LILACS to GSI for submitting an application to Amazon to plant their 50,000- employee headquarters here in Spokane. You don’t get if you don’t ask. Our odds are slim, but it’s a great exercise in formulating the process for attracting corporate headquarters here, and who knows, sometimes you win.

LEMONS to owners and operators of downtown parking lots who don’t put forth even a minimal effort to care for the safety of their patrons. The lot we use has zero lighting, zero maintenance and next to zero patrolling for illegal activity. Broken glass, urine, drug deals, and gang bangers hanging by the dumpsters and our editor’s car recently broken into, and no concern after several complaints. With daylight hours shortening, the risks increase for those who need to walk to their car after dark. If you’re going to take the money, you should maintain the lot. There’s nothing worse than people who have you by the short hairs because of location.

LEMONS to the Boy Scouts of America for seeking the added revenue stream of adding girls as scouts when the actual Girl Scouts still exist and could easily adopt something similar to Eagle Scout status. How about if Girl Scouts starts getting with the times and adding forward thinking activities for its girls and creating a difficult to achieve Falcon status. Neither gender at ages eight through 12 really needs cross-gender clubs; let the boys and girls learn and grow without the distractions of the opposite sex in this one small enclave of their lives.

LEMONS to WSU Athletic Director Bill Moos for leaving before his 2020 contract is up. Whatever happened to honoring agreements? Whatever happened to honor in sports? Isn’t breaking a contract at least as dishonorable as not standing for the national anthem?

LILACS to the NRA for considering opposing “bump stocks” on guns that convert them into automatic weapons. For them to retreat even slightly on a small point might show that there is an opening for reason in the gun debate.

LILACS to City Council President Ben Stuckart for vowing to quit smoking. We hope by the time this hits the newsstands that Stuckart has continued his resolve. Bad habits are difficult to kick, but the open, honest effort is appealing. And it’s cool that Timm Ormsby and Mike Fagan have joined forces. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.

LEMONS to big box retailers who racially profile. They’ll often let well-dressed white families slide right on out, while carefully checking the receipts of black families. Best if they would just adopt a rule and apply it across the board.

LILACS

Cheers to the Spokane streets department. We take a lot of flack for the condition of our streets but actually there are some pretty awesome newly paved roadways. Yes, there are still some terrible streets but it’s funny that some businesses protest new street construction because it will hurt business, but then grouse about the condition of the streets. You can’t have it both ways. And all the streets can’t be fixed at once; some have to wait their turn. That said, yes, there are some streets that make me wonder why we bother with paving instead of just using gravel.