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PEOPLE compiled by

Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

watching

“What’s the coldest you’ve ever been and where?”

“I was in Sidney, Mont. — very eastern — and it was like 30-below in the wintertime when we were over there.”

Marsha Westphal Heron, Mont.

“I haven’t ever been anywhere colder than here.”

So today is pretty cold?

“Yes.” Jade Gors Clark Fork

“Last night, on my front porch, it was 4-below.”

You’ve lived here forever, right?

That’s the coldest you remember?

“It has been 8- or 10-below before. That was back when I was in school.”

Randy Heller Clark Fork “I live in Montana, so, there you go. There is your answer.”

Laura Linger Noxon, Mont.

“Right outside the front door, in the morning, after an entire night lying by the wood stove.”

Lola Hope

DEAR READERS,

It’s been a blustery start to the week, reminding all of us that yes, winter is definitely still a thing. Our palatial offices on Cedar Street have a north-facing wall, and when the wind blows from that general direction it can get quite cold in here. Even with space heaters going full bore and our staff wrapped in jackets and scarves, the winter wind seems to blow right through these old brick facades, sometimes actually moving my curtains.

What better time to announce that I’ll be taking a brief sabbatical to warmer climes starting this week. If you have business matters to discuss, please write to Editor Zach Hagadone (zach@sandpointreader.com) or News Editor Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (lyndsie@sandpointreader.com) as I’ll be sitting on a sailboat in the Caribbean where the toughest decision I’ll have to make on a daily basis is to drink beer, rum punch or both. The paper is in good hands, but take it easy on the staff while I’m away please. See you all again in March.

– Ben Olson, publisher

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

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: EzyDog (John Hatcher) cover, Ben Olson, Otto Kitsinger, Mary Franzel, Bill Borders Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Clark Corbin, Shelby Rognstad, Bart George, Brenda Hammond, Marcia Pilgeram Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID Subscription Price: $155 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

We hope to provide a quality alternative by offering honest, in-depth reporting that reflects the intelligence and interests of our diverse and growing community.

The Reader is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. Leftover copies are collected and recycled weekly, or burned in massive bonfires to appease the gods of journalism.

Free to all, limit two copies per person.

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Requirements: –No more than 300 words –Letters may not contain excessive profanity or libelous material. Please elevate the discussion.

Letters will be edited to comply with the above requirements. Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the writers, not necessarily the publishers.

Email letters to: letters@sandpointreader.com Check us out on the web at: www.sandpointreader.com Like us on Facebook.

About the Cover

This week’s cover photo comes courtesy of John Hatcher at EzyDog, from a past K9 Keg Pull event.

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NEWS

BoCo legal counsel: ARPA spending ‘strings’ not a concern

Opinion advises commissioners, who will make the final decision on ARPA funding

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

After months of discussion and promises, the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office has delivered an opinion on the possible “strings attached” to spending American Rescue Plan Act funds. The eight-page document, presented to county commissioners during a public workshop Feb. 16, concludes that Bonner County would not be required to enforce coronavirus-related mandates should it accept and spend the money — about $9 million in total.

Deputy Prosecutor Bill Wilson, who authored the opinion, was adamant about the memo’s role as an advisory document.

“This was not meant to be an approval of any kind,” Wilson said. “It was meant to answer some legal questions. Whether or not the board should accept or reject ARPA funds is a political

decision that I leave to them.

“This was an objective, best effort, take on the law,” he added.

Wilson formed his opinion around the public fear that accepting the federal funds would obligate the county to enforce vaccine and mask mandates.

According to Wilson’s study of previous case law, ARPA’s ambiguous language and the illegality of obligating governments to follow executive orders not yet in place would prevent any mandates from being forced on Bonner County should it take the money.

“The law does seem to address some of the fears that have been brought up in previous meetings,” Wilson said, adding later that the stimulus bill “speaks to encouraging vaccination and encouraging compliance with CDC regulation, but it doesn’t mandate anything.”

Wilson said that his opin-

ion was vetted internally at the Prosecutor’s Office, as well as by a lawyer in California who specializes in federal issues. “[I]t is the opinion of the Prosecutor’s Office that Congress did not confer authority on the Executive Branch to institute a mask or vaccine mandate by passage of ARPA,” Wilson’s memo concludes. “Furthermore, even if the Executive Branch attempted to assert that authority, it could not impose a mandate as an additional condition for the receipt of ARPA funds because it cannot ‘surprise participating states with post-acceptance or retroactive conditions.’”

The workshop Feb. 16 drew a modest crowd of attendees, most of whom spoke up about their continued hesitancy over taking and spending ARPA funds. Some questioned the existence of COVID-19, and others lamented the fact that Bonner County accepts federal funds at all — a

regular practice that commissioners have stated is vital to the everyday operations of the county.

The workshop also brought discussion of a possible advisory vote to be placed on the Tuesday, May 17 primary ballot, giving voters a chance to sound off on whether or not to spend ARPA money. Commissioners did not commit to such a vote, which would require a public discussion and decision from the board.

Deputy Prosecutor Bill Wilson presents his legal opinion on ARPA funding at a workshop Feb. 16.

Screenshot from YouTube.

Wilson maintained that his role was to advise the commissioners and nothing more.

“It is not my job to persuade anybody,” he said. “This is not advocacy for me. This is just me giving my best opinion of what the law is. If you have a differing opinion on that, you’re welcome to have it.”

City Council votes to recognize Juneteenth as a public holiday

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Roganstad presented a resolution at the Feb. 16 regular City Council meeting to adopt June 19 — or “Juneteenth” — as an officially recognized holiday in the city of Sandpoint.

The date commemorates the day when, in 1865, federal soldiers took control of Galvaston, Texas and freed the remaining slaves in the state, effectively ending slavery in the United States more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation

by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863.

Reading from the text of the resolution, Rognstad said that, “Even after Lincoln declared all enslaved people free on paper, that hadn’t necessarily been the case in practice.”

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Juneteenth, which is also sometimes referred to as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Black Independence Day, became a national and Idaho state holiday in 2021. Rognstad, who is running for Idaho governor as a Democrat, said several Idaho cities and counties have already adopted Juneteenth resolutions, including Bonner County.

Commissioners unanimously voted to adopt the resolution in November recognizing Juneteenth as a federal paid holiday for county employees, though made clear that they were “not excited about it,” as Commissioner Dan McDonald said at the time.

According to County Human Resources Director Cindy Binkerd, it is county policy to recognize all federal holidays.

“You can’t play fast and loose with policy,” McDonald said in November, adding later that the

county may opt to observe June 19 as a paid holiday, but “call it something else,” as the county does with its recognition of Columbus Day on Oct. 10 each year, despite it now being referred to as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The Sandpoint resolution also states the city recognizes all federal holidays, though observes “Columbus Day” the day after Thanksgiving.

Local resident Asia Williams spoke against recognizing the holiday when it went before county commissioners last year — noting at the time that she was “the only Black person in the room” — and again opposed recognition before the City Council on Feb. 16, saying she found it “very troubling that this country is always insistent on celebrating the negative.”

“Black history is not its own section [of history],” said Williams, who is a Republican

Photo by Ben Olson. candidate for the District 2 Bonner County commissioner seat.

“Juneteenth isn’t celebratory for Black people,” she said, later describing the resolution as “causing a problem” and “a political stunt.”

“You’re not even celebrating Black History month,” she said, “you don’t need to celebrate Juneteenth.”

The council unanimously approved the resolution.

NEWS

Dan McDonald will not run again for BoCo commissioner

As McDonald endorses Omodt, other county candidates announce campaigns

By Reader Staff Bonner County Commissioner Dan McDonald, who has served two terms in the District 3 seat over the past five years, announced Feb. 21 that he would not be running again in 2022.

McDonald, a Republican, said he vowed after winning his first election in 2016 that he would serve two terms and retire.

“It was a promise I made to myself, my family and so many of us who believe in term limits,” he stated in a news release.

McDonald said he did consider a third term, mostly due to “a small minority of very vocal people [who] are dividing our county and leading you to believe we are broken.”

“Many of these are newcomers who believe we need them to save us from ourselves,” he added. “I considered running again because I care deeply for this county and for the devoted employees I’ve come to care about very much. I simply couldn’t bear to watch our accomplishments be undone nor these terrific employees be left to unqualified management.”

However, McDonald ultimately decided to retire after his current term, following his wife, who will retire in June. He added that he is proud of his efforts to make Bonner County “fiscally strong” by reducing spending and implementing operational changes. He thanked the department heads for their hard work in putting those changes into action.

McDonald is endorsing Luke Omodt, a lifetime local and Army veteran, for the District 3 commissioner seat, stating that he feels Omodt “possesses the experience and values to continue on the path of fiscal responsibility and qualified leadership.”

“I want to thank this great community for all your support

throughout the past five years and of course all those who helped me in my two campaigns as well as all those who were supportive along the way,” McDonald concluded in his media release.

Clorrisa Koster announces campaign for BoCo treasurer Chief Deputy Clerk Clorrisa Koster announced her campaign for Bonner County treasurer Feb. 17, emphasizing her experience with the treasurer’s office and nearly 30 years working on different facets of county business.

“My priorities upon taking office are making sure that all taxpayers are educated and aware of the various exemptions that are available, payment plans and how property taxes are assessed, calculated and collected,” Koster stated in a news release. “Property taxes are a burden on many property owners and making sure they are educated is key.”

Koster was born and raised in Bonner County, growing up in the Selle Valley and graduated from Sandpoint High School. She has been married for 29 years to her husband Terry, and raised two grown daughters who also graduated from SHS. She has worked for Bonner County for 29 years, with her career starting in 1993 in the treasurer’s office where she worked for 23 years — 14 of those years serving as the chief deputy treasurer.

“I know the inside workings of the treasurer’s office,” she said.

“I’ve done the job and I know the Idaho Code that dictates the duties of the office.”

She accepted a position with the county auditor’s office as an accountant in 2016, and in 2019

was appointed chief deputy clerk.

In her current position, Koster manages all operations for Bonner County Elections.

Koster stated that her duties with the auditor’s office have “given her a full understanding of the county’s financial reports, budgets and how levies are calculated from the various taxing districts that are used to determine the tax amounts that will be assessed.” She also took part in the implementation of the county’s new financial system adopted in 2017, which, she said, “gave me the complete knowledge of our system, which is needed to serve as treasurer.”

Koster, who is running on the Republican ballot, plans to “streamline processes that will benefit taxpayers,” like additional drop box options and longer office hours when taxes are due in June and December. She also plans to find ways to improve efficiencies for banking processes and safeguarding county money.

“Not only can I guarantee a seamless transition from Day 1, I can also assure that the office will continue to be run with the dedication, professionalism, accuracy and accountability that the citizens of Bonner County deserve,” she said.

Find more about Koster’s campaign at clorrisakoster.com.

Randi Flaherty running for county commissioner in District 2 Randi Flaherty, a 30-year county resident and 18-year employee in the Bonner County Recorder’s Office, is running for the District 2 seat on the Board of County Commissioners.

In a news release Feb. 9, Flaherty said she is “running for smart growth in Bonner County.”

“Land that was once farmland, nature space and wooded areas our families once enjoyed is now being paved for development and housing for incoming residents,” she said. “If we don’t work with our community and lawmakers on smart growth of our county, our beloved panhandle will be nothing more than apartment complexes and strip malls.”

Flaherty is also concerned about the current housing market “pricing out locals” and rising taxes “due to new large developments,” and is advocating for increased fees for some of the processes involved in such developments.

“Our state is considerably behind in concerns to recording fees

Left: Bonner County Commissioner Dan McDonald. Center: Clorrisa Koster is running for Bonner Co. Treasurer. Right: Randi Flaherty is running for District 2 county commisisioner. Courtesy photos. and could benefit substantially by bringing these fees up to date,” she said. “For example, other states charge nearly $250 to record a platted subdivision, while Idaho only charges $11 for the same service. Raising these types of fees could benefit our county in such a terrific way.”

Flaherty would also like to see term limits adopted in the county “to get away from the ‘good ol’ boys club’” she believes elected officials currently enjoy.

“I plan to take the bull by the horns and make positive changes for both the employees and the public who I work for,” she said.

Flaherty, a Republican, will face District 2 incumbent Jeff Connolly in the May primary.

The candidate filing period opens on Monday, Feb. 28 and closes on Friday, March 11. For more information go to sos.idaho. gov or bonnercountyid.gov/departments/elections.

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NEWS

Keep BoCo Rural code amendment must be resubmitted

P&Z workshop on application scheduled for March 8

Courtesy photo.

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff What was meant to be a Bonner County Planning and Zoning Commission hearing Feb. 17 to discuss a proposed land use code amendment from Keep Bonner County Rural quickly became a call for a workshop after Commission Chair Brian Bailey pointed out a “flaw” in the application.

“The applicant needs to be either a citizen or property owner in Bonner County,” Bailey said, referring to the county’s revised code.

“Keep Bonner County Rural is not a citizen nor a property owner, therefore they are going to have to redo their application and resubmit it, and we’ll have to notice it, and then staff will have to change the report that reflects the correct address and maker of the file,” he said.

The application will now go through a workshop at the Bonner County Administration Building on Tuesday, March 8 at 4:30 p.m.

KBCR’s proposed code amendment, which the group announced in a media release Nov. 24, would “create stricter standards for justifying changes to current zoning” and “slow the flurry of zone changes that have been approved in recent months, which has led to increased density and development in the county’s rural areas.”

The newly formed group has become a vocal opponent of many proposed changes that, members argue, go against the county’s Comprehensive Plan. While the applicant on the code amendment file is listed as KBCR, the representative on the 6 /

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application is Dave Bowman, the group’s chairman.

The staff report posted to the county website prior to the Feb. 17 hearing — now moot, seeing as KBCR must resubmit its application — recommends that the P&Z Commission deny the application, as it is “an attempt to cure an illness by only treating the symptoms.”

“The spirit of this proposal is clear: The applicant believes there are issues with local land use planning in the county, and the applicant believes that these issues need to be fixed. The Bonner County Planning Department agrees with this fundamental assessment,” the staff report stated. “However, this proposal is not the way to fix these issues. A fundamental reevaluation of community goals, values and priorities is needed, and this needs to be laid out in a revised Comprehensive Plan.”

Following that, “Staff encourages the applicants in this case to become involved in the Comprehensive Plan update process currently ongoing in the county,” the report added. “It is through this process that a new vision for Bonner County can be laid out and achieved.”

The report goes on, in its conclusions of law, to determine that the proposed KBCR code amendment “is not in accord” with Idaho Code or the Bonner County Comp Plan.

P&Z Commissioner Don Davis suggested the March 8 workshop.

“It might be better to have a workshop with the group to discuss these things,” he said, “because we can’t just get into the wording in the application now, but if we can do that in a workshop it is going to give all of us more latitude.”

Bits ’n’ Pieces From east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact.

A recent sampling: Butts for food: Crows in a town in Sweden are being trained to pick up and discard cigarette butts in exchange for food, The WEEK reported. A city waste strategist commented that, “We can teach crows to pick up cigarette butts, but we can’t teach people not to throw them on the ground.”

For those who’ve already earned $147,000 this year, this week marks the end of their contribution to Social Security for the year. According to the Americans for Tax Fairness, if the wealthy paid a larger share of their income into Social Security, the lifespan of the fund could be greatly expanded. There are several such proposals in Congress at this time.

A class action lawsuit filed against the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa is now seeking $306 million for disruption of lives and livelihoods perpetrated by anti-vax and anti-mask truckers and supporters, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

After three weeks of occupation, police cleared a main protest site. At least 170 have been arrested and vehicles have been seized. Funds for supporting the protesters have also been frozen, bbc.com reported. Protest actions have included drunkenness, harassing workers at homeless shelters, dancing on Canada’s tomb of the Unknown Soldier and urinating on the country’s National War Memorial.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in COVID-19 quarantine with his children, said Canadians were “shocked, and frankly, disgusted” by the protesters. Fox 5DC shared plans for a similar event in Washington, D.C. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act passed through Congress with bi-partisan support and will be signed by President Joe Biden. It was first proposed in 2017.

Implications for “originalists” on the Supreme Court: If it’s not in the Constitution, an issue before the court can be discarded. Those issues can include a right to privacy, for races to intermarry and the use of contraception, William Falk, editor-in-Chief at The WEEK, pointed out.

One of the faces behind Facebook, Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and worth $2.6 billion, according to Forbes, has confessed to no longer

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

believing democracy and freedom are compatible.

An NPR report found that Thiel’s other ideas include support for monopolies, and monarchies being a more efficient form of government. He has become one of the Republican Party’s biggest donors. According to the Federal Election Commission, he has also given generous donations to Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, both known for blocking popular legislation, such as Build Back Better.

Diet can influence COVID-19 outcomes. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health found the more plant-based the diet, the less likely health care workers were to contract a serious case of COVID-19.

Former President Donald Trump has sought to have three lawsuits against him dismissed, Politico reported, but a federal judge said the suits — which accuse Trump of responsibility for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — provide enough evidence that they should go forward.

Remington recently reached a $73 million settlement with families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, where 20-yearold Adam Lanza killed 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7 years old, six educators and wounded two others before shooting himself. Lanza had killed his mother earlier in the day.

While gun makers are shielded from gun misuse lawsuits, the suit used a different angle: That Remington deliberately marketed to young, at-risk males. Such ads are prohibited in Connecticut, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Blast from the past: President Harry Truman confessed to once being racist, but changed his mind. He was appalled when a Black veteran in South Carolina was arrested, beaten and blinded by police for the “crime” of asking a bus driver not to be rude to him. Then, a mob of white men killed two Black veteran men and their wives by tying them to a tree and shooting them. A friend begged Truman not to address civil rights, but he wrote back and said that failure to deliver consequences for the maiming and deaths represented a system that needed to be fixed before the nation could live up to the Constitution’s promise of individual liberties and equal protection under the law.

NEWS

Idaho House passes bill designed to criminalize employer vaccine mandates Each violation of the bill would carry a fine up to $1,000

By Clark Corbin Idaho Capital Sun

The Idaho House of Representatives passed a bill Feb. 22 that would make it a crime for most employers to require a coronavirus vaccine or make an employee disclose their vaccination status.

The Idaho House voted 39-29 to pass House Bill 581.

If passed into law, it would become a misdemeanor for employers to refuse to hire or to fire someone for not being vaccinated for a coronavirus or any vaccine made available under an emergency use authorization. It would also become illegal to refuse to hire or to fire an employee for refusing to disclose their vaccination status.

Each violation of the bill would be punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

The bill includes exemptions that would make it inapplicable to health care providers or to the federal government and federal agencies, which the state has no authority over.

Rep. Charlie Shepherd, R-Pollock, sponsored the bill, which he called the Employee Medical Information Protection Act. It is a rewritten version of House Bill 410 from the 2021 legislative session, which Shepherd pushed when legislators reconvened in November.

Shepherd’s 2021 bill was sent out for possible amendments and never advanced.

“What I am trying to do is to ensure the individual rights of the citizens of this state that they do not have to give up

those rights just to keep their jobs,” Shepherd said when presenting the new bill Feb. 22.

The coronavirus vaccine has been tested in clinical trials, and public health officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare have said the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for preventing infection from the virus that causes COVID-19. The vaccine protects against hospitalization and serious illness.

Shepherd and other Republican legislators who backed the bill made several statements without providing facts or evidence to back them up.

“If business has to mandate vaccines because of the government telling them to, businesses in my area are going to go broke, because the employees are going to walk. They are not going to get vaccinated with this untested, unproven vaccine,” Shepherd said.

“I don’t want to really get into the effectiveness or the ineffectiveness of the vaccine because that’s not this issue,” Shepherd added.

Bill opposed by both Republicans and Democrats Although the Idaho House passed the bill, it did attract opposition from both major political parties.

“I cannot believe this is where we are in this body, that we are going to regulate private businesses and tell private businesses what they can do,” Rep. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, said.

Rep. Scott Syme, R-Caldwell, voted against the bill after telling legislators his daughter

and son-in-law are immunocompromised.

“Now with this bill, if they want to hire somebody to come into their house and they say, ‘You know what, we would like you to be vaccinated,’ whether you agree it works or don’t agree, that’s their personal right to ask,” Syme said.

“Now what you are saying is now you are going to make my daughter a criminal and punish her with a $1,000 fine. You know, I, too, can’t believe that we have gotten to this point where we’re going to do that to my daughter’s individual liberty to ask.”

Rep. Laurie Lickley, R-Jerome, voted against the bill after saying it adds additional regulatory burden to businesses that are already overburdened.

“For the same reasons that I have firmly and very strongly opposed what the federal government is trying to do on our businesses for vaccination mandates, I can’t in good

conscience do the same thing from the seat I have and the vote I have today on our business community in the state of Idaho. Idaho is an at-will work state, and I don’t want to change that,” Lickley said.

Conservative legislators back bill to protect freedom, liberty However, conservative legislators who backed the bill said it was all about protecting individuals’ freedom and liberty, and it is important for the Idaho Legislature to get involved as a referee.

“I stand again today to support individual rights,” Rep. Greg Ferch, R-Boise, said.

Ferch said that he has lived a lifestyle that makes COVID-19 irrelevant to him.

In debate over a different bill later on Tuesday, Ferch quipped that he would not be allowed into Australia because he is unvaccianted.

After about an hour-long

The House in session at the Idaho Capitol on April 6, 2021. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)

debate, the Idaho House voted 39-29 to pass House Bill 581.

To become law, House Bill 581 would still need to pass the Idaho Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Brad Little or allowed to become law without his signature.

This story was produced by the Idaho Capital Sun, a Boise-based independent, nonprofit online news organization delivering in-depth coverage from veteran Idaho reporters on state government and policy. The Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit funded by tax-free donations in 22 states.

Learn more and follow daily updates at idahocapitalsun. com and statesnewsroom.com.

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HB 475 ‘militia bill’ is a ‘new low’…

Bouquets: GUEST SUBMISSION: • “The Clark Fork-Hope Area Senior Center would like to thank businesses who contributed to their Sweetheart Bingo fundraiser on Feb. 11, including Pend Oreille Shores Resort, Better Together Animal Alliance, Winter Ridge, Dub’s, The Pie Hut, Sandpoint Super Drug, Sweet Lou’s, Scotchmans Coffee, My Place Cafe, Annie’s Orchard, Les Schwab Tire, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Perfection Tire, Sharon’s Hallmark, Big 5, Hay’s Chevron, A Shear Inspiration, Sandpoint Cinemas, Ice House Pizza, Evergreen Homestead Supply, Clark Fork Beverage, Idaho Club and Papa Murphy’s. The Center serves as a place for everyone in the community who would like to host events or enjoy lunch each Wednesday and Friday at 11:30 a.m.”

— Submitted by Bill Hagemann Barbs: • Bonner County Commissioner Dan McDonald announced this week that he would not be seeking a third term, instead endorsing Luke Omodt, a born-and-raised local Sandpointian and Army veteran, for the District 3 seat. In a parting shot, McDonald wrote that he considered running again to push back against “a small minority of very vocal people [who] are dividing our county and leading you to believe we are broken.”

It is this tone deaf statement that gets the Barb this week. McDonald laments the fact that there are newcomers trying to undo his “accomplishments,” but forgets to point out that a great number of these divisive, ignorant and rude constituents were likely drawn here because of the hyper-partisan ideological graveyard elected officials like McDonald erected in this county over the past several years. It was McDonald who asked for some “Bonner County folks” to show up on June 2, 2020, which turned into armed militia members patrolling downtown Sandpoint in battle dress, there to protect against a make-believe Antifa army that never materialized. It was McDonald who led the charge to sue the city of Sandpoint because of the Festival at Sandpoint’s weapons policy — a decision that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars after both lawsuits failed. It was McDonald who flooded social media continuously, berating and belittling anyone who offered a differing viewpoint than his own. Nice try, Dan, but the people you feel chastened by are the same ones you propped up all these years. They are the same ones who put you in office. But good on you for endorsing Omodt, who will hopefully bring some civility and honor back to Bonner County after you leave.

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Dear editor, To all sentient beings within the boundaries of the state of Idaho who posses even a sliver of common sense and morality: Idaho Law Title 46, Chapter 48, which protects society from private unaccountable militias and paramilitary groups acting as law enforcement, assisting law enforcement or acting as vigilantes, is currently on the chopping block for repeal under the current House Bill 475.

This is a new low for Gov. Little (who’s up for re-election), Sage Dixon, Heather Scott and all their far-right goons. Wow, not only are we going to have armed militia take over our town again like they did on June 2, 2020, now they’re going to be legit. Hell, they might even have special powers like we give to bounty hunters, like pat searches, arrest power and entry without a warrant.

Just think: The militia can now pat you down and, if you resist or show them any attitude, they can invoke “Stand Your Ground” and blow your head off. Wow, Sage, I feel indescribably more safe, too.

I can’t wait until the Proud Boys knock down my door and arrest me for possessing “un-Christian,” “liberal,” “communist,” “homosexual” or “witchcraft” material.

This House Bill 475 is a done deal. It’s already got the votes. Other right-wing states will follow suit just like “Stand Your Ground.” History keeps showing over and over that only the names change. Just take the Islamic Republic of Iran and change it to the Evangelical Christian Republic of Idaho and that perfectly describes our current situation. It might be wise to get out while you still can.

Little, Scott, Dixon and all their minions are totally desensitized and alienated from the suffering and everyday dynamics of the common people because they’re too busy virtue signaling to the militia.

Jack Green Sandpoint

Strategic voting…

Dear editor, I am not a Republican or a Democrat.

I vote for politicians who campaign not on slogans that appeal to the desires and prejudices of voters, but use reasonable arguments on issues that affect our everyday lives and our children’s lives.

While I don’t define myself by either party, I’m registered as a Republican. I encourage all voters to register as Republican and vote in the May 17 primary election.

Whoever wins the Republican primary will almost assuredly win the general election in November. (The last Democrat elected to

state office was in 2002; the last in Bonner County was 2014).

The choice in the May Republican primary will most likely be between moderate and extreme candidates. I want to ensure that someone representing local values makes it to the general election. I don’t want to end up being represented by uncompromising extremists, many of them newcomers who are undermining the way of life here. I want all candidates on the ballot to share at least some of my ideals, like Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle.

Idaho is founded on an essential American value: That power resides with the people precisely because each of us are in touch with what is of immediate importance.

We can use our power to help each other and make our voices heard by paying attention to the primaries and voting strategically.

To vote on a Republican ballot in the primary, your safest option is to be registered “R” by March 11. Under current rules, “unaffiliated” can change to “R” up to and on Election Day (May 17). However, if legislation being considered is passed, everyone, including “unaffiliated,” must meet the March 11 deadline to vote a Republican ballot. Call the county election office at 208255-3631. Online option is only available March 9, 10 and 11.

Nancy Gerth Sagle

PERSPECTIVES

Mayor’s Roundtable:

What’s Sandpoint reading and listening to?

Misinformation driving local and state policy

Please join me for the Mayor’s Roundtable this Friday, Feb. 25 at 4-5 p.m. to discuss these issues and more at Council Chambers in City Hall, 1123 W. Lake St., or join us on zoom: bit.ly/3LXv2EK. I hope you can join us!

To see how area residents are using our local media, Sandpoint Reader and Sandpoint Online posted an online survey January 28-February 28, 2021.

A total of 359 people participated. Here's what respondents said.

QUESTION: What locally circulated media do you utilize with any regularity?

356 ANSWERED, 3 SKIPPED QUESTION

Bonner County Daily Bee

45.22%

Co-op Roundup

41.57%

Inlander

29.49%

Lake Pend Oreille Neighbors Magazine

11.24%

Living Local Magazine

32.02%

Neighbors (Daily Bee)

10.39%

Northern Journeys

3.93%

Out There Monthly

5.06%

River Valley Beacon

0.28%

Sandpoint Magazine

68.82%

Sandpoint Reader

78.65%

SHS Cedar Post

2.53%

The Spokesman-Review

14.61%

Wise Guide

3.37%

KPBX Spokane Public Radio

25.84%

KPND 95.3

29.78%

KPND 106.7

17.42%

KSPT 1400 AM

6.46%

K102 Country

18.82%

KBFI 1450 AM

1.97%

ROCK 103

9.55%

The Beach 105.3

14.61%

KRFY 88.5 Community Radio

29.21%

Vyve, formerly Northland/Comcast

3.09%

BonnerCountyDailyBee.com

46.63%

Sandpoint.com

17.42%

SandpointLivingLocal.com

8.15%

SandpointOnline.com

50.28%

SandpointReader.com

37.92%

FB, Twitter, Insta, Pinterest or YT

64.33%

Bonner Breakdown

1.69%

Email Newsletter Town Crier

14.89%

QUESTION:

If you use social media, which do you use?

Facebook 80.4% Twitter 8.6% Pinterest 12.5% Instagram 35.8% LinkedIn 9.5% YouTube 30% Rarely/never use 14.7% social media

well informed?

Idaho is experiencing an alarming trend. Misinformation spirals out of control and then gets codified into bad local and state policy. Often, this misinformation is designed to turn community members against each other and ultimately harms everyday people. I’m tracking a number of state and local policies that are being fueled by misinformation campaigns.

Last month, Bonner County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution that put a stop to spending the $9 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated to the county. The resolution was proposed because of misinformation that accepting the funds would require the county to implement a federal vaccine mandate. This claim is false and is being used to turn community members against each other.

The Idaho attorney general and Idaho Legislative Service Office issued a report, at the request of Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay, that clearly explains any conditions attached to these funds would have had to be stated “unambiguously” prior to offering the funds.

The reason behind the resolution is false but the negative impact Bonner County residents will experience is real.

As published in the Reader [“BoCo puts hold on federal rescue funds,” Jan. 13, 2022], Bonner County EMS Chief Jeff Lindsey called misinformation about ARPA funds “a dangerous theme that keeps getting pushed forward by some of the public.” Lindsey explained, “This would decimate our current and future budgets and we would be unable to provide the current level of service.”

Furthermore, $800,000 of the funds have already been spent — much on life saving equipment — and the resolution asks that those funds be returned.

The Legislature is also pushing a slate of bills based on misinformation. One that impacts Sandpoint is House Bill 475, which I testified against last week. This dangerous bill, introduced on behalf of Gov. Brad Little, would effectively legalize private militias. This is one of the only provisions that prohibits the type of activity we saw two summers ago, when armed militia members occupied parts of Sandpoint.

Proponents of HB 475 say this is

about protecting Second Amendment rights. That is false. Major Steve Stokes, who presented the bill, admitted that state laws similar to Idaho’s anti-paramilitary law have been deemed constitutional and do not violate either First or Second Amendment rights. Idahoans can still open carry as they always have.

Idaho’s anti-paramilitary law is really about who has the authority and accountability to enforce the state’s constitution and laws. That authority lies with the National Guard, State Patrol, county sheriffs and city police. They are accountable to civil authority and ultimately to the voters.

Private militias are not accountable and therefore have no place enforcing state laws. HB 475 passed out of committee and was referred to the Legislature.

The Legislature is also considering multiple bills that could suppress voters.

What they each have in common is a justification based on misinformation that Idaho’s election system isn’t secure. In fact, Idaho has one the most secure election systems in the country. The Perceptions of Electoral Integrity Index gives Idaho the highest score, tied with three other states.

The Pew Election Performance Index rates Idaho second only to Vermont. Idaho’s elections are safe and secure.

Despite this fact, the Idaho House passed HB 547 that would make it a misdemeanor for anyone other than a relative or a roommate to return an absentee ballot.

If you want to help an elderly neighbor return a ballot, it would be a crime.

The House also passed HB 439, which would require unaffiliated voters to declare a party by Friday, March 11 this year to be able to vote in the primary election. This is an unnecessary barrier that will only make it more difficult for people to vote.

We can fight misinformation with the truth. If you oppose these efforts, contact your representatives and let them know you don’t want policy being driven by misinformation.

social media

By Mayor Shelby Rognstad Reader Contributor

QUESTION:

How well do you feel local media keep you informed of news, events and issues, rated 1-10?

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 (poorly informed) 1 (well informed)

15.3% 15.2% 25.2% 20.7% 7.7% 7.1% 3.7% 1.7% 1.7% 0.3%

Want to see detailed results? Go to: www.bit.ly/SandpointMedia2021 February 24, 2022 /

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Mad about Science:

Brought to you by:

walter Lincoln hawkins

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist

The subject of this week’s article is a unique man who left a lasting legacy. In fact, one of his inventions was used to ensure that the very words you’re reading right now were transmitted from the library to the Reader offices and then to the printer. If you want to know what that might be, you’ll have to read on to find out.

Born on March 21, 1911 in Washington D.C., Hawkins faced adversity from a young age. Though orphaned early in life, this never diminished his inventive spirit. Hawkins was known to disassemble and reassemble his toys into new and optimized functions, built spring-powered boats and attempted to create a perpetual motion machine.

Despite facing the challenges of being a young Black man in America during the early 1900s, Hawkins built his confidence by attending the all-Black Dunbar High School in his hometown.

By the age of 21, he had earned a college degree in chemistry at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. As a bonus fact, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is not only still around, but considered to be the second best college in the country to attend if you’re interested in video game design, just behind the University of Southern California.

Hawkins would pursue his Master’s through Howard University, a historically Black university based in Washington, D.C. Some fellow alumni 10 /

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of Howard include civil rights activist and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, as well as Kamala Harris, the first-ever U.S. vice president to be of Black and South Asian heritage, as well as the first female to serve in the office.

After Howard, Dr. Hawkins went on to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec to earn his doctorate. In 1942, at the age of 31, Dr. Hawkins accepted a job offer with AT&T’s Bell Laboratories and became the first Black American scientist employed by the communications giant. His primary research was on plastic polymers.

Plastic was first invented in 1907, though it was critically different from the plastics we see today. Many people don’t realize that there is a huge variety of plastic polymers in the world that are all suited for different tasks. The plastic filament used to 3-D print things at the library is called PLA, for polylactic acid. PLA is derived from plant-based starches like corn or sugarcane, which is fermented, compressed, then mixed with other chemical agents and heated to create the plastic filament you recognize emerging from the 3-D printer.

PLA is biodegradable, which makes it great for lighter, short-term uses like indoor decoration or children’s toys.

Extended exposure to ultraviolet light will begin to break down the structure and cause it to disintegrate.

The type of plastic you’re likely most familiar with is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. This is commonly seen in the form of soda bottles or mi-

crowave-safe cooking containers, but it’s also the source of polyester, which is a synthetic plastic fiber that makes up as much as 60% of our clothing due to how cheap it is to manufacture and manipulate. PET is derived from crude oil and natural gas and won’t degrade like PLA, which makes it useful for long-term applications but detrimental to the environment at the same time.

When Dr. Hawkins first began research with AT&T, the company had used a leadbased sealant to cover telephone wires. Lead is extremely dangerous to use and highly toxic, poisoning the people and wildlife it comes in contact with. However, plastic of the time wasn’t durable enough to survive the elements and protect the telephone wires, so communications companies were left with no choice but to use the expensive and hazardous leadbased sealant. Not only was this dangerous for repair crews to handle, but it also created a limiting factor in expanding telephone lines and inhibited growth and connectivity.

Dr. Hawkins spearheaded the research into developing a new form of plastic that was inexpensive, flexible and durable, which acted as a sheathe to guard telephone wires for up to 70 years. This cable sheathing is still in use today and guards fiber optic cables from the elements, as well as preventing external light sources from shining into the cabling that could disrupt your signal. This is the innovation that helps ensure “Mad About Science” ends up in your hands every week. Without this

innovation, it may not have been possible for telephone, and later internet services to come to rural areas like ours.

Dr. Hawkins was a brilliant man, and he knew that plastics were a double edged sword.

Creating something with a virtually limitless lifespan meant that it would be trapped in the environment forever. Because of this, he also developed many innovative ways to recycle the

plastics he worked with, and by the time of his retirement from AT&T in 1976, he held more than 130 patents.

After his retirement, Dr. Hawkins went on to teach chemistry as well as funding scholarships to promote a love of science in the generations that would follow him, particularly those from minority and disadvantaged communities.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner g?

Don’t know much about kissin • Most people will tilt their head to the right when going in for a kiss with their significant other. This action can likely be traced back to when we were still in our mother’s wombs. The theory goes that we lean to the right because when we were in the womb, we naturally tilted our heads to the right. Even before kissing anyone, infants instinctively turn their heads to the right more often because of this learned behavior in the womb.

• One kiss uses 146 muscles working together. Only 34 of those muscles are facial muscles, however.

The other 112 are postural, or core muscles. The muscle used the most during a kiss is the orbicularis oris, which is located around the mouth.

Scientists discovered this fact by studying couples kissing underneath an MRI scanner. Pervs.

• Love letters of old used to end with “XOXO,” which everyone used to know meant “hugs and kisses.”

The usage of an X to denote a kiss goes back to the Middle Ages, when many people couldn’t read or write.

If an illiterate person had to sign a document for any reason, they

We can help!

would write “X” as their signature, then kiss the document as a symbol of honesty.

• The Guinness World Record for the longest-lasting smooch lasted 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds without a break. Ekkachai Tiranarat and Laksana Tiranarat (both from Thailand) made the monumental kiss on Feb. 12-14, 2013 at an event arranged by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Let’s hope someone used a breath mint beforehand.

• The first same-sex kiss in cinema occurred in D.W. Griffith’s silent film, Intolerance, in 1916. It was after the 1926 film Don Juan in which John Barrymore and Mary Astor kissed 127 times when Hollywood began regulating on-screen smooches under what was called the “Hays Code,” which lasted from 1930-1968. This code laid out several rules on-screen actors had to follow when kissing. For instance, actors weren’t allowed to kiss while lying down. On-screen married couples had to sleep in separate twin beds and, if the couple kissed in bed, one spouse had to have one foot on the ground.

PERSPECTIVES

Voices in the Wilderness

By Bart George Reader Contributor For most of us, it’s not an accident that we live in the Inland Northwest. Locals that have been here for generations love this place and are proud of their roots.

Transplants move here intentionally because the allure of wide-open spaces and untouched landscapes is impossible to ignore. Most people who spend a few years in our region learn to take advantage of the unique opportunities that the region’s four seasons provide. Some folks live for the skiing or snowmobiling, others can’t wait for the spring thaw so they can get back on the water with their fly rods. In my case, fall hunting season is what brought me and keeps me exploring the backcountry all year long.

I look forward to the opening day of elk season the way my 4-year-old looks forward to his birthday. This year, the night after his birthday party when we were putting him to bed, he asked, “Can I have another birthday tomorrow?” I thought to myself, “I can

relate, buddy.”

As soon as hunting season ends, I am thinking about the following year. Hunts are planned months, even years, in advance.

Gear is maintained throughout the year and tags are purchased as soon as they become available.

Around work, things pretty much stop in the fall. We don’t plan any meetings in September or October.

During these months, hunting becomes the priority, not zoom calls or construction projects.

It’s the usual group of friends getting prepped for the hunt. We get our stock ready, pound shoes on horses and mules, mend busted tack and give the stock trailers a bit of attention. Track down all the pack saddles, gather up boxes of pots and pans, lanterns, the collapsible wood stove, horse feed and our food. Then we make the piles. Piles of gear that look more like a disorganized yard sale than the result of months of planning.

Matt is the packer — he makes the final cut on what goes into the backcountry and what must be left behind. We all feel a bit like a

kid at the grocery store, trying to slip things into a cart unnoticed.

He’s mostly a benevolent packer, allowing some unnecessary weight, which comes at a real cost — 10 days or so of relentless teasing. So, you better really want that extra pillow, because you’ll be paying for it around the campfire all week.

I’m the cook. It would be an embarrassment to run short on food and particularly bad if we have to ration coffee, as we did in 2015 and which still comes up regularly. As the cook, I’m allocated one mule. I get a cooler on one side and a dry box on the other. I organize and pack all the food and drink and do my best to keep us fed, but if we hunt hard and spend long days hiking and packing we should all lose some weight.

We pack in a long way. Past all the hikers and day-trip hunters, “picnickers,” as Matt calls them.

Usually, we have a destination in mind, but trail conditions most often determine how far we go. Trails littered with windthrow and down trees slow the pack string and limit our progress. Clearing them with

Hunting for a challenge in the backcountry

Bart George in the backcountry.

‘Courtesy photo. a crosscut saw is an arduous task, but it’s also the reason we’ll have entire basins to ourselves. Tough trails are a blessing and a curse — it makes our job more difficult, but it means no one else is there.

We always get elk from Ida-

ho’s wilderness areas. Every time we go, at least a couple of us manage to get some meat. The group divides it up and we try to make it last until the following season. I’m thankful for the healthy meat that hunting provides my family. But beyond that, I am thankful for the time spent away from crowds and the bustle of my regular schedule.

We go to the wilderness to hunt even though there are far easier places to find elk. We really go there to challenge ourselves and get away from our comfortable routine and cozy lifestyle. The wilderness gives us the opportunity to test ourselves and our gear — it also gives us a season to anticipate every year, like a kid anticipates their birthday.

Bart George is a professional wildlife biologist and hunting guide who enjoys spending his time pursuing backcountry elk and following his hounds on the trail of a cougar. When he’s not busy with his wife and two young sons he is eagerly preparing for his next backcountry adventure.

Human Rights Task Force opposes Idaho ‘militia bill’

By Brenda Hammond Reader Contributor In October 2020, the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force joined with other community members and signed an open letter stating that we trusted local law enforcement to provide protection in our community and did not need armed militias on our sidewalks, questioning and intimidating anyone. This action was taken after just such incidents occurred — spurred by a spontaneous demonstration by high school students in support of “Black Lives Matter” — and an ill-founded rumor that “Antifa” was stockpiling bricks and coming to smash through the windows of local businesses.

The letter urged law enforcement to take a firm stance against groups that would unlawfully seek to intimidate our neighbors and visitors.

Currently there is a bill in the Idaho Legislature, HB 475, that

seeks to make such unregulated militia action legal. Having passed out of the Transportation and Defense Committee, it is headed to the floor for a third reading on Feb. 22 and, if passed, on to the Senate.

The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection wrote a six-page letter to the Idaho Legislature advising that the basis for the bill — namely that the current statutes restricting militias are unconstitutional — is erroneous, and citing many examples.

The Supreme Court, in a landmark decision in 2008, reiterated that “military organization and drill and parade under arms are subjects under the control of the government … they cannot be claimed as a right independent of law.”

Despite this, HB 475 is being supported by Gov. Brad Little and the head of the Idaho National Guard.

In 2020, following the publication of the open letter, members of the BCHRTF contacted the Bonner

County Sheriff and the chiefs of police in Sandpoint, Ponderay and Priest River regarding our concern about local militias and the need for law enforcement to discourage their actions — for everyone’s safety, including their own.

Sheriff Wheeler, in a public statement, warned citizens to “refuse to take the bait by rushing into the streets to make a show of force; it is not necessary.” He stated that he advised all who called him “to stand down and not to respond to the unsubstantiated threats of violence.”

BCHRTF members also met with Chief Corey Coon in Sandpoint, who said he would make a public statement. There were no public responses made by the other law enforcement chiefs.

If HB 475 passes, ICAP suggests that, “[I]t would be particularly useful to get law enforcement to make some public statements or perhaps organize their own letter to the Legislature about the danger of unauthorized private militia

groups, both to the public and to law enforcement themselves. “ This might need to be accompanied by legal challenges. We recommend that those who see this bill as posing a threat rather than enhancing the safety of people in Idaho, to do what they can to prevent it from becoming law. If that is not successful, other action will need to be taken.

The BCHRTF will be sending an open letter to all of the Idaho state senators and Gov. Little stating our concerns and asking them to oppose this bill.

If you would like to have your name added to this letter, go to the Bonner County Human

Rights Task Force website: bchrtf. org. There will be a place for you to sign on.

Brenda Hammond serves as co-president of the BCHRTF alongside Linda Navarre.

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PERSPECTIVES

Short-term gains for long-term losses Money always wins, especially in resort towns

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

One of my favorite times to walk around downtown Sandpoint is “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” as Frank Sinatra put it. All the drunks from the bars have wandered home to their fitful dreams. The gaggles of tourists and looky-loos are still posted up in their hotel rooms, preparing for a long day of window shopping real estate most of them can’t afford. Maybe an elderly dog-walker or the newspaper delivery driver might catch your eye in the predawn hours, but otherwise you pretty much have the town to yourself.

It’s a quiet time. A time of reflection and solace. A time when locals can admire the historic buildings in peace, hear the wind blowing through the few trees still left standing along Sand Creek and experience this beautiful town in its most pristine, untrampled state.

For many longtime locals, they can remember a Sandpoint that was hungry

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for out-of-town visitors. They recall kitchy advertising campaigns designed to attract well-heeled tourists, hoping that it might aid retail shops, bars and restaurants in stockpiling revenue to help them weather the slow winter months.

Nowadays, those who live here generally prefer to keep their traps shut when someone asks about Sandpoint.

“It’s full of bubonic plague rats,” I used to tell people when they asked what my hometown was like. “It’s OK, I guess, but it snows 10 feet a year and rains the rest of the time. The lake is slimy green and the sky has a blood-red post-apocalyptic hue most hours of the day.”

The fact of the matter is that Sandpoint has largely been “discovered,” which is a euphemism that really means it has been targeted. Anyone still promoting Sandpoint is either trying to make a buck or they just moved here and are trying to justify spending a half million dollars for a house that cost $110,000 just three years ago.

The people moving to North Idaho are no longer young families and outdoors seekers, but now seem to have a political pied piper they are following. Or they are stinking rich. The gray area doesn’t really exist anymore. New home prices have skyrocketed to the point where only retirees and douche bags can afford to move here.

In the past, when asking newcomers what brought them to Sandpoint, answers varied widely. Some came for a new job or to be closer to recreation. Others came because their extended families lived here or they passed through on a road trip and fell in love with the place. Most will remember their first trip across the Long Bridge, wondering why they’d never heard about this little paradise before. Each newcomer would feel like they were just let in on a secret, and most guarded that secret as best they could to prevent Sandpoint from becoming another Aspen or Park City.

Now, when asking what brought someone here, you’ll more than likely hear some variation on the theme: “We moved here for liberty,” as if freedom only exists in Idaho. Spurred on by fear mongering advertisements placed in newspapers all over the West by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, these budding John Birchers believe they’ve found their last stand, foolishly believing that everyone here believes the same as them. Their “liberty” is defined by rights with no responsibilities and greed over all else.

Or, on the other side of the coin, the newcomer will say they sold their home in

California for a million or two dollars and came here to “live the good life,” approximately two weeks per year. The other time they spend at their other homes dotted across the landscape, like tombstones marking the cemetery of this new phase of colonization in the American West.

Looking ahead, there are some devastating changes that will completely change downtown Sandpoint. The city of Sandpoint is preparing a complete transformation of First Avenue, opening up Gunning’s Alley (now called Farmin’s Landing, because that sounds classier, I guess) to connect the street and Sand Creek with some kind of park that will be the talk of the developers.

Ask most regular people if they think that’s necessary and most will say, “Meh, leave it the way it is.”

Therein lies the rub when it comes to resort towns: People are drawn to the quaint, simple nature of a place like Sandpoint, so they move there and quickly transform it into a sterile city that caters to retirees, wealthy second home owners and political extremists. Like Lenny in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, who loved his pet mice so much he crushed them to death in his hand, the powers that be have also squeezed Sandpoint in their palms to the point where the middle class folks who once lived here now find themselves pushed out to make room for the new Sandpointians, who couldn’t care less about our history unless they find some way to make money off of it.

We’re seeing the transformation in real time, and it’s not pretty. Restaurants that have fed locals for decades are closing their doors at an alarming rate, sometimes their buildings sold just hours after being listed (or even before they’re listed), gobbled up by mysterious investors from across the country.

Will it be another mom-and-pop restaurant moving in? Don’t count on it.

The newest trend is bulldozing buildings and erecting condos in their place. After all, the developers will say, “There’s a housing shortage, right? People need somewhere to live.”

Not exactly. There isn’t a shortage of luxury condos or mansions in and around Sandpoint. Rich people will never have trouble finding a place to live here, or anywhere for that matter. It’s the middle and work class who should worry. The locals. The born-and-raised-here who would love nothing more than to remain in their hometown to raise their own families, but

can’t because prevailing wages here have never supported $2,500 per month in rent.

We’re seeing it happen at our beloved Panida Theater as well, with some members of the board encouraging the sale of the Little Theater building to help fund the restoration needed on the main theater. The moment that building sells, it will be bulldozed and replaced with the retail-on-thebottom, condos-on-the-top floors model.

The fact that these same board members pushing for a sale know this is inevitable makes the decision even worse.

These new buildings can reach as high as 65 feet — about five stories — blotting out any remaining view of the mountains from the west side of First Avenue, and whatever the sale price generates for the Little Theater, it will dwindle and disappear in a short time, leaving the theater again asking for funds from the community in less than a decade, all while kicking themselves for giving up that valuable asset. I truly hope they don’t.

Short-term gains for long-term losses.

That seems to be the new mantra for Sandpoint. Sell out now, because, “If I don’t do it, somebody else will,” as the justification goes. We’ve all heard it a thousand times before, but it still doesn’t make it right.

I wonder where all these people will be able to eat in future Sandpoint, when most of the restaurants have been replaced by luxury condos? I wonder who they’ll find to work at bars, restaurants and retail stores when most of the middle class is long gone, moved further out of town or out of the region entirely because they can’t afford it here anymore.

I wonder how many years will pass before they, too — the newcomers of today — will become the locals of tomorrow. They’ll peer over their condo rooftop verandas, sipping on wine delivered by drone from Amazon, and lament over how Sandpoint has changed from the quiet little place to which they moved for peace and beauty. They’ll gripe that their favorite restaurants have closed, that there’s nowhere to enjoy a good cocktail, that they don’t recognize anyone in town anymore. They’ll shake their heads at the greedy newcomers buying up property and flipping it to make a quick buck.

“If only there was something we could’ve done,” they’ll say, shaking their heads at the sidewalks clogged with tourists, extremists and con men, wondering why they don’t recognize their town anymore.

LITERATURE

Bullseye

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

There was a time when what you thought about guns didn’t somehow indicate your opinions on everything from electric cars to the germ theory of disease. There was also a time when firearms were tools, rather than political props, and certainly not markers of identity tipping into religious zealotry. We do not live in that time. Despite what numerous — especially Democratic — pundits have said going back to 2019, guns and “gun control” very much remain “the third rail of politics,” if not in the United States then certainly in places like Idaho.

Yet it wasn’t always this way, and the mutation of gun politics into their present toxic condition has occurred in a shorter period of time than we may think.

The ban on civilian ownership of automatic weapons, mandated background checks for handgun purchases, the prohibition on non-sporting foreign-made semi-automatic firearms and the so-called “assault weapons ban” were all enacted, proposed or were actively supported by Republican presidents (whether in or out of office) during the 1980s and 1990s. Even as recently as 2008, then-President George W. Bush signed a law to strengthen background checks.

More than a dozen years later, even the merest hint of “gun safety” legislation is met with thunderous accusations of “gun-grabbing” at best and “tyranny” at worst, coming from a constellation of gun lobby and activist groups. Entire political constituencies — and therefore candidates — frame their worldview through a gun sight, with foundational ramifications for the functioning of American society.

Some of that history of how we got here, and what it means for our present reality, is the subject of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America, by Ryan Busse.

Published in late 2021, the book tells the equal parts personal and political story of how Kansas-born, Kalispell, Mont. resident Busse transformed from a country kid who loved hunting into one of the most respected executives in the firearms industry to one of its fiercest critics.

It’s a rare perspective. Busse is everything that the National Rifle Association used to celebrate: a conservation-minded outdoors lover and hunter committed to the sport, history and craftsmanship of firearms. In Gunfight, he explains that those qualities were exactly why he got into the gun business in the mid-1990s, landing a job first at a scope

In Gunfight, an industry insider takes aim at toxic gun politics

manufacturer, followed by then-startup Kimber.

He brought his work ethic and love of quality firearms to Kimber as a salesman, where he rose through the ranks despite the colorful chaos generated by his boss — a halfcocked Aussie whose antics include strip club breakfasts, shady trips to Costa Rica and more-than-dubious bookkeeping.

In many ways, Busse saved Kimber, vaulting it into the front ranks of the gun industry. At the same time, he and his company gravitated ever nearer to the orbit of the NRA and the form of radical politics it increasingly espoused amid the presidency of Bill Clinton.

Enjoying such success, however, helped blind Busse to the growing corrosiveness of those politics. Even as the country slipped into a series of terrorist events and mass shootings, including at Columbine, the gun business took off; and, despite some stirring misgivings about the culture of fear being actively cultivated by the NRA and its partner politicians, Busse went along for the ride.

Going into the first years of the 21st century, Busse started to ruffle feathers within the gun lobby and industry. A pivotal moment came in 2003 with the Bush-Cheney energy plan, which aimed to open large swaths of undeveloped land for industrial use. Busse, a lifelong outdoorsman, was particularly horrified that the Badger-Two Medicine area south of Glacier National Park could be exploited under the plan.

As a self-described “red-meat gun executive,” Busse delivered a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. criticizing the Bush plan as anathema to the interests of outdoors lovers — including gun owners. He had, however, run afoul of the industry, NRA and other gun lobby groups in breaking ranks against a Republican.

“In the world of the NRA, just that simple dissent was enough to prove I was a dangerous subversive who was not 100 percent loyal,” Busse wrote in Gunfight, going on to describe the resulting wave of hostility — including the accusation that he supported communists.

“This troll attack was an important piece of the NRA’s political machine that eventually manifested itself in armies of MAGA hats, armed amateur militias and resistance to mask mandates during the COVID crisis,” he added.

Those realizations would come in time,

as Busse committed himself to trying to change the gun business and lobby apparatus from the inside. However, his struggle became ever more difficult as powerful political and industry forces married the act of gun ownership to a galaxy of other extreme ideological positions — few if any actually related to guns themselves, but rather engineered to gin up the necessary paranoia to boost sales.

As he wrote, “Encouraged by the NRA, our entire industry seemed willing to accept the ideology and rhetoric just as long as these abstractions sold guns and built careers. After all, how bad could it really get?”

It’s a gripping story, which Busse unfolds with colorful characters and cinematic prose — so much so that it’s a matter of if, not when, Gunfight shows up as a Netflix limited series. For now, it’s an urgent and penetrating portrait of poisoned (and poisonous) politics that deserves attention.

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FEATURE

Let them eat twigs

Feeding wildlife, while good-intentioned, does nothing but hurt the animals

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff Mary Franzel considers herself a friend to wild animals. As such, she makes it a goal to keep them wild.

She was in the middle of doing so — attempting to haze two moose from her property during the last week of January by shouting and throwing rocks and sticks in their direction — when she noticed something peculiar. When a piece of kindling or a stone would hit the ground near them, the moose would sniff the objects, inspecting their edibility.

These moose were not afraid of Franzel, and their interest in the thrown items implied that they expected her to feed them.

This suspicion became more likely when Franzel discovered the older of the two moose, the mother, dead against her Clark Fork home.

“Honestly, for a second, I thought that [the] mom had just laid down,” she told the Reader. “She literally was leaning against my house.”

The sudden death came as a shock. Both moose had been “walking totally fine,” Franzel said, and “their coats were beautiful” — not tick-ridden, like many of the moose spotted on Sandpoint city streets. As for any sign of a struggle: “Nothing — it was like she just laid down and died.”

Five days later, Franzel found the second, younger moose dead on her property, fewer than 100 feet from where its mother died.

Franzel sought help from community members who hauled each moose into the mountains to use for trapping bait, and took to social media to share her frustration with the situation. She suspected that the moose died of acidosis, which occurs when a buildup of rich food ferments in the animal’s gut and causes bacteria to leave the rumen, or stomach, and enter the bloodstream.

“You can see major highways [of animal tracks] going right up near a house,” Franzel said, adding that she estimates onethird of the 75 homes in her East Spring Creek neighborhood feed wildlife. “There wouldn’t be a major highway if there wasn’t something good here.”

Idaho Fish and Game personnel familiar with the case confirmed Franzel’s fears.

Matt Haag, a conservation officer covering the broader Clark Fork area, said that there are “only two things” this time of year that 14 /

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A moose calf inspects its dead mother, who officials suspect died of acidosis — an illness caused by backyard feeding. Photo by Mary Franzel, who took it from the window of her home. will kill a perfectly healthy moose within 72 hours: rumen acidosis or ingesting Japanese yew, a landscaping shrub poisonous to ungulates. Franzel said she does not have yew on her property.

T.J. Ross, a spokesperson with IDFG, said that while his office was not able to perform necropsies on either of the deceased moose, conversations with the trapper who disposed of them all but verified the cause of death. “[He] told us that those moose had been defecating on themselves down the back of their legs quite a bit and it was pretty runny, which is a really strong indicator of acidosis — that it was eating food that it shouldn’t be eating and that’s what killed both of them,” Ross told the Reader. “We don’t know that definitively, but based on the information we collected, that’s what we believe happened.”

During his 17 years as a game warden in Bonner County, Haag has seen a rise in backyard feeding — a practice that, while good-intentioned, hurts wild animals in a variety of ways. Regarding acidosis, Haag said ungulate digestive systems adjust in the winter months to a more fibrous diet.

“It’s just an epidemic here. It’s unbelievable how many people feed,” Haag said.

“Honestly, I think they think they’re help-

ing. They think to themselves, ‘How can deer make it through, especially in weather like this where the snow is like concrete?’

But, they’ve been doing it a lot longer than we’ve been here, so they know how to do it.

“They don’t realize that ruminants — deer, elk and moose — eat woody, fibrous material this time of year,” he added.

“They’re not after vegetation or green things.”

Not only can diets of corn, vegetables and other rich foods damage the animals’ guts, but the travel patterns that feeding encourages are not natural, Haag said.

“I can tell, driving down the highway, who is feeding and who is not, because there are deer trails in their yard,” Haag said. “They’re bringing these deer across the highway to get hit, and they get hit in the same spots in the wintertime. They shouldn’t be moving as much — especially not running across the highway, unless they’re being fed.

“You see five deer run across the highway together because they know at 10 a.m. that ‘Sally’ is putting corn out,” he added.

In addition, feeding can ramp up the spread of disease. This is especially important to understand as wildlife managers have identified chronic wasting disease in Idaho, and warn that it will inevitably make its

way into the panhandle, according to Haag.

“That’s huge,” he said. “When we get our first case of CWD up here, it’s going to go like wildfire because of the amount of people that feed. We’re going to see major deer reduction.”

Feeding wild animals isn’t an issue limited to Bonner County, but something Ross — who is based in Coeur d’Alene — has been observing throughout the region. He said the rise in population, combined with many of those new residents coming from places where wildlife education isn’t emphasized, could be contributing to the issue.

“People forget that they are wild animals and they may appear nice and cute and cuddly, but at the end of the day they are wild and highly unpredictable and therefore dangerous,” he said.

What’s more, an animal that becomes habituated to people can become a danger to itself and to the humans it learns to rely upon. However, relocation is not always possible.

“It’s very risky for everybody involved, including the animals … so that’s not always an option,” Ross said, “and when it’s not, the only thing we’re really left with is shooting the animal to get it away from humans so it doesn’t hurt anybody.”

Despite efforts on the part of IDFG to educate people about the dangers of feeding wild animals — whether acidosis, habituation, disease spread or anything else — that feeding continues in North Idaho. While feeding wildlife is illegal in places like Montana, the state of Idaho has no such law on the books.

Haag said that those who choose to feed deer, elk and other wildlife don’t always see “the damage that they do.”

“A lot of times, the deer or the moose or whatever it may be will wander off and die because it feels horrible,” he said. “So, they had six deer that come in and now they have five. They didn’t see that one go off and die in the creekbed. They don’t see that deer that gets hit by a car because it’s coming over to get the corn.”

The bottom line, according to wildlife officials, is that animals don’t need human assistance in the winter. The best way to help them is to enjoy them from a distance.

“Intentions are good from the beginning, and I do believe that,” Ross said, “but we try to remind folks that feeding never ends well for the animal.”

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COMMUNITY

Sandpoint Winter Carnival — Week 3

By Reader Staff

ganization Better Together Animal Alliance.

February in Sandpoint has seen it all, thanks to the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce’s annual Winter Carnival. A parade of lights, endless live music, family activities and fireworks — all within the first two weeks of festivities. The carnival concludes this weekend, but not without a few notable events yet to be enjoyed.

Thursday, Feb. 24

Cornhole at MickDuff’s Beer Hall Join the fun at 6 p.m. as MickDuff’s hosts “switcholio” cornhole, in which participants play with four random partners before being matched for a double-elimination tournament. Players pay $10 and are guaranteed six games of cornhole.

Friday, Feb. 25

Hillstomp at Eichardt’s It’s not every day that you have the chance to rock with a punk blues duo, but Hillstomp will bring just that to Eichardt’s Pub for a Friday gig from 8-11 p.m. There will be a $10 cover charge, with proceeds going to the local shelter and pet support or-

Oak Street Connection at MickDuff’s Beer Hall Bring your dancing shoes to this show, featuring eclectic musical duo Oak Street Connection. Tunes slated for 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 26

Weird and Wonderful Winter Carnival Pub Crawl This wild event is slated for noon-6 p.m. at Trinity at City Beach and MickDuff’s Beer Hall.

Way Down North at Eichardt’s This Northwest Montana duo is known for its multi-instrumentalist talents and vocals. Catch Way Down North from 7-10 p.m. at the pub.

Carnival games Explore carnival shenanigans throughout Sandpoint’s downtown shopping district.

Other White Meat at MickDuff’s Beer Hall OWM will bring a classic rock ’n’ roll party to the beer hall from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

7B Baggers to host N. Idaho Regional Feb. 26 All levels of cornhole competition welcome

By Reader Staff The 7B Baggers Cornhole Club will host a North Idaho Regional Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 26 at the Bonner County Fairgrounds, with doors opening at 8 a.m. and the first bags flying at 9 a.m.

The day will see three categories of competition: singles at 9 a.m., blind draw doubles around noon and BYOP (bring your own partner) doubles around 3 p.m. The blind draw round is where a player is randomly paired with another to compete in doubles, whereas in the BYOP doubles competition, you bring your own partner to compete.

All levels of cornhole experience are welcome. Participants must register on the American Cornhole League app. A $5 building use fee will be collected at the door, along with a playing fee according to level: Advanced being $35/player with a 90% payout; Competitive being $30/player with a 60% payout; and Intermediate being $25/player with a 50% payout.

MickDuff’s will be at the fairgrounds selling canned cocktails and beer. Players are asked to bring their own food.

7B Baggers is a big proponent of “playing cornhole for a cause,” often donating funds to local nonprofits. In February, the 16 /

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Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein at the Panida Theater Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. Presented by Lake Pend Oreille Repertory Theater Co. For more info and to purchase tickets, go to LPOrep.com.

Sunday, Feb. 27

K9 Keg Pull Doggos of all sizes will tow kegs and

club gifted $1,000 to the Sandpoint Senior Center.

Those with questions can reach out on the 7B Baggers Cornhold Facebook page or email sandpointcornhole@gmail.com.

cans of all sizes down a snow track on Cedar Street in front of host Eichardt’s Pub. Registration begins at 10:15 a.m. and races run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein at the Panida Theater Matinee at 3 p.m., doors open at 2 p.m.

Sandpoint Homeschool Academy donates to BTAA and KLT

By Reader Staff

The 7B Baggers Cornhole Club members present a check to representatives of SASi. From left to right: Ryan Huffey, Cherie Coldwell, Amelia Boyd and James Hunt. Courtesy photo.

Photo courtesy John Hatcher, EzyDog.

The families and community of the Sandpoint Homeschool Academy recently donated $600 respectively to Better Together Animal Alliance (BTAA) and Kaniksu Land Trust/Pine Street Woods.

A “Generosity Bucket” at the Academy’s fall musical, Seussical JR, raised $600, which was matched by Melinda Rossman, Homeschool Academy principal and lead educator. BTAA and KLT are grateful for this generous gift.

In its sixth year, the Sandpoint Homeschool Academy is the only one of its kind.

BTAA helps people and pets stay togeth-

Sandpoint Homeschool Academy students and staff pose for a photo during an activity at Schweitzer Mountain Resort. Courtesy photo. er through its community-based programs.

BTAA assists pet guardians with pet food assistance, low-cost spay and neuter, temporary boarding during emergencies, rehoming and more. To learn more about BTAA’s service and view pets available to adopt, visit bettertogetheranimalalliance.org.

Kaniksu Land Trust purchased 180 acres of the Pine Street Woods Community Forest in 2019 for purposes of education, conservation and recreation. Learn more at kaniksu.org.

COMMUNITY New trade school scholarship available

By Reader Staff The Angels Over Sandpoint recently announced a new scholarship available for students graduating from Bonner County high schools, including private, public or homeschool. The Richard Hutter Angels Over Sandpoint Trade School Scholarship is funded by Donna and Richard Hutter as well as donors who have attended Angels Over Sandpoint events. The scholarship is for students in Bonner County who are interested in receiving a two-year AA/AS degree or a trade certification from an accredited program, with preference given to North Idaho College, but not exclusive to NIC. Richard and Donna Hutter are longtime Bonner County residents and valued members of Angels Over Sandpoint. Upon Richard’s passing, the Angels decided to give a scholarship in his name to honor the work and generous donations the Hutters have given to the Angels and the communi-

ty. It was Richard’s wish, along with Donna’s, to help students go to a trade school rather than a four-year college, which may not be possible for many students, and help students get an education in fields where they could get a good paying job soon after high school.

The Angels Over Sandpoint are pleased and proud they can offer this valuable assistance, giving local young adults an education in a much-needed career. In the long run, not only will this help the individual students, but the entire area in receiving trained technicians, tradespeople, nurses and others. The Angels thank their patrons, who attend events and fundraisers, and Donna Hutter for supporting this scholarship.

Donations to the Richard Hutter Angels Over Sandpoint Trade School Scholarship can be made at angelsoversandpoint.org, or at facebook.com/angelsoversandpoint, with a notation of “trade” on your payment. To donate without specifying, just leave off the “trade.”

Any donation is always appreciated.

Get ready for CAL grants

By Reader Staff

Nonprofits with projects that benefit Bonner County should mark their calendars for Tuesday, March 1, when applications will be available for the Community Assistance League’s 2022 cycle of giving.

Last year, CAL gave away more than $100,000 dollars to worthy projects, with monies raised through sales at its upscale retail shop, Bizarre Bazaar. Volunteers run the shop, sorting donations from local residents, pricing, displaying and helping customers. Every item purchased means more money for grants and scholarships.

Eligible nonprofit organizations will have an important project serving Bonner

County exclusively, in a significant, positive way. Projects that are innovative and involve important issues will receive special consideration. Political, sectarian or religious programs that are not open to the entire community are not eligible.

Applications will be available beginning March 1 at the following locations: Sandpoint, Priest River, Old Town and Clark Fork libraries; the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce; and Bizarre Bazaar (502 Church St.); and can also be downloaded from the CAL website: CALSandpoint.org.

Grant applications must be returned or postmarked no later than Thursday, March 31.

For additional information, email CALSandpointGrants@gmail.com.

Learn about winter ecology in northwest Montana

By Reader Staff Enjoy the beauty of late winter in northwest Montana — and learn a thing or two — with a small group on Saturday, March 5, which will trek into the outdoors to study the oldest writing known of the earth, animal tracking and sign interpretation in the snow, ice and mud. Along with the instructor, the group will go through a 10-step method to identify tracks, patterns of movement, behavior, species and habitat.

The Winter Ecology Outdoor Education Program begins at 9 a.m. (Mountain Time) with a gathering at the Viking Room of the Venture Inn in Libby, Mont. (1015 U.S. Hwy. 2). There, over coffee, participants will briefly go over the take-home learning aid sheets that are designed as a primer for winter ecology.

At approximately 9:30 a.m. the group will head into the field to visit several sites, also

identifying coniferous and deciduous trees, evergreen forbs (herbaceous flowering plants), deciduous and evergreen shrubs, lichens, fungus and grasses. As the program continues through the day — wrapping up at approximately 2:30 p.m. (MST) — attendees will discuss predator/ prey relationships and specialized animal and bird adaptations for winter survival.

The class is designed for adults and will make several roadside stops, including short hikes on private lands less than one mile round trip. Participants will be in their own vehicles, and then in the great outdoors. The program is sponsored by Libby Base Camp Hostel, which offers accommodations via airbnb.

All participants must register to attend and come with full gas tanks, proper outerwear for weather, water, lunch, binoculars, cameras and a good sense of humor. Snowshoes are optional. No dogs.

To register, email b_baxter53@yahoo. com or call 406-291-2154.

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events

February 24 - March 3, 2021

THURSDAY, February 24

Cornhole at MickDuff’s 6pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall $10 entry, with a 6-game guarantee

FriDAY, February 25 Live Music w/ Hillstomp 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Portland, Ore. junkbox blues duo Live Music w/ Oak Street Connection 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Two-piece band playing eclectic music Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Energetic jazz covering a wide era

Wild and Scenic Film Festival 6:30-8:30pm @ Panida Theater Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness hosts this festival of 10 adventure-oriented films, with all proceeds benefiting our local trails and wild backyard - the Scotchman Peaks

SATURDAY, February 26 Live Music w/ Mobius Riff 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Live Music w/ Way Down North 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Duo from Northwest Montana performing Americana originals and covers Live Music w/ The Other White Meat 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Classic rock band from Sandpoint

Live Music w/ Mike Wagoner and Sadie Sicilia 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Father/daughter rock/folk duo February Fun Fling Dance 7-10pm @ Ponderay Events Center Tango lesson to start, then general dancing to follow. $9/adults, $5/teens. 208699-0421 for more information

7B Baggers Cornhole Club Tourney 9am @ Bonner Co. Fairgrounds Starting with singles comp, then doubles to follow. $5/player building fee, plus entry fees. sandpointcornhole@gmail.com for more info. All levels are welcome

Weird and Wonderful Pub Crawl 2-6pm @ Various Sandpoint pubs The 5th annual! Beers fit theme of what’s weird and wonderful for Winter Carnival.

Locations: 219, A&P’s, Connie’s, IPA, The Hound, Jalapeño’s, Matchwood, MickDuff’s Beer Hall, Tervan, Trinity and Utara Young Frankenstein play 7pm @ Panida Theater Join LPO Repertory Theater for their hilarious take on Mel Brooks’ musical comedy, starring Andrew Sorg, Kate McAlister, Ashley López and Holly Beamen, this one is not to be missed! Directed by Keely Gray. $25. Tickets at lporep.com

SunDAY, February 27

Young Frankenstein matinee showing 3pm @ Panida Theater A matinee showing of LPO Repertory Theater’s production of this musical comedy Sandpoint Chess Club 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Meets every Sunday at 9am

K9 Keg Pull 11am-1pm @ Cedar St., by Eichardt’s Pub Sandpoint’s most enduring Winter Carnival event, where area dogs pull everything from beer cans to kegs for glory! Don’t miss this one, it’s always a great time and raises funds for the animal shelter

monDAY, February 28

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Group Run @ Outdoor Experience 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant “Partnering with God to Make Better Choices”

wednesDAY, march 2

Live Music w/ Tim G. 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority

ThursDAY, march 3

2022 Oscar Shorts: Animated shorts • 7 p.m. @ Panida Theater An ongoing Oscar-nominated event, with animated shorts on March 3. Panida.org 18 /

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STAGE & SCREEN

Wild and Scenic Film Festival showcases splendor, adventure Designs and a wide variety of For the 20th year, the Wild and outdoor gear.

Scenic Film Festival will come to the Superstar Panida Theater in Sandpoint, with live Supporter tickand online screenings scheduled for ets cost $200, Friday, Feb. 25. including preProduced by the South Yuba Rivmier seating for er Citizens League and presented in the in-person Sandpoint by the Friends of Scotchman screening, five Peaks Wilderness, the screening begins raffle tickets at 6:30 p.m. and will feature a curated and access to collection of 10 films about the natural the pre-show world and the people working to keep reception hostit wild. ed at Outdoor According to FSPW organizers, “It Experience. will be a celebration of wild places, Superstar Suphuman resilience and communities built porter ticket on compassion.” holders for the The theme of the 2022 festival is online show “Currents of Hope,” and, according will receive 10 to SYRCL, was selected because it raffle tickets “speaks to momentum toward a brighter and a care package from FSPW. future.”

Tickets to the live show are limited, “Coming out of what has been a and available at panida.org or scotchchallenging year for all, we are eager to manpeaks.org/event, and all ticket return to an in-person festival and feel holders will have access to a recording optimistic about the growing groundof the show 24 hours after the event. swell of the environmental movement,” The festival has been made posthe organization stated. sible with support from local busiAmong the films in the screening, ness sponsors: Idaho Forest Group, one follows Riverhorse Nakadate as he KRFY 88.5 FM, the Reader, KPND canoes through endless miles of Bound- 95.3 FM, Williams and Schiller CPAs ary Water wilderness, while another and Consultants, Sandpoint Property focuses on an unruly elephant named Management, All Seasons Garden and Shaba who is rehabilitated back to the Floral, Evergreen Realty, Idaho Conserwild in Northern Kenya. Audiences will vation League, holistic chiropractor Dr. also hear from the woman who has held Mark William Cochran and personal several of the most coveted thru-hiking life mastery coach Cricket Windsong, records on Earth, and learn about oneKeokee Publishing, Six Moon Designs, star reviews of America’s Trout Unlimited, Sandmost beloved National point Area Veterinary and Wild and Scenic Parks, among many other Film Festival (NR) Emergency Services and selections.

Selkirk Press.

Friday, Feb. 25; doors at 6 Tickets cost $15 for This is the third year p.m., show starts in-person general admission — and online at 6:30 p.m.; $15 the Friends of Scotchman both in-person and online general admission, $200 Peaks Wilderness is host— with raffle tickets Superstar Support admission. ing the Wild and Scenic available for $5 each.

Film Festival locally.

All ticket holders can view FSPW will be raffling a recording of the show for All proceeds from the 24 hours afterward. Panida off a basket valued at night will go toward trail Theater, 300 N. First Ave., more than $500, which building, outdoor educa208-263-9191. Get tickets includes a painting dotion and keeping goats at panida.org or scotchman- wild in the Scotchmans. nated by Ed Robinson, a peaks.org/event. backpack from Six Moon

By Reader Staff

A collection of still images from upcoming films at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival. Courtesy photos.

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FOOD

The Sandpoint Eater Inspire me!

By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist

Some mornings, sitting here with my omnipresent cup of hot coffee, l struggle to find 700-800 words to fill my column. For inspiration, I ponder past travels or recent restaurant experiences. Sometimes, I drag down my mother’s rooster-decorated wooden card file and thumb through the dog-eared recipe cards.

At times I worry that I am fresh out of ideas. But, recently, my neighbor Howard assured me, “Marcia, your well will never go dry.” I hope he’s right.

I never know what’s going to spark an idea that has “legs.”

I’ve been mesmerized by street vendors worldwide: rice noodle makers in Bangkok, crêpiers in Paris, and ice cream rollers on the crowded streets of Siem Reap. On the other hand, caressing an old recipe card for a salmon loaf, scrawled in my mother’s familiar handwriting, might trigger an entire decade of childhood memories, mostly centered around food. I’ve done a lot more reaching inward this past couple of years, working off my vast food bank memory for ideas, as my outings have been infrequent and circumspect.

But this last weekend, I ventured out — I went to the Panida to see Young Frankenstein. Their COVID protocol was brilliant. The first weekend was for those of us who wanted to feel a little safer; proof of vaccination and masks were required. I walked out of the Panida, wholly blown away by 20 /

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the superb performances of the Lake Pend Oreille Repertory Theater actors. Not surprisingly, those thoughts segued right into Broadway — and instant recall of a dozen or so of my favorite trips to the Big Apple.

Those trips were business-related junkets to food or travel shows, so my transportation and lodging expenses were covered (along with the all-important meal per diem).

I’d often brought Casey along to share the (expensive) room, and she’d explore the city while I worked.

We’d mostly skip breakfast and lunch on my free evenings, then dress up for fancy prix

fixe dinners before heading to the theater. We made a great pair: I was there for the food and Casey was there for the shows. She didn’t care about delicate little appetizers, like a miniature baked brie, bedded upon mache (a small salad green) and drizzled with lingonberry glaze.

Before IG and Facebook (and much to the mortification of my children), I used to take dozens of fine-dining food photos for posterity. Then, I would use the pictures for inspiration and menu planning ideas and adapt my recipes once home.

I have a plethora of recipes I’ve created that haven’t

found their way to my column; they’re too complicated or contain ingredients too obscure for sourcing in our neck of the woods. I’m happiest when I feel like my column and recipe have a kinship to a holiday or growing season that readers can relate to and would enjoy.

At times, I labor to find words that will add flavor to my tales, constantly recalling a comment from a long-ago business partner, “Marcia, sometimes, trying to follow your conversations is like watching a high-stakes ping-pong ball in action.” With that in mind, I continue to work on transitional brevity.

A friend often asks for a recipe I haven’t yet committed to paper. But, you can be sure — and once I’ve completed that onerous exercise of measuring and carefully testing — you’ll find it in an upcoming Reader.

If you aren’t ready to travel to New York, you can recreate my miniature baked brie experience with the accompanying recipe, followed by an evening at the Panida on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. or Sunday, Feb. 27 at 3 p.m. You don’t want to miss this Broadway-worthy performance of Young Frankenstein. Break a leg and bon appétit!

Mini brie en croûte Serve as appetizers or as an accompaniment to a luncheon salad with a cold sparkling wine. Makes 16 miniature pastries.

INGREDIENTS: • 2 sheets thawed puff pastry (locally, Sara Lee in the freezer case) • 8 oz wheel of French brie • 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water for brushing

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

While pastry is thawing, cut brie in half through perimeter (use serrated knife and sawing motion), so you have two full circles. Cut each round portion with a circle cookie cutter, so you have eight small pieces per circle.

You can use your hands to pat into shape as needed.

When the pastry has thawed, unroll onto parchment paper or floured counter top. Roll the edges lightly, with a rolling pin, to increase size a bit. Cut each sheet into three rows, lengthwise, then four squares per long strip.

Spread a little jam, glaze or caramelized onions onto the square, top with a brie round in the center. Bring up the corners to meet in the middle, stretching as needed, but careful not to tear the dough. Twist the ends together to secure, making sure the

brie is completely encased.

Set the pastries on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. With leftover dough, you can make decorative toppings or add herbs. Brush with egg wash before baking.

Don’t crowd as they will puff up while baking.

Bake for about 25 minutes, on middle oven rack, until golden brown.

Serve warm.

MUSIC

Winter Carnival brings out the best at Eichardt’s

By Ben Olson Reader Staff Winter Carnival in Sandpoint is a fun-filled time during what is usually a lingering month of cold weather in Sandpoint. The annual event is made that much better with the various festivities taking place at Eichardt’s Pub, 212 Cedar St. As one of the more intimate venues in town, Eichardt’s has always been a great spot to enjoy live music. Since its beginning in the early 1990s, the pub was a place where bands traveling between Montana and Washington could do a “gas stop” to break up the tour a little bit and

spread some musical cheer along the way.

For the 2022 Winter Carnival, Eichardt’s has a couple of bands worth checking out, including Hillstomp and Way Down North.

Hillstomp will play Eichardt’s Friday, Feb. 25 from 7-10 p.m. This rowdy Portland, Ore. band bills itself as a “junkbox blues duo … infamous for digging through the dumps and forgotten backwoods of American music.” Featuring Henry Christian on guitar and John Johnson on the buckets, Hillstomp recycles the traditional elements into a refreshing and distinctive brand of DIY hill country blues stomp.

202 N Second Ave Sandpoint, ID 208-627-5535

Cold Press Juice Bar

The band adds a bit of everything to the stew, including North Mississippi trance blues, Appalachia and a dash of punkabilly punctuated by the clanging and tumbling noises coming from buckets, cans and barbecue lids — all accompanied by a rambunctious slide guitar.

“Somehow it works,” according to the band, and it does.

Despite their homemade instruments and novel approach, Hillstomp creates magic, converting outlaws and traditionalists alike from skeptics into preachers.

Way Down North will play Eichardt’s on Saturday, Feb. 26 from 7-10 p.m. This duo hails from northwest Montana, performing Americana originals and covers.

Tina Bertram plays the banjo, keyboard and vocals, along with Cory Chopp on the mandolin, guitar and vocals. These

Live music, endearing dogs and more

Left: John Johnson and Henry Christian of Portland, Ore.-based band Hillstomp.

Right: Tina Bertram and Cory Chopp of the Western Montana band Way Down North. Courtesy photos. two combine talents to bring a mixture of instruments to their gigs at saloons, breweries and weddings across the West.

To cap off the busy weekend, Eichardt’s will host the K9 Keg Pull on Cedar Street out front of the pub, with area pooches competing against one another to pull everything from beer cans to kegs along a track in the snow.

It’s one of the most endearing local events here in Sandpoint and is not to be missed, especially because proceeds help support the Better Together Animal Alliance.

Visit sandpointwintercarnival.com for more info on events.

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The Other White Meat, MickDuff’s Beer Hall, Feb. 26 Some bands come and go, others stay the course. The Other White Meat knows that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it — that’s why this North Idaho rock ’n’ roll is a true classic, with a history dating back to the early 1990s.

And this is no idle weekend warrior outfit; in its time The Other White Meat has opened for the likes of George Thorogood, Styx, REO Speedwagon, The Doobie Brothers, Ted Nu-

gent, Rail, and Cracker.

The Other White Meat is also a favorite at MickDuff’s Beer Hall, where the band will be bringing down the house as part of Week 3 of the Sandpoint Winter Carnival.

— Zach Hagadone

This week’s RLW by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

READ

Part of why I love news writing is the ability for reporters to spread important PSAs that might actually have a positive impact. One such story I found this week appeared on the Idaho Capital Sun website: an article titled “Livestock guardian dogs have a job to do — please leave them in the field.” The story, by Steve Stuebner, shared all the reasons why livestock guardian dogs might be mistaken for abandoned or mistreated animals, and detailed just how important their remote job posts — and strict training — are to the sheep herds of Idaho. Read it at idahocapitalsun.com.

LISTEN

I am very much in love with Nashville-born indie pop band COIN. Their music is largely uplifting, drum-driven and emanating a general “get psyched, life is worth living” vibe — the perfect antidote to late-February cabin fever in North Idaho. The band is set to release its sixth album in March, adding to its already impressive repertoire. I recommend “Talk Too Much,” “Chapstick,” “Cemetery” and “Crash My Car” as some of COIN’s top tracks.

WATCH

There is a second season of Love Is Blind gradually being released on Netflix, and I’m addicted.

I am not proud to admit this. Love Is Blind, a show in which strangers date and get engaged through a wall, having never seen one another, is a trash reality TV show. The contestants who get engaged meet in person, go on vacation, move in together and get married in a matter of weeks, effectively testing whether love really is blind. It’s a wreck. I highly recommend both seasons.

6:30-9:30 p.m., FREE, 21+.

MickDuff’s Beer Hall, 220 Cedar St., 208-290-6700, mickduffs. com.

February 24, 2022 /

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BACK OF THE BOOK

Cold comfort From Northern Idaho News, February 23, 1909

WIRELESS ELECTRIC LIGHTS Wireless electric light is the latest topic of conversation in Sandpoint among electrical men and others.

Recently, George H. Cannon of the Independent Electric company got his brain at work and accomplished something, from all appearances which is little more than marvelous. A piece of plate glass nicely painted with a six-candle power electric light at the top with no apparent connection whatever has been on display in the window of the Sandpoint Cigar company and has attracted large crowds of interested spectators. It is the first of its kind ever witnessed in this city and to one not familiar with the principal, is a bit perplexing. Some of the “wise ones” have since gotten “next” and are now telling their friends how they “found out.”

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/ February 24, 2021

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

For the past couple of days, since our big cold snap, Reader Publisher Ben Olson and I have been sitting in the newsroom with two space heaters cranking away and the wall unit going full bore. Yet we’re still sitting here fully bundled in our winter coats, wearing scarves and hats like a couple of Bob Cratchits, periodically erupting with complaints that our ankles are freezing.

There are many benefits to being located in the historic Farmin Building downtown, but I can tell you that when the north wind starts ripping down from Canada, these old windows perform their function mostly in the academic sense.

I have a little less sympathy for Ben, though. By the time this paper hits the streets on Feb. 24, he’ll be well on his way to three weeks of sailing in the Caribbean where, as he points out, it will be about 80 degrees warmer than it is here.

As a good friend and colleague, I try hard to be happy for him and will do my best to live vicariously as he’s plying the tropical waves; but, as anyone who’s experienced more than a few “real” North Idaho winters can attest, that kind of thinking gets increasingly brittle the longer you sit next to a drafty window.

Maybe it’s my advancing age or I went soft after my years living in Boise, but I find myself increasingly unfit for the cold. Maybe I just need new long johns — I’ve had the ones I’m wearing

STR8TS Solution

long enough that they’re practically a shroud.

I don’t know, but I don’t think I was this put out by frigid conditions in my younger days. I remember playing on the ice at my grandma’s place on the lake for hours and thinking nothing of it. Now if I have to travel more than a couple of blocks in temperatures below freezing, I’m doing so behind the wheel of my car and turning on the seat warmers.

All that said, I’ve been around long enough to know that complaining about cold weather does nothing to warm you up. However, recognizing my own irritability about it, makes me wonder how many of our new neighbors are holding up — the ones who in the past year or so moved here from much warmer places.

If they’re a little taken aback by things like frozen pipes, monthly heating bills in the hundreds of dollars, crappy insulation in old or badly renovated homes, mice that have moved in to keep warm, black ice and inconveniently placed plow berms, “snow parking” that reduces residential streets to one-lane tracks, muscling garbage cans over an arctic landscape, chipping ice off your windshield and breaking your wiper(s) in the process, or any number of other inconveniences, I say to them: You’re not alone, though that is literally cold comfort.

I don’t think there’s anything particularly “authentic” or tough about pretending that winter here can’t be a pain in the ass, and I don’t dismiss the grumbling of anyone — whether they

Zach Hagadone in warmer times. Photo by Ben Olson.

were born here or moved last month — who doesn’t relish frozen ankles and would frankly prefer to be on a boat in the Caribbean.

The best thing to do, and what I will continue to do, is keep the space heaters going, get a new pair of long johns and try not to actively despise Ben when he’s hoisting anchor and a cold (rather than frozen) beer.

Crossword Solution

Sudoku Solution

If you get invited to your first orgy, don’t just show up nude. That’s a common mistake. You have to let nudity “happen.”

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22

cordiform

Woorf tdhe Week

By Bill Borders

/KAWR-duh-fawrm/

[adjective] 1. being in the shape of a heart; heart-shaped.

“On his walk home, Harold noticed the cordiform clouds and took it as a good omen for his first date with Betty.”

Corrections: We misspelled Brendan Kelty’s name in last week’s Reader. Sorry about that Brendan. We owe you a beer.

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

Laughing Matter

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Dogfish 5. Gibe 10. Russian emperor 14. Fishing poles 15. Hunger for 16. Buckeye State 17. Concomitant 19. Nil 20. East southeast 21. Slander 22. Fruity-smelling compound 23. Preordain 25. Lit to a higher degree 27. Move from side to side 28. Acaudal 31. Fertile area in a desert 34. Satisfies 35. Caviar 36. Annex 37. Painful grief 38. Rhythm 39. Historic period 40. Happen again 41. Hard liquor 42. Common venereal disease 44. Bog 45. Old photo color 46. Pendant earring 50. Autumn color 52. Water lily 54. Old World vine 55. Space 56. Not a lowlander 58. Pot

Solution on page 22 59. A small island 60. Monster 61. Not more 62. Manicurist’s board 63. Obtains

DOWN 1. Cambered 2. Antlered animal 3. Runs in neutral 4. American Sign Language 5. Temporary 6. Diving bird 7. Unusual 8. Appraiser

9. Snake-like fish 10. Part of the throat 11. Broken 12. Orderly 13. Lion sound 18. Pseudonym 22. L L L L 24. Branchlet 26. Jetty 28. Anklebone 29. Saturate 30. Bristle 31. Is endebted to 32. Jaunty 33. Informal photographs 34. A political theory

37. Sandwich shop 38. Agent 007 40. Fully developed 41. Vice ___ 43. Herald of the gods (Greek mythology) 44. Defective 46. Aromatic solvent 47. Chain of hills 48. Blatant 49. Anagram of “Preys” 50. By mouth 51. Ice cream holder 53. Leer at 56. Hasten 57. Holiday drink

February 24, 2021 /

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Tha n k you to o u r s p o n sors, don o rs, a nd vo l u nteers of th e 1 4th An n ua l H ea rt Ba l l on beha lf of the B o n n e r Gen era l H ea lth Fo u n dati o n . Yo u r su p port e n s u res excel lent ca re co nti n u es, right h e re, close to h o m e .

AGP Wealth Adviso rs. Ron Denova Alex & Britt,my Jacobson Alpi ne Shop Amber Gildersleeve, NW Rea lty Group Annette Lorenzi & Jeff Owensby Ario's Ristorante Arthur & Annie Pollock Baxters on Cedar Bel la Terra Boutique Benjamen Woodbridge Berg, McLa ug h l i n & Nelson, Chtd .

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Horne

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Sa nd Creek Qui lting Sa nd point Art Works Sawyer's Bakery Sayler Owens Kerr, I nc.

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F O U N DA T I O N

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