LEMONS to the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena for confiscating Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich’s gun at a charity event. He was wearing a black suit with a badge on the lapel. Keeping guns out of the arena is a fine idea, but you don’t disarm the sheriff. The lack of common sense is astounding. In any event, at least they’ve revised their policy going forward.

LILACS to Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman for introducing a bill that would move the Washington presidential primary forward to the second Tuesday in March. Washington is one of the last states to hold its primary, which was May 24 this last election cycle, and often the presumptive nominee is a foregone conclusion by that date, giving our state little say in the election. It’s bad enough that states on the West Coast often know the results of the election before our polls close, but our state gets overlooked because we can’t give the candidates an early win.

LEMONS to the city of Spokane for killing the parking meter payment by phone app. Some of us had just gotten the hang of it, and now have to suddenly scramble for change again. The company the city contracted with hasn’t paid $80,000 in fees, so now they are looking at a different vendor. Why not wait a few weeks and then switch to the new program immediately rather than confusing everyone by letting it go dormant? And maybe a little due diligence on ability to pay next time?

LILACS to Idaho Rep. Lance Clow for intruding a bill in Idaho that would allow cars to exceed the speed limit while passing. It’s always been annoying to have to S-L-O-W-L-Y pass cars, rather than safely and efficiently zooming past. Under the bill, a driver could go up to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit while passing, without fear of getting a ticket. The only downside is that it wouldn’t apply on freeways, which is exactly where it SHOULD apply.

LEMONS to state Rep. Matt Shea for proposing that the east side of Washington state should recede from the rest of Washington and form a new state of Liberty. That would make us one of the poorer states in the nation, and services would undoubtedly decline: even now we take in $1.35 from the state government for every dollar we send. We would also lose all the clout and pride we get for being part of the state that hosts Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft and so many other big companies. And squeezing in a 51st star on the flag is . . . just wrong.

LILACS to Zuill Bailey, director of the Northwest Bach Festival in Spokane, for scoring a grammy last month for his cello work on a piece entitled “Tales of Hemingway.” It couldn’t have gone to a more dedicated, more serious or better looking performer! If you haven’t experienced the healing power of his cello playing, book tickets immediately next time he performs in town.

LEMONS to restaurant chains that don’t honor gift certificates on national holidays. Telling customers who’ve driven an hour into town that they can’t use a certificate that was PAID FOR on President’s Day that they need to fork up cash and use the card another time is NOT a way to win raving fans. We can understand limiting use of coupons on holidays, but not gift cards, which should be treated the same as cash; in fact with so many cards going unredeemed, in some ways the cards should be treated BETTER than cash.