This is the new campaign for North Idaho coffeeshops, because for every hot cup of coffee there's a warm crisp Spokesman-Review waiting to be read.

KUDOS AND UPDATES: Nixing direct United flights to Chicago | Then & Now with Ed Randall, one-time Indians voice | More Duncan news from Boise

VOTER MANIA: Today's the last day to put in your two cents for this round. Ballots must be postmarked by today. And in this newsroom, election night happens to mean pizza night for the folks who work late.

ON THE RECORD: Today on the 11 a.m. radio show with Rebecca Mack, the peeps from Avista are guesting on the air. Dial in AM 790 KJRB on your radio to hang with them, and/or call 232-0790 with questions about the rate hikes.

HOW MANY DAYS TIL 2010? Skating promoters unveil event designs

And here, a blast from the past with the 1994 Canadian pro artistic program by Scott Hamilton, the only skater one can watch without being afraid of having to witness brain damage injury or a completely crotched landing??? Featuring the famous Scotty back flip. He was 36 years old. Eat your heart out, Rudy Galindo.

Reporter Meghann M. Cuniff is back from Boise, after taking the grim Joseph Edward Duncan III case to Twitter. (more archive coverage here) Two questions today - Where would S-R use a microblogging format again, and how do you make money from it? For one, folks recommend developing a similar technology in-house, to keep the viewer traffic in a Spokesman-Review venue instead of diverting it to a third-party site. The plan is to use similar microblogging format for other cases in the pipeline.

» Access details: Cuniff shipped out to Boise and sat in a separate media room with the audio piped in. Updated for clarity. Journalists had the freedom to walk over to a window to the courtroom they needed to see something, e.g. when prosecution brought in the video of Duncan with the children. One of Cuniff's original concerns was that it would be difficult to figure out who was speaking when, with only the audio piped in. But because there were so few people talking during the proceedings, it was easy to keep them straight.

» The feed was valuable: Many readers were eager to read the feed, and some staffers described themselves as being glued to their screens for updates. Cuniff approached the case as a play-by-play and blogged as much as she could. Because Twitter allows no edits, Cuniff made corrections by deleting a post and quickly reposting a corrected version. There was some reader pushback on Huckleberries, readers saying that this is too much information and that they are finished with reading up on this case, to which the general newsroom response is that people can choose not to read it - different from having a Twitter feed dropped on your front porch in the morning.

» It hurts everybody. What happened in summer of 2005 to the Groene family became much more than a news story through these proceedings, Cuniff said. The more small details were revealed, Duncan's planning process, technical details about hard drives, sequence of events... the more the case felt more tangible and it made sense exactly HOW one man was able to create that much carnage. "That happened in pretty much everyone's backyard," Cuniff said, and that no amount of justice could ever be enough.

Impossible not to be shaken: Boise reporter Betsy Z. Russell posted a reflection on covering the Duncan sentencing proceedings and how it changes her personal and home life, including waking up to strange noises in the middle of the night. Also, the video that shows the torture and death of 9-year-old Dylan Groene has not been shown in the courtroom yet.

On Friday night, after three days of intense immersion in the blood-drenched reality of the Joseph Duncan case, I came home from the courthouse only to find blood smeared all over my bathroom floor. I couldn’t help it; I screamed. Read the rest of Betsy's post.

Reporter Meghann M. Cuniff, who went down to Boise to cover the sentencing proceedings by Twitter, will be talking about it at iSalon today at 2 p.m. Editor Steve Smith and other editors are pleased with how the experiment worked out. But because of cost, Cuniff will not be Twittering for the middle of the proceedings - just the closing.

Cheryl-Anne Millsap

The Home Planet column will be discontinued, due to lack of budget. The last one will be published next Monday, August 25.

Thin slices from weekend

• Filling the fluoride gap: It's a hot topic on the On The Air radio blog.
• Community turns out for unity with slideshow of photos
• The Slice: Tar Heels' visit may include WCC dissing: Where Paul Turner imagines what visitors from each of 50 states would say about Spokane
• Bagpipers gather to bid farewell: Music teacher heads for duty in Iraq
• Police get guidance on hand-free use of cell phones

"We've come to the end of our one-week experiment [in using Twitter]. We will return as developments warrant and for closing arguments and the verdict." (editor Steve Smith)

In other newsroom news

The second session of journalism camp has wrapped up. This graduating class has also put together a special section - their topic is a combination of back to school and going green. Read it inside the Today section on Monday, Aug 25. For updates on J-camp, check out the Vox Box and scroll down.

Longtime pen pals finally meet: They'd been writing each other for more than six decades. Here's a quick video of their reunion, produced by Andrew Zahler:

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HYPERCOVERAGE: We're a few days into the hypercoverage of the Duncan coverage-by-Twitter, plus some of the most TMI (too-much-information) evidence in a long time. Editors gave kudos to today's package, noting that a handful of other newspapers gave it some attention on their front pages or inside their sections. (This week there was also a discussion on Huckleberries recently about whether this is too much to stomach) Today's story is here, In letter to mom, Duncan says he's again become 'medium of violence', and it includes a slideshow of photos of the evidence. (Edited to add at 4:01 p.m. on Aug 15: Editor Steve Smith says "We've come to the end of our one-week experiment Tweeting. We will return as developments warrant and for closing arguments and the verdict.")

DON'T MISS THIS: Inside the B section is a story by S-R movie/book afficionado Dan Webster about Salman Rushdie sending email in support of a local author, after the publisher pulled that author's book for fear of religious and cultural backlash. The story is here.

OUT OF WATER: Comments this morning about U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps - "They should make him swim with all his gold medals ON, just to give everybody a chance," said deputy city editor Scott Maben. Sports editor Joe Palmquist said Phelps is double jointed with a ginormous wingspan, with hands like frying pans and a tiny butt, "He's like a fish. He IS a fish." And because he can be so utterly horizontal, he fit above The Spokesman-Review logo on the front page.

IN THIS WEEK'S 7: The Star Wars empire in a nutshell. S-R film nerd Dan Webster takes on today's big movie opening - "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," director Dave Filoni's animated variation on the "Star Wars" universe that Lucas invented in the mid-1970s.
Things to do this weekend
See: Tropic Thunder | More movies
Hear: Fleet Foxes which the frontman called "baroque harmonic pop" | Rhonda Vincent
Events: Unity in the Community is this weekend by the way | Search the 7 calendar for other events

said editor Steve Smith at the meeting this morning.

He said the goal with Twittering the Duncan trial was to learn how to use the service for news needs, but with the expense of sending reporter Meghann M. Cuniff to Boise and getting fewer than 100 twits/followers, Twittering everything wouldn't be worth it.

Smith also put Twitter on his phone but had to disable the alerts function because his phone seemed to vibrate or beep constantly with every tweet. Here's the Twitter page, and here's the live blog. (Edited to add at 4:01 p.m. on Aug 15: Smith says "We've come to the end of our one-week experiment Tweeting. We will return as developments warrant and for closing arguments and the verdict.")

Thin slices

• Mead family joins protest of 'Tropic Thunder'
• Hayden Lake remembers chief who 'understood service', comes with audio slideshow.
• Good intentions 'get out of hand': Cat advocate's case shows perils of caring too much
• Doug Clark: Carrying the torch for these Olympics
• Veterans get green with environment-related jobs
• Dog park has home: Section of High Bridge Park will be site for canines to roam

10 easiest jobs at 2008 Olympics

Including the Bela Karolyi moustache trimmer.

For the Duncan sentencing.

"I created a Facebook account yesterday and I don't know what to do with it," said managing editor Gary Graham, who also signed up for Twitter to follow the Duncan case. Many newsroommates have also signed up for accounts during this coverage experiment where reporter Meghann M. Cuniff is sending mini blog posts to the SpokesmanReview's Twitter page. Instructions are below.

As for the case itself, deputy city editor Dave Wasson had this to say: Nobody doubts the significance of having limited public access (the courtroom be closed should Shasta Groene testify, no public access to Duncan's mental eval), but he noted that there will still be people who second-guess the final decision on Duncan's sentencing if it's based on top secret information, and that this case defies the philosophy of having a transparent justice system.

There's a new courtroom blog where where Betsy Z. Russell and Meghann M. Cuniff are posting large up-to-date chunks. All the previous coverage of the Joseph Duncan case is here.

Koi

When you swim with carp, you're swimming with every carp that it swam with before, said reporter Kevin Graman. Koi herpes has been killing the Japanese garden pond fish. Read the story here - apparently it came from pet fish released into the pond.

RE: Toadman's question, here's the link to Twitter updates: Real-time posts from the trial.

Folks don't need a Twitter account to read the microblog. But to get tweets sent to your phone/internet/instant messenger, an account is required.

• Sign up for Twitter, sign in
• Go to Settings at the top menu
• Go to the tab that says Devices
• Add your mobile phone number according to the directions
• Check the consent box
• Go to Twitter.com/SpokesmanReview and click the big charcoal grey FOLLOW button.
• Click FOLLOWING, again, to expand to a big yellow option field
• for "Device Updates," say On.

Seriously. Reporter Meghann M. Cuniff is heading to Boise to expand our coverage of the Joseph Duncan case to a totally different platform – followers of the Twitter service, which includes mobile users.

Users...called twits...send little updates...called tweets... to people who subscribe to those users' updates and posts.

Which means Cuniff sends out micro-messages to users who subscribe to notifications through email, instant messenger, or with text messages on their mobile phone. Tweets are up to 140 characters long.

Here's their Wikipedia page and here's an FAQ page. And here's a video that explains Twitter in plain English.

We'll provide more information soon, about how to follow the Duncan case using this service.

Today's report from court: Single Duncan juror has power to block death penalty: The newsroom is expecting more in-depth coverage coming in from the Boise bureau, as opening statements in the Joseph Duncan case are scheduled to start Wednesday. Stay tuned, check in with hourly newscast or turn it up for Rebecca Mack.

Condo parties

Also a poke in the face, Doug Clark's column in which he checks in with one of the "Live it Up!" condo building owners – one who had lots of visitor traffic to his slick pad during the condo craze. "Seems like I'm the only one who didn't show up there for a party," said photo editor Larry Reisnouer. Photo courtesy of Deke Cloyd.

Roberts recalled a group of roller derby girls who were engaged in a bachelorette party...Another time he opened his door to some passing unicyclists. Bartenders would show up after hours. A Canadian band playing at the Knitting Factory paid a visit after their show. Ditto a family of Christian evangelists. Read more...

Free stuff

And it's right here in town. Here's the story: Libraries find patronage up amid penny-pinching.

Fresh video

If you like Paul McCartney, you'll like our local man Pat McHenry, more recently seen in this year's Acoustic Explosion, and less recently seen wearing an Intel robot hood at the big Dance-A-Que. But here, he performs with the lovely miss Caroline Francis at Woofstock 2008.

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Here's the real Beatles version

Another crop of Journalism Camp participants are in the house - There are 15 students this time around. Vox director Erin Daniels is hosting. More soon...

FROM COURT: Here's the latest in Duncan trial news as jury selection continues.

AN ERROR: Hayden Lake's finest succumbs to ALS: In this story near the very end, the word "bawled" was misspelled as "balled." The bizarre thing is how many people have read right over it - a reporter, at least one editor on the city desk, and at least two from copy desk. One staffer asked this morning what makes this typo more serious than other typos. Because of the nature of the story – It's an obituary. The typo appears in a direct quote. There have been several complaints by phone. The error has been corrected online and there will be a correction in the print edition.

SELECTIONS FROM WEEKEND: Spokane Public Schools budget tops $300 million | Skyfest recap | Photos from Kids Day | Photos from the Shock game
A day a Skyfest 2008 | The Air Force's newest fighter

For the final goal of the Online department's penny collection, it was between an ant farm or a coat rack. The ants arrived Friday. The party is going down in the office of director Ryan Pitts. There is also an in-house webcam. The ants burrow through the space-age blue gel - they also eat it. They bury their dead.

Follow the link at right for the audio slideshow from this morning's meeting – F-22 Raptors at the Skyfest preview.

Although the F-22 Raptor, the newest Air Force fighter aircraft has been around for a few years, the 2008 Skyfest is the first time Spokane area residents will get to see it fly. Major Paul Moga, a Raptor pilot, talks about what the Raptor means to the Air Force. He will fly the 12-minute demonstration flight at Skyfest. Produced by Jesse Tinsley

Ella's Supper Club closing

Last call for Ella's? In this week's cover story, 7 writer Isamu (Som) Jordan investigates. Video produced by Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen

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Duncan takes over jury questioning: Such drama so far, and with more details developing, editors said there will probably be even more drama. Some editors wondered when the case would get national attention because of how strange it is, but then again, Duncan is "just a psychopath who spent most of his adult life in prison" – not Michael Jackson.

Editors really liked the bright colors here:

Workers from Belfor Property Reconstruction pull insulation and sheetrock out of the lofts in the upper floors of the Joel building Wednesday August 6, 2008. Christopher Anderson photo, The Spokesman-Review. Read the story: During Joel cleanup, businesses moving on

A few slices from the Voices

• City officials move to save farmland: Council seeks acreages in Latah Valley
• Residents ponder what's next: Myers' Mobile Home Park closing after dispute with city
• Owner breathes life back into pet llama: mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a tall long-necked furry creature that is choking.

Coming up

An update on a cat hoarder, update on a powwow, and Doug Clark and Mayor Mary Verner will be on the air today with Rebecca Mack, during the 11 a.m. to Noon hour – AM 790 KJRB.

A handful of people have called in to lobby for The Spokesman-Review to remove their names from the diploma fakes list. One man called to say everybody in his town thinks he's a fraud - He argues that his name should be off the list because he bought a diploma not for himself, but as a birthday present for his wife. No name removals, city editor Addy Hatch and editor Steve Smith said - The list comes from the government and S-R just happens to be one of many parties with a copy.

Kudos

Maggie Smith, 8, and her sister Mary get a shower after their dog Holly takes a dip at A.M. Cannon pool Tuesday evening. The pool was celebrating its last night of swimming by allowing pet owners to bring their pooches for a swim. Rajah Bose photo, The Spokesman-Review

Coming up

Doug Clark will be writing about his experiences during Night Out Against Crime, where his original idea was to hang with the mayor and the police chief, but unexpected things happened... ("At least they didn't Taser him," Smith said, "That's always my fear.") More details in Thursday's Doug column.

Videos

Produced by Colin Mulvany

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Produced by Nick Eaton

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The Spokesman-Review is on the air with Day 2 of the new talk show, On The Record with Rebecca Mack at 790 KJRB from 11 a.m. to Noon. The show does not stream but the whole thing will be archived online all day until the next broadcast. Editor Steve Smith will be on the air shortly to talk about whether the newspaper industry is dying - he's sitting outside the studio right now and the "On Air" light is up. For those of you who remember Mack, she worked with Mark Fuhrman on his morning show.

Added at 11:22:
The first caller ever - John - calls in to ask wouldn't it make sense if the Spokesman-Review had a separate, bigger section for public input, "by the way, I'm campaigning for state senate--"

Added at 11:26
At which point they cut to Smith to answer the original question, including a little background information on how letters to the editor are selected. e.g. one letter per person per 30 days, 200 words limit, no bold endorsements or thank yous, issues of substance, no libel and slander, no insults...

"That doesn't leave much," said Mack.

Kudos

• For Blue Angels, a time warp: NAS Spokane veterans recall dazzling '50s shows
• Candidates focus on quick relief from high gas prices
• Legislature candidate could cause stir: C.J. Rose, who is openly gay, challenging Harwood
• Damaged cell phone? Spokane shop's business picks up during lake season
• Then & Now: Zach Gourde
• Doug Clark: Potty products purveyor giving casino royal flush
• 5 things you should know about sunscreens

A refresher: Nine newsroommates were given the task of restocking a newspaper's content. In a nutshell, the question was if you could make a newspaper from scratch, what would be inside it? The resulting proposal went in favor of content that is local, relevant and socially-rewarding. The report came out a couple weeks ago but the addendum was finalized by this past Friday. Here's the final report in question, from the most recent task force (PDF, 12 pages excluding title).

The addendum, which is a proposed beat list or "head count," can be downloaded here (PDF)

FYI for transparency purposes, Daily Briefing was on the draft team.

Kudos

MULTIMEDIA: For yesterday's "New call to arms" story about the National Guard training in Yakima, reporter Jim Camden and photog Rajah Bose drove out to the training grounds for a double feature, for print edition and audio slideshow.

FROM COURT: Also interesting, editors said, the latest Boise report (Betsy Z. Russell) on Joseph Duncan acting as own attorney.

LIVE TODAY: Rebecca Mack is on the air right now! AM 790 KJRB. Photo below is Mack interviewing reporter Jim Camden. For future reference, you can call in during the show and share your thoughts: (509) 232-0790.

In other newsroom news

The new phone system went live this weekend. Which means if readers try to phone in for whatever reason, and something weird happens on the line and we lose them, our apologies.

"[The phones]'re working - we just don't know how to use them," deputy city editor Dave Wasson said.

Recently, The Spokesman-Review began installing a new telephone system. Slick black telephones each with a total of 33 regular buttons, two pairs of scroll buttons and a color welcome screen.

Each phone loads six lines and has four ringtones. Users will be able to transfer, "park" and conference-call, and make calls or check voicemail using matching computer software. And then inevitably, someone in the building will call the Help desk when they accidentally change their menu language to German.

"Nobody ever call me – ever," said S-R morning radio man Dick Haugen. "Send an owl."

The new ringtones will make the newsroom sound like a spaceship:

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In addition to collecting a round of kudos from the regular meeting-goers, editors asked around among the high school journalism camp participants - Anybody pick up and read the paper this morning?

One student said she'd read the story about teacher sex abuse allegations

Another read the story about the fat cat.

The "By the Numbers" breakout item on page 1 of the Northwest section got some attention too.

And at right, another classic Plonkavision shot featuring partial people.

“It’s perfect weather for cheerleading”, says Bellrose High School cheerleading manager Karen May-Healey of Alberta Canada, July 31, 2008, as her squad and a handful of local and regional teams descended at Gonzaga University for 3 days of instruction and fun. Brian Plonka photo, The Spokesman-Review

Shazam!

Also today's big blowout package is Spokane7's Acoustic Explosion, our biggest ever, with video interviews with and exclusive performances by each featured musician.

This leads into the big acoustic event, taking place at Empyrean Coffee House on Saturday and Sunday evening.

For the schedule and more, check out the story and multimedia at spokane7.com/explosion.

Making paper flowers

Produced by Andrew Zahler, this video accompanies this week's edition of the Homemaker column

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• Housing loans bite regional banks: Statements, stocks suffer as builders, developers default
• Pilots from around the world train in ... Davenport? Contains photo slideshow.
• Paisano strikes chord: Indians outfielder rediscovers touch
• Divorced candidate promotes family values: Court records include claims of abuse from ex-wife of 4th District's Matt Shea
• Learning language of gardening: Spanish class at Villa Vista blends lessons with farming
• Happy in his work: Darrell Jones, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, has been baking at Donut Parade for 35 years

Dog + goggles

Custom trailer lets dogs come along for the ride

Cosmo, a 5-year-old poodle, gets his Doggles fitted to his face before taking a ride with owner Chris Nielson on July 18. Dan Pelle photo. The Spokesman-Review. Read the story

And coming up

In this week's 7 coming Friday, an Acoustic Explosion online multimedia package - because this year we're launching video clips of interviews and performances with these seven singer/songwriters. Stay tuned.

Spokesman-Review head honcho Stacey Cowles held the first of a series of publisher's meetings this morning.

Of new developments, there's not a whole lot that can be shared publicly (business strategy and new projects and such). But here are few general points:

• We are a news-media company, he said, as result of a switch from thinking of the S-R as strictly news-paper. The overarching theme in this meeting was for multiplatform and niche marketing - bringing people or advertisers the information or audiences they need, to whatever device or access point by which they approach The Spokesman-Review, extending reach and diversifying investment.

• Revenue is still falling like the rest of the industry, but the number of readers/viewers actually consuming the information remains very strong, Mr. Cowles said. Readership surveys indicate an increase over the past few years, in people consuming S-R content. The question is how to monetize those viewers/readers on different platforms, or how to sell those audiences to advertisers.

• New radio show with Rebecca Mack starts next week - 11:00 a.m. to Noon every weekday - The show is called "On The Record." More information available from the Radio blog.

• The new redesigned Web site will launch, to the public, right after Labor Day weekend. The site will allow user accounts, browsing by tags, drilling down by subject, a smarter search function, more emphasis on multimedia, and commenting on stories and other items - among other features.

Due to content evaluation

but word is the editors watched the audio slideshow from Sunday. The story is here: Early July freeze tempers wheat farmers' optimism

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