against people in activities that include hiring and firing.

“All young people understand the repressive character of our army, so it’s a real threat.”

– Russian youth movement activist Pavel Shaikin after his friend and fellow member of a group called Oborona, was punished for his anti-government protests by being conscripted for military service.

“I’d like to tell him to leave here, but it’s not that easy. You can’t just move your trash to another community.”

– La Conner, Wash., resident Jennifer Smith after finding out that her neighbor is former Catholic priest Patrick O’Donnell, a pedophile and key figure in the child sex-abuse scandal that drove the Spokane Catholic Diocese to bankruptcy.