Wells Fargo Steps Up

Wells Fargo Bank, 204 W. Hayden Ave, Hayden,ID, 83835 has an account set up to help with expenses relating to the vicious attack upon Yvonne Wallis and Michael Heath. You may mail donations in care of those names to the above address. If there are any questions, you may contact the bank: Amanda Davis, @ 772-4022.

We all realize that just after Christmas is a tough time to donate, but it is even tougher for Yvonne and Michael. Please dig down deep and help these innocent victims. Norma Jean Knowles, finding on her return from the holidays that the guys were having a tough time finding a bank, managed to cut through the red tape in record time.

If there are any people that are still unaware of the attack, they can scroll down to previous posts for that information.

An Off Season Struggle

Today marks the end of an era and the start of a new one in Bayview. Right about now, in the lobby of the Kootenai County Administration building, an auction is taking place. It is the foreclosure auction of the Captain's Wheel Restaurant, an icon for many years, and a favorite hangout for many winter dwellers over the years. I will post what I find out, when I find out, as to the future of the business.

This last several days were filled with violent gut wrenching tragedy, as a neighbor went "postal" and attacked yet another neighbor. Armed with a hammer, Larry Cragun, sometimes known as "Crazy Larry," got even crazier as he apparently lost touch with reality. Believing he was being stalked and burglarized by his peaceful neighbors above, he according to those that had much contact with him,his behavior abruptly changed about 2 months ago. He became moody and sullen, keeping to himself.

Cragun was recently divorced from his wife, Katie and there were custody issues that I'm still not sure of, but the child fortunately was with her mother when this tragedy struck.One woman, Patricia Heath, was killed in the hammer swinging melee that occurred on an otherwise peaceful Sunday afternoon. Many will mourn the death of Patty and the serious injury to her Mother-in-law, Yvonne.

It is said that the new year brings new beginnings. We can only hope that healing will occur and Bayview will somehow grow on to be a better place.

Update: The Captain's Wheel sale did not take place today. A party or individual has bought out the SBA loan and is in negotiations with the principles to finalize the ownership picture. I am not at liberty to divulge who that might be.

Horror Week Is Over

The week that has the entire town of Bayview depressed, is over. Hopefully we can rebuild from the tragic events of last Sunday. Fund raising is in full gear. The giving is not over just because Christmas is. There are collection cans located all over Bayview and Athol. We ask that you give generously.

If you haven't already figured out that banks can be as bureaucratic as government, listen to this. The guys that are trying to set up a donation account at a local bank met with some really off the wall stuff. The most flagrant was the question: "You'll have to produce a newspaper article or some other proof that this act actually happened." As Charley Brown would say, good grief. What more proof do you want?" I will attempt to help out in this endeavor.

In addition to the donation cans, a pot-luck memorial will be held New Years Day at JD's, to honor the memory of Patty Heath. All are invited.

There are other plans as well. Judy Gullidge and Robin, of "Log Spirit B&B," are holding a fundraiser at Log Spirit Sunday, January 23 in two sessions. First is from 12 noon to 3 pm. The second is from 4pm to 7. There will be beverages, appetizers, live music and drawings. There will be a $15 donation. Reservations can be had by calling Judy at: 208-683-0941.

In addition, Vic Woolever and Paul Celeri and setting up a bank account for mail in donations. As of Today, that has not been accomplished. We will post other information as it becomes available.

A severe winter weather alert has been posted for our area. Up to 11 inches of snow from now through Thursday, with the worst coming Wednesday. This will be followed by very cold weather.

Christmas Eve

May the LORD bless you and keep you and protect you along your path through life.

Christmas, A Rebirth? Or are The Holidays Destructive

For most of us, Christmas whether as a religious experience, or for others, a winter pause to reflect on their lives, it is a special time of the year. While Christmas Trees or Menorahs reflect in many windows, it is a time that even when things are rough financially, people can still come together.

For others, those tormented by family problems, mental illness, flung out on the streets after losing their jobs, It ain't so great. We are starting to see many more homeless and much more shoplifting at local grocery stores. This is a rough time and in my opinion isn't going to get better anytime soon.

Our manufacturing base has been destroyed by cheaper labor off shore. Seldom, and not just at Walmart, does one see any products not made either in China, Japan, Korea or Malaysia.These conditions bring on crisis's that perhaps wouldn't have manifested themselves had times been better. Sunday afternoon changed Bayview perhaps forever.

Today, and for this Christmas season, Bayview mourns one of it's longest residents and her family as a crazed neighbor sick with insanity and God knows what else, invaded their home while they were peacefully watching TV. Armed with a hammer he snuck into the house and proceeded to flail left and right at everyone seated around the living room. Two of the four occupants escaped serious injury. The other two, Patty Heath and L. Yvonne Wallis, a long time local resident didn't.

Yvonne is still in critical condition at this time after a plate was inserted in her scull. Unfortunately, Patty expired the next day from her fatal wounds. We understand that in addition to her head wounds, she had terminal cancer and was wasting away, weighing only 75 pounds at the time of her death.

Larry Cragun, the attacker, was known as a strange guy that picked arguments with neighbors. He was on supervised probation in Bonner County from a charge of beating his former wife severely, from two years or so ago. He remarried and had a 3 year old daughter with wife, Katy. She left him several times and finally stayed away. The question of why the adult probation department didn't detect the obvious mental illness as it progressed, is a question that many will be asking, especially the families of Yvonne and Patty. Fortunately, both Larry's baby was with her mom and the Heath baby was with Grandma on the fateful afternoon.

Trusted with the protection of the public with the powers of re-incarceration of the bad people, they were satisfied with periodic drug and alcohol testing. They totally ignored the repeated calls to Cragan's residence with weird,suppositions that the neighbors were, stealing from him, stealing food, poisoning his food while in his house, and still these reports either never reached probation, or they failed to bring him in for evaluation.

Today, and on through the holiday season, all of Bayview mourns the death of a friend, and the unknown future of Yvonne whose condition has yet to play out. A fund has been started to benefit the family of whom none had jobs. Two stalwart citizens,Paul Celeri and Vic Woolever have taken it upon themselves to help out. They are distributing collection cans and are in the process of establishing a donation account at a local bank. That information will be forthcoming on this blog when available.

We ask that those who read these words, say a prayer or wish good thoughts for this unfortunate family who did absolutely nothing to provoke this mindless, murderous attack on a peaceful gathering. Please, if you can find a way, give liberally to this fund for this innocent family that has been torn apart by an insane or drugged up or both,fanatic.

UPDATE: According to the spokesman-Review, Yvonne's condition has been upgraded to Fair.

Christmas Eve: Yvonne was discharged from the hospital yesterday and is now home. She is expected to fully recover. I took a little food up to their home tonite. A family that has been thoroughly destroyed. I don't know how a family gets past this kind of thing. I guess prayer is about the only cure.

Neighbor Bludgeoned In Bayview

Just 50 feet from my back door, my closest neighbor, allegedly bludgeoned my other neighbor and her guests with a hammer. At least one person was transported to Kootenai Medical Center, apparently with survivable wounds. This happened just less than an hour ago.

He then drove down to the Bay Cafe where he called the sheriff department on himself. It is suspected that he either has been hallucinating on drugs or his mind is gone. The alleged perpetrator recently tacked up a letter to the community accusing the government of invading his mind, which upon reflection, may be the only lucid thought he has had recently.All of this happened just after I left to drive to the Patio to watch the Seahawk game. It was a real good time to not be home.

Additional information from a county deputy who will go unnamed, as he wasn't authorized to release information, said that four victims were transported to the hospital. Asked whether any were in mortal danger, he replied, "we do not know at this time whether they all will survive." A child that might have been present apparently wasn't.Though unaccounted for, the small child was apparently somewhere else. (we hope)

A relative of the victims had the baby overnight and was in Ralph's Cafe earlier, Monday. She said that she had been to the hospital and while most are improving, Patricia is in real bad shape, having had brain surgeery with some removed and is not expected to survive. All three TV stations were up here today. If anyone is interested in seeing the crime scene watch the 6 o'clock news.

New information:

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office reports that one of the victims of the bludgeoning yesterday in Bayview, has died at Kootenai Medical Center. Patricia Heath was pronounced dead shortly before 1:00 p.m. today from massive head trauma. Larry Cragun, 31 of Bayview is in custody on a variety of charges and is being held on $1,000,000 bond. One charge will be amended to the charge of murder based upon the death of Mrs. Heath. The investigation is on-going by detectives from the Sheriff’s Office/Major Ben Wolfinger, KCSD report.

New information suggests that L. Yvonne Wallis has serious brain injury, but is expected to survive. To what extent she will be able to function is at this time, unknown. I have been told she has had a metal plate implanted in her head, where a hammer blow ruptured her scull. These kinds of injuries sometimes take months to reveal the extent of the permanent damage, if any.

Chamber of Commerce Ship Goes down

This has been an interesting week for the Bayview Chamber of Commerce. (Ain't) Elections were held for officers and board members. In the long history of the chamber, these elections were staggered so that only two out of the six board members were up for election each year. This was for the purpose of keeping continuity. That and other bylaws were changed at an ill attended meeting two years ago.

Many in the community felt like the DAC, or Developmental Analysis Committee had grown into something not originally intended. Somewhat radicalized, more power had been concentrated in the committee which then showed a solid front, thereby obtaining total control of the body. Or as an E-Mail circulated by "George," was titled, "DAC Rules." That pretty much defines what went down. Able to split off and become an independent pressure or influence group, they chose to take over and dominate the chamber, rather than go it alone.

Such an action, though I'm sure gave a "team" victory sense to the proponents of the DAC, instead has finished off the chamber as the voice of the community. Shunning others that did not agree with their party line,refusing to let diverse opinions prevail, the so called chamber has been reduced to as they say, "preaching to the choir." While perhaps the other extreme of making the chamber an all business venture was fine for the business owners, it too was perhaps a bit tipped to the other extreme. What could have saved the chamber, sans the power play, was to redefine the group with a more inclusive attitude toward businesses in town.

This leaves business out in the cold from an organization that has the word "commerce" in it, which now is a gross misrepresentation. Perhaps it is time for the marinas and other businesses to form a new group dedicated to furthering growth within the community, rather than the dead on arrival look on the streets these days. Certainly, there is the temptation for some of the business owners to retaliate in kind, since they are the victims of anti-business themes.

I, myself, saw this coming for a while now and divorced myself from the group. I firmly believe I did the right thing as have most others that became fed up with the few that want to control the many. We enter the next year with the chamber losing the one thing they couldn't afford to lose. Their identity as the voice of the entire community.

To Everything, There Is An End

I have been writing for the Spokesman-Review since The beginning of the Prairie Voice and subsequently, the Handle Extra. That, if I remember correctly, was the spring of 2007. April to be precise. In the beginning, I wrote news and features for Bayview, then included Athol as well as a few stories from Spirit Lake. At the time, I was writing at least two and sometimes more stories per week.

Then the paper started cutting back. First, I was down to two to three stories a month, then the Prairie Voice was discontinued. I then started covering a little more territory and was published in the "Handle Extra." At the end of December, the Handle Extra will cease publication, and me with it. It has been a great run. I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of every story. Sometime in the next two weeks, my last story will publish. It will be an overview of the four part history of Bayview which published last summer. It will be the 171st story that I have written for the paper.

I sincerely hope that during this period, you enjoyed reading about your friends and neighbors and sometimes even yourself. I did the best I could, but print journalism is on it's lips and while it may survive in some form, advertising revenue has shifted to the Internet. One great success story though, is Huckleberries On Line, the S/R's Idaho blog with blogmeister Dave Oliveria. His blog will hit 2.5 million page views for the year 2010, sometime Wednesday or Thursday. That, my friends, is success. For access to any of the stories I've written, you can go online to spokesman.com. Then click on "times" then enter herb huseland in the search box and shazzam, every story I've written is there in chronological order.

I don't know what is lurking around the corner, but I definitely caught the bug and will search out other opportunities as I find them. For a start, I'm going to sell advertising for this blog. I normally get from 60 to 120 visits per day from all over the area and even some other countries. The cost will be very inexpensive and your ad will be exposed to many potential customers. I can be reached at: bayviewherb@gmail.com or by phone 208-683-9107.

Bayview Whitecaps Are Expanding

Last spring, a loose group of kids that were unaffiliated with a league wanted to play baseball. They got together with parents and others and formed a Babe Ruth Team. It turned out like a field of Dreams thing. The team started to win and just kept on winning. By the end of the season they had won:

3rd place in the St. Maries 18 & under wooden bat tournament,
1st place Kalispel all stars 15 and under invitational.
1st place Idaho 15 & under State Champs
3rd place Pacific Northwest Regional 15 & under championship tournament.

Not bad at all for a team thrown together from Bayview, Spirit Lake, Athol and Rathdrum. This year some of the players will be too old for that division, so since they were already beating up on older age kids teams, they decided to form a second team of 18 and under, while keeping the younger team together. Unfortunately, outfitting a team with uniforms, equipment travel and administrative costs, it's not cheap to field a team. Last year, residents from the entire north Kootenai County area stepped up magnificently. We are asking that you do so again.

Please donate generously to this effort. Please send donations to the Bayview Chamber of Commerce specified for the "Whitecaps" so the money goes to the right place.

Looming Colonoscopy

I debated as to whether I should write about something this personal, then decided if one person benefited by paying attention to their own bodies, it might save their life.

Friday morning at 7:00 am, I'm checking into the VA medical center in Spokane for a colonoscopy exam. This was not routine. Periodically, the VA gives me a card in which the patient is asked for small stool smears. This is to determine whether there is blood present where there shouldn't be. There was.

There are many reasons why this could be. Hemorrhoids, polyps or colon Cancer. Of the three, obviously the big C is the scare. Polyps can be a forerunner to cancer and for that reason, they need to be removed. From time to time, I think I'm indestructible. On the other hand, I am 72 years old and subject to the body wearing out just as others do.

The preparation for this procedure is not fun. First you swallow copious amounts of a liquid that does not taste good. That is followed by 24 hours of fasting, in which starvation starts to set in. Preparation starts actually, two days before the procedure. Since they dope you up, you can't drive for 16 hours after being released.

Hopefully, this will be a minor scare, but still I'm somewhat apprehensive. But trust me, if you have black stool, run, don't walk to your doctor. It might save your life.

I'm A Racist???

Today, for the first time in my life, two people called me a racist. Why? Because I called the show off wide receivers in the NFL on their show-off antics. This happened on Huckleberries on line, where on occasion, ultra-liberal fanatics that have been brain washed have totally suppressed honest debate. This happened after hearing the knee jerk response from this comment I made:
"You can take the receiver out of the Ghetto, but apparently you can't take the Ghetto out of the receiver." Now we all know that certain ethnic groups exhibit some commonly shown traits, even white anglo-saxon types. In the NFL there are Blacks, whites,orientals and Polynesians. My comment went right to the core of the issue. It was an ethnic showoff trait that is shown on TV every week-end. Did I identify an individual race? No. This is a cultural issue that certainly does have racial overtones, but what bothers me the most is that we cannot any longer debate these issues on their own merits.

Political correctness, which has permeated our country is not law. It has never been formalized except for cases of assault, if the assault is on a minority, but then that is another discussion. To not be able to identify and discuss anti-social behavior because it might point to a racial or ethnic group is misinformation at it's worst.

This isn't about whether or not I am correct in my conclusions, it's about the right and quite possibly our duty to talk about them. It is clear to me that this country has somehow been bullied into becoming tight lipped when discussing minorities, whether those minorities are wrong or not.

We are faced with illegal entry issues on both our southern and northern borders. The main stream media calls it "undocumented immigrants." They aren't undocumented immigrants, they are criminal trespassers. Up north, it would seem the enforcement is more against anyone convicted of an alcohol or drug offense, than to actually catch smugglers, both human, drug and Islamic terrorists.

I decided, after realizing how this society of ours had changed so radically when I wasn't looking, to not take it anymore. No, I'm not a white supremacist, nor a Nazi. Just a person that has been on this earth much longer than the perpetrators of this new dogma of silence. Certainly, there will be those that will say, Look, he proved he is an asshole. Well, I'd rather die an asshole that become what our brainwashed youth has become. No longer able to debate social issues on their facts and issues, but required to tip-toe around them for fear they may offend the offenders.

I don't talk about my family much, but to make a point I'm going to now. I have four children, all adults. One of my daughters married a black man and produced seven children of which I have several half-black grandchildren. One, a soldier in Afghanistan repeatedly referred to his sister and her baby as "Niggas." I warned him once, and after he repeated the racial slur, I unfriended him, my own grandson, from face book. You see, I don't put up with real racism either.

To the two biggots that called me a racist, Kamm and Mr Bloggy, I suggest that you pull that trigger a little less often and be sure of your target. You see, on the internet, while it is true your identity is secret, (mine isn't) you really don't know outside of one or two remarks what really goes on in a person's head. Taking one statement out of context without a pattern is worse that calling a racist name itself.