Do you carry Narcan? Today So Far

• One official thinks Narcan should be in schools as much as fire extinguishers.
• No law for you!
• Animals needing shelter amid fires in Spokane County.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for Aug. 24 2023.

Quick hits

• Rain, soft and wonderful, comes too late for many near Spokane
• Burglar dressed as firefighter to rob home evacuated in wildfire near Spokane
• Fuel, heat, drought, wind: Recipe for big Spokane wildfires

The director of our nation's Office of National Drug Control Policy carries Narcan with him at all times. That's one takeaway from Dr. Rahul Gupta's visit to Washington state this week. Narcan is an emergency drug that can counter an opioid overdose. As the death toll from the opioid crisis is rising fastest in Washington state, Gupta says that more people should carry Narcan with them. In fact, he thinks Narcan should be stocked at Washington's schools, and be just as visible as fire extinguishers. KUOW's Sami West has the full story.

It's not just people who have had to evacuate to escape wildfire flames in Spokane County. Animals are also without a home. Today, there are more than 325 animals (at last count) at a shelter set up at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center. They range from horses to mules, goats to chickens, and more. Northwest News Network's Anna King has the full story.

The lawyer who represented former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp says he doesn't want to practice law anymore, and if he did, he wouldn't want to do it in Washington state. That's good, because he's not allowed to anyway. Stephen Pidgeon has been banned from practicing law in Washington for a year. The decision has been a long time coming. Pidgeon basically alleged that Washington's 2020 gubernatorial election was a sham, and filed a lawsuit over it on behalf of his client. That raised some eyebrows in the local legal community. The Washington State Bar moved to discipline him, and now the state Supreme Court is upholding that action.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Mike and Stephanie Zappone comfort each other recently amid the ashes of their home in Medical Lake, following a wildfire that swept through the area. (Courtesy of Zack Zappone)

DID YOU KNOW?

Mario, of Nintendo fame, owes his name to a Tukwila landlord. I mentioned this in conversation recently, and was surprised to find that not everybody is aware of our region's place in Nintendo history.

The character of Mario was created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for the 1981 "Donkey Kong" video game. At first, he was just called "Mr. Video" or "Jumpman." The Mario name came along after the character's debut. Nintendo had offices in the Seattle area at the time. Also in 1981, the company started renting warehouses from Mario Segale, an Italian-American businessman, in Tukwila. As the story goes, Nintendo was behind on some rent, and Segale went over to the warehouses to give managers a stern talking to. He ultimately gave them time to come up with the money. Having witnessed this, the name "Mario" began to stick in the minds of game designers, who then plugged it into another game they were working on — "Super Mario Bros," which was released in 1985.

Today, Nintendo has offices in Redmond, North Bend, and Vancouver, B.C.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

5 takeaways from the first Republican primary debate

Imagine a world in which Donald Trump decided not to run again for reelection. That's what the audience experienced for about the first 50 minutes of the first Republican presidential primary debate.

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