The Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that an oligarchy is a “perverted” form of aristocracy. For those who slept through American government class in high school, an oligarchy is the “rule by few,” usually by the extremely wealthy.
The second Trump administration is set to be the wealthiest in history. Here is a quick comparison that shows the net worths of the wealthiest members of the Biden administration versus the Trump administration.
Biden administration:
Joe Biden
Kamala Harris
Merrick Garland
Janet Yellen
Antony Blinken
Gina Raimondo
Jennifer Granholm
Alejandro Mayorkas
Lloyd Austin
Xavier Becerra
Denis McDonough
Marcia Fudge
Pete Buttigieg
Deb Haaland
Trump administration:
Donald Trump
JD Vance
Elon Musk
Vivek Ramaswamy
Howard Lutnick
Linda McMahon
Chris Wright
Doug Burgum
Stephen Feinberg
Warren Stephans
Charles Kushner
Jared Isaacman
Frank Bisignano
Kelly Loeffler
$8 million
$7 million
$20 million
$20 million
$10 million
$10 million
$8 million
$8 million
$7 million
$7 million
$3 million
$2 million
$750,000
$0
$5.4 billion
$11.3 million
$337 billion
$1 billion
$2 billion
$2.6 billion
$171 million
$1.1 billion
$5 billion
$3.3 billion
$2.9 billion
$1.9 billion
$900 million
$1.1 billion
This must be what “draining the swamp” looks like, huh?
upstream w/o a paddle
Kids growing up now in the streaming generation will never understand the nostalgia felt for that one particular movie your parents had on VHS that you watched over and over again throughout childhood. What movie was that for you?
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County pays $200K to Dave Bowman for physical injuries, violation of constitutional rights in trespassing case
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
Nearly a year after the Bonner County board of commissioners trespassed frequent meeting attendees Dave Bowman and Rick Cramer from county property, the BOCC has issued an apology for the “illegal and unlawful treatment” of Bowman and agreed to pay him a settlement of $200,000.
Former-BOCC Chair Luke Omodt — who resigned in September, after losing his GOP primary bid in May to Ron Korn, who is serving the remainder of Omodt’s term until his term officially begins in January — trespassed and performed a citizen’s arrest on Bowman and Cramer in January, alleging “disruptive and disorderly behavior [that] has interrupted the lawful meetings of Bonner County for months.”
The board then voted to trespass Bowman again in February, citing alleged “threats” made via email.
Omodt, Commissioner Steve Bradshaw and current-Chair Asia Williams later voted to accept Cramer’s appeal to lift his trespass in April. At the time, Williams made a motion to rescind Bowman’s trespass as well; however, the motion died without a second.
The board officially settled with Bowman on Dec. 5, in an agreement that stipulated the county pay $199,999 in compensation for “physical injuries” and $1 for the “violation of Bowman’s constitutional/civil rights.”
“Last February, the second time I was unlawfully arrested, it was not easy for me to go back into that meeting room knowing that I would likely be arrested,” said Bowman during the public comment section of the Dec. 10 BOCC business meeting.
“I did not do it to grandstand or set up a lawsuit. I did it to challenge unlawful authority and abuse of power. It was the right thing to do. I would do it again,” he continued.
Bowman emailed the alleged threats to Emergency Management Director Bob Howard in January
— cc’ing Prosecutor Louis Marshall and Sheriff Daryl Wheeler — following the first incident when then-Sergeant at Arms Cameron La Combe attempted to remove him at Omodt’s request.
“I would have been well within my rights in that moment to take offensive action to defend myself. Instead, I retreated; if it happens again I will not retreat,” wrote Bowman in the Jan. 15 email.
“If I feel threatened and defend myself, and an altercation ensues, imagine the ramifications. Civil actions against the county, Omodt and Cameron, criminal charges against Cameron and Omodt, medical bills, potential injuries of bystanders, etc. It could get very ugly. No one needs or wants that,” he added.
Bowman called the incident “avoidable” if Omodt had only “back[ed] down.”
“Commissioners Omodt — and, to a lesser extent, Bradshaw — used lawfare to silence political opposition. Both of them made false claims that I had publicly threatened employees. I have never threatened anyone ever,” he said, calling for Omodt to face consequences for his actions.
In an email Dec. 11 to the Reader, Omodt wrote, “Mr. Bowman expressed a willingness ‘to go on the offensive.’ Bowman sent this and other ‘lies’ in writing. Bowman’s comments and conduct speak for themselves.”
At the Dec. 10 BOCC meeting, Bowman further alleged misconduct on the part of the Sandpoint Police Department.
“Sandpoint Mayor [Jeremy]
Grimm and Chief [Corey] Coon, you’re next because without your complicity, we wouldn’t be here,” Bowman later added.
The Sandpoint police facilitated Bowman’s citizen’s arrest, transporting him to the Bonner County Sheriff’s Detention Center for booking.
“Sandpoint police should have refused to abet these unlawful arrests, as Chief Coon had advised they would prior to the first unlawful arrest,” Bowman told the Reader in a Dec. 11 email.
The settlement does not detail what injuries Bowman sustained nor does his March 2024 complaint, which focused on the claim that the February vote to remove Bowman constituted “a violation of Idaho’s Open Meeting Laws.” Bowman declined to comment on the nature of his injuries.
Bowman’s settlement also stipulated that the commissioners read a press release aloud during the Dec. 10 meeting and send the release to the Daily Bee, Sandpoint Reader and Spokesman Review.
The statement reads, in part, “Bonner County recognizes the damage done to Mr. Bowman, as he was not only deprived of his rights and injured, but subjected to criminal prosecution, his rights restored only as a result of seeking legal redress through the courts.”
Williams read the statement as part of her weekly District 2 Commissioner Discussion, explaining that it was a requirement of the settlement and that the board members did not write the statement.
“This is the document that was agreed upon. Although I understand
there are disagreements on things, this is what was stated to have been read in this meeting and that’s what I did,” Williams said when questioned on the word choice in the letter.
When asked about the settlement, Williams said only that she abstained from the vote to settle with Bowman and that the $200,000 was paid out of the county’s civil litigation fund.
Though he agreed to the settlement, Bowman still disapproved of the fact that neither Omodt nor Bradshaw faced consequences for the arrest and trespass.
“The BOCC was unwilling to settle this case unless I agreed not to pursue the claim against Omodt in his personal capacity as outlined in the complaint,” Bowman added in his Dec. 11 email to the Reader, going on to write that “citizens should be outraged” that the commissioners “shift the financial penalties” onto the taxpayers.
“Malfeasance, misfeasance, cronyism [and] nepotism are rampant in Bonner County government,” Bowman said during the Dec. 10 BOCC meeting. “Elected officials cover for each other and look the other way.”
Bowman and his wife, Susan, both went on to claim that the county government has been “corrupted,” warning meeting attendees to “stay vigilant.” Both speeches were met with applause from members of the public, many of whom got up to speak in support of the Bowmans.
“What we have here is a county commissioner that twice illegally arrested my husband, and who suffers for that? My husband. Who doesn’t? The person that arrested him. And so what this tells us, folks, is that our government has fallen. It’s gone,” said Susan Bowman.
She repeated the sentiment several more times, extending the “fallen” status to the state and federal governments.
“This is not about us — my husband and I — this is about freedom of speech. This is about upholding the Constitution and not just waving a flag but actually standing behind it,” she said.
Dave Bowman. File photo
Former Bonner Co. Commissioner Luke Omodt gives a press conference in Feb. 2024. File photo
Planning Commission seeks public input on proposed Comp Plan map changes
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
The Bonner County Planning Commission, Planning Department and GIS began updating the Comprehensive Plan map in 2022 and have devised a new plan to drum up public comment — hosting open houses around the county.
The department scheduled 10 events from 3-7 p.m. each, the first of which was held Dec. 12 in Sandpoint. Planning commissioners and staff will attend each event to answer questions, returning to Sandpoint for the final open house Tuesday, Feb. 11 in the Bonner County Administration Building (1500 Hwy 2).
Members of the public who do not want to travel can also access the map, presentations and related documents, as well as submit feedback at bonnercountyid.gov/departments/Planning.
After all public comment has been taken into consideration, Planning Director Jake Gabell estimates the Bonner County board of commissioners will be able to make a decision on the proposed map in May 2026.
“So, our goal here — as given to us by the Planning Commission — is to help get as much public input as possible on the proposed Comprehensive Plan map,” Gabell told the Reader
To help members of the public visualize the proposed changes, GIS worked with planning commissioners and staff to create an interactive map showing current and proposed land use designations side by side. These changes will affect land uses ranging from home construction to founding a business and more. Every element of the project has been handled in-house.
“We’ve had a $0 budget from the very beginning, so we’re sticking with that,” said Gabell.
One significant change will be to reduce the number of land use designations from 10 to seven, eliminating the Prime Ag/Forest and Urban Growth designations and combining Alpine Community and Resort Community into the Recreational Resort Community designation.
The Planning Commission determined that Bonner County’s most densely populated areas are still technically Suburban, not Urban. Further, the commissioners decided that soil type and slope — which determine whether land is “prime” — should no longer be considered when assigning potential use, and so did away with the Prime Ag/Forest distinction.
“If somebody wants to farm somewhere, they’re going to farm there,” said Gabell, adding that, regardless, the soil data was not very accurate.
The commission will instead rely on the property’s proximity to transportation systems and amenities such as water and sewer to determine potential uses. To ascertain whether a property can support a desired use, the land owner will need to consult various agencies such as the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Panhandle Health District and the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
The commission has also proposed eliminating the 10-acre overlap between Ag/Forest 10/20 and Rural Residential 5/10 by reducing the Rural Residential designation to strictly five acres.
Gabell said that “a lot of frustration” has come from property owners seeking to convert their 10-acre Ag/ Forest or Rural Residential parcels into five-acre Rural Residential parcels and finding that the criteria for 10-acre Rural Residential and 10-acre Ag/Forest were vastly different.
“To get to five acres, people will have to go through a more stringent process that’s going to take longer. It will likely reduce the number of applicants,” he added.
The Planning Commission has proposed a few minor changes, including renaming the Transition designation “Mixed Use” and cleaning up the map’s borders to better account for property lines, city limits and waterways. Most of the commission’s suggestions seek to reduce re-
dundancies and problem areas, align land use designations with the current use and direct where growth should occur.
“You want to see higher densities on bigger roads, so as the road system gets worse the farther you get out, the less dense everything should be,” said Gabell.
In addition to the online land use plan map, GIS also used historical parcels and building location permits — factoring in land that will likely never be built on — to create a site that can calculate potential growth scenarios in the county based on the current zoning. The public can view these interactive scenarios at bit.ly/ GIS_LandUse, though Gabell recommends reducing the final numbers by approximately 30% to account for submerged land and otherwise unbuildable lots.
“So when [the Planning Commission] looked at all this information, they came down to it and said, ‘We have enough [space] to last for a long time — like 15, 20 years — without changing any other zoning,’” said Gabell, adding that, consequently, the commissioners didn’t propose many zone changes to “allow for additional growth in different places.”
• Blanchard; Tuesday, Jan. 7; Blanchard Community Center (685 Rusho Lane)
• Cocolalla; Tuesday, Jan. 21 at Southside Elementary (307 Southside School Rd.)
• Clark Fork; Tuesday, Jan. 28 at Clark Fork Jr. and Sr. High School (502 North Main St.)
• Coolin; Tuesday, Feb. 4 at The Inn at Priest Lake (5310 Dickensheet Road) Sandpoint; Tuesday, Feb. 11 at The Bonner County Administration Building (1500 Hwy 2)
Gabell expressed his gratitude to GIS — especially Director Mike Bolling — for crafting the program from massive amounts of data. GIS hopes to update the map with new data each year to aid future planning commissions when the time comes to update the Comprehensive Plan map again.
Gabell stressed the importance of attending the upcoming open houses or submitting feedback either in person or online.
“This gathering of public input is a really important part and I hope people show up because it’s a big effort by the county and by the Planning Commission,” he said.
“As a government, you rarely have the privilege of looking ahead and trying to solve problems that are going to happen. This is one of those scenarios where we’re responding to issues that have happened, and we’re also looking ahead to try to prevent other problems from happening,” he added.
Karen Matthee announced as new leader of BoCo Democrats
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
The Bonner County Democrats will have a new leader headed into the new year, with the election of Karen Matthee to the position following the departure of Linda Larson from the role following the 2024 election season.
Larson had served four years as chair of the local Democrats, and plans to remain active in the party while expressing appreciation for the organization and optimism about its future.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work with the wonderful group of talented and dedicated Democrats here in Bonner County,” Larson stated in an announcement of the transition in leadership. “I’m excited to take on a new role within the organization, and I’m looking forward to seeing what
we can accomplish moving forward.”
Matthee takes the helm after a run for the District 1A seat in the Idaho House of Representatives in the November 2024 election, which incumbent Republican Rep. Mark Sauter won with 24,189 votes to Matthee’s 6,923 (77.7% to 22.3%).
Despite that loss — and the victory of Republican Cornel Rasor over Democrat Kathryn Larson in the race for the Dist. 1B House seat with 22,565 votes to 9,067 (71.3% to 28.7%) — both campaigns were considered by observers to be more vigorous than past Democratic challenges for local legislative offices, and indicated a renewed vigor in the local party.
Matthee thanked Linda Larson for her service as she accepted the new role at the Bonner County Democrats’ most recent leadership meeting. She will serve
the remainder of a two-year term, which ends in May 2026.
“Linda Larson will be a tough act to follow. She has done so much to raise the profile of Democrats here in Bonner County, and to back several excellent candidates for a variety of offices — often without the recognition that was due her and BCDCC volunteers,” Matthee stated in an announcement.
Matthee’s agenda for the Bonner County Democrats includes focusing on strengthening the party’s structure, “providing service to our community and promoting voter education on key local and state issues that impact all of us,” she stated.
For more information on the Bonner County Democrats and their work, contact bonnerdemocrats@gmail.com.
ITD speeds up timeline for Long Bridge replacement with $200K for new study
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
A new study by the Idaho Transportation Department will begin the process of identifying possible replacements for the U.S. 95 “Long Bridge” south of Sandpoint.
According to an announcement Dec. 11, the ITD Board approved $200,000 to initiate the analysis, which is scheduled to kick off in 2025.
In 2021, ITD opened the pathway beneath the Long Bridge and announced improvements to U.S. 95 including the turnaround north of Bottle Bay Road and traffic signal in Sagle. At that time, department officials said further work on both the vehicle and pedestrian spans would be intended to bring them in line with a 100-year service life. For the pedestrian bridge, that wouldn’t be until 2056, and 2081 for the vehicle bridge.
As recently as October 2024, ITD said it would prioritize the ongoing U.S. 95 improvements — specifically the Dufort-Lakeshore project — over widening or other large-scale work on the bridge until closer to the end of those service lives. However, in the Dec. 11 announcement, officials indicated that the timeline has been shortened.
“Up until now, we have been performing maintenance projects to delay replacing this expensive structure until it reached 100 years old,” District Engineer Damon Allen stated in the announcement. “But as we’ve looked to widen U.S. 95 south of town, we’ve heard from the public that they want us to look at this sooner rather than later.”
ITD Public Information Officer Heather McDaniel told the Reader that feedback from the separate U.S. 95 Dufort-Lakeshore project “centered around concerns with traffic volume and congestion at the bottleneck where that project would tie into the Long Bridge.”
The department stated in the announcement that past studies showed a preference for a single four-lane bridge featuring shoulders and a separated bike and pedestrian pathway in place of the current two-lane bridges.
The costs and schedule for stag-
ing such a large-scale project would be established in further analyses, but ITD put the estimated price tag for the northbound half of a new four-lane bridge — along with bike and pedestrian access — in the range of $225 million “at least.”
“This money [for the study] will allow staff to begin preliminary planning and pursue grant applications for design,” Allen stated.
Incoming Dist. 1 Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, told the Reader that based on what he learned during a meeting with ITD officials the week before the study announcement, “Any construction is years off, but it is forward progress to start with a study and develop a design concept.”
McDaniel also emphasized that, “While this is exciting news, it’s important to understand that there is still a long road ahead before construction of a new bridge can begin, including public outreach, procedural environmental evaluations and then, of course, identifying and securing the funding to design and build it.”
Woodward said it was his understanding that the vehicle bridge would continue to be used “well into the future,” though the pedestrian bridge “will most likely be replaced.”
ITD officials were also quick to underscore that while the timeframe for replacing the Long Bridge has been accelerated, it “doesn’t supersede efforts currently taking place for planning the expansion of U.S. 95 from Dufort Road to Lakeshore Drive through the Sagle corridor,” McDaniel said. “These two separate endeavors will move forward concurrently, with neither being dependent on the other for future progress.”
Bits ’n’ Pieces
From east, west and beyond
After an 8-7 vote in late-November, the Texas State Board of Education approved an optional elementary school curriculum using Bible teachings, Newsweek reported. Faithful America and others objected, with the organization stating, “Forcing Christianity on others doesn’t spread our faith — it corrupts it.”
According to The New Republic, the public’s “lack of sympathy is unsurprising” following the fatal shooting Dec. 4 of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, given the “ubiquitously autocratic” nature of health insurance companies. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, 26, faces a murder charge. The Guardian wrote that the suspect had penned a three-page manifesto critical of health insurance companies for valuing profits over care, asking, “why do we have the most expensive health care in the world but we’re rated 42 in life expectancy?” (That ranking is expected to drop to 66th by 2050, according to new forecasts.)
After meeting with billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — who have been tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency — Republican lawmakers stated “everything is on the table,” including cuts to Social Security and Medicare, in an effort to eliminate a third of the federal budget.
During a Dec. 8 appearance on Meet the Press, President-elect Donald Trump threatened prison for members of the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the nation’s Capitol. Former Select Committee Co-chair Liz Cheney — whom Trump singled out as a target for imprisonment — said the threat is “an assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic. He mobilized an angry mob ... [that] attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes.”
Trump watched on TV as police officers were beaten, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave. “This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history,” Cheney said.
Cheney said any lawyer pursuing an investigation of the committee’s work would find themselves engaged in “sanctionable conduct.” She wants special counsel Jack Smith to make public all investigation evidence of Trump’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, so it cannot be destroyed.
Axios reported Trump has reaffirmed plans to pardon convicted Jan. 6 rioters.
By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist
Trump said the prisoners are in a “filthy, disgusting place.” The rioting led to injury of 174 officers, $2.8 million in damages, lives threatened, feces smeared on Capitol walls and five deaths.
Trump also claimed on Meet the Press that 13,099 murderers were released “into our country” over the past three years. The debunked claim came from a 2024 ICE letter stating those people were “non-detained.” According to the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, “non-detained” does not mean free to roam, it means “not currently detained by ICE,” and the 13,099 figure covers the past 40 years.
Syrian rebels say they’ve ended 24 years of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian rule. The Guardian reported that rebels were releasing prisoners “unjustly detained from the regime prisons.” The Assad family gained power in 1971, and Bashar al-Assad inherited the presidency in 2000. Control was enforced via a “vast security state” that crushed dissent with detention centers and surveillance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began testifying this week in his corruption trial. Charges include fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes, which he denies. There are 140 witnesses, including close former allies, Newsweek reported. Netanyahu is Israel’s first P.M. to testify as a criminal defendant.
The People and Planet’s Fossil Free campaign says 115 out of 149 U.K. colleges have pledged to cut ties with fossil fuels, making $22.6 billion in endowments inaccessible for those businesses. Blast (literally) from the past: In November 1970, Oregon State Highway engineers removed a malodorous eightton sperm whale carcass that had washed ashore near Florence, Ore. Crowds gathered to watch the detonation of dynamite planted inside the 45-foot creature. An engineer noted that no one was sure how much dynamite would create suitably sized chunks for wild scavengers. As it turned out, the explosion of more than 20 cases of dynamite caused chunks to fly into the sky, including one that crushed a car a quarter mile away. Other pieces fell on the crowds. A news report described the rain of whale pieces with a memorable alliteration: “The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.” Humor columnist Dave Barry labeled it “the most wonderful event in the history of the universe.” The city of Florence now has an “Exploding Whale Memorial Park.”
An aerial view of the Long Bridge.
Photo courtesy of ITD
Appeals court considers next step for emergency abortion care in Idaho
DoJ sued Idaho in 2022 to block enforcement of criminal abortion ban for E.R. physicians
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris Idaho Capital Sun
An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Dec. 10 in a case that will determine whether doctors can perform emergency abortion care without criminal prosecution in Idaho, which has in place a near-total abortion ban.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Idaho in 2022 to block it from enforcing its criminal abortion ban for emergency room physicians who might need to perform an abortion when a patient is at risk of infection or other potentially serious health problems during pregnancy.
The Justice Department said prosecuting physicians under those circumstances would violate the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires Medicare-funded hospitals to treat patients who come to an emergency room regardless of their ability to pay.
Idaho’s ban contains an exception to save the pregnant patient’s life, but not to prevent detrimental health outcomes, including the loss of future fertility, which is a risk with severe infection or bleeding. Without further clarity written into the law, doctors have said they can’t confidently assess when to safely intervene to save someone’s life and what constitutes a “good faith” judgment.
Rather than take the chance, high-risk obstetric specialists have airlifted patients to a facility out of state that can freely perform the procedure before it becomes a life-threatening situation. In 2023, officials at St. Luke’s — the state’s largest hospital
system — said at their facilities such transfers happened once. But between January and April, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to take up the case and lifted an injunction blocking the ban’s enforcement in cases of emergency care, six patients were transferred.
‘It’s not a statute about emergency care,’ attorney for Idaho Legislature argues Idaho’s attorneys have argued that EMTALA does not supersede state law banning abortions, and says it does call for stabilizing treatment to be given to an “unborn child.” They also contend that the situations physicians have described where an abortion might be necessary as a stabilizing treatment would qualify under Idaho’s exception to save the person’s life.
John Bursch, an attorney with the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, argued the case on behalf of Idaho, and attorney Taylor Meehan represented the Legislature to defend the law.
Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr., who was appointed by President Joe Biden, asked Meehan if there had been any changes to Idaho law that would clarify the emergency situations where abortion care would be acceptable, and a physician would not be subject to prosecution. Meehan said no.
“The more you put in the statute, the more you start to limit the physician’s good faith belief,” Meehan said.
Mendoza asked how doctors are supposed to know their actions won’t be subject to prosecution if it’s not specific in the law, and Meehan said it wasn’t meant to address those situations.
“It’s not a statute about
emergency care, it’s a statute that primarily prohibits elective criminal abortions. It’s not about medical treatment,” Meehan said.
Judge Lawrence VanDyke, an appointee during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, cast doubt on the necessity of the six air transfers that occurred while the injunction was not in place. VanDyke asked attorney Lindsay Harrison, who represented St. Luke’s Health System of Idaho, why those six were sent out of state. Harrison said five of them had premature rupture of membranes and one had preeclampsia, a dangerous high blood pressure condition.
“Your argument is, if the mother wants to kill the baby even though it’s not necessary to prevent [death], then they have to be airlifted, is that right?” VanDyke said.
Harrison said the issue is that a physician can’t immediately determine whether a pregnant patient’s life is at risk as a result of the condition, so they are sent to a place where abortion is legal, and the full spectrum of care options is available.
Circuit panel will likely issue opinion sometime in the next few months
The appellate court hearing Dec. 10 came six months after U.S. Supreme Court justices decided over the summer that it was too early for them to make a determination and returned the case to the lower court. But it began in 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned regulation of abortion procedures to the states.
The number of appellate judges in the case was higher than usual because it is under consideration as an “en banc” case. A three-judge panel initially decided to strike down the preliminary injunction from Idaho’s district court, leaving emergency room physicians open to prosecution under the ban.
The Ninth Circuit does not have to issue an opinion in a specific timeframe, although it will likely rule within the next few months.
The panel could decide to leave the injunction in place or vacate it and return the case to district court in either ruling. The case could also be
dropped entirely in January after Trump is sworn in and new leadership takes over the Department of Justice. In that instance, a new plaintiff would have to start the entire case over from scratch.
The en banc panel included Chief Judge Mary Murguia, who was appointed by former-Democratic President Barack Obama, as well as one other Obama appointee, two who were appointed by Biden, four appointed by Trump during his first term, two appointed by former-Republican President George W. Bush and one appointed by former-Democratic President Bill Clinton.
This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.
Idaho high-risk obstetric specialists have airlifted patients to a facility out of state that can freely perform emergency abortions before a health complication becomes life-threatening.
Photo courtesy of Life Flight
Bouquets:
• One of our readers wanted to add to my recent story about the lack of Thanksgiving songs. Donna Steinacher wrote about the song, “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day,” by Lydia Marie Child, which we all know as “Over the River and Through the Woods.” I missed that one in my article! Thanks for the reminder, Donna.
Barbs:
• Flying etiquette is always evolving. Here’s an update on airplane dos and don’ts for those who need a refresher course. Yes, the seats recline, but maybe you can forego that inch of recumbency to save the person behind you from having a seatback in their lap. I always check behind me first — if it’s a small child or the seat’s empty, I’ll recline after takeoff. Any other time, just leave it alone. Regarding the ongoing battle over who gets the armrests, I say both should go to the middle person, because that’s the worst seat on an airplane. Let them have that small luxury. Third, when walking down the aisle to your seat, hold your suitcase in front of you and low to the ground to avoid banging passengers with it as you walk by. Next, don’t grab the seatback in front of you for support when getting up or walking by. This can be quite jarring to the person sitting in it. Grab the overhead compartment if you need support. When it comes to talking, respect others’ willingness to engage in conversation. If they’re wearing earbuds, chances are they don’t want to hear about your grandkids. Speaking of earbuds, take them out when flight attendants are speaking to you. Finally, the person in the window seat controls the window shade, but read the room, er, airplane. If everyone has the shade closed and it’s a bright daytime flight, maybe keep yours closed, too.
Speak up against stripping away public school resources…
Dear editor,
In 2025, Idaho legislators will almost certainly try again to divert our public education taxes into private schooling. It will be called “vouchers,” “education accounts” or some such thing. They will do this public school resource stripping in the name of parent choice, and it will paradoxically reduce the future choices and opportunities of large swaths of Idahoans, mostly in rural districts.
Kids’ communities want and need future emerging adults who are competent in all the ways that allow them to contribute and thrive — not just the few youngsters whose parents shepherd them through private education. Our state Constitution says, “It shall be the duty of the Legislature of Idaho to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”
In the November election, Nebraska, Colorado and Kentucky joined previous jurisdictions to repeal such unpopular public school resource stripping. Let’s head this thing off to prevent taxpayer-funded legal defenses and a future statewide ballot measure to reverse it.
We can speak up by attending our legislators’ town halls, and by writing, calling their offices, or emailing them: legislature.idaho. gov/legislators/contactlegislators/.
Christine Moon Sandpoint
Storefronts are missing Christmas decorations…
Dear editor, I often walk my little black schnauzer downtown, strolling along the sidewalk to enjoy the seasonal changes of my hometown.
Yet this winter seems gloomy, but I couldn’t figure out why. The storefronts have their Christmas best on display and lights are entwined on the trees, but something was missing.
Then it came to me: The windows were bare for the first time in decades.
All the glorious swirls of snowy trees, looping around the glass frames with delightful symmetry are missing. Up and down the streets, the craftsmanship of one artist depicted snowy scenes fitting a ski resort town. Even during economic downturns, those paintings evoked
the joyful spirit of the holidays. This year, a few shops have decorated their windows with holiday images, but it’s just not the same.
I want to thank the artist who did such a labor of love every winter. The showpieces are truly missed.
Joanne Cottrell Sandpoint
Rules for us, not for them…
Dear editor,
An observation about the recent killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York. I naturally do not condone killing, but is this a backlash? We regular people who work each day just to make ends meet or are retired and struggling to pay their monthly living expenses, well, we still need to follow their rules… Really? Why? You pay your insurance premium on time yet you’re abruptly canceled or the company comes up with some legal double talk as to why they don’t have to pay your claim. You have to pay your monthly credit card bill — most with interest that used to be referred to as loan shark rates — but miss one or make a late payment… $40 late fee and your credit rating plummets. And let’s not forget our incoming 47th president. A convicted felon, who was found guilty of being a sexual predator and inspired an insurrection. SCOTUS says he can get away with what otherwise would be serious crimes for the rest of us, but he is totally absolved as long as the crimes were committed in his official capacity.
Bottomline, why do average citizens have to continue following the rules when institutions and even the president don’t?
Lawrence Fury Sandpoint
‘Huge’ Trump mandate? Not so much…
Dear editor,
With the second lowest percentage of popular votes in 11 elections during the past 40 years (1984-2024), Donald Trump’s 1.6% advantage over Kamala Harris in November would not be considered a “huge” mandate of the people. Even Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the 2016 popular vote by 2.1%.
According to vocabulary.com, “A mandate is when a politician wins an election by a wide margin.” Even the Electoral College tallies show Trump finished seventh lowest out of 11.
The smallest popular vote victo-
ry percentage during that 40-year period was when Al Gore outpolled George W. Bush in 2000 by .52%. Bush was given the presidency by the Supreme Court’s decision on the Electoral College vote from Florida.
Perhaps Ronald Reagan’s 18.0% popular vote over Walter Mondale in 1984 would be considered a true mandate of the people; or even, in more recent years, Bill Clinton’s 8.5% popular vote over Robert Dole in 1996. But Trump’s recent win over Harris with a paltry 1.6% is relatively insignificant compared to all of these previous results, taken from Federal Election Commission reports:
Joe Biden’s 4.4% over Trump (2020); Hillary Clinton over Trump (2016); Barack Obama’s 3.9% over Mitt Romney (2012); Obama’s 7.2% over John McCain (2008); George W.Bush’s 2.4% over John Kerry (2004); Gore over Bush (2000); Bill Clinton over Dole (1996); Clinton’s 6.4% over George H.W. Bush (1992); George H.W. Bush’s 7.8% over Michael Dukakis (1988); and Reagan over Mondale (1984).
Definitely not a “huge” mandate.
Maureen Graham Sandpoint
‘Should the very rich and powerful live by different rules?’…
Dear editor,
President Biden’s recent pardoning of his son raises serious questions. Should money and position determine the rules under which one lives? And should anyone be granted blanket immunity from prosecution, whether they are the U.S. president or their family members? And should our Supreme Court justices be guaranteed to “hold office during good behavior,” typically for life, without enforceable rules defining what that good behavior might be?
Without rules limiting their power, we rely on the moral fortitude of people in positions of power. But should we?
And is it appropriate in a democracy for the FBI or our judicial system to be used for personal “retribution” by anyone in power, especially a president? Trump promised if re-elected he’d prosecute the Biden family and anyone else who’s spoken out against him, which, if allowed, would clearly inhibit freedom of speech. But then if Donald Trump hadn’t been president, would he or even Bill Clinton have been litigated for covering up their sex scandals?
It’s obvious that Biden pardoned his son to protect his family from
Trump’s promised retribution. And does anyone doubt that Trump will do the same if his own family is threatened by the next president? And should that president be given authority to do so?
Many would like to know if Hunter’s crimes were connected with Joe Biden himself. Many would like to know the facts of Trump’s alleged crimes of inciting an insurrection and more.
But thanks to the current rules that govern the powerful — or lack thereof — these things we may never know.
Georgia Earley Bonners Ferry
‘Ride ’em Cowboy — not’…
Dear editor,
When a horse goes too fast, it can experience injuries, loss of balance, overheating and exhaustion, endangering its rider.
Speed is also dangerous for a legislative body and the citizens who depend on it. Last year our Legislature did not allow enough time for the lawmakers to read and understand the bills and confer with their constituents. Committees often recommended bills with no voter input — so fast it struck me as intentional.
Citizens are weighing in more and more on some of the most divisive legislation ever. Last year, more than 200 people testified against a library bill in person, on Zoom, or by email and phone. Only three testified in favor. The bill eventually passed after the session was over with no notification and little or no support from voters. Our legislators can pass rules that will prevent this rush. Contact our District 1 legislators. Ask them to propose measures to slow down: Rep.Mark Sauter, MSauter@house.idaho.gov, 208254-1184; Rep. Cornel Rasor, CRasor@ house.idaho.gov, 208-290-7403; Sen. Jim Woodward, JWoodward@senate. idaho.gov, 208-946-7963.
For more bite-sized info on how our Legislature works, legislative contact info and alerts during the 2025 session, sign up for Bonner County Alerts at: bonneralerts.substack.com. Take part!
Nancy Gerth Sagle
Idahoans defeated school vouchers — we can do it again
By Rep. Lauren Necochea Reader Contributor
Our future depends on every child from every corner of Idaho receiving a great education. But when the Idaho Legislature convenes in January, special interest groups will launch their most aggressive push yet for school voucher schemes. These plans would drain public funds to bankroll private, for-profit and religious schools that largely serve welloff, urban Idahoans with zero public accountability.
Recent headlines highlight just how underfunded Idaho schools are. The West Ada School District estimates $1 billion in facility needs over the next decade. Across the state, schools are closing in Nampa, Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene and West Bonner County. Four-day
school weeks, once limited to rural Idaho, are now common. Even Nampa — Idaho’s third-largest city — has adopted the shorter schedule. Schools in some North Idaho districts face impossible choices between hiring teachers and fixing leaky roofs.
Instead of filling funding gaps, certain Idaho Republicans are preparing to make them worse. Voucher schemes
in other states show they are budget busters. In Arizona, costs ballooned from an estimated $65 million to $332 million last year, with another $429 million expected this year.
Most importantly, voucher schemes are bad for kids. They drain resources for schools that welcome everyone and send those dollars to institutions free to pick and choose their students. This means children with special needs, learning disabilities or disciplinary records can be shut out of private options. At the same time, their neighborhood schools are forced to cut programs many of us consider fundamental, like sports, music, career training and tutoring. In Wisconsin, voucher programs have increased taxpayer costs while delivering dramatically lower math and reading proficiency rates.
The scale of the voucher lobby’s effort during the recent election is alarming.
Billionaire-backed groups spent unprecedented amounts of money attacking Republicans who oppose vouchers and Democrats running against voucher-supporting Republicans.
The result is an incoming Legislature determined to do the bidding of the outside groups that bankrolled their victories.
Still, there is reason for hope. Last year, Idahoans from all walks of life joined forces to defeat voucher proposals. Parents, educators and community members made their voices heard, and a voucher scheme dressed up as a tax credit was defeated. This grassroots movement demonstrated the power of collective action.
This year, the fight will
Reader to celebrate anniversary milestones with community party at Matchwood
Event on Jan. 16 open to all
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
It’s amazing how fast 10 years goes by. At this time in December 2014, I was frantically putting together the relaunch of the Sandpoint Reader after it went out of print in 2012. I had asked several friends their opinions on whether they thought it was a good idea to bring back the newspaper, and almost every one of them told me, “Don’t do it!”
Bucking their helpful suggestions, I forged ahead and, with the help of co-owner Chris Bessler and then-Editorin-Chief Cameron Rasmusson, we published the first edition of the second iteration of the Reader on Jan. 22, 2015.
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. We’ve had some successes and quite a few failures.
We’ve received some of the most heartwarming accolades from our readers and also death threats and hate mail that made us wonder why we chose this profession. As with many things in life, I don’t regret any of it.
While this is the 10th anniversary of the second iteration of the Reader, it also marks the 20th year since the Reader published Vol. 1 No. 1 in on Dec. 24, 2004, under the leadership of co-founders Zach Hagadone (who is current editor-in-chief), Chris DeCleur and John Reuter. If you subtract the two-plus years we were out of print from 2012’15, we’re actually somewhere around 18 years old, which means we’ve pushed out almost 1,000 editions.
It’s hard to describe how much work it takes to put together one edition, let alone 1,000. Let’s just say I had
fewer gray hairs in my beard when I started.
To celebrate these milestones, we’re throwing a community party Thursday, Jan. 16 from 5-8 p.m. at Matchwood Brewing Co. (513 Oak St., in Sandpoint). All are invited, and we’ll have free appetizers available for partygoers.
The night will be a celebration not just of our little endeavor, but of the entire idea of the independent press. There will likely be a few sappy speeches from some of us; but, for the most part, it’ll be a chance to connect with our readers and contributors and thank you for making the Reader a part of North Idaho life for damn near a generation. No need to RSVP, just come to Matchwood and have some beers and free grub with us. (We’ll cover the food, but you’re on your own with paying for drinks.)
be even tougher. Our resolve must be stronger. Idaho’s strength lies in its people, and our future depends on ensuring every child has the tools to succeed.
Call your legislators and Gov. Brad Little to urge them to oppose voucher proposals. Write letters, attend town halls and make your voices heard. Together, we can stop these attacks on public education and build a system where every child from Coeur d’Alene to Aberdeen has a strong neighborhood school.
Lauren Necochea is chair of the Idaho Democratic Party and outgoing District 19 House member in the Idaho Legislature. Necochea spent a decade leading nonprofit programs dedicated to research and advocacy in tax
The evening will also be the last night you can purchase Drink the Reader community beers, a fundraiser where Matchwood donates proceeds from every four-pack sold to the Reader. After this night, the beers will no longer be made available, so be sure to grab a few while you still can. Special thanks to Matchwood Brewing Co. for honoring our newspaper with such a cool beer label.
If you can’t make it to the
event, rest assured that we count our lucky stars to have such a vibrant group of readers who strive to live up to our motto: “Support an informed community.” We believe in that and we hope you do, too. Thanks for 10, 20 or 18 years, however you slice it. We’re happy to be a part of your lives.
Rep. Lauren Necochea. File photo
Publisher Ben Olson and Editor Zach Hagadone prepare to blast off for another 10 years of publishing the Reader. Photo by Chris Brunkhart (may he rest in peace).
Science: Mad about
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist
I had the privilege of being a part of a library ambassadorial voyage through the state of Idaho earlier this year. The goal of this mission was to make connections with other library professionals throughout the state, see what we were doing right, what we could be doing better, and trying to understand the needs of all Idahoans and how we can apply their needs to better serve the people of Bonner County.
Among the most interesting finds was that our library has perhaps the most robust DVD collection in the entire state. I’ve lived in Bonner County for my entire life, so I quickly understood why.
Bonner County is a very rural area spread across a huge geographic area, with digital connectivity interrupted by mountains and very dated infrastructure outside of a few central areas. Complicating the connectivity issues is the astronomical cost of living in this area, which can force people to choose between internet access and a streaming service or food they need to survive to the next paycheck.
It became very clear that the library’s massive DVD collection isn’t just a convenience, but a lifeline for many residents.
But how does a DVD work?
How does that little reflective disc store and replay your favorite movies or games?
The disc is only half the equation. The second half of the equation is the player in which you place the disc. The player will spin the disc rapidly, turn on a laser and voila: your music plays, your movie runs and Master Chief
disc storage
falls out of the sky to finish this fight. Meanwhile, there is a lot of microscopic magic going on in order to make this work as intended.
There are two structures on the surface of a disc to be aware of: pits and lands. Pits are divots in the structure and lands are the spaces between the divots. When the laser of the reader strikes the lands, it’s reflected back into a photodiode, or a mechanism that detects light. Whenever the laser strikes a bump created by the pit, it creates a disturbance that the photodiode picks up and then feeds into the computer as data. The data is then decoded and transformed into a medium that we as humans can use and understand.
This is an extreme simplification of the entire process.
Recording and replaying encoded data goes back to a time well before the development of the compact disc. One of the earlier media that laid the groundwork for compact discs was the phonograph, developed by Thomas Edison in 1877. The phonograph, like the vinyl record player that would follow years later, used a stylus at the end of an arm that would follow the grooves in a disc and vibrate as it moved. These vibrations were translated into soundwaves that could then be heard by a human. There are a few more steps involved with a modern record player that converts the sound waves into an electrical signal using something called piezoelectric crystal, which is a crystal that creates electrical energy when mechanical stress is applied to it.
Producing compact discs is a fascinating process that begins with a glass master disc. This master is put through a number of chemical processes
to preserve it as well as adding a chemical layer that will keep the etched data configuration in the form of inverted pits and lands. This master is then fed into a stamping machine that is filled with molten polycarbonate plastic. The master stamps the data pattern into the polycarbonate that hardens, and is then removed from the stamper. A reflective metal layer is added to aid the laser and photodiode in reading the disc later — this is why CDs and DVDs are shiny.
A layer of lacquer is added to help protect the disc and then a graphical topper is sometimes applied so that you know what disc you have in your machine. Sometimes, manufacturers will have two-sided discs to effectively double the amount of data they can store, but this isn’t common practice as it’s a little more expensive and complicated to produce and can be more prone to severe damage.
Polycarbonate is a powerful and pliable plastic with a huge variety of uses. Its tough and durable nature allows it to be easily curved into shapes with unique geometry. It is commonly used in personal protective equipment, particularly in the form of goggles and face shields. (My favorite use for tinted polycarbonate is to create tinted visors for cosplay helmets.) If you place two-way mirror film over the visor, you can create a cool effect right out of Halo: Combat Evolved. This is very similar to the process applied to a compact disc.
You may be wondering about the difference between CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays. Essentially the process is identical across all of these medias, but the pits can be shrunken far more
when using something like a Blu-Ray. This is because a Blu-Ray laser uses a much smaller wavelength of light in the ultraviolet spectrum than a CD, which uses a laser on the infrared side of the spectrum. Smaller pits means that there is more surface area on the disc for data, despite the disc being virtually the same size. The finer your laser, the smaller you can make your pits and the more data you can stuff onto your disc.
As a final bonus bit of
information about discs, all of the information is stored in a spiral pattern on the inner two-thirds of the disc. There’s a modest gap around the exterior edge to account for smudges from your fingers or other damage. Light smudges and minor scratches generally won’t upset your player, but when dealing with points 75 times smaller than the width of a human hair, sometimes the disc just won’t work. Sorry, folks, it happens.
Stay curious, 7B.
Random Corner
•Director and screenwriter John Hughes is known to turn around scripts quickly. He wrote the first half of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in one night; Planes, Trains and Automobiles in four days; Sixteen Candles in two days; and Home Alone in nine days (which Hughes thought was “slow”).
•Most of Hughes’ films take place in Chicago or the Chicago suburbs, because that’s where he lived as a teenager.
•Hughes began his comedy career writing jokes for stand-up comedians such as Rodney Dangerfield. His first screenwriting credits were for the films Class Reunion (1982) and National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983).
•Hughes’ teen-oriented films during the 1980s defined a group of young actors as the “Brat Pack,” which included Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “broke the fourth wall,” as the main character played by Matthew Broderick would often look directly at the camera and talk to the viewer.
•Hughes rarely gave interviews and, by the 1990s, shunned publicity completely, withdrawing from public life. People who knew Hughes closely stated that his dear friend John Candy’s death in 1994 may have contributed to his seclusion.
•Hughes wrote the partial, original script for Dumb and Dumber, but he sold it to the Farrelly Brothers and asked that he not be credited.
•Along with Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, David Cronenberg, Robert Zemeckis and a few others, Hughes is one of a handful of directors to have two directed films released in the same year — in his case, 1985. The Breakfast Club opened in February that year while Weird Science opened that August.
COMMUNITY
‘One moment away from knowing someone who can change the world’
BCHRTF
honors individuals for their commitment to
human rights
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
The Bonner County Human Rights Task Force gathered Dec. 10 to honor five community members who have exhibited outstanding dedication to preserving and advancing human rights. Cynthia Dalsing, Debbie Love, Andrea Marcoccio, Dawn Mehra and Jen Jackson Quintano received the nonprofit’s first human rights awards in what the BCHRTF hopes to make an annual tradition.
“The reason we’re here tonight is because the past year has become increasingly challenging for all of us, and we decided that maybe it was time to celebrate,” said BCHRTF President Linda Navarre. “Today we are honoring five exemplary women who have boosted the value of all our lives in Sandpoint, statewide in Idaho and nationally.”
Mehra was chosen for her commitment to filling the gaps in mental health services as president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Far North Chapter.
“Mental illness is really all around us. The stats are staggering — one in five people have mental health struggles in their life,” said Mehra in her acceptance speech.
NAMI Far North’s most recent project has been the creation of the Sand Creek Clubhouse, a psychosocial rehabilitation program that functions as “physical therapy for the brain.” The program is the 370th branch of Clubhouse International and gives members a space to form friendships, learn new skills and take charge of their lives.
“What it is is restoring people, purpose and place back into these individuals that have lost either one or three of those,” said Mehra, later adding, “I feel like we’re going to save a lot of kids, sisters, uncles...”
To learn more about NAMI Far North, visit namifarnorth.org.
Marcoccio is founder and co-owner of Matchwood Brewing Company, board member and former executive director of Ponderay Economic Partnership, regional leadership council member for the Innovia Foundation, founding chair of the Sandpoint Pride Festival, founding steering committee member of Sandpoint Alliance for Equality, founder and senior adviser of the Alliance for Youth Action and the
national program officer for the Campus Organization Action Fund.
“We’re just one moment away from knowing someone who can change the world, and that’s why we run Matchwood. We see ourselves as the connective tissue to all these things happening,” she said.
Marcoccio’s dedication to the community has helped fund projects like the Save the Sled Hill campaign and given members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies a space to support one another and celebrate their shared culture, history and future at the yearly Pride Festival.
“If you can come for one day and feel completely safe in a town that often doesn’t feel safe, maybe you see someone else there, and then you learn that you have a new friend,” she said.
To learn more, visit sandpointpride. com, innovia.org and matchwoodbrewing.com.
Dalsing has dedicated her life to women’s health as a certified nurse-midwife, providing primary care, guiding women through childbirth and performing medical exams on sexual assault survivors. Since her retirement, she has become an advocate for women’s reproductive rights as a board member of the Pro-Voice Project and Idahoans United for Women and Families.
“I had a reporter interviewing me and she asked me how I would describe
Sandpoint. I realized that someone had described Sandpoint when I moved here 30 years ago as, ‘A town where you can really get everything you need.’ You can’t get women’s health care in Sandpoint anymore,” said Dalsing.
Through the IUWF, Dalsing is drafting language for a 2026 ballot initiative to restore reproductive rights and health care to Idaho. To learn more, visit iduwf.org.
Dalsing works alongside fellow-honoree Quintano, who founded the ProVoice Project — a statewide organization that is working to remove legal and social obstacles to abortion and reproductive health care. PVP’s accomplishments include the traveling Worth of a Woman exhibit, which gives an indepth look at the history and future of women’s health care and how it relates to the health of the whole community.
“This is a community enterprise, and I am so grateful that I live in Sandpoint because none of this would have been possible in a different community,” Quintano said.
PVP has also released the short documentary Overturned, which tells the stories of three women who received fatal fetal diagnoses and were denied abortion care in Idaho. Stream the documentary on the Pro-Voice Project YouTube.
“I’m so grateful we have such an engaged and passionate and informed community,” said Quintano.
Visit theprovoiceproject.com and worthofawomanidaho.com for more information.
Finally, though she could not attend in person, the BCHRTF honored Bonner Community Food Bank Executive Director Debbie Love, who has served in her position for nine years, streamlining the organization’s offered resources and reaching new individuals.
Love submitted her acceptance speech in the form of a letter.
“When I first joined the food bank, I was driven by a simple but powerful belief — that we meet people where they are without judgment. We don’t ask questions, and we don’t make assumptions. We welcome all with love, compassion and a commitment to serving their needs,” she wrote.
The food bank serves an average of 3,144 people per month and saw a 53% increase in the number of families accessing its services — whether winter clothes, food or toiletries — in just two years.
“I am committed to continuing the work we started, knowing that we are creating a future where no one is turned away, where every person is treated with kindness and where everyone can live with dignity and hope,” wrote Love.
Visit bonnerfoodbank.org to learn more.
Honorees from left to right: Dawn Mehra, Andrea Marcoccio, Jen Jackson Quintano and Cynthia Dalsing. Photo by Soncirey Mitchell
A farewell message from Drake the Dog
By Reader Staff
Editor’s note: Drake the Dog was the “author” of “The Straight Poop” column for the Reader from July 2015-February 2018. The below piece is his final dispatch, filed from somewhere up above. He is missed and survived by his two- and four-footed friends and family.
I’m observing that the Mr. and Mrs. are teary-eyed daily.
They can’t get past the first two pages of the Dog Heaven book their family sent to comfort them.
My kitty sister sits on the floor with paws crossed, channeling me (I taught her how to do that). Is she part Lab?
I am drooling over the fresh organic blueberries (the Mrs. calls them my blueberry cookies) from Costco that are in the airtight jar in the refrigerator — not to mention my really good
food that’s still in the garage and the turducken is still in the freezer.
Maybe my new calling will be dog dietitian in Heaven — got to kick this cafeteria up a notch!
Thank goodness I finished all of my favorite Papa Psuka treats from Shakapaw. I loved that they named that place after my one and only trick!
There is no Costco rotisserie chicken up here! I miss the smell and that savory bird treat! And please beam me down to Schweitzer — I desperately need a snow shower.
Meanwhile, I’m wondering who is going to take the Mr. and Mrs. on a few walks per day? I helped keep them fit.
I’m getting used to my wings. And they have many purposes. When those of you who loved me in my earthly form feel a slight breeze rustle past you, know that it is just me giving you a heavenly wing touch from above.
Till we meet again.
Hugs and slobbery dog kisses, — Drake
P.S. To all of the dog-friendly businesses I wrote about in the Reader column “The
Straight Poop,” keep the faith! Dog-friendly is the way to go! Step up: Get the good treats. Your four-footed customers will appreciate you and their owners will become loyal customers.
Drake in the first snow in 2018. Courtesy photo
PERSPECTIVES
Lemonade out of lemons
By Justin Henney Reader Contributor
I like racing my bike in bad weather. If the conditions are going to be unfavorable, then I want them to be extremely unfavorable — this way it’s more satisfying at the end of the race, when we sit around and talk about the challenges we faced.
The cyclists who were in the race can remember it for years and enjoy recalling that time they were almost blown off their bikes or rode for 50 miles into sleet and a strong headwind. This is great stuff and bonds us together in our telling of stories as we struggle against the elements. For some reason, beer and other food groups are so much tastier after burning a ton of calories in cold, damp weather.
Last June 15, things were shaping up for exactly such a race in the CHAFE gravel ride, as we reached the top of the Trestle Creek drainage and it started to hail. I decided to wear shorts instead of long cycling pants, a thin windbreaker and summer cycling gloves — all of which were soaked at the top of the 3,700-foot climb from Clark Fork High School.
In addition to the hail that was beginning to accumulate, lightning strikes were close and thunder was concurrent with the flashes. My fingers were beginning to get numb and the bad weather turning worse, which was exceeding my expectations. It was a good day getting better — until it wasn’t. And it was about this time that I remembered a quote I have heard a lot in recent years: “Be careful what you wish for.”
Checking in at an aid station at the top of the climb, I felt a bit off with my thinking and was really cold. I decided to go faster on the descent than common sense recommended, and left the aid station a minute after checking in. My cold mind told me to get to the bottom as quickly as I could because it was warmer down there. It was 33 degrees at the aid station and, since I could not really feel my fingers, I decided to go fast.
A couple miles into the descent, I was concerned with the lack of feeling in my fingers and was taking turns alternating each set of fingers into my mouth as I rode down the mountain with one hand on the bars.
I did have both hands on the handlebars when I hit a slab of granite at
what I guess was 30-35 miles per hour. I did not land well and have no recollection of the crash. The surgeon I was to meet in the coming weeks to discuss plates, screws and my clavicle said he thought I had suffered some post-crash unconsciousness.
Despite many crashes on mountain bikes — going over the handlebars coming back from Priest River one time after a dog hit my back tire while road biking, and getting the short end of the stick with a Hummer six years ago — I felt like crashing was what I did best on a bike. There have even been crashes when I was in the air and thought about how I wanted to land. But this one was different.
It took two weeks for a surgeon to agree to the surgery due to the proximity of the clavicle repair and an aortic artery and three weeks to get it done. Three days after crashing, I began riding a four-wheel, six-seat party bike my wife and I own. It kept me sane and moving. The hardest part of the recovery for me was not being active or able to help around the house as I had before.
I also loathed the pity my 93-year-old Dad had for me each day; feeling dizzy from dialysis and weak as hell, he was still more useful around his home than I was at mine. But the party bike was amazing and my Ma is the reason why.
She and my dad live next door and she has dementia. It bothers me when people say “suffers from dementia,” because — in her case, anyway — there is no suffering. She has never been happier. She does not always know her relationship to me but knows I am familial and can be trusted.
So, on the third day after the crash, I got her on the party bike with me and we rode for a half hour. I tried to get her to pedal but she did not want to and was busy whistling, pointing out flowers, dogs being walked and bird nests up above. I reframed my broken clavicle as an opportunity to spend more time with my Ma in the twilight of her life. Our half-hour rides turned into one-hour rides and I soon realized that her lack of contribution added more of a challenge for me to maintain a certain speed (six mph) and get up short hills.
The resistance training became an asset I had not seen and something I began to look forward to this past summer. The time we spent made me stronger and gave me purpose.
During our rides I realized that even though my Ma’s mind has changed, she is still funny, happy and a joy to be around. Even when she had off moments on the bike and lashed out at me for no apparent reason, it reminded me not to take things personally — especially if someone you love is dealing (not suffering) with changes they don’t necessarily understand.
Writing this reminds me that I need to get off my mountain bikes and back on the party bike with my Ma and slow down and laugh with the woman who has taught me so much about life.
Justin Henney on his mountain bike. Courtesy photo
When Christmas was spooky season
Undead
crusaders, goblins and even the headless horseman were once all winter holiday tales
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
We’ve all heard the reference to “scary ghost stories” in the Christmas carol “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” but most of us probably don’t give it much thought beyond the context of Scrooge’s spectral visitors in “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens.
Published in 1843 and distributed to avid readers in England and America alike, the novella’s influence on what we consider the “traditional” trappings of Christmas is rivaled only by the Coca-Cola Company, which created the image of rolly-polly Santa Claus sporting a white beard and red coat for a 1931 advertising campaign.
Those Victorians who picked up Dickens’ tale of yuletide existential dread and seasonal redemption would have scratched their heads at Jolly Old St. Nick, just as we wonder what “scary ghost stories” have to do with “the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
However, freaking out your friends and family with terrifying tales was part of the holiday festivities long before Dickens. More familiar to contemporary revelers are seasonal spirits such as the Germanic Krampus and even the Icelandic Yule Cat. The more well versed among us might even know about the Mari Lwyd tradition in South Wales, which includes mounting a horse skull on a pole draped in a white sheet and wassailing around the neighborhood with it.
Before Dickens’ iconic work, however, American author Washington Irving took a stab at infusing Christmas with the uncanny, with a portion of his essay collection
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., published in serial from 1819-1820.
Irving was living in En-
gland at the time, and as the introduction to the collection states, he hadn’t intended to publish his Sketch Book there — in part because he didn’t think British readers would care much about the contents, and he was offended by how badly English critics had treated the fledgling literary output of the United States.
Regardless, the book did well on both sides of the Atlantic, and provided the first well-known published Christmas ghost references in English.
In particular, Irving — or rather his alter ego, “Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.” — recounted spending a cozy holiday at the manor of Squire Bracebridge. Following Christmas dinner, the family and guests gathered around to hear “strange accounts of the popular superstitions and legends of the surrounding country,” courtesy of the local parson.
Speculating that the “old gentleman was himself somewhat tinctured with superstition,” Irving wrote of “several anecdotes of the fancies of the neighboring peasantry,” including one about an undead crusader who rose from his tomb to stalk the churchyard on stormy nights.
“It was the belief that some wrong had been left unredressed by the deceased, or some treasure hidden, which kept the spirit in a state of trouble and restlessness,” Irving wrote. “Some talked of gold and jewels buried in the tomb, over which the spectre kept watch; and there was a story current of a sexton in old times who endeavored to break his way to the coffin at night, but just as he reached it received a violent blow from the marble hand of the effigy, which stretched him senseless on the pavement.”
A portrait of the crusader was said to be haunted in another tale, with the servants claiming that “whatever part
of the hall you went the eyes of the warrior were still fixed on you.”
The wife of a porter employed at the manor even said that on “Midsummer Eve, when it was well known all kinds of ghosts, goblins, and fairies become visible and walk abroad, the crusader used to mount his horse, come down from his picture, ride about the house, down the avenue, and so to the church to visit the tomb.”
The crusader could apparently transit through closed gates and stone walls, and “had been seen by one of the dairymaids to pass between two bars of the great park gate, making himself as thin as a sheet of paper.”
Irving’s narrator reported that while the squire of the manor wasn’t a believer himself, “He listened to every goblin tale of the neighboring gossips with infinite gravity, and held the porter’s wife in high favor on account of her talent for the marvellous.”
Elsewhere in The Sketch Book, Irving unveiled two of his most famous stories based
in New England, rather than Merry Old England: “Rip Van Winkle” and the tale of “the headless horseman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow.”
Rather than a Halloween tale, however, Irving wrote that the horseman of Sleepy Hollow played an integral part in the “fearful pleasure” of passing “long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives as they sat spinning by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along the hearth.”
There, a visitor could “listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts and goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses,” and, of course, the horseman.
Included in those wintery fireside yarns were instances of “witchcraft and of the direful omens and portentous sights and sounds in the air which prevailed in the earlier times of Connecticut, and would frighten them woefully with speculations upon comets and shooting stars, and with the alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round and that they were half the time
topsy-turvy.”
By the end of the Christmas seasonal essays in The Sketch Book, the presence of creepy stories in the holiday tradition was well established, and Irving even offered an explanation for why people would find swapping ghoulish tales appealing during the otherwise joyful celebrations.
“[I]f there was a pleasure in all this while snugly cuddling in the chimney-corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy glow from the crackling wood-fire, and where, of course, no spectre dared to show its face, it was dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent walk homewards,” he wrote, imagining Ichabod Crane’s reaction to hearing of the horseman.
“What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night! With what wistful look did he eye every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields from some distant window! How often was he appalled by some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted spectre, beset his very path! How often did he shrink with curdling awe at the sound of his own steps on the frosty crust beneath his feet, and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he should behold some uncouth being tramping close behind him! And how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scourings!”
That’s about as far as you can get from the jingling of Santa’s sleigh flying through the air on Christmas Eve, and these days the only Christmas ghosts most people know are the ones who showed Scrooge the light — but, maybe, it’s time to get the Galloping Hessian back in the holiday season where he belongs.
An original illustration from Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Gift guide 2024: Local goods for the win
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
It’s gift-giving season in North Idaho, and there are few better ways to support your neighbors than buying local.
For this week’s gift guide, we’re offering some ideas for those who want their dollars to stay in the community. All of the following items are available locally, either online or at physical shops, and we’ll provide information for how to purchase them. As always, thanks for buying local.
Festival at Sandpoint goods
The Festival at Sandpoint has released new winter merchandise that will appeal to the music lover in us all. They have tote bags, beanies, wine and camping mugs, and more — all festooned with their famous logo. Order by clicking on the “shop merch” tab on festivalatsandpoint.com.
Instant Sun Grow Lamp from Verdant Plants
Winter can be a dreary time for plant-loving North Idahoans. Bring a little more light into their lives with a cute grow lamp for sale at Verdant Plants on the second floor of the Cedar Street Bridge. These lamps simulate natural sunlight and are unobtrusive. They’re made to place directly into the pot so the light hovers above the plant. Not only do they promote larger leaves and longer lasting indoor plants, they help them grow faster and won’t burn their leaves. Complete the gift with a unique watering can from Verdant Plants’ assortment.
‘Drink the Reader’ beers at Matchwood Brewing Co.
Insert self-serving promotion here: Stumped on what to get someone who is
a fan of both beer and the independent press? Buy them a four-pack of “Drink the Reader” American pale ale and proceeds will go right back to the Reader, thanks to Matchwood’s awesome community fundraiser program. Got someone on your list who isn’t a fan of the Reader? Get them the beers anyway — they’ll enjoy drinking the delicious ale and smashing the cans to oblivion after they’re finished. Seriously, it’s a really good beer. Matchwood knocked it out of the park with this batch. Head over to 513 Oak St. in Sandpoint to check them out and their other merch.
Evans Brothers Coffee Roasters beans and merch
Please the javaphiles in your lives by getting them Evans Brothers Coffee Roasters’ Holiday Seasonal Blend, a medium roast with tasting notes of, “Chocolate, fruit preserves, brown sugar and baking spices.” While buying your beans, don’t forget to check out their other merchandise, such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, beanies, zipper tote bags and mugs. Plus, they’re having a “last chance holiday sale” giving 20% off beans and merchandise from Friday, Dec. 20-Sunday, Dec. 22 and the Procrastinators Art Faire on Saturday, Dec. 21. Evans Brothers is located in the Granary Arts District at 524 Church St.
Palo santo sticks at Zero Point Crystals When life stinks, don’t just stand there; make it smell better. Bursera graveolens, also known as palo santo or “holy stick,” is a wild tree native to the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico that has been used for ritual purification and folk medicine for ages. When you light the stick and blow it out, the smoke from the embers is like an incense with a sweet, woody smell that has hints of citrus and mint. Some
even say it has a slight licorice smell. The tree was once listed as endangered — and many countries like Peru only allow collection from naturally fallen or dead trees — but the National Forest and Wildlife Service of Peru removed palo santo from its list of protected species in 2014.
Donate to a nonprofit in someone’s name
Sadly, not everyone can afford to donate to local nonprofits and charity organizations, even if they want to. A great local present would be to make a donation in your loved one’s name
to a cause they believe in, so that they not only get the good vibes for helping out the community, but also the tax deduction for the donation. There are more than 500 nonprofits in Bonner County alone, so there’s no shortage of options. If you need help finding the right one, try reaching out to the Community Resource Envision Center (credidaho.com) for a few ideas. They’re always super helpful.
Gifts from left to right: A Festival at Sandpoint tote bag, the Instant Sun Grow Lamp from Verdant Plants, Evans Brothers Holiday Seasonal Blend and palo santo sticks from Zero Point Crystals. Courtesy photos
COMMUNITY
WARM THROUGH THE WINTER
By Reader Staff
Tervan Tavern owner Daniela Caniglia dropped off a supply of blankets to Helping Hands Healing Hearts collected during the Tervan’s Warm Winter Drive, as well as $431.50 collected from the community at the Tervan’s Crockpot Sundays and Thanksgiving dinner, which Caniglia matched to total $863.
Caniglia, pictured here with Helping Hands Healing Hearts Board Member Chryl McCarty, said she wanted to thank Sarah Caruso for helping to organize the blanket drive.
Caruso told the Reader the next char-
ity drive is already underway to help raise funds to donate to local nonprofit Food For Our Children.
Daniela Caniglia, left, and Chryl McCarty, right. Photo by Sarah Caruso
Bonner County History Museum hosts Merriment at the Museum
By Reader Staff
The Bonner County Historical Society and Museum will host a party Thursday, Dec. 12, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. to celebrate the republishing of Always on the Other Side: A Story of Bonner County Ferries, by Paul H. Rechnitzer. The free event, dubbed “Merriment at the Museum,” will take
place at 611 S. Ella Ave. and includes holiday lights, children’s crafts and treats like wine, cocoa and cookies.
Republished by Bonner County Historical Society Press, Always on the Other Side tells stories of a time before railroads and highways crossed Bonner County, when travelers were often waiting on a ferry that was “always on the other side” of the river. The book
will be available to preorder at the event, and you can pick up your copy before Christmas.
Drop by to celebrate the holidays with the whole family and enjoy onetime sales in the museum gift shop, which has unique books and vintage items for everyone on your list.
Visit bonnercountyhistoricalsociety. org for more information.
Blue Creek Press hosts double-header book signing with local author Sandy Compton
By Reader Staff
For 21 years, Blue Creek Press has published books of fiction, poetry, political commentary, travelogues, short stories and more — all steeped in a sense of the Inland and Intermountain West from its headquarters in Heron, Mont. In celebration of that anniversary, and just in time for the holidays, Blue Creek Press is hosting a book signing Saturday, Dec. 14 from noon-2 p.m.
with author Sandy Compton at Vanderford’s Books (321 N. Second Ave., in downtown Sandpoint).
Compton has been well known as a leading local author for decades, with his articles and columns appearing in publications including but not limited to Sandpoint Magazine and the Reader However, as publisher at Blue Creek Press, he’s been responsible for the writing, editing and designing of dozens of books of his own and other writers.
On Dec. 14, he’ll sign copies of his Blue Creek Press titles Something About Miracles: A Mary Magdalene Miller Trilogy and Side Trips From Cowboy Revisited: Addiction, Recovery & the Western American Myth. In addition, if attendees are inclined to persuade him, Compton has indicated he’d even perform a reading.
Get more info on facebook@bluecreekpress, @sandycomptonwriter and bluecreekpress.com.
Sandpoint Waldorf School’s Winter Faire returns bigger than ever
By Reader Staff
For more than 30 years, the Waldorf School has brought holiday magic to Sandpoint with its annual Winter Faire and Children’s Festival. This year, the free festivities will take place Saturday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Bonner County Fairgrounds (4203 N. Boyer Road).
Browse the work of local artisans selling hand-crafted pottery, jewelry, home goods and more, while the kids
participate in plenty of fun and accessible crafts. They might even learn some new skills while they try their hand at dipping candles, sewing and managing money in the Children’s Store.
Once you’re done with holiday shopping, be sure to stop by the pop-up cafe for homemade desserts, drinks and soup. With so many elements to explore, it’s an easy way to spend time with family and get in the holiday spirit.
For more information, visit sandpointwaldorf.org.
Warm feet, happy heart
Wednesday Morning Women’s Golf League gathers socks to present to those in need
By Reader Staff
The Wednesday Morning Women’s Golf League recently met to bring socks they have collected for their annual Sock Drive, started by Mary Stevens more than eight years ago. After learning that there was a need for warm socks, Stevens began collecting and asked the Golf League to help her out.
“Thanks to Mary Stevens for this
great idea,” the league wrote in a statement. “We have over 400 pairs of socks to pass off this season.”
The group will hand out socks as needed at the Lake Pend Oreille High School and other locations. Anyone wishing to donate socks may drop them off anytime at the Sandpoint Elks Golf Course (30196 Hwy 200, in Ponderay).
Bonner Homeless Transitions joins fundraising campaign to combat homelessness in Idaho
By Reader Staff
Bonner Homeless Transitions announced its participation in the 2024 Avenues for Hope Housing Challenge, a statewide fundraising campaign to support housing-related nonprofits and help end homelessness in Idaho. The challenge runs through 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 31, offering the community an opportunity to make a lasting impact.
This annual campaign, hosted by the Home Partnership Foundation, raises critical funds to ensure low-income and homeless Idahoans have access to safe, stable housing and supportive services. In its 13-year history, Avenues for Hope has raised nearly $15.6 million for more than 100 housing organizations statewide.
How to help
urgent housing needs in Bonner County,” stated Rebekah Little, executive director of Bonner Homeless Transitions. “Every donation helps provide shelter, health care, and educational resources for families and individuals who need it most.”
Bonner Homeless Transitions aims to secure vital funding to continue offering services, including:
• More than 12,000 bed nights annually for individuals and families in need;
• Support for children, who represent 65% of those served;
• Access to health care and education;
• Life skills training.
The Avenues for Hope campaign includes opportunities for supporters to maximize their impact, with matching funds, prizes and incentives for participating nonprofits.
Donate online and/or become a peer-to-peer fundraiser for BHT at avenuesforhope.org.
“Participating in Avenues for Hope allows us to not only raise much-needed funds but also bring awareness to the
Donations of $25 or more are tax-deductible and directly support Bonner Homeless Transitions’ mission.
Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com
THURSDAY, december 12
Artist Reception for Kathy Gale
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Game Night
6:30pm @ Tervan Tavern
Live Music w/ Marshall McLean Band with Little Wolf
Sandpoint Christmas Bird Count 7am @ Meet at Connie’s Cafe Anyone interested in birds is welcome. Contact Rich at 208-290-1405 to register
monDAY, december 16
Outdoor Experience Group Run 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome
Christmas Magic Show w/ Cecil Lewis 5:30-6:30pm @ Sandpoint Library
Live Christmas Piano w/ Bob Beadling
4:30-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Trucker Hat Bar w/ Brittany
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
$40 to make a hat, includes materials and instruction with a glass of wine
Sandpoint Contra Dance 7-10pm @ Sandpoint Community Hall Introduction at 7pm. $5 donation
Pend Oreille Chorale Winter Concert
7pm @ First Lutheran Church
Free concert, also Sunday at 2pm
The Nutcracker 2pm & 7pm @ Panida Theater Music by the Selkirk Brass. Also shows 12/14 @ 2 & 7pm and 12/15 @ 2pm
Holiday Ball (dance)
7-10pm @ Sandpoint Community Hall
One-hour waltz basics dance lesson at 7pm followed by general dancing 8-10pm. $8 at the door. All welcome
Winter Market
10am-4pm @ Nutlicious Indoor winter market. Also on Sunday
Trivia hosted by Bret Johnson 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Pool Tournament ($10 entry fee) 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
tuesDAY, december 17
wednesDAY, december 18
Free Christmas Music Concert
6-7:30pm @ Hope Memorial Community Ctr.
Music w/ Bridges Home, free show!
Open Mic Night
6pm-ish @ Tervan Tavern
Live Trivia ($5/person)
7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
ThursDAY, december 19
SHS Choir Concert ($5/person)
7pm @ Sandpoint High School
Jon Brownell’s SHS Choir performance
Live Music w/ Sheldon Trio
6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Paint and Sip
5:30-8pm @ Barrel 33
Learn to paint a masterpiece
Game Night
6:30pm @ Tervan Tavern
Dune:Prophecy trafficks in uninspired inevitability
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
It’s getting hard to justify the buzz around certain “prestige” series — in no small part because, somehow, despite having an endless supply of money and intellectual property, so many of these projects come off as basically boring.
Rings of Power on Amazon Prime; House of the Dragon on Max; and Star Wars spinoffs The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and the unwatchable Skeleton Crew on Disney+ all had pedigrees in iconic pieces of pop culture, but still fell flat with stilted dialogue, bloated exposition, uneven pacing and unlikable characters.
Unfortunately, we must now add Dune: Prophecy to the list of recent big-budget duds.
About eight months after Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Part 2 premiered to acclaim in theaters, Max unveiled Dune: Prophecy on Nov. 17, hoping to capitalize on the surge in excitement over the spice-infused religio-political sci-fi universe created by author Frank Herbert in his classic 1964 novel Dune
While Villeneuve’s two-part epics covered the events in Dune, Herbert wrote a further five books in the series that tell a story spanning thousands of years after the rise and fall of the anti-messiah Paul Atreides. The sixth book — Dune: Chapterhouse — ended on a cliffhanger, suggesting that Herbert intended to continue with a seventh installment, but he died in 1986, a year after its publication.
More than a dozen years later, Herbert’s son Brian and sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson teamed up to milk the franchise with three prequels between 1999 and 2001, and they’ve been churning out mediocre Dune-related spinoffs ever since. That includes Sisterhood of Dune in 2012, which tells the origin story of the Bene Gesserit — the all-female order of hyper-trained “reverend mothers” who quietly steer the events of the known universe from their positions as “truthsayers” installed in the courts of various noble houses that (ostensibly) rule humanity.
That’s where Dune: Prophecy comes in, as an adaptation of Sisterhood, both of which take place more than 10,000 years before the Atreides-Harkonnen standoff on the desert planet of Arrakis.
In Prophecy, the Bene Gesserit sisters are still a fledgling organization, established fewer than 100 years after the universe-spanning conflict against “thinking machines” that resulted in a religious backlash against artificial intelligence and in favor of expanding human potential (which would have made a better series, honestly). At this stage, precious few members of the order have survived the process of ingesting a special poison in order to access the matrilineal wisdom living ghost-like in their DNA, but that’s not stopping them from trying, uncovering the titular “prophecy” in the meantime.
At the head of the school is Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and her sister Tula (Olivia Williams). Yes, those Harkonnens who, in this remote historical time period, are despised and relegated to second-tier status because of what one of their ancestors did (or didn’t do?) in the recent wars against the machines. Of course, anyone acquainted with Dune knows that the Harkonnens ultimately deserve their bad name, but Valya is hellbent on un-canceling them.
Meanwhile, in the royal court, we meet the embattled weakling Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong), his headstrong — and maybe traitorous? — daughter Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) and her forbidden but basic-hunk lover (and also traitor?) Kieran Atreides (Chris Mason).
Oh, and there’s conniving Empress Natalya (Jodhi May) and Rasputin-like Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), who after an encounter with a sandworm on Arrakis is apparently able to burn people alive with his mind in the service of the emperor, to whom he is fanatically loyal (just so long as the bossman hates “thinking machines” as much as he does).
There are plots within plots, plans within plans and plenty of whispering in dark hallways.
However, even after four episodes
of the six-episode arc and some things have happened, it’s still a show about people having low-toned, menacing conversations and almost none of them — barring Olivia Williams’ Tula — are remotely sympathetic. This is not a judgment against the performances, because I’ll never say a bad word about Williams or Watson, and I’m a big fan of Strong and Fimmel. The failings of Prophecy are common to many prequels but more pronounced in the Dune-iverse.
For one thing, it’s impossible to believe that the events of Prophecy are occurring 10,000 years before the storylines of the characters we all know from Dune. Apparently, nothing about the architectural, sartorial or artistic aesthetics; political plotting; technology, settings and place names; language or linguistic usage; religion; or even the surnames in this sprawling interstellar civilization (which we only see represented on, like, three plan-
ets) have changed in the slightest for 100 centuries.
For comparison, 10,000 years ago on Earth, people hadn’t yet figured out the wheel or writing.
I get it that “the sleeper must awaken,” and there is a throughline in the Dune story that humanity had stagnated at some point, but an awful lot can happen in 10,000 years. In this case it apparently won’t.
Beyond that, what a boring universe it must be if the same three or four families are in charge for 10 millennia, and all “prophecies” inevitably trend to one outcome involving those same families in the super-far future? Also, no one is going to get me to root for Harkonnens in any instance.
We all know how this story ends, but Dune: Prophecy doesn’t really give us anything to distract us from its own culmination. Ultimately, it’s under-spiced.
By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist
Remember the Willie Nelson song, “To All the Girls I Left Behind?” Me?
I’m singing the blues about all the cheeses (and sausages) I recently left behind in Paris. I may indeed have had some contraband in my bag on the way home from Spain last spring, which resulted in a threat of losing my Global Entry status if it happened again. So, sadly, on my most recent trip to Paris, I left all the savory sausages, pâté and unpasteurized cheeses for window shopping only. I was more or less (mostly less) content with shopping for chocolates, pasteurized cheeses and butter. But that butter!
French butter may be the best in the world, and that’s a strong statement coming from someone who also adores Irish butter. Many butter buffs claim JeanYves Bordier, founder of Le Beurre Bordier, produces the best butter in France.
Bordier still uses the traditional method of kneading butter with a teak frame and wheel. Salt in butter is a preservative, and Bordier’s is added by hand. Unsalted butter does not stay as fresh, and it’s a good idea to wrap it well and store it in the freezer if it won’t be used in two to three weeks. He makes customized compound butter flavors for many of the Michelin-star restaurants in France.
To this day, freshly baked bread and good butter are among my favorite foods. My mantra, “Please pass the
The Sandpoint Eater Batter up!
bread basket,” can often be heard wherever I dine. I was never a fan of margarine; yet, when I married, I brought my butter to a household of soft-spread margarine fans, served at the long ranch table in huge tubs speckled with past spreaders’ crumbs.
My son Zane went to the dark side, and he and his sister Ryanne would engage in sibling spats about the merits of their favorite. Ryanne must have been born to be a social scientist because, in the early ’90s, Zane and Ryanne called random people from our small phone book to survey them on the question of margarine vs. butter. I don’t remember the outcome of this pre-internet research (though I am
certain Ryanne would).
My mother was a butter fan, too, and used to make a toast spread for us that consisted of soft butter, powdered sugar and cinnamon. I occasionally make it, and it’s still just as delicious as in my childhood memories.
Alas, another childhood butter memory did not have a happy ending. I was preparing (yet another) fancy dinner for my lucky family and decided we must have little molded butter pats as I’d seen in Mom’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking cookbook. I melted the butter, carefully poured it into some little metal molds and, with great anticipation, placed them into the fridge to chill. Later, I learned
that one should use softened butter, not melted butter. I had a tremendous mess of milky-liquid and salty, congealed solids.
Fortunately, I was home alone and tossed the whole mess before the budget-minded people who purchased said butter were any wiser.
Since then, you’ll find molded or curled butter pats at nearly all my dinner tables. Silicone molds work best with softened (remember, not melted!) butter. At Thanksgiving, I skip molds as our butter tradition is shaking ice-cold cream in a chilled mason jar until we have a nice ball of butter ready for kneading and salting, and placing it on the table as a
Hot buttered rum batter
simple rustic-looking ball.
Besides compounded butter (salted or unsalted), butter recipes can call for clarified, melted, whipped, softened, browned, or frozen and grated butter. Isn’t it amazing that this simple, one-ingredient mainstay can be the star of so many sublime recipes, from cakes, cookies, and crusts to sauces, reductions and batters.
I’ve been making hot buttered rum batter for years, and honestly, most any butter will work for this classic batter. Hot buttered whiskey is also delicious, especially with Irish whiskey (ask me how I know). Santé! Cheers! Sláinte! And may all of your holidays be bright!
Yields four cups (if you don’t sample too many times while making). Don’t forget the kiddos! You can substitute alcohol and water with hot apple cider. Use good ice cream (no reduced fat or sugar here) for best results. Make sure it doesn’t contain chunks. Vanilla, vanilla bean and caramel work best. Makes for great gift giving, too.
INGREDIENTS: DIRECTIONS:
For the batter:
•1 cup unsalted butter
•1 cup of light brown sugar
•1 cup of confectioner’s sugar
•2 tsp cinnamon
•½ tsp nutmeg (try to use fresh grated)
•½ tsp cloves
•1 tsp salt
•1 pint of good quality ice cream (Häagen-Dazs or Godiva)
For the hot buttered rum:
•2 tbsp batter
•6 oz boiling water
•1 ½ oz rum (or whiskey)
•Sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg
For the batter, place the ice cream on your kitchen counter and let it sit for 30 minutes until softened. Melt butter slowly in a heavy sauce pan. When melted, slowly pour in sugars. Whisk very gently (so hot butter does not splash). Once well combined, bring back to gentle boil. Whisk in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Turn off heat and continue to whisk for a few minutes. Add the ice cream and whisk until well combined. Place in a container, cover and refrigerate. Once chilled, whisk again (spices will settle to bottom). Pour into small Mason jars and freeze.
For the hot buttered rum, in a medium-sized mug or heat proof glass, combine 2 tbs of batter with 6 oz ounces of boiling water. Add a generous jigger of rum (or whiskey).
Stir. Sprinkle with cinnamon or grated nutmeg. Add a cinnamon stick swizzle.
Store the batter in freezer-safe jars. Freeze it for up to 3 months.
MUSIC
Pend Oreille Chorale and Chamber Orchestra offers free holiday concerts
By Reader Staff
The Pend Oreille Chorale and Chamber Orchestra will present two free concerts Friday, Dec 13 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 15 at 2 p.m., both at the First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint (526 S. Olive Ave.).
The chorale will open the concert with a piece by contemporary Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo called “Prelude,” based on the style of 12th-century church music. Following that will be “Jubilate” by Felix Mendelssohn
and “Prayer of St. Francis,” which George Mabry set to music in 2009, accompanied by Annie Welle. Closing the vocal portion of the concert is the energetic “Dona Nobis Pacem” (“Grant us Peace”), Ludwig van Beethoven. Just before intermission, two movements of a string trio by romantic composer Antonin Dvorak will feature Gayle McCutchan and Janet Peterson on violin, and Marcy Hogan on viola.
After intermission, the opening selection will be “Eternal Source of Light
Divine,” by George Frideric Handel, with string orchestra and alto soloists Deanna Benton and Amelia Polocz each performing one concert. The piece also showcases trumpet by Aryan Riener.
McCutchan will perform Arvo Part’s 1978 piece “Spiegel im Spiegel” (“Mirror in Mirror”), with piano accompaniment from Caren Reiner, and the string orchestra will follow with a “Concerto in G Minor” by Baroque composer Alessandro Scarlatti. By contrast will be Edward Elgar’s well known late-romantic
composition “Nimrod,” followed by another trio — this time composed for violin, viola and flutist Alisha Dawson by 20th-century composer Max Reger.
Closing the concert will be “Jubilate Deo” (“Be Joyful Unto the Lord”), by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with the chorale and chamber orchestra.
“This will send you out the door feeling upbeat and positive,” said Choral Director Caren Reiner. “We all need that, especially now.”
Sandpoint to celebrate its inaugural SantaCon
By Reader Staff
The SantaCon phenomenon is coming to Sandpoint for the first time, with the event scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 14 at Matchwood Brewing Co., as well as locations around town.
For the uninitiated, SantaCon is a yearly day of revelry, loosely organized but with iterations in communities big and small around the world. Participants dress as Kris Kringle — or at least don some of the trappings — and indulge in merry making for a non-profit cause.
In Sandpoint’s case, SantaCon will kick off from 2-6
p.m. at Matchwood (513 Oak St.) with DJ Santa, a Naughty/Nice List photo booth, and horse and carriage rides from the Clydesdales of Parnell Ranch (2-4 p.m. only).
Advance registration is $10 at matchwoodbrewing.com/ santacon and $15 on the day of the event. Registering gives Santas-for-the-day a SantaCon passport, which provides pub crawl drink and food specials and discounts, entry into the Naughty List Party and entry into the Best of SantaCon costume competition.
“Sandpoint SantaCon is a day for kind people dressed in Santa attire to gather, mingle and jingle to spread holiday
cheer and raise money for a good cause,” organizers stated, adding that all proceeds benefit NAMI Far North Idaho, which provides support, education, advocacy and awareness for mental health issues in Bonner and Boundary counties.
For more info on NAMI Far North, go to https://namifarnorth.org.
Following the Must Be Santa Community Gathering, the Santa Pub Crawl will run from 6-8 p.m., inviting the merry band of Santas to spread jolly vibes at participating locations, including Matchwood Brewing, MickDuff’s Beer Hall, Eichardt’s Pub, Idaho Pour Authority, Utara Brew-
ing, The Tervan Tavern, The Bank and 219 Lounge.
Passport holders will find special treats and deals at every stop.
Finally, starting at 8 p.m. and continuing through the evening, The Meat Sweatz will provide the musical entertainment for the Naughty List Party, which is reserved for party people 21 and older at the 219. Kringles must have a passport to enter.
Amid the live music and libations, the Naughty List Party will also include the Best of SantaCon contest, so attendees should get to work now raiding their closets for Claus-worthy duds.
A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint
Miah Kohal Band, The Hive, Dec. 13 Benny Baker, Connie’s Cafe, Dec. 13
They might be an outlaw rock ’n’ roll powerhouse, but the Miah Kohal Band are outlaws with hearts of gold.
The giving spirit will be on display for the holidays Friday, Dec. 13, when the band takes the stage at The Hive for the annual MKB-Lion’s Club Toys for Tots Fundraiser — with special thanks to Ting Internet. Entry is free of charge, but partygoers are encouraged to bring food items
for the Bonner Community Food Bank, and/or toys or donations at the door to the Lion’s Club.
Earn a little holiday karma and have a great time doing it.
— Zach Hagadone
Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8:45 p.m.; FREE, donations encouraged; 21+. The Hive, 207 N. First Ave., 208-920-9039, livefromthehive.com.
One of Sandpoint’s most prolific and beloved musicians, Benny Baker, is celebrating his 60th birthday by doing what he does best: groovin’ with a smiling audience. Baker is known for his faithful renditions of classic rock songs by artists like Blind Faith, Fleetwood Mac and Buffalo Springfield. Whether performing with the rotating guests featured on Connie’s “Benny on the Deck” sum-
This week’s RLW by Soncirey Mitchell
While revisiting author Ambrose Bierce’s best horror stories, I stumbled across his 1911 work The Devil’s Dictionary, which contains hundreds of satirical entries for common words — well, common in 1911. He wrote the fake dictionary over three decades, publishing “definitions” in various newspapers and magazines before compiling them into one work. His definition of “dog” remains especially relevant: “A kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world’s worship.” Read the unabridged version at thedevilsdictionary.com.
LISTEN
mer programming or as the lead guitarist and vocalist of the Miah Kohal Band, Baker brings an unparalleled level of expertise and rockstar swagger to every song. Drop by Connie’s to wish him plenty more rockin’ years.
— Soncirey Mitchell
5 p.m., FREE. Connie’s Cafe, 323 Cedar St., 208-255-2227, conniescafe.com. Listen on the Benny Baker Music Facebook page.
Indie rock band alt-J — a.k.a. that band whose lyrics sound like gibberish — became an underrated favorite of mine when I listened to the song “Breezeblocks” on repeat during my final semester of college. (It took me a few hundred listens, but I eventually deciphered the lyrics.) My favorite alt-J album remains the band’s debut, An Awesome Wave, which established their psychedelic, rhythmic sound and nonsensical lyrics. Listen on Spotify.
WATCH
Speaking of alt-J, the band’s song “Tesselate” was recently featured on the soundtrack for Day of the Jackal, a stunning limited series with an equally stunning score. Starring Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne, the James Bond-esque story follows an elite sniper as he carries out high-profile assassinations while on the run from MI6. Unlike a run-ofthe-mill action flick, this series is chock-full of mystery and political intrigue that keeps audiences at the edge of their seats rooting for the “villain.” Stream it on Peacock.
From Pend Oreille Review, December 13, 1918
FLU CONDITIONS ARE IMPROVING
The campaign against the flu is getting results, said Health Officer Wendle this morning.
“We need nurses and I urge upon those who can be of assistance to help. I can assure women who will do the nursing that they need have no fear of the disease if they follow instructions of physicians in caring for cases. There is a pair of twins from Kootenai at the flu hospital down with pneumonia and in need of nursing.
“Conditions in town are better and I had but one new case yesterday and but two the day before. The conditions outside of town need attention and volunteer nurses are much needed in the country districts and small towns.
“The cases are less virulent than at first.”
Dr. Patterson expresses the opinion that the situation is improving in the city. Outside of the city the principal cases are in the lumber camps, where, he says the disease has full run when once it starts in a camp. He also says the cases are less virulent than at the beginning, and thinks that if not by quarantine measures, the disease will eventually run out.
Miss McMonigle, visiting nurse, stated this afternoon that she had but four new patients to report today and that the situation locally is well in hand.
BACK OF THE BOOK Freedumb
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
If you toss a water balloon into a crowd of Idahoans, chances are you’ll hit someone wearing a shirt that has something about “freedom” written on it. Perhaps it’s an American flag and a Punisher skull and the words, “These colors don’t run,” or, “Freedom ain’t free,” in a rakish alpha male font. You know the shirts I’m talking about.
It seems we take our “freedoms” quite seriously here in the Gem State; but, according to the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, Idaho ranks nearly last among the states for access to personal freedoms.
In the seventh edition of Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom, the former criterion includes categories such as marriage freedom; freedom to access tobacco, alcohol, firearms, cannabis and gambling; travel freedom; education freedom; and more, while the latter includes fiscal and regulatory policies across a variety of categories — such as state and local taxation, land use and health insurance.
Idaho ranks 14th out of 50 on “Overall” freedoms — next to Wisconsin (13) and Alaska (15), based on 230 state and local public policies examined by the Cato Institute. (New Hampshire took the top spot, while New York ranked 50th.)
We placed better in the “Economic” category, scoring seventh out of 50, but the real surprise is where Idaho falls in the “Personal” freedoms category: 49th out of 50, with Texas the only state ranking lower than Idaho.
“Idaho has always had strong regulatory policy and weak personal freedom,” the institute wrote. “As a result, its fiscal policy has driven the evolution of overall freedom over time.”
STR8TS Solution
The Idaho highlights are with its regulatory policies, where it remains better than average on land-use and energy freedom, “despite some growth in zoning restrictions over the past 15 years or so and little legislative effort to rein in eminent domain abuse,” the institute wrote.
Aside from workers’ compensation requirements, Idaho does well on labor market freedom, also. Nurse practitioner independence is protected, physician assistants have full prescribing authority and our state’s civil liability system ranks among the best in the nation, according to the institute.
“It is one of the very best states for insurance freedom,” the institute wrote. “Idaho lacks any of the most expensive health insurance-mandated benefits we track where states still have some autonomy.”
It’s the 49th out of 50 in the “Personal” freedoms category that might serve as a gut punch for some.
“The drug enforcement rate is about average,” the institute wrote. “But nondrug victimless crime arrests are better than average, which suggests that the state’s biggest problem is sentencing. Idaho is also much less free than average regarding alcohol, gambling and cannabis.”
While gun rights and tobacco freedoms are higher than average, other criteria drag Idaho to the bottom of the rankings. Idaho controls retail distribution of alcohol and markups on spirits are especially high. It remains one of only four states where cannabis is fully illegal and not decriminalized. Online gambling is illegal, handheld cell phone usage while driving was labeled a primary offense in 2020 and Idaho “has no private school choice programs,” whereby public tax money can be used to fund private (i.e. religious) schools.
The institute leans heavily on the
Sudoku Solution
so-called “school choice” issue for its score, an issue which has divided many Idahoans, suggesting that the state can improve its “Personal” freedom score by enacting “education savings accounts” for private (i.e. religious) schools paid for with public tax funds. (Expect to hear a lot more about this in the 2025 Idaho Legislature.)
Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, it’s important to recognize that as much as one subsect of the population (i.e. the hard right-wing of the Republican Party) tries to take over Idaho politics in the name of freedom, the restrictive laws they pass continue to erode personal freedoms in the state, not increase them. In just the past couple of years, women’s reproductive rights have suffered a major setback with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, leading to maternity wards closing and more than half of Idaho obstetricians fleeing the state in fear of prosecution for providing life-saving medical care.
I disagree with several of this libertarian think tank’s conclusions; including its position on “school choice.” How exactly is it “more free” to force taxpayers to fund a religious school that selects its staff and students based on ideology? Or presents interpretations of religious texts as scientific facts, such as claiming the Earth is only 6,000 years old? But I do see value in their analysis as a whole, dispelling the myth that Idaho is a bastion of total freedom like many of the politically motivated newcomers feel when they pull into town and buy their first bumper sticker with Idaho shaped like a gun firing a tree out of the Panhandle.
The tricky thing about freedom is that it isn’t an ideology or mindset that any one political party can claim as their own. Freedom for you includes freedom for me, too.
The fact that Idaho places next to last in personal freedoms might inspire us to live up to the messages we see on those bumper stickers, T-shirts and flags.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Solution on page 22
Laughing Matter
By Bill Borders
meliorism
Word Week of the
/MEL-yə-rizəm/
[noun]
1. the belief that the world can be made better by human effort.
“Under their malign sway, as cost-benefit analysis became codified in government bureaus and standards of jurisprudence, previously bold Democrats reduced their dreams for betterment to feeble meliorism.”
Corrections: We stand uncorrected (at least this week).
You know something that would really make me applaud? A guy gets stuck in quicksand, then sinks, then suddenly comes shooting out, riding on water skis! How do they do that?
