ADVICE: The Common Sense Dog

I’m always humbled when I read success stories in the emails I receive. Thank you so much for sharing and asking questions. It’s a pleasure to be a part of your journey.

Coffee, pancakes, and county politics

COEUR d’ALENE — Citizens and candidates talked county issues over pancakes and coffee Friday morning at the International House of Pancakes in Coeur d’Alene.

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It is encouraging to see so many people trying to abide by the various suggestions for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the suggestions is for stores to mete out some of their most popular products so more people can get the things they need instead of allowing the Hoard Pigs to selfishly take everything that they can stuff in a cart and then keep returning to get more.

What to do with all that pumpkin

One of fall's favorite pastimes is picking out a perfect pumpkin. You take it home, and carefully carve a jack-o-lantern to display on Halloween. But what happens to the rest of the pumpkin? Often it ends up being discarded. However, the seemingly useless insides of your pumpkin are actually very nutritious and can provide you and your family a base for healthy recipes and tasty fall treats.

Yes, there's an animal lurking in you

Xin (pronounced “shin”) nian kuai-le, you gorgeous rats.

ADVERTISING: Advertorial — JONATHON M. SASSER: Osteoarthritis relief

Osteoarthritis (OA), a type of arthritis characterized by the degeneration of cartilage in a joint, is one of many conditions with a seemingly hopeless prognosis. Typically, patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis are told that cartilage simply does not regenerate, and thus they are destined for a joint replacement or other surgical intervention. However, there is significant evidence supporting our clinical experience that cartilage can, in fact, repair itself. One study supporting this claim appeared in the Journal of Rheumatology in 2006. In this study of 124 individuals, their degree of “cartilage defects” were graded and they were tracked over a two year period. The remarkable finding in this study was that, although many of the participants who began with little to no cartilage defects did see minor to moderate degradation, those who began with moderate to severe cartilage defects often saw an improvement in their cartilage health. In fact, of those who began with a grade 4 defect (the most severe), 80% saw an improvement!

Survivors: It takes a village

If you've read this column long enough you know this topic is close to my heart. You've read about how personal it is, not just to me or to those involved in the cause or using the services, but to you.

Report shows TV violence persists

NEW YORK - Violence, gore and gunplay were staples on prime-time television even in the most sensitive period directly following the Newtown school shooting.

Easing the reunion grief

Ask The Propellorheads

In the cards

Citizens have their say about McEuen Field proposal; majority are in favor of public vote on plan

COEUR d'ALENE - By a show of cards, the crowd didn't support the conceptual plan for McEuen Field.

Google tweaks search to punish 'low-quality' sites

Change affects roughly 12 percent of search requests

NEW YORK - Google has tweaked the formulas steering its Internet search engine to take the rubbish out of its results. The overhaul is designed to lower the rankings of what Google deems "low-quality" sites.

Kralicek down, but never out

On a rainy April morning last week I was once again reminded of the sacrifice made by a fellow police officer. As I walked into his hospital room at Kootenai Medical Center, I saw the smiling face and resolve I have come to expect. Officer Mike Kralicek was sitting up in bed attempting to eat his raspberry Jell-O. He had made an admirable effort but was wearing most of it on his hospital gown. We shared a laugh about it and then moved on to other topics. Today was a better day for him, but he had suffered the previous three days from severe flu-like symptoms.

Ignorance of history goes back further than Reagan

Mike Ruskovich's My Turn, "Reagan Legacy No Laughing Matter," drew some predictable fire. There were those who compared Obama to Stalin (totally off topic). There were those who called Mr. Ruskovich a Bolshevik. There were even those who questioned his sanity. All for two assertions: that Reagan was the recipient of a personality cult that makes Kim Jong Il look positively unappreciated, and that President Reagan's policies were more suited to the 1880s than the 1980s.

ADD/ADHD and Focus

I have been writing on this topic extensively here in The Press because the questions just keep rolling in about the Spoelstra Family Chiropractic program called Focus.

Bible not in conflict with science

There has been a recent spate of letters to the Editor and a My Turn column on the theory of evolution. While these letters ping-pong back and forth, with many feeling that it's wasted paper with neither side convincing the other, I am compelled to write once more to elaborate my point of view.

Ashiatsu!

Over the last seven years, I have been investigating, pursuing and researching a wide selection of health and fitness topics.

Election: 'Resolutely religious' is wrong

Most of us are brought up to not discuss religion or politics, and mostly for good reason. These topics are historically considered impolite — except around those whom we feel most comfortable. Few people enjoy confrontation and both subjects tend to make for passionate exchanges. But I emphatically hold protected free speech and intelligent exchange more important than their absence. So at the risk of double-offending: I submit the Republican Political Party, currently courting the resolutely religious, has negatively affected our 2016 presidential race by failing to provide us a quality candidate.

Antibiotics: Friend or foe? Part III

In addition to "bad" yeasts, molds and fungus, our bodies also have beneficial yeasts, bacteria and other microbes that do wondrous things in our body. But the "good" yeasts and microbes are supposed to keep the "bad" ones in check. About 85 percent should be good, 15 percent bad. When this delicate balance sways towards the bad microbes, illness or disease results. The good ones (commonly referred to as microflora), have many benefits: they support digestion, produce certain vitamins, fatty acids and proteins that the body needs, boosts immune function, and as already mentioned, protect the body from an overgrowth of potentially harmful bacteria, molds, yeasts and fungus. Some of these harmful pathogens that we would otherwise be protected against include Salmonella, cholera, the bad E. coli and candidiasis.

Oh, those generations

RATHDRUM — The generation gap was a lively topic Friday at the Coeur d’Alene Economic Development Corporation’s Business Summit. The inaugural event hosted by North Idaho College’s Parker Technical Education Center brought together human resource experts and business owners to discuss the best ways to recruit, retain, and engage the right personnel.

Prenatal health