Reader_April6_2023

The week in random review

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

Know thyself (and others)

“From my perspective, the danger isn’t that a new alien entity will speak through our technology and take over and destroy us. To me the danger is that we’ll use our technology to become mutually unintelligible or to become insane if you like, in a way that we aren’t acting with enough understanding and self-interest to survive, and we die through insanity, essentially.”

— Technologist and super-genius Jaron Lanier in an interview with the U.K.-based Guardian, March 24, 2023.

from reader 1.0

“It’s like human development, the better you know yourself, the better you get along in life. It’s when you try to be something you’re not that you get in trouble.”

— Helen Klanderud, former mayor of Aspen, Colo., in an interview about over-development with the Reader in 2005.

(un)trivial pursuit

I started a new side gig about two weeks ago, hosting trivia night at Idaho Pour Authority on Mondays. I’ve only done it twice — the first time on March 13 and the second on March 27 — and the third time will be April 10. To be perfectly honest, it makes me nervous as hell until show time at around 6-6:30 p.m. Once the mic is on and the quiz rounds start, it’s some of the most fun I’ve had over the course of these mostly very un-fun past three years or so. And it turns out that doing trivia is actually good for you. According to healthline. com, cognitive experts and psychologists generally agree that meeting the challenge of correctly answering a piece of obscure trivia gives folks “a rush” of dopamine, “sort of like gambling,” according to one professor. Unlike games of chance, however, there isn’t really a down side to the activity — unless you count all the beer that’s usually consumed along the way.

hugs all around

By now I’d hope that we’re all aware of the essential nonsense that is “National [fill in the blank] Day.” According to a fairly recent episode of CBS Sunday Morning, the whole thing started out as kind of a lark in 2013 with “National Popcorn Day,” but has grown into more than 1,500 “days” organized and promoted by National Day Calendar (nationaldaycalendar.com), based in Mandan, N.D. Despite having no actual basis, other than as a harmless way to celebrate something every day, I will direct your attention to the fact that April 4 was apparently “National Hug A Newsperson Day.” Better yet, Thursday, April 6 is “National Burrito Day,” and we’ll gladly accept burritos in lieu of belated embraces.

READER DEAR READERS,

If you’re a skier, this is your last weekend to get a few turns in at Schweitzer.

If you’re curious what to do for Easter, check Page 17 for a listing of events.

If you’re hungry for warm weather, we’re supposed to see mid-fifties this weekend, but it will likely come with a jacket of rain.

Finally, if you’re like me, you’ve probably been following the news of the indictment and arrest of former president Donald Trump. It’s an unprecedented moment in American history. It’s also interesting to take note of some of Trump’s statements at a press conference following his arrest in New York: “We are a nation in decline,” “Right now the USA is a mess. Our economy is crashing, inflation is out of control ... China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have formed together into a menacing and destructive coalition,” “Our currency is crashing,” “We are now a failing nation.”

I’m not sure about you, but I’m getting pretty tired of hearing someone who claims to love our country so much do nothing but tear us down and rip us apart every time he opens his mouth.

–Ben Olson, publisher

111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208) 946-4368

www.sandpointreader.com

Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com

Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com

Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com

Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus)

Advertising: Kelsey Kizer kelsey@sandpointreader.com

Contributing Artists: Dan Eskelson (cover), Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Otto Kitsinger, Rich Milliron, Bonner Co. Historical Society, Bill Borders

Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Audrey Dutton, Mia Maldonado, Tim Henney, Jen Jackson Quintano, Mike Wagoner, Marcia Pilgeram

Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com

Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID

Subscription Price: $165 per year

Web Content: Keokee

The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, 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 massive bonfires to appease the gods of journalism. Free to all, limit two copies per person

SandpointReader letter policy: The Sandpoint Reader welcomes letters to the editor on all topics.

Requirements:

–No more than 300 words –Letters may not contain excessive profanity or libelous material. Please elevate the discussion. Letters will be edited to comply with the above requirements. Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the writers, not necessarily the publishers.

Email letters to: letters@sandpointreader.com

Check us out on the web at: www.sandpointreader.com

Like us on Facebook.

About the Cover

This week’s cover photo is called “Foggy Morning” from Priest River, taken by Dan Eskelson in October 2022. Thanks Dan!

BoCo commissioners will hear from Fair Board on preferred RV park location Engineering contract

for boundary line adjustment on contested property voted down on split vote

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

The April 4 meeting of the Bonner County Commissioners, which lasted a remarkable four hours prior to executive session, saw two split votes on matters related to the proposed RV campground expansion at the Bonner County Fairgrounds: the first voting down a contract for engineering work on a contested piece of land between the fairgrounds and sheriff’s complex, and the second voting in favor of a grant extension and request for input from the Fair Board on where the RV park should be located.

It was the first Tuesday quorum since the board adopted a new meeting schedule, which sets aside an hour for public comment at the top of the 9 a.m. agenda then launches into regular business items at 10 a.m. The public used up every bit of its allotted hour on April 4, which heard comments from citizens concerned about alleged election fraud, the hiring of outside attorneys and, from several constituents, concerns about the ongoing Bonner County Fairgrounds RV campground expansion fight between the commissioners, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler and the Fair Board.

The campground’s placement has been a long-simmering debate, with recent attempts — spearheaded by Omodt — to do a boundary line adjustment bringing into question whether placing the RV park between established fairgrounds land and the sheriff’s complex would infringe on the sheriff’s future ability to build a new justice facility.

Grant applications for the campground expansion, submitted to the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation over the past several years by lateFair Director Darcey Smith, state in writing that it was the Fair Board’s intent to have the RV park on fairgrounds property, and yet, those applications feature a map showing the proposed construction taking place on county land not technically designated fairgrounds — land which Wheeler claims former commissioners had intended for justice expansion.

Due to this alleged discrepancy, party lines have formed between elected officials and members of the public weighing the costs and benefits of building the campground southwest of the fairgrounds, or finding a new location. While Williams proposed an advisory question for the May ballot to ask voters about their preferred use of the contested property, Omodt and Chairman Steve Bradshaw voted March 27 to abandon that measure and instead review a 2014 memorandum of understanding between the BOCC and Fair Board designating the space for fair parking. As of April 5, that MOU was yet to be reviewed in any official capacity.

Tensions remain high surrounding the campground’s possible location, with many seeing the issue as one pitting Commissioners Omodt and Bradshaw against Wheeler. A March 29 Fair Board meeting featured three Bonner County Sheriff’s officers, who were reportedly in attendance to ensure Omodt did not attempt to stay for the board’s executive session after Fair Board

Chairman Eddie Gordon sent an email to the BOCC stating that the Fair Board no longer desired a liaison commissioner at its meetings. Omodt told the Reader that he had a conversation with one of the law enforcement officers, but he left prior to the executive session and had no further interaction with them.

At the board’s regular business meeting April 4, Omodt motioned to engage with engineers Sewell and Associates for boundary line adjustment and replatting work not to exceed $25,000 — an issue that’s come before the board four times in the past month, and centers on Omodt’s desire to place the RV park on land currently straddling the existing fairgrounds property line. The first two times the additional Sewell work came before the board, Omodt and Bradshaw voted in favor while Williams opposed the contract, arguing it wasn’t necessary. The third

time, Bradshaw flipped his vote, opting instead to support the proposal for an advisory vote before work commenced on the contested property.

When he pitched the contract for reconsideration on April 4, Omodt said it was because he was “not interested in raising taxes” in order to support the Bonner County Fair, and claimed that the campground expansion was a step toward financial solvency.

Williams pushed back on that notion, calling it a “misrepresentation” to say that the land had to be replatted for the project. Bradshaw said he preferred to review the 2014 parking MOU before moving forward with the Sewell contract, and stated he’d like to see it on next week’s agenda. Ultimately, the engineering contract was voted down 2-1 with Omodt voting “yes” and the other two commissioners voting “no.”

Later in the April 4 meeting,

Williams motioned to request a grant extension from IDPR on the grounds that she believed spending the funds to build the campground on “encumbered land” — that is, the space allegedly suited for future justice facility construction — would violate the terms of the grant and possibly require Bonner County to pay the grant money back in the future. The extension would also allow time for the Fair Board to select a new preferred space for the RV park, she said.

This motion also saw a split vote, with Omodt against and Williams and Bradshaw in favor. That decision — to welcome a recommendation on park placement from the Fair Board and request an extension from IDPR — was met with applause from the April 4 meeting audience.

Bonner County Commissioners Luke Omodt, left; Asia Williams, center; and Steve Bradshaw, right. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

It is now a crime in Idaho to provide genderaffirming care to transgender youth

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law April 4 after receiving thousands of messages in support

By Audrey Dutton Idaho Capital Sun

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law Tuesday that makes it a felony to provide certain types of medical care to children and teens.

House Bill 71 criminalizes gender-affirming health care for youth who have gender dysphoria. The bill specifically bans puberty blockers and hormones for patients under age 18. It also bans surgeries, which already do not fall within Idaho’s standard of care for transgender youth and are not performed in Idaho.

The law makes it a felony to provide the medical care, with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

“In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies. However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children,” Little said in his transmittal letter.

“This bill is aptly named the Vulnerable Child Protection Act because it seeks to protect children with gender dysphoria from medical and surgical interventions that can cause permanent damage to their bodies before they are mature enough to make

such serious health decisions,” he wrote in the letter.

As the bill made its way through the Idaho Legislature, health care providers and transgender youth and their parents noted that withholding gender-affirming care also causes permanent changes: a child’s body goes through puberty.

Those changes can amplify the distress caused by gender dysphoria, they said.

The governor’s office was inundated with calls, emails and letters from people in support of the bill. Fewer messages came in opposing it.

Little received more than 14,800 emails and calls in favor of the bill as of Tuesday morn-

ing, and more than 6,500 calls and emails urging him to veto it, according to his press secretary. Of that number, 3,200 were phone calls in favor and 1,500 were phone calls against the bill.

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news out-

let the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com

Idaho’s population growth is slowing down, latest census data shows

By Mia Maldonado Idaho Capital Sun

After making its way to the second place spot for the highest-growing state in the country, new data reveals that Idaho is no longer at its peak for population growth, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Idaho Department of Labor.

In 2022, Idaho’s population grew by 1.8%, making it the state with the second-highest growth rate behind Florida. But since the height of the pandemic, that growth has slowed down for many Idaho counties.

Between July 2021 and July 2022, 88% of the state’s population change came from people moving to Idaho — a slight decrease from 91% of Idaho’s population change in 2020.

The U.S. Census Bureau calculates the latest population

estimates using data on births, deaths and migration since the most recent decennial census in 2020. The estimates are used as indicators of county, state and national demographic changes.

According to the latest population estimates, the remaining 12% of the state’s population growth in 2022 came from net natural change, or when births outnumber deaths. Canyon, Madison and Ada counties were the largest contributors to that growth, the census data showed.

Population losses in Idaho counties offset with migration

In the 22 Idaho counties where deaths outnumbered births, losses were offset by newcomers moving to the state.

Gooding County was the only Idaho county to experience a net decline in people — 64 more deaths than births — but that decline was almost offset by

about 59 individuals moving into the county.

Blaine County was the only Idaho county to lose population from people moving to other areas, but the population loss was offset by gaining five times as many international immigrants.

Ada County also added over 500 people from international in-migration, ranking highest in this narrow category among the state’s 44 counties. According to the press release, some international migration is derived from American citizens returning from jobs abroad.

“Despite inflation, rising mortgage rates and housing costs, growth was still brisk among the counties that experienced a slower influx of people,” the press release said. “In some areas growth has returned to more sustainable rates, slowing more dramatically in counties with high levels of tourism such

as Blaine, Valley and Teton counties. These counties require additional service workers yet lack affordable housing.”

The 2022 population estimate showed that three North Idaho counties were among the top five with the highest growth rates from 2021 to 2022.

More Idaho residents

are moving to rural areas

The latest population estimate also shows that rural areas are making a comeback — aligning with a national pattern of large metropolitan areas experiencing displacement to the suburbs and exurbs, or areas just outside the periphery of a city.

According to the latest estimate, nine urban Idaho counties reported a slower growth rate than the 35 rural counties. The U.S. Census Bureau defines an urban area as a county with a city whose population is at 20,000 or more.

While rural counties grew 2.3% in 2022, urban counties grew 1.6%, slightly behind the state’s overall growth rate of 1.8%.

The top five were:

•Boundary County, 5.6%

•Benewah County, 4.3%

•Adams County, 4%

•Jefferson County, 3.6%

•Bonner County, 3.6%

In the summer, the U.S. Census Bureau plans to release city, metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area population estimates.

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.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little gives his State of the State speech in the House chambers of the State Capitol building on Jan. 9, 2023. Photo by Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun.

Lake Pend Oreille begins to refill for summer

Army Corps announces opening dates for local recreation spots

Bits ’n’ Pieces

From east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

Following a recent downturn in inflation, a surprise announcement from Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries — that they are cutting output of crude oil — will impact prices at the gas pump and likely push inflation upward again, according to CBS News. Gas pump prices are expected to rise 5 to 15 cents per gallon soon; by summer the national price for regular gas is expected to be $4 a gallon.

ing a gag order.

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

The General Counsel for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office informed three Congressional Republicans that their requests and attacks on the office about the Trump case are “unlawful political interference,” Talking Points Memo reported. It was further stated that attempting to subpoena the DA for info about an ongoing state criminal prosecution is “unprecedented and unconstitutional.”

By Reader Staff

On April 1, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials at Albeni Falls Dam began summer refill operations for Lake Pend Oreille, limiting outflows and allowing for the lake to take on snowmelt in the lead-up to the warmer months ahead.

The lake will refill from its winter pool of 2,051-2,052 feet above sea level to approximately 2,062.5 feet at the targeted summer pool, with levels measured from the Hope gage. The journey to summer pool is never linear, as temperatures and precipitation affect the rate of runoff through spring and early summer. Right now, USACE officials predict a lake elevation of approximately 2,055 feet by the end of April.

To track lake level yourself, visit the Northwest River Forecast Center website at nwrfc.noaa.gov and click on the icon over Lake Pend Oreille, titled “HOPI1.”

As for other USACE operations going into summer, the Corps has shared its opening dates for several local recreation areas, starting with the Trestle Creek Recreation Area on April 1. Coming up, the Riley Creek Recreation Area opens Saturday, May 6 while Albeni Cove, Priest River “The Mudhole” and Springy Point Recreation Areas will open for the season Saturday, May 13.

As for camping, sites at Albeni Cove, Priest River, Riley Creek and Springy Point Recreation Areas are available by reservation only, online or by phone, at recreation.gov or 1-877444-6777.

Public tours of Albeni Falls Dam are available by appointment by calling 208-437-4617, and the Albeni Falls Dam Visitor Center will be open seven days a week starting Memorial Day weekend.

In a pre-trial ruling in Delaware Superior Court regarding Dominion Voting Systems in their defamation case against Fox News, the judge stated that evidence demonstrates it is “CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion [made by Fox News] about the 2020 election are true.” Fox attorneys had argued that statements made were “opinions,” but the judge combed through statements and cited 20 occasions where lies were stated as facts, and other occasions when material was deliberately omitted by Fox to change the meaning of what was presented. Fox has claimed that the case could damage press freedoms, but analysts say Fox knowingly lied on air and there will be no threat to “objective journalists” who do not lie. Dominion has extensively used emails and private messages from Fox media personalities to shore up their case, which goes to a jury trial in mid-April. Dominion seeks $1.6 billion in damages.

All Donald Trump indictment info that follows is from a variety of media sources:

A Manhattan District citizens’ grand jury voted last week to indict former President Donald Trump over allegations of bribery and corruption going back as far as 2016. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 34 counts of falsifying business records. There are at least three other investigations of Trump over allegations of conspiring to defraud governments while attempting to overturn an election, and mishandling of classified documents.

This is the first time in U.S. history that a president has been criminally charged. Mayors and governors have been indicted and convicted, and a past president has been pardoned.

Trump will likely face a gag order to prevent influencing the Manhattan case; New York law allows fines and jail or both for criminal contempt, such as defy-

Trump denies DA allegations about an affair with a porn star and paying her to be quiet. But an attorney who arranged the payment pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance rules in 2018, and stated that Trump had directed him to make the hush money payment.

Trump used the Manhattan charges to raise funds, and reported $4 million raised within days.

Starting in 2033, without intervention, Social Security recipients will not receive full benefits, according to the recent report from the Board of Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. It was noted that lawmakers can change that. The funds impact more than 60 million people. Lawmakers who fail to act are endorsing a 20% cut to SS benefits, according to the D.C. think tank The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The Biden Administration proposed a fix for SS and Medicare: raise taxes on incomes over $400,000, and reduce what Medicare pays for prescription drugs.

Using snatches of your voice from online sources, imposter scammers can now convincingly portray callers as friends or relatives urgently in need of funds, to be handed over to the scammers, The Washington Post reported. In 2022 The FTC said there were 36,000 reports of such swindles.

Pandemic-era emergency medical coverage ended April 1, stranding 383,000 in 10 states that have refused to expand Medicaid, according to CNBC.com.

Blast from the past: “Sometimes in politics one must duel with skunks, but no one should be fool enough to allow the skunks to choose the weapon.” — Republican lawmaker Joe Cannon, who served 46 years in Congress, with eight years as Speaker of the House, and retired in 1923. Born 1836, died 1926.

And another blast: “Love is a serious mental disease.” — Plato, Greek philosopher, 427-347 BCE.

Looking east toward Gold Hill from south Sandpoint. Photo courtesy Rich Milliron.

Public comment sought on over-snow vehicle use in N. Idaho ranger districts

By Reader Staff

Officials with the Idaho Panhandle National Forests have issued their Environmental Assessment for the planned Kaniksu OSV Use Designation Project — which would open certain areas to “over-snow vehicles,”such as snowmobiles — and have opened public comment for the next 30 days to offer feedback on the project.

According to a notice March 29 from IPNF, the project designates OSV trails across the panhandle under the Travel Management Rule” in a balanced approach to protecting wildlife and culturally sensitive areas.”

“We want to thank everyone who submitted comments when we initially shared the project with the public in August 2022,” IPNF officials stated. “Since then, the forest

has reviewed public comments, considered the potential environmental effects of the proposed action and prepared an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act.”

The environmental assessment, supporting documents and comment submission form are all available on the project web page at bit. ly/3JU06Fs.

To submit comments, see the “Get Connected” tab on the right side of the web page.

The project includes opening areas to over-snow vehicle use on the Bonners Ferry, Priest Lake and Sandpoint Ranger Districts (formerly known as the Kanisku National Forest), as well as a small portion of the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

The alternatives propose areas open and closed to over-snow ve-

Sandpoint schedules springtime citywide branch pickup

hicles year-long and areas only available to seasonal over-snow vehicle use to reduce effects to sensitive wildlife habitats. Following the 30day comment period, the forest will consider public comments, prepare a finding and draft a decision notice, which will be subject to a pre-decisional objection process. According to IPNF, “Only those who submit timely and specific written comments regarding the proposed project during a public comment period are eligible to file an objection.”

In the meantime, forest officials plan to host a virtual town hall to answer questions regarding the project. This event is scheduled for Wednesday, April 12 from 4-6 p.m. Additional information on joining the meeting will be emailed to the project mailing list and posted to the project webpage before the meeting date.

By Reader Staff

Spring has sprung and it’s time for Sandpoint’s citywide branch pickup, scheduled for Monday, April 10-Friday, April 14.All branches must be in place by April 10. City crews will not come through a second time.

City officials ask that residents stack all brush and branches lengthwise in the street or along the curb — do not place branches on lawns. No leaves or bagged leaves will be picked up.

The maximum branch diameter is four inches and no longer than six feet. Larger branches or stumps will not be picked up.

Finally, residents are asked not to mix brush piles with other items such as leaves, grass clippings, building materials, timbers or commercial contractor generated tree waste. Crews will not remove mixed piles.

As a reminder, residents should prune branches that might overhang sidewalks to keep walkways clear and usable. Trees should also be trimmed a minimum of seven feet above the sidewalks and streets.

Bouquets: GUEST SUBMISSION:

•“Ben, a Bouquet to you and the Reader staff. Thanks for the indepth coverage and commentary about BGH ending its maternity care. Zach’s reporting was spot-on, Lyndsie’s personal voice was brave and so welcome and Jen Jackson Quintano is an important voice for feminists of all ages.”

— By Mindy Cameron

Barbs:

• I received a bevy of voicemail messages the other day that made me glad I wasn’t in the office when the caller decided to go on an extended rant about our coverage of Bonner General Health ending its maternity services. In their own press release, BGH stated that highly respected physicians are leaving because of “Idaho’s legal and political climate,” among other reasons. As I’ve stated before, I don’t blame them. Who wants to be charged with a felony after providing life-saving care to a patient? The caller, on the other hand, shouted all sorts of names at us and claimed we were “politicizing” the issue, along with every other newspaper around the world which covered the story. They also claimed “anyone” could deliver a baby, so it’s not that big of a deal that health professionals are exiting Idaho in droves because of our political extremism. Yikes.

I’ve just about had it with ignorant people attempting to revise history or lie right to my face. I used to put a high value on hearing from multiple viewpoints on any particular issue because it better informs our opinions if we hear how others see it. But, in this post-truth world we live in today, I really couldn’t care less to hear one more uninformed, angry, accusatory and nonfactual opinion. To quote one of my own songs: “You’re free to live in your own reality, but I can’t meet you there.”

Dear editor,

1.Where women have no real rights to their own bodies.

2.Where county commissioners decide on an RV Park versus Justice Department. Here’s an idea: the Fair Board and the sheriff should sit down together and see if they can make a decision that they agree on, without interference from he-who-thinks-he-knows-what’s-best-for-all.

3.Where the “Couplet” idea of five lanes is thrown in the trash can where it belongs.

4.Where parents expect librarians at the library to determine what is appropriate reading material for their children. Don’t forget your mind-reading cap, and here I thought it was the parents’ responsibility to teach their children what is or isn’t appropriate for them. Don’t forget to burn the books you, as parents, feel are inappropriate. What country did this happen in during WWII?

5.Where our Legislature has gone off the deep end, instead of representing all the people of their respective area, they represent only that minority that agrees with their own personal philosophy. Lies and deception helped put some of you in office, what a sham.

6.Where greed and rapid development, not infrastructure and common sense, rule.

Michael Harmelin Sandpoint

‘What happened to Bonner County, Idaho?’… Out of Idaho...

Dear editor,

Just a quick note of agreement with Beth F. Allen’s letter in last week’s edition [Letters, “‘Tipping point’…,” March 30, 2023]. If my situation were different and I was a young man, I’d join an exodus from Idaho and start a new life in a moderate state.

As a born-and-bred native, I no longer recognize this area and pity the younger people who may not have the option of fleeing the pathetic state this state has morphed into.

The rabid right-wing inmates are truly running the asylum.

Lawrence Fury Sandpoint

Dear editor,

As intelligent citizens we all know that education and health care are the building blocks of a skilled labor force and solid economy. These factors are also the primary considerations for families looking to relocate for work and raising a family. However, the efforts of this legislature and “Freedom Party” are clearly working to ensure a dearth of qualified medical practitioners, as well as a lack of a skilled labor force.

As of Tuesday, our legislators have decided that government is needed to interfere with any medical or educational decisions facing families.

Medical: They have banned all abortions with no exceptions. They have also declined to extend postpartum Medicaid expansion as well as slashing Medicaid by $150 million. In this past session they have also cut funding for child care and family support. The pro-birth party has zero interest in promoting the health and wellbeing of families past the birth canal.

Education: Our voices and choices are also in jeopardy with the proposed ballot initiative restrictions, book bans and an ongoing effort to dismantle North Idaho community college. The legislature also wants to interfere with child rearing by banning gender affirming care for trans youth. The most deeply personal family decisions are being legislated by the “personal freedoms” party.

But thankfully we’ll be able to goose step while brandish-

ing our weapons during the Fourth of July parade. Thanks to the “don’t tread on me” and “body autonomy for adult males” banner wavers, we’ve stamped out all sense of sanity and common sense.

If only they’d make a law against lunatic fringe.

Jeanelle Shields Sandpoint

Dear editor,

Remember when the Union Pacific train came through town right where the pedestrian-bike path is now? Well, guess what? Thanks to the city of Sandpoint and [Idaho Transportation Department] it’s coming back in the form of a couplet! Once again you can experience blocked or closed intersections! Don’t bother trying to cross Pine at Boyer — it will be closed to the south. Don’t try to use Oak or Church to get downtown. They’ll be closed, too, to let one or two lanes of traffic travel on the old right of way. Nice, huh? Kinda makes you want the train back. At least you could cross the tracks!

Carrie Logan Former Mayor of Sandpoint Sandpoint

Dear editor,

What if the real truth is that no one really has their act together? I mean you, me, neighbors, all the way up to elected phony politicians, their advisors, generals and even the President of the United States?

Imagine the leaders of the countries all around the world are, in reality, just like yourselves: questioning, insecure, just pretending to know what is going on, but as insecure and doubting even their own perception of reality, and hoping that everyone else will “buy their act.”

Isn’t that really what all of us do when we get up and leave our houses: hope that everyone we meet with will “buy our acts,” not admitting or showing that none of us know what it all really means and how many days we have left, and presenting ourselves to others as though we have it all figured all out.

“I’ll buy your act. You buy mine?” Then we all live together harmoniously, break no laws and never show our doubts about the meaning of it all.

I don’t know any sane person who wants to miss sunrises and sunsets while smelling the flowers and trees and nature. We all want to look up at the sun directly and yell “I am free! And, I am alive!”

And, I will never do anything to harm another living being that will put me in jail. I look forward to Earth Day.

James Richard Johnson Clark Fork

‘A law against lunatic fringe’…

Hair like Erik’s

By Tim Henney Reader Contributor

The more I came to know the recently departed sage of Sandpoint, Erik Daarstad, the more I thought about moving to Norway.

My God, if one could live among people like him? Humanists, gentlemen, modest and thoughtful giants among men? Or was Erik an anomaly? Whichever, I have never had a better pal. Even if my 1957 bride did like his hair better than mine.

In current American culture, with things often seeming to be heading toward hell in a handcart and led by elected, morally bankrupt fiends determined to turn our democracy into a dictatorship (their warped power-hungry minds seemingly ignorant of history), citizens like Erik are invaluable. He knew that unlettered U.S. legislators were using Adolph Hitler’s political playbook from the 1930’s, including Fox News’ mimicry of Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels’ techniques. Predator Trump, for instance, like the fuhrer, and like Stalin and Mao, has called the press “the enemy of the people.”

The drift of our delicate democracy toward fascist authoritarianism under dictator wannabes spewing hate, division and violence versus the rule of law was a continuing concern of Erik’s. Another was the perplexing gullibility of those bereft, Taliban-like anti-America U.S. extremists who, desperately needing leadership no matter how obscene, unqualified or dangerous the disguise in which it appears, infiltrate today’s library and school boards,

state legislatures, county commissions, city councils, media the U.S. Congress.

The Trump-led attack on the U.S. Capitol made Erik almost sick to his stomach. And he was, like most bonafide patriots, flabbergasted that Trump’s gullible fan base would stick with him after he, touring the American cemetery at Aisne-Marne, France in 2018 a hundred years after 2,289 U.S. soldiers and marines died fighting the Germans there in World War I, objected to his political handlers insistence on a tour of the cemetery. Good politics. Those American heroes buried there, and the 1,060 missing in action, Predator Trump opined, were “suckers and losers.”

He felt similarly about Arizona Senator John McCain, who spent five-and-ahalf years in a North Vietnam prison. The Predator preferred “heroes who didn’t get captured.” So saith he who has cheated and lied and bribed his way through life — and dodged the draft five times.

Erik couldn’t understand why American citizens could endorse such immorality. A quiet, attentive and humble man, more 87-year-old hippie than pillaging viking despite his Scandinavian DNA, Erik was, nonetheless, not shy in voicing distress over the present downward drift of his adopted democracy. (Nor should the rest of us be, if we value what we have.)

If Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa were rolled into one perfect American humanitarian, we’d have Erik. Maybe add a dash of Ben Franklin and a dollop of Marco Polo, who explored much of the

world. Erik visited and photographed most of it.

A sticker on the trunk of Erik’s weary Subaru said “Fighting Hate, Teaching Tolerance, Seeking Justice.” Daarstad in the proverbial nutshell. Speaking of tolerance, my 1957 bride, one of Erik’s good buddies and the same aged vintage, demanded of me about a zillion times

when he would join us downtown for breakfast or lunch, “Why don’t you have hair like Erik’s?”

A valid question. And so is this: “Why aren’t all of us more like him?”

Uff Da, Erik!

The author wrote: “The most recent upgrade to my mancave. The sombrero is what Erik wore when he sang in our two annual DiLuna’s parties. It came down over his eyes but most people seemed to know who might be under it. The grey wig is what ‘a friend’ put on at the Tango Round Table from time to time, and at the two DiLuna’s soirees, after his wife bitched about his hair not being as impressive as Erik’s. The photo of Erik and Dan Murphy was taken at the Tango Table by Lee Santa and ran in the Reader with a story about that sorry bunch of misfits. The martini glass speaks for itself.” Photo by Tim Henney.

Publisher’s note: This is what true friendship really looks like.

Science: Mad about

bonsai

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist

Have you ever looked at a bonsai tree and thought to yourself, “So what? It’s a tiny tree.” Exactly.

Bonsai trees are tiny trees. They aren’t other plants masquerading as trees, nor are they a special breed of tree that is designed to be small. They are actual trees that are painstakingly trimmed and maintained to remain tiny for their entire existence.

Thousands of years ago, the neolithic Chinese people began the art of penjing (literally, “tray scenery”), creating miniature landscapes with rocks and tiny trees. Later on, these small-scale worlds would come to include intricate water features and showcase primarily in the gardens and homes of priests and wealthy individuals.

Sometime around 700 CE, the Japanese altered the art to focus solely on the tree. This sounds like a simplification of an existing artform, but with no other facets to hide behind, the perfection of the tree became the only focus for the observer. A minimalistic approach to art and culture focused and refined the medium, and put the discipline and attention to detail of the craftsman on center stage.

Bonsai took root — so to speak — in Japan around 700 CE, though it began to appear in official paintings and the artwork of noble life by the 12th century. The artform evolved a number of times in the centuries between, shifting from a focus on miniaturized landscaping to large ornate pots, until finally settling on the form we recognize today: a tiny tree in a tiny planter.

By the 17th century, bonsai had become a prolific art throughout Japan. To this day, a pine tree cared for by the island nation’s

third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), grows in the Tokyo Imperial Palace and is considered a national treasure. This tree is at least 500 years old, having outlived countless full-sized trees in the world and surviving through some of the most incredible events in human history.

Another bonsai tree lived through many of the events as the royal tree, including an intercontinental move and even an atomic bomb. In 1975, a Japanese white pine was gifted to the United States as a symbol of friendship on the 200th birthday of the nation’s founding. Twenty-six years later, the gifter’s grandchildren uncovered a shocking fact about the friendship tree — it had been planted just a few miles from the epicenter of the atomic blast that leveled Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 in an historic attack by the U.S. The tree not only survived the blast, the aftermath and the immense turmoil of postwar Japan, but found its home in friendship with the very country that nearly wiped it from existence.

The oldest bonsai tree dwarfs the others in both size and life.

The Crespi ficus — named for Luigi Crespi — found its eternal home in Milan, Italy, in 1986. Standing more than 10 feet tall and nine feet wide, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is no bonsai tree, but a regular tree masquerading as something grander.

Much of the woody structure of the ficus is actually its root system pushing the rest of the tree up from the largest bonsai pot ever created. The huge clay pot is wider than the tree and was fired as one piece — an astounding feat of craftsmanship for anyone who has ever fired pottery. Imagine the size of the kiln that created this historic monument. The tree is estimated to be at least 1,000 years old, and can now be visited for the price of a plane ticket and a €6 entry fee.

As is evident from the longevity of just these three trees, training a bonsai tree seems to create no long-term harm for the plant. On the contrary, bonsai trees are very carefully controlled during their training and growth to provide them with exactly the amount of resources they need so as to not outgrow their environment and struggle for resources.

Training a bonsai tree requires immense patience and skill. Numerous techniques have been passed down for more than 1,000 years to create a beautiful display. Many of these techniques are the same you would use when maintaining a fully sized tree, including leaf trimming and pruning, as well as other techniques borrowed from gardening such as guiding or warping the structure of the plant with wires, weights and tension cables. A mistake can damage or even kill a tree, rendering months or even years of efforts to create a beautiful piece of art completely ruined.

Training a tree is metaphoric. Humans strive for perfection and they may come close, but due to the unpredictability of nature, perfection is always just out of reach. The tree seeks to increase its chances of survival, while the artist seeks to control its growth and cultivate beauty. In the end, bonsai is a compromise of both for the enjoyment of all.

Bonsai trees are often grown outdoors and only briefly showcased indoors after they have been finished. They are often raised in temperate climates, and likely wouldn’t survive a North Idaho winter cycle due to their extremely shallow roots. However, indoor bonsai is popular in climates such as ours that would otherwise kill the tree after a single year. Indoor bonsai trees are much less hardy than their outdoor cousins and often aren’t judged the same way as tradition-

al bonsai trees in competitions.

Bonsai competitions are prestigious events, with one event having taken place in Tacoma, Wash. annually. The most prestigious events take place in Tokyo, where world-class artists showcase their projects to international acclaim. Amateur bonsai artists may compete at an event at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum every February, so if you fancy yourself a bonsai enthusiast, consider join-

ing and showing the world what you’ve got.

If you’re interested in exploring bonsai for the first time yourself, check out some books from your local library. Our nonfiction section has several books on bonsai, including some more functional tomes for growing indoor plants and miniaturized fruit trees.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner

•The use of perfume can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, where recipes from 3000 B.C.E. have been found inscribed on the walls of temples built in Ptolemaic Egypt. Perfume was used to celebrate religious ceremonies, as well as during mummification because they considered a pleasant smell a sign of holiness.

•Kyphi, a recipe with multiple ingredients, was the most popular perfume used for mummies as temple incense. A drink was also made from it with healing properties that treated asthma.

•The first recorded chemist was Tapputi-Belatekallim, a perfumer in Mesopotamia whose recipes from 1200 B.C.E. were found by archaeologists. After her work was written on cuneiform tablets and translated, perfume experts discovered she already used perfume-making techniques like distillation and cold enfleurage which are still used today.

•Ambergris has been used to prolong perfume scents since the

10th century. One of the strangest of natural phenomena, ambergris is found in the digestive systems of sperm whales and, due to its rarity, can cost as much as $7,000 per pound.

•Ambergris isn’t the only weird ingredient used in perfumes. Some use civet, castoreum and musk — all obtained from the anal glands of different animals.

•Eau de toilette, or “toilet water,” might sound unpleasant, but it’s actually the most sold type of fragrance because it’s less expensive. It dates back to the 14th century. And no, it doesn’t smell like a toilet.

•Eau de Cologne was invented in the 18th century by a man named Farina who was homesick for his Italian spring mornings. It was named as such, however, because Farina invented Eue de Cologne in Cologne, Germany, where he had emigrated from Italy. Napoleon Bonaparte reportedly loved the scent, ordering 50 bottles every month.

Role Models 101

Some common traits of the people we should be emulating

By Ed Ohlweiler Reader Contributor

What if the meaning of life, the universe and everything is simply just to inspire each other to become better versions of ourselves? That would explain my fairly recent obsession with heroes, role models and human potential. In my lifetime there’s always been the “Big Three”: Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. One is dead, one is dying and the third will be replaced by a baby in diapers leaving the Buddhist world without leadership (China having kidnapped and/or executed the Panchen Lama).

But there are also everyday heroes — people on the streets who inspire me, some of whom even write for this publication. There are people no one’s heard of, like my childhood neighbor Melvin Wright, who taught me about tree farming and tractors, life and love. He married his high-school sweetheart Charlotte, and he was the apple of her eye. He had an easy smile, so prevalent and genuine that when he passed away while sitting in a chair at the age of 79, witnesses verified that he was smiling while he was dead.

I still wish more people knew about Kofi Annan than, say, Kanye West, or that people knew who Zach Bush was, period. But randomness and fairness aside, we get to choose and we live in an era overflowing with amazing people to learn from.

So, what makes a good role model? I am focusing on male role models merely because so much has been voiced on the topic. I think we know that there’s a difference between being great at something and being a great person, and that when we talk about role models we’re talking about great people

(though both may apply). The thing that makes Tom Brady such a great quarterback may or may not make him such a great person (in fact he was caught cheating at one point).

I think it’s important to distinguish between stars who are masters of a skill and worthy of emulating when trying to learn that skill, and those who have a combination of wisdom, compassion, honesty, humility and sincerity worthy of emulating in life. I would call them our tribal elders, but I have seen those qualities in people so much younger than myself, which I find, pardon the expression, badass.

We do know that there is no correlation between wealth, fame or status and these qualities — in fact, studies show CEOs are three times more likely to be psychopaths than other people (no explanation was given, however I suspect certain traits, like a lack of empathy or talent for justification, could be rewarded in the business world).

Two of my favorite writers have fallen with the “Me Too” movement (Sherman Alexie and Garrison Keillor), and knowing what I know about James Brown makes it harder to enjoy his music. A lot of this is incumbent on your ability to compartmen-

talize when someone with an art or a skill you admire seems to be a negative role model. This is interesting, though slightly off topic.

What else do our role model heroes seem to share? Turning to my “Big Three” for simplicity’s sake, you could say that a belief in Jesus made Jimmy Carter greater and a belief in Buddha made the Dalai Lama greater and you’d be right, but only partially right. Many people have beliefs. These men have nurtured theirs, creating an environment for them to grow, learning more about themselves and life here on Earth in the process and projecting that learning to benefit all mankind.

There is an intentional structuring of their lives to this end — an effort on their part. They are selfless.

They often entertain the idea that they may be wrong, treating their life like a grand experiment with the goal of always improving. They all practiced non-violence — even Mandela (despite the ANC not always being opposed to violence, and there were obvious motives for revenge). They follow “the Golden Rule” and they acknowledge a shared humanity.

Let’s not forget that we’re all in this together and that our

heroes even had heroes of their own that they learned from, and so on down the line. It is easy for wealthy people to complain about taxes while driving to work and moving their goods on highways that were built and paid for by other people’s taxes. To quote a recent Rachel Baiman song, “How many men does it take to make the self-made man?”

All three are pretty humble, usually viewing themselves as vehicles or mere accomplices for change. (You may have noticed that truly great people don’t tell you how great they are.)

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like these are fairly universal traits for role models regardless of one’s background and ideology. Bonus points for being a great communicator and charismatic, but not necessary for leading by example.

Of all the crazy circles I’ve infiltrated in this lifetime, it seems like the trail-running community espouses the most of these characteristics. A biased study I know, but if you ever lose your faith in humanity, volunteer at an aid station for a trail race — everyone is so nice. They could be in intense pain and they still smile and find something nice to say about you.

I am going to employ some

suspect logic, go out on a cognitive limb, and guess why: Remember when we ascertained that role models carved out space in their lives for improving or learning more about themselves? Imagine being alone with your thoughts for hours on end trying to figure out what’s important and what’s not, with a super-oxygenated brain, all surrounded by the majesty of nature.

Let’s recap what we’ve learned:

1.CEOs are psychopaths. (Just kidding.)

2.Good role models have a combination of personality traits that can be universally recognized as being worthy of emulation.

3.They come by these traits through effort, continually trying to improve themselves, creating a space in their lives for that, making it a priority. They probably don’t watch too much TV.

4.Trail runners are the best people! (Just kidding. Sort of.)

The author’s “big three” role models are Jimmy Carter, left; the Dalai Lama, center; and Nelson Mandela, right. Courtesy images.

‘A hole in the fabric of our community’

The loss of labor and delivery at Bonner General is the end of an era of safety, care and compassion

Bonner General Health’s announcement March 17 that it would end labor and delivery services ripped a hole in the fabric of our community. Generations of North Idaho residents were born at our hospital, proudly bearing the place name of Sandpoint, Idaho, on their birth certificates. Effective May 19, homegrown babies will be a rarer thing, familiar physicians’ faces will not greet the next generation and the essential services that safely ushered in new life will be gone. Birth is suddenly a more dangerous endeavor in North Idaho. Read on for a sense of what BGH has been to this community, including a place of comfort and the source of life-saving care, from a number of local women who volunteered to share their stories with the Reader.

Judy York

My son was born in Coeur d’Alene almost 26 years ago, and we moved to Sandpoint not long after. My daughter was born at Bonner General in 2001. Both deliveries were atypical. Neither of my kids were able to come out naturally because my contractions were either too far apart or didn’t happen at all. With my daughter, my water broke with what is called a high leak. The doctor said contractions would start within 24 hours, but they didn’t.

When I finally came in to get labor induced, they had to give me the highest level of pitocin to get things moving. After delivery, I lost blood in both cases — enough for me to have to stay an extra day. I tell people, had my children been born 100 or more years ago, I likely would not have survived. I am thankful I didn’t have to drive to Coeur d’Alene during these complications and am saddened we are losing such a valuable resource for women and their babies.

Carlie Johanson

My labor kept starting and stopping. The contractions were very intense, but spaced 20 minutes apart for hours. Since it was my second child, I knew what to expect, and something felt off. I asked if I could come to the hospital even though my contractions were far apart. I rushed through registration and hurried to the delivery room.

As the nurse was hooking me up to the fetal monitoring, I could tell she was stressed. The heartbeat was much slower than was safe.

They tried moving me into different positions to perk the baby up, but nothing was working. The OB came in calm, steady, and listened. Within minutes she said we would need to deliver the baby

as quickly as possible. I asked if I could hold him after he was born. She let me know that the situation was critical and that I would be under general anesthesia. I asked if my partner could be with me, and she said that they didn’t allow support people while the mother is unconscious. My heart broke.

I was rushed onto a gurney and down the hall. As we burst through the doors into the OR, I watched my husband trailing behind us, fear in his eyes. At the last moment, the OB tossed him a set of scrubs. She knew he was an ICU nurse at another hospital and made the call to let him in.

It was a defining moment for me. To experience the care and accommodation, the speed, decisiveness and professionalism — it helped me feel ready.

In a whirlwind, people introduced themselves, started IVs, strapped things on me and added a fetal heart monitor. That is when the doctor gave a signal to everyone to freeze. The room got silent. I asked what was wrong. Nothing was wrong; the heart rate had finally come up! The room relaxed. I heard it and saw it in the faces. I was cleared to go back to L&D to deliver my son without intervention.

I am grateful for the speed and professionalism that day. I’m crying while typing this. I want everyone to know the significance of my experience, and the gratitude I feel for BGH.

Jessica Bowman

I had both of my daughters at BGH. Isabella was delivered by Dr. Honsinger, the same doctor who delivered my little sister 16 years earlier. My younger daughter, Etta, was delivered in the same room. Etta’s labor and delivery went smoothly. She was born apparently healthy. Three or four hours after her

birth, the nurse came in to check on her. Phyllis. I’ll never forget Phyllis.

She calmly started doing tests that I’d not seen done with my older daughter. Cool as a cucumber, Phyllis took my baby, put her on oxygen and called the doctor. Etta was born with transient tachypnea; basically, her lungs were still trying to breathe fluid. Her oxygen levels were in the low 80s, and she was suffocating.

Etta spent three days in the hospital nursery on oxygen. Had we been at home, she would have had permanent brain damage. The maternity ward — Phyllis, especially — saved my baby.

Jonell Anderson

Advanced. Maternal. Age. Duhnduhn-duhn.

I was a late-37-year-old when my spouse and I decided to try to have a baby. It was a difficult and well-considered choice. A purposeful one. I worked hard to prepare my body for the opportunity. But pregnancy did not come easily for us.

When all the basics had been covered and I still wasn’t pregnant at 39, I decided to look into further treatment, and my first stop was an OB at Sandpoint Women’s Health. She recommended we flush my fallopian tubes, and we scheduled the procedure two weeks out.

As luck would have it, I got pregnant before I went in for that procedure. Yay! But now we had another big decision to make. Knowing that my due date was likely after my

40th birthday, we had to choose whether to go with the perceived safety of a conventional birth or to follow my heart for a home birth. I split the difference, choosing a birth center a mere five minutes from the hospital, should any complications arise.

The stars aligned and I had a textbook birth, in a tub, on my terms. But I never would have made that choice if I didn’t have access to BGH’s OB care as a back-up. In fact, I likely never would have tried to start a family knowing that all my prenatal appointments were over an hour away.

Amy Sutliff

I have three beautiful sons, all of which I gave birth to at Bonner General. My first-born son was delivered by Dr. Bowden. Dr. Algoe delivered my second son and Dr. Conner delivered

< see BGH Page 13 >

— Jen Jackson Quintano

my third son. Dr. Huntsberger provided me with incredible prenatal care, information and constant reassurance through the pandemic while pregnant.

Dr. Gilbert and Dr. DeLand were my pediatricians growing up. They are also the pediatric docs that did follow-up care for my children and remained their pediatricians all these years.

For me, it was so much more than a place to deliver my babies. Some of the nurses are the moms of the kids I grew up with, like Marilyn Becker. Much of the other staff and doctors are my friends and colleagues.

Bonner General is a place that I felt safe and familiar in. This is a loss that is far greater than what is on the surface. This is a family that our community will not be the same without.

Barbara Schriber

When pregnant with my second son, I was 35 and it was considered a geriatric pregnancy, so I had the suggested genetic screening. The results came back “positive,” indicating an increased possibility of the baby being born with Down syndrome.

When I received this news, I was scared, confused and unsure of what to do. Dr. Owens sat down with me and discussed the possible reasons for a positive test, which were not all a diagnosis of DS.

When she explained I could have an amniocentesis to confirm DS, she also informed me of the increased risk of miscarriage from the procedure. She then asked me if this would change anything about my decision to move forward with my pregnancy. I said no, and Dr. Owens worked with me to create a plan to monitor the health of my pregnancy. I would go into BGH once a week for a screening, followed by an office visit with Dr. Algoe to go over the results. My healthy son was born at 40 weeks at BGH.

I’ve had two sons at BGH and am so grateful for the wonderful care I received. The doctors, nurses, lactation consultant and other staff all helped me with those first few days of motherhood that are full of love, fear and fatigue. They helped with the indignities of postpartum care: the mesh panties and pads, the first trip to the bathroom and the care of engorged breasts.

I don’t know what I would have done without their patience, guidance and kindness.

Linda Larson

A first pregnancy as a woman who worries for a hobby was challenging. I chose to have my child in a hospital close to home because I was scared. I wanted to be in a place where the experts had all of their tools ready in case something went wrong. I also wanted to have a natural, home birth-like experience. Bonner General gave me both of those things.

In 1991, Dr. Honsinger had a nurse midwife in his practice and she was with me during the birth of my daughter. The birthing suite was a large room overlooking Sand Creek. My mother and husband were there. I was allowed to move around, spend time in the shower, walk the halls, moan and rest in any way that I needed to. What I didn’t know during my labor was that my baby was in the occiput posterior position, meaning my baby’s head was facing the wrong direction. This increased my chances of needing an emergency C-section.

I’m grateful that no one told me about this issue while I was in labor. I’m also grateful that the hospital had the staff and training to deliver my baby by C-section if that had been required.

Instead, my baby turned her head at the last minute and emerged into a world of colorful sunrise rays shining softly into the room. My baby was beautiful, strong and healthy.

I will never forget the magical sunrise beaming into our room, which overlooked the water and trees below. My baby was born in Sandpoint, her hometown. She was born at Bonner General Health in a safe, supportive environment, where emergency care was available just down the hall. I am deeply saddened for all of the mothers who no longer have this option.

Kelli Burt

I had both my sons at BGH. My first son was due in mid-August; but, at my 36-week appointment, we found out he had stopped growing in utero. I went from a very mellow, uncomplicated pregnancy to a higher-risk situation in an instant.

I had daily check-ins and tests to

make sure he was still OK. During these tests, my OBs were so reassuring and empathetic. We decided it was best to schedule an induction on a Monday morning. Before that, my husband and I had decided to go to see Sam Bush at the Hive that Saturday night and try to dance the baby out. I succeeded.

My water broke at the start of the show, and we danced the night away before driving the three blocks over to BGH. My nurses were hilarious, kind, attentive and made the most lasting impression.

Baby R was born after 24 hours of labor and was a tiny but mighty five pounds. My OB was gentle, thoughtful and made my birthing experience so beautiful. We needed to stay in the hospital a few extra days for jaundice and to watch his weight.

The doctors and nurses went out of their way to be kind to a worried new mother. The whole experience could have been traumatic, but the care I received made it peaceful. Our hearts break for this loss to our community.

Emma Stanford

My first child was born at home, 40 minutes outside of Sandpoint, with two licensed midwives, a midwife’s assistant and my coached husband attending. My daughter entered this world that day without incident, and it really was a dreamy birth experience.

When I became pregnant again, one of my midwives had left the country and the other was no longer seeing patients. I found out I was going to miscarry. I was devastated at the thought of losing my angel baby, and I chose to miscarry at home without any medication to speed up the process. I trusted my body as I had trusted it when I gave birth at home.

This time, however, I was alone in the countryside, screaming and bleeding, while my 2-year-old daughter — eyes big as harvest moons — held my hand. I had foolishly told my husband to stay at work, make that money, I’d be fine. All the while, I was pretty damn sure this was how I was going to die.

In the end, I lost so much blood I ended up having an emergency D&C

at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene. Due to COVID restrictions, not even my husband was allowed to stay with me during those eight agonizing hours in the ER.

It was after this, after setting up a payment plan with the Kootenai Health billing department — with nothing but an aching womb to show for my $9,000 bill — that I lost some of the confidence in my body to complete the tasks I asked of it. And when I finally became pregnant with my son, I decided the safest route was to give birth at Bonner General.

My body came through again for me during that pregnancy, but the corporeal trust I regained was due in part to my hospital surroundings. And now that those surroundings are disappearing, I can only wonder: What will other women do?

Ana Sigler

My daughter was born in January of this year. Throughout my pregnancy and into my delivery, I felt so safe in the arms of the OBs and nurses at Sandpoint Women’s Health. Dr. Morton coached me throughout pregnancy, and hers were the first hands to hold my baby in this world.

There could have been complications with my pregnancy and delivery, but everything went smoothly due to their attention to my and my daughter’s well-being.

I had always been afraid of hospitals, but this experience changed me for the better. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience at BGH.

I will tell my daughter for years how loved she was in the hands of staff at that hospital. I had planned to encourage others, for years to come, to trust the women at BGH to deliver their babies. I’m heartbroken knowing our story will be a thing of the past.

Jen Jackson Quintano, who compiled the stories for this article, writes “The Lumberjill” column in the Sandpoint Reader. She also organized The Pro-Voice Project in Sandpoint, which in January 2023 presented on stage a story collection of women’s reproductive choices. Learn more at theprovoiceproject.com. See more of Quintano’s writing at jenjacksonquintano.com.

From the homestead to the horizon

Community-curated exhibit Storied Futures looks to the past to foster conversations about future development

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

In the face of great change, it’s not uncommon to feel helpless. It’s the only constant, after all, along with the passage of time.

As time marches on and changes follow close behind, it is easy to lose sight of another, more hopeful constant: humanity.

We, as humans, don’t have the best track record with change, and yet, our desire to have our voices heard is steadfast — whether it’s 1893 or 2023. This is a takeaway from the Storied Futures project, a community-curated history exhibit now on display at Evans Brothers Coffee in Sandpoint featuring a deeply researched dive into the history of the Elsasser homestead from the time two brothers secured a deed to the property north of Sandpoint in the 1890s to the 2021 demolition of the land’s last standing home.

Local writer Emily Erickson said those constants came to light while studying Sandpoint’s boom not long after the Elsasser brothers’ arrival.

“What surprised me was how familiar the conversations they were having were compared to the conversations we are having now,” Erickson said, noting the similarities between current pushback against the proposed Couplet project on Highway 2 and the Elsassers’ opposition to Boyer Ave.

running through their properties.

“It’s the same stuff,” she added, “so it feels like a part of this town’s landscape to have questions about development.”

Storied Futures took shape when Bonner County History Museum Executive Director Hannah Combs found herself talking to an excavator with plans to clear the homestead for an impending subdivision. He invited Combs to tour what was left, and soon her friends Erickson and local architect Reid Weber joined her in discovering what stories the homestead had left to tell.

“It was there that we didn’t know what we wanted to do about it,” Erickson said, “but all of this together, — the changes happening around us that felt so out of our grasp —, we said, ‘We need to do something even if it’s just looking at this one property and learning about it and learning from it.’”

“Initially we wanted to just document what was left,” Weber added. “Then we spent a year unfolding these layers of history that we found.”

The homestead explorers spent that year perusing museum archives and piecing together a narrative that told not only the story of the Elsasser family, but of a broader historical context surrounding why, and how, a place changes. As a result, Storied Futures is one part storytelling that pulls at the heartstrings and one part explanation, aimed at understanding the bureaucratic systems at < see HOMESTEAD, Page 15 >

Top: The Elsasser homestead, photographed in the 1890s. Photo courtesy of the Bonner County Historical Society, donated to the collection by Donna Lee Dicksson Riffle.

Above: A patron sits in front of the new Storied Futures exhibit at Evans Brothers Coffee. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

play when land is designated for change.

“For me, this topic is very emotional,” Combs said, “and yet, I don’t have the technical knowledge to know how it works behind the scenes, which [Weber] was able to bring. That lent a lot of credibility to our story as it developed.”

Through historic photos, illustrations and modern-day documentation of the homestead just before its demolition, the Storied Futures team — which also includes local history enthusiast Cynthia Dalsing and Sandpoint High School senior and graphic artist Owen Leisy — created a timeline-guided exhibit now on display at Evans Brothers through Tuesday, May 2.

While Storied Futures serves as a standalone project seemingly at its culmination, the team behind it won’t count out more work in the same community-curated vein. What’s more, they can already see the exhibit starting deeper conversations about how the town has changed, and will keep changing.

“As the county and city entities are doing a lot of work right now to tackle these issues, I know that there are opportunities for public input,” Combs said. “I hope this exhibit gives community members the vocabulary and an entry point of understanding that will help them to participate more actively in those conversations.”

Those conversations revolve largely around development — a word Erickson said she found to have dual meaning through the Storied Futures storytelling process.

“One is that rampant development — the other is to develop, or nurture,” she said.

The latter, Combs said, is “considerate of the needs of the entire community.”

As the Storied Futures team so eloquently writes in the exhibit’s culminating statement: “On one side of development are the themes of sprawl and expansion; of noxious-weed-like growth, of insular profits and benefits only reaching one person or a small group of people — despite its widespread impact. On the other side of development are the themes of cultivation and maturation; of garden-like growth and

measured expansion, with benefits extending beyond a single profiteer and reaching the community at large.

“One side of development simply affects change. The other side of development recognizes the power and responsibility attached to the ability to affect change.”

View Storied Futures at Evans Brothers Coffee (524 Church St.) until Tuesday, May 2.

A close up photo showing the timeline of events in regards to the Elsasser home formerly located on North Boyer Avenue. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

When I’m splitting firewood is when I often think about my dad, who proudly revealed to his young son how to look for the weak link in each piece and, of course, how to guard against breaking the handle.

In all the years of growing up with him present, I never saw him watch a movie or read any fictional account of anything. He never spent any time steeped in an imaginary world. If it didn’t represent reality, he simply had no interest in it… an example being, he enjoyed watching boxing on TV, but a movie like Rocky would probably result in him wandering out to his shop and putting a new handle into an old tried-andtrue ax head… he was a patient man.

I asked him once why he was this way and, without a pause, he simply stated, “It’s make-believe stuff.” He never felt the need to escape the real world around him.

When one reflects on the appeal of mind-altering drugs, alcohol, immensely popular movies steeped in fiction and now

By Mike Wagoner Reader Contributor

Digital wolves

the development of virtual reality… stateof-the-art special effects… it becomes obvious to me that many among us are anything but content or at peace with themselves or with the real world.

Anxiety disorders… overdoses… suicides have never been so prevalent. Did young people suffer, even kill themselves on a scale that is evident now 100 years ago? Even 50? The desire to “be more” with reality as a backdrop is diminishing… it is becoming boring.

I propose it is time for a “reset”... a paradigm shift. I propose that much of the development in “tech” that is being offered up, even forced upon us, is the new heroin… digital wolves disguised in sheep’s clothing… preying mainly on the young… artificially igniting the emotional center of their brains… ripping it open and stealing their proclivity to appreciate… even love the natural world from which they were sprung.

Ponderay Rotary club seeks $5K to reach scholarship drive goal

By Reader Staff

Ponderay Rotary Club’s annual scholarship drive ends Saturday, April 15, and the effort is only about $5,000 short of its $16,000 goal.

Members of the club are putting on a final push for the drive, reminding potential donors that their tax-deductible contributions go to help “inspire, influence and encourage this community’s upcoming leaders, innovators and dreamers, and help ensure the community will flourish in the future.”

Ponderay Rotary last year gave out more than $26,000, though the current scholarship drive is only one part of the club’s overall fundraising initiatives for its scholarship program. During the past 16 years, the Ponderay Centennial Rotary Club has distributed more than $168,000 in scholarships to local graduating seniors and residents continuing their education.

Club scholarships are not limited; they can be used for a variety of educational purposes, including college, trade school,

beauty school and more.

“We are trying to help close the gap between cost and the ability to get an education for local students. We want to ensure greater social mobility for future generations, and to encourage these students to do the same for others later,” stated Ponderay Rotary Treasurer Kari Saccomanno.

So far, this year’s sponsors include 219 Lounge, Avista, Columbia Bank/ Umpqua in Ponderay, Diane Brockway, In and Out Painting, Kochava, Mother Lode Holding Co., Paradise Construction, Sandpoint Furniture/Carpet One, Sandpoint Super Drug, Sharon’s Hallmark, the Shenks, Tango Cafe, Ting Internet and Washington Trust Bank.

Any level of donation or sponsorship is welcome. The club’s sponsor levels and benefits can be found at ponderayrotaryclub.com.

Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 813, Ponderay, ID 83852. Donations can also be made by credit card through ponderayrotaryclub.com.

Easter event round-up 2023

By Reader Staff

Whether or not spring has truly sprung by this weekend, Easter festivities will go on. We wouldn’t want to tempt Mother Nature any further by putting our winter clothes away just yet, so lay out those dressy sandals next to your snow boots and hope for the best.

Here’s a snapshot of how locals can get into the Easter spirit:

Saturday, April 8

Sandpoint Lions Club Annual Easter Egg Hunt

9 a.m. @ Lakeview Park (609 S. Ella Ave.)

This egg hunt begins at 9 a.m. sharp, so show up a few minutes early. Also enjoy an on-site Girl Scout cookie booth, Kaniksu Dental toothbrush giveaway, Starbucks coffee and a surprise bike giveaway for the lucky kiddo who finds the egg with the bike ticket inside.

Clark Fork’s Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Noon @ Clark Fork Veterans Memorial Field (corner of Cedar St. and 9th Ave)

All ages are welcome at this egg hunt, to be held rain or shine. The whistle will blow promptly at noon, so get there early.

Easter Jam

4-5 p.m. @ Cedar Hills Church (227 McGhee Rd.)

FSPW invites volunteers to sign up for 2023 trail projects

By Reader Staff

Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness is opening its summer trails projects to volunteers, inviting community members to sign up to help remove trees that have fallen during the winter, reroute rock falls, and ensure trail widths are maintained against the encroachment of brush and other flora.

“It is hard work, in a variety of weather conditions, working with traditional manual tools,” FSPW stated in an announcement. “It also is extremely rewarding to work alongside other volunteers that love nature enough to donate ‘sweat equity’ to ensure that these trails remain navigable for all hikers to enjoy.”

Visit the website to review project information and dates, and to sign up at scotchmanpeaks.org/hikes-events-schedule.

This robust event will feature an Easter program, games and, of course, an egg hunt. Learn more at cedarhillschurch.com/easter.

Sunday, April 9

Easter Brunch

10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. @ Trinity at City Beach (58 Bridge St.)

Reservations are highly recommended. Call 208-255-7558.

Sandpoint Assembly Easter Egg Hunt

11:20 a.m. @ Great Northern Field (423 N.Lincoln Ave.)

There will be an egg hunt for kids ages 2-12, which will also feature a petting zoo, cocoa bar and ice cream bar. Teens are also

welcome, and get to hunt their own part of the field covered in energy drinks, snacks, candy, gift cards, coffee cards and more.

No Man’s Land Film Festival raises over $7,000 for local nonprofits

Kaniksu Land Trust and Pend Oreille Pedalers both benefited from the festival Communications Director Marcy Timblin. “The enthusiasm and support for this event shows that we all agree that the outdoors is for everyone.”

By Reader Staff

The Panida Theater hosted the No Man’s Land Film Festival March 31, raising over $7,000 for local nonprofits Kaniksu Land Trust and Pend Oreille Pedalers.

“My heart is so full,” said Panida Managing Director Lauren Sanders. “We couldn’t have raised this kind of money without our amazing sponsors who believed in our vision, the businesses who donated to the event and to the community members who showed up. Thank you to everyone.”

Sponsors include Claire Anderson, the co-owner of Burger Dock; Matchwood Brewery; and the Alpine Shop.

“We had a blast and are so grateful to the Panida Theater and community partners that brought the No Man’s Land Film Festival to Sandpoint to benefit Kaniksu Land Trust and Pend Oreille Pedalers,” said KLT

“What a wonderful evening of community and inspiration,” said POP Treasurer Paula Lee. “The support from this event will help POP to obtain our goal of creating a new bike skills park in Travers Park.”

No Man’s Land is a film festival that showcases films that tell the stories of women and gender non-conforming athletes in the outdoor industry. Before the films started, the Panida had a panel discussion with local leaders Ammi Midstokke, Maeve Nevins-Lavtar and Gwen Victorsen, who spoke about the Sandpoint outdoor and recreational industries. During intermission there was a raffle where patrons had a chance to win over 30 prizes from local Sandpoint businesses.

Volunteers conduct trail work in the area of Little Spar Lake in the summer of 2022. Courtesy.

Art receiption: Art Spirit Gallery

5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Artwork by Ryan Molenkamp and Sheila Miles will be on display through the month of April

Game Night

6:30pm @ Tervan Tavern

April 6-13, 2023

Live Music w/ Ian Newbill

6-8:30pm @ Matchwood Brewing

Country and classic rock

Live Music w/ Jason Perry and Justyn Priest

9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge

Powerhouse duo

Live Music w/ Bright Moments

5-8m @ Barrel 33

Sandpoint’s prolific jazz band

Live Music w/ Dammit! Lauren

9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge

Alt rock from Bozeman, Mont.

Live Music w/ Ian Newbill

6-9pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

Country and classic rock

Karaoke

8pm-cl @ Tervan Tavern

Sandpoint Chess Club

9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee

Meets every Sunday at 9am

THURSDAY, april 6

Museum extended hours

10am-7pm @ BoCo History Museum

The Museum will be open for extended hours on Thursdays so everyone has a chance to visit

Trivia Night

5-8pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse

FriDAY, april 7

Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes

5-8pm @ Drift (Hope)

Live Music w/ BTP

5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Classic rock from classic locals

Karaoke

8pm-cl @ Tervan Tavern

SATURDAY, april 8

Sandpoint Lions Club Annual Easter Egg Hunt

9am @ Lakeview Park

On-site Girl Scout cookie booth, Kaniksu dental brush giveaway, Starbucks coffee and don’t forget about the egg hunt!

Live Music w/ Global Gumbo

5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Feat. Truck Mills. Cajun influence

SunDAY, april 9

Easter Brunch at Trinity

10am-2:30pm @ Trinity at City Beach Reservations recommended

Karaoke

8pm-cl @ Tervan Tavern

Check Page 17 for a roundup of Easter events

monDAY, april 10

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi

7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s

“Evil, Suffering and a God of Love”

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

12th annual celebration

7pm @ Gardenia Center

Benefit concert with music by Monarch Mountain Band and potlucks with a WIRT slide show

Cribbage Night

7pm @ Connie’s Lounge

KRFY Annual Meeting & Party

5:30-7:30pm @ MCS

Join KRFY at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint for an evening of camaraderie, live music by Levi Hill and refresments

Easter Jam

4-5pm @ Cedar Hills Church

Kick off Easter weekend with an egg hunt, games and a fun Easter program with Cedar Hills Church

Live Music w/ Jonathan Foster

7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Visit jfmusic.net to listen free!

Live Music w/ John Pitcher

7-9pm @ Connie’s Lounge

A rock ’n’ roll tribute

Sandpoint Assembly

Easter Egg Hunt

11:20am @ Great Northern Field Kids 2-12 years can join in the hunt. Enjoy a petting zoo, cocoa bar and ice cream bars. Teens welcome. Free drinks, snacks, etc.

Group Run @ Outdoor Experience

6pm @ Outdoor Experience

3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after

tuesDAY, april 11

wednesDAY, april 12

Open Mic with Frytz

6pm @ Tervan Tavern

Film: Everything, Everywhere All at Once

7pm @ Panida Theater

Watch the 2023 Oscar winner for Best Picture. $5 and half off bar

ThursDAY, april 13

Trivia Night

5-8pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse

Cribbage Night

7pm @ Connie’s Lounge

Game Night 6:30pm @ Tervan Tavern

MUSIC / STAGE & SCREEN Festival at Sandpoint announces Brit Floyd for summer concert series

Tribute band’s performance will celebrate 50 years of The Dark Side of the Moon

By Reader Staff

Cue the laser light show — the Festival at Sandpoint has announced another show for their 2023 lineup: Brit Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute band playing under the big white tent Thursday, July 27.

Brit Floyd will perform a brand new production celebrating 50 years of the ground-breaking and iconic musical masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon. The show will feature classic tracks from the album, such as “Time,” “Money,” “Us and Them,” and “The Great Gig in the Sky.”

The set list will also include other highlights from Pink Floyd’s catalog of albums, including tracks from The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Division Bell, Medal and much more.

Brit Floyd performs note-fornote renditions of these classic

Pink Floyd tracks alongside a band of musicians that audiences have become familiar with worldwide over the years, featuring long-time guitarist/vocalist and musical director Damian Darlington, who has played over 2,500 Pink Floyd-music-related concerts throughout his career.

The band also features Ian Cattell, Edo Scordo, Eva Avila and other expert musicians who have joined the ranks of Brit Floyd over the course of the last decade.

Having performed over 1,000 shows since its launch in Liverpool, England, in January 2011, Brit Floyd has circled the world, sold out tours across Europe, North America, South America and the Middle East and is widely regarded as the world’s greatest rock tribute show. They are faithfully recreating the scale and pomp of the final 1994 Pink Floyd

Jeff Tweedy to play rare solo show at Panida

By Reader Staff

The Panida Theater will host legendary musician and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy for a rare solo performance Wednesday, July 26.

tour, complete with a stunning light show, iconic circular screen, lasers, inflatables and theatrics.

An Evening with Brit Floyd will be a seated show, meaning the area in front of the stage is general admission short chair and blanket seating only, and dancing areas can be found to the left and right sides of the stage.

General admission tickets are $49.95 before taxes and fees. Gates will open at 6 p.m. and the music begins at 7:30 p.m.

To purchase tickets or for more information, please visit festivalatsandpoint.com.

Tweedy’s summer tour precedes the release of his third book, World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music, which is slated to publish Nov. 7 via Dutton. World Within a Song is a disarming and heartening mix of memories, music and inspiration built around the 50-plus songs that changed Tweedy’s life. Fans, music lovers and creatives of all types will find inspiration in Tweedy’s insightful blend of music and emotion.

Tweedy is best known for his prolific songwriting and soulful expressions. He first made a name for himself with the alt-country

Movies you can only watch once

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

There is something magical about a well-made film. Some are filled to the brim with great writing, acting and a plot that drives itself. These are the gems we watch over and over again because they never get old. I’m talking about films like Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Die Hard and others. Hitting play feels like revisiting an old friend you always enjoy spending time with.

Then there are the films that should only be watched once. It’s not that they aren’t great in their own rights. Some might be so raw or gory that a second viewing is not recommended. Others have plot surprises that make watching over again seem futile. Still others are just so emotionally draining, the thought of delving back into that world is painful.

Whatever reason you deem appropriate, the following films are worth watching, but only once. Warning: the following may contain spoilers.

American History X

To call American History X a “tough watch” is putting it lightly. This 1998 film directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna takes a hard dive into racism, hatred, injustices in the prison system and, ultimately, stopping the cycle of passing hate on to the next generation. It’s a violent, unsettling film that is driven by Edward Norton’s Academy-Award nominated performance as a neo-Nazi who goes to prison after killing and wounding two Black teenagers who tried to steal his car (including a horribly graphic scene where Norton’s character curb stomps the would-be car thief). Norton’s character gets out of prison and vows to change his ways, mostly thanks to befriending a Black inmate who showed him a light out of the tunnel of prejudice.

The Whale

Right off the bat, I have to take my hat off to Brenden Fraser for his Oscar-winning performance in The Whale. This 2022 film was directed by Darren Aronofsky, a

filmmaker noted for producing surreal, melodramatic works that contain disturbing elements. It was written by Samuel D. Hunter, based on his play of the same name about a shut-in, morbidly obese man who teaches English online and struggles to repair a strained relationship with his teenage daughter.

The Whale is a slow burn psychological drama that takes us along with Fraser’s character as he literally attempts to eat himself to death. It’s not recommended to eat dinner while watching The Whale. Just watching Fraser’s character tuck into an entire bucket of KFC was enough to curb my appetite for the evening.

There are a lot of metaphors at work behind Aronofsky’s film, including how we treat those who are extremely obese and what that says about our own characters. The film isn’t without its flaws, but it firmly helped launch Fraser out of a decade of being greylisted from Hollywood, culminating in a touching six-minute standing ovation after the movie screened at the Venice Film Fest.

The Sixth Sense

When The Sixth Sense came out in 1999, it became a cultural phenomenon thanks to a plot twist ending that seemed to take everyone by surprise. For years after, it was quite common to hear someone say the line, “I see dead people.”

The film was directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starred Bruce Willis as Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist whose patient Cole Sear, played by Haley Joel Osment, claims he can see and talk to dead people.

Months before working with the boy, Malcolm arrived home with his wife to find a former patient waiting in his home. The patient shoots Malcolm and then himself and we pick up months later as Malcolm works with the troubled 9-year-old Sear.

Throughout the course of the film, we are firmly inside Malcolm’s world, viewing Cole’s delusions with empathy and concern. As we near the end of the film, as Malcolm returns home to his wife crying and talking in her sleep, it dawns on him that things are not what they

band Uncle Tupelo before forming Wilco and finding critical and commercial success. Wilco’s album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot gained widespread critical acclaim and the follow-up A Ghost is Born received a Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2005.

Tickets for Tweedy’s Panida concert will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, April 7 at panida.org.

seemed. In a plot twist that had people talking for years, the hammer drops and we find that Malcolm never survived the altercation that started the film off, and his patient Cole really does see dead people.

The film is made beautifully, with some excellent foreshadowing that is subtle enough to fool you the first watch, but not subsequent viewings (such as the color red only appearing anytime the real world has been affected by the ‘other’ world), making this a perfect one-and-done film.

Schindler’s List

Even films that win Best Picture at the Oscars can be difficult to watch more than once. Steven Spielberg’s 1993 historical epic Schindler’s List doesn’t shy away from showing the horrors of the Holocaust. Telling the story of a courageous man named Oskar Schindler (played expertly by Liam Neeson) credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, Schindler’s List is powerful, moving and heartbreaking. It’s a film everyone should watch at least once.

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy will play a rare solo concert at the Panida Theater Wednesday, July 26. Tickets go on sale at panida.org Friday, April 7 at 10 a.m. Photo courtesy Austin Nelson.

By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist

My birthday was last week. Every year as it draws close, I use the day as a yardstick to measure my goals list for the last birthday. I acknowledge the ones I’ve accomplished, then forgive myself and forge ahead with those I didn’t quite get tackled, continuing to chip away at the overly ambitious list I created for my 60th birthday. I also spend an excessive amount of time thinking about my mother.

For years, as my birthday approached, Mom would repeat her mantra to anyone in earshot, “You know, Marcia was supposed to be born on April Fool’s Day, but she fooled me and came a day late.”

For years, I rolled my eyes whenever she delivered this comment. So now I close my eyes, wishing she was near, savoring all my memories of my momma, including her full report of the record snow that fell in Bozeman, Mont., the week I was born: “We barely made it to the hospital; there wasn’t another car on the road (from Trident, where we lived, 25 miles away).”

My mother was salt of the earth, black-and-white factual, never one to embellish a story, but we all know that anecdotal tales have a way of taking on their own life, and it seemed to me that each time she repeated the story, the snow got deeper. So, this year on my birthday, curiosity took me down the information highway for fact-checking. Sure enough, Mom’s memory held to the facts. It was a doozy of a storm and may still keep the record for snowfall.

As I was scouring the internet for the information, I came across another brutal Montana winter, and this one I remembered all too well. It was an arctic cold snap from Canada. Overnight, temperatures plunged to 30 below and

The Sandpoint Eater Dear Mother

stayed there. If that weren’t bad enough, it was during the heart of the calving season, proving that Mother Nature can be one unforgiving bitch!

The cattle were burning calories like mad (so were the ranch hands), and we couldn’t feed them enough to satiate them. So, to ensure the cows were being fed, the diesel-fueled tractors and pick-up were left idling for days, fearing they would never start up again if we turned them off. I helped when I could with the cows, but I had two small children to tend and a dozen men to feed three times a day.

Between the price of extra feed, fuel and vet bills, we took a hit that winter and weren’t alone. It wasn’t only Mother Nature’s bitter-cold biting us. That year, interest rates were climbing (up to 18%), and the cost of diesel doubled nearly overnight (it seemed).

We were knocked down a few notches, and never recovered. Even now, when calving season nears, I offer up a lot of prayers for the cows, the calves, the cowboys, and yes, even the cooks. It was a lot to cook for ranch hands. So besides being chief cook and calf-bottle washer, I titled myself “HR Director.” We usually had a great group of guys, but because they shared our long dining table with my young children, my radar stayed on high alert until I got to know them better. If a new guy put me on edge, he didn’t stand a chance at long-term employment.

Looking back, I’m sure many of them had some undesirable history. When we were short handed during calving, fencing or haying (there are a lot of seasons to cover on a ranch!), my husband would drive to the unemployment or veterinary offices in Helena,

Butte or Missoula (we were equal distances from all three), and bring back a laborer or two. Of course, I insisted on some type of paperwork to verify their identity (well before the internet and background checks), which was usually a dogeared (and often expired) driver’s license.

Once they settled in, they were always hungry and always grateful for a home-cooked, hot meal. I was raised on my mom’s goulash and often relied on pasta for a main course (and still do). On the ranch, it was hearty servings of Mom’s Hungarian goulash, meatballs, spaghetti and large pans filled with layers of cheese laden lasagna. Every dish invariably included vast quantities of homeground deer, elk or beef.

Most of my pasta dishes have been modified to feed my growing group of vegetarians, so I often serve meat or seafood on the

Lemon pasta recipe

side. Everyone in my family has a favorite pasta dish, and I rotate through them when we gather: my rancher-son Zane is a huge fan of chicken fettuccine alfredo, Ryanne’s family’s go-to is carbonara, and Casey’s family, including the toddlers, are content with macaroni and cheese (lots of cheese). It was my mom’s favorite, too.

I am fond of pasta recipes with fresh seasonal ingredients like morels, ramps, garlic scapes and Copper River salmon. This week the asparagus and fresh peas were calling to me from the produce aisle, so a springtime favorite, Lemon Pasta, will be on the menu this Sunday, alongside a big, glazed ham and a gaggle of grandchildren. Crossing my fingers that Mother Nature will be gentle and deems us all worthy of an outdoor egg hunt. Happy Easter!

Serves 4

This pasta dish is lovely as a stand-alone, or served as a pleasing side to grilled salmon or sautéed shrimp. Using a small pasta with an indentation (like orecchiette) provides a nice little pool for the delicate sauce.

INGREDIENTS: DIRECTIONS:

•2 lemons, washed and zested, then squeezed

•12 oz. of pasta

•2 Tbs. butter

•2 Tbs. olive oil

•1 small shallot, minced

•3/4 cup fresh peas shelled

•1/2 lb. asparagus tips (reserve the rest for a stir fry)

•3/4 cup heavy cream

•Pasta water

•a few fresh thyme leaves

•1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

•Sea salt

•White pepper

Wash and finely grate zest from lemon and set aside.

Cut lemons in half and squeeze out lemon juice (should yield about 1/3 cup). Set aside.

Cook pasta in a large pot of heavily salted boiling water, stirring occasionally, until just done (don’t overcook). Reserve a cup of the pasta water for the sauce.

While pasta is cooking, in a separate large sauté pan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium high heat. Add the lemon zest and cook until sizzling. Reduce heat and add minced shallots and thyme leaves. Cook until soft. Add the lemon juice and cook until slightly reduced.

Add cream to pan, whisking often, until liquid is just beginning to simmer, about two minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, continue to whisk to emulsify. Add 3/4 cup pasta water, whisk. Add the pasta and mix with sauce until well coated. Add the peas and asparagus. Cover and reduce heat. Cook about 5 minutes.

If it looks dry, stir in a little more

pasta water until creamy. Season with salt and pepper Top with grated parmesan.

Serve immediately, garnished with lemon slices, fresh pea pods and chives.

MUSIC / OPINION

The day the music (almost) died

The Festival at Sandpoint’s Economic Impact Study shows the potential danger identity politics can pose for a community

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

The Festival at Sandpoint recently released an economic impact study reflecting how many dollars are brought into our community from the annual summer concert series. The results show that while the Festival at Sandpoint is a cultural phenomenon enjoyed by thousands throughout the region, it’s also an asset for our community that needs to be protected at all costs – including against those who have attempted to bring the Festival down in years past.

Conducted by the University of Idaho in 2022, the economic impact study assessed the financial contributions of the 2021-2022 Festival at Sandpoint fiscal year and its impact on Bonner County.

Despite costly improvements to War Memorial Field, bigger concerts and a pandemic which disrupted public concert attendances worldwide, the study showed that the Festival’s impact had grown by 58% in regional sales, 61% in gross regional product, 57% in total compensation, 47% in jobs created and 96% in tax contribution.

The study examined both direct economic impact (including job creation, payroll, gross regional product and sales resulting from the Festival) as well as indirect economic impact (which takes into account impacts on other regional

businesses that provide goods or services to the Festival and the effect of employee and consumer spending on the economy).

Estimating conservatively, the Festival at Sandpoint’s direct economic impact is $3.8 million in Bonner County, generating over $223,000 in Sandpoint, Bonner County and state of Idaho taxes while also creating 37 fulltime equivalent jobs throughout Sandpoint.

Of the 29,278 Festival tickets sold in 2022, approximately 15% were sold to Bonner County residents (mostly from Sandpoint), while 58% travel from other parts of Idaho, 26% come from out-ofstate and 1% travel internationally. In other words, 85% of Festival patrons do not reside in Bonner County. Every dollar they spend while visiting our community is a dollar we wouldn’t have had if the Festival at Sandpoint didn’t exist.

Festival visitors also bought over $2.1 million in food and drinks, retail purchases and housing accommodations in the time of the study.

Also benefiting the region is the fact that the Festival has five full-time employees, 22 parttime employees and independent contractors and approximately 600 volunteers whose combined volunteer time is equivalent to $669,600 in community value each year.

Why is it important to know these numbers? Because we live

in Idaho, where identity politics has grown out of control to the point where it is beginning to affect daily life in negative ways across the state. We’re starting to see the results of these choices, such as our beloved Bonner General Health recently announcing they would stop delivering new babies because vague and extreme abortion laws have created a drought of health professionals — many of whom choose to work elsewhere to avoid possible prosecution for providing health care to their patients.

Over the course of several years, the Reader exhaustively covered dual attempts by gun rights activists suing the Festival at Sandpoint because of their no-weapons policy while leasing the venue from the city of Sandpoint. Current Bonner County Commissioner Steve Bradshaw and former Commissioners Dan McDonald and Jeff Connolly brought the first legal challenge, which Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler also joined in as a plaintiff. However, the suit was doomed from the start because of lack of standing.

A second lawsuit was brought by then-abortion abolitionist Scott Herndon, who now represents District 1 as state senator. Herndon, along with area resident Jeff Avery, Boise-based gun rights lobby firm Idaho Second Amendment Alliance and Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation ultimately lost their suit, but have

appealed the decision to the Idaho Supreme Court.

“From the beginning this has been a test case,” city of Sandpoint attorney Katharine Brerton argued in court, “And, as appellants have continuously demonstrated, one without a reasonable basis in fact or law.”

This just shows the lengths that ideologues like Herndon will travel — and the economic harm they are willing to inflict on their own communities — just to pass laws that support their own narrow, extremist beliefs.

Why are we electing people who are making it their goals to harm or eliminate major economic drivers to our region? If either of the lawsuits were successful, the Festival would have either had to change venues or cease operations entirely, as most of the bands booked to play have stipulations in their contracts that they will not play venues which allow weapons inside during concerts. That would mean millions of dollars no longer funneling into our region, dozens of jobs lost and, last but not least, the loss of a beloved local music festival many look forward to all year.

It’s important to remember studies like this when it comes to electing our next lawmakers. The Festival is a foundational piece to our local economy and those who attempt to pull that piece from under us are not acting in our best interests.

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

KRFY Annual Meeting & Party, MCS, April 7 Jonathan Foster, Eichardt’s Pub, April 8

Celebrate local radio! Attend KRFY 88.5FM Panhandle Community Radio’s Annual Meeting and Party at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint on Friday, April 7.

This will be an evening of camaraderie, live music and important radio station business. It’s a great time to check in with your local radio station, conversate with radio personalities and hear updates for the year ahead.

Live music will be provided by young pianist Levi Hill and refreshments will also be made available.

— Ben Olson

Friday, April 7, 5:30-7:30 p.m., FREE, Music Conservatory of Sandpoint, 110 Main St. Sandpoint, 208-265-2992. Visit krfy.org for more information, or listen at 88.5FM on your radio dial.

It would be easy to talk in circles about Jonathan Foster’s various influences. There’s a mountain music element to his folk style; still, alt-rock makes the occasional audible appearance, just before harmonica brings the listener back to bluegrass earth.

The flavors of his Americana creations vary from song to song and album to album — a reflection of his biography, which lists him as both hailing from Cranberry Lake, New York, and Redding, California.

All the while, Foster is the first to

label himself in the simplest of ways: acoustic songwriter.

Live music connoisseurs of Sandpoint would be wise to understand that such labeling isn’t a reason to underestimate Foster’s capability to captivate. In fact, for this nationally-touring artist, the possibilities are endless.

— Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

Saturday, April 8, 7 p.m., FREE, Eichardt’s Pub, 212 Cedar St., 208263-4005. Listen at jonathanfostermusic.com.

Death of a River Guide, by Richard Flanagan, is both what you think it is and absolutely not what you think it is. For one, it’s a novel. For another, it is a courageous, one-of-a-kind epic that sometimes shifts between the first- and the third-person, and tackles so many ambitious themes. The spoiler in the title serves not only as a reflection on mortality, but also as a framework for divining countless other characters and stories, giving the reader a glimpse into the landscape of Flannigan’s homeland, Tasmania, and its rich history which is sometimes beautiful and sometimes sordid.

READ LISTEN

Listening to “random shuffle,” I am frequently lifted skyward by a band that played multiple shows in Sandpoint last summer: Bon Bon Vivant, from New Orleans. At times in NOLA they may play with 10 or more musicians, yet the stripped-down, four-piece still somehow captures that big brass sound and energy employing only a sousaphone (in lieu of a bass) and a sax. They blend Cajun, rock and jazz, and Paint & Pageantry is one of those wonderful albums on which the slow songs are equally as enticing as the faster ones.

WATCH

In the infinite sea of entertaining YouTubers, my wife and I somehow landed on Beau Miles, an Australian backyard adventurer/scrounger/school teacher/funny bloke with a large and quirky zest for life. While his early videos concentrate on more hardcore feats like kayaking the African coast or running the Australian Alps, having a family has brought him closer to home and new adventures like trying to kayak to work, exploring old railroad beds or running a marathon — one mile each hour. In The Human Bean, he trains for and runs an ultra race eating nothing but canned beans for a month. Sometimes he even salvages old materials and builds something in the middle of the adventure.

This week’s RLW by Ed Ohlweiler

From Northern Idaho News, April 7, 1905

PACK RIVER BRIDGE FIRE

One of the most serious interruptions to traffic that has occurred for a long time on the Northern Pacific railway was occasioned by the partial destruction by fire, Wednesday evening, of the long bridge across Pack River, fourteen miles east of Sandpoint.

When discovered by the bridge watchman late in the afternoon, the fire had gained such headway that an alarm was given along the road in each direction from Pack river and all possible aid was hurried to the scene of the fire and strenuous efforts made to extinguish the flames, which efforts were not successful until between eighty and ninety feet of the bridge spans including the upper portions of the piling, were destroyed.

A wrecking and repair train was equipped and sent on from Sandpoint and all the section gangs on the division were ordered to go to the fire. The extensive bridge construction and repair outfit at Missoula was hurried to the scene as was also a pile driver from Pasco, Wash.

Eastbound morning trains arrived at Sandpoint about 11 o’clock Thursday forenoon and the North Coast Limited came in on time and during the afternoon the yards had an animated appearance with the three fine trains standing in a string on the side track. At Hope the sidetracks contained the three westbound trains.

Soon after 10 o’clock Thursday night the repairs were completed and the westbound passenger trains were sent over the bridge and through Sandpoint in rapid succession and the eastbound trains pulled out towards the Atlantic with a speed that will enable them to make up some of the lost time which, in the case of No. 4, was nearly twenty four hours.

BACK OF THE BOOK

Mydaho

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

For many years, in the earlier part of this century, my friends and I took to referring to Sandpoint as “The Shire” — owing not only to its natural beauty, but because it’s not unusual to feel more than a little “bubbled” within it. Breaking the gravitational pull can be difficult (and I can attest to that fact, having boomeranged in and out of this place as a residence seven times since 1999).

During those periods when I’ve been away, it’s usually to have lived and worked in Boise or its surrounding areas.

There have been short stints in other places along the way, but I’ve been an Idaho man since I came into this world three or so blocks north of the current Reader office at Bonner General Health in late-September 1980 (a distinction that, as we all know by now, will be denied to future generations for the foreseeable future, thanks to Idaho’s perverted right-wing politics and the nation’s equally dysfunctional health care system).

Anyway, the upshot of all this wandering is that I’ve gotten to know Idaho pretty well.

Aside from about a dozen cumulative years spent in the capital city, I think I can say with confidence that I’ve been to just about every corner of the Gem State: from Island Park near the Montana and Wyoming borders, down through Ashton (with a stunning view of the Tetons) to Pocatello and Bear Lake on the Utah line; to Twin Falls and through the southern desert to Jackpot, Nev. (Cactus Pete’s!); Arco, a.k.a. “the Atomic City”; and the The Craters of the Moon.

I’ve been through the Sawtooth communities of Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley, with a stopover at Hemingway’s grave, a whiskey at his seat in the Sun Valley Lodge and a good meal at his favorite Ketchum restaurant, Christiania, or “The Christy.”

Then there’s the Air Force company

Appreciating a lifetime of adventures in our weird little-big state

town of Mountain Home, the Bruneau Sand Dunes and Morley Nelson conservation area; Silver City and southward through the Owyhees; over into the blasted Jordan Valley on the Idaho-Oregon border; and more times traveling north on U.S. 95 and Idaho 55 from the Treasure Valley to Sandpoint than I can count.

All this windy, geographic preamble is to say I had the pleasure of visiting a part of Idaho that I’ve never seen — recently spending a weekend in Kamiah, on the Clearwater River and reservation of the Nimiipuu people (a.k.a. “Nez Perce”), with my dad and brother as we tried and failed to catch some steelhead.

And it wasn’t for lack of trying. We spent about nine hours on a drift boat with a guide who — I kid you not — had a dip in his lip the entire time. Now, I like my tobacco products more than the next person, but the idea of consuming the demon weed in any form for that duration is unthinkable to me. The guy spit every 30 seconds for the entirety of a work day, with no breaks.

As it happened, apparently, there’d been a big rain in the Clearwater area a few days prior to our fishing expedition, thus the river was running high and definitely not “clear,” owing also to runoff from the Camas Prairie to the west (and our guide’s chaw spew). The fish had “squirted,” to borrow one of our guide’s many, many colorful colloquialisms, to more pristine waters, leaving only a few big straggling spawners behind to laze in their glorious fuzzy bulk in the shallows of the egg beds. At least we got to see a few of those.

Of course, they call it “fishing,” not “catching,” so there’s never any sense being frustrated by empty nets. The best part was simply spending some quality time with the old man and the not-so-little brother, taking in new scenery and getting familiar with a few new towns — Kooskia, Kamiah and Orofino on Highway 12 are like traveling

Sudoku Solution STR8TS Solution

back to the Idaho of the early-’80s.

There were many memorable moments (and some moments that evade memory, thanks to whiskey and strong beer), but I’ll retain my brother’s description of Kamiah — “This would be an easy town to get into a bar fight” — and the perpetually spitting drift boat guide and his tale of a couple of good ol’ boys who took the tires off their Toyota Tacoma and went for a steel-rimmed “booze cruise” on the decommissioned railway running along the east bank of the Clearwater, only to hit a boulder and have to be rescued by the sheriff.

Then there was the duo of hardware store employees who we named “Machete Dan” and “Little Steve” — the former a stringbean 20-something with a wispy mustache on his face and an 18-inch homemade blade on his belt, who glared at us and sold us a barbecue without saying a single word. The latter being the smallest fully proportional man I’ve ever seen, who was as loquacious and helpful as Machete Dan was not.

I’ll tell you what, it’s nice to live in The Shire, but there’s a whole lot of Idaho out there to explore.

Crossword Solution

People need to realize that every time they talk about how “fragile” our planet is, it’s just like asking outer-space aliens to come invade us.

Laughing Matter

Solution on page 22

By Bill Borders

CROSSWORD

Solution on page 22

Aesculapian /es-kyuh-LEY-pee-uhn/

Word Week of the

[adjective]

1. medical; medicinal.

“Though home remedies may be tempting to try, the recommendations of doctors and other Aesculapian professionals are more tested.”

Corrections: In the article “Shooting for the stars: New local nonprofit Spacepoint aims to generate interest, participation in the space industry,” March 30, 2023, we misidentified the entity running the NASA Dragonfly mission to Titan. It is being run by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), in Laurel, M.D. We regret the error. — ZH