Some politicians choose to focus on poverty or drop-out rates or foster care or government spending.

But in Idaho, Rep. Linden Bateman is on a different sort of crusade: protecting cursive. According to the Spokesman-Review, he introduced a resolution this morning to make instruction of cursive part of the Idaho Common Core. He's even been visiting with reporters in Boise to show off his penmanship.

As a retired history teacher, he worries that if kids lose their ability to write all swoopy-like, the distance between the past and present will grow even further.

But it may be too late. We're already there. Have you ever sat down with the Declaration of Independence lately? It's entirely illegible. The s's look like f's, making things even more infcrutable. The shapes of letters have changed, and the art of calligraphy has become the province of wedding invitations, not correspondence.

We wrote this article on this exact phenomenon two years ago. Bad cursive is worse than no cursive.

Expect this trend to continue: As iPads and smart boards become increasingly ubiquitous, cursive still will be taught. But as an elective taken by artists, designers, and history majors.

Baby, it's cold outside. But what does is mean to be cold in Spokane? From a Spokane Police Department email: 

Maybe there's a jobs fix here. We can pay people to sit in our cars as they warm up. Sort of like how there's a culture of doormen in New York City. We could have Anti-Thief Car Warmers. Think about it, Mayor Condon. Spokane needs jobs. And its cars.

For more City Hall Eyeball, hotwire this.

HERE

Cops are trying to make peace after a recent wave of shootings. (KXLY)

A missing University of Idaho student has been found dead. (Spokesman)

A CDA chef won a big contest to get his own restaurant. (KREM)

OUT THERE

Seattle is getting its NBA team back, it looks like. I just hope that the new owners have actually met these "Sacramento Kings" in person and this isn't a Te'o-esque hoax. (Seattle Times)

Was Beyonce lip synching the national anthem at the inauguration yesterday? And do we care? (USA Today)

A professor at Harvard is asking if any ladies out there want to give birth to a neanderthal baby, Like...an actual cloned neanderthal. (Discovery)

And if you didn't see it on the blog yesterday, here's the most awkward date ever.

Blue and white signs supporting the Spokane Public Library's tax levy for the February 12 special election are popping up all across town. It's part of a well-organized effort to raise money for the city libraries, which are facing cuts. Library supporters aren't just throwing up a couple dozen signs, either.

"Seven hundred and fifty yard signs, a mailer that goes out to 24,000 people, [and] we started phone banking" last week, says Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart. "We're on track to dial 20,000 numbers."

That's an intense campaign for a election that happens on Feb. 12, in just three weeks. Will the anti-library crowd push back in like fashion? Remains to be seen. 

For more City Hall Eyeball, head here.

Gun lovers plan to celebrate the Second Amendment and all things armed this weekend with a "Gun Appreciation Day" rally outside a Coeur d'Alene sporting goods store. 

The Oath Keepers gun rights group plans to host the rally at 1 pm Saturday in the parking lot of the Black Sheep Sporting Goods store on Seale Avenue. The rally coincides with a nationally promoted Gun Appreciation Day being formally and informally observed by gun owners.

The national Gun Appreciation Day website says: "Go to your local gun store, gun range or gun show with your Constitution, American flags and your 'Hands off my guns' sign to send a loud and clear message to Congress and President Obama."

Black Sheep spokesman Brian Knoll says local organizers plan to bring in a flat-bed truck and booths to allow special guests to talk about the importance of the Second Amendment during Saturday's event.

"It sounds like it could be a pretty good-sized event," Knoll says. "It should be pretty busy."

Knoll says the store has already increased its staffing to keep up with increased gun sales in recent weeks. He says the rally will provide a local opportunity for gun owners to come together to celebrate firearms. 

Oath Keepers, a Second Amendment defense group, has invited several local representatives to address the rally. Idaho state Sen. Steve Vick, state Rep. Vito Barbieri and state Rep. Ron Mendive are scheduled to speak.

Oath Keepers Founder Stuart Rhodes is also scheduled to speak Saturday. The group promotes a "Molon Labe pledge," swearing to die before being disarmed.

"We will keep the oaths we sore to almighty God to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," the pledge reads. "That oath does not expire until we do. American patriots, Oath Keepers, what say you? Will you pledge the same?"

Earlier this week, those of us who work at The Inlander got this depressing message in our inboxes:

And, chances are you’re going to notice the same thing. This is because of what happened during all of that fiscal cliff debate in Congress — or, rather, what didn’t happen.

Guns and gun control tend to bring out strong opinions in people. That's not surprising. Gun ownership remains a complicated aspect of American culture and the stakes can be pretty high.

But it can make objective analysis hard to find. 

Both sides of the debate suspect the other side wants to upend their way of life. One side frets over "gun-happy" shooting enthusiasts while the other decries "freedom-hating" liberal lawmakers. Gun rhetoric ratchets up quickly and paranoia often creeps in.

Some people fixate on the semantics between "assault rifle" and "modern sporting rifle" while others tout studies slanted in their favor.

The Violence Police Center has been described as "nonpartisan" — but while it may not claim a political party, it certainly supports gun control with studies titled, "Blood Money: How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA." On the other side, the National Shooting Sports Federation also puts out "Fact Sheets" warning an assault weapons ban could lead to additional prohibitions on any firearms.

New online resources have also played into the recent discussion with a stripped-down www.assaultweapon.info site claiming to offer the unvarnished "Truth about Assault Weapons." The click-through site starts basic enough, but quickly devolves into gun rights advocacy that selectively quotes gun research.

On the other hand, the White House has now launched its fancy "Now is the Time" website, emphasizing the importance of tougher gun regulations.

So how do you find the middle? This can be a challenge if you happen to be writing something like this week's cover story on the AR-15 rifle.

A few reports incorporate data and testimony from both sides to form a more balanced analysis. The U.S. Congress commissioned a report on gun control earlier this year in response to the shooting in Aurora, Colo. 

"To gun control advocates, the opposition is out of touch with the times, misinterprets the Second Amendment, and is lacking in concern for the problems of crime and violence," the Congressional report states. "To gun control opponents, advocates are naive in their faith in the power of regulation to solve social problems, bent on disarming the American citizen for ideological or social reasons, and moved by irrational hostility toward firearms and gun enthusiasts."

Sounds about right. 

Another government report often cited by both sides is the Department of Justice review of the 1994 assault weapons ban. Gun rights supporters often point to the DOJ report to prove banning assault rifles failed. The report notes just 2 percent of crimes were committed with assault weapons.

"Should it be renewed, the ban's effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement," the DOG report states. "[Assault weapons] were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban."

However, gun advocates also fail to mention the report's heavy criticism for the many loopholes in the ban that allowed millions of assault-type weapons to remain on the streets, undermining any real way to measure its impact. They also overlook the report's criticism of semiautomatic weapons in general.

"[R]educing criminal use of [assault weapons] and especially [large-capacity magazines] could have non-trivial effects on gunshot victimizations," the report determines. "The few available studies suggest that attacks with semiautomatics — including [assault weapons] and other semiautomatics equipped with [large-capacity magazines] — result in more shots fired, more persons hit, and more wounds inflicted per victim that do attacks with other firearms."

It pays to read the entire report.

One of the first steps President Obama announced Wednesday to address gun violence was to revive government support for studying the connections between guns and violence. The Washington Post and The New Yorker both wrote yesterday about how research can play an important role in shaping the debate. (They draw from a 2011 New York Times story about how the NRA has lobbied against gun research.)

Maybe future research can help answer important questions about gun violence. Both sides should embrace a better understanding of this issue — because if you feel that strongly that you're right, why be afraid of the debate?