I talked with a few Ruston residents – ones that more or less stay out of the political fray – to get their take on what’s going on in the small town.

Sandra Alvstad, a 12½-year resident, isn’t happy with the situation.

“I don’t think it’s productive,” she said. “I think it’s creating a lot of inefficiencies, and it’s not logical to me. I can’t figure out what’s driving this. It’s some root cause that we haven’t found yet. A lot of people blame it on The Commencement project, but it seems like it goes deeper than that. There are too many emotional issues.”

Ruth Campbell said it’s flared tempers across the town.

“It’s gotten everybody irritated, and it’s got everybody fighting with each other,” she said. “The majority of people all feel that it’s just wrong – the way that it’s done and the way it’s carried out.”

But many residents aren’t taking it personally.

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I’ve been writing a lot about McKinley Hill, but I’ve mostly focused on the lower hill. But there are some good neighborhood meeting spots you might not know about further up.

Sinoun Hem runs Engine House Coffee & Deli at the corner of South 38th Street and McKinley Avenue. I don’t know how many days a week she works, but she seems in all the time. And so are a few other regulars who hang out at the deli and coffee shop (which serves some tasty hot dogs).

“I opened this up for the people of the Eastside to meet,” she said. "It's a gathering place for the community."

Her shop is also part of a small commercial strip that includes Mexican and teriyaki restaurants. All the businesses’ owners are first-generation Americans and make up the rich tableau of immigrants who comprise the ever-changing Eastside.

Hem arrived from Cambodia when she was 16. She graduated from Wilson High School and earned degrees from Tacoma Community College, Evergreen State College and City University. She’s active in the area’s Cambodian community and mentors youth in the area.

But soon you might not see her at Engine House. Her son, Connor, is nearing preschool age, and she wants to focus on raising him. The Eastside could lose an important meeting place.

I'm finishing up reporting on Ruston and decided to get the academic view on small-town politics, so I called James J. Lopach , the chair of the political science department at the University of Montana. He’s worked with small towns across Montana, so he has a pretty good view of the phenomenon.

For some places, the political turmoil has caused a deadlock.

“In recent years, I’ve seen two towns that have become dysfunctional because of the divisiveness in the city government,” he said. “Both had to bring in outside mediators just to make it work – almost like a marriage counselor.”

The size of the town plays a direct role on the viciousness of the politics.

“You don’t have a large group of people to choose from for mayor or city council,” he said. “Those who do run are involved in other things. Their lives are entangled, and they bring this baggage to council meetings. In larger towns, you get a larger group of people, many of whom don’t know each other.”

There’s also something else to think about.

“Also, I think there’s a greater likelihood of conflicts of interest,” he said. “If there’s a request for a change of zoning or a contract comes up for review, there’s a greater chance of having a history with the person making the request.”

We've covered the transformation of McKinley Hill a lot recently. There's an anti-crime march scheduled for this Saturday:

From the Dome Top Neighborhood Alliance:

WHAT: Anti-Crime Picket March.

WHO: Everyone who cares about a better future for our community.

WHEN: Saturday, Feb 16, 11:00 AM.

WHERE: We will meet in the parking lot of The Tacoma Christian Center, 3523 E Mckinley Avenue (across the street from Fergies Restaurant)

WHY: To demonstrate our unity, strength and resolve to the drug dealers, thieves, prostitutes and molesters.

HOW: Bring a hand-made sign with your special message for the criminals and for City Hall.
Bring a bull-horn if you have one available, and definitely bring your voice.
We will congregate at 11:00 AM sharp, take three minutes to greet and organize.
We will march to the drug-dealing epicenter at 34th and Mckinley.
We will maintain our calm, our unity, and civility.
With enough time and numbers, we will also march to other nearby crime havens.

We in the newspaper business aren’t huge fans of hyperbole. All too often, people blow things way, way out of proportion.

And if you need any more evidence of it, here’s an e-mail that landed in my inbox today. The reader (I won’t name her) was unhappy that Saturday’s caucuses at Truman Middle School in Taocma's North End weren’t this perfect exercise in democracy. And then she writes this:

Patience was at a premium, as we could not hear people speak with all the noise. I felt like a Katrina victim at the New Orleans Dome.

Woah. Five days in the sweltering Superdome are the same as a couple of hours in a school cafeteria? Either the folks waiting for FEMA aid were living in relative luxury, or Washington’s public schools are worse than most believe.

Sen. Barack Obama won a clean sweep of the Democratic delegates in Garfield County, we reported on Sunday.

Crosscut picked the story up and talked the editor of the East Washingtonian in Pomeroy, who had some funny things to say.

When I told my buddy Jay, who's a walking IMDb, he was quick to point out that rural Garfield county was the main setting of the 1996 Chris Farly/David Spade comedy "Black Sheep." And do you remember where Farley's character worked? At the Pierce County Recreation Center.

This in from the Associated Press. The jokes write themselves:

A young woman in Bremerton has learned that credit unions don’t accept deposits of methamphetamine.

According to documents filed in Kitsap County Superior Court, an envelope containing an undisclosed amount of money and a bag of meth was found in a Kitsap Credit Union automated teller machine.

Checking on the account, police contacted an 18-year-old customer. Officers wrote that she said she might have mistakenly included the bag when she got money out of her pocket for the deposit.

The woman was arrested Thursday and was charged Friday with possession of meth, a felony.

I'm back from my mini foray into political coverage (and I promise I won't cram the term "Potomac Primary" down your throat today), and I have a few odds and ends to clean up. I'll finish up my Ruston story reporting and hopefully line up a few other things.