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2 / R / December 14, 2023
DEAR READERS,
The week in random review By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
an abundance of teeth
According to the rest of the world, Americans have a preoccupation with straight, white, perfect teeth. Just look at the British — at least the Brits whom Hollywood hasn’t adopted — and you’ll see that they aren’t spending thousands of dollars on braces and teeth-whitening gimmicks. I’ve personally been tormented by several teeth aficionados, not including dentists. It all started with a 9 a.m. college history class in which I sat next to an individual with a buzz cut and a unicorn backpack. Before the start of every class, she would hoot like a cartoon monkey. This phenomenon was alarming but became routine and I learned to tune it out. Eventually she added to her ritual by interspacing her monkey-like hoots with the words, “I’m gonna eat you teeth,” said in the singsong voice of a possessed toddler. She would say this a minimum of three times per class, though thankfully never directed the threat at me specifically. The next semester I spoke to a different girl who casually mentioned that the plant she kept on her “teeth shelf” had died. After a few questions, she revealed that she had an entire shelf in her living room covered in human teeth which, she claimed, were the baby teeth and wisdom teeth of many of her friends and relatives. I haven’t heard of a serial killer nicknamed “The Tooth Fairy” terrorizing Washington, so I can only assume she was telling the truth.
cocktail weenies
Have you ever wondered if our local fauna have the animal-equivalent of a McDonald’s? In my neighborhood, the answer is yes. Growing up, my neighbor was a kind-hearted older gentleman with 10 incontinent dogs, a health hazard of a house and a large supply of corn. He built a series of troughs between his trees and would fill them with corn every winter to feed the deer. All his neighbors begged him not to do this, as the only animals he was actually feeding were the large family of racoons who lived in and around the trees. One year, they gorged themselves on corn for so long that they looked like burnt cocktail weenies. They were so obese that they could barely walk, and each morning and night you could watch them waddle across the road after spending a few hours sitting in what were essentially bathtubs full of food. It wasn’t the racoons who were having the true McDonald’s experience, though, it was the cougar who came every morning for his version of an Egg McMuffin. He’d simply wait nearby and watch the bowling-ball-esque raccoons deliver themselves into his waiting jaws — though, to be fair, they weren’t fast food.
bigfoot is a lousy neighbor
I’ve seen my share of cougars, racoons, moose, coyotes and every other wild thing at my childhood home in the woods, but I’ve yet to meet any cryptids — like Mothman or the Jersey Devil. A few years back, however, my father swore up and down that he saw Bigfoot off the front porch. He heard a deep, throaty howl and looked down into the forest to see a massive creature walking on two legs. He told that story hundreds of times, while recreating the howl and the lumbering way the animal walked, until neighbors began encountering the beast themselves. It turns out that it was a three-legged bear who walked upright to accommodate its missing limb — either that, or Bigfoot in a bear costume.
If you’re reading this on our distribution day, you have approximately nine shopping days left until Christmas. For all the procrastinators out there, that means you need to get to work. It’s always important to remind people this time of year that shopping local is a great way to support your community. If you can, make sure to purchase at least a few of your gifts from our local retailers. When you “shop small” as they say it, you put money back into your community. Ordering online may seem like an effortless way to shop, but when you shop local, you avoid all that packaging, as well as the transportation costs and fuel it takes to get to your door. Also, when you shop at small businesses, you support your local economy. Your money goes to real people who are making a life here in our home, not corporate CEOs padding their profit margins. Please show our local small business owners some love whenever you can. It will always come back to you.
– Ben Olson, publisher
READER 111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 208-946-4368
sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Soncirey Mitchell (Staff Writer) soncirey@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (emeritus) Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Kelsey Kizer kelsey@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Karley Coleman (cover), Ben Olson, Duane Rasmussen, Ross Fulmer, Bill and Marge Preuss, Susan Lee and Dan Thompson, Janenne Russell, Racheal Baker, Bill Borders Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Soncirey Mitchell, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Daniel Walters, Sandi Nizzoli, Marcia Pilgeram, Mike Jewell, Justin Henney 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 soybased 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.
Sandpoint Reader 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: sandpointreader.com About the Cover
Photographer Karley Coleman snapped this photo of the Beaver Moon in late November. You can check out more of Karley’s work at fivemegawatts.mypixieset.com December 14, 2023 / R / 3
NEWS
BOCC to include fairgrounds in FY’23 financial audit Prior years’ records won’t be included; Chair Luke Omodt pushes back against ICCO
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Following months of raucous, often explosive meetings, the Bonner County board of commissioners enjoyed a relatively eventoned morning Dec. 12, even as it addressed a number of hot-button issues including meeting protocol, the legitimacy of the so-called Individual County Constitutional Officers and auditing of the Bonner County Fairgrounds. Chair Luke Omodt began the regular Tuesday business meeting by addressing the manner in which the agenda would be followed, with Robert’s Rules of Order providing a “framework” and public comment being placed near the end of the meeting — after the agendized items and before commissioners’ reports. Omodt reminded members of the public to “debate issues, not personalities,” and reiterated a number of sections of Idaho Code and county ordinance underscoring the prerogative of the chair to recognize speakers and direct them to keep their comments focused on the agenda. “The board will not engage in dialogue with the presenter during discussion,” he said, noting that county business meetings do not constitute public hearings. Commissioner Asia Williams was absent from the Dec. 12 meeting. The BOCC approved bills and the annual financial report of the Department of Juvenile Corrections, as well as the final plat for the 19.5-acre Fisher Haven Estates development, and transferred more than $574,000 from the capital construction general fund and EMS capital construction funds from the Fiscal Year 2024 budget to the FY’23 budget to correct for an overestimated carryover. Finally, commissioners approved the closeout of a $25,000 grant for improved parking at the Gold Hill trailhead, with funds to be reimbursed by the U.S. Forest Service. 4 / R / December 14, 2023
The BOCC ran through those parts of the agenda with little disruption, Omodt only having to remind a handful of public speakers to stay on topic as their comments strayed into what the chair determined to be irrelevance. The biggest-ticket item came with discussion of the Individual County Constitutional Officers and the drafting of a letter to Moscow-based accounting firm Hayden Ross, reflecting that while previous county audited financial statements have not included Bonner County Fairgrounds operations, that information will be included in the FY’23 statement “as a component unit of Bonner County,” though examined by different independent auditors. Omodt led off that portion of the agenda with a recounting of the origin of the ICCO, the formation of which Bonner County Sheriff Darryl Wheeler announced in May 2022 as an audit committee dedicated to reviewing and helping guide how the county would (or wouldn’t) spend federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. In an email to then-Commissioners Dan McDonald, Jeff Connolly and Steve Bradshaw in May 2022, Wheeler wrote that the ICCO had also chartered a three-member audit subcommittee of which he would serve as chair and, “Although the BOCC isn’t a necessary signatory to this Charter, the Bonner ICCOs would appreciate the BOCC joining this project with us.” Omodt argued that the ICCO has no statutory authority to operate as an auditing body, citing Idaho Code that the auditing of county finances is to be conducted “under the direction of the board of county commissioners.” “It is not the powers and duties of the sheriff, it is not the powers and duties of the county clerk, it is not the powers and duties of the treasurer,” Omodt said. “Somehow the ICCO came up with this idea that they had authority to create an audit committee,” he later added, going on to describe the evidence offered by Wheeler for the group’s authority
as a “long, convoluted exercise in overreach.” In May 2022, Wheeler cited the court case Allied Bail Bonds, Inc. v. County of Kootenai in arguing that elected county officials hold “independent constitutional authority” over their respective offices, and such authority “does not derive” from the board of county commissioners. Based on that independent power, Wheeler told the BOCC last May that the ICCO would review COVID-era ARPA monies under Section 303 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which deals with the ways that non-federal entities are to handle federal awards. Lacking a specific 303 program at the county, Wheeler said the ICCO could fill that role and hoped that the group would come together with the BOCC to “agree on a common 303 framework enabling the spending of ARPA funds.” During his commissioner report at the end of the public meeting Dec. 12, Omodt said, “The ICCO created itself out of wholecloth” and proceeded to “operate in clandestine meetings,” which he contended runs afoul of Idaho Open Meeting Law. According to the open meeting law manual, meetings held by “a governing body of a public agency shall be open to the public,” with a “governing body” defined as “members of any public agency ‘with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public agency regarding any matter.’” He noted that only one elected member of the BOCC is a member of the ICCO: Commissioner Williams, who joined its subcommittee to formulate the 303 framework as a commissioner-elect. In a Nov. 28, 2023 email from
Wheeler to Omodt, in which the sheriff supplied a memo intended to “provide a basic argument supporting the legitimacy of the ICCO,” it was stated, in part, that “[t]he activities of the ICCO do not detract from the BOCC’s responsibilities; rather, they bolster the county’s capability to meet these federal requirements, thus fostering a more robust and efficient control environment.” In addition, Wheeler wrote, “The BOCC’s refusal to consider input from these separate constitutional officers risks creating an information vacuum in the oversight process,” going on to specifically cite “the BOCC’s monitoring failures, especially concerning the Fair Board’s cash operations.” “Instead of facilitating open and thorough monitoring processes, the BOCC appears to be actively blocking input regarding these monitoring activities,” the memo stated. Underpinning Omodt’s discussion of the ICCO was the repeated assertion that the authority to audit county dollars falls to the direction of the commissioners, and that Hayden Ross would do the work of preparing the audited financial statement for FY’23 — to include the fairgrounds, though either “blended” or “discreet” with the overall statement, and conducted by an independent auditor which will be identified following a request for proposal — and would not extend to previous years’ fairgrounds records. Based on an ongoing audit of the Kootenai County Fair by another firm, Omodt estimated that it would cost between $20,000 and $25,000 to audit the fairgrounds, in addition to the $50,000-$100,000 spent looking through Bonner County’s books as
a whole. Some in the community have called for a 10-year review of the fairgrounds’ financials, especially in the wake of the alleged fraud committed under the tenure of late-Fair Director Darcey Smith, who apparently took her own life in October 2022 amid the onset of a probe into suspected misuse of funds. Omodt estimated that doing so could cost between $200,000 and $250,000 “to make a determination of what, I do not know.” He reiterated that the fairgrounds’ financial records going back several years are incomplete at best and in some cases missing entirely, which would make the exercise of a long-ranging audit even more complex. “Two hundred and fifty-thousand dollars, looking backwards, is money that this commissioner at this time is not prepared to spend with this information that we have before us,” Omodt said. Those who testified on the audit at the Dec. 12 meeting were in favor of looking beyond FY’23 fairgrounds records. Resident Kristina Nicholas Anderson said that it was “premature” to assume the county couldn’t afford a larger retroactive audit of fairgrounds financials, and, “things can’t really heal and move forward until we rectify what has happened in the past and I don’t think 2023 is that starting point.” Resident Dan Welle similarly testified, saying, “Failing to look into the past is going to prevent you from going forward.” “Nobody in this county is going to be satisfied until this is dealt with explicitly, so they know the details around it,” he added. “You can’t do an audit? Wrong. A forensic auditor can go into the bank statements … they can make connections, they can end the problems that are going on here. … Until that happens, you’re going to continue to have division and dissension.”
NEWS
Open Primaries Initiative reaches 50,000 signatures Half of 100K signature goal secured ahead of Nov. 2024 ballot
By Reader Staff Idahoans for Open Primaries announced Dec. 13 that it has secured 50,000 signatures for a petition to end closed primaries and give Idahoans the option to participate in primary elections regardless of political affiliation. The group seeks to place the Open Primaries Initiative on the November 2024 ballot. If successful, the ballot measure would create a nonpartisan primary system that is open to all voters. The current closed primary system, which began in 2011, gives parties the option to restrict their primaries to registered party members. The Idaho Republican Party primary has been closed since 2011, while the Idaho Democrats and Constitution Party have cho-
sen to keep their primaries open to unaffiliated voters, of which there are an estimated 270,000 in the state. “Our coalition has set a goal of collecting 100,000 signatures before submitting to the Secretary of State’s Office to be certified,” stated Margaret Kinzel, co-leader of the Idaho chapter of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, one of the organizations supporting the initiative. “The fact that volunteers have already reached 50,000 signatures in just four months is a testament to how passionate Idahoans are about the prospect of an open primary.” State regulations make it challenging to place a citizen-led initiative on the ballot. To qualify, the campaign must collect valid signatures from 6% of all Idaho
voters who were registered at the most recent general election, which amounts to 62,895 signatures statewide. The campaign must also collect signatures from 6% of registered voters in 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts. The deadline to be included on the November ballot is May 1, 2024. “We are confident that these reforms will not only give Idaho voters more quality candidates and choices, but it will also ensure all voters have their voices heard,” Kinzel added. “In a taxpayer-funded election, no voter should be forced to pick a party to participate. All voters should be able to cast their vote for any candidate they believe in.” Get more info at OpenPrimariesID.org.
Judy Labrie is a volunteer with Idahoans for Open Primaries in Sandpoint supporting the ballot initiative. Photo courtesy of Idahoans for Open Primaries.
Bonner General Health Deadline for transitions to new CEO and CFO Your Health Idaho insurance closes Dec. 15
Center and outpatient centers, with a gross revenue of Following CEO Sher$3 billion. He has also yl Rickard’s announceworked in other finanment in October that she cial leadership roles would retire after 37 years throughout the region. with Bonner General Hennessy is an Health, the hospital will active board member of transition to new leaderthe Idaho Hospital Asship before the new year. sociation VENTURES The Bonner General Hosboard and will replace pital Board of Directors Rickard on the YellowJohn Hennessy. has chosen current-BGH stone Insurance Board. CFO John Hennessy to serve as “It’s a tremendous honor and CEO, effective Dec. 15. privilege for me to serve as the Born in Spokane, Hennessey chief executive officer of a hospireceived his undergraduate degree tal that has such a long and proud from Gonzaga University in history of providing quality, combusiness administration and his passionate care to our communimaster’s in health policy and adty,” he stated. “I’m also honored ministration from Washington State to continue building on the legacy University. In addition to his time of Sheryl Rickard. Sheryl’s 37 as CFO at BGH, Hennessy has years of leadership here have posiserved in additional financial leadtioned BGH for continued success ership roles throughout his career, well into the future.” and worked closely with Rickard Bonner General Health has for a combined seven years. also hired Skyler Twidt as chief In addition, Hennessy served financial officer. Born and raised as the finance officer for Riverside in North Idaho, Twidt received his Regional Medical Center in Virdegreein business, with an emginia — a Level II Trauma Center, phasis in accounting and finance, overseeing the financial activities from the University of Idaho. He of the 450-bed flagship hospital, brings 10-plus years of accountits 127-bed Behavioral Health ing and finance experience, eight
By Reader Staff
specializing in health care and progressive financial leadership. Most recently, he served as the director of Financial Planning and Analysis for Kootenai Health. Twidt joined BGH last month and has been working alongside Hennessy to familiarize himself with the mission, vision and values of Bonner General Health. “I am thrilled to be part of the exceptional Bonner General Health leadership team,” Twidt stated. “I am energized by the passion and pride of this community-driven group. I’m eager to build upon the excellent groundwork laid by John and Sheryl, and excited about the amazing things I know BGH can achieve in the future!” Hennessy and Twidt will lead BGH and its 430 employees along with the senior leadership team: Shannon Barnes, chief human resources officer; Becki Dotson, chief nursing officer; and Dr. Stacey Good, chief medical officer. “I have every confidence that our fantastic team, under the leadership of John Hennessy, will continue to grow our services and positively impact the health of our community,” Rickard stated.
Idahoans need to act now or will have to wait another year to enroll in coverage By Reader Staff Your Health Idaho issued a critical reminder to Idahoans that they have until midnight (Mountain Time) on Friday, Dec. 15 to apply and enroll in a health plan through the state’s health insurance marketplace. Applying for a tax credit and health insurance is done at the same time on one application at yourhealthidaho.org. Your Health Idaho is the only place Idahoans can receive a tax credit and cost-sharing reductions for their health insurance coverage, and 90% of those already enrolled for 2024 coverage qualify for a tax credit. Now is also the time for Idahoans who do not receive affordable health insurance through their employer and do not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare to find out if they may be eligible to enroll in a plan through Your Health Idaho.
After Dec. 15, those seeking health insurance will have to wait until next fall to enroll in a plan unless they experience a “qualifying life event,” such as marriage, having a child or losing employer-sponsored coverage. Coverage for plans selected during open enrollment begins Jan. 1, 2024. For those who are unsure about how to enroll or determine if they qualify for a tax credit, Your Health Idaho recommends working with a certified agent or broker, whose assistance is available at no cost. Find a local certified agent or broker at yourhealthidaho.org/find-help. Your Health Idaho’s customer support center has extended hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (MT). Customer advocates are also available to help via phone or live chat. For more info visit yourhealthidaho.org.
December 14, 2023 / R / 5
NEWS
Local man pulls motorist from vehicle that drove off Schweitzer road cliff
7B Handyman’s Nicholas Douglas was in the right place at the right time
By Ben Olson Reader Staff When Nicholas Douglas was driving down the mountain Dec. 9 from a job on Schweitzer, he saw something that didn’t look right. Instead of just passing by, he decided to stop and investigate. The decision likely wound up saving a motorist’s life. “We were driving past that switchback on the mountain where everyone goes to look at the view,” Douglas told the Reader. “I noticed a set of tracks that went straight off the road, and they just disappeared.” Douglas turned to his partner and told her he had to turn around. “I go back up there and, sure enough, there’s a car down there, 70 feet down over the cliff,” he said. “The guy launched over the hillside. He came around that corner and couldn’t stop, and went straight off the end.” Though it was snowing and he was wearing tennis shoes, Douglas scrambled down the hillside to pull the driver out of the vehicle. The driver was later identified as Luis Martin, who was in town visiting from California. “I could see tail lights blinking down there,” Douglas said. “I got him out, but he was passed out. I got him to wake back up and dragged him up the hill some more, then the fire department showed up. “I’m just lucky I was there and saw the tracks going off the road,” he added. “With the snow coming down, the tracks 6 / R / December 14, 2023
Nicholas Douglas, left, stands with Luis Martin, right, after Douglas pulled Martin from his vehicle after it drove off the cliff from a switchback on Schweitzer Mountain Road. Courtesy photo. would’ve been erased pretty quick. I saved this dude’s life. He might not have made it if we weren’t coming down the mountain right then.” The next day, Douglas, who owns 7B Handyman and 7B Detail with his partner Nishelle Gonzales, had a feeling he should check on the man. “I thought, ‘What if no one knows him?’ or, ‘What if he needs help?’ So I went down to the ER and right when I walked in the door I saw him standing there, crying,” Douglas told the Reader in a phone interview. “He didn’t even have any broken bones or anything. He was helping his girlfriend clean a house because her mom died. Well, I’m actually standing in the house right now, my partner and I are cleaning it right now for him.” Douglas and Gonzalez even ended up giving the man a lift to the airport. Looking back on the incident, Douglas said he believed there should be an app that connects people with EMS experience, in case there are incidents that the fire department or ambulances can’t respond to quickly. “Sometimes people can’t get to you fast enough, so it would be nice to have some kind of app where people can help if they have EMS experience,” he said.
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: Harvard professor Jason Furman stated that the U.S. now has 2 million jobs and 2 million employed above the U.S. Congressional Budget Office’s pre-pandemic projections. TV host Maria Bartiromo stated on Fox News that “the economy is a lot stronger than anyone understands.” A fake NBC clip on social media on behalf of former-President Donald Trump’s campaign needs to come down now, according to the network. The Hill reported that the fake clip altered a report from one of NBC’s correspondents. According to various media reports, Congress has been wrestling with a $110.5 billion national security supplemental package that has more funding for both Ukraine and Israel; humanitarian assistance for Gaza and the West Bank; funding for replenishing U.S. weapons stockpiles, as outdated weaponry has gone to Ukraine; anti-drug cartel and fentanyl prevention funding; and Customs and Border protections, like enhanced security and faster migrant processing. Since Trump has made border issues a campaign priority, Republicans want their border policies added to the funding package, including finishing the Trump wall and seizing private land to do so; narrowing the right to apply for asylum, in defiance of international law; ending blanket asylum in emergency cases, and ending sponsored asylum programs, which have reduced illegal entry up to 95%. The Republican stance is being called a “poison pill” for passing the security package. Former Trump White House Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commented that if Ukraine loses to Russia due to lack of U.S. funding, “the cost to America will be far greater than the aid we have given Ukraine.” Current Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a funding failure runs the real risk of Russian President Vladimir Putin being able to go forward “with impunity, and we know he won’t stop in Ukraine.” Next up for Putin’s aggression could be a NATO country, which would obligate U.S. involvement. The Guardian reported that a Heritage Foundation-hosted event this week will include a closed-door meeting involving congressional Republicans and Hungarian embassy staff. Hungary has dismantled its own democracy and is a Putin ally, while the foundation has opposed aid to Ukraine.
By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist
Numerous reports have indicated that Israel is using white phosphorus in the war against Hamas. Once ignited, the substance sticks to the skin and can cause deep and severe burns, and even penetrate bone. White phosphorus is banned in civilian areas, but there are reports of civilians with severe burns and burnings of property that The Guardian reported were linked to white phosphorous bombs used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon. According to the BBC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas fighters should surrender because now is the “beginning of the end of Hamas.” But that is “wildly optimistic,” a military analyst told the BBC. A Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans for submitting false certificates claiming Trump was the 2020 presidential winner, CBS reported. The felony charges could net up to five years in prison. Foreign governments did not alter U.S. votes in 2020, according to a 45-page report of interviews with senior Trump administration intelligence officials. According to Politico, Special Counsel Jack Smith is presenting the findings in the case against Trump for interfering with election results. Days after the vote, Trump had said the election was “impenetrable,” but later disagreed with his own statement. Smith plans to show evidence in court that Trump has a record of denying election results: Trump said in 2012 that voting machines switched votes from Republicans to Democrats. Campaigning in 2016 he said he would not accept a loss due to “voter fraud.” Smith recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a quick decision on whether Trump’s claim is true that he is immune from prosecution. Trump recently stated he would not be a dictator if elected in 2024, except on “Day 1.” However, former-Trump security team member Kash Patel said on a Steve Bannon podcast that, if Trump is reelected, perceived opponents will be targeted “criminally or civilly.” Blast from the past: Dictators “make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems: freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions.” — President Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969, regarded as one of America’s greatest military commanders for his WWII actions. He ran as a Republican and was president from 1953 to 1961.
NEWS
Idaho Freedom Foundation quietly hired altright propagandist to help shape messaging Conservative Idaho legislators stay silent on IFF’s affiliation with Dave Reilly, who encouraged attendance at Unite the Right rally By Daniel Walters InvestigateWest This story was first published by InvestigateWest on Dec. 11, 2023. In the months leading to the infamous 2017 Unite the Right tiki-torch rally in Charlottesville, Va., then-talk radio host Dave Reilly had some messaging-strategy tips for the attendees from the alt-right — the internet-savvy collection of racist and antisemitic groups that arose during the Trump era. Using the screen name Davy Crockett, Reilly was part of a private invitation-only online group involved with brainstorming, planning and promoting the rally, courtroom testimony and leaked chat messages subsequently revealed. He chided members for posting a Nazi meme publicly on Facebook where the left could use it against them. He advised altright gays to “stay in the f—ing closet.” He livestreamed a Charlottesville KKK rally a month before the event, and the top organizer of the upcoming alt-right rally shared it as motivation for his followers to recruit more attendees. And he was one of those calling for marching straight through the “commons with torches for the night rally,” arguing that nobody would expect it and it would “give us the opportunity to take photos and videos and lots of good propaganda.” “I’m in favor of @DavyCrockett plan,” responded a North Carolina state organizer of the rally, a leader in the white nationalist group Identity Evropa. And when the torchlight march for the night rally finally happened, Reilly was there to promote “UNBELIEVABLE DRONE FOOTAGE” of the rally on Twitter, now known as X. Six years later, Reilly, now a political operative in Idaho, has landed a new messaging gig: helping to shape the communications strategy for the conservative Idaho Freedom Foundation, arguably the most powerful political activist group in the state. But while few on the hard right in Idaho have been willing to publicly defend Reilly, few have been willing to explicitly condemn him either. InvestigateWest reached out to the 10 Idaho legislators most support-
ed by the Freedom Foundation, and only one, Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, responded — though he declined to comment on Reilly directly. Reilly’s effect on Idaho’s far right goes beyond his work for the Freedom Foundation, InvestigateWest has found. He also covertly wields significant influence through political advertising campaigns and an incendiary digital news site. But Reilly’s new role represents a much more significant coup: The Idaho Freedom Foundation, which began in 2009 as a libertarian-leaning free-market think tank, has been contracting with the self-described Christian nationalist — who’s said “free markets are a problem,” who hates “libertarianism more than any other political ideology,” and who compares conservatives who make capitalism their highest value to “being a slave and BEGGING your massa to keep you in chains.” “You’d think they could find someone who doesn’t have a trail of breadcrumbs that lead in the direction that Mr. Reilly’s do,” said Coeur d’Alene City Councilor Dan Gookin, a prickly conservative critic of the Freedom Foundation. “It’s going to give a lot of ammo to the liberals who say, ‘They’re all racists anyway.’” IFF’s ‘freedom agenda’ The Idaho Freedom Foundation is widely loved by some of Idaho’s most rightwing legislators. Other political figures, like Gookin, describe it as part of the “toxic seasoning that makes the Legislature here dysfunctional.” What neither side doubts is the organization’s considerable influence: The Freedom Foundation’s so-called Freedom Index, which scores each legislator based on their voting record, is frequently held up as the arbiter of true conservatism in the redder parts of Idaho. In Idaho Falls, the Post Register reports that a local GOP legislative district committee had even been including failures to vote the way the Freedom Foundation recommends as grounds for triggering an investigation. Confirming that Reilly was working for the Freedom Foundation was as simple as typing Reilly’s first name and the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s domain into Gmail. Reilly’s Freedom Foundation email
account, complete with his smiling picture, automatically popped up, suggesting he’d been given an official role. Alli Megal, the organization’s vice president, confirmed that Reilly had been hired to do “some work for us for comms,” but she stressed he was “just a contractor.” Contractors, however, have often performed significant roles for the Freedom Foundation, including grading how bills score on the Freedom Index. Megal declined to comment when asked how the Freedom Foundation was navigating Reilly’s controversial past and said she’d “rather not say” whether Reilly was still working there. “Of course” the board knows, she said. Reilly, who refers to himself as an “independent journalist” on his X profile, did not respond to questions sent to his Freedom Foundation email, to his personal email and via direct message on the X account he’d previously used to contact InvestigateWest. For years, the Freedom Foundation has pursued a particularly combative communications strategy, hammering both the Legislature and the press online. But that philosophy has often meant hiring the exact kind of figures that have drawn the organization into controversy after controversy. Parrish Miller, another contractor with the foundation, once wrote that “it’s long past time to give up on politics and start shooting tyrants” after the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff in 2016. Its most recent communications director, Brian Almon, like Reilly, has argued that the country made a mistake in giving women the right to vote. By October, Almon had either resigned from the Freedom Foundation or been ousted. Asked in a direct message if the Freedom Foundation was planning to replace his role with Reilly, Almon wrote that he “couldn’t possibly comment” on the organization’s personnel decisions. Recently, Dustin Hurst, who was overseeing the Idaho Freedom PAC — the legally distinct campaign arm of the organization — told InvestigateWest that Reilly hadn’t played any role with the PAC. Three days later, however, Hurst suddenly announced he had decided to resign from his position. He would not directly answer InvestigateWest’s question about whether
Dave Reilly watches a 2022 press conference for the North Idaho Republicans, a group of moderate Republicans attempting to counter the rightward turn in the party. Photo by Duane Rasmussen. his resignation had anything to do with the Freedom Foundation’s choice to hire Reilly. “Here’s what I’ll say: The PAC has an operational vision I just don’t share anymore,” Hurst wrote in a message. “I have other important projects to pursue.” The Freedom Foundation’s board chair, Brent Regan, who BuzzFeed once called the “Godfather of North Idaho Politics,” suggested the board was taking a hands-off approach to Reilly. “The IFF board is not involved with HR matters,” Regan wrote in an email. “The only person the board directly supervises is the president, Wayne Hoffman, who is Jewish.” Hoffman, at one time a journalist himself, didn’t respond to a text message to his personal cellphone or an email requesting more details about Reilly’s role, including when he started. Devin Burghart, president of the Insti-
< see IFF, Page 8 > December 14, 2023, 2023 / R / 7
NEWS < IFF, con’t from Page 7 > tute for Research and Education on Human Rights, an anti-hate organization, sees Reilly’s hiring as more of a culmination of a long trend than a surprise. “It’s a marriage of convenience,” said Burghart. “Irrespective of [Hoffman’s] Jewish heritage, the fact that they’re still willing to work with an antisemite like Reilly is an indicator of their willingness to work with the fringiest elements of Idaho politics.” What antisemitism? Reilly has denied being an antisemite or a white supremacist, claiming he judges people based on the content of their character. Yet his tweets for the past four years have been filled with attacks on “Jewish supremacy,” “Jewish subversion,” “Jewish privilege” and the supposed “Israeli Industrial Complex.” He’s written that Jews “control the media” and “invented terrorism.” He’s claimed that the “Jewish Oligarchy” threatens to make us “economic slaves in our own homeland,” that Jewish behavior was the “number one cause” of antisemitism and that Israel spent “DECADES making White self-determination in the West IMPOSSIBLE.” He’s called Jews “our friends in the same way that Cain was friends with Abel,” referring to the first murder in the Bible. Both Regan and Hoffman were well aware of many of the antisemitic things that Reilly said. Regan was confronted with them repeatedly as the chair of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, the local Republican party organization in Coeur d’Alene. That committee continued to endorse Reilly for the Post Falls School District Board of Trustees in 2021, even after reporters revealed that Reilly had, for instance, refused to apologize for his involvement in Charlottesville, declaring that “the idea that one can be contaminated by an association is Jewish.” Last year, meanwhile, audio reporter Heath Druzin sent Hoffman verified screenshots of Reilly claiming that Jews “pretend to be white” when expedient, leaving “everyone else of European heritage” footing the bill, and of Reilly responding to a news 8 / R / December 14, 2023
story that “at least 61 percent of Americans agree with at least one antisemitic stereotype” by saying, “Good news! Let’s get those numbers up!” But Hoffman refused to consider the evidence. “I don’t know the guy, and I’m not in the habit of accepting whatever pretend ‘reporters’ have to say on any topic,” Hoffman responded, arguing that he would do his “own due diligence, thanks.” Online influencers To Gookin, the ongoing refusal of party officials to actively oppose Reilly or his ideology is infuriating. “To have the official Republican Party refuse to condemn someone who openly embraces white supremacy is wrong!” a visibly angry Gookin said during a contentious confrontation at a Kootenai County Republican women’s luncheon this fall. The video of Gookin’s condemnation was quickly uploaded in a story from the Idaho Tribune, a particularly incendiary digital site in North Idaho, with an inaccurate headline: “UNHINGED: Woke Coeur D’Alene City Councilman Goes On Tirade Calling A Room Full Of Elderly Republican Women ‘White Supremacists.’” On social media in October, former Idaho Freedom Foundation staffer Branden Durst, a rare public defender of Reilly, confirmed that Reilly was the one behind the Tribune. [Editor’s note: Area media, including InvestigateWest, reported this summer that Durst had hired Reilly’s wife, Melissa Reilly, to serve as business manager for the West Bonner County School District. Durst at the time worked as the WBCSD superintendent in Priest River, but has since left the district.] The Tribune’s journalistic ethics are dubious. It once digitally inserted Pride flags onto the photo of the dais of the Caldwell School Board, though the photo was changed after it was called out. And the Tribune doesn’t tell readers that the bylines on many of its stories — such as “Samantha Collins” — are fake names paired with AI-generated photos. (Regan is an exception, publishing a column in the Tribune under his own name.)
“If Reilly’s the guy who’s doing it,” Gookin said, “he is truly driving a wedge in this community. He’s misrepresenting people. He’s making falsehoods.” Reilly’s communications strategy has used deception before. Last year, he distributed “Pizza For The Hungry” flyers in Twin Falls, tricking homeless people into crashing the campaign event of a Republican he opposed. During the 2022 campaign of far-right gubernatorial candidate Ammon Bundy, Reilly resurrected one of his old personal accounts and pretended to be an antifa-supporting leftist claiming that Bundy might be too tough on “groomers.” Records show Bundy paid $30,000 for marketing work to a Reilly-connected ad firm named Revere Media. “Reilly’s driving a wedge, making us dislike each other, distrust each other,” Gookin said. Fascism or conservatism? When Reilly talks about being “America First,” he’s clear he’s not necessarily talking about Donald Trump — who he has accused of being too “pro-gay” and “Israel First.” He’s talking about the original America First movement of 1940s isolationists, and specifically praising the political ideology of men like Father Charles Coughlin, Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, three leaders some historians see as antisemites and Nazi sympathizers. And he’s talking about the modern “America First” movement of Nick Fuentes, perhaps the country’s most prominent white nationalist. Fuentes has described race-mixing as “degenerate,” mocked Holocaust numbers and accused a white Christian conservative pundit of being a “race traitor” for working for Jewish conservative pundit Ben Shapiro. Back in 2019, Reilly was a hardcore Fuentes supporter, arguing that he had “done more for Catholicism and brought more converts to the church than any bishop alive today.” That support hasn’t waned. Last year, Reilly reaffirmed he was a Nick Fuentes “stan,” slang for a diehard fan. This fall, Reilly popped up at an online audio chat event about how Fuentes was “changing the Overton Window,” the types of arguments that Ameri-
Above: District 1 Sen. Scott Herndon is the highest-ranking senator on the Idaho Freedom Index. File photo. Right: Brandon Durst is a former Idaho Freedom Foundation staffer who served briefly as West Bonner County School District superintendent before community backlash led to his resignation. Photo by Ben Olson. cans consider acceptable. Burghart, the extremism expert, noted that Fuentes’ “America First” movement has also had a considerable influence in Arizona, where U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar has repeatedly promoted and defended Fuentes. “But with on-the-ground politics stuff, northern Idaho has been where they’ve really had the impact,” Burghart said. Lately, he said, Fuentes has been “politically positioning himself in a more overtly fascist direction.” Reilly has previously called fascism “democratic,” “popular” and “rational,” and has scoffed at the relevance of the Constitution. For this story, InvestigateWest reached out to the 10 highest-scoring Idaho legislators in the Freedom Index, asking whether they were concerned with Reilly’s views or the Freedom Foundation contracting with him. Reps. Heather Scott, Elaine Price, Dale Hawkins, Tina Lambert, Tony Wisniewski and Mike Kingsley didn’t respond. Neither did Sens. Glenneda Zuiderveld, Tammy Nichols or Dan Foreman. Sen. Herndon, the very highest-ranked senator on the Idaho Freedom Index, was the only one who responded. In his reply, Herndon was only willing to explicitly speak out against Fuentes, the alt-right figure who Reilly once said was “serving the will of God” and that “his enemies are now my enemies.” Herndon suggested that the
same kinds of conservative, limited-government principles that resulted in his scoring so high in the Freedom Index compelled him to oppose Fuentes, whom he sees as holding something closer to radical leftist ideology. “The rhetoric and movement he represents appear to promote government expansion, collectivist ideological principles, identity politics and even a socialist-style dictatorship,” Herndon said. “Those principles are flat-out anti-American.” But Regan has taken a different approach. As news of the Freedom Foundation’s decision to hire Reilly began to trickle out throughout the community, former state Sen. Mary Souza — recently a vociferous critic of the Freedom Foundation — demanded that Regan disavow the “racism, misogyny and authoritarianism of Fuentes’ America First group.” Regan refused. “I’ve never met this guy or studied him, so I’m not going to be a sock puppet to satisfy the fever dream of some virtue-signaling Woke Stasi Karen,” Regan responded on social media. InvestigateWest (invw.org) is an independent news nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. A Report for America corps member, Daniel Walters covers democracy and extremism across the region. He can be reached at daniel@ invw.org.
PERSPECTIVES
Dear Sandpoint city government: Snow parking tickets and other disappointments By Mike Jewell Reader Contributor I love Sandpoint but I don’t live in town. I’d either forgotten from past years or maybe never knew about the rather arcane snow parking law the city has. And I rarely park anywhere other than downtown. So, two days ago, while visiting a friend out on Church Street I parked in front of his house (south side of the street) for a couple of hours. You guessed it. I got a $50 parking ticket. It had been raining for three days straight, there was virtually no snow left (47 degrees out) and the forecast was for more of the same. OK, I should have somehow known about the law. My bad. But would it be so terrible to give a warning the first time? You know, education, second chances and all… (suggestion No. 1). I hope you see that I’m not criticizing the law. It’s there to help all of us get through the winter, but its implementation leaves lots to be desired. Well, the citation said I could appeal online. Ok, that should have saved me and the city employees some time and
effort. So, I jumped online, put in my citation number and the website said I “cannot appeal any more. Past the appeal date.” What? It had only been one day! So, I called the city. (More wasted time). The guy said the website is broken (or something like that) and I must appeal in person at City Hall. Suggestion No. 2: Change the wording under “Appeal Information” to be accurate. To find out that, despite what the citation said, I couldn’t, in fact, appeal online was disturbing enough without then being told clearly bogus information as to why. Once again, this is really bad form. Suggestion No. 3: Fix your @#$%&*% website so we don’t both have to waste our time doing this in person in your office. My time is valuable and I assume yours is, too. Plus, broken city websites give my beloved town a bad look. Also, it’s funny how your website works fine for taking my money but somehow is broken for letting me fill out a simple form to appeal my case. (This is one of the most fundamental and simplest functions of a website.) And then, the last straw. Given all of the above, I’m thinking
my appeal will likely be a waste of time. So I decided to go ahead and pay the fine (online). I was dismayed to see that you have the gall to tack on a $3.95 (7.9% in this case) “Online Convenience Fee.” What a scam. The credit card charge to you is probably only 3% or so. Taking payments online saves you money, labor, mistakes, etc. Those savings should let you charge the face amount of the citation and more or less break even all the while avoiding the “bad will” of this process and subsequent loss of support from your community. It’s simply stupid, uninspired policy that all too often characterizes bad government. I’m wanting my city to be better than this.
December 14, 2023 / R / 9
OPINION
You wrestle like a girl
By Justin Henney Reader Contributor Bouquets: • As we near the end of the Reader’s fundraising drive, I’m so grateful for all the supporters of our independent newspaper, who have stepped up with so many contributions and gracious letters these past couple of months. As of press time this week, we’re only $1,651 short of reaching our $50,000 goal by Jan. 1, 2024. That’s incredible, folks. Thank you all so much for caring about the free press; for being such diligent and discerning readers; and, most of all, for your continued support over the years. We wish you all good health and happy days for the year ahead. • Three cheers go out to those wonderful souls who seem to nail the whole gift-giving thing without even trying. I’ve envied these people all my life, because I’m a terrible giver of gifts. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that I often don’t have the time to dedicate — especially after staring at the computer all day. Barbs: • I’ve received a half dozen emails and text messages from people in Sandpoint who got $50 parking tickets due to the city of Sandpoint’s ordinance prohibiting parking on the odd side of the street from Nov. 1 to March 1. I understand the need to keep people off the street for snow removal, but come on. At what point does it turn from snow mitigation to a blatant effort to generate revenue from the locals? And $50 for parking on a street after three days of rain washed all the snow away completely? Really? Can we issue warnings or perhaps a lesser amount of a ticket during the first month of enforcement? People have families to feed and nobody likes paying parking tickets, especially for such a brainless bureaucratic policy that fails to account for the fact that several weeks often pass without any snow falling. Why does it always seem like our city government cares less and less about the locals who live here than it does the tourists, future residents and the money it wants to attract? 10 / R / December 14, 2023
About nine years ago I asked my oldest daughter, Adeline (then in third or fourth grade), if she would try wrestling with a local wrestling club. She agreed to do it, even though she was one of two girls out of about 40 young boys. She was quite good, as I expected. She continued for several sessions, with me watching. Then I noticed a change in her demeanor. At home, I asked her if she liked wrestling or was she only doing it for me because I was passionate about it. She said she was doing it for me and that she did not like it that much any more. Over this past Thanksgiving break she came home from college and I found out why she suddenly lost interest in wrestling when she was young. Apparently the coach at the time had made a comment to her that made her feel bad about herself and her gender. I never heard the comment and she never told me about it. Apparently, he had been having the kids show him their stances in wrestling, one by one, and the ones who looked weak or bad he told “you look like
a girl,” and the other boys would laugh at the boys who got this feedback. When Adeline got up in front of him, he said, “Sit down princess,” and she walked away wanting to quit. Usually I look down on quitting, but since I realized I was asking my young daughter to join a male-dominated sport for my own selfish reasons, I was OK with it. Over Thanksgiving I reflected on a time I was coaching my younger daughter, Violet, in soccer as a fourth-grader. She had a great natural ability and I wanted so much for her to continue to push herself. One day in soccer practice, I saw her jogging down the field with her arms fluttering out to her sides. I did not like this and stopped the team, brought them into a circle and told them I had seen Violet running this way and I demonstrated it in a foolish, mocking way. I told her she reminded me of a princess trying to play soccer. I used “princess” in a derogatory, sexist way and thought it was funny — just as the high school wrestling coach had years before. It was one of the worst
‘Required reading’… Dear editor, Regarding Soncirey Mitchell’s column in the Dec. 7 issue, “Surrendering our rights for the sake of politics”: Required reading. Perhaps worth reprinting on the front page. An amazing quote told to the author, “my family doesn’t believe in human rights” (because they’re) “evil” and “unchristian.” Aside from the, uh, “Christian” outlook, one presumes the quoted (and family) are humans? Rich Holub Hope
parenting and coaching moments of my life. Violet cried softly and told me after practice she wanted to quit. She did not play soccer any more after that season, mostly because of what I thought of as funny banter. I was given a chance at redemption over Thanksgiving break, as my daughters got together and wrestled on mats in our living room. My comments are wholly positive now. Violet is on the local girls wrestling team, coached by Valerie Johansen, and is more confident than I have ever seen her — partly due to coach Johansen and some success on the mat. Incidentally, Violet beat her older sister 80% of the time they wrestled over break. At Violet’s last wrestling match — which she won — there was a girl from another school who had been paired with a boy. The girl was wrestling “like a girl” as she pinned the boy. She was winning her match 12-0 before the pin and the boy was pretty good. When the match was over, boys and girls from her team came over and hugged her. She put her arms up and made muscles and smiled big. It turns out that wrestling like a girl is powerful.
One thing we can thank Kissinger for… Dear editor, Thanks to Zach Hagadone for writing about Kissinger’s death [“Read, Listen, Watch”; Dec. 7, 2023]. In 1971 I was about to be drafted and sent to Vietnam. I never thought I wanted to teach, but enrolling in teachers college for a deferment was the only way out. So thanks to him, I discovered that I loved teaching and am so grateful I had such an enjoyable and rewarding career. The only positive thing I have ever said about Kissinger. Tim Hanna Sandpoint
Want to take your own adventure with a Florida Man? It’s simple: just type in “Florida Man” and your birthday into a search engine and prepare to be entertained by the results. For this new column, we will plug in the date of the edition and share with our readers what follows.
DECEMBER 14:
Florida man throws Christmas tree at wife after being asked to help with dinner Call Florida man Richard Atchison all you want, just don’t ask him to help with dinner. The 52-year-old man from Fruitland Park, Fla. allegedly threw a Christmas tree at his wife after she sparked an argument by asking him to help make Richard Atchison. Photo dinner, authorities courtesy Lake County Jail. claimed. The incident happened on a quiet evening in 2022, when Atchison’s wife asked him for help with dinner while putting a spoon in the sink. The spoon accidentally splashed Atchison, according to the arrest affidavit. Atchison then packed his things and went outside to his vehicle before turning back because “he had been drinking” and told his wife to leave instead. When the wife tried to leave, deputies said Atchison shoved her, picked up a Christmas tree that was in the corner of the room and threw it at her, striking her. He then allegedly blocked the front door to prevent her from leaving the house. Atchison was booked on domestic battery charges and taken to Lake County Jail in Florida without further incident.
OPINION
County taxpayers fork out $790 per day for infighting… By Sandi Nizzoli Reader Contributor During the formative years of my nowadult children, I delegated specific chores to each of them as a means of fostering a collaborative environment within our large family. This collective effort was crucial for tackling the myriad tasks that come with managing a household of our size, and each family member played a vital role in contributing to our shared responsibilities. When chores occasionally went unfinished, I found myself inquiring with the responsible child about the reasons behind the lapse. Sometimes, it was a result of miscommunication on my part or they required additional guidance. In other instances, sibling conflicts arose, with one child pointing a finger at another. It proved challenging to convey to them the importance of focusing on their individual responsibilities, regardless of the actions of their siblings. Understanding that they were solely accountable for their own tasks, decisions and choices became an ongoing lesson. My professional journey led me to a fulfilling role in Human Resources at Bonner County, where I spent two-and-a-half years.
In this capacity, I played a pivotal role in onboarding elected officials, providing training on employment law and county policies, and actively contributing to the creation and oversight of the compensation budget. Collaborating with the HR team and brokers, I helped design comprehensive wellness plans and benefit packages, rolling out three open enrollments for more than 400 employees. Additionally, I participated in extensive legal training sessions on employment law and policy, working closely with risk management to safeguard the county from potential litigation. Despite the challenges, with the stellar team I worked with, I was able to accomplish a remarkable amount within a short timeframe, all while navigating the complexities of a modest $32,000 annual salary. A stark comparison arises when evaluating the current board’s performance and their achievements — especially when their achievements and performance is placed alongside their salaries of more than $260 per day, including weekends and holidays, per commissioner. That’s a total of more than $790 a day in taxpayer money. Working within the county structure illuminated a concerning reality — elect-
ed county commissioners often lack the necessary expertise upon assuming office, receiving substantial salaries (to the tune of hundreds of thousands between the three of them) despite their inexperience. Recent observations of a board meeting revealed a disheartening display of internal discord. Commissioner Asia Williams faced unwarranted scrutiny from her colleagues regarding personal life choices, while Commissioner Luke Omodt oscillated between claiming oversight duties and then involving himself (and the county) in civil (personal) matters. The meeting took a surreal turn when concerns about a supposed secret video transformed into the revelation of body cameras worn by deputies (something that deputies are required to have on at all times) who were present due to a restraining order against Commissioner Steve Bradshaw. Astonishingly, Omodt sought taxpayer funding for legal advice on this civil (personal) matter. The in-fighting and lack of productivity during the meeting surpassed any familial discord I experienced while raising four children. It left me questioning the value of the taxpayers’ money invested in the commissioners’ salaries, considering the
minimal accomplishments achieved during this one single meeting. To Commissioner Williams: My sincere apologies for having to endure the challenges posed by the behaviors of Omodt and Bradshaw. To Omodt and Bradshaw: A humble request for your resignation and the passing of the baton — both responsibility and salary — to individuals committed to accountability and efficiency. To the public: It is imperative to devise a solution that holds elected officials personally liable for deviating from policy, legal recommendations or causing delays in county proceedings due to civil (personal) matters. One thing was certain in our family, if chores weren’t done, privileges were revoked and monetary rewards were not handed out for a job not completed. Expressing gratitude for the privilege of working with the exceptional HR team at the county. Publisher’s note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Sandpoint Reader or its editorial staff.
December 14, 2023 / R / 11
Mad about Science:
Brought to you by:
alien (1979) By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist The few times that I’ve penned an article about a movie it has been to tear it to pieces for scientific inaccuracies, ludicrous time jumps and plot holes big enough to drive a box truck into. This is not one of those articles. Ridley Scott’s Alien is a horror masterpiece loaded with effects that remain chilling to this day. If you haven’t seen Alien and you care about spoilers, you might want to put down the Reader and go watch the film. Watch it with a glass of eggnog and pretend it’s a Christmas movie — you might get to taste the nog twice! Alien hits multiple notes of horror including Loveraftian cosmic horror of the unknown, the visceral horror of ’70s slasher flicks and the primal terror of claustrophobia all bound into one dread-soaked rollercoaster ride that will leave you shaken to your core. Much of this was accomplished with practical effects and some psychological trickery using science. Most of the technology showcased in the film seems a little silly by modern standards. The architecture and spacefaring technology is clearly influenced by the bare-bones (but still very complicated) technology used during the space race and the Apollo Program, which had landed humans on the moon only a decade earlier. We have cellphones that can access practically the entirety of human knowledge just with our thumbs in 2023 — why would people in the year 2122 be using dimly lit corridors, funky light switchboards and a computer running MS-DOS? To a degree, the low-tech decisions actually make sense
12 / R / December 14, 2023
in this kind of setting. Traveling vast distances through space requires tremendous energy in order to accelerate a vessel into an escape velocity from a parent star. Wasting huge amounts of energy charging a cellphone and lighting corridors would eventually leave a crew vulnerable to running out of oxygen when there’s no energy left to run fans that push air through filters or regulate heat inside the vehicle. We remark about how powerful our devices are now compared to the interior of Apollo 11, but the amount of power devoted to systems back then was a conscious decision. The technology wasn’t a limiting factor — the availability of energy and the amount of weight onboard the vehicle were. Moving past the VHS-quality streaming cameras of the year 2122, there was more trickery in Alien to keep the dread hitting at a primal level. Human beings have a visceral reaction to gore and exposed organs. Viscera triggers a big warning signal in us: seeing stuff that should be inside now on the outside means that something dangerous moved the insides out and we should be cautious. Scott used actual organs from butcher shops at multiple points throughout the movie. The first is the xenomorph egg found inside the alien ship, which opens to expose the lining of a cow’s stomach in all its gooey glory. This was only one of the practical effects in this scene. The egg itself had portions constructed of translucent fiberglass and was filled with jelly. You can see the form of the facehugger squirming around inside the jelly. Though this looks convincingly like a CGI trick, it’s actually one of the director’s only cameos in the movie, as Scott put his hand into the jelly to move it around and create the illusion of
pulsation. The gravity-defying goo dripping upward from the egg was another trick, accomplished by the crew dripping water normally onto the egg and the camera panning upward from the base, then the film being edited to play in reverse so that the camera would be panning downward as actor John Hurt’s character examined the water appearing to defy gravity. The facehugger’s emergence was another practical effect, as the crew launched a sheep’s intestine away from the camera and then edited it to play in reverse and make it appear as though the alien leapt from the egg toward the viewer. Later effects, including the dissection of the deceased facehugger, also included actual organs and seafood such as raw oysters. This served two unique purposes in filming. The first was to disgust the viewer. The second was to disgust the actors. As time passed during filming, the bits began to smell, which created authentic revulsion among the actors, which in turn made their performances more authentic. It wouldn’t be a discussion about the practical effects of Alien without mention of the chestburster scene. The common myth is that the film crew and Hurt were the only ones aware of what was going to happen during this scene, so as to produce an authentic scare from the rest of the cast. Cast members were in fact aware of what was going to happen; however, they weren’t expecting pressurized jets of blood to spray them with such force, nor the quantity of blood. Veronica Cartwright, who played Lambert, famously screamed and fell over a chair during this scene, which was only partially scripted. There are plenty of analyses online about the symbolism of the
xenomorph and what the creature and its disturbing methods of reproduction represent. It’s an extremely alien concept, but it’s a more common occurrence on Earth than you might think. Multiple species of insects will implant their eggs directly into a source of nutrients for the larva. This is most commonly seen with insects implanting eggs into plant matter, but parasitoid wasps will inject their eggs into another living insect and allow their young to
devour it alive from the inside out. Horrifying as this is, parasitoid wasps have actually been used to control infestations of invasive species to aid in agriculture without the need for toxic chemicals that can leach into underground water supplies. Some of these creatures are also active and specialized pollinators that certain species of flowering plants require to survive. Stay curious, 7B.
Random Corner ? Don’t know much about snow We can help! • The earliest evidence of man-made snow removal tools is a 6,000-year-old snow shovel found in a bog in Russia. Its blade was made from a carved elk antler section tied to a wood or bone handle. • The first official patent for a snow plow dates back to the 1840s, but the first snow plow wasn’t deployed until 1862. Used in Milwaukee, the rudimentary snow plow was attached to a cart pulled by a team of horses. • After the arrival of the automobile in the late-19th century, snow plows were needed to ensure that road infrastructure was both functional and safe. The first motorized snow plow was invented in 1913. • A single snowstorm can drop up to 39 million tons of snow — usually right on my driveway after I shovel it.
• The award for the snowiest city in the U.S. goes to Syracuse, N.Y., which receives an average of 10.3 feet every winter. The snowiest city in the world is Aomori, Japan, which receives an average of 26 feet of snow every year. • Practically every location in the U.S. has seen snowfall at some point in history. • The Guinness Book of World Records states that the largest snowflake ever recorded fell on Jan. 28, 1887 at Fort Keough, Mont. The snowflake measured 15 inches wide and was eight inches thick (let’s hope no one tried to catch that one on their tongue). • Pibloktoq, or “Arctic hysteria” is a phenomenon that appears in Inuit societies living within the Arctic Circle. Symptoms can include screaming, uncontrolled behavior and depression. (Following U.S. politics often produces the same symptoms.)
To submit a photo for a future edition, please send to ben@sandpointreader.com.
Top left: Ross Fulmer, of Sandpoint, took the Reader to Scotland. Here he is standing before the Castle Stalker. Top right: Bill and Marge Preuss recently traveled to Egypt. Bill can be seen here holding a Reader next to the pyramids of Giza and some camels. (Bonus points for taking the most iconic Egyptian photo ever.) Bottom left: Susan Lee and Dan Thompson recently took a Panama Canal cruise and brought the Reader along. Bottom right: This picture shows the spot where Janenne Russell’s golden retriever Copper dried off after playing outside. “My favorite part is the condensation from her nostrils!” Russell told the Reader.
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COMMUNITY
Gift Guide 2023: Weird and wonderful By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff The idea of a “weird gift” might make locals reminisce on the store Zany Zebra — may it rest in peace — which sold such oddities as squirrel underpants and fake vomit. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ask someone from 1400s England what a “werde” gift is, and they’d tell you that it would grant someone the power to control their fate. It wasn’t until Shakespeare that “weird” came to mean “supernatural,” and the modern definition of “strange” didn’t appear until the 1800s. With such a wide range of definitions, it stands to reason that there’s a weird gift out there for everyone — from science lovers to fantasy nuts. If you find yourself on the hunt for the strange and unusual, here are a few suggestions to speed up your search. The Future Society: Scent Surrection Set For the dinosaur-kids-turned-elegant-adults, the Future Society has harnessed DNA sequencing to resurrect six extinct flowers as perfume. The set includes Solar Canopy, Floating Forest, Haunted Rose, Reclaimed Flame, Grassland Opera and Invisible Woods, which feature the scents of long-dead plants that ranged in origin from South Africa to Ohio. Would someone special 14 / R / December 14, 2023
in your life enjoy smelling like ancient Ohio? You can find out for $35. Each long-lasting perfume will smell different when interacting with your body chemistry than it does in the bottle, so the set allows you to discover the one (or several) that suit you best. Buy it at: wearefuturesociety.com. The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society: A Very Scary Solstice This suggestion comes from Reader Editor Zach Hagadone, who enjoys a bit of cosmic horror now and then. The CD and singalong book features such twisted holiday classics as “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fishmen,” “Do You Fear What I Fear?” and “It’s the Most Horrible Time of the Year,” which take inspiration from Lovecraft’s iconic Cthulhu Mythos. For $20, someone on your gift list can enjoy the sound of professional carolers descending into madness, accompanied by a complete orchestra. Add the sequel, An Even Scarier Solstice, for still more hours of eldritch listening. Find it at: hplhs.org. Homunculus Loxodontus Piggy Bank The original statue of Homunculus Loxodontus by Dutch artist Margriet van Breevoort became wildly popular in 2016 when the internet dubbed it “Snorp.” According to its creator, Snorp is meant to embody the emotions
one feels when waiting at a doctor’s office, making this present perfect for someone in the medical field or anyone who needs to learn patience and better spending habits. For $29.98 on amazon.com, this little lump can sit patiently on a desk or bookshelf to add an inscrutable ambiance to any office. Mythologie Candles I know what you’re thinking — giving candles is so cliche that Saturday Night Live dedicated an entire music video to it. Mythologie Candles aren’t your run-of-the-mill Bed Bath and Beyond hunks of wax, they’re an experience catered to history and folklore lovers and anyone who’s thought about playing Dungeons and Dragons. For $48, you can curate a set of six candles that smell like King Arthur’s Camelot, the Book of Kells or a dragon’s lair — or for an extra festive gift, try the scents “Kris Kringle” and “Krampus.” Every candle is made from sustainably sourced coconut wax and includes a description of the smell, as well as the feeling it should evoke. For instance, “A merry laugh sounds at midnight as reindeer prance upon moonlit rooftops.” See more at: mythologiecandles.com.
Giant Microbes: Plush toys, ornaments and keychains Drew Oliver’s Giant Microbes makes huggable versions of organs, funguses, fossils, deadly diseases and creepy critters. Cuddle up with penicillin or COVID-19 (too soon?) plushies — made from soft, washable fabric — which range from eight to 25 inches long. Each microbe comes with a card full of fun facts about the history and characteristics of your new cuddly friend. This Christmas, give your partner an infection that they’ll actually enjoy, or treat your family to germ ornaments dressed for the holidays for $24.95. Available at: giantmicrobes.com.
Top left to right: Giant Microbes plush toys; Mythologie Candles; Homunculus Loxodontus (aka “Snorp”) Piggy Bank. Above right: The Future Society scent surrection set. Above: The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society: A Very Scary Solstice. Courtesy photos.
FEATURE
Raye of Hope By Ben Olson Reader Staff For the past six years, Raye Johnson has experienced a different Christmas than most 10-yearold girls. While others are home playing with their presents, sitting by a warm fire or cozying up to a Christmas movie, Raye and her family spend the day driving to Spokane with a horse trailer filled with hundreds of care packages donated by the community for Raye to give to the homeless population. Raye’s parents, Kyle and Trina Johnson, who operate Maker’s Long Acres farm in Sagle, say the annual tradition has become a mission of love for Raye, and they dutifully provide assistance all along the way. “It just makes me sad seeing the homeless people not having a home, or a roof over their head, or a warm place to stay when it’s minus-12 degrees,” Raye told the Reader. Raye started the tradition at just 4 years old, with the idea coming to her while eating at a restaurant in Spokane with her parents. “I saw that there were these two homeless people, so I took off running and was like, ‘Hi, do you guys need something, because I have some stuff for you guys.’” Raye said. “I went to the truck and grabbed them some stuff.” “What she wanted for her birthday was to put packages together for the homeless,” her father, Kyle, said. “She’d won tickets to a rodeo, so for her birthday, we put together gift bags to hand out on our way to Yakima.” From humble beginnings of only 10 gifts that year, the number has now multiplied to hundreds of packages. Called Raye of Hope, the family farm website makerslongacres.com serves as a landing page for donors to help with the endeavor. Raye built on the program and, now in its sixth year, she has streamlined the process. Raye gives each care package away
inside a stocking or drawstring backpack, and sets a goal to meet before every season. Last year, she gave away more than 700 packages to more than 400 people. This year, the goal has been scaled back to give away 300 backpacks and stockings to 150 people. “She personally handles all of it herself, too,” Kyle said. Raye said she doesn’t accept monetary donations, but instead, new items like hats, gloves, snack items, blankets, tarps, scarves and personal care items. “The reason I don’t choose to give away healthy stuff is because they always get things like cans of beans and apples,” Raye said. “One of the ladies I talked to said she hadn’t had Cool Ranch Doritos in 20 years. It’s Christmas, it’s a special day.” “That’s why she only gives away new items,” her mother Trina said. “Would you want a pair of ratty old socks in your stocking?” Last year, due to such an overwhelming amount of items collected for her giveaway, Raye began storing the goods inside a mini storage unit because there wasn’t enough space in the family home to contain them all. “She contacted several mini storage businesses, and some offered discounts, but she just kept trying, telling them, ‘I’m a kid, I don’t have the money to pay that.’” A mutual friend put Raye in touch with Jeff Gardner, the manager of Troy’s Mini Storage in Sagle, who ultimately donated the use of a large unit for her campaign each season. “We really enjoy supporting the community in every way we can,” Gardner told the Reader. “Giving up some extra space so she can provide for so many? We love doing it.” Garnder said that Troy’s Mini Storage owners Troy Krumenacker and Kathy Pizzolato support Raye’s mission wholeheartedly. Because of the time and energy it takes to collect donated items from the community, package them into hundreds of stockings or backpacks then give them away,
Local girl spends each Christmas gifting items to homeless population
Raye begins the process early — usually between October and Thanksgiving. Then, on Christmas Day, the whole family helps Raye load everything into a large horse trailer, which they drive to several hot locations in Spokane in order to give the care packages away to unhoused people on the street. Raye said she enjoys meeting new people, but relishes when she sees familiar faces from years past. “There was one guy who had no legs and was in a wheelchair, and he was there for about three years,” Raye said. “Everyone knew him and he didn’t even remember his own name sometimes.” “He went by the street name, Top Hat,” Trina added. “What’s kind of hard is not seeing the people she saw before,” Kyle said. Last year, Raye didn’t see Top Hat, causing her to wonder if he might have passed away, but she was pleased to hear that he’d been placed in a home and was safe. “I’m also shocked at how many elderly people there are,” Raye said. “She talks to them all,” Trina said. “A lot of them don’t have family and she listens to their
stories. A lot of them started out by living in their car because of housing market changes or their rental sold.” While most of those Raye gives packages to are grateful and thank her with a hug, she acknowledges that some are not especially receptive. “They’ll say, ‘I don’t want a backpack from a little girl,’” Raye said. “She then tells them, ‘OK, well, you’re still going to get one, thank you,’” Trina said. Raye also said she prays with those who need a little extra help. “She’s not daunted by anything,” Trina said. “There was one guy she was trying to help at Camp Hope when it was still in its inception. She was yelling to him, ‘I’m a farm girl, I know a thing or two about tarps and ropes,’ and pretty soon she had that thing strung up for him.” Asked how members of the regional community should address homelessness, Raye said they should “see the bright side. People need to find happiness, try to help and have more compassion.” After being praised for raising such a conscientious young person, both parents quickly waved off that suggestion.
Above pics: Raye Johnson gives hugs and care packages to unhoused individuals in Spokane on a past Christmas Day. Courtesy photos.
“No, no, that’s all her,” Kyle said. “She’s not scared of much,” Trina said. “She just loves them. She’s always been incredibly empathetic, incredibly kind. She’s the kind of girl who does stuff. If she sees a need, she finds a way to meet the need.” Raye’s ultimate goal is to establish a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization so she can accept monetary donations to ramp up her program, eventually expanding to give away items not just on Christmas Day, but several different holidays throughout the year. When asked why she cares so deeply for the homeless population, Raye responded simply: “Because they’re humans. They’re not cockroaches.” For those interested in donating to Raye of Hope, visit makerslongacres.com to learn a little more about Raye and her mission to help the homeless, each and every Christmas.
December 14, 2023 / R / 15
COMMUNITY
Festival at Sandpoint logs record ticket sales By Reader Staff At the end of each fiscal year, the Festival at Sandpoint publishes its annual report, highlighting information and updates to the organization and its programs from October of the previous year to September of the current year. For the third consecutive year, the 2023 Summer Performance Series broke organizational records due in part to capacity increase and three sold-out performances. With one of the Festival’s best and highest-caliber lineups in the organization’s history came record ticket sales, sponsorships and donations, according to the arts nonprofit. “The 2023 Summer Series sold more individual tickets than our previous record-breaking year. Our Family Show and Grand Finale with our inaugural Festival at Sandpoint Orchestra both broke ticket sale records for these historic programs,” the report stated. Over the past year, the Festival has
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expanded its year-round education programs and offerings. The Pre-K Outreach Program completed its second year of programming at Little Lambs and Selkirk School and has added two additional schools for 2024. More than 70 students participated in the free series of in-class lessons in 2023, which are designed to engage students through rhythm, movement and song. “This rhythm-based approach helps students establish strong foundations at a pivotal age of 3-6 years, which is one of the largest gaps in music education nationwide,” the Festival stated. Meanwhile, donors enabled the Festival to add 20 instruments to its library, including violins, basses, cellos, electric and bass guitars, trumpets, horns and more. The library also includes a variety of music accessories, including an assortment of amplifiers, stands, strings and cases. The fee for the instrument rental program has also been removed to provide free access in an effort to keep music
education affordable for local families. Finally, the Festival at Sandpoint gave $6,500 in scholarships to five local students in 2023 in support of their endeavors in continuing education. “Thanks to the generous support from sponsors, donors, volunteers and concertgoers, the Festival at Sandpoint is able to
Photo by Racheal Baker. continue to actively work on new programming to expand and grow its musical education mission and positive impact on youth in the community,” the organization stated.
Art Works Gallery hosts holiday reception and sale By Reader Staff Art Works Gallery in downtown Sandpoint invites the public to its annual holiday reception on Saturday, Dec. 16 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., featuring treats and beverages, as well as original pieces by the gallery’s 25 member artists for 10% off. “It’s a great opportunity to meet local artists and view their latest works,” organizers stated. Located at 214 N. First Ave., the gallery has several new members this year, working in a variety of mediums and styles. Baskets, jewelry, fabric arts, enameling, glass, pottery, wood and wall art in a variety of mediums and sizes will all be available for purchase. “We are known for our very creative and good food,” event organizer Denys Knight added. The gallery is also known for featuring the very best creative work within the local area. The event is free and sale prices are good during the reception hours only.
Courtesy photos.
Annual state grants available for artists, arts education and arts organizations By Reader Staff
The Idaho Commission on the Arts is now accepting applications for all annual grants to professional artists, arts educators and arts administrators, including Entry Track, Public Programs in the Arts, Arts Education Projects, Traditional Arts Apprenticeships, and Fellowships in Visual Arts and Folk and Traditional Arts. Interested artists and organizations can find detailed descriptions and guidelines for applying at arts.idaho.gov/grants. Applications are due by Jan. 31, 2024. • Entry Track grants support public programs in the arts delivered by Idaho’s arts organizations. • Public Programs in the Arts grants support Idaho’s established arts organizations by assisting them in business stabilization. • Arts Education Projects grants support activities that bring together effective practices in education and the art for K-12 students.
• Traditional Arts Apprenticeships support partnerships between a recognized mentor artist and one or more qualified apprentices to continue artistic traditions of a shared cultural heritage. • Fellowships in Visual Arts recognize Idaho artists whose work demonstrates a commitment to sustained exploration of their art form and engagement with contemporary practices, encompassing disciplines such as painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics or other art forms that are primarily visual. • Fellowships in Folk and Traditional Arts recognize the exemplary quality of Idaho’s tradition bearers, whose body of work and lifetime of commitment to their community’s creative expressions contribute to Idaho’s cultural heritage. The Idaho Commission on the Arts is a state agency under the Office of the Governor, with the mission to enable access to the arts, arts education, and Idahoans’ cultural and artistic heritage. For more info, visit arts.idaho.gov/grants or call 208-334-2119.
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events
Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com THURSDAY, december 14
Thursday Night Football 4:45pm @ The Hive 21+ Cribbage League 7-9pm @ Connie’s Lounge Bingo Night 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Game Night 7pm @ Tervan Tavern
Fiction writers open mic night 6pm @ Sandpoint Library Fun, fast-paced evening of fiction writers reading their work
Christmas Escape Room 2-4:30pm @ Sandpoint Library Beat the trickster elf who has locked up Santa. Team up to solve puzzles to find the combo to free him. Register at the library
COMMUNITY
December 14 - 21, 2023
Artist Reception: Delia Nak 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Welcome POW Artist of the Month, Delia Nak
Happy Hour at Matchwood 4:30-5:30pm @ Matchwood Join family and friends at Matchwood Brewing for happy hour. Live music with Buster Brown and shareable platter
FriDAY, december 15
Live Music w/ BTP Live Music w/ Sheldon Packwood 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Country, folk and contemporary Live Music w/ Reese Warren Live Music w/ Justin Lantrip 7-10pm @ Eichardt’s Pub 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Jeff Crosby Band in concert Live Music w/ Sadie Sicilia 9pm @ The Hive 7-10pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Idaho-born Americana star Jeff Live Music w/ Steven Wayne Crosby will play with his band 7-9pm @ The Back Door at this special show for $5
Stories & S’mores 6-7pm @ Lakeview Park Historical stories told by East Bonner Co. Library and Bonner Co. Historical Society. FREE Game Night with Lions Club 6-8pm @ Sandpoint Comm. Hall Held third Friday of the month
Candlelight Concert Series: Holiday Classics 7pm @ Heartwood Center A candlelit performance by Suzuki String Academy faculty. Black tie event. $65-$75 Live Music w/ The Tonedevil Bros. 6-8pm @ Smokesmith BBQ Live music, BBQ, beer: a perfect trio
SATURDAY, december 16 Live Music w/ Matt Lome 6-9pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes 6-9pm @ 1908 Saloon Holiday Cottage Market 10am-2pm @ Sandpoint Senior Ctr Saturdays prior to Christmas. See Santa Claus. Raffles, etc.
Sandpoint Chess Club 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Meets every Sunday at 9am Magic with Star Alexander 5-8pm @ Jalepeño’s
Spacepoint final Sci-Fest 2023 4-7pm @ Panida Theater Join LPOSD students as they take you on a journey to SpaceX’s Starbase Starship and to Mars. Followed by free screening of The Martian. Tickets at panida.org Christmas Escape Room 12-2:30pm @ Sandpoint Library
Procrastinators Craft Fair 10am-3pm @ Evans Brothers Get last minute Christmas shopping done, with live music by Buster Brown & Samantha Carston
Candlelight Concert Series: Holiday Classics 7pm @ Heartwood Center A candlelit performance by Suzuki String Academy faculty. Black tie event. $65-$75 Holiday Reception Christmas Music Concert 5-7:30pm @ Art Works Gallery Enjoy apps and beverages. 10% off 6-7:30pm @ Memorial Com. Ctr. Enjoy an evening with Bridges Home at Hope’s Memorial Community Center. Free!
SunDAY, december 17
Game Night at IPA All day @ Idaho Pour Authority Backgammon, cribbage, Pictionary and a ton of other games
monDAY, december 18
Jingle Jam Family Event 4-5pm @ Cedar Hills Church Join us for an unforgettable family experience with a fun retelling of the Christmas story, games, prizes, cookies and more. Perfect for elementary age children and their families
Festival at Sandpoint Youth Orchestra Winter Concert 6pm @ The Heartwood Center Classical, pop and holiday favorites. Free admission Outdoor Experience Group Run Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub 3-5 miles, all levels welcome Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant Weekly Trivia Night “An Evolving Spirituality” 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Nova High Christmas Coffee House 5:30-7:30pm @ Evans Bros. Coffee Support Nova High students and community members at this fundraiser open mic Christmas event. Musical performances, bake sale. $12/adult, $6/kids
TuesDAY, december 19 Fireside and Storewide: Storytelling 6pm @ Outdoor Experience An evening of storytelling to accompany your holiday shopping. Author Ammi Midstokke will read from her book, All the Things.
wednesDAY, december 20 Holiday Piano w/ Bob Beadling • 3:30-5:30pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Our annual holiday family show, with Bob performing festive holiday favorites
Open Mic 6pm @ Tervan Tavern
Amahl and the Night Visitors 4 & 6:30pm @ First Lutheran Church The Music Conservatory’s Bel Canto annual Christmas Concert will include this children’s opera. Donations welcome Game Night 7pm @ Tervan Tavern
Luminosity & Libations 4-7pm @ Teascarlet Fine Art Sip, mingle and soak in the creative glow at Bonners Ferry studio Teascarlet Fine Art. Beer, wine, wassail. Raffle for $250 gift cert. 208-946-8415
ThursDAY, december 21
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Happy Hour at Matchwood 4:30-5:30pm @ Matchwood Join family and friends at Matchwood Brewing for happy hour. Live music with Buster Brown and shareable platter Cribbage League 7-9pm @ Connie’s Lounge
A DanceWorks Christmas 7pm @ Panida Theater Local Sandpoint dance studio brings their dancers to the Panida stage. Tickets on sale at studio or on day of show
Bingo Night 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Winter ecology class focuses on birding, tree and plant identification By Reader Staff Learn about winter ecology at a holiday season outdoor education program on Saturday, Dec. 16, beginning at 9 a.m. (Mountain Time) with a short introductory session in the Viking Room of the Venture Inn (1015 U.S. Hwy. 2) in Libby, Mont. Attendees will discuss the basics of tracking, tree and plant identification, and winter birding for about 40 minutes, then head to several diverse habitat field sites to study animal and bird tracking and sign interpretation, evergreen tree and plant identification, and winter birding. The class concludes around 3 p.m. (MST) and includes small groups, individual attention, a road tour and very short hikes on private lands. All participants must register to attend and are asked to come prepared for a day in the field with full gas tanks; proper layered clothing — preferably camouflage or natural colors — good footwear; lunch; water or hot beverages; tracking, plant and/ or bird guide books; binoculars and spotting scopes; snowshoes (optional); and a good sense of humor. Adults only and no pets. “The idea here is to spend a day with experienced outdoor educators enjoying and learning about our natural surroundings and local wildlife in a fun, holiday spirit,” organizers stated. Instructor Brian Baxter has 45 years of experience in the field, and a recent article in the winter 2024 edition of Sandpoint Magazine entitled, “Winter Raptor Ramblings.” The class is sponsored by Libby Hostel Base Camp, which can provide accommodations if needed. See their facebook and Airbnb pages. To register, call 406-291-2154, or email b_baxter53@yahoo.com.
STAGE & SCREEN
Suzuki Strings Academy offers Candlelight Concert Series By Reader Staff
of candles will illuminate the venue, creating a serene atmosphere to enhance the listening Can you think of any better experience. Musicians include way to listen to classical string Ruth Klinginsmith, Marianne music than by candlelight? Me Wall, Jacinta Howard, Evan neither. Schwenk, Scott Boekenoogan, Suzuki String Academy will Andy Ohlrich, Hannah Andring begin a Candlelight Concert Seand Brendan Naples. ries, starting with the “Holiday The event is billed as a Classics” performance at 7 p.m. “Black Tie Holon Friday, Dec. Candlelight Concert iday Event,” so 15 and Saturday, Series: ‘Holiday Classics’ audience memDec. 16 at the Friday, Dec. 15 and Saturday, bers are asked Heartwood CenDec. 16; doors open at 6 p.m. to put on their ter (615 Oak St., for VIP guests and 6:30 p.m. for gowns, tuxes or in Sandpoint). general admission; event starts Be transported 7 p.m.; $65. Heartwood Center, suits to be carried 615 Oak St., 208-263-8699, through time with into a magical get tickets at suzukistringacadnostalgic Christworld of candleemy.com/events. mas musical tralight and string ditions from the music performed past and present. All guests will by the Suzuki String Academy receive a complimentary glass of faculty members. Hundreds
Courtesy photo. wine from Pend d’Oreille Winery and a charcuterie provided by Black Caviar Catering. Profits from the event will benefit students and music pro-
grams at Suzuki String Academy. Tickets are available for $65 each and can be purchased at suzukistringacademy.com. Upcoming Candlelight Con-
certs include “Timeless Love Songs” on Feb. 9-10, 2024 and “Movie Themes Through Time,” scheduled for a date yet to be determined in October 2024.
Spacepoint hosts Panida presentation on SpaceX Starship, screening of The Martian By Reader Staff Local nonprofit Spacepoint is hosting another in its series of Sci-Fest events Saturday, Dec. 16, with a presentation on the SpaceX Starship mission to Mars from the Sandpoint High School Celestial Fireflies — a group of aspiring space explorers from the Lake Pend Oreille School District — followed by a screening of the 2015 film The Martian at the Panida Theater (300 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint). Doors open at 3:30 p.m. with the presentation at 4 p.m. and film at 5 p.m. The SpaceX Starship project is an unprecedented technical effort to develop the largest spacecraft launch system in history, with the aim of establishing reliable, reusable transportation to Earth orbit, the moon and, ultimately, Mars. Under development at a purpose-built spaceport in Texas, Starship is intended to carry up to 100 people on “long-duration, interplanetary flights,” according to spacex.com, as well as serve
in delivering satellites and assist in the development of a “moon base.” In addition, SpaceX claims that Starship will be able to travel point-to-point anywhere on Earth in an hour or less. In keeping with the lofty ambitions of Starship, The Martian — which stars Matt Damon, Jessican Chastain, Kristen Wiig and Kate Mara — focuses on an astronaut (Damon) who is stranded on the Red Planet and must use all of his technical, scientific and psychological strengths to survive. The film received seven
Courtesy photo. Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor. Spacepoint is dedicated to furthering local interest and participation in the space industry, with regular film screenings and presentations on a range of topics, and has been instrumental in developing a small-scale observatory in Sandpoint. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for students and $25 for a family of four. Get tickets at panida.org or spacepoint.org.
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FOOD
The Sandpoint Eater Traditionally speaking By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist
A trip to France will do the trick if you need a nudge to get into the Christmas spirit. I’ve just returned from an international travel show in Cannes, to which I added a couple of overnight stopovers to take in Christmas markets in Nice and Paris. The anticipation of the upcoming holidays fills the busy French markets and bakeries with vast crowds of shoppers lined up to indulge in all the specialty items to create their perfect holiday. The crowds are out in force even if they’re not there to shop. In Paris, there’s an ice skating rink in front of the Eiffel Tower, where adorable youngsters, dressed against the cold, push little wooden carts on the ice for stability (I could have used one of those things when I was young). Hordes of families line the sidewalks of popular Paris department stores — Galeries Lafayette, Samaritaine and Printemps — nearly every parent with a child on their shoulders, viewing the magnificently decorated and animated window displays. Fortunately, I had a cozy little room smack in the middle of the Champs-Élysées, the famous Paris boulevard filled with highend shops and noisy sidewalk bistros. At 5 p.m. every night in December, the trees that line the famous avenue are lit until 2 a.m. from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. It was quite a sight, and even though it was raining, I bundled up against the weather for a five-mile walk to explore the most famous street in the world. 20 / R / December 14, 2023
For me, it was mostly window shopping, peering at displays of exquisitely made pastries and chocolates in shops that have been around for more than a hundred years. It’s not uncommon for these shops to be managed by third and fourth generations of the founders. The same can be said for the shoppers — many are grandchildren, carrying on the tradition of a favorite pastry they ate as a child, served after midnight mass on Christmas Eve. I love holiday traditions, and coming from small-town Montana, most of my big-city magic came from watching black-andwhite Christmas movies; though, thanks to my mother, we did indulge in fine chocolates. Her birthday was exactly two weeks before Christmas, and each year,
without fail, we bought her a box of Whitman’s Samplers. It was the finest chocolate our money could buy. Mom would dole them out every couple of nights, sans the pure chocolate one shaped like a messenger and the caramels — after all, it was her birthday gift. Thanks to the legend printed on the underside of the box, my mom knew exactly where to find her coveted caramels. Since she passed in 2007, each year on her birthday, I have purchased a small, four-piece box of Whitman’s for everyone and included it with their Christmas gifts. Sadly, I couldn’t find the little pocket-sized boxes to share this year. Even the bigger boxes are not as nice and sturdy as they used to be and don’t look like they would hold up well
in the mail, so that I won’t be shipping any this year. However, in my search to find the mini-boxes, I discovered that my favorite American chocolatier, Whitman’s (purchased by Russell Stover in 1993), is now part of the world-famous Swiss chocolate family, Lindt & Sprüngli. Ironically, I spent an hour in their flagship Paris store while I was there. We may not have access to fancy Parisian pastry shops such as Pâtisserie E. Ladurée, but my family is content with our holiday traditions, simple as they may be. We’re keen on my mom’s recipe for Chex Mix, though I have spoiled my children by making them their designer batches: additional cashews for Zane, rye chips for Doug, lots of extra Cheez-It
crackers for Ryanne, and Casey likes hers with plenty of Goldfish. Also topping our list of traditional holiday fare are soft peanut brittle, English toffee and petite snowball cookies. I can’t begin to imagine how many thousands of perfect little pastry balls my mother rolled out, year after year, to produce our favorite melt-in-your-mouth pastries. With all my recent travels, I have a lot of baking to catch up on in the next few days. But I am happy to report that Ryanne and her helpers have perfected our family recipe for snowball cookies. Though our recipe is supposed to make six dozen cookies, we often fall short of that yield, so I recommend you keep an eye on your helpers.
Snowball cookies
By any name — Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes or Melting Moments — these are a favorite on any festive cookie tray. They freeze and ship well. You can make your own superfine sugar by pulsing granulated sugar in a food processor. Makes 6 doz.
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
• 2 cups whole pecans, chopped fine • 2 cups all-purpose flour • 1 ¼ tsp fine sea salt • 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature • ½ cup superfine granulated sugar • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract • 1 ½-2 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar for rolling cookies, after baked. You can add a bit of edible glitter to the confectioner’s sugar for holiday flair.
Preheat the oven to 325° F and adjust shelf to middle rack. Mix flour, salt and half the chopped nuts in a medium bowl and set aside. Place remaining nuts in a food processor and pulse for 15-20 seconds until it resembles cornmeal. Stir the pulsed nuts into the flour, other pecans and sea salt. Set aside until ready to use. Beat butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined. Add the vanilla. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula and mix once more. Turn the mixer to low, and slowly add flour mixture, just until dough is cohesive. Don’t overmix! Scoop dough a tablespoon at a time, form it into a round and place dough balls on baking sheet about 1 ½” apart. Bake for 15 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to completely cool. Don’t overbake. Cookies should have a barely
browned bottom. Cook cookies about 2 minutes and, while still warm, roll gently in confectioners’ sugar. When cool, place the remaining powdered sugar in a gallon-sized zip-
top bag. Add about a dozen cookies to the bag at a time, and gently toss to coat. Store in an airtight container for up to a week or freeze for up to a month.
MUSIC
Festival at Sandpoint Youth Orchestra to perform Winter Concert By Reader Staff The Festival at Sandpoint’s Youth Orchestra will perform its Winter Concert at the Heartwood Center on Monday, Dec. 18, at 6 p.m. All ages are welcome and admission is free. Classes for members of the Youth Orchestra began in September, and the Winter Concert will be their first performance of their 2023-’24 season. The Youth Orchestra is the longest-standing educational program offered by the Festival at Sandpoint. The orchestra program began in 1998 to help students develop the necessary skills and knowledge to master their orchestral string instruments. More than two decades later, the Festival at Sandpoint continues to offer free string classes for students of any age. Currently, the program is composed of two groups, a Beginning Orchestra and Continuing Orchestra, led by FAS Youth Orchestra Conductor Karen Dignan. Both groups are open to any orchestral string players, including the violin, viola, cello, bass and more. Classes are free for all ages and held weekly on Monday evenings. Students can join at any time from September through May. The Beginning Orchestra is
This week’s RLW by Ben Olson
READ
While the television series was very well done, the book Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, by Piper Kerman, contains a lot more details to the story that make it a worthy read. I’m always a fan of books that detail experiences that I hope to never have in my life. In this case, it’s the author’s memoir about going to federal prison for money laundering and drug trafficking. Kerman tells the story well, bringing the reader into the strange world that (hopefully) few of us will ever experience first-hand.
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designed for students who are still getting started but have a basic knowledge of their instrument and reading music, as well as students who are new to playing in an ensemble. “Many of the Beginning Orchestra members are new to ensemble playing, and this is their first experience in an orchestra,” Dignan said. “Having several players in the group who have been in the orchestra previously,
even if only for a year, really helps the new students adapt quickly.” The Continuing Orchestra class is for intermediate and advanced students looking to hone their skills and expertise through ensemble playing. “The students in our Continuing Orchestra rehearse and perform with the full group as well as creating their own smaller ensembles,” Dignan stated.
Courtesy photo. “It gives them the opportunity to choose their own instrumentation and music and figure out how to make it work for a performance.” To learn more about the Youth Orchestra and the Festival at Sandpoint’s other year-round education programs, visit festivalatsandpoint.com/education.
A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint Jona Gallegos, Pend d’Oreille Winery, Dec. 16
Suspicious PKG, Connie’s, Dec. 16
The weather outside might be frightful, but the soothing sounds of Jona Gallegos are so delightful. Making a return visit to the Pend d’Oreille Winery from his homebase in Spokane, singer-songwriter Gallegos will spread the good vibes with his set of acoustic folk, indie and rock — perfect for cozying up with a glass of wine on a chilly December Saturday night. Check out his Bandcamp page for a taste of what Gallegos is all
The joint is jumping at Connie’s Cafe, which will host Bonners Ferry band Suspicious PKG on Saturday, Dec. 16. Locals will know guitarist Ken LaBarbera, guitarist and djembe-player Paul Bonnell and bassist Gary Lawrence (i.e. “PKG”) from their performances throughout Bonner and Boundary counties in multiple groups. Bonnell was voted Best Teacher and Best Musician in Boundary County in 2019 — but you don’t have to be one of his students to
about, with tracks from his albums Aunque El Sol Desaparezca, Songs in the Night: In the Beginning and Songs in the Night: In the End, as well as the EP, The Poet’s Heart. — Zach Hagadone 5-8 p.m., FREE. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St., 208-2658545, powine.com. Listen at jonagallegos.bandcamp.com.
enjoy his stylings, which range in genre from his signature folk to reggae, jazz and rock. The latter two are favorites of LaBarbera, who formed his first band in 1983 before moving to Idaho. Stop by Connie’s for a fun night with covers of classic favorites. — Soncirey Mitchell 7-9 p.m., FREE. Connie’s Cafe, 323 Cedar St, 208-255-2227, conniescafe.com.
There are some bands that make you feel like dancing in the living room when a certain album comes on. For me, it’s synth pop band Future Islands’ Seasons album, which is one of those you can listen to from beginning to end without skipping a song. With vocalist Samual T. Herring’s unique voice — somewhere between Rod Stewart and Dracula — this band keeps the party going.
WATCH
I tend to geek out on anything that involves sailing, especially when it has a historic connection. When I first saw Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a film adapted from Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series of novels, I was blown away. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, this film is both playful and sinister, with every actor pulling an oar to make the film a piece of art. I regret they never made any more in this series, because O’Brian’s novels would make excellent films.
December 14, 2023 / R / 21
BACK OF THE BOOK
The days of innocence By Ben Olson Reader Staff
From Nothern Idaho News, Dec. 13, 1921
LIGHTNING CREEK TEARS OUT DYKE, THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF DAMAGE DONE Lighting creek at Clarksfork, known as one of the swiftest and most impetuous streams along the line of the Northern Pacific railroad, burst its bounds on Monday and a large part of Clarksfork was suddenly inundated and water several feet deep swept over the railroad tracks, taking out 130 feet or more of the roadbed between Lightning creek and the town, blocking all trains from Monday until three o’clock today, when it was promised by officials that trains would be through. The railroad has spent a large amount of money endeavoring to keep Lighting creek within its bounds, but they usually have some trouble and expense during the rainy season. A good deal of the town was covered with water, and poles and posts piled in the railroad yards were floating all over the country. It was reported that the water was up to the windows of the section house and that would mean that most of the low ground about the railroad and perhaps in the town itself was covered with water. It has been impossible to get accurate reports on account of trains not coming through, and the telephone line being all but useless in such emergencies. 22 / R / December 14, 2023
I recently interviewed a young lady named Raye Johnson for a feature story this week (read “Raye of Hope,” Page 15). To put it lightly, Raye is an inspiration. At just 10 years old, she has spearheaded an annual philanthropic effort giving hundreds of unhoused individuals in Spokane care packages containing hats, gloves, scarves, blankets and snack food every Christmas Day. While asking Raye about what inspired her to set aside her own Christmas to help others, I was struck by how simple and direct her answers were about, well, everything. Nobody tells you the truth quite like a 10-year-old. But that’s usually the case when you speak to the young ones, who are joyfully walking through their days of innocence. They don’t see the world through a jaded veil, like many of us grown ups. They haven’t been let down by their best friends. They haven’t had their hearts broken. They haven’t yet witnessed the awful spectacle of grown adults acting like entitled brats. They don’t read about the ugliness of the world on the front pages every morning. They don’t yet know the history of the world, which has been written and rewritten in blood over countless wars and conflicts. No, all that knowledge comes later in life. For these short, blissful years of childhood, kids are allowed to be merry, to ask questions, to give straightforward answers and not concern themselves with the daily quagmires we adults are drawn to. When I was 22 years old, I packed everything I owned into my car and moved to Los Angeles. After growing up in North Idaho and attending college in Colorado, the world of L.A. was a mystery to me those first few months. One aspect of L.A. life that I never got used to was the surreal juxtaposition of a large homeless population that existed alongside some of the wealthiest people in the country. They literally strode side by side down the
sidewalks together. While trying to break into the film industry that first year, I invariably ended up spending lots of time walking aimlessly around the city, taking notes on what I saw and trying to understand it through my perspective as a 22-year-old babe raised in the North Idaho woods. My new friends would chastise me while we walked the sidewalks, because whenever an unhoused individual stopped me to ask for a dollar, I would often post up and chat with them for a while. The truth was, I was more interested in talking to homeless people than I was the soulless, wanna-be actors who prattled on at the nightclubs about how there would be a documentary made about them someday. I’ve always been drawn more to those at the bottom rungs than those at the top, the latter who spend a lot of their energy tossing down rocks to knock the rest of us off the ladder. As I exited a bar once, I passed a man playing a guitar on the street and sat down next to him. For the next two hours, we alternated playing songs and listening as passersby occasionally dropped coins in his upturned hat. As I eventually stood up to walk home, he shook my hand and said, “Hey man, thanks for treating me like a human being.” It dawned on me how often he must have had people pass by and hurl insults at him, or accuse him of being lazy or uninterested in working. The truth about homelessness is that many of the people you see on the street are quite capable of working, but when you start down the road of living on the street, it’s difficult to step back into the regular world again. A simple thing like having no permanent address can get in the way of obtaining a job or owning new clothes or having the ability to take a daily shower. Couple that with having no daily transportation or reliable contact information, and you have a firewall that is extremely difficult to breach unless you’re given a helping hand. That’s not even mentioning the fact that many of those who live on the street struggle
STR8TS Solution
Sudoku Solution
daily with mental health issues or addiction, and lack the basic, necessary care to get on top of their issues and begin to lead a productive life among society. That’s why people like Raye — an exceptional 10-year-old girl with a heart of gold — are such a breath of fresh air. They still believe they can change the world through their actions. We should never abandon that belief, no matter how old we are. The world of a 10-year-old is what we give them, both in our actions and attitudes. If we show them love, they will give love back. If we show them cruelty, it will eventually come out in them somewhere down the road. If we reward their curiosity, they’ll keep searching out the answers later in life. Maybe, just maybe, after their own days of innocence end, our young friends like Raye will rise above the petty nonsense many adults concern themselves with and truly work on making the world a better place. For me, I’m glad to have met Raye. Hope can be dangerous, but we can’t abandon it. There’s just too much at stake.
Crossword Solution
I guess one of the funniest memories of my grandfather was the time I was at his house and that tied-up man with the gag in his mouth came hopping out of the closet and started yelling that he was really my grandfather and the other guy was an imposter and to run for help. Who was that guy?! Oh, well, never saw him again.
Solution on page 22
Solution on page 22
By Bill Borders
glissade /gli-SAHD/
Woorf tdhe Week
[noun] 1. a skillful glide over snow or ice in descending a mountain.
“The experienced mountaineer utilized their impressive skills to execute a flawless glissade, swiftly navigating the treacherous snowy terrain.” Corrections: Nothing to note this week.
Copyright www.mirroreyes.com
Laughing Matter
CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Intersect 6. Coarse file 10. Jury member 14. Cowboy sport 15. Europe’s highest volcano 16. Rattling breath 17. Coral reef 18. Put away 19. Nights before 20. Flawlessness 22. Greek district 23. Jarring surprise 24. Stay with as a guest 25. Quash 29. A poison 31. Lift 33. A shoulder muscle 37. Ancient ascetic 38. Grow older 39. A used automobile tire 41. Absolute quiet 42. Large tuna 44. Not alive 45. Put out 48. Funnel shapes 50. Box 51. Going down 56. Extol 57. Religious ceremony 58. Eagle’s home 59. Behold, in old Rome 60. Always 61. The sound of a bell
Solution on page 22 62. Adolescent 63. We are (contraction) 64. S S S
DOWN 1. Obscene term for feces 2. Memorization method 3. Scent 4. Ego 5. Undersides 6. Mend 7. Area under roofs
8. A form of pool 9. Stooge 10. Based upon 11. Roof overhangs 12. Lacquer ingredient 13. Adjust again 21. French manor house 24. Critical 25. Swerve 26. Otherwise 27. Exam 28. Load with excessive weight 30. Candidate 32. Bless with oil
34. Melody 35. Whale 36. Marsh plant 40. Mislead 41. Earnest 43. Encourage 45. A small island 46. Elbowroom 47. Condiment 49. Serpent 51. Illustrated 52. Lairs 53. Angers 54. Egyptian river 55. Colloids
December 14, 2023 / R / 23
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Hey Sandpoint, Ponderay, Dover and Kootenai! Can you believe it's been almost six years since you welcomed us into this incredible community? We're incredibly thankful for all we've experienced in that time. Thank you for continuing to trust in us and our desire to bring better internet to our homes and businesses. We'll continue to do our best at providing a more enjoyable and reliable online experience as well as helping local entrepreneurs be more competitive. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we did the work to bring Ting Internet to more neighborhoods. Whenever construction is necessary, we are committed to minimizing any inconvenience and to getting you connected as quickly as possible. Thank you for reaching out to us and showing us how we can best contribute to the community. We've been honored to support initiatives like the Panida Theater Century Fund, Sandpoint High School's computer lab, Festival at Sandpoint and so many more that make this community great. We will continue to show our appreciation by listening to and engaging with our fellow residents. We're so grateful to be a part of this community and are looking forward to an incredible 2024! Sincerely, The Ting team in Greater Sandpoint
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