I’m not here. Well, I’m here at my computer in Sandpoint at the moment, but by the time this runs off the press and ends up wherever it ends up, I’ll be somewhere other than Sandpoint, Idaho, which is going to be just fine with me. I could do with a break from our self-proclaimed “paradise” and the cankerous politics of the Gem State, which is so avidly being set by its top leaders in the crown of the king at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Call or email Senior Writer Soncirey Mitchell in my grateful absence: soncirey@sandpointreader.com.
pain in the ass... sort of
They say familiarity breeds contempt, but sometimes even an uncomfortable familiarity can breed affection. Think about It’s a Wonderful Life, and George Bailey’s joyous reunion with the broken knob on his banister. Think about how much people grow to appreciate the quirks of an old car or truck that only they can drive. Think about the satisfaction of whacking an aged, semi-functional appliance in just the right place to make it work every time. My theory is that the minor inconveniences we confront day after day in familiar settings become not just part of our surroundings, but defining features. I got to thinking about this concept last week, when Reader Publisher Ben Olson and I were sitting down for our traditional post-deadline drink or three at the 219. We typically station ourselves inside; but, because it was such a nice-weather Wednesday, we were posted up on a sunny bench in the open air out back. That meant neither of us would end up with The Stool. You see, there’s a barstool at the Niner with a hard bump protruding from the seat, roughly where my left buttcheek lands about three out of 10 times that I belly up. I don’t know what it is — likely a bolt or something. Regardless, it was annoying at first; then, after a few dozen times of ending up with The Stool, I started keeping track of it. Sometimes, if there were no other open seats, I’d sit and deal with it. Other times, I’d Princess-and-the-Pea it and move it down the line at the bar for someone else to deal with.
After a while, I noticed other people doing the same, and saw The Stool make a lonely, butt-less journey around the barroom. At this point, I’m actually more pleased to land on The Stool than not, because it’s familiar and unique. Which proves, as with people and stools, personality is everything.
DEAR READERS,
I love living in a place where all four seasons exist.
Once, while living in Los Angeles after college, I realized I’d lived the same day over and over again for a few months. It was 75 to 80 degrees, mild and sunny from November to March — or “winter” as they called it. Sometimes it dipped down to the mid-50s, which is when you’d see all the botox-laden Angelinos shivering in their designer puffy jackets that cost more than my car at the time (and my truck now, actually).
No thanks, I like my seasons full. It is sad making the transition from one to another, though. Soon, I’ll take down my ski rack, put up my snowboarding gear and winter jackets to make room for the next season. I’m ready for it. Bring on the warm days and cold nights, the morel picking, the puddle jumping and mountains slowly losing their snowpack.
Spring is a gift to us all. Enjoy it.
– Ben Olson, publisher
READER
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Contributing Artists: Judy Minter (cover), Ben Olson, Racheal Baker, Teresa Rancourt, Michelle Murphree, Bill Borders
Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Soncirey Mitchell, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Brendan Kelty Naples, Mia Maldonado, Justin Henney, Jennifer Ekstrom, Jim Woodward, Timothy Braatz, Ed Ohlweiler, Marcia Pilgeram
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The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, bluster, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.
We hope to provide a quality alternative by offering honest, in-depth reporting that reflects the intelligence and interests of our diverse and growing community.
The Reader is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. Leftover copies are collected and recycled weekly, or burned in bonfires to appease the gods of journalism. For back issues, contact the publisher. Free to all, limit two per person, please.
Letter to the Editor Policy:
We welcome letters to the editor on all relavant topics. Please, no more than 300 words, no excessive profanity or libelous statements and no trolls. Please elevate the discussion and stay on topic.
Letters will be edited to comply with the above requirements. Opinons expressed in these pages are those of the writers, not necessarily the publisher. Send to: letters@sandpointreader.com
About the Cover:
This week’s cover is a painting titled “1920 Sea Whisperer” by local artist Judy Minter. See Page 15 for info about her upcoming show.
Army Corps announces spring refill, shares gate replacement progress
Designs for new spillway gates ‘ahead of schedule’ while Woodward and Sauter call for extended summer pool period
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began the gradual spring refill of Lake Pend Oreille on April 1 and plan to manage the 2025 summer lake levels within the normal elevation band of 2062.0-2062.5 feet, according to a recent press release.
Corps Public Affairs Specialist Nicole Celestine confirmed with the Reader that Albeni Falls Dam will perform under restricted operations again in 2025 following the structural defects discovered in multiple spillway gates that pushed back the date for reaching the high summer pool level in 2024.
“The restriction to minimize gate movements as much as possible will remain in place for 2025 to ensure our personnel and infrastructure are safe,” Celestine said. “However, the restriction that reduced the summer elevation band to 2061.75’-2062.5’ has been lifted for 2025. We plan to operate within the 2062’2062.5’ elevation band during the summer.”
Celestine said the Corps expects to follow operations “as close to normal as possible” while minimizing gate movements to prioritize flood control and “... refill to 2062.0 feet by mid- to late-June, depending on flood risk, forecasts and snowpack conditions in the Pend Oreille Basin. USACE will manage refill dynamically and will complete refill once significant flood risk has passed.”
Under restricted operations, gates are only moved one at a time when necessary to control lake refill and manage flood risk. When possible, operators will only move the gates to a fully open or closed
position. In a worst-case scenario of a gate failure during high spring inflows, the Corps could lose the ability to control the lake level all season, if not longer.
Snowpack is close to normal this year, though slightly below average over the entire 24,000 square-mile watershed basin above Albeni Falls Dam. Still, Celestine said snowpack is only part of the planning considerations for dam operations.
“Weather conditions can change quickly, and as we come into spring, the risk from rain-on-snow high runoff events is present any year,” she said. “How fast the snow melts can be even more important in most years.”
Celestine also gave an update on the spillway gate replacement, stating that the Corps is actively working on repairs for Gate 3, which kicked off the issue when it was removed in fall 2023 for routine rehabilitation and was found to have steel defects. Because all 10 gates were manufactured at the same time using the same steel, they have all been slated for replacement.
“The gate is expected to return on site in the coming weeks, where it will be treated with a fiber-reinforced polymer before being reinstalled in its original position, which the spare gate currently occupies,” Celestine said.
July, two months earlier than initially planned. We anticipate advertising a contract for the new gates by the end of the year.”
Celestine said the first gate is expected to arrive on site in 2027, with subsequent gates following at six-month intervals until all ten gates are replaced. If the progress holds to the Corps’ time estimates, the gate replacement project could be completed around 2031.
“I think most of us have been disappointed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ initial delayed response to [defective gates] as well as the extended timeline proposed for repairs. It should not take four times as long to change a set of car tires as it took to first build the car.”
— Dist. 1 Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle
“The design for the new spillway gates is progressing ahead of schedule and now expected to be completed by
“This timeline was confirmed after a successful Industry Day held in January 2025, when industry representatives and contractors verified their ability to meet these project requirements,” Celestine said.
The Corps plans to hold a public meeting to share prog-
ress on the gates at some point in May, with a confirmed date to be announced in this newspaper.
The Corps has faced increased public scrutiny ever since announcing the gate defect in 2024, with several contentious meetings providing locals a chance to comment on the issue.
Dist. 1 Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, and Dist. 1 Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, have been working closely on the issue.
“I think most of us have been disappointed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ initial delayed response to [defective gates] as well as the extended timeline proposed for repairs. It should not take four times as long to change a set of car tires as it took to first build the car,” wrote Woodward in his article, “Protecting Our Idaho Waters,” in the Reader [See Page 13].
Woodward stated that he and Sauter are encouraging the Corps “to move faster on
the Albeni Falls Dam gate repairs. If the gate failures require emergency water level operations, then correcting the deficiency is also an emergency.”
He added that both he and Sauter are pushing for an extended full pool period on Lake Pend Oreille, “... more in alignment with the original agreements that authorized construction of the Albeni Falls Dam. Operating the lake at higher levels provides quicker access for emergency response, greater recreational opportunities and safer navigation. Higher lake levels are possible while still providing for fisheries, flood control and power production.”
Woodward said he and Sauter hope to request action from the federal government next week through Senate Joint Memorial 105, which can be viewed on legislature. idaho.gov.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representatives speak to the public at a meeting held in Ponderay in May 2024. Photo by Ben Olson
Idaho business owners launch tool to promote safe, inclusive event spaces
New guide helps venue owners host events that may attract controversy
By Mia Maldonado Idaho Capital Sun
Idaho business owners are launching a tool to help other business owners foster safe and inclusive event spaces.
In partnership with the Western States Center, a nonpartisan organization, Idaho business owners created a guide called “Safeguarding Arts & Culture Spaces: A Pro-Democracy Guide for Idaho Venues.” The guide is available on the Western States Center’s website, and it provides guidance to business owners interested in hosting events that may attract controversy about how to prevent harassment and respond to threats.
As public spaces in Idaho face increasing intimidation and harassment, the guide is a timely way to discuss the power of arts and culture spaces, Western States Center Executive Director Amy Herzfeld-Copple told the Idaho Capital Sun. In recent months, Idaho has received national attention over incidents related to free speech and inclusivity, such as when a North Idaho woman in February was forcibly removed from a local town hall and when earlier this month a West Ada teacher was asked to remove an “everybody is welcome” sign.
Lawmakers have also tried to limit
access to pride events, such as through House Bill 230, which would restrict youth from attending events with “indecent sexual exhibitions,” such as public drag shows at pride events. Despite these challenges, Andrea Marcoccio, the owner of Matchwood Brewing in Sandpoint and coauthor of the guide, said venue spaces can still serve as safe and inclusive spaces.
“We have an expansive patio that is always full and bustling when the weather is nice, and it tends to attract community requests and needs for gathering, including the Sandpoint Pride Festival, Oktoberfest and SantaCon,” she said. “We do a lot of really great gatherings, some of them intentional about inclusivity, and some of them about just getting people out of their homes and off their phones to get together and have fun.”
Marcoccio said the guide will help business owners who perhaps have tried to hold an event but received pushback, and it will offer a network of other business owners who have held similar events.
Idaho business owners to discuss strategies to ensure safety, inclusivity in events
Along with Marcoccio, the guide was developed by Idaho venue owners from Bonners Ferry, Coeur d’Alene
and Boise.
This includes leadership from Treefort Music Festival, which is hosting a panel discussion about the guide for venue owners.
“Our music venues and cultural spaces are the heart of our communities,”
Eric Gilbert, the CEO of Duck Club Entertainment and director of Treefort Music Fest said. “This initiative is about ensuring that Idaho remains safe and welcoming for all.”
they recently moved back to town after seeing welcoming events.
Those involved in the project will discuss strategies during a panel at Treefort Music Festival at 11 a.m. Saturday at Boise Centre East, room 420A.
Earlier this week, Marcoccio said a young person thanked her for hosting inclusive events. That individual was born and raised in Sandpoint, and
“There’s always good that comes out from hosting those events,” Marcoccio said.
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.
New Census data shows in-migration drove 1.5% population increase statewide
With 2.4% growth between 2023-’24, BoCo sees second-highest percentage change in Idaho
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Bonner County was among the 12 counties in Idaho to outpace the state’s overall growth rate of 1.5% last year, adding 1,246 residents between July 2023 and July 2024 for a total increase of 2.4% — the second-highest percentage change behind Canyon County, which grew 3.1% over the period.
According to U.S. Census population estimates shared by the Idaho Department of Labor in March, Bonner is ranked as the eighth-most populous county in the state, with 53,955 residents, compared to seventh-largest
Madison County, which counted 55,549 residents but with only a 0.8% growth rate year over year. Ninth-place Bingham added 491 residents for a total population of 50,889, or a 1% growth rate.
“The COVID-19 pandemic brought a rush of new residents to Idaho, particularly impacting rural areas of low population density that offered outdoor recreation,” stated Labor Economist Jan Roeser in a news release.
Bonner County’s population was 47,403 in 2020 — the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic — meaning it has grown more than 13.8% over the past five years.
However, as Sandpoint Mayor
Jeremy Grimm pointed out at the March 19 meeting of the City Council, that level of growth hasn’t been mirrored within city limits.
According to Grimm, Sandpoint has grown 4.12% over the past four years, with an estimated < see CENSUS, Page 7>
An individual performs at Pride Fest held at Matchwood Brewing. Photo courtesy of Racheal Baker
NEWS Streets Supervisor Chet Jackman retires
City of Sandpoint promotes Wes Albin to fill role
By Reader Staff
After nearly 25 years of keeping Sandpoint’s roads clear, patched and safe, Streets Supervisor Chet Jackman is hanging up his safety vest. Jackman’s leadership and commitment have been instrumental in keeping Sandpoint safe and well-maintained through every season, and his contributions to snow removal, asphalt maintenance, striping and mentoring crew members leave a lasting legacy.
The city of Sandpoint honored Jackman’s years of service in a recent release, stating, “We thank him for his outstanding service and wish him the very best in retirement.”
Since he started in 2000, Jackman has cleared some 1,090 inches of snow, used over 16,500 tons of asphalt and maintained 86 miles of roadway. He earned his Traffic Control Supervisor Certification, completed Roadmaster training and rose through the ranks to become streets supervisor, serving under seven city mayors.
Jackman told the Reader his favorite part of the job has been the “camaraderie within the ranks. Working with the water department, the sewer department, whether it be water treatment or water distribution or sewer treatment or collection, I’ve really enjoyed the people I’ve worked with.”
Jackman said, by far, the most difficult part of his job over the years is wintertime.
“You never know what Mother Nature’s gonna throw at you,” he said.
When the snow flies heavily, Jackman said the logistics and costs of hiring rental equipment to remove snow made his job more difficult.
“I can remember winters where by October or November, we had already used these rental trucks to haul away snow 12 to 14 times in just one month clearing snow downtown,” he said. “Those years, the hardest thing about the job is not knowing what’s coming next day during the winter. Summertime, the crew can basically take care of itself; everybody knows what to do, and they do it, but in wintertime, you get that thousand-yard stare.”
Jackman remembers some winters where it would take 12 hours to clear snow from downtown. Once, he
remembers, his crew worked during a heavy snowfall for 16 hours straight.
“The only thing you can do is go into the winter completely prepared, as we do every single winter,” he said. “When it’s heavy, you’re prepared for it. When it’s light, you have extra resources.”
Jackman’s final day with the city was March 31. He plans to dedicate his free time to building street rods through his business, Jackman’s Rod Shop.
“My dad built street rods when I was a kid growing up, and he taught me and my brother, so now we build high-end street rods,” Jackman said. “These are $250 thousand-plus cars.”
Jackman doesn’t mess around, either. One of his trucks won grand champion at the annual Lost in the ’50s vintage car show and one was named in the top 7 in the nation by the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association.
“I have a lot of fun doing it,” he said. “I’m going to take it on and do it for other people now. You don’t want to retire, then sit down and do nothing and wither away like you always hear the stories about. I don’t want that to be me.”
The city of Sandpoint announced that Wes Albin has been promoted to streets supervisor.
“Wes brings a wealth of experience in equipment operation, utility systems and field leadership, most recently serving as a utility operator for the city,” the press release stated.
“With over a decade of experience in street operations and a clear dedication to public service, Wes is well-prepared to carry forward the high standards set by Chet.”
Bits ’n’ Pieces
From east, west and beyond
A recent Trump executive order regarding voting includes requiring REAL ID or a passport, canceling all mail-in votes sent on time but arriving after voting day, giving the Department of Government Efficiency authority to review states’ voter rolls, and withholding funds from uncooperative states. A statement by the League of Women Voters said the order is “plainly unlawful...The President can’t unilaterally change election law.” The Trump order would prevent voters from registering or updating information if their ID does not match proof of citizenship. LWV says the order applies to updating voter registration in the event of a move, name change or change of party affiliation. The Coalition on Human Needs likens it to a poll tax and sees no reason to give DOGE access to voter rolls.
At the same time Congress faces a vote on the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote. CHN points out that voter registration already requires attesting to citizenship status; consequences for those who lie include jail, fines and deportation. The un-amended SAVE Act would impact rural residents, seniors, people of color, low-income voters, naturalized citizens and those removed from voter rolls due to outdated or incorrect data, such as from a name change due to marriage.
Elon Musk donated over $20 million to Wisconsin’s recent special judicial election. The Lever says it may be because Tesla is suing Wisconsin, and the donation aligns with a pro-business desire to buy judges for future benefit. The Democrat-backed candidate Susan Crawford beat conservative Brad Schimel despite Musk’s influence.
Trump’s vehicle tariffs have begun and include auto parts, various media reported.
The Lever reported egg prices fell 54% after the announcement of a probe into price gouging.
Notable headlines: “Top Officials Placed on Leave After Denying DOGE Access to Federal Payrolls”; “Trump Administration Abruptly Cuts Billions from State Health Services”; “DOGE Moves to Gut CDC Work on Gun Injuries, Sexual assault, Opioid Overdose Data and More”; “Now Is a Uniquely Terrible Time to Cut Funding for HIV” [because new drugs could eradicate AIDS]; “Saying ‘pandemic is over,’ NIH Starts Cutting COVID-19 Research” [including research on better vaccinations, long-Covid and pandemic prevention]; “Social Security
By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Contributor
Backs Off Plan to Cut Phone Services for Disabled People”; and, “Trump’s Threat to Bomb Iran Would Spark Retaliation, its Supreme Leader Says.” Border (in)security headlines: “An ‘Administrative Error’ Sent a Maryland Man to an El Salvador Prison, ICE Says” [He’d fled gang violence and had legal protection from ever returning to El Salvador. Trump’s administration refuses to bring him back]; I’m the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped”; “The US Government is Effectively Kidnapping People for Opposing Genocide”; “Appeals Court Sides with Judge who Blocked Deportations under Wartime Authority”; “Florida Debates Lifting Some Child Labor Laws to Fill Jobs Vacated by Undocumented Immigrants”; and, “Police Say ICE Tactics are Eroding Public Trust in Local Law Enforcement.”
In a televised Cabinet meeting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she planned to “eliminate” the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA responds to national emergencies.
A (big) blast from the past: In a 2021 interview, now-Vice President JD Vance said, “Conservatives...have lost every major powerful institution in the country...We’ve lost big business...finance...culture...the academy...if we’re going to actually really effect change in the country, it will require us completely replacing the existing ruling class... We really need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power.” The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 mirrors Vance’s statement. Its author, Russell Vought, is now Trump’s Office of Management and Budget director. Pre-election Trump denied knowledge of Project 2025 but rapidly began implementing it after gaining office.
Curtis Yarvin, co-founder of the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic philosophical movement Dark Enlightenment, outlined plans in 2022 to gut the U.S. government and replace it with a dictatorship. Yarvin favored a CEO in power who would run the executive branch without any interference from Congress or courts and called for existing important institutions, public and private, to “be shut down and replaced.” He has complimented Elon Musk’s work with DOGE. Reminder: In medieval Venice, an oligarch ruled for life and used the title “Doge.”
Chet Jackman. Courtesy photo
Western leaders call on Trump administration and Congress to protect public lands
By Reader Staff
Elected officials from Idaho and nine other Western states joined the nonprofit The Mountain Pact to send a letter to the Trump Administration and Congress on March 26 calling for a more balanced approach to public land management. The letter — signed by mayors, county commissioners and city council members — urged the Trump administration to oppose the sale of public lands in the budget reconciliation package and asked them to reject any attempts to change the Antiquities Act of 1906 or reduce the size of national monuments.
“Local elected officials know firsthand that protected public lands sustain our communities, power our economies, and serve as the corner-
< CENSUS, con’t from Page 5 > total population of 10,886.
“Just for reflection, our Comp Plan anticipates growth of about 2.5% [per year], so you know that 4.12% over four years is significantly below that,” he said. “So although it feels like we’re growing fast, we’re kind of steady and plugging away a little over 1% a year.”
Meanwhile, Grimm added that some multi-family family units in the city are seeing vacancy rates of 15%, which he said developers have described as “some of the highest they’ve ever seen in the history of these units.”
Grimm indicated that could represent declining prices, “so that’s good for economic development and attracting employers to our community.”
Statewide population grew by more than 30,497 during the July 2023-’24 period, with a general trend toward already high-population counties receiving the most growth — “likely due to the larger population areas having more services to offer the aging populations,” Roeser added.
The top 10 most-populous counties represented 26,076 new residents in the state, which census officials stated is an increased rate of 30% from 2022’23. Only Nez Perce County saw a decline, losing 131 residents.
“Combined, the [top 10 counties] were responsible for 86% of Idaho’s
stone of our outdoor way of life,” said The Mountain Pact’s Executive Director Anna Peterson.
The nonprofit group advocates for public lands and outdoor recreation policy on behalf of Western mountain communities with recreation-based economies.
“Protected public lands are the backbone of our mountain communities — but right now, they are under threat. That’s why The Mountain Pact and more than 300 local elected leaders from across the Western U.S. are fighting back, so we can ensure these critical resources are protected and preserved for generations to come,” said Peterson.
The local officials also called on Trump and Congress to increase support for public land management, which would improve access and help protect critical wildlife habitat, migra-
growth in 2024, a jump from the 2023 level of 74.6%,” the Labor Department stated.
As in previous years, the U.S. Census reported that the vast majority of growth in Idaho came from net in-migration — 80% of the most recent population increase stemmed from individuals moving to the state, leaving only 20% of growth to natural change, defined as births minus deaths.
Also as in past years, Bonner was among the counties that experienced negative natural change, meaning deaths outnumbered births, joining 13 other counties.
Neither Boundary nor Kootenai were listed among the counties with negative natural change, with the former logging a population of 14,040 (up from 13,557 the year before) and the latter with 188,323 (up from 185,010), ranking it third in the state for total population — behind only Ada and Canyon counties.
Shoshone, however, did mark negative natural change from 2023-’24, though it experienced a slight increase in overall population from 14,026 to 14,074.
More U.S. Census info is available at census.gov/data, and the Idaho Department of Labor has localized data at lmi.idaho.gov/census.
tion corridors, recreation areas, water resources and Indigenous cultural sites.
As part of the State of the Rockies Project, a 2024 poll by Colorado College found that 82% of Idaho residents support the creation of new national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges and tribal protected areas. A 2021 report from the National Parks Service also found that visitors to Idaho National Parks spent approximately $37.6 million per year, supporting 535 jobs and ultimately contributing $50.8 million to the state’s economy.
The March 26 letter comes after the Trump Administration made several moves to decrease funding and staffing for public lands, including at National Parks and key scientific agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last month, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the
Interior Doug Burgum issued orders targeting national monuments and positioning drilling and mining interests as the favored users of public lands. Trump has also fired thousands of employees, slashed millions in funding from public land agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and waged an all-out assault on renewable energy in favor of drilling and resource extraction.
The joint letter stated, “Increased fossil fuel development on public lands, weakened environmental regulations, and fast-tracking or eliminating environmental reviews for proposed projects jeopardizes both our public lands and public health while contributing to the climate crisis by causing the release of vast amounts of potent greenhouse gas emissions.”
Learn more at themountainpact.org
Bouquets:
• Since our foundation, this newspaper has always strived to be a paper for the people, by the people. That means we regularly run articles written by you, our readers, whose varied perspectives cover any number of topics, from winter paddleboarding to politics to goose poop. One of my own failings as a publisher is not sharing often enough how much I enjoy the perspectives of these community writers. (When you wear a lot of hats, it’s sometimes hard to see anything but a hat brim.)
I’d like to officially thank everyone who has contributed some words, photos or other media to the Reader in consideration for publication. We can’t publish everything that comes to us, but we sure enjoy reading and looking at your submissions even when they don’t make it to print. Keep up the good work, readers. Your voices are the ingredients that make this soup taste the way it does. OK, enough mixed metaphors for now.
• After writing about my desire to “sacrifice” a tourist to the lake every year to ensure good boating and fishing, readers have flooded my inbox with hearty approvals for the plan. I mean, a lot of you were strangely excited about this. I knew there were others out there who were a little batty like me, but I didn’t know how many. I think I’ve found my people. It’s so on. My only disappointment is having to wait until September, when the Sand Creek Regatta takes place. Maybe we can make the sacrifice two times a year?
Barbs:
• *Gestures broadly at everything*
‘So shall you sow, so shall you reap’...
Dear editor, Ah, Boundary County, the heart of Trump country, is your cult leader’s trade war with Canada starting to draw a little financial blood? “So shall you sow, so shall you reap!”
Lawrence Fury Sandpoint
Feces everywhere…
Dear editor, Department of Fish and Game, you brought an invasive species into Idaho thinking it could bring more money into the state from hunters that want to shoot wild turkeys. Three different years, you brought these fowl into our state, and guess what? The population of wild turkeys has gotten completely out of control, and if there are people hunting them, they haven’t made a dent in the turkey population. You need to do a conscientious hunt of these invaders to rid Idaho of their over-abundance.
People complain about goose poop at City Beach in Sandpoint. I venture to say that these wild turkeys produce a heck of a lot more feces than the geese at City Beach. The State of Idaho needs to reduce or eliminate this invasive species of wild turkeys. Fish and Game brought them here, and Fish and Game needs to get them out of here — at least out of Bonner County!
Michael Harmelin Sandpoint
‘A new low, even for Idaho’...
Dear editor, The Idaho House on Tuesday approved the establishment of Traditional Family Values Month, in a similar resolution to one passed in the Senate in February.
Rep. Joe Alfieri, R-Coeur d’Alene, sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 18, which designates Mother’s Day through Father’s Day as Traditional Families Month — highlighting two-parent households with a mother, father and biological children.
“It’s simply another celebration of an aspect of society that really should be honored on a more consistent basis,” Alfieri said.
I am appalled by this language! There is nothing “simple” about it! “Biological children!” Really? So, a married couple who adopted their children couldn’t celebrate this?
What about the couple who used a surrogate to carry their child? And let’s not forget same-sex marriages with children or the single mother who didn’t want the biological father involved, so she chose to raise the child by herself. No man in the house.
And what’s next? Bi-racial couples or couples with bi-racial children won’t be allowed to “celebrate” this month because theirs isn’t a “traditional” family?
Good Heavens! Only the most outrageously judgmental people would feel entitled to decide what a “traditional” family is.
I am truly appalled — but when I think about it, this is Idaho, after all, so I shouldn’t be surprised after 80-some years! But, oh, dear, this truly is a new low, even for Idaho!
Helen Newton Sandpoint
‘All
families’...
Dear editor,
The Idaho legislature just created a month-long celebration that honors “traditional families.” They define a traditional family as a mom and a dad and their biological children. We all love families, but I don’t understand why they only want to celebrate a certain kind of family. I’m a retired teacher, and I have worked with a wide assortment of loving families, including grandparents who have set their retirement aside so they can provide a safe and stable home for their grandchildren, widows and widowers who have lost their spouses and dedicated their lives to their children, couples who decide to adopt children and all the wonderful people who provide support and safety and love for a variety of children who desperately need it. I appreciate the legislature’s desire to acknowledge the importance of families; I think it should be “All Families.”
Steve Johnson Sagle
Unity through Reason
Dear editor,
Imagine if our legislature endorsed one state religion funded by our taxes, and only members of that faith could vote, buy land, find employment or seek protection under the law, and the only schools available were of that faith or private tutors for the wealthy. This was the culture in which our constitutional framers lived
and forged our democratic republic. All but two colonies had governing religions with various discriminatory laws. Consequently, the very first constitutional amendment addressed freedom from an established religion and freedom of speech.
All the constitutional framers had advocated for personal practice of religious faiths but agreed not to include religion because of potential cultural impacts. But Idaho and other states have just taken a U-turn into well-charted waters from which those framers had painstakingly exited.
However, cultures aren’t relegated only to religion. Changes in population, industry and technology have brought social issues to the political forefront, and when supporters of religious and social philosophies force ideology-based policies and laws onto each other, issuing constraints or repealing freedoms, it fuels cultural division.
So, conservatives and liberals both, do we want a government to represent whichever brand of religion or philosophy that can buy the most politicians? Do we care about having a fair and impartial government under which we are free to live, believe as we choose, discuss issues and openly disagree without fear of reprisal?
If so, write our leaders and vote for those who’ll prioritize the unity of our country by negotiating using reason.
Georgia Earley Bonners Ferry
BY THE NUMBERS
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
20.4 million
The number of tourist visits Canadians took to the U.S. in 2024
$20.5 billion
The amount of money generated by Canadian tourists in the U.S. in 2024, supporting 140,000 American jobs.
48%
The number of Canadian travelers who responded they were “less likely to visit the U.S. in 2025 than last year,” in a poll released by Leger Marketing.
10%
The potential reduction in Canadian travel to the U.S. calculated by the U.S. Travel Association in response to President Trump’s tariffs and rhetoric about making Canada the “51st state” of America, which could mean 2 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 lost jobs.
OPINION
Double whammy
By Brendan Kelty Naples Reader Contributor
I was dismayed reading in the March 13 edition the Reader about the current financial troubles at the James E. Russell Sports Center at Travers Park due to lower than expected revenues. I was not a proponent of the facility being built at that particular location. As with any civic outcome that doesn’t go my way, I hoped for the best, and that several user groups in addition to pickleballers would buff out membership and a wider spectrum of Sandpointians would benefit from this narrowly focused facility.
My reservations seem to have proved correct, unfortunately. At the expense of quality green space and playground, a shelter popular for gatherings, the Baldy Mountain vista from Pine Street and predictability for sluggers using Travers ball fields, we now behold a monolithic, underutilized “drain on city resources,” as Mayor Jeremy Grimm described it.
Change is hard and is to be expected, and a new playground has been built. The fact remains, however, that the public loses further access to the thing that eliminated the green space, as the city reduces open hours to cut operating costs and stop the bleeding. Are we now entombing 40,000 square feet of formerly free-use public park? Double whammy.
This reminds me of another scenario, when the University of Idaho Extension on North Boyer Avenue was sold for development. Remember the multi-use land between North Boyer and Sand Creek? Anybody could bask in an outdoor, urban getaway, just a couple minutes from downtown and connected to the wider area via multiple paved trails.
Here was an idyllic and accessible mosaic of poplar grove, fields and stream-side forest. Sadly, it was sold to the highest bidder. Standard practice, really. But, one got the impression the city didn’t fight hard enough to acquire this land for its citizens.
Maybe that’s unfair. It was, after all, too expensive. But looking back (hindsight being 20/20) that was the pre-COVID real estate market — cheap by today’s standards. And, wasn’t the sale of this land just four years after the city passed a multi-million dollar levy to overhaul War Memorial Field? As a wise man says,
City Hall should fight for public-use spaces for its citizens
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The city’s 2018 Master Plan for this property was admirable in its proposed scenarios, which all included large publicly-accessible green spaces in addition to thoughtful development: residences, storefronts and, yes, an indoor recreation facility. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Now hark! “Base Camp,” a beacon of Post Falls-style sprawl. What a loss to the community.
Where was the breakdown between visionary city planning coupled with extensive public engagement, and dogged, no-holds-barred real estate acquisition on behalf of everyday Sandpoint residents?
Spare us the subterfuge that the development provides much needed low-cost housing inventory. A trip to Zillow shows $650,000-$900,000 listings — hardly the price point targeted by first-time home owners, the middle class or service industry workers, groups so important to a balanced, thriving community where median income is $67,800.
City leaders, average people need a victory. You’ve planned a wonderful city, but it seems that unless a person has several million bucks and a penchant for post-colonial, neo-modern, asymmetrical, rustic chic mountain condominium architecture then they don’t have a voice in what happens around here.
What’s next, a members-only jet ski timeshare marina at Third Street Pier? A Topgolf driving range at Hickory Park? Fee-based canopy zipline tours at the Native Plant Arboretum? You do not want to see members of the Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society when they’re mad.
We need places for moms to stroll and pups to run. Where little tykes can go on nature walks and look for Sasquatch. Where adventure-seekers cannonball into the lake from public land, burn off energy, gather. Please reprioritize public-use open spaces. The equation’s simple: more open spaces, not less of them.
Admittedly, the sale of UI Exten-
sion land was a separate issue and the university had the right to sell to a buyer of their choice. And no offense to pickleballers and those staged at “Base Camp” in preparation for their next expedition to Eichardt’s. There were complexities and years of debate, which led to current outcomes. However, on net balance in the public-access-to-open-space ledger, we are in the red. Two cherished green spaces have slipped away to the highest bidders within the past decade.
Whether those bidders were acting philanthropically or commercially, and it should be said within their rights, residents have forever lost use of prime generational community land.
City of Sandpoint, please remember to advocate — dare I say fight — for the rest of us and not solely for special interests with lots of cash.
Brendan Kelty Naples is a varsity armchair quarterback and local songster.
Fake news and the rule of law
By Justin Henney Reader Contributor
I wonder if Donald Trump goes to bed at night and is surprised at how easy it is for him to sell much of the American people untruths as truths.
He is a man who graduated from the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania, which is a school long associated with wealth, success and privilege. It is an elite school for elites in our country. Donald’s superior, Elon Musk, also went to the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania.
Both of these men are still supported by much of the working class in our country, but they suddenly seem less interested with working-class problems. Discrediting people like Judge James Boasberg seems to be the focus right now for Trump in his apparent quest for more power.
This brave judge, who is the target of Trump’s wrath, is held in high regard for integrity and nonpartisanship. He is questioning Trump’s honesty in recent deportations. He is also reminding Trump that there is a process that needs to be followed if the president wants to get rid of judges. The process
is called “the rule of law.” It might not be a rule Trump always follows, and it definitely slows things down and often frustrates people like Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump is now calling Canada a “nasty” country because it is actually standing up for itself and retaliating with reciprocal tariffs and looking to do business with Europe instead of the U.S., because of what Trump has started with his trade wars. Canadians are also refusing to bow down to Trump in his public comments about annexing their country as the 51st state.
Beside being incredibly disrespectful, this is unwanted by Canada. And The Donald is now repeating how “nasty” Canada is for not being on board with his desire to acquire that nation. Memories of my own past “nasty” attitudes come to mind, exhibited when I did not get a toy I really wanted as a toddler.
We have seen The Donald get very angry in the past with reporters — especially females, for some reason — and say “nasty” things. He has also admitted in an interview with Fox reporter Mike Wallace several years ago that he struggles to tell the truth at times, in a slightly whiny, toddlerish voice. This is
interesting, because Trump routinely attacks people of character and honesty as liars and fakes.
In the beginning of his rants, Trump often sounds ridiculous to me; but, after hearing the same rants and accusations over months, or years even, he wears me down and I begin to hear it as normal and maybe even truthful.
I am really interested in Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who recently reminded Trump to calm down and let the judicial system operate the way it has for more than 200 years. Trump likely has not responded with venom and “nastiness” toward Roberts for his respectful reprimand because it could go badly for Trump.
Let us remember that Donald Trump is a politician, who does not have honesty on his side — that is, if you believe some of his own family members, former friends, many Republicans, business acquaintances and ex-wives.
Oh yes, and there are those more than two dozen women from various walks of life who have nothing in common except that they swear he sexually assaulted them.
Fake news again? Sure.
Science: Mad about
sewage and fluid dynamics
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist
I was frequently lectured in elementary school for my bathroom humor.
“No one is supposed to think about poop!” I was often told.
It turns out that a lot of very important people think about poop quite a bit. If they didn’t, we’d all have to think about poop constantly because we’d always be knee-deep in it.
This issue was starkly apparent in London in the 1840s during a period referred to as “The Great Stink.” The city of two million people suffered from a grossly inadequate sewage system cobbled together over centuries of use. Flush toilets were en vogue, pushing a higher quantity of waste into the failing infrastructure than ever before and then effectively dumping it straight into the River Thames. The searing temperatures of the summer of 1858 exacerbated the stench and even ground legislation in Parliament to a halt.
Who wants to work when all you can smell is yesterday’s bangers and mash?
Worse yet, a cholera outbreak had begun killing Londoners by the thousands, with an estimated 10,000 casualties during 1858 alone. During this time, most people still believed in the theory of miasma, which argued that bad smells were the source of disease. It wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
The real sources of dis-
eases were the sources of the bad smells, and in the case of cholera, that meant it was the river of effluent flowing into and mixing with the city’s drinking water.
Dr. John Snow — unrelated to the character from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire — brought forth the idea of cholera being waterborne. His ideas were mocked, and he unfortunately died before he could experience vindication. Nevertheless, the sewage problem needed to be dealt with, so Parliament tasked Sir Joseph Bazalgette with creating a sewer system to support London’s growing population. The work took over twenty years and nearly doubled its initial budget, but it was so well designed that it’s still used to this day.
The difficulty of dealing with human waste is that it’s a mix of liquids and solids. A pipe with a pitch that is too shallow will cause solids to settle and collect, eventually obstructing the pipe. Having a pipe with too great of a pitch causes the same problem, as liquids race down the pipe and leave the solids behind. Clearing pipes in elaborate sewer systems is a laborious and difficult process that no one wants to do if it can be helped.
The optimal speed for fluid to travel while carrying waste is about one meter per second. This keeps your poop in a group, one could say.
It seems like it would be easy to just slant a pipe and call it a day, but there is far more at play here when thinking about poo dispos-
al. Eventually, the pipe will get too deep underground to properly service, which could be catastrophic if something solid gets lodged in there or some kind of catastrophe happens that damages the pipe and causes it to leach into the groundwater we drink from.
Additionally, engineers need to account for things like natural waterways when building water systems because external water can corrode the pipes from the outside. One solution to this is to build something called an inverted siphon, which is U-shaped and remains full at all times in order to work efficiently. The issue with a large U-shaped pipe is that it can collect solid waste, which builds up near the outflow side of the pipe and clogs it.
Another solution is to use many smaller pipes instead to maintain the same amount of pressure, collecting a minimal but steady amount of solids to prevent buildup.
Sewers are carefully designed to deal with a very specific subset of human waste — urine, feces, vomit and toilet paper. Unfortunately, humans like to flush other things down the toilet, like so-called “flushable” wet wipes that aren’t actually designed to break down in the same way as toilet paper. Toilet paper breaks down in minutes with agitation as it travels through sewer pipes, while flushable wipes do not.
Wipes will eventually decompose, but the real issue occurs when they come into
contact with grease or fats from cooking that have been poured down a sink drain. The internet has illuminated some of the horrors faced by frustrated plumbers and municipal engineers, who have whipped their phones out to record things we’ve flushed down drains.
“Fatbergs” are a mass of congealed fat from cooking mixed with wet wipes and
waste that jam up pipes like a cork in a wine bottle. This totally stops up a pipe, which leaves the waste with only one direction to go: back to the source.
If only my elementary school teachers could see me now, writing about poop for thousands of people to ruminate on and enjoy.
Stay curious, 7B.
Random Corner
• The first vehicle headlights were simply candles or oil lamps in glass cases affixed to the front of vehicles. They didn’t necessarily light up the road ahead, but rather, showed other drivers where your car was on a dark night. It wasn’t until 1898 when the first electric headlights appeared.
• In 1940, the 7-inch round sealed-beam headlight assembly became the standard for cars sold in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Transportation mandated that two of these headlights were to be used per car, with high and low beams enclosed in the same assembly. By 1957, automakers could choose smaller 5.75-inch sealed beams with separate high/ low and high beam units (which is why many cars in the late 1950s featured dual headlights on each side). By 1974, rectangular sealed beams were allowed (which is why many cars in the 1970s had square headlight designs).
• Over time, headlight lenses tend to “fog up” as UV light from
the sun oxidizes the plastic and road grime puts tiny scratches on the surface. This causes the lens to become hazy and that diffuses the light, making headlights less effective. Drivers can buy headlight polishing kits which work wonders on removing the UV-damaged surface. Or, a cheap alternative is to use toothpaste on a rag, which works almost as well as the kit you’d purchase at an auto parts store.
• HID or Xenon headlights started to show up in the 1990s in more expensive cars. These types of headlights shine brighter than anything that came before, but they’re also much more expensive. Lately, LED headlights are being introduced to more new cars, which are much cheaper. The next evolution in headlight technology is called digital matrix, which are LED headlights that adapt themselves to oncoming traffic. Matrix lights can redirect light to screen out oncoming cars, so the driver is not blinded by the LED headlights.
Cleaning up the Kootenai River and holding polluters accountable
By Jennifer Ekstrom Reader Contributor
Mountaintop removal coal mines near Fernie, British Columbia, have long polluted the Kootenai River in Idaho. For decades, the gorgeous Rocky Mountains have been blasted to exploit coal, with most of it being shipped around the world and burned for steelmaking. In addition to the climate impacts, the pollution downriver is undermining the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s efforts to restore endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon and burbot fisheries.
For too long, nothing significant has been done to fix the problem. The Idaho Conservation League is hopeful that is changing.
Over the past 10 months, the International Joint Commission (IJC) has been working to address the coal mine pollution dispute under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. This independent body is tasked with resolving water disputes between the United States and Canada, and its activation marked a historic step toward cleaning up the Kootenai River in Idaho. It’s the first time ever that tribes and First Nations have their rightful seats at the decision-making table under this treaty.
The study board established by the IJC is composed of both scientific experts and Indigenous knowledge holders. This approach is designed to integrate rigorous scientific analysis with time-tested traditional insights about the land and water. Together, the study board members will offer a comprehensive assessment of the challenges and guide the implementation of effective solutions. The study board is scheduled to prepare an interim report by fall 2025, and a final report by September 2026. There will be opportunities for the public to give input during the process.
As North Idaho director, I have been appointed to the IJC’s Public Advisory Group. This appointment underscores the focus on a transparent, inclusive process, as ICL has long been a vocal advocate for stringent measures to tackle the pollution. We are urging the IJC to incorporate several critical considerations, including:
• Improved water treatment — The mining in the Elk Valley has caused widespread water pollution that poses
a significant threat to aquatic life, fish populations and human health. Although localized water treatment efforts at the mine sites have shown that selenium can be effectively removed, they have treated only a miniscule fraction of the water released by these mines. It is imperative to build sufficient water treatment infrastructure at the speed and scale necessary, and must be the highest priority until the pollution is permanently resolved.
• Financial accountability — It is unacceptable for taxpayers or affected communities to bear the cost of cleanup when corporations have profited immensely from activities that caused this environmental crisis. The mining corporations should be required to establish a permanent trust fund dedicated to financing water treatment, which will be necessary for centuries after the mines are closed.
• Moratorium on new mines or mine expansions — No new mines or expansions should be permitted until wastewater treatment systems are in place that can effectively eliminate both current and future sources of water contamination.
• Consistent cross-boundary, enforceable water quality standards — Strict, enforceable water quality standards that apply uniformly on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border are needed. Limits on selenium pollution were adopted on the U.S. side of the border, but Canadian provincial and federal governments have yet to adopt and enforce a consistent standard on their side, allowing pollution to flow unchecked into the U.S.
• Water quality monitoring and longterm shared management of our watersheds — Recognizing the persistent
nature of the pollution, water quality monitoring in the Elk-Kootenai watershed must continue well beyond the two-year study period. Monitoring should extend at least to the confluence of the Kootenai and Columbia rivers — and potentially farther downstream — until water quality standards are not only met but maintained over an extended period. Equally important is the need for collaborative, long-term management of the watershed. Regulatory oversight and cooperative governance must persist until the pollution harms are completely fixed.
A bold new chapter in transboundary water management is now being written. On paper, the process reflects a commitment to clean water, robust accountability and the active involvement of both scientific experts and Indigenous knowledge holders. We need Idaho Sen. Jim Risch on board as well. As the powerful chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he can help ensure the Canadian and British Columbian governments adhere to the IJC’s recommendations — which we hope will detail the robust regulatory actions necessary to ensure their mining industries do not continue to pollute our waters.
Idahoans, and every community along U.S. and Canadian shared waterways, deserve the assurance of clean water and healthy fisheries.
In this pivotal moment, ICL calls on Risch and other leaders to support these historic efforts, ensuring that the Kootenai River will support life for generations to come.
Jennifer Ekstrom is North Idaho director for the Idaho Conservation League.
The Kootenai River. Courtesy photo
PERSPECTIVES
Starting a vegetable garden
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
As the stress of modern life increases and the cost of groceries continues to rise, more and more people are turning to the peace and self-sufficiency that home gardens provide. Still, figuring out where to begin can be daunting, given the overwhelming amount of information available and the standards set by old pros. If you know what to plant, first gardens can be as simple as plopping a few seeds in the ground or a pot in the sun.
Choosing the right crops
Trying to grow a supermarket-worthy watermelon right out of the gate is a recipe for disappointment. For a guaranteed harvest and confidence boost, first-time gardeners can turn to easy crops like peas, radishes, green beans, zucchinis, small tomatoes and leafy greens like lettuce. Most of these seeds can be planted outside without issue, though to get ripe zucchini and tomatoes earlier in the season, it’s easier to buy baby plants — or “starts” — that have had time to grow indoors.
When choosing from this list, consider what you’ll actually use in the kitchen. Just because radishes are easy to grow doesn’t mean you want 30 of them.
Buying seeds and starts
Supermarkets, farm suppliers and home and garden stores all sell starts and seed packets, usually from big brands like Ferry-Morse and Burpee. These are a fine, inexpensive way to get into gardening. Shopping at small stores and farmers markets, though, will not only help the local economy but will usually give you a more diverse selection of plant varieties and organic and sustainable options.
My favorite seed brands are Snake River Seed Cooperative, Adaptive Seeds and Deep Harvest Farm, all of which are grown in the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West and easily adapt to life in Bonner County. Look for them on shelves or buy directly from their websites.
When choosing between seed pack-
ets, there are three main things to look for: growing conditions, spacing and the number of days to harvest. Growing conditions will show how much sun a plant needs per day and when and where they will grow.
For instance, if your garden has anything shading it during the day, look for “partial shade/sun” or “shade tolerant/loving.”
The packet will also list USDA Hardiness Zones or include a color-coded map to show the optimal planting dates corresponding to your location.
Most of Bonner County falls under Zone 6, meaning the average minimum winter temperature is between zero and minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on elevation, latitude and other geographical factors, parts of the county are even Zones 5 and 4.
To see where your garden lands, visit planthardiness.ars.usda.gov.
Spacing is self-explanatory — it’s how much room each seed needs to grow. Don’t plant a 20-foot watermelon vine in a pot on the patio.
Finally, the listed days to harvest will tell you whether a plant can reach maturity in our area when planted directly outdoors. Bonner County’s average last Spring frost happens around May 14, while the first fall frost occurs around September 16. That makes for an average growing season of 125 days — but that number can change depending on site conditions.
Slow-growing crops can take more than 100 days to reach maturity, which is cutting it pretty close to the deadly frost dates. Plants like these need to grow indoors until the weather warms up, so beginning gardeners should purchase these as starts rather than seeds.
If you want to learn to grow your own starts, read “Getting Down to Brassica Tax” on sandpointreader.com
Planting
When it’s time to plant, ensure the soil is relatively dry and nearing air temperature. Planting in wet soil will inadvertently compact it, making it difficult for the seedling’s roots to grow properly. Our dirt can range from
rocky to mushy, so if it doesn’t appear crumbly, dark and easy to dig through — or if, when you pour water on it, the soil doesn’t immediately soak it up — you might need to buy some additives or consider a container. Garden stores can recommend what to mix into your soil to help it drain, retain water or increase its nutrients.
Once the soil is ready, follow the planting instructions on the seed packet, or, as a rule, cover seeds with soil that’s twice as deep as the seed is long.
Plant arugula, mustard greens, peas, radishes, lettuce and spinach outside throughout April for a late spring crop.
Got garden questions? Email them to soncirey@sandpointreader.com to have them answered in an upcoming installment of “Slug Tales from Zone 6.”
Tomatoes and zucchini from the author’s garden. Photo by Soncirey Mitchell
Protecting Our Idaho Waters
By Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle Reader Contributor
For decades, water has been on the mind of every farmer, rancher and landowner along the Snake River in southern Idaho. There is competition between agricultural uses and hydropower production. There is also competition within the agricultural community between those who use surface water and those who pump water from the aquifer. Water in the Snake River Basin is a finite resource. Conflicts are determined by our “First in time, is first in right” water doctrine.
In North Idaho, we have historically enjoyed an abundance of water. A growing population, federal government policy, federal government dam operations and an international treaty threaten the natural resource we enjoy and rely on.
What are we doing in Idaho to preserve our waters? Fortunately, we have decades of experience in water adjudication, starting with the Snake River Basin in 1987, which took until 2014 to finalize. Our state has been in a continual process of adjudicating water rights across drainage basins ever since.
Idaho is nearing statewide completion. Water adjudication is in process in the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille River Basin and is just beginning in the Kootenai River Basin and the Bear River Basin. Statewide adjudication has legal advantages for the state and protects the individual water rights of all Idahoans without the need to sue your neighbor to resolve a conflict.
Adjudication information is available at idwr.idaho.gov
The Columbia River Treaty, a sixty-year agreement between the U.S. and Canada on flood control and hydropower, was ratified in 1964. The treaty partially determines flows and dam operations in the Columbia River System. The Albeni Falls Dam is a part of the system, so Lake Pend Oreille water levels are affected.
Now past the sixty-year term, there is some uncertainty in operations. Negotiations on a new treaty began in 2018. There is an agreement in principle for a new treaty, but talks are currently paused. This one is harder to influence, but efforts are being made.
In addition to the state water adjudication, there are local efforts underway to protect our waters. I think most
of us have been disappointed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ initial delayed response to the Albeni Falls Dam spillway gate issues, as well as the extended timeline proposed for repairs. It should not take four times as long to change a set of car tires as it took to first build the car.
The Lakes Commission, a six-member advisory board tasked with the preservation of Lake Pend Oreille, the Pend Oreille River, Priest Lake and Priest River, is heavily engaged with the Corps. The commission has been instrumental in providing both information to the community and a public forum to give feedback to the Corps. I believe public pressure is expediting the repair timeline and ensuring water level operations that work for the community.
As your representation in Boise, Rep. Mark Sauter and I have been working on two Lake Pend Oreille issues. First, in conjunction with the Lakes Commission, we are pushing to move faster on the Albeni Falls Dam
gate repairs. If the gate failures require emergency water level operations, then correcting the deficiency is also an emergency.
Second, we are advocating for an extended full pool period on Lake Pend Oreille, more in alignment with the original agreements that authorized construction of the Albeni Falls Dam. Operating the lake at higher levels provides quicker access for emergency response, greater recreational opportunities and safer navigation. Higher lake levels are possible while still providing for fisheries, flood control and power production.
The Lake Pend Oreille Alliance website, savependoreille.org, has a wealth of information on the issue.
A few weeks ago, Sauter and I organized an informational session on Lake Pend Oreille in the Senate Resources and Environment Committee to raise awareness in the Legislature on our lake issues. This coming week, we hope to request action from the federal government through a Senate Joint Memorial. The March 19th committee hearing and SJM 105 can be viewed on Legislature.Idaho.Gov.
The 2025 legislative session should wrap up this coming week or the next. I am looking forward to being back in the district and having a chance to catch up with folks locally.
Jim Woodward is the Dist. 1 Republican senator from Sagle. He serves on the Joint Finance-Appropriations (vice-chair) and Education committees. Reach him during the 2025 legislative session at 208-3321349 (Statehouse), 208-946-7963 (home) or jwoodward@senate.idaho.gov.
Sen. Jim Woodward. File photo
Do you believe in the Constitution?
By Timothy Braatz Reader Contributor
The U.S. Constitution, written in 1787, is a brief instructional manual, sketching out a federal government, what it can and cannot do — a barebones blueprint. Not much to “believe in.”
The creation of the Constitution — by 55 men, almost all wealthy — was a balancing act. For selfish reasons, they wanted a central government powerful enough to enforce laws regarding taxation, trade and finance. But they did not want a ruler too powerful to control — no king, please. Their solution was to divide power among three branches of government: legislative (Congress), executive (president) and judicial (courts).
The legislative branch held most of the power. Only Congress could pass laws, control finances, create courts, declare war and raise an army. The president’s job description was small: 1. ensure that Congress’s laws were “faithfully executed”; 2. command Congress’ military; and 3. negotiate foreign treaties, subject to approval by Congress.
“Believing in” the Constitution, then, means valuing the rule of law, including the federal separation of powers, as opposed to the dictatorship of one person.
In 1933-1978, Congress created a larger federal government to stabilize the economy. Before that, corporations were free to abuse workers, cheat investors, pollute communities and rig
prices — anything to maximize profits. This antisocial behavior led to frequent financial collapses, a miserable workforce on the verge of revolution and a toxic environment.
New government agencies had the task of enforcing federal regulations to clean things up.
Some people call these agencies the “deep state,” implying that federal workers are engaged in conspiracy. In fact, the federal government employs more than 2 million civil servants, including financial experts, scientists, security agents and medical personnel.
If you board an airplane, visit a national park, apply for disaster relief, mail a letter or request a passport, you are relying on civil servants. If you expect that food ingredients will match the labeling and your bank deposits are insured and public buildings have wheelchair ramps and workers will get paid extra for overtime, thank a federal inspector.
These jobs are so critical that Congress passed a series of laws to ensure federal employees were hired and retained based on their abilities. Before those laws, a new president had dictatorial power to fire all government workers and replace them with his friends, campaign donors and party loyalists.
Which brings us to the current Trump presidency, consisting of two elements: 1. Trump’s very fragile ego, which fears appearing “weak,” hides behind dishonesty and demands
revenge for any perceived slight, and 2. political operators who manipulate Trump’s ego to achieve their goal of dismantling federal programs.
Why would anyone want to destroy federal programs that promote health and safety, economic stability and scientific knowledge? Without government oversight, large corporations — including banks, insurance companies, agribusiness, fossil fuel extractors and retailers — can behave like they did before the 1930s.
This explains why the world’s most extreme hoarder of wealth, Elon Musk, bribed Trump (with flattery and massive political donations) to place him (a private citizen) in charge of firing federal workers.
Trump’s team also wants to eliminate the independent status of the Justice Department, the FBI and other federal enforcement agencies. They want those agencies to serve the president personally, not all citizens equally. In short, they want a dictator in the White House — one that places corporation profits over human well-being — and Trump is happy to play that role.
The average Trump supporter is now in a difficult position: Do you believe in the Constitution, which requires separation of powers and a limited president? Or do you believe in Trump, who is betraying voters by allowing Musk and others to destroy federal agencies and create unlimited presidential power? Do you enjoy democracy, or do you prefer billionaire tyranny?
The Home and Garden Show returns to Sandpoint
By Reader Staff
Sandpoint’s annual Home and Garden Show, presented by the North Idaho Building Contractors Association, returns to the Bonner County Fairgrounds (4203 N. Boyer Road, in Sandpoint) for two days of food, shopping and helpful home and garden experts.
The event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 6, will include more than 70 vendors and professionals ready to answer questions about remodeling, furnishing, landscaping and more. Walk around the fairgrounds to find adorable garden art,
scout out the latest technology, view the elaborate displays and attend home repair and gardening classes. The event is free to attend and includes complimentary seed packets to
take home. Keep your eyes peeled because two lucky scavenger hunt winners will earn a $250 gift card each.
For more information, visit nibca. com/home-and-garden-show.
Photo courtesy of NIBCA.
‘Art from the unexpected’ POAC
By Reader Staff
hosts exhibit celebrating ‘upcycled creativity’
The Pend Oreille Arts Council will display the exhibit Second Life: Art from the Unexpected at the POAC Gallery (313 N. Second Ave.) throughout the month of April, beginning with an opening reception with the artists on Friday, April 4 from 5-7 p.m.
The exhibit features fine art by Daryl Baird, Judy Baird, Molly Gentry, Alexandra Iosub, Kristina Ludwig, Judy Minter, Holly Pennington, Teresa Rancourt and Elle Summer, all of whom breathe new life into repurposed, upcycled and found materials. The displayed pieces are made from cardboard, plaster, paint, plants, found objects, shovels, wooden boxes and more.
“This exhibition highlights how beautiful, high-quality art can emerge from the most unconventional materials,” said POAC Arts Coordinator Claire Christy.
“It’s a reminder that artistic expression doesn’t have to rely on expensive supplies. Sometimes, the most compelling works come from what we already have,” she added.
Among the selected pieces are Kristina Ludwig’s intricately crafted birchbark dress and Daryl Baird’s repurposed guitar sculpture.
While Second Life coincides with Earth Day, its focus is broader, celebrating creativity in a world of consumption and waste. Second Life: Art from the Unexpected is POAC’s first exhibition dedicated exclusively to upcycled and unconventional materials. The show runs until Wednesday, April 30, offering visitors plenty of opportunities to explore a diverse range of works that challenge traditional ideas of artistic media.
For more information, visit artinsandpoint.org.
WEIRD NEWS
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
WOMAN LEAVES $2.5 MILLION LOTTERY TICKET IN POCKET OF JACKET DONATED TO CHARITY
If you take nothing else from this story, heed this warning: check your pockets before donating clothes to charity.
An elderly Pennsylvania woman is on the hunt for a jacket she donated to charity after realizing she left a whopping $2.5 million winning lottery ticket in the pocket.
Mildred Simoneriluto, 76, purchased a ticket for the Pennsylvania Cash 5 drawing at a convenience store in Murrysville in May 2024. Two weeks later, Simoneriluto saw that she’d matched all five numbers on her ticket. She attempted to locate the ticket but realized in horror that she’d left it in the pocket of a jacket she donated to the Vietnam Veterans of America.
“I was stupified; there are no words for it, there’s no expression. How can I get it back,” Simoneriluto told local news affiliate WTAE-TV.
The woman tried to track down the ticket, but learned the organization sends its donations across the country and sometimes overseas. There was no way to track the item.
The Pennsylvania Lottery told Simoneriluto there was no way to claim the prize without a physical lottery ticket in hand. The ticket expires May 8, so even if found afterward it would be worth nothing.
“What else can I do?” she said. ‘Cry out loud and hope that something will happen positive on my end?”
Meanwhile, if you see a Pennsylvania lottery ticket in a jacket you buy at a thrift store with the numbers 14-22-33-35-38, I’d like to be your new best friend.
Top: “Tomato Basil Soup” by Judy Minter. Bottom left: “ The Place Between Confusion and Clarity” by Teresa Rancourt. Bottom middle: “Signs of Inequality and Aggregation” by Teresa Rancourt. Bottom right: “Goodbye Doubt Collage” by Teresa Rancourt.
OUTDOORS
Winter paddleboarding
By Ed Ohlweiler Reader Contributor
When winter temperatures get into the 40s, I find myself excitedly wiggling into a wetsuit; which, despite being thin (the wetsuit, not me), proves surprisingly arduous. I only have two rules: it has to be in the 40s (or above) and I have to wear a wetsuit. Though I recently broke that last one on the grounds that it was a good day for a “polar bear plunge,” if necessary.
I load up a paddleboard that I’d borrowed from one neighbor and a paddle from another neighbor, which I find amusing since I actually own two different paddleboards in different states. It’s my firm belief that paddleboards (and beater guitars) should be like library books. And wetsuits are relatively easy to find at thrift stores.
Closer to the water, I throw the board on a sled because — why not? If you live in North Idaho, you probably already have a quiver of sleds. This one even survived the last sledding party (despite repeated kiddo abuse).
Already I’m getting nostalgic from the last “Snowvember“ paddle, which included a visit to a third neighbor where I was introduced to the secrets of brain tanning. If you think brain tanning is a weird way to spend your free time, you definitely don’t live in my neighborhood.
In “Snowvember,” there was snow all around us but it had yet to “stick” down by the waterfront, which is where I saw the glow-in-the-dark hare, as I like to call snowshoe hares when they are pure white on a brown background. This is no exaggeration, on the way back it was actually dark and I did in fact see it, pretending like it was hiding.
My fears for its safety are alleviated upon noticing the recent telltale tracks in the snow. I get a little giddy in the spring when I see them completely brown, except for their snazzy white dress shoes. They remind me of jazz musicians.
The November moon is called “the Beaver Moon,” but I felt that should be changed to “the Otter Moon,” as I watched otters swimming around the railroad bridge by moonlight. That was pretty magical.
Approaching the shore, I find myself dragging the sled through the
obligatory goose poop. No worries, goose poop also makes me nostalgic. Not that I love the long stout pellets, but I have so many memories associated with them, since geese love the same shores and places that I do. Hell, in Anchorage we used to play ultimate Frisbee in fields full of goose poop, often diving for the disc!
The water is calm, which means effortless paddling and vivid reflections. Already I see birds in the distance. Binoculars: check. I am a birder by marriage; and, in addition to that joy, which Pam has brought into my life, I also rarely find myself without a good pair of binocs.
While they might seem a little unruly while paddling, it’s not as incongruous as skating around with a hockey stick and puck and binoculars, like I found myself doing this winter.
A small fish jumps, pursued, I like to imagine, by an unseen otter. The autumn’s milfoil is gone, so I don’t have to get dangerously close to the front of the board to keep the skeg out of the weeds. Just clear sailing!
Look! Common mergansers... mallards... even hooded mergansers...
I drift by boat docks stranded ridiculously high in the air; some water slides even. Many exceedingly beautiful homes, others being remodeled or under construction. One worksite had a porta-john, which I make note of in case of emergency. Sometimes a thin sheet of ice will stretch out from the shore and I will have to paddle around it; but, when this happens, a cove of sorts will be formed on the other side and often these are just chock-full of waterfowl.
More mergansers... bufflehead... goldeneye...
I swear, if I ever fall off this board it’s going to be while looking through binoculars and pivoting to see birds with the paddle leaning on my shoulder. While I’m always mentally prepared for that, it’s pretty rare. There was that one time, but I blame the beer!
The ripples coming off of the front of the board and the immaculate reflection produce that same sense of hypnosis as a good campfire.
A pair of swans and one “ugly duckling”...
According to our rather sizable collection of bird books, this brown signet would have been born last May or June. While they may be brown
for two years, they only stay with their parents for five to 10 months — meaning this teenager is just about to become too cool for its folks.
Over by the railroad tracks, there are some lots with only gazebos and maybe a storage shed. These act as permanent campsites, probably because of setback requirements from the water and the tracks. I pass other places, even some modest homes and a doublewide-looking place that give me hope — especially since they actually look lived in — as well as an estate that is rumored to be on the market for $7 million. While I can’t validate that, I do know from the sign it is shown “by appointment only,” because I’d considered making an appointment — dressing up with my wife and turning it into a date night. Can you bring your own wine to a house showing? This is all so new to me...
A pair of great blue herons... lovers?... I wonder if I look like a onelegged water strider to that osprey way up there...
Now that I’m circling back, I realize that I’ve inadvertently corralled most of the waterfowl into one massive raft, and I am going to have to flush them to get back to my sled. I don’t
enjoy stressing so many animals out at once. The other consequence is that eagles will watch intently to see if there is one that can’t fly or is having trouble. Nature truly is red in tooth and claw, I think while watching a seagull pluck the eyeball out of a large fish that is somehow on top of the ice.
A single pair of redheads — what a treat!... oddly, not a single coot... except me...
The whole raft takes flight, starting with the most skittish. Some run on the water to get primed for flight, and others — goldeneye — make a unique kind of whistling sound as they’re taking off. A few geese remain and voice their disapproval. I’m reminded of my friend Emily, who likes to shout at the Canada geese, “Go back to your own country!”
All in all, a wonderful day. So beautiful, so invigorating, so many birds. I almost don’t feel worthy of such majesty, until I remember the old “river rat” bumper sticker that reads: “You Deserve a Good Paddling!”
The author paddles next to some ice remaining on the surface of Lake Pend Oreille. Courtesy photo
KLT welcomes volunteers for Sled Hill gardening work
By Reader Staff
Kaniksu Land Trust welcomed volunteers from Panhandle Special Needs, Inc. and Gardens For Health Collaborative into the garden space at the historic Sled Hill this week to begin breathing new life and a fresh perspective into this longtime garden.
Plans are in motion to create a community garden amongst the overgrown raspberry bushes and gnarled fruit trees. The group’s vision is to establish a gathering place for community members to come together and learn about gardening from one another. Volunteers from Cedar Hills Church built a fence around the garden last summer, and there are plans to prune fruit trees, re-enforce the raspberry patch, establish garden boxes, create a resting place with benches and more.
“Any opportunity to help the land
trust is wonderful,” said volunteer Michele Murphree.
The collaborative nature of this project reflects a shared vision of empowering people to grow and share fresh produce. Volunteers recently moved five raised beds into the space with the help of PSNI and other partners.
“Nonprofits have to work together,” said volunteer Andy Kennaly.
“We’re not gardening experts, so it’s wonderful to bring in Michele and others to shape this space,” said KLT Conservation Director Regan Plumb.
Though still in early stages, excitement is high and everyone involved looks forward to seeing the garden come to life.
“We don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like,” Plumb said, “but as a community, we’re going to build it.”
GARDEN SEASON HAS BEGUN
Jon Bair and other Bonner County Gardeners Association members volunteer to prune fruit trees at Christ Our Redeemer community garden on a snowy day on March 15. Photo by Michelle Murphree.
KLT and PSNI worked on the garden at the Pine Street Sled Hill on April 1. Courtesy photo
Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com
Bingo night
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Picked Up Pieces
6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Live Jazz w/ Bright Moments
6-8pm @ Baxters on Cedar
Live Music w/ Emma Greenwood
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Marcus Stephens 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Unforgettable immersive evening with colors and rhythms by composers from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and more. $15
April 3-10, 2025
Second Life: Art From the Unexpected 5-7pm @POAC Gallery, 313 N. 2nd Ave.
A captivating exhibition showcasing artists who transform repurposed, upcycled and found materials into stuning works of art
Chocolate making classes • 5:30-7:30pm @ Sandpoint Chocolate, 608 Lake St. You will be decorating all your own chocolate and get to see the chocolate machinery in action. Also hand dipping fruits and cookies. This is a must for all chocolate lovers. Call 208-304-3591 to RSVP
SATURDAY, April 5
Sandpoint Home and Garden Show
10am-5pm @ Bonner County Fairgrounds
The area’s top building experts and remodelers all gathered at one place
North Idaho Old Time Fiddlers jam
2-4pm @ Sandpoint Senior Center Bring an instrument if you’d like to join along. Free to attend, all welcome
Live Music w/ Suspicious PKG 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
SunDAY, April 6
Lost in the ’50s Fundraiser Breakfast
7:30am-12:30pm @ Second Ave. Pizza Selkirk Assoc. of Realtors takes over Second Ave. Pizza to raise funds for the ’50s! $20/person, $10 for kids 10 and under. Scrambled eggs, pancakes, potatoes, sausage or bacon and fruit
Sandpoint Home and Garden Show 10am-3pm @ Bonner County Fairgrounds
monDAY, April 7
Outdoor Experience Group Run
6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome
Intro to Salsa Dancing 5pm @ Barrell 33
Learn the basic steps of the salsa. $15
tuesDAY, April 8
Live Piano w/ Jennifer Stoehner • 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
A mix of contemporary and improvisational songs
Rights & Resistance meetup • 5-7pm @ Matchwood Brewing
Hosted by Pro-Voice Project. “Disagreeing Better”
Friends of the Library monthly book sale 10am-2pm @ Sandpoint Library
Great selection of fiction and mystery books, some in large print. April is poetry month, so those will be featured
Library open mic
5:30-7:30pm @ Evans Brothers Coffee Music, spoken word, storytelling, comedy, etc. Original or non welcome
Fundraiser and live music for CREATE 1pm @ CREATE Art Center, Newport Silent auction and live music by Ben Kardos to help raise money for a new HVAC system for the center
$5 movie: Toy Story
2 & 7pm @ Panida Theater
Join Woody, Buzz and the crew for this nostalgic film for $5
Senior CDA Casino Trip (RSVP deadline) Free transportation is available from the Sandpoint Senior Center to the Coeur d’Alene Casino on April 14. Those 55+ can call 208-263-6860 to RSVP a spot on the bus, which leaves at 8:30am and retuns around 4-5am
Angels Over Sandpoint monthly members meeting 5:15pm @ Kaniksu Community Health Board Room 301 Cedar St. Suite #201
wednesDAY, April 9
Hotel California: The Original Eagles Tribute (live music)
7:30pm @ Panida Theater
They’ve recreated the sound of The Eagles for over three decades and have earned a widespread following. $49.50
Live Trivia • 7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
$5/person, arrive early to guarantee a spot. Max 17 teams
Artist Reception: Alex Galford
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Meet the artist and view their works
Live Piano w/ Peter Lucht • 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery An evening of jazz with Peter on the grand
Mobile Food Market
11am-1pm @ First Lutheran Church, 526 S. Olive Ave. No appt. needed. While supplies last. Enter from Ontario
The White Lotus and The Righteous Gemstones: two servings of ‘eat the rich’ entertainment
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Most sources credit JeanJacques Rousseau with writing, “When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.” No one knows for certain whether he actually coined the phrase “eat the rich,” but it’s historically accurate to trace its pedigree to the era of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century.
More than 230 years later, Rousseau’s possibly apocryphal observation has evolved into an injunction, and even an entire genre of hyper-popular entertainment. Google around a bit on the concept and you’ll find dozens of think pieces analyzing the phenomenon of “eat the rich” films and TV series, with typical examples including The Triangle of Sadness, the Glass Onion mini-franchise, Parasite, The Menu and Saltburn on the big screen, and Succession, Beef and The White Lotus on the small.
These media properties have a few critical things in common: super-rich, loathsome people are put in situations where their wealth can’t protect them from themselves or others, highlighting the essential bankruptcy of their lives and very souls, often with embarrassing, grotesque and/or fatal results. In most cases, their financial lessers are either the architects of their downfall or suffer at their hands before coming out (relatively) on top.
Of the most often referred to series in this Jacobin milieu, The White Lotus is the deftest, but also on the list should be The Righteous Gemstones — both streaming with new seasons on Max (and, coincidentally, each with Walton Goggins as a central character).
Ending its third season on Sunday, April 6, The White Lotus plops uber-wealthy louses in some exotic locale where they’re sequestered in a luxury
resort bearing the series’ title and reveal themselves to be human garbage in various ways. Season 1 was set in Hawaii, Season 2 in Italy and the current season is centered on a “wellness” retreat in Thailand (full of the most psycho-socially unwell people on Earth).
The individual details are mostly irrelevant — every season plays out pretty much the same — with a sickening parade of indulgences, casual cruelties and toxic entitlement visited on guests and servants alike (though this season especially benefits from Parker Posey as the oblivious pill-popping wife of a swiftly unraveling white collar criminal and mother to a trio of poisonously pampered kids with weird sexual energy. Also Goggins as an existentially shattered middle-aged man on a mission for vengeance. Why he’s at The White Lotus-Thailand is still a mystery).
What sets The White Lotus apart from other offerings in the genre is the exploration of class and space.
The resorts in the series are colonial outposts for the rich and worthless, which, despite their exclusivity and lavishness, inevitably leave their guests even more miserable than they were when they arrived. They don’t belong there, and the friction between their internal vileness and the external beauty of their surroundings leads to combustion and a terrible reckoning.
However, The Righteous Gemstones provides even more grist for the Robespierrean mill.
Focused on the Gemstone family of mega-church evangelists in a fuzzy Southern Baptist/Prosperity Gospel denomination, it focuses on wealth-addled monsters but throws in dynastic dynamics (akin to Succession), as well as a hellfire-hot critique of the hypocrisy and absurdity that is inevitable with the unholy union of religion and capitalism.
While the characters of The White Lotus simply have too much money for their or anyone else’s good — and therefore unfortunately familiar — the Gemstone clan and its hangers-on are over-the-top personalities who more often than not spill into caricature.
By the current fourth season, patriarch Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) has washed his hands of the chintz-andglitz empire he and his-late wife built and handed the keys to his sociopathic kids (played by series creator Danny McBride, Edi Patterson and Adam DeVine). Thrown into the mix are the kids’ deranged spouses and partners, and their Uncle Baby Billy (Goggins), who steals every scene he’s in as the sidelined-butstill hustling snake oil preacher with designs on taking over as head of the family from his absent brother-in-law Eli — or at least getting a piece of the Gemstone wealth.
Meanwhile people are betrayed, some get shot, others get kidnapped, stuff blows up, things are smashed with a monster truck and all the mayhem leads straight back to the pulpit.
As with The White Lotus, the Gemstones have no business being in their environment — in this case, a church. Every
word they utter and action they take is a blasphemy to their self-professed faith, and no one is innocent.
Which is a point made by more than a few observers of “eat the rich” media.
“[T]hese stories are presented in a manner that is descriptive rather than proscriptive,” Current Affairs wrote in the 2023 article, “Why Media Conglomerates are Spoon-Feeding Us Anti-Capitalism,” by Sean McDowell.
That is, everyone is miserable — both masters and slaves — but there’s never any call to action to improve the lot of the latter and rein in the excesses of the former. Rather, McDowell argues, entertainment titans like Max realize there’s a market for hating the billionaire class and are cashing in on it with stories that revel in exposing the moral decrepitude of the .01% and punishing them for it, but without outright calling for revolution.
That’s a point made by Kelsey Eisen in a 2024 piece for Coveteur.com titled “Are We Actually Ready to Eat the Rich — Or Do We Just Love Watching Them?”
“[Media conglomerates] know the content is just lip service to a concept, presented to a society that has yet to
take more than minimal baby steps towards real political change in that arena.”
That may be true of The White Lotus, which has ended all of its previous seasons with the rich getting their just desserts, though the underlying structures of their hideousness remain unchanged. The titular resort chain is still very much in business, after all, meaning it has plenty more clientele ready to sail in on mega-yachts or touch down in private jets and choppers.
“‘[E]at the rich’ media is less of a political statement and more of a soothing concession,” Eisen wrote. “In picking the uber-wealthy as the villains, it lets the viewers be both culpable consumers and guiltless heroes. It’s basically class-anxiety pornography, pure catharsis without a real message or call to action.”
The Righteous Gemstones is different. Rather than amorphous “bad rich people,” it explores a specific group of bad rich people who do a specific thing: exploit religion for profit. Meanwhile, it also has the long-form luxury to weave real emotion into its characters. While all are heinous in their own ways, they also exhibit some glimmers of humanity, which both complicate the audience’s feelings about them and throws how disreputable and offensive their schtick is into even starker relief.
In that alone, The Righteous Gemstones provides the most “proscriptive” take on eating the rich. That is, stop going to their church because they’re crooks — as apt a message for our oligarchic day as any you’ll find on TV.
Stream new episodes of The White Lotus (final episode of Season 3 on April 6) and The Righteous Gemstones (final episode of Season 4 on May 4) on Sundays on Max.
The White Lotus promo image. Courtesy photo
By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist
She’s back... and just in time to celebrate a new decade. It’s a milestone birthday for me, and I’ve already been shown so much love that it’s mind-boggling! It’s also been a darn good diversion because leaving my friend Da Kriel in Cambodia was a tear-filled and heart-wrenching farewell.
As I mentioned in my last column, Da is a handsome and bright young lad I befriended on a trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, about six years ago. We’ve stayed in close contact, and he refers to me (and introduced me locally) as his “American mom.”
As with every other person I’ve met in Cambodia, Da’s family was affected by the unspeakable crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge, the Communist Party of Kampuchea. His grandfather was one of more than two million people executed by the heartless regime between 1975 and 1979. His grandmother hid in the countryside and was fortunate to survive, as many perished from starvation and disease. Da’s mother died of heart disease when he was young, and his father died of a brain injury not long after, leaving Da’s grandmother to raise him and his two brothers.
We spent three days with Da, who rolled out the red carpet for my travel companion, Jennifer Leedy, and me. The first morning came early. He met us at our hotel, and we traveled the dark roads by tuk-tuk with our steady driver, Gus, so we could arrive in time to experience Angkor Wat at sunrise. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is the
The Sandpoint Eater Our days with Da
largest religious structure in the world, initially constructed in the 12th century, and is known for its architecture and thousands of intricate bas-relief carvings. Tourists, monks and troops of monkeys crisscross the massive multi-temple complex from dawn to dusk.
Da is a certified guide and interpreted the architecture and history every step of the way with great national pride. A person could easily spend an entire day (or more) at Angkor Wat, but we kept our visit to a short three hours as we had other temples to visit. But first, we made a stop at Angelina Jolie Restaurant #1 (each small outdoor café-stall has a unique name and signage) for a refreshing Krud beer and baguette break. While Jennifer and I added fresh vegetables to ours, Da poured generous amounts of sweetened condensed milk into his chunk of our shared loaf. The milk is a staple
throughout Vietnam and Cambodia, used as a condiment for bread and beverages and as an ingredient in rice and desserts.
The following day, we headed out with Da and Gus to visit Krobieriel, Da’s family village. Though he now lives in company housing at the hotel where he works, Da returns to his town every Sunday to teach English to the local children, as he has done for the past six years. He has also developed a walking tour, which includes a local basket weaver, food gardens, the village market and his former elementary school.
When our tour ends, we are privileged to share lunch that Da and his brother Deth prepared at their family home. While they mainly subsist on fish, rice and vegetables, on this occasion, they splurged on a chicken. With cleaver in hand, Da deftly reduces the entire dressed chicken into bite-size pieces and stir-fries it
with fresh ginger, lemongrass, turmeric, kefir lime leaves, garlic and hot basil. It was rich and fragrant, served with rice and lots of fresh local fruits and coconut water.
Part of the joy of traveling is finding a like-minded companion who appreciates unique experiences, especially in third-world travel destinations, which can be daunting. My friend Jennifer is a perfect match. While others may be combing souvenir shops, you’ll find us searching for specialty foods in the local markets. In Cambodia, we sought out their award-winning Rumdoul Jasmine rice, Kampot peppercorns and cashews in the husk. I’m pleased
to report that by leaving behind a couple of hats and a few sundries, I could pack my bag with various peppercorns and several bags of cashews.
We’re waiting for Da to send the recipe for his fried chicken dish and hope to share it in a future column. Meanwhile, please try the recipe for Bai Krob Chanti (Cashew Rice), which I learned to make at a cooking class on a previous visit. Thanks to my fellow culinary enthusiast Jennifer, who managed to squeeze a 5-kilogram bag of rice into her suitcase, we are not lacking in ingredients. That’s my kind of travel companion! Chol Mouy!
Bai Krob Chanti Recipe (Cashew Rice)
Bai Kro Chanti is a popular Cambodian rice dish that originated in the 19th century and can be served as a main or side dish. Yields four servings.
INGREDIENTS: DIRECTIONS:
• 1 cup of long-grain rice
• 1 ½ cups of water
• 1/2 cup of toasted and coarsely chopped cashews
• 2 tbs of vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbs of grated ginger
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg (freshly ground from pod, if available)
• 1/4 tsp of ground cardamom
• Salt, to taste
• 1 tbs of fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
Rinse the rice in a fine mesh strainer until the water runs clear.
In a medium saucepan, combine the rinsed rice and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the water is absorbed.
Heat the vegetable oil in large saucepan or frypan over medium heat.
Sauté the onion, ginger and garlic until the onion is translucent.
Add the ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom to the saucepan and stir until blended with onion mixture. Add the cashews, stir and then stir in the cooked rice.
Add salt and lime juice to the saucepan and toss to combine.
Garnish with chopped cilantro.
The author, center, with Da Kriel, left, and travel companion Jennifer Leedy, right. Courtesy photo
MUSIC
Eagles tribute band to play Panida
By Reader Staff
With numerous No. 1 singles and albums, a half dozen Grammys, five American Music Awards and over 100 million records sold, the Eagles were a musical force to be reckoned with during the 1970s. Now, the next best thing to seeing the Eagles live might just be a show with Hotel California, “the original tribute to the Eagles,” playing at the Panida Theater on Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Hotel California began recreating the legendary sound of the Eagles in 1986 and has been playing all over the globe since, becoming the industry’s leading substitute for the Eagles. Legend has it that when
you close your eyes while listening to their live performances, you can almost smell Eagles’ founding member Don Henley’s cologne.
Hotel California has shared stages with the likes of The Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, REO Speedwagon and more. Composed of performers Andy Lapointe, Mike Dimoulas, Al Langlade and Jay Riehle, the band has continually impressed audiences the world over with incredibly accurate lead vocals, instrumental work and harmonies. Hotel California’s commitment to authenticity helps members flawlessly perform one of the most game-changing song catalogs in the history of rock ’n’ roll.
The concert is presented by Rock.It Boy Entertainment. Tickets are available for $49.50 on panida.org.
Original Toy Story to screen in Panida’s Sunday $5 film series
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Calling the 1995 Disney-Pixar animated film Toy Story a cultural juggernaut is no exaggeration.
From its then-cutting edge computer-generated graphics depicting the sentient denizens of young Andy Davis’ toy box came a decades-spanning franchise with its fifth sequel coming in 2026; 10 other spinoffs, shorts, series and specials; a trilogy of plays and a musical; plus at least five theme park attractions and a themed line of LEGO sets.
Now, the Panida Theater will host two screenings of the classic on Sunday, April 6, with showtimes at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
A plot summary of the original is probably unnecessary by this point, but for those who may have missed the root of the phenomenon, it’s the tale of the Davis family as they prepare to move house. Unbeknownst to Andy, his toys come alive when he’s not around, and have created an entire secret social organization with Sheriff Woody the cowboy doll (voiced by Tom Hanks) as their leader.
Tensions are running high
Camino del Corazón: A Latin American Piano Journey, MCS, April 4
The Music Conservatory of Sandpoint will host an immersive evening of vivid colors and rhythms with Camino del Corazón: A Latin American Piano Journey on Friday, April 4, featuring the talents of performers Melody Puller and Matthew Goodrich. Part of MCS’ Conservatory Concert Series at Little Carnegie, the Latin American piano cabaret selections will be drawn from composers hailing from Argentina,
among the toys, who fear that the impending move and Andy’s nearing birthday will result in some of them being replaced. Those fears are realized when Andy receives a Buzz Lightyear action figure (Tim Allen), which is the hottest toy on the market and sure to overthrow Woody as Andy’s favorite and therefore challenge his authority.
Meanwhile, Buzz apparently believes his own press releases, because he doesn’t think he’s a toy — rather, an actual interstellar explorer.
The rivalry between Woody and Buzz escalates, until cir-
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. For additional accompaniment, attendees are invited to enjoy a selection of wines from Argentina and Chile, with tickets available at sandpointconservatory.org.
— Zach Hagadone
7-8:30 p.m., $15 students, $30 adults. Music Conservatory of Sandpoint Little Carnegie, 110 Main St., 208-265-4444, sandpointconservatory.org.
cumstances lead to them both being left behind, and forced to find their way back to Andy while evading all manner of dangers, including an unstable neighbor kid and his vicious dog.
The showings are part of the Panida’s Sunday Cinemas Series, sponsored by Joni MacNeill, DDS, of MacNeill Family Dental; Ben Richards, CPFA, of Merrill; Retro Play Arcade; and SkyRight Roofing and Gutters.
Doors open 30 minutes before showtimes. Tickets are $5, available at the door or panida.org.
Comin’ Home The Band, Barrel 33, April 5
Husband-and-wife duo Tone and Amberle Madden have taken life’s troubles and used them to fuel their songwriting, working through loss and health issues with the power of their music. Their five full-length albums, Live on WMNF 88.5, All In, Wide Open, Yet Here We Are and Holding Value are all testaments to their love and the bluesy,
This week’s RLW by Jim Healey
READ
Percival Everett’s novel James (2024) takes you down the Mississippi River again, only this time with slave Jim providing the narrative structure. Reread The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and then dive into this fascinating tale. Jim’s artful and skilled use of language is key to his survival while Huck is off having adventures without his raft buddy. Surprises abound, especially concerning Huck’s parentage.
country-rock sound they’ve developed by playing everywhere from Idaho to Florida. Hear their compelling originals Saturday, April 5.
— Soncirey Mitchell
5:30-8:30 p.m., FREE. Barrel 33, 100 N. First Ave., 208-920-6258, barrel33sandpoint.com. Listen at cominhometheband.com.
LISTEN WATCH
There are two songs worth listening to over and over in these hard times. Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon’s “Ukrainian Now” reminds us that “an attack on the freedom of one is aimed at us all.” Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” is the perfect response to our government’s attacks on DEI and “wokeness.” On PPC’s inclusive dance floor everyone is welcomed and accepted. Both of these songs are in regular rotation at 88.5 FM, Panhandle Community Radio.
Want to experience basketball the way the game was created? The semifinal and final games of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament will be played on Friday, April 4 (ESPN) and Sunday, April 6 (ABC). Watch skilled players set screens, execute backdoor cuts and make pinpoint passes. No action will take place above the rim, and this is what makes women’s basketball so exciting and fun to watch.
Hotel California take a bow after a live concert.
Courtesy photo
From North Idaho News, April 4, 1922
ROBT. A. DOWNS, TRAIL MAKER
Robert A. Downs, known familiarly as “Commodore” Downs, died at 3 a.m. Friday in his houseboat at the mouth of Pack River on Lake Pend d’Oreille. Mr. Downs, who was 82 years of age, had been ill for several days but refused to accept the advice of neighbors to come to Sandpoint to the hospital, saying the expense would be too great, although his estate is estimated at approximately $20,000.
“Commodore” Downs was born in New York state in June 1840. At the age of 21 when his country’s call to arms came, he enlisted in a New York company and served throughout the war, being mustered out in ‘65, at the general review in Washington, D.C. He was with the Army of the Potomac, and a sharp-shooter in the first corps at Gettysburg.
Following his discharge, Downs drifted to Jefferson City, Mo., and began railroading. This occupation he followed but a short time, for the spring of ‘66 found him at Leavenworth, where he joined Quantrell’s expedition to cross the plains west. With this expedition, he arrived in Montana and entered the mail service as carrier on the Walla Walla-Missoula route, his relay being Cabinet. When the Northern Pacific engineers were engaged in routing the road through this country, Downs guided them around the Cabinet gorge and as far as Clarksfork, practically locating the route for the road and selecting the site for the bridge across the river.
After sheepfarming in Rathdrum for many years, his love of the old lake brought Downs back to Pend d’Oreille in 1910. He acquired a houseboat and moved up to the mouth of Pack River where he spent the remainder of his days fishing and trapping as his fancy led him.
Most of the foregoing information concerning this picturesque character of the days when the country was new, were furnished the News by Downs himself, only a few weeks before his death.
BACK OF THE BOOK
Imagine the opposite
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
One of my favorite classes in college was Logic and Critical Thinking. In that course, I learned how to obtain a larger and more complete view of the world around me. I learned that it’s healthy to routinely question my own beliefs. I also learned to identify manipulation from others, usually used to support their cause or worldview.
Though it lasted just a semester, the lessons I learned in that class will stay with me — a strong foundation that serves, more than anything, as a bonafide bullshit detector.
In the spirit of practicing logic and critical thinking, let’s engage in a thought experiment: let’s imagine the opposite.
Imagine Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, and a mob of Democrats invaded the U.S. Capitol at the urging of their preferred candidate, who lost the election but claimed to have actually won because it was “stolen” from him. Imagine these Democrats savagely beat police officers, smeared feces on the walls and ransacked the historic building. Imagine a handful of officers lost their lives to the violence.
Now, let’s imagine a Democrat won the 2024 election and, just weeks into the term, the newly elected president pardoned about 1,500 of these leftist insurrectionists, calling them “political prisoners” and honoring them with galas and laudatory language.
Imagine this fictitious Democratic president also received about $300 million in campaign donations from the richest man in the world — a wealthy, left-wing activist who then becomes the leader of a quasi-legit governmental
STR8TS
Solution
agency tasked with eliminating governmental waste. This unelected billionaire lays waste to federal programs like Social Security and Medicare, firing hundreds of thousands of Americans while chuckling and revving a chainsaw on stage to gloat about how good of a job he’s doing.
Meanwhile, this same billionaire receives about $8 million of taxpayer money every day from government contracts. What’s more, the Democratic president even promotes the billionaire’s automobile company right on the White House lawn, urging all Americans to buy one of his vehicles.
Imagine this liberal president going golfing every week, costing taxpayers around $3 million each time he goes, all the while touting how government spending is “out of control.”
Imagine this make-believe Democratic president erasing the courageous deeds of American servicemen and women because of their heterosexual identity. Perhaps he scrubs a Medal of Honor recipient’s story from federal websites because they are a man who loves a woman. Maybe the president purges all mentions of another heroic Marine’s sacrifice for his country because he was a man.
Imagine this fake Democratic president calling soldiers who died in war “losers” and “suckers.” Imagine the outrage you’d see on Fox News.
Imagine the Democratic president allying with a Communist dictator who is infamous for crimes against humanity, turning a blind eye while this dictator invades and conquers a sovereign nation. Now imagine this president threatening to invade our neighbor and longtime ally, Canada — whose soldiers fought and died alongside American soldiers in World War II — joking
that it will be the “51st state.” Imagine he also threatens to take Greenland and Panama, with or without using military force.
Imagine this Democrat causes enough instability in the world order that gas prices go through the roof, egg prices soar, the stock market loses trillions in value and NATO actually considers the possibility of a war with America because our country is considering invading sovereign nations in order to annex them as our own.
Imagine this Democratic president was also convicted of 34 felonies before being elected to the highest office in the land, but the courts refused to sentence him and all the cases were suspended or dropped entirely. That same convicted felon — now president — states during his first couple of months in office that only he and the attorney general can interpret law (to hell with the other two branches of government), and furthermore, that he is immune from any accountabilty for whatever actions he commits while serving as president.
Now imagine this president saying that he plans to seek a third term in office. When told that’s in direct violation of the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, he just shrugs and says with a smirk, “There are methods. We’ll see.”
In life, it’s important to imagine the opposite to see if our beliefs hold up when they’re promoted by a person or group diametrically opposed to your own. Patriotism is not blindly following your party because it happens to be in power. Real patriotism means asking yourself, “Is this really what America is?”
Well, is it?
Laughing Matter
Solution on page 22
By Bill Borders
tergiversate
[verb] (used without object)
1. to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.
2. to turn renegade.
“The Republican Congressman tergiversated repeatedly on the stand when questioned by his fellow lawmakers about past statements.”
CROSSWORD
1. Primitive weapon
He makes bread
Noodles
Undying
Individual
Arranged play time
Type of cereal grass
Cell division
Boozer
Gambol
23. Distinctive flair 24. Whispers sweet nothings
25. Fortune teller 26. The top edge of a container 27. Yearn 28. Celtic language
Picnic insect
Feeling
Comprised
Expend
Fraternity letter
Solution on page 22
Engravings
Critique
Fast feline
Southern breakfast dish
Refine
Leavening agent Word Week of the
Corrections:
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Which is why there are no corrections this week. We’re effing pros, man.
It makes me mad when I go to all the trouble of having Martha cook up about a hundred drumsticks, then the guy at the Marineland says, “You can’t throw chicken to the dolphins. They eat fish.” Sure they eat fish, if that’s all you give them. Man, wise up.
