Bits ’n’ Pieces

From east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling: a number of potential roadway realignments, intersection and signal changes, and altered drive lane directions on U.S. Highway 2, North Ella Avenue, North and South Boyer avenues, Fifth Avenue and Cedar Street, Pine Street, First Avenue and Superior Street.

Specifically, the City Council will consider amending the concept at its regular Wednesday, May 3 meeting to include an access point off U.S. 2 to South Boyer Avenue in order to provide a north-south connection across the highway. However, that route would run directly through the property occupied by Dub’s DriveIn, which the city voted to acquire for $380,000 in February.

In the meantime, current owners Marty and Jeralyn Mire are leasing the property back from the city and subleasing it to new owners, who will operate the business at its present location until such time as the city needs to use the property.

The East-West Connection concept is sometimes referred to as “the Couplet,” because it includes a new highway alignment connecting U.S. 2 directly to the intersection of Fifth and Cedar via two one-way southbound lanes traveling along the Sandpoint-Dover pathway and funneling into a new intersection east of North Boyer and Pine.

That part of the concept has riled many community members, resulting in months of sometimes heated debate about the scale — or even necessity — of many of the potential changes.

Only the amendment related to U.S. 2 access on South Boyer Avenue will be under consideration May 3 by the City Council, though the full Multimodal Transportation Master Plan — which was adopted in May 2021 — can be viewed at sandpointidaho.gov by clicking on the “Master Plans” button on the left side of the webpage.

To view a map of the area subject to the proposed amendment (identified as Fig. 23), as well as other figures representing the East-West Connection concept, look under Appendix A “Networks, Corridors and Improvement Concepts” of the master plan, directly accessible at bit. ly/3ZYzMA4.

Meanwhile, email comments to multimodal@sandpointidaho.gov.

Due to tax loopholes, the nation’s richest 0.5% could transfer $21 trillion to heirs over the next two decades — virtually tax free, according to Americans for Tax Fairness, representing an historic level of untaxed wealth. The loopholes amount to as much as $8.4 trillion in lost tax revenue that could otherwise reduce the deficit. Sen. Bernie Sanders fronted the For the 99.5% Act, which would raise $430 billion over 10 years by lowering the estate tax exemption rate from $12 million to $3.5 million. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s plan would raise $218 billion from taxes on large estates.

According to an AP-NORC poll, 60% of Americans feel the federal government spends too much. However, they want more spending for education, health care, Social Security, Medicare, border security and the military.

House Republicans’ refusal to raise the debt ceiling could trigger Americans losing $20,000 of their retirement savings, according to a report from the congressional Joint Economic Committee. The JEC based its findings on a study of debt limit negotiations from 2011. The nation is currently using “extraordinary measures” to pay incurred debts, but that is expected to end in July.

Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit filed by a Venezuelan businessman, who said Fox made false claims about him and the 2020 election, according to CNN. Fox still faces other similar lawsuits.

After months of family separation, 31 Ukrainian children taken to Russia were recently reunited with family, CNN reported. Ukraine estimates 20,000 of their children have been taken by Russians. A February report from Ukraine alleges children taken to Russia have endured “political re-education,” and even military training. Russia denies wrongdoing, claiming it removed Ukrainian children to safety.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accepting luxury gifts for 20 years from a real estate billionaire, ProPublica reported. The extent of the largesse has no known precedent in the Supreme Court’s modern history. People “shouldn’t have to wonder whether their judge — or a Supreme Court justice — is looking out for wealthy donors instead of rule of law,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren stated.

Warren has proposed the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act. If approved, the act would include a ban on federal judges

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

owning individual stocks, strengthen gift restrictions, extend the Code of Conduct to cover the Supreme Court, stop the sealing of court records urged by corporations (which may hide injuries to citizens), and close loopholes that let judges retire to escape accountability

In response to the possibility that a Texas judge might rule that the FDA should remove mifepristone — an abortion medication with additional uses — Washington state recently purchased a three-year supply.

According to a news release from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, the use of mifepristone has had fewer serious side effects and deaths as compared to common drugs like Tylenol and Viagra. Shortly after the purchase, the Texas judge did overrule the FDA’s decades-old approval of mifepristone. On the heels of that, a Washington judge issued a decision to protect the availability of mifepristone. The drug is also used to aid the safe evacuation of miscarriages, thus avoiding potentially lethal infections.

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee voted to expel two Black Democrat lawmakers after they used a bullhorn to participate in a gun reform rally inside the state capitol. The rally drew thousands of students in response to the recent Nashville private school shooting that killed six.

Republicans claimed the expelled legislators were trying to incite a riot, and said what occurred was “maybe worse” than the insurrection at the nation’s capitol. Media noted that banishing lawmakers is usually reserved for “serious misconduct,” not for breaking House rules, and that the ousted men were not accused of criminal wrongdoing. A third lawmaker — a white former teacher — was not expelled.

According to Axios, the Nashville Metro Council voted unanimously to reinstate one lawmaker, who was quickly re-sworn in, and a vote on the second lawmaker will occur this week.

Pew Research reported that children and teen deaths from guns rose 50% between 2019 and 2021, going from 1,732 deaths to 2,590.

Blast from the past: In 1873, Connecticut sisters Julia and Abby Smith — both in their 70s — took to heart the phrase “no taxation without representation.” Since being female gave them no right to vote, they did not pay their taxes. The town of Glastonbury took away their cows. After the press followed the story, the sisters were sent enough money to start an equal-suffrage fund.

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47 votes, or two-thirds of the members present, to override the veto.

With the failed override behind them, legislators had little left to act on, and the Idaho House and Idaho Senate voted to adjourn for the year “sine die” a few moments later.

“There have been several votes on that [library materials] issue and everybody knew where they were at, and it was just time to be done and go home,” House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, told the Idaho Capital Sun.

Legislators had finished passing the state budget and wrapped up most of the year’s business March 31 before going into recess. April 6 marked the 88th day of the 2023 legislative session, which gaveled in on Jan. 9 with Little’s State of the State address.

After the gavel fell, Moyle described it as a productive session where the Republican supermajority delivered on many of its biggest issues.

“We did some great things, from property tax relief, to awesome spending for education that’s never been heard of, we provided through property tax [legislation] to help build buildings in the future, judicial confirmation and judicial council fixes,” Moyle said. “We have been very blessed and had a great year. It’s been a lot of good stuff that’s getting done.”

Idaho Democrats say session was overshadowed by culture war issues

However, in an afternoon press conference on April 6, Democratic leaders blasted their Republican colleagues, saying the session’s votes to reduce property taxes and increase education funding and teacher pay were often overshadowed by GOP-fueled culture wars and attacks on women, the LGBTQ+ community, elections and voting.

“As with many sessions recently, this session felt like a real tug of war,” House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, told reporters. “On the one side we have bipartisan efforts that were led by Democrats and many governance-oriented Republicans to deliver on bread-and-butter issues, such as education funding and infrastructure repair, property tax relief, child care and criminal justice reform. But unfortunately, constantly tugging against those efforts was an ever more powerful pull from the far right to bog us down in damaging and divisive social warfare.”

In response, Rubel said the Idaho Legislature’s 18 Democrats were often forced to play defense against the 87 Republicans.

“This was a terrible session in terms of other assaults on civil liberties — attacks on freedom of speech, freedom of expression and parental rights,” Rubel added. “There was a never-ending onslaught of bills placing bounties on librarians, schools, museums, the performing arts that would have effectively prevented high school students from being able to put on dance performances or read Judy Blume books.

“There are many, it seems like, across the aisle who want the state to form a kind of morality police reminiscent of Iran, enforcing certain legislators’ notions of what ideas, what books, what clothing, what health care and what forms of entertainment are acceptable.”

What passed during Idaho’s 2023 legislative session

Since the session began Jan. 9, legislators:

•Increased state funding for public schools by $378.5 million, following through on the Sept. 1 special session law that committed to increase education funding by $330 million.

• Approved sending enough state funding out to pay for raises of $6,359 for all teachers across the state. (Individual teacher’s raises may vary because teacher pay is negotiated at the local school district level each year. But the state is sending districts and charters $145 million to increase teacher pay, enough for a $6,359 increase for every teacher.)

•Passing property tax reductions by overriding Little’s veto to provide $355 million in property tax reductions in its first year. House Bill 292 also provides $100 million for schools to pay down their bonds and levies and eliminates the March election date that schools use.

•Criminalized gender-affirming care for transgender youth by passing House Bill 71a. Little signed the bill into law on April 4, and it goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024.

•Passed the first law in the nation to make it a crime to take a minor out of state to receive abortion care.

•Passed a law attempting to clarify language in Idaho’s existing criminal abortion ban.

•Removed student IDs as an acceptable form of identification for voting in Idaho. Several organizations that represent students and young people, including Babe Vote and March for Our Lives Idaho, filed suit challenging the new law.

•Moved Idaho’s presidential primary election back from March to May, beginning with the upcoming 2024 presidential primary election.

• Added the firing squad as an alternative method of execution when the state cannot obtain chemicals to carry out a lethal injection. Idaho officials are currently unable to obtain lethal injection chemicals and have been unable to carry out the planned execution of Gerald Pizzuto Jr. multiple times. The new firing squad law takes effect July 1.

•Passed the bipartisan Idaho Clean Slate Act, House Bill 149, which allows Idahoans with convictions for minor nonviolent, nonsexual criminal offsense to petition for their records to be sealed.

What didn’t pass during Idaho’s 2023 legislative session

With the House failing to override the library materials bill, House Bill 314 is dead for the year, and the Idaho Senate never got the chance to attempt an override.

Several other bills failed this year, including:

•The Idaho Senate killed Senate Bill 1308, legislation that would have provided education savings accounts of $5,950 for stu- dents outside of the public school system to use toward tuition at private or religious schools, tutoring, textbooks or a host of education expenses.

•The Idaho Senate never took up — and therefore killed — House Bill 265, a bill that would have restricted the public performance of drag shows and other performances that featured socalled “sexual conduct.” The bill would have restricted minors from attending such live performances and prohibited all such live performances from taking place at all city, county or state-owned parks, theaters, venues or performing arts centers.

•The Idaho House narrowly killed House Bill 137 on a 33-36 vote. If enacted, the bill would have repealed a section of state law that allows voters to sign a sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury to verify their identity. Legislators who opposed the bill worried it would have created a new obstacle to voting and may have prevented seniors or other Idahoans who do not have a driver’s license or one of the other forms of accepted identification from voting.

•The Idaho House failed to secure the two-thirds majority to pass Senate Joint Resolution 101a, which would have increased the threshold to qualify a ballot initiative or referendum for the ballot in Idaho. Ballot initiatives and referendums are a form of direct democracy that allow the people of Idaho — independent of the Idaho Legislature — to propose new laws or vote on whether to approve or reject existing laws.

•The Idaho House voted 3040 to kill House Bill 205, which would have outlawed absentee voting for convenience and placed great restrictions on who could vote using an absentee ballot. In November’s general election,

129,210 Idahoans voted by absentee ballot, representing about 21% of all votes cast in the most recent general election.

• A bill that would have created a new restricted driver’s license for any Idahoan 16 and older regardless of their immigration status did not advance out of the Idaho Senate. Supporters of Senate Bill 1081 described a driver’s license as a basic necessity and said the bill’s passage would have led to safer roads and reduced insurance claims by providing a valid path for all adults to obtain a driver’s license and insurance. Supporters also said the bill would have allowed undocumented residents to drive to work or take care of their families without fear of being pulled over and deported. House Bill 313, a bill that would have required schools to provide free feminine hygiene products in sixth through 12th grade failed on a tie vote, 35-35, in the Idaho House.

During the House Republicans press conference on April 6, GOP leaders said they will continue to push for education savings accounts, restrictions on library materials and cuts to Medicaid funding in future legislative sessions.

“They’re not going away,” Moyle told reporters.

The Sun has requested an interview with Little to discuss the 2023 legislative session.

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.

Bouquets:

•This week’s Bouquet goes out to Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, as well as all other legislators who voted against overriding Gov. Brad Little’s veto on HB 314a, the so-called Children’s School and Library Protection Act, which would have allowed for a parent to sue a library if their child checks out a book they found inappropriate or obscene. The bill should have never passed in the first place. Gov. Little was right in vetoing it, but I have to say I was more than a little surprised when some of our legislators did the right thing and voted to kill this bill off before it became law. Thank you, Rep. Sauter, for your level-headed representation.

• To all of our amazing readers who have donated to our newspaper recently: Thank you! I am continually blown away at the level of support our community shows us week after week. We really appreciate you all.

Barbs:

• I love that Sandpoint is a dog town. However, in my observations of dog owners, they roughly fall into a couple of different categories. Some keep dogs for their love and companionship. Others might utilize their dogs as protectors of their homes, alerting them when strangers approach. Still others might use their specialized dogs for hunting purposes, or to herd their stock animals. Finally, there are those who seemingly only own dogs because they want something to scream at that won’t yell back. Don’t be the latter, please.

It pains me when I see someone yelling at their dog. These wonderful creatures will stand by our side through thick and thin. They are quite possibly the only animals on this planet who accept us humans and our foibles without ever complaining.

Give ’em a break.

‘No inflation here’...

Dear editor, What is the last thing you paid for that hasn’t gone up in the last five years? Property taxes, eggs, gas? How about the Bonner County library?

The Bonner County Library District has not raised its taxes in five years, and yet they have kept their services to the rural people outside of Sandpoint through the bookmobile. They have amazing public programs, a wonderful facility and a friendly staff. This is due to the great leadership of the Bonner County Library Board and specifically Susan Shea.

As a fiscal conservative — read: tightwad — I really appreciate Susan’s grip on how to stretch a dollar without cutting services. For six years she has helped keep our library open and reaching out to everyone in our community. She doesn’t serve just a select few, but every single person in our county.

I say if it isn’t broken don’t try to fix it. That is why I’m voting for Susan Shea on May 16! Or get an absentee ballot at voteidaho.gov. Susan Shea is the tightwads’ choice.

Sincerely,

Mar y Haley Sandpoint

Standing with Mark Sauter…

Dear editor, Last week, Idaho citizens who were relieved that Gov. Brad Little vetoed the latest horrible bill out of the Legislature, HB314a, and were doubly grateful to legislators like our own Rep. Mark Sauter for voting to sustain his veto.

But, according to an Idaho legislator from a different district, defeat of that terrible bill has left destructive, unjust damage against dutiful, thoughtful representatives in its wake.

Our courageous legislators who stood fast against librarians being fined thousands of dollars if an individual found material not to their liking in a public library — including school libraries — are being harassed and lied about by far-right colleagues.

After I thanked him for his vote, he wrote to me that far-right legislators are spreading lies. He wrote that he and his colleagues with a conscience who voted to sustain the governor’s veto of this bill have been the targets of “terrible hate mail, Facebook and Twitter posts.”

Not only through social media, but also through the far-right legislators’ newsletters.

Freedom of speech is not protected by our Constitution when those writing or speaking willfully slander or harm others.

Legislators doing their jobs on our behalf, including fighting against bills that would become unjust laws, should at least be supported strongly by those of us who agree with them.

I stand with my Idaho Rep. Mike Sauter. Please join me in thanking him for doing the right thing in support of our constitutional right of free speech.

Sincerely,

Clarice M. McKenney Bonners Ferry

How to fight public fraud…

Dear editor,

How do you fight public corruption or organized crime as a citizen? You’re pretty sure there are some sort of kickbacks occurring, but you cannot audit your municipality or elected representatives. You can make all sorts of complaints to the attorney general or the local prosecutor, or file an endless barrage of public records requests, but nothing ever gets done. Maybe you think you need proof or evidence. Well, folks, you do not. A reasonable suspicion or concern is all you need. However, if you have articles or lawsuits, that will lend more credibility to your claim. So, what do you do? You follow the money and money never lies. However, to quote from the Alaska Daily TV series, “Truth is a slow bullet,” so we need to be patient.

You can give the state or the feds a referral on suspected fraud, and citizens can band together — the more the merrier. Fraud investigators work for us, they don’t want to see tax dollars abused, embezzled or laundered.

You can go in person to the Idaho State Tax Commission and file a concern or you can fill out the referral form. The Idaho office is located at 1910 Northwest Blvd., Ste. 100 in Coeur d’Alene.

Kayla Curtiss works for the State of Idaho for us. You will be protected with an anonymous referral. She is a direct contact for the public: Kayla Curtiss, criminal investigator with the Tax Commission, kayla.curtiss@tax.idaho.gov, 208-332-6682.

Same thing with the feds. The rub is, they cannot tell you what they are doing, but they can dig up the dirt legally and then refer it to a prosecutor. If they are successful, we will eventually find out about the crime through legal resources like iCourt, Pacer or the news media.

Joanne Stebbins Coeur d’Alene

Dear editor, Did you notice last week how much less traffic there was in Sandpoint? School was out and families were away. The town was really quiet. If you didn’t notice, maybe you were out of town?

That tells us, as formal studies have pointed out, that the dreaded traffic on Highway 2 is us! Locals! We are using a U.S. highway for short trips. Do we all need cars or pickups for all errands? To get to work or school or to visit a friend? If the city makes walking and cycling safe and attractive, we have plenty of road capacity.

Molly O’Reilly Sandpoint

Support Susan Shea for library board…

Dear editor,

Most of us recognize that the Sandpoint and Clark Fork branches of the East Bonner County Library District are remarkably innovative and vibrant gathering places. The highly functional volunteer board is to be congratulated for making this so — particularly in the contentious environment of the past few years.

Their mission is to provide access to opportunities for discovery, connection, and lifelong learning. They’ve expanded programming while reducing costs to the taxpayers — not an easy task and an unpaid one at that.

It’s a joy to have a library that serves the needs of our entire community through thoughtful curation, a bookmobile that travels throughout East Bonner County three days each week, extensive tutoring programs and opportunities to volunteer.

Susan Shea (as a member of the board) listens to all perspectives from the community, considers the implications and makes good decisions to keep our library func- tioning to support lifelong learning while keeping costs low. Shea will not ban books.

Susan Shea should be reelected to the board. She’s a longtime resident of the area who brings financial experience and objective decision making.

The current volunteer board is highly functional with a wealth of professional experience spanning library science, education and finance. Let’s learn a lesson from the NIC board and avoid chaos in our local library.

And, if you haven’t visited the library, it’s worth the trip!

Kathy Larson Sagle

Dear editor,

All but two current West Bonner County School D\istrict board members voted to burden taxpayers with a levy before requesting a proper financial review. Thank you Trustees Rutledge and Brown for standing firm on accountability. We can all agree we want a quality education for every WBCSD child. The fact is, WBCSD schools are continuing to perform poorly. According to data from the Idaho State Department of Education for the 2020-’21 school year:

•2021 graduation rates for the five other area schools averages 88%, while WBCSD is 63%.

•2022 Eng lish/language arts ISAT proficiency scores average 58.6%, while WBCSD is 52.3%.

•2022 math ISAT proficiency scores average 45.5%, while WBCSD is 38.1%.

Boundary County School District has similar demographics to WBCSD. Their district spends $10,600 per student per year while WBCSD currently spends $13,300 per student. Cost per student, graduation rates and ISAT data were all obtained from idahoschools.org, an Idaho State Department of Education website.

Throwing more taxpayer money at the problem does not make the education better! An audit revealing how WBCSD is spending their money is a logical first step, rather than proposing a 38% higher levy ($4.7 million). Do not agree to additional taxation until there is transparency and accountability. Vote no levy on May 16.

Kathryn Barlow Spirit Lake

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist