It’s mid-August, which means it’s time for our annual hand-wringing over the Omak Stampede Rodeo’s “Suicide Race.”

For those new to the Northwest, the “Suicide Race” is an event in the Omak (WA) Stampede Rodeo. Horsemen run their ponies down a steep (60 degree incline) embankment, swim across the Okanogan River and race 500 yards to the finish line in the Omak Stampede Rodeo Arena.

Over the long history of the race, a score of horses have been killed, and many more riders have sustained serious injuries. And the crowds love it.

Sound crazy and inhumane? Some think so. Do a quick internet search and you’ll come up with dozens of posts by animal rights groups---PETA, PAWS, and SPCA---protesting the race. And, truth be known, many rodeo fans, horsemen, and cowboys agree with animal rights activists in principle.

So why not outlaw it?

Here’s the rub: The “Omak Suicide Race,” is run almost entirely by Indians from the nearby Colville Reservation. The Suicide Race is a recent Indian tradition; it was developed on the Reservation 70 years ago as a rite of passage for young men, who could no longer live a nomadic hunting life or make war against the federal government. Even today, the Suicide Race is preceded by sacred sweat lodge and eagle feather rituals.

So, here we have a (fairly) delicious situation. This is a confrontation between two politically correct groups---animal rights activists and Indians. And when these two groups collide, the Indians always win. Remember the Makah Whaling dispute? Same deal.

If the Washington State Legislature ever outlaws the “Suicide Race” (possible), it will continue nevertheless. The Colville Tribes will simply move it back onto the Reservation, where it began, and where the State lacks legal jurisdiction. Indeed, they could stage it beside a Casino and make a fortune in tourist dollars. Indian reservations are the last truly free places in North America.

Note: This writer uses the noun “Indian” because it is the term most Indians use. Despite four decades of PC speech re-education, the term “Indian” will not go away. The only people who regularly use the term “Native American” are Canadians, Indian bureaucrats (BIA), politicians, public school teachers, and Native American Studies professors.

This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

Dual – and dueling – messages emerged from Olympia following Friday’s release of Washington Assessment of Student Learning results.

The results themselves were disappointing but not devastating. Progress in student achievement largely stalled – a performance good enough to get nearly 75 percent of incoming 11th-graders up to reading and writing graduation standards, but not to satisfy the federal government.

=> Read more!

Fans of our Saturday columnist, Idaho journalist Bill Hall, know that he's a cat lover (photographed here with Annie Rose). Over the years, he's delighted readers with the lessons learned from having these mysterious, sometimes maddening beings in his life.

Now Hall has a sweet book out full of new, cat-related essays, "Cat Butler: In the Service of Her Majesty the Pussycat." They have titles like, "Why bossy people hate cats, and vice versa," "Sheldon the Ripper" and "When do you pull the plug on a friend?"

Hall knows I'm a fellow felinophile and sent me a copy inscribed, "To Cheryl and the girls from the Cat Butler." The girls are Sasha and Ninja, adopted five years ago from the Humane Society.

"Nothing else I have written in my career has produced half as much favorable reader response as my columns on those hairy little creatures," Bill writes. "Readers have been after me for years to write an entire book of cat yarns. I hereby knuckle under and obey, which is something a cat won't do."

The book is available for $15 at amazon.com and on Kindle for $9.99.