Been awhile since we whined about Spokane getting more glory than it ought to. Our therapist said that if we’re gonna get caught up in sibling rivalries, better to focus on the other “S” city – the closer and more-insufferable one that shares a freeway and an airport with us.

But we can’t just sit idly by while Forbes Magazine gives Spokane credit where credit definitely is not due: As the fraud capital of America.

“Rugged individualism often goes hand in hand with cutting corners,” Forbes writer William P. Barrett begins in his article at Forbes.com. “Washington state’s second-largest city is a prime example.”

Sure, rub our schnoz in it. It’s bad enough that they’re now widely regarded as the second city. (That claim used to belong to T-Town, until Spokanistan started annexing everything in sight.)

Now they think they’ve outclassed us in one of our strongest fields of endeavor.

Next thing you know, the Spoklahomans will be trying to steal our meth crown, too.

The Tacoma area has no end of legendary con artists to put us in contention for greatness: financial pitchman Wade Cook, driving school kingpin Gary Probst, former Sheriff George Janovich, former Auditor Dick Greco, for starters.

Heck, just in the past two months, we had a contractor facing possible prosecution for $120,000 worth of unfinished jobs, a fella getting 10 years in the federal pokey for scamming more than $2.5 million from the lumber company where he used to work, and a guy charged by the feds in a $6 million investment scheme.

When it comes to fraud, Tacoma can!

Spokan’t.

At first we thought the magazine had proclaimed Spokane the “Freud” capital of America.

Now that makes sense. Bunch of mama’s boys over there.

The dandies at the Washington State Patrol have done it again with their traffic-stopping fashion. For the second straight year, our belles and beaus in bow ties won the nation’s Best-Dressed Law Enforcement Agency Award.

Though this year they have to share it with the Mississippi Highway Patrol. (Hopefully the last time our state comes out dead-even with Mississippi in anything.)

This year’s glamour shot appears torn from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue: Four WSP troopers model their uniforms at the beach, looking equally chic in short and long sleeves.

Meantime, the worst-dressed cop of the year award should go to Pacific Police Chief John Calkins. Hard to forget the T-shirt he wore for his DUI booking photo in Bonney Lake in August, celebrating the Chicago police riots.

Lakewood’s fragile image has taken another hit, this time because of the city’s association with one of the most shockingly despicable practices around.

Strapping old folks in a van and hauling them off to the Tulalip and Snoqualmie casinos.

The city must be trying to get grandma and grandpa hooked at the ultra-swanky tribal dice joints up the highway. Gotta be a back-door scheme to create customers for the not-quite-so-swanky knockoffs in Lakewood. Then the city can keep pulling the armored truck up to the minicasino loading docks and making off with piles of gambling tax revenue.

Cue evil laugh: Mooooooo ha ha ha ha!

At least that’s what one group, the never-say-die bunch from www.savelakewood.com, is suggesting. Chief anti-gambling grump David Anderson wrote a letter to the media exposing the city’s diabolical plot.

Keeping a straight face, City Manager Andrew Neiditz did a full examination and addressed it at the May 4 City Council meeting. He concluded that the city doesn’t promote problem gambling; it is merely responding to requests for casino trips by members of the Lakewood Senior Center.

As if anyone should be surprised they love watered-down drinks and the all-you-can-eat crab leg buffet.

Shouldn’t take Matlock to sleuth that one out.

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