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ach year, we reprint PROJECT CENSORED’S roundup of the top 10 stories that were largely ignored or underreported over the prior year by corporate media (think CNN or the Washington Post). While it never fails to be a pretty disheartening collection, this year also includes a few bright spots, regarding incarceration and higher education. But the rest of the report shows there’s a lot of work to be done, not just in making sure these important stories make it to print (or airwaves), but that a call to action is heard. Climate change isn’t going away (probably ever) and there are several stories in Project Censored’s latest list touching on the topic. Safe information on women’s health care is also everthreatened around the globe, in large part due to American-centric attitudes about abortion. And there’s more, as you’ll read starting on page 20. We do our best to hold those in power accountable, yet there are always stories that someone, somewhere, doesn’t want to get out. So, is there a local story you think is being censored? Drop us a line at editor@inlander.com and we’ll dive in.
— CHEY SCOTT, Editor
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IF YOU COULD LEARN ANY STYLE OF DANCE, WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
PAIGE WRIGHT Salsa!
Why salsa? I’m spicy, that’s why.
DENISE ROBERSON Rumba.
Why rumba?
The beat. You can’t help but move when you hear that music.
MARY MACHTOLF
I would say there are a couple. Definitely salsa, and I’ll go with the other extreme and say street dancing.
JOE WRIGHT The Lindyhop!
Why’s that?
My sister is semi-professional, so I think it would be fun to do [it] with her.
LORETTA THOMPSON
I would do ballroom dancing and also tap.
Any specific reason?
It just seems so fun and vibrant. Ballroom is so elegant and beautiful. And tap just makes you wanna jam.
CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR INTERVIEWS BY MADISON PEARSON 1/5/2025,
Curated Care Including: Home Visits, IV Therapy, Dry Needling, OMT, Telehealth, Weight Loss & Hormone Support (509) 207-1565 •
“I
Straight from the Source
The Columbia River defines our corner of the continent, but the remote valley where it starts has its own story to tell
BY KNUTE BERGER, CROSSCUT.COM
Ifell for Coyote and ripped out her heart for him, and where her heart landed became the headwaters of the Columbia, and the blood that flowed from it was the river.
Tf the Columbia River’s mouth eluded some of the most seasoned Northwest explorers who overlooked it, or mistook it for a bay or a section of rough coast, locating the river’s headwaters was also a challenge.
Unlike the river’s outlet, the Columbia gained its 1,200-mile momentum in the Rocky Mountain trench between the Rockies and Purcell ranges in the deep Northwest interior of eastern British Columbia. And oddly, if explorers expected the big river to turn south or west, it confusedly runs north for some 200 miles until it does a tight hairpin turn and begins its long roll to the Pacific. Looking at a simple map of the river’s course, it looks like someone has untwisted a paperclip and left in more than one Big Bend.
The Sinixt [pronounced sin-eye-ext] people’s traditional lands extend from Kettle Falls and the Colville Reservation in the U.S. to the Columbia’s hairpin turn at Mica in the north. Sinixt storyteller Marilyn James tells of the river’s origins: Coyote once met and fell in love with Rain. Rain
he river is indeed the region’s lifeblood. Today its headwaters are acknowledged as Columbia Lake, an 8-mile-long body of relatively shallow water. When the first white fur traders came over Athabasca Pass from modern-day Alberta just to the north, they built a trading post, Kootenae House, near present day Invermere, B.C. They essentially set up camp close to what turned out to be the origin of the great river they were looking for — without knowing it. David Thompson, a Welsh-Canadian fur trader and surveyor who led the group in the early 1800s, was sent to explore and survey the unmapped region, exploit its fur-bearing resource, and figure out where the Columbia started and follow it to its mouth.
In 1811, Thompson and his exploring party became the first known Europeans to navigate the Columbia’s entire length. They were the first whites to travel from Kettle Falls (later drowned in Grand Coulee Dam’s Lake Roosevelt in 1940) to the river’s junction with the Snake River near the present-day Tri-Cities. The comparatively
It’s shallow and only eight miles in length, but Columbia Lake is where the mighty Columbia River starts rolling on. STAN JONES PHOTO / ADOBE STOCK
placid, dammed river we know today was rough going back then with falls and rapids, but Thompson’s trip was not only in service of the fur trade and finding a route to the Pacific, but also of laying claim to the region ahead of competing American colonizers, spurred in part by the explorations of Lewis and Clark. Thompson mapped much of the Columbia drainage in western Canada, Idaho, Montana and Washington.
Reading accounts of Thompson’s ventures in the region, one gets the sense of its remoteness and isolation. Even today, this stretch of mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, lakes and fjords is complex, beautiful and still encased in wilderness. For many Americans, the Columbia River just disappears from thought and view north of the U.S. border. But nearly 400 miles of the river runs through this spectacular country.
Even for a seasoned adventurer like Thompson, who was often reliant on the aid of local First Nations peoples for survival, the region carried a whiff of the primeval. During a trek over Athabasca Pass to the west side of the Rockies, Thompson’s party encountered a fresh set of footprints in the snow, which his Indigenous companions believed had been made by an elephant-like creature that, as tradition had it, lived in the area. It was said to be about 18 feet high and to sleep standing up, sometimes leaning against trees. It was not a carnivore but a vegetarian. Thompson thought the tracks could have been made by an old grizzly with worn claws, but had his doubts.
“Canada’s Columbia Basin contributes some 30% to 40% of the Columbia River’s total runoff from snow and ice.”
Throughout the 19th century there were rumors that woolly mammoths might still wander the north lands. Author Jack Nisbet, who followed in the footsteps of Thompson for his book Sources of the River, has written “It’s hard not to be intrigued by this account. The Whirlpool [River] drainage does have an Ice Age look about it, and it has the room, the vast empty spaces that it would take to harbor an outsized relic.”
Indeed, this part of Canada still gives us a look at the era of glaciation that shaped so much of the Pacific Northwest — and continues to. The Columbia starts here with rain, snow and glacier melt. The vast Columbia Icefield in the Rockies straddles the Continental Divide between Alberta and B.C. Its meltwater eventually feeds into three oceans: the Arctic, the Atlantic and the Pacific. You can view it from the Icefield Parkway between Banff and Jasper National parks. The mountains here dwarf visitors, even mammoth-sized ones. One can appreciate its scale by walking on one of the Icefield’s big toes, the Athabasca Glacier at its eastern base.
The Columbia Icefield supplies water to the North Saskatchewan, Athabasca, Fraser and Columbia rivers. It is thought to have formed some 200,000 years ago during Illinoian glaciation, which reached as far south as Illinois. Like many glaciers and icefields that feed the Columbia, the Icefield is shrinking. So too are British Columbia’s glaciers.
Canada’s Columbia Basin contributes some 30% to 40% of the Columbia River’s total runoff from snow and ice. The future of the Northwest’s freshwater supply, irrigation, fish habitat and hydropower partly lie here. A study in the journal Science, published in 2023, concluded that most glaciers in western Canada will be gone in 80 years due to warming global temperatures. Due to drought and decline in snowpack, hydropower production has been down significantly, though demand is rising.
“Roll on, Columbia” is a phrase that can’t be taken for granted. The generation being born now might be the last to know the river and its headwaters as we have known them. n
Knute “Mossback” Berger is editor-at-large for Crosscut.com, where this first appeared.
ANIMAL WELFARE
Puppy Predicament
Spokane-area animal shelters are facing financial stress and systemic issues
BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM
It’s a classic Hallmark scene: a box under the Christmas tree shakes, then whimpers. A nose sticks out, then two eyes, then a puppy with a big red bow on its collar leaps into loving arms.
But then, the rest of the year comes — often with expensive vet bills or training failures. Unexpected challenges take their toll, and sometimes pets need new homes.
But this year, options for dogs that need homes are narrowing, and large, untrained dogs might be getting left out.
“We have community-wide issues in terms of animal welfare not being controlled very well in our community,” says Jeff Sandler, who volunteers with SpokAnimal and Short-Term After Hours Rescue, or STAHR, two pet nonprofits in Spokane.
As 2025 starts, animal welfare advocates are facing a new year of rising costs and tensions. With insurance premiums rising across the country, SpokAnimal and the
Spokane Humane Society were forced last year to limit the size of animal or types of behavioral issues they accept in order to afford coverage. The other large animal welfare organization, Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Services, or SCRAPS, is a law enforcement agency that is required first and foremost to prioritize public safety from dangerous animals, not owner surrenders.
Smaller rescues and relocation services like STAHR and Freddie B’s Furry Friends Rescue fill in some gaps but have even smaller capacities. It’s hard to estimate how many animals are abandoned and uncared for, but for some working in animal welfare, their current workload has them worried about the future.
“The rescues are full. The shelters are full,” says Brenda Wright, a volunteer with SpokAnimal and River’s Wish Animal Sanctuary, and a board member of Freddie B’s Furry Friends Rescue.
“Every time we euthanize a dog [in Spokane], everybody freaks out. But there are places [in the country] that euthanize 100 dogs a day,” Wright says. “If people think that’s not where we’re going to end up, it is where we’re going to end up if we don’t see some changes.”
A BITE FROM INSURANCE
Between rescuing kittens, socializing puppies, saving sick pets and matching animals with new families, one of the last things animal shelter staff want to think about is insurance.
But insurance can make or break a shelter. Finding an insurer to cover an animal shelter, which by nature puts staff and volunteers at some risk of dog bites or cat scratches, is much harder than it used to be.
For Spokane Humane Society, dog bites are more than hypothetical. After two volunteers sustained dog bites, the society’s insurance premium increased from $40,000 per year to about $240,000 last year, Executive Director Kim Reasoner-Morin says.
“I cannot say a dog bite is not risky, because they happen very, very quickly — we’re talking under 10 seconds — and it is life changing for the person that sustains the injury,” Reasoner-Morin says. “Those canines that have done that here are sweet. They take treats from you. You go out on walks with them. But one thing is, they’re unpredictable. The last thing I want is for any person that I know or don’t
Shelter volunteer Brenda Wright rescued her 15-year-old dog Kenai 12 years ago.
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know to experience that. It’s something I take very seriously.”
It might be typical for a premium to go up after filing a claim, but going up by five or six times the current amount is unusual and burdensome. Still, Reasoner-Morin says she was determined to stay open so her staff wouldn’t lose their jobs, and so other clinical services the Humane Society provides, including spaying and neutering, would remain available to low-income families. There was only one insurer willing to cover the shelter after the dog bites, she says, so she took it.
From an insurer’s perspective, everything is more expensive right now, which means paying out for claims and medical bills is more expensive, says Aaron VanTuyl, communications manager for the Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner.
Plus, insurance rates lag behind actual costs, VanTuyl says, since companies have to apply for and justify rate increases before actually raising prices. Premiums are playing catch-up with the rest of the economy and therefore can reflect crises from a few years ago.
re-releasing a lost dog into their neighborhood, or simply be tasked with a job that isn’t theirs to do.
“They could bite people, they could carry disease,” says Yvonne Leach, who volunteers at SpokAnimal and is certified in Dogs Playing For Life, which helps assess shelter dogs and match them with adopters.
“There’s also the whole process of then relying on the community to be the solution when [SCRAPS is] supposed to be providing the care and the solutions to the community,” she says.
In 2024, SCRAPS responded to 7,000 requests for service, reunited more than 600 animals with their owners, and adopted out more than 2,550 animals without homes, Ferrari says.
Per its duties as a law enforcement agency, SCRAPS also euthanizes dogs that are deemed dangerous to the public. Ferrari says a team of behavioral specialists goes through the same decentralized decision-making process when evaluating animals so that “every animal gets the same chance.”
Local animal advocacy organizations like Underground Rainbow question the reliability of such behavioral evaluations, which are meant to predict whether dogs would be safe to adopt out, and are concerned they result in excess euthanizations.
BREEDING MORE PROBLEMS?
In October 2023, the Humane Society instituted a behavioral assessment for dogs before accepting them. Reasoner-Morin says that’s the best practice for all shelters around the country per the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Spokane Humane Society does turn some dogs away, but they still accept more than they deny, she says.
Even if insurance premiums magically decreased or shelters had unlimited funding, it still might not solve the larger issues when it comes to dogs in need.
“We do see a lot of individuals that are bringing in their mom’s cat or their dad’s dog [from a parent] who just passed away,” Reasoner-Morin says. “So generally, they’re in a home with an older person and they’re sweet.”
“Focusing on insurance is really going the shallow route,” Sandler says. “It’s much deeper than that.”
SpokAnimal staff wouldn’t speak about their insurance policy, but confirmed they currently only accept dogs that are 30 pounds or less.
The issue isn’t how to pay for services and coverage, but the number of dogs that need shelters or rescue care every year, he says.
“If there was another shelter built, it would just get full,” says Tandi Brayson-Foster, the founder and executive director of STAHR. “That doesn’t solve the problem.”
SCRAPS, which deals most regularly with dangerous dogs, is insured through the county, which is part of the Washington Counties Risk Pool, according to Pat Bell, communications director for the county.
Backyard breeding, lack of spaying and neutering, and lack of owner education are major reasons why there are too many dogs and not enough homes, she says.
Though SCRAPS has the fewest insurance worries, it can’t provide the same services that SpokAnimal or the Humane Society offer. It’s technically a law enforcement agency, not a shelter, and therefore has a different role to play, says Jesse Ferrari, SCRAPS’ director.
SCRAPS doesn’t accept owner surrenders and has to prioritize aggressive dog complaints, he says. If someone brings in a lost dog that’s friendly, SCRAPS will probably suggest taking it back to the neighborhood where it was found and trying to locate the owner privately.
Ferrari calls it a “common sense approach,” since chances are good that the dog hasn’t wandered far. One day last year, someone brought in a lost dog who was reclaimed by its owner only a half hour later.
“The owner said, ‘I know they were trying to do the right thing, but I was nine houses down,’” Ferrari says.
This style of managed intake, sometimes called “community sheltering,” is a hot topic in the animal welfare community and critiqued by some STAHR members. They worry that community members may not be able to properly assess how friendly a dog is, might feel uncomfortable
“This is a national problem, all of these things,” Wright says. “People are breeding irresponsibly. They’re dumping animals irresponsibly. Just with Freddie’s rescue, every single day somebody wants to rehome, or somebody’s calling because they found a dog that somebody dumped, or a whole litter of puppies that somebody dumped. There’s no place for them to go.”
In 2009, when the Washington Legislature put laws in place trying to regulate irresponsible breeding, lawmakers found that “an unfair fiscal burden is placed on city, county, and state taxpayers as well as government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, which are required to care for discarded or abused and neglected dogs from large-scale breeding facilities.”
In Spokane County, it’s illegal to sell animals in parking lots or on other public property, which is often where unfixed and unvaccinated pets from breeders are sold. In 2023, Washington passed a law restricting pet stores from selling puppy mill puppies in order to crack down on irresponsible breeding.
Still, informal breeding and selling is less regu-
lated just across the border in Idaho. It’s common knowledge that people can easily buy a puppy in the parking lot of the Post Falls Cabela’s most weeks.
Informal breeding is happening in Washington, too. But as financially and emotionally taxing as it is to deal with animals that end up at shelters, it’s even more expensive to find backyard breeders in the first place.
“How much do we want to spend in taxes to shut them down?” says Reasoner-Morin of the Humane Society.
She wonders if anyone knows exactly how many animals in the area are slipping through the cracks. Though she often hears concerns that backyard breeders will create more strays, she’s less alarmist about their role in adding to the problem.
“I think it’s more based on a feeling versus actual data,” she says.
According to the national database Shelter Animals Count, the number of strays in the entire country was around 3.8 million in 2022 and 2023, with about the same number expected for 2024. Their dashboard shows that shelter intakes have decreased, but the number of animals surviving shelters has also decreased — since 2020, there has been a steady increase of animals dying in care or being euthanized.
But the number most on Reasoner-Morin’s mind is the recent update from her team that 75% of people who made appointments in the last two weeks to rehome their pets didn’t show up. That either means people didn’t end up needing to surrender their animal, or that they had a problem getting to the Humane Society. Her team is still trying to figure it out. For Reasoner-Morin, there are a lot of great services for adoption, spaying and neutering, and low-cost medical care available in Spokane — people just need to use them. Just about everyone agrees that awareness, education and more utilization of the services available are keys to creating a better quality of life for both people and pets.
“There’s a lot of things going on in Spokane County that need to be addressed,” Sandler says. “Rather than blaming a particular shelter for not being able to take in animals, what we wanted to present is an awareness that this is happening and what else is going on in the community.” n
elizab@inlander.com
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Wright rescued Kenai after he failed a behavioral assessment at a local shelter. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO
Boise-Bound
Idaho lawmakers expect to consider school choice, Medicaid expansion and more this session
BY VICTOR CORRAL MARTINEZ
For weeks, Idaho lawmakers have been preparing for this year’s legislative session, which convened on Monday, Jan. 6.
The Idaho Legislature’s 35 senators and 70 representatives will meet from January until early April. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers, with a total of 90 seats.
We spoke with Idaho lawmakers who say their priorities this year include looking at funding school choice, repealing or reforming Medicaid coverage, and lowering taxes.
EDUCATION
During the last legislative session, several school choice bills failed. School choice would allow families to use public education funds for private school, charter school or homeschooling.
One method would’ve offered tax credits to reimburse families with children in private school for education expenses and tuition. Another proposal would’ve created a tax-free “education savings account,” for families to put toward private school tuition, at a cost of potentially $20 million to the state.
One North Idaho face returning to the Idaho Legislature is Sen. Jim Woodward,
R-Sagle. Woodward will be vice chair of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, which oversees state revenue and agency budget requests. He is also on the Education Committee.
According to the 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances by the U.S. Census Bureau, Idaho had the worst per-pupil funding in the country at $10,203. Rural school districts like West Bonner County and Boundary County (within Woodward’s district) face some of the tightest budgets and often struggle to pass bonds and levies.
Woodward strongly supports the public education system and would like to move to a fully state-funded system.
“I’m at the point that I’m ready to move the school systems off property tax in any way and just fund from the state level,” Woodward says. “That’s the goal, is to get the schools funded properly.”
Woodward says he opposes the idea of funding private school choice, as he is concerned about accountability and pulling resources from public school districts.
“Whatever proposal they might provide, it’s still talking about the use of public taxpayer money, and with public taxpayer money, the first requirement is accountabil-
ity,” Woodward says. “I’m supportive of our public education system; you can see that in my voting record over the years. I think we need to ensure we take care of our constitutional obligation before extending ourselves further with a larger obligation.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, would like to see school choice via tax credits. His district covers Kootenai County, which has more than 20 private schools and the second-largest concentration of private school students in the state.
“I hope to see legislation signed into law to expand education freedom through education tax credits,” Toews tells the Inlander via email. “These will empower parents to give their children the best opportunity to succeed with an education tailored to their unique needs and interests.”
Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, says the state needs to fund public education. She’s concerned about the potential cost of school choice, pointing to Arizona’s school choice program, which costs about $800 million for roughly 83,000 students.
The Idaho State Board of Education has requested $3.3 billion for K-12 spending, but that doesn’t include funding private school choice. According to a February 2024 education board report, Idaho has 16,843 private and 312,643 public school students.
Wintrow says a voucher system would especially harm rural public schools, and the voucher system wouldn’t necessarily help more families send their students to private school.
“We have seen from national research that in these voucher schemes from other states, what it’s showing is that most of the people getting these vouchers are already enrolled in a private or religious school, and they’re using the money to supplement their
As Idaho’s legislative session starts, education, health coverage and other priorities are top of mind.
current amount they’re paying for private tuition,” Wintrow says. “To me, that is not appropriate.”
MEDICAID
Idaho Medicaid is a health insurance program for low-income people, children, those with disabilities, and pregnant mothers. In 2018, more than 60% of Idaho voters approved an Idaho Medicaid expansion.
The expansion covers about 145,000 Idaho residents who would otherwise be unable to receive Medicaid coverage because they’re above the poverty level but can’t afford private coverage. The expanded eligibility covers people who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level ($35,632 for a household of three).
This fiscal year, which ends in July, Idaho’s entire Medicaid program is budgeted to cost more than $4.7 billion. The cost is expected to increase to more than $5 billion next year. The cost of the Medicaid expansion is 90% covered by the federal government.
House Speaker Mike Moyle has indicated he’d like to reform or repeal Medicaid expansion this session.
Wintrow believes the benefits of Medicaid coverage in Idaho outweigh the cost. She says the 24% of Medicaid recipients who have a primary diagnosis of serious mental illness benefit from the expansion. Medicaid coverage reduced the cost of medical charity care and bad medical debt by $103 million from 20192021, according to Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare.
“So if we look at repealing or reforming Medicaid, we could be harming the very people we’re trying to help,” Wintrow says.
Woodward says he was an early opponent of the Medicaid expansion. Still, when Idahoans voted for expansion, he supported their decision and sees no indication that voters want it repealed.
TAXES
A key issue in Idaho every year is taxes and how to limit them.
Toews says continuing to reduce taxes is one of his priorities. Specifically, he says he’d like to “lower my constituents’ living costs by eliminating grocery tax and increasing homeowners’ exemptions to lower property taxes.”
However, Wintrow says that in the past five years, Idaho has cut about $4 billion in taxes, which could have been used to address funding shortfalls in areas such as education. She wants to see tax reform on property and grocery taxes, but not additional income tax rebates that benefit wealthier people.
“My constituents have said very clearly, ‘Stop doing income tax rebates,’ because it’s harming the revenue stream, and it’s harming the investment we can make in schools and access to public health,” Wintrow says.
Woodward says he would like to see property tax exemptions and grocery sales tax credits updated to reflect inflation and provide adequate relief for vulnerable Idahoans.
OTHER PRIORITIES
Woodward would like to address the crisis of obstetricians leaving Idaho. Bonner General Hospital in Sandpoint no longer offers obstetric services. He’d like to change language in the state’s abortion laws to help prioritize a mother’s survival and provide protection for doctors, who are afraid to save mothers due to the threat of a felony conviction under the state’s abortion ban.
“I’m not decided yet exactly where the language needs to land,” Woodward says. “But at the end of the day … we have a problem because our doctors are leaving.”
Toews would like to push family-focused bills, including limiting access to social media for minors and his House Resolution 35, which would create a traditional values month between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. That resolution states that “traditional families designed by God” can help solve issues of crime and poverty.
Wintrow would like to reform the coroner system because there are inconsistent standards across Idaho’s counties. She says it is a long-term project that she will work on with Rep. Douglas Pickett, R- Oakley, to create standards for the profession. n victorc@inlander.com
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Midnight Moderation
Spokane leaders could restrict late-night alcohol sales downtown to curb alcohol-related incidents
BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM
In downtown Spokane, incidents reported to police involving alcohol have increased 64% over the last three years, despite overall crime rates in the area decreasing.
With this in mind, Mayor Lisa Brown and her team proposed a city ordinance the day after Christmas to reestablish an “alcohol impact area” in the downtown police precinct. The administration recommends prohibiting off-premises retailers within that zone, including 17 convenience and grocery stores that are licensed to sell single-serve alcohol or liquor containers, from selling any alcohol after midnight.
It’s already illegal for these retailers to sell alcohol from 2 am to 6 am under state law. If the alcohol impact area is approved, the city’s first request would be to make the curfew within the zone two hours earlier.
According to the city, Spokane police data shows that 30% of all alcohol-related incidents downtown happen between midnight and 2 am. The number of incidents drops significantly after alcohol sales are prohibited.
Additionally, offenses involving alcohol within 1,000 feet of 10 alcohol retailers downtown, including P M Jacoy’s, Downtown Quick Stop 1 & 2, and Grocery Outlet, have all increased in the last three years.
When the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health did a study of alcohol impact areas in Spokane and Tacoma, researchers found that the special zones were strongly associated with a reduction in narcotic drug violations and assaults.
The Spokane City Council was briefed on the ordinance during the Public Safety and Community Health Committee meeting on Monday, and the council could vote on it in early February.
If the ordinance passes, the city will first ask licensees to voluntarily participate in the restrictions, or similar ones, for six months. If there is no proof of progress, then the city can ask the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, or LCB, to make the conditions permanent and enforceable, city spokeswoman Erin Hut says.
The area between Interstate 90 and the river, from Sherman Street to High Bridge Park, was first designated an alcohol impact area by LCB in 2010. There was also a mandatory alcohol impact area in the East Central neighborhood, and briefly, a voluntary alcohol impact area in West Central that was revoked within a year due to neighborhood pushback.
The mandatory alcohol impact areas lost their designations in 2022, when Spokane reorganized its criminal code. The City Council voted unanimously at the time to simplify the municipal criminal code by referring exclusively to the state code. But upon doing so, all local criminal codes, which included the alcohol impact areas, were lost, says Adam McDaniel, the city’s lead policy adviser.
The city has worked closely with the Downtown Spokane Partnership, or DSP, in deciding whether or not to renew the impact area.
“My team was documenting and gathering some information in order to support the position that we wanted this to be re-implemented,” says Paul Lower, vice president of DSP’s Safe & Clean Programs. He oversees the downtown ambassadors and Clean Team, which recorded more than 50 single-serve containers littering downtown sidewalks over the last 30 days.
“Much of what’s downtown are what we would call large cans of high-octane beer,” Lower says. “It’s got a much higher alcohol content than a standard beer, so drinking one of those you can get pretty drunk.”
Previous alcohol impact areas have banned specific products, but this proposal is different, McDaniel says. Even though high alcohol by volume beers are common, the city and DSP say they see all kinds of single-serve products flooding downtown, which is why they want to limit alcohol sales in general.
They hope that the ordinance will both decrease the number of alcohol-related incidents and the amount of litter downtown. n
elizab@inlander.com
Photo (left to right): Luther Allison by John Sturino, Quianna Lynell, Milton Suggs by Jacob Blickenstaff
Downtown drink sales could be cut off earlier at convenience stores.
PFAS Plan Ecology approves testing for PFAS at Spokane International Airport
BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
Last month, Washington’s Department of Ecology signed off on an “initial PFAS investigation work plan” for Spokane International Airport.
The Dec. 13 plan was written by GSI Environmental, a contractor hired by the airport to manage the investigation into the so-called “forever chemicals” in the PFAS family on the airport property. For years, federal regulations required airport firefighters to train with aqueous-film-forming foam made from PFAS chemicals that can be used to fight aviation fuel fires, and for that foam to be stored at all airports. The airport first tested for PFAS on site in 2017, after nearby Fairchild Air Force Base announced the chemicals were found in wells on and around the military base due to similar use of the foam.
By Feb. 4, the airport will test for PFAS and other substances in 52 existing groundwater monitoring wells and at 57 soil sampling locations (at different depths) around the property.
The testing is the first step as Ecology requires the airport to develop what’s called a “remedial investigation,” an official environmental document and work plan to address both chemicals in the PFAS family and other contamination that might be found at the site.
After this initial testing is finished, it’ll likely take four to six weeks for a lab to verify the results, and from there, the airport will have 30 days to give a report to Ecology, says Jeremy Schmidt, Ecology’s site manager for this project.
“This is just a very preliminary investigation,” Schmidt says. “We just don’t know much about what’s out there at the airport so far.”
Appendices attached to GSI’s report include PFAS test results from March 2024, but those tests were conducted before Ecology issued an enforcement order requiring the airport to look into PFAS contamination. Those previous results and more information on the current investigation plan can be found at apps.ecology.wa.gov/cleanupsearch/site/16774.
Because the existing groundwater monitoring wells at the airport were drilled before PFAS chemicals were a concern, more wells may need to be installed to test in places where those chemicals were used or stored, Schmidt says.
The hope is that by the end of this year, the airport will provide Ecology with a draft remedial investigation for the site, which will outline a plan for far more extensive testing. After that extensive testing clarifies the scope of the problem, Ecology will work with the airport to develop a cleanup plan.
In the meantime, Ecology could require “interim cleanup actions” depending on what is found, Schmidt says. For example, if contamination is found to be leaving the site and contaminating drinking water nearby, the airport, which is co-owned by Spokane County and the city of Spokane, could be required to pay for water treatment for people who are affected. n
samanthaw@inlander.com
Wells and soil sites will be tested at the airport. GSI ENVIRONMENTAL MAP
Flamenco is known for its emotional intensity. On the surface you’ve got the gorgeous, dramatic ruffled train dresses (bata de cola) and fringe shawls that flamenco dancers throw around to create as much movement as possible. You’ve also got the use of lacy fans and castanets (little hand clackers) that are often used to punctuate every intricate step a dancer takes. Through each rotation of their body (giros) and expressive arm movement (braceo), a flamenco dancer can showcase love and joy just as easily as they can loss and pain.
Beyond the glamour and drama, flamenco is a dance style with a rich cultural history. Since 2017 Monica Mota, founder and owner of Spokane-based dance company Quiero Flamenco, has trained local performers and brought in top-tier talent from across the country to showcase the art form in the Inland Northwest.
Flamenco was created in southern Spain, as early as the 15th century. The area at the time was inhabited by groups from many ethnic backgrounds, including Hasidic Jews, Moors and Romani people, Mota says, so flamenco came about in an effort to preserve the region’s diverse culture.
“When you try to suppress cultures, you take away their language, you also take away their music,” she explains. “Essentially, it’s really hard to take away feet and hands, so clapping and footwork become that percussive line — the dancer is kind of like the drums. What came out of it was this art form melding together different genres of music and cultures.”
On Friday, Spokane’s Quiero Flamenco is sharing
Song and Dance
Spokane artist Monica Mota brings Spanish dance to
the
Inland Northwest
with Quiero
Flamenco’s annual performance
BY COLTON RASANEN
this cultural expression with the community at Gonzaga University’s Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center for its annual show, Gradience. Alongside guest artists Jose Moreno, Jed Miley, Amelia Moore and Daniel Azcarate, the show features the musical direction of Spokane-based artist Mellad Abeid.
Local station KSPS-PBS also plans to air a taping of the performance on Feb. 14 at 8 pm.
Traditionally, flamenco is defined by its song, not its dance. Usually a singer takes the lead on stage and is followed by a guitarist whose work is to find the melody and harmonize with it. Once the dancer comes in, it’s their job to connect with the music and improvise a performance.
These performances are often referred to as tablao, a Spanish word referring to the floorboards on which improvisational flamenco happens. Without strict choreography, a dancer must pull from their personal repertoire of steps to showcase years of technical training. Mota says tablao performances in flamenco are unlike anything else. About half of Gradience will include choreographed performances, while the latter part of the show will be improvised.
This type of cultural performance isn’t often seen in the Inland Northwest, or really anywhere else around the country, because there aren’t many flamenco guitarists and singers. In total, Mota estimates that there are about five singers in the country skilled in flamenco.
“That’s why I started teaching in the style of flamenco,” she says. “I tell [my students], ‘I’m teaching you steps, but learning the improv means that you need to learn the song, and you need to learn the guitar, not how to play it, but the rhythms that are coming out of it. As a dancer in flamenco, you’re another musician.’”
“When you try to suppress cultures, you take away their language, you also take away their music,”
Though there are more flamenco dancers than singers, Mota says it’s still a rare skill to possess. (She still treks to Spain every year to train, ensuring her flamenco skills don’t dull.) It took at least seven years of training for Mota to feel comfortable with one of her dancers performing a traditional flamenco tablao.
“I don’t think people will even believe this is improv,” she says with a chuckle.
“My dancers work really hard, and they keep learning and growing, and now we’re at a point where I have one student [Marlena Mizzoni] who can do the tablao section, and I have another one who’s almost there,” Mota says. “That’s why I love my company, they’ve all been patient enough to realize that this takes time.”
Rachel Rossbach dances to live instrumentals. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ZANA MORROW / KSPS
The scarcity of flamenco, alongside Mota’s dedication to dance in the Inland Northwest, is why the team at KSPS-PBS decided to produce Gradience.
“Spokane is one of those places where we don’t really support dance like a lot of other cities our size do,” says Zana Morrow, arts and culture coordinator at KSPS. “[Mota] works so hard in the community to make sure that there’s a voice and stage for these kinds of traditions in local dance.”
As the show’s producer, KSPS handles most of the funding, ticket sales, promotion, and even the documentation and archival of the performance through photos and video. This is the second time in as many years that the station has produced a show at this level. Around the holidays in 2023, KSPS partnered with the renowned ensemble Clarion Brass for another performance at Gonzaga.
“The vast majority of us grew up on PBS Kids, and whether we kept watching or not after childhood, most everyone knows how respected PBS is,” Morrow says. “Having their [annual performance] archived by PBS is everything that they could want.”
In past years, Quiero Flamenco’s annual show required Mota to coordinate most of that work. This time, because of KSPS’ investment, she gets to focus most of her energy on crafting her personal artistic vision. For the nonprofit broadcast station, producing Gradience supports the artistic vision it seeks to cultivate in the Inland Northwest.
“We’re trying to raise the bar and make sure that we’re taking chances on people that are just providing something that is abovegrade art, and not just people who are really good at selling a ticket,” Morrow says.
“This is a real, large, beautiful part of our community, and they deserve to be recognized,” she continues. “It’s going to be a beautiful night, just absolutely breathtaking.” n
Quiero Flamenco Presents: Gradience • Fri, Jan. 10 from 7-9 pm • $35 • Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center • 211 E. Desmet Ave. • quieroflamenco.com
Livia Marquis uses her fringe shawl to create movement while dancing.
Colin, is that you?!
THE BEST NEW SHOWS OF 2024
Last year served up some great TV — here are some of the standouts
BY BILL FROST
Remember 2024? It’ll go down as a fantastic year for TV and little else. For every critically praised returning series like The Bear, Hacks, and Shrinking, a new show premiered to steal the spotlight from the established hits. Space is limited here, so I’ve narrowed the list down to a handful of freshman series that made a qualitative splash in ’24.
THE PENGUIN (HBO/MAX)
It’s a Batman show without Batman and a Colin Farrell vehicle (mostly) without Colin Farrell, yet The Penguin still works. Set in Gotham after the events of 2022’s The Batman, The Penguin follows mob underling Oz Cobb (a heavily made-up Farrell) as he plots to rule the city. One obstacle: Sofia Falcone (a fearsome Cristin Milioti), a mob heiress fresh from a psyche-altering stint in Arkham Asylum. If you’re not into superhero sagas, no problem: The Penguin leans more Sopranos
FALLOUT (PRIME VIDEO)
Just as The Penguin is more than a comic-book adaptation, Fallout goes above and beyond the usual videogame-to-screen fare. The series embraces satire and sadness equally as post-apocalyptic survivors Lucy (Ella Purnell, Yellowjackets) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins, forever Baby Billy from The Righteous Gemstones) fight to survive in the wasteland of Los Angeles. Fallout outdoes The Last of Us with a dark sense of humor and visual zing, making for an inviting apocalypse.
AGATHA ALL ALONG (DISNEY+)
It took three years and several subsequent Marvel series of wavering quality for Disney to finally give WandaVision MVP Agatha Harkness (Kathyrn Hahn) her own showcase, but it was worth the wait. Wanda’s on a quest to regain her witch powers, so she hastily assembles a coven (including Sasheer Zamata, Patti Lupone and Joe Locke) to navigate the trials of the Witches Road. A gleefully unhinged performance from Aubrey Plaza makes Agatha All Along — wait for it — magical.
ENGLISH TEACHER (FX/HULU)
Lacking serious star power and saddled with a Labor 18 INLANDER JANUARY 9, 2025
Day premiere date, FX’s English Teacher still scored high grades with critics and audiences alike. The workplace comedy has been called “Abbott Elementary Graduates to High School,” and the situations encountered by idealistic Evan (show creator and star Brian Jordan Alvarez) and his fellow teachers (Stephanie Koenig and Sean Patton) are more PG-13, but no less hilarious. A second season should be inevitable, right FX?
SAY NOTHING (HULU)
Advance promo trailers made Say Nothing look like Pulp Fiction with car bombs, but the series, based on the novel by Patrick Radden Keefe, is deeper and more nuanced. Kicking off in 1971 during The Troubles of Northern Ireland, Say Nothing follows teen activist sisters Dolours (Lola Pettigrew) and Marian (Hazel Doupe), as well as rising Irish Republican Army leader Gerry Adams (Josh Finan). But, their righteous battle grows more introspective and painful into the ’80s and ’90s.
TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (HBO/MAX)
Following a universally hailed debut season, two mostly dismissed follow-ups, and a publicly vocal denunciation by series creator Nic Pizzolatto, True Detective bounced back triumphantly with new director and co-writer Issa Lopez’s Night Country. A pair of troubled detectives (Jodie Foster and Kali Reis) investigate the bizarre disappearance of a team of Arctic Circle research scientists, only to find seemingly supernatural forces at work in the frozen landscape.
INTERIOR CHINATOWN (HULU)
Golden Dragon restaurant employee Willis (Jimmy O. Yang) splits his time between dreary reality and a stilted TV cop-show fantasy — until he’s drafted into a real investigation by Det. Lana (Chloe Bennet). The ever-shifting narrative weave of Interior Chinatown is as unpredictable as it is seamless, as preposterous events aren’t relegated to the “fantasy” suite. Besides laughs and intrigue, the one constant in Willis’ world is Fatty (Ronnie Chieng, The Daily Show), who steals every scene he’s in. n
THE BUZZ BIN
HAVE YOU ZINE THIS?
Spokane’s Office of Neighborhood Services is launching a citywide zine titled This is Spokane: A Civic Guide for Neighbors. The project’s selection panel has chosen local artist Madison Merica to illustrate the upcoming zine after a monthslong search with help from Spokane Arts. Merica works as a freelance illustrator and designer and has a passion for local iconography, maps and nature — things that will certainly aid her in tackling the project! According to the call for artists, the zine will have 18 to 24 editions featuring various Spokane landmarks, city officials and local municipal activities. (MADISON PEARSON)
FOOTBALL OVERHAUL
There’s been a total regime change on the Palouse. After WSU’s Jake Dickert (above) and Idaho’s Jason Eck both took other jobs to start the offseason, both schools have landed on successors who hope to keep up the winning ways on the gridiron. The new man in charge in Pullman is Jimmy Rodgers, who took over as South Dakota State’s coach in 2023 and immediately led the Jackrabbits to an undefeated season and the FCS Championship, following it up with a semifinal appearance this past season. Over in Moscow, the new head coach is Thomas Ford, who served as Idaho’s special teams coordinator and running backs coach in 2022 and 2023 before working as Oregon State’s running back coach last season. Having worked for two years under Eck, Ford should have a sense for how to continue the Vandals’ recent winning ways.
(SETH SOMMERFELD)
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on Jan. 9.
ETHEL CAIN, PERVERTS
After becoming a cult sensation with Southern gothic folk pop on her 2022 debut album Preacher’s Daughter, Cain is poised to be one of 2025’s breakout stars. But she might not be seeking the full spotlight, as her follow-up embraces more slowcore and ambient influences.
FRANZ FERDINAND, THE HUMAN FEAR
The ever-stylish Scottish dance rock band is still out here crafting sleek songs to get your hips slyly shaking.
RINGO STARR, LOOK UP
For the first time since 1970’s Beaucoups of Blues, the former Beatle returns to country music with the aid of legendary producer T Bone Burnett. (SETH SOMMERFELD)
Weight and Wellness
As the new year begins, messages promising a “new year, new you” flood the news and our social media feeds — often with a focus on weight loss or achieving a specific physical ideal. This year, Dr. David Ward at Kaiser Permanente South Hill Medical Center encourages people to embrace a different kind of resolution: one centered on overall wellness and achievable, positive changes.
10 : Kaiser Permanente | 20S : ROP : 20 S : CP
Define Your Goal Differently
While prioritizing health and wellness is undeniably important, focusing solely on weight loss can leave us feeling drained or defeated. Dr. Ward encourages individuals to shift their focus and set goals that build healthy new habits to improve overall health. “When my patients talk to me about their goals around weight loss, I remind them that the scale is only part of the picture.”
Rather than setting a goal based on a specific weight, try setting a goal based on adding a certain amount of physical activity each week. Dr. Ward says, “You can start slow and work up to the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise. That can be split up into 30 minutes 5 days a week, or into even smaller chunks of time. Even a few minutes a day is better than not exercising at all.” Examples of moderate-intensity activities include brisk walking or riding a bike on level ground.
A New Approach to Resolutions
Adjust Your Expectations
“One challenge I see is that people can have unrealistic expectations,” says Dr. Ward. “There is a lot of variation in body types, based on bone structure, muscle mass, and hereditary features. What healthy looks like for one person is not the same for another.” Discussing how to maintain a healthy weight with your health care team is a good part of your general wellness plan. When it comes to resolutions, increasing physical activity is likely more achievable and enjoyable than trying to get to a specific pant size.
Find the Joy
Start by setting an intention to nourish your body and soul in ways that bring you happiness. This doesn’t mean dismissing healthy habits; it means tuning into what activities make you feel good. Dr. Ward shares, “When you find wellness activities that bring you happiness — it could be hiking, playing tennis, dancing, or yoga — you’re more likely to stick with them.”
If you’re making resolutions, ask yourself: What activities will bring you joy this year? Try framing your goals in terms of positive additions, like increasing the time you spend moving your body or trying a new type of exercise. These kinds of changes can help improve your mental and physical health this year and — when you’re doing things you love — for years to come.
Project Censored
State of the Free Press
The story being censored could be yours — whether you know it or not
BY PAUL ROSENBERG senior Editor, Random Length News
Illustrations by ANSON STEVENS-BOLLEN
With any “Top 10” list, there’s a natural tendency to look first at number one, and neither I nor Project Censored would discourage you from doing that when it comes to their annual list of the top censored stories of the year. This year, the top story is about workplace deaths and injuries — with striking racial disparities. Sensationalized deaths and injuries make the news all the time, but workplace deaths and injuries (nearly 6,000 and 2.8 million, respectively in a year) are another matter altogether. They’re a non-story, even when advocates strive to shine a light on them.
But this pattern of what’s deemed newsworthy and what isn’t leads to a deep point. Project Censored Associate Director Andy Lee Roth writes that “readers can only appreciate the full significance of the project’s annual listing of important but underreported stories by stepping back to perceive deeper, less obvious patterns of omission in corporate news coverage.” And I couldn’t agree more. The patterns of what’s being blocked out of the public conversation are the clearest way of seeing the censoring process at work — the process that Project Censored founder Carl Jensen described as “the suppression of information, whether purposeful or not, by any method … that prevents the public from fully knowing what is happening in its society.”
It’s not just that somehow all the news assignment editors in America overlooked this or that story. Where there are patterns of omission so consistently, year after year, they can only be explained by systemic biases rooted in the interests of particularly
powerful special interests. One can also find intersecting patterns within individual stories. The above description of the top story is an example: race, class, region, citizenship status and more are all involved.
At a big-picture level, there are three stories dealing with cyber issues and four that are each clearly dealing with the environment, corporate misconduct, harm to consumers and race. Or perhaps I should say seven dealing with race, the more I think about what “clearly” means.
For example, story number seven, about military personnel targeting Gen Z recruits with lurid social media tactics, clearly involves cyber deception of consumers with the aim of luring them into a dangerous workplace from which they cannot simply resign once they realize they’ve been lied to or conned. In addition to cyber, consumer and workplace harm, the target audience and resulting recruits are undoubtedly disproportionately non-white, though that’s not explicitly dwelt on.
I’m dwelling on race because it’s important, but also because it’s easily highlighted in this context. But there are other hidden connections to be found in these stories. The point is, as you do more than just simply read these stories — as you reflect on them, on why they’re censored, whose stories they are, what harms are being suffered, whose humanity is being denied — you will find yourself seeing the world more from the point of view of those being excluded from the news, and from the point of view that you’re interconnected with them at the least, if not one of them.
Project Censored, founded in 1976 at Sonoma State University, tasks academics, students and media experts with researching the most important national stories that were underreported, ignored or censored by the media. Their work is compiled into an annual list, published into a book and shared in articles like this one.
RACIAL DISPARITY OF WORKPLACE DEATHS
Working in America is becoming more dangerous, especially for minorities, according to recent studies reported on by Truthout and Peoples Dispatch, while the same isn’t true for other developed nations.
Workplace fatalities increased 5.7% in the 2021-22 period covered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Tyler Walicek reported for Truthout. “Nearly 6,000 U.S. workers died on the job,” he wrote — a 10-year high — while “a startling total of 2.8 million were injured or sickened,” according to another report.
The racial disparities were sharp. The average workplace death rate was 3.7 deaths per 100,000 full-time workers, but it was 24.3% higher (4.6 deaths) for Latiné workers and 13.5% higher (4.2 deaths) for Black workers. The majority of Latiné deaths were of foreign-born workers, and 40% of those were in construction.
Transportation incidents were the highest cause of fatalities within both groups. Violence and other injuries by persons or animals were second highest for Black workers, while for Hispanic or Latiné workers it was falls, slips or trips. Black people and women were particularly likely to be homicide victims. Black people represented 13.4% of all fatalities, but 33.4% of homicide fatalities. Women represented 8.1% of all fatalities, but 15.3% of homicide fatalities.
The non-fatal injury rate for service workers in the South, particularly workers of color, is also alarmingly high. A March 2023 poll of 347 workers, most of whom were Black, “found that a shocking 87% were injured on the job in the last year,” Peoples Dispatch reported. In addition, “More than half of survey respondents reported observing serious health and safety standard [violations] at work,” and “most workers worried about their personal safety on the job, most believe that their employer prioritizes profit over safety, most do not raise safety issues for fear of retaliation, and the vast majority (72%) believe that their employer’s attitude ‘places customer satisfaction above worker safety.’”
Workplace fatality rates in the U.S. exceeded those in the U.K., Canada, Australia and much of Europe, according to a 2021 assessment by the consulting firm Arinite Health and Safety, Walicek reported.
While independent nonprofits like DC Report have consistently paid more attention to the issue, two corporate outlets, the Associated Press and Bloomberg Law, also touched on the topic yet neither addressed the issue of racial disparities.
TRAPPED BY CLIMATE DEBT
Low-income countries that contributed virtually nothing to the climate crisis are caught in a pattern described as a “climate debt trap” in a September 2023 World Resources Institute report, authored by Natalia Alayza, Valerie Laxton and Carolyn Neunuebel.
“After years of pandemic, a global recession, and intensifying droughts, floods and other climate change impacts, many developing countries are operating on increasingly tight budgets and at risk of defaulting on loans,” they wrote. “High-interest rates, short repayment periods, and the coexistence of multiple crises (like a pandemic paired with natural disasters) can all make it difficult for governments to meet their debt servicing obligations.”
Global standards for climate resilience require immense national budgets. Developing countries borrow from international creditors, and as debt piles up, governments are unable to pay for essential needs, including public health programs, food security and climate protections.
In fact, The Guardian ran a story describing how global south nations are “forced to invest in fossil fuel projects to repay debts,” a process critics have characterized as a “new form of colonialism.” They cited a report from anti-debt campaigners Debt Justice and partners, which found that “the debt owed by global south countries has increased by 150% since 2011 and 54 countries are in a debt crisis, having to spend five times more on repayments than on addressing the climate crisis.”
While a loss and damage fund to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change was established at the 2022 Climate Summit, its current commitments ($800 million) fall far short of the $100 billion more each year by 2030 that the 14 developing countries on the fund’s board have argued for. Some estimates place the figure much higher, “at around $400 billion,” according to a Euronews story last June.
The climate debt trap has received limited news coverage. Aside from The Guardian, independent news coverage has been limited to outlets that specialize in climate news.
Project Censored
FRESHWATER SUPPLY THREATENED
Sea-level rise is an easy-to-grasp consequence of global warming, but the most immediate threat it poses — saltwater intrusion into freshwater systems — has only received sporadic localized treatment in the corporate press.
In fall 2023, saltwater traveling from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River infiltrated the freshwater systems of the delta region, contaminating drinking and agricultural water supplies as well as inland ecosystems. The crisis prompted a scramble to supply potable water to the region and motivated local and federal officials to issue emergency declarations.
While outlets like Time, CNN and CBS News covered the intrusion at the time, they focused almost exclusively on the threat to coastal Louisiana. Yet, a pair of articles published in October 2023 by Delaney Nolan for The Guardian and hydrogeologist Holly Michael for The Conversation highlighted the escalating threat of saltwater intrusion across the U.S. and beyond.
“Deep below our feet, along every coast, runs the salt line: the zone where fresh inland water meets salty seawater,” Nolan wrote. “That line naturally shifts back and forth all the time, and weather events like floods and storms can push it further out. But rising seas are gradually drawing the salt line in. In Miami, the salt line is creeping inland by about 330 feet per year.”
Seawater intrusion into groundwater is happening all over the world, but perhaps the most threatened places are communities on low-lying islands such as the Marshall Islands, which are predicted to be uninhabitable by the end of the century, Michael wrote.
Here in the U.S., “experts said the threat was widespread, but they were especially concerned about cities in Louisiana, Florida, the Northeast and California,” Nolan reported.
“When seawater moves inland, the salt it contains can wreak havoc on farmlands, ecosystems, lives and livelihoods,” Michael wrote. “Drinking water that contains even 2% seawater can increase blood pressure and stress kidneys. If saltwater gets into supply lines, it can corrode pipes and produce toxic disinfection byproducts in water treatment plants. Seawater intrusion reduces the life span of roads, bridges and other infrastructure.”
HIDDEN RISKS OF GAS STOVES
While gas stoves erupted as a culture war issue in 2023, reporting by Vox and NPR (in partnership with the Climate Investigations Center) revealed a multi-decade campaign by the natural gas industry to discredit evidence of harm, thwart regulation and promote the use of gas stoves.
In a series of articles for Vox, environmental journalist Rebecca Leber documented how the gas utility industry used strategies previously employed by the tobacco industry to avoid regulation and undermine scientific evidence establishing the harmful health and climate effects of gas stoves.
“The basic scientific understanding of why gas stoves are a problem for health and the climate is on solid footing,” she reported. “It’s also common sense. When you have a fire in the house, you need somewhere for all that smoke to go. Combust natural gas, and it’s not just smoke you need to worry about. There are dozens of other pollutants, including the greenhouse gas methane, that also fill the air.”
The concerns aren’t new. “Even in the early 1900s, the natural gas industry knew it had a problem with the gas stove,” Leber recounts. It was cleaner than coal or wood — its main competition at the time, “but new competition was on the horizon from electric stoves. Forty years ago, the federal government seemed to be on the brink of regulating the gas stove,” she wrote. “Everything was on the table, from an outright ban to a modification of the Clean Air Act to address indoor air pollution.” The gas industry fought back with a successful multiprong attack, that’s being mounted again today, and “some of the defenders of the gas stove are the same consultants who have defended tobacco and chemicals industries in litigation over health problems.”
Documents obtained by NPR and Climate Investigations Center tell a similar story. The industry “focused on convincing consumers and regulators that cooking with gas is as risk-free as cooking with electricity,” they reported.
By covering gas stoves as a culture war controversy, corporate media have ignored the outsize role of the natural gas industry in influencing science, regulation and consumer choice. Instead, they’ve focused on individual actions, local moves to phase out gas hookups for new buildings, and right-wing culture war opposition to improving home appliance safety and efficiency, including the GOP House-passed “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act.”
ABORTION SERVICES CENSORED
On the first national Election Day after Dobbs, PlanC, a nonprofit that provides information about access to abortion medication, posted a TikTok video encouraging people to vote to protect reproductive rights. Almost immediately, its account was suddenly banned. This was but one example of a worldwide cross-platform pattern.
“Access to online information about abortion is increasingly under threat both in the United States and around the world,” the Women’s Media Center, or WMC, reported in November 2023. “Both domestic and international reproductive health rights and justice organizations have reported facing censorship of their websites on social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok as well as on Google.”
The governments of South Korea, Turkey and Spain have also blocked the website of Women on Web, which provides online abortion services and information in over 200 countries.
Women’s rights advocacy groups are calling the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade the catalyst for the suppression of reproductive health information on social media. Hashtags for #mifepristone and #misoprostol, two drugs used in medical abortions, were hidden on Instagram after the Dobbs decision, the WMC reported.
Within weeks of the decision, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, DMass., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote to Meta, Ars Technica reported, questioning what the company was doing to stop abortion censorship on their platforms.
There are similar censorship problems with Meta and Google worldwide, according to a March 2024 report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and MSI Reproductive Choices, which provides contraception and abortion services in 37 countries. This sparked a Guardian article by Weronika Strzyzynska. “In Africa, Facebook is the go-to place for reproductive health information for many women,” MSI’s global marketing manager, Whitney Chinogwenya, told the Guardian. “We deal with everything from menopause to menstruation, but we find that all our content is censored. Meta viewed reproductive health content through ‘an American lens,’ applying socially conservative U.S. values to posts published in countries with progressive policies such as South Africa, where abortion on request is legal in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.”
Abortion disinformation is also a threat — particularly the promotion of “crisis pregnancy centers” or CPCs, which masquerade as reproductive health care clinics but discourage rather than provide abortion services. The WMC reported that “CPCs spent over $10 million on Google Search ads for their clinics over the past two years.” Google claimed to have “removed particular ads, but they did not take action on the systemic issues with fake clinic ads.”
Women’s rights organizations and reproductive health advocates have been forced to squander scarce resources fighting this sort of disinformation, which has gotten some coverage, but as of June 2024, corporate coverage of abortion censorship has been limited. Independent reporting from Jezebel and Reproaction via Medium have done more to draw attention to this issue.
MONEY ANSWERS FOR TEXTERS WHO USE PROPER GRAMMAR.
Project Censored
GLOBAL FOREST PROTECTION RISKS
MILITARY TARGETS GEN Z WITH LURID TACTICS
“If the military was a great, honorable profession, then they wouldn’t need to spend $6 billion a year bribing people to join,” journalist and veteran Rosa del Duca wrote. Nonetheless, 2022 was the worst year for recruitment since 1973, when the draft was abolished. That’s the background to the story Alan MacLeod reported for MintPress News about the military, “using e-girls to recruit Gen Z into service.”
While MacLeod also covers the Army sponsoring YouTube stars — male and female — to “join” for a day as part of its social media efforts, his main subject is self-described Army psychological operations specialist Hailey Lujan, whose online videos feature “sexually suggestive content alongside subtle (and sometimes not-sosubtle) calls to join up,” he writes. “The 21-yearold makes content extolling the fun of Army life to her 731,000 TikTok followers. ‘Don’t go to college, become a farmer or a soldier instead,’ she instructs viewers in a recent video. ‘Just some advice for the younger people: If you’re not doing school, it’s OK. I dropped out of college. And I’m doing great,’ she adds.”
Lujan’s videos seemingly violate the code of conduct of the image-conscious U.S. military, and it’s unclear what role the military has in producing her content. But that ambiguity is part of the allure.
“There are many active duty service members with large social media followings, but what makes Lujan stand out is her offbeat, Gen-Z style humor and how she leans into the idea that she is a military propaganda operation,” Macleod writes. “With videos titled ‘My handlers made me post this’, ‘Not endorsed by the DoD : 3’ or ‘most wholesome fedpost,’ she revels in layers of irony and appears to enjoy the whole ‘am I or aren’t I’ question that people in her replies and mentions constantly debate.”
“I can’t believe she’s getting away with posting some of this stuff,” said del Duca in an interview with MintPress News. “Everyone learns in boot camp that when you are in uniform, you cannot
The UN’s goal to end deforestation by 2030 is unlikely to be met, according to the 2023 annual Forest Declaration Assessment, Olivia Rosane reported for Common Dreams in October 2023. The goal was announced to great fanfare at the 2021 UN summit in Glasgow, but the failure of follow-through has received almost no notice.
The same month, the World Wildlife Fund issued its first Forest Pathways Report, in which it warned: “The two largest tropical forests are at risk of reaching tipping points. This would release billions of tonnes of carbon and have devastating consequences for the millions of people who depend on the stability of their ecosystems. It would also have a global impact on our climate and catastrophic effects on biodiversity.”
The problem is money. “We are investing in activities that are harmful for forests at far higher rates than we are investing in activities that are beneficial for forests,” said the report’s coordinator, Erin Matson To meet the UN’s 2030 goal would require $460 billion annually, but only $2.2 billion is being invested. Meanwhile, more than 100 times as much public finance is “committed to activities that have the potential to drive deforestation or forest degradation.”
While the overall picture is dark, not all countries are failing. “Well over 50 countries are on track to eliminate deforestation within their borders by 2030,” the report noted.
As the report’s lead author, Mary Gagen, noted in an article by The Conversation, “Global forest loss in 2022 was 6.6 million hectares, an area about the size of Ireland. That’s 21% more than the amount that would keep us on track to meet the target of zero deforestation by 2030.”
Corporate media in the U.S. largely ignored both reports. One story in the Washington Post discussed the subject, but made no direct reference to either report.
act unprofessionally, or you get in deep trouble.”
The Defense Department didn’t respond when MacLeod reached out for clarification.
Lujan isn’t the only online military influencer, but her overt use of her sensuality and her constant encouragement of her followers to enlist makes her noteworthy.
The branches of the U.S. military are no stranger to partnerships with entertainment giants (like the NFL) that traditionally engage viewers from all walks of life. But this new attempt to appeal to niche youth audiences has not been scrutinized.
“It is now well-established (if not well-known) that the Department of Defense also fields a giant clandestine army of at least 60,000 people whose job it is to influence public opinion, the majority doing so from their keyboards,” MacLeod reported, adding that a 2021 Newsweek exposé “warned that this troll army was likely breaking both domestic and international law.”
As of May 2024, Project Censored reported no new coverage on this specific instance that appears to take such lawbreaking to a new level.
NEW FEDERAL RULE LIMITS TRANSCRIPT WITHHOLDING
More than 6 million students have “stranded credits” due to the practice of colleges and universities withholding students’ transcripts to force them to repay loan debts. But a new federal Department of Education regulation will make withholding more difficult, Sarah Butrymowicz and Meredith Kolodner reported for The Hechinger Report in December 2023.
Transcript withholding “has become a growing worry for state and federal regulators,” they wrote. “Critics say that it makes it harder for students to earn a degree or get a job, which would allow them to earn enough to pay back their debts. But the system of oversight is patchwork; no single federal agency bans it, state rules vary, and there are significant challenges with monitoring the practice.”
The rule was part of a package also intended to “strengthen the U.S. Department of Education’s ability to protect students and taxpayers from the negative effects of sudden college closures,” the DOE said in a press release. It went into effect in July 2024. Specifically, it prevents withholding a transcript for terms in which a student received federal financial aid and paid off the balance for the term.
As Katherine Knott reported for Inside Higher Education ... the new policy is part of a set of regulations intended to enhance the DOE’s oversight of institutions by providing additional tools to hold all colleges accountable. But these protections do not apply to institutions that accept no federal student aid, including many for-profit colleges.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also investigating transcript withholding, which it has deemed abusive because the practice is “designed to gain leverage over borrowers and coerce them into making payments.”
There has been limited corporate news coverage on the issue. When the rule package was announced in October 2023, the Washington Post published a substantive report emphasizing the protections from sudden college closures, but only briefly noted transcript withholding. Early reporting in U.S. News & World Report and the New York Times covered the issue, but the government’s response has gone virtually unnoticed.
Project Censored
ACQUITTED-CONDUCT SENTENCING CHALLENGED
You might be surprised — even shocked — to learn that federal judges can determine defendants’ sentences based on charges they’ve been acquitted of by a jury. But in April 2024, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC), a bipartisan panel that creates guidelines for the federal judiciary, voted to end the practice as it applies to “calculating a sentence range under the federal guidelines.”
The change will significantly limit federal judges’ use of acquitted-conduct sentencing, as the legal news service Law360 and Reason magazine reported. The commission voted unanimously “to prohibit judges from using acquitted conduct to increase the sentences of defendants who receive mixed verdicts at trial” but was “divided” on whether its proposal ought to apply retroactively, Stewart Bishop reported for Law360. There are still narrow circumstances where such conduct can be considered, such as if it underlies a charge the defendant is found guilty of as well as the acquitted crime.
Acquitted conduct had been allowed under a lower standard, if the judge found the charges more likely truth than not, rather than the jury’s standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” But now, “not guilty means not guilty,” chair of the USSC, U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves said in a press release.
There’s been little corporate media coverage. Project Censored cited one story in Bloomberg Law, but nothing in the New York Times nor the Washington Post as of June 2024.
AI’S SERIOUS SECURITY CONCERNS
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) apps carry considerable risks, some poorly understood, which can result in exposing sensitive data and opening up organizations to attacks from bad actors. In response, both government and businesses have taken steps to limit or even block AI access to data.
Congress only permits lawmakers and staff to access ChatGPT Plus, a paid version of the app with enhanced privacy features, and forbids them from using other AI apps or pasting blocks of text that have not already been made public into the program. A follow-up regulation banned the use of Microsoft’s Copilot AI on government-issued devices. The National Archives and Records Administration is even more restrictive. In May 2024 it completely prohibited employees from using ChatGPT at work and blocked all access to the app on agency computers. What’s more, “Samsung decided to ban its employees’ use of generative AI apps (and develop its own AI application) in May 2023 after some users accidentally leaked sensitive data via ChatGPT,” Priya Singh reported for Business Today in April 2024. Programs such as ChatGPT and Copilot are built by a training process that collects and organizes data which can be regurgitated in response to just a snippet of text. They are then “aligned” with an added layer of training to produce helpful output, which is what ordinary users normally see.
But something as simple as asking ChatGPT to repeat a word endlessly can cause it to break alignment and reveal potentially sensitive data, Tiernan Ray reported for ZDNet in December 2023. Researchers from Google’s DeepMind AI research lab found that ChatGPT “could also be manipulated to reproduce individuals’ names, phone numbers, and addresses, which is a violation of privacy with potentially serious consequences,” he reported. “With our limited budget of $200 USD, we extracted over 10,000 unique examples,” the researchers wrote. “However, an adversary who spends more money to query the ChatGPT API could likely extract far more data.”
While training data itself can hold sensitive information, users are constantly adding new data that can also be exposed. In another article for tech news site ZDNet, Eileen Yu cited a survey of some 11,500 employees in the U.S., Europe and Asia, which found that “57% of employees used public generative AI tools in the office at least once weekly, and that “31% of employees polled admitted entering sensitive information such as addresses and banking details for customers, confidential HR data, and proprietary company information into publicly accessible AI programs.”
Corporate media have given a lot of breathless coverage to the existential threat to humanity allegedly posed by AI. Yet these outlets have been far less attentive to AI apps’ documented data security risks and vulnerability to hackers, issues that have been given exhaustive coverage by smaller, techfocused news outlets. n
Paul Rosenberg is a California-based writer senior editor for Random Lengths News, and a columnist for Al Jazeera English and Salon.
INLAND NORTHWEST
12+ MONTHS BEFORE:
• Set your budget
• Create a guest list
• Choose a wedding date and venue
• Hire a wedding planner (if desired)
• Schedule engagement photos (if desired)
• Book key vendors (caterer, photographer, band/DJ)
9-12 MONTHS BEFORE:
• Choose your wedding party
• Shop for wedding attire (dress, suits, etc.)
• Reserve accommodations for out-of-town guests
• Start planning your honeymoon
• Send save-the-dates
6-9 MONTHS BEFORE:
• Finalize décor and theme
• Order invitations and other stationery
• Book hair and makeup artists
• Choose/Order wedding rings
• Create a gift registry
3-6 MONTHS BEFORE:
• Send out invitations
• Plan ceremony details and write vows
• Schedule dress fittings and final alterations
• Arrange transportation for the wedding day
• Confirm menu and schedule a tasting with your caterer
1-3 MONTHS BEFORE:
• Obtain a marriage license
• Finalize seating arrangements
• Confirm timeline with vendors
• Purchase gifts for the wedding party
• Write and practice your wedding day timeline
1 WEEK BEFORE:
• Pack for your honeymoon
• Confirm final guest count with vendors
• Do a final walkthrough of the venue
• Get a manicure, pedicure, and any beauty treatments
Riverside Terrace
Roof Deck
Riverside Lawn
Where Memories Are Made
Four decades, two love stories and one year of new ownership for Spokane’s Chalet Restaurant
BY DORA SCOTT
When some first hear about the Chalet Restaurant, they may envision fine dining. Ask one of the longtime South Hill restaurant’s regulars, however, and they’ll tell you all about its kitschy ’80s interior and homestyle American brunch options. True to its name, the Chalet resembles an alpine resort with its low-pitched roof and decorative wooden railings framing the windows. The building itself dates back to a time when horses and buggies parked outside, and over the years was the home of various businesses including an ice cream shop and a hardware store until it finally became the Chalet in 1982.
Even though it’s had three different owners since, each has held true to the original diner menu beloved by regulars. Many of those loyal diners have a favorite booth or table, and some don’t even need to place an order because it’s already a kitchen ticket as they walk through the door.
For the Chalet’s newest owners — Erica and Rudy Wegner and Salliena and Mike Hassett — who assumed ownership a year ago, it’s much more than a business venture.
“Rudy and I met here at our first jobs as bus boy and hostess when we were 16 years old in 2004 and have
been together ever since,” Erica Wegner says. “Mike and Salliena met while working at The Chalet around seven years ago as a waitress and cook. We now have two children, and they have one. We owe our families to this place, and it has a large part in our heart.”
Since taking over early last year, the Wegners and Hassetts have maintained much of the Chalet’s tried-andtrue model. A sign stating “Because Nice Matters” has hung on the restaurant’s walls throughout the years and is symbolic of its great customer service.
Mike and Rudy have worked in nearly every role during their employment at the Chalet, and are a two-
The Chalet owners, from left, Michael and Salliena Hassett and Erica and Rudy Wegner. YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS
man team in the kitchen rivaling what four cooks could accomplish.
“We don’t like saying fast food, but for a diner you sit down, you get your food or you get your order [in], your drinks, and your food’s out within five minutes, maybe 10,” says Rudy, adding they’ve prioritized freshness and quality over the past year.
One of the most notable changes — which had some regulars groaning — was their decision to eliminate the Chalet’s dinner menu and evening hours.
“The dinners were struggling for a while,” Rudy says.
“When we got the books, they did 80% of their sales by three o’clock every day for years, so it was a pretty easy decision,” Erica adds.
Despite nixing evening service the Chalet still has some dinner favorites on the menu, now served for those who eat supper early or hanker for a hearty meal regardless of the time of day.
The Hassetts and Wengers were surprised at how popular the liver and onions ($15) still are, but it’s a dish that’s increasingly hard to come by.
On the menu’s lunch section, the Chalet features all the sandwich classics like a turkey club ($14) and tuna melt ($12). Their burgers are a hit, too, with mouthwatering varieties like a chili burger ($14) or the mushroom Swiss burger ($14), all served with a side of soup, salad or fries.
The Chalet’s eggs Benedict ($16) takes the cake for breakfast, and comes in variations including salmon or the Chalet Benedict ($16), topped with a white cream sauce instead of the classic hollandaise.
The McChalet ($13) is perfect for those who want to upgrade from a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich for some quality ingredients served with a side of hashbrowns.
For something syrupy and sweet, the French toast and eggs ($14) are a favorite, but you can’t go wrong with the pancakes ($13) or waffles ($13) either, especially when seasonal specials are offered, like huckleberries or pumpkin.
Find a bowl of creamers and packets of sugar on each table to go along with a cup of coffee ($3.29) or treat yourself to a decadent cup of hot chocolate ($3.69) topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. Those nostalgic for a traditional diner feel will be pleased to find that the Chalet uses the classic brown mugs.
Since buying the Chalet, the four new owners have also made some upgrades to the kitchen, and plan to freshen up the front of house as well.
“Keep the same vibe but give it our twists,” Rudy says. “But still you can’t change too much because it’s a nostalgic thing.”
The Chalet’s main room is bright and open with a high ceiling, large windows and white walls with dark wooden beams that match the building’s exterior. The maple wood tables, chairs and bar counter add to the cozy atmosphere, with touches of deep green in the booth seats and carpet.
There is more seating in an upstairs balcony area to the left, at one point the smoking section of the restaurant that’s now perfect for large families who want their own nook.
“We are all emotionally invested in this place and wanting it to be the community place it’s been where these people can make memories,” Erica says. “Like Christmas Eve, we have a family who comes in for breakfast, and there’s 12 of them. They always walk upstairs, they reserve it in advance, and they take a photo on the stairs in matching pajamas, and this has been their tradition for five or six years.”
Like its owners, many employees have also been at the Chalet for the long run. Waitress Martha Lubben has been greeting customers for over 30 years.
“We want to be here for another 20 years. It’s hard for restaurants these days depending on where you’re located in this town, but we see ourselves here for quite some time,” says Rudy, adding how stability and relationships have been key to the Chalet’s identity.
There’s no shortage of heartwarming stories, all thanks to the Chalet. From multiple couples meeting there to generations of families establishing traditions inside its dining room, people often leave with more than a full belly — a warm heart.
If you have a special memory from the Chalet, too, its new owners are collecting and compiling stories, which can be emailed to wegnerfamily2020@outlook.com.
“It’s fun to hear all these memories, and I want to record them because that’s its own little piece of history,” Erica says. n
The Chalet Restaurant • 2918 S. Grand Blvd. • Open Mon-Fri 7 am-3 pm; Sat-Sun 7 am-2 pm • 509-747-6474 • thechaletrestaurant.net
A staple of any American diner, including the Chalet: Eggs Benedict and hash browns.
Hey, hey it’s a monkey, and people say he monkeys around...
REVIEW
Dance, Monkey! Dance!
Better Man transforms Robbie Williams into a CGI chimp, but follows the same old musical biopic motions
BY CHASE HUTCHINSON
Cinema as a kind of self-portraiture has a long, rich tradition. In the 21st century alone, there have been a variety of excellent works that capture how a creator sees themselves. Charlie Kaufman wrote a film centered on a writer bearing his name with 2002’s Adaptation. Zia Anger revisited her first feature with last year’s My First Film Brady Corbet wrestles with the struggles of creating art with the recent The Brutalist However, none of these artists did what English pop star Robbie Williams and company did with Better Man — they made him a CGI chimp. Alas, if only any of those insightful, self-reflective filmmakers had helmed a film with this unique twist, they might have had a real shot at making something similarly interesting.
Instead, Better Man is a hollow miss directed by Michael Gracey, who previously made the slightly amusing though far from great The Greatest Showman. The filmmaker attempts to coast off the hook of seeing a monkey meander his way through a musical biopic, and admittedly gets a decent amount of mileage out of this gimmick… that is until the already so-so script (written by Gracey with newcomers Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole) stalls out right as its subject does.
The reason why Williams is a monkey through all this — that he supposedly sees himself as being less “evolved” than other people — is less a guiding thematic light about his psyche than it is a shallow stand-in for what could have actually been a subversive vision. Though it boasts some impressive effects by Weta FX
(who made fully believable humanoid primate characters for the recent Planet of the Apes movies), there is a prevailing emptiness underneath. It’s a surface-level film lacking in the needed narrative bones, ultimately feeling like Williams is again nothing more than a dancing monkey trapped doing the shaky routine required of him to sell a banal, basic biopic in another skin.
This all begins with him as a young lad getting a glimpse of the perils of pursuing fame when his father abandons him. Williams then decides to audition for and becomes part of the pop group Take That. They soon become a hit, but Williams can’t seem to find happiness, instead spiraling out of control while developing a drug addiction. It’s in familiar moments like these where you jolt awake and realize you’re watching a monkey shoot up, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve seen this story sans-CGI primate a thousand times. The constant voiceover spells everything out as it all just goes through the motions.
Better Man
Directed by Michael Gracey Starring Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Adam Tucker, Steve Pemberton
Bob Dylan’s music. There is no such silver lining here. To call Better Man a cheeky provocation is to oversell what is an occasionally bemusing and bittersweet yet ultimately milquetoast biopic. Yes, having Williams be a CGI monkey is certainly different, but the film itself still dances to far too familiar a tune. It’s all about the rise and fall of its musical figure, coloring within the well-worn lines of musical biopics that could use far more of a shaking up than this. That we hear the British pop singer candidly musing at one point about how becoming wildly famous merely requires cheekiness rather than being good unintentionally captures the general ethos of the film quite well. Better Man is a cheeky film in small bursts, but it falls short of being good.
Even as there are a handful of well-staged dance numbers, the music itself is forgettable. The film is partly about this — as Williams didn’t catch on outside the UK — but that doesn’t change the fact that there aren’t any memorable tunes to hang its hat on. While the recent A Complete Unknown was not a particularly good musical biopic either, at least it’s great listening to
The most engaging aspect of the film comes when Williams attempts to face down his past, the insecurities that troubled him and his persistent anxieties as a performer. This reaches a peak in a brawl within his mind near the end. It’s where you can see the bold film Better Man is battling to be. It’s brutal and bonkers seeing various monkeys duke it out while still being more revealing about Williams than anything before it. That this comes as Williams launches off the stage and dives more fully into surreal territory shows how the film’s unfulfilled promise is revealed outside the confines of the familiar musical biopic formula. The letdown always comes as he returns to the narrow stage to dance his rote little monkey dance once more. n
When the Lights Go Down
The Last Showgirl gives Pamela Anderson her best role yet, and she commands center stage even when the film stumbles
BY CHASE HUTCHINSON
Of all the people who have found themselves thrust into fame, few have had a life and career quite like Pamela Anderson. The model-turned-actress became an international icon in the 1990s thanks to Baywatch and has remained one of the world’s most recognizable figures for decades. However, her fame hasn’t always fully been on her own terms until rather recently when she has taken on projects from performing on Broadway to working on a documentary as well as an autobiography that offered a deeper look at her life and talents beyond the tabloid headlines that followed her.
All of this inevitably informs our expectations for Gia Coppola’s delicate drama The Last Showgirl and Anderson’s leading role in it, though it remains important to draw a line between reality and fiction. There are parallels to be drawn between Anderson and her character Shelly, a veteran showgirl whose Vegas show is ending after 30 years. But it’s more than just sharp metatextual casting, serving as a solid (if a bit narratively slight) demonstration of how good Anderson can be when given thoughtful material.
Rated R
hearted stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) represent the film’s unexpected yet earned high points. The complicated, sad history they share, while not always smoothly teased out, is felt in their sturdy naturalistic performances. There is also a scene-stealing Jamie Lee Curtis as Shelly’s charismatic former coworker and friend, who we come to realize is also struggling more than she is always willing to let on. Even as the way these various storylines play out can feel slightly undercooked, it’s the small conversations and fleeting confessions they make to each other that draw you into the rough textures of her world.
The Last Showgirl
Directed by Gia Coppola
Starring Pamela Anderson, Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis
Namely, the film explores the desire to make meaning out of the work we do, the modern precarity of labor in the United States, and what we tell ourselves to get through the day. While distinct, The Last Showgirl gives Anderson her own version of 2008’s The Wrestler crossed with the 2018 film Support the Girls, as it gestures toward a complicated communal portrait of the far younger coworkers Shelly performs alongside. While not as good as either of those films, Anderson elevates it with just how genuinely earnest she can be in one moment and shockingly selfish in another. We see all of who Shelly is in her performance as she continues to cling to a dream that has long since faded, even as it results in her losing touch with her only daughter. While it occasionally veers into familiar clichés as she tries to reconnect with her, Anderson always carries it through. In particular, the scenes that she shares with the show’s soft-
Most interestingly, we rarely see Shelly performing on stage. Rather than feel disappointing, it’s critical framing that prioritizes hearing from her about how meaningful this work is to her before seeing how it may not be as magnificent as she needs it to be. This is again what gives the film similar thematic heft to The Wrestler, which was about juxtaposing the larger-than-life personas of wrestlers with the fragile flesh and blood people bringing them to life. In The Last Showgirl, while Shelly has more of a life and people she cares about, she remains drawn to the glamor of being on the stage. The striking cinematography by Autumn Durald Arkapaw instills proceedings with an appropriately hazy feel, but it still holds the dreamlike catharsis its character wants at a distance.
She keeps grasping for something to make it all mean something, because what else does she have? Shelly, portrayed with care by Anderson, is painfully human, prone to insecurity and ego as she tries to continue performing as long as she can. When she gives her one last performance and we finally accompany her onto the stage, the final joyful smile etched on her face breaks the heart. There is no triumph to getting to witness this, only tragedy. Even after a lifetime of doing so and after everything she’s given up, she’s still clinging to her spotlight before it all goes dark. n
Pamela Anderson shines through the sad glitz.
A NEW DAY
After a successful debut headlining tour, singersongwriter Amelia Day enters 2025 with big plans
BY MADISON PEARSON
The words “musician” and “artist” are used interchangeably in our parlance. It’s a tacit acknowledgement that music is an art form, but not in the way we typically think about art mediums like impressionist paintings and marble sculptures.
Singer-songwriter Amelia Day challenges that by wielding a sonic paintbrush to create art worthy of gilded frames and museum walls.
Raised in Sumner, Washington, among ever-verdant evergreen trees near the base of Mount Rainier, Day is a Pacific Northwesterner through and through. Her childhood consisted of piano lessons and short stories scribbled into journals, two things that created a solid
foundation for her career as a singer-songwriter.
Her music career began in the greater Seattle area, playing shows for family, friends and locals, but Day’s world quickly expanded once she moved to Nashville for college in 2020. She’s since collaborated with other artists, served up viral hits on TikTok and shared her songs with audiences across the West Coast.
“I’ve always been drawn to music more than anything,” she says. “But I never really believed that being a musician was an attainable career. There’s a ton of dialogue around that growing up. When teachers would ask what my dream job was, I would always say ‘author’ or ‘inventor’ because I just didn’t believe that [being a
Day-O! Me say Day-O! Amelia comes and you go to the show....
LILLIE HOLLABAUGH PHOTO
musician] was super feasible.”
Thanks to a feisty explorative spirit, during those early piano lessons Day increasingly began to ignore sheet music altogether and turned to improvisational sessions with her teacher instead. This led to her writing her first songs, joining a worship group at church and performing for the first time.
It wasn’t until a hard-hitting middle school crush that Day picked up a guitar.
“I both really wanted to learn guitar for myself, but also my crush played guitar, and I wanted to relate to this person in that way,” she says. “I was always drawn to this old guitar my grandparents had. It was so hard at first, especially with little hands. Every chord was painful and sounded so bad. I couldn’t imagine being able to play and sing at the same time, that was unfathomable. So I’m glad little me kept at it. I guess crushes are great motivation.”
“I kinda turned to songwriting in middle school as a way to get out my angst in journal form,” she continues. “As much as I loved it, I’d say college was really when I put a bigger focus on it and started actually thinking about releasing my own songs.”
Day released her first songs during her freshman year at Vanderbilt University in 2021. The first, “valentine’s day blues,” was completely selfproduced, where Day played every instrument on the track.
After putting out that first song, Day decided to write and record a multitrack project to release the next year. That effort became Eastward of Eden, a six-song EP featuring fantastical storytelling through Day’s remarkable lyricism, rich soundscapes, and vocal timbre rooted in the realms of jazz and folk.
“Looking back, I promoted it with the intensity of somebody that people are listening to,” Day says. “I guess there is something powerful in that. In believing your stuff is worthy of being listened to.”
After posting consistently on TikTok and other social media sites, the acoustic version of the EP’s titular track gained traction online, and Day saw her hard work pay off in the form of hundreds of thousands of streams and eyes on her music.
With the bridge of her song “Therapist’s Wet Dream” going semi-viral on social media and the release of her 2023 EP Little One, Day has only seen positive growth and reactions from her listening base.
Gracing Spotify playlists with titles like “Narnia vibes for reading,” “goblin core” and “sapphic songs for your talking stages,” Day’s music is upfront about what it is: honest and relatable storytelling.
“As a queer person, I feel like a lot of my music revolves around an idea of otherness,” she says. “My last EP really revolved around this idea of just trying to be unapologetically yourself, both in genre, life, relationships, and career.”
It wasn’t until about a year and a half ago that Day says she finally felt at ease being openly queer in all areas of her life.
“I’ve grown a lot more comfortable with being open about my queerness and really honestly talking about that in relation to my music,” she says. “I definitely do think about my queerness when writing a song. But, I think there’s a boundary there, too, because sometimes you can get
caught up in the niche of ‘people are resonating with this because it’s queer music, so I’m going to write a song specifically meant to be queer music.’ I feel like that can get away from the heart of people’s experiences.”
Day says her inclusion of specific details about her life in her music, like “Therapist’s Wet Dream,” resonates with listeners the most.
On that track she sings, “I left your heart out to dry on a clothing line stretched over Central Time” and “I’m a triple-threat, ball of stress, panic attack,” reaching an audience that surely relates to heartbreak and being stressed out about life.
“I absolutely want it to be a core part of my music and something that’s reflected in everything that I put out,” she says. “But, I never want it to be a tokenized niche.”
After graduating from Vanderbilt in June 2024, Day embarked on her first headlining tour titled “A Girl, A Car & A Guitar.” It was entirely self-booked and given the apt name because Day drove herself and her gear in her trusty Subaru across the West Coast.
The tour included stops in Tacoma, Boise, Nelson, B.C., and Spokane’s own Chameleon. Now, Day is back at the Chameleon on Jan. 10 with local support from Vika & the Velvets and Landon Spencer of The Bed Heads.
For the last four shows of “A Girl, A Car & A Guitar,” The Bed Heads joined Day as coheadliners, promoting the band’s then-unreleased song “Strangers,” on which Day lends her voice to an ethereal second verse, chorus and the song’s spirited bridge. She also played plenty of unreleased tracks, showcasing her recent songwriting ventures that lean into a sound reminiscent of fellow Western Washingtonian singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile’s early career.
“For me, 2024 was a lot about building a live scene,” she says. “Now, I’ve been preparing for new releases and more touring. I think 2025 is going to be a very, very big year for me in that regard.”
This year, Day has plans for an East Coast tour with fellow Nashville artist Miki Fiki, hitting major cities like Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. — the first shows she will ever play on the East Coast.
Day also has tracks recorded and ready to release through the beginning of 2025.
“It’s some of my favorite songwriting and recording that I’ve ever done,” she says. “Usually when I get to the end of a mixing process, I’ve felt like I’m conceding things that I want, but this is the first time that I’ve come away with final mixes that I genuinely have no qualms with.”
For the past year, Day has focused on honing her live show, writing music that feels authentic, touring and connecting with her audience. Her plans for 2025 don’t indicate she’ll lose any steam.
“I feel like I’ve been trying to balance them all,” she says. “But now I’m getting to the point where I can actually share all of this stuff I’ve been working on over the past six to nine months, and I’ve never been more excited to put it all out into the world.” n
EDM BUKU
POP PUNK LIT
Thursday, 1/9
CHECKERBOARD TAPROOM, Weathered Shepherds
J QQ SUSHI & KITCHEN, Just Plain Darin
ZOLA, Trevor Chambers and The Soutpaw Band, Tristan Hart Pierce
Friday, 1/10
ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, KOSH
J THE BIG DIPPER, Dairy Baby, Bad Trip Motel, Index, Ryder Nerren
BULLHEAD SALOON, Neon Interstate
J THE CHAMELEON, Amelia Day, Vika & the Velvets, Landon Spencer
CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Wackamole THE DISTRICT BAR, (Hed) PE
J THE GRAIN SHED, Haywire
JEREMIAH JOHNSON BREWING CO., Son of Brad
J KNITTING FACTORY, Barley Alive, SYSZ
MONTVALE EVENT CENTER, Nocturne Sessions: Winter
J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Ian Newbill
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs
ZOLA, Sugar Bear
Saturday, 1/11
ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, KOSH
J THE BIG DIPPER, Millergold, Light In Mirrors, Daylily Dreams
J BING CROSBY THEATER,
TOBY: A Tribute to Toby Keith
BULLHEAD SALOON, Neon Interstate
J THE CHAMELEON, Buku, F3LON, Hi ImElfo, BNGRZ
CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Maney Axe
J HAMILTON STUDIO, Aspen Kye
NIGHT OWL, Priestess
NOAH’S CANTEEN, RCA
J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Oak Street Connection
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs
ZOLA, Blake Braley
Sunday, 1/12
HOGFISH, Open Mic
ZOLA, Sugar Bear Dinner Party
Monday, 1/13
EICHARDT’S PUB, Monday Night Blues Jam with John Firshi
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic Night
ZOLA, Tristan Hart Pierce
Tuesday, 01/14
SWING LOUNGE, Swing Lounge Live Music Tuesdays
ZOLA, The Zola All Star Jam
Already feeling the post-holiday blues and need a pick-me-up? Heavy North is hosting a show with dubstep artist Buku at The Chameleon that might do the trick. With synth-heavy beats, and recent releases under the WAKAAN label (bass heads eat your heart out), Buku is sure to bring a set that will get people dancing Saturday away. Plus, the local openers, including DJ F3lon, Hi ImElfo and BNGRZ, are also sure to bring some filthy vibes to get the dance floor going — back in December Hi ImElfo shared on Facebook that “Ill (sic) do anything for them good ass subs” with the poster for this show.
— SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
Buku, F3LON, Hi ImElfo, BNGRZ • Sat, Jan. 11 at 9 pm • $25-$30 • 21+ • The Chameleon • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. • chameleonspokane.com
While Blink-182’s Enema of the State defined the pop boom of the late ’90s/early ’00s, the secondbestselling release the genre produced in 1999 also holds a fond spot in many millennials’ memories — Lit’s A Place in the Sun. Propelled by the all-time dirtbag anthem “My Own Worst Enemy,” other top-flight singles “Miserable” and “Zip-Lock,” and a Warped Tour-friendly sound that leaned a bit into harder alternative rock realms, the Orange County quartet’s sophomore album went platinum. While Lit may not have reached the sustained highs that some of its contemporaries did, the band continues to put out new music (most recently 2022’s Tastes Like Gold), and its hits remain catchy as hell. Get lit when the group heads to Northern Quest for a co-headlining show with fellow turn-ofthe-millennia alt-rock hitmakers Fuel. — SETH SOMMERFELD
Fuel, Lit • Wed, Jan. 15 at 7:30 pm • $39-$59 • All ages • Northern Quest Resort & Casino • 100 North Hayford Road • northernquest.com
Wednesday, 1/15
THE DRAFT ZONE, The Draft Zone Open Mic
J J NORTHERN QUEST CASINO, Lit, Fuel RED ROOM LOUNGE, Red Room Lounge Jam
J TIMBERS ROADHOUSE, Cary Beare Presents
Just Announced...
J NORTHERN QUEST CASINO, Larry Fleet, Mar. 2.
J NORTHERN QUEST CASINO, Mitchell Tenpenny, Mar. 18.
Tackles and takedowns are about as dangerous as most sports get these days, but there’s one sport more precarious than the rest: bull riding. Often thought of as the most dangerous eight seconds in sports, bull riding requires athletes to stay mounted atop a bull as it kicks back and forth, attempting to throw the rider to the dirt. That danger is coming to the Inland Northwest for the fifth time as the PBR (Professional Bull Riders, not to be confused with Pabst Blue Ribbon) Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour bucks its way into Spokane. Watch as some of the best bull riders in the world and emerging talent go toe-to-toe with the fiercest bovine competitors that this country has to offer. This two-day event is the last, and only, stop in the Inland Northwest until the tour ends in May, so it’s a must see for any adrenaline junkies or rodeo fans.
— COLTON RASANEN
PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour • Fri, Jan. 10 at 8 pm and Sat, Jan. 11 at 7 pm • $15-$180 • Spokane Arena • 720 W. Mallon Ave. • spokanearena.com
FILM THE CLIMATE COMEBACK
The annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour has been showing in theaters and communities across the country for 20 years. The festival aims to ignite and stoke the sparks of environmental activism through a series of short films and documentaries that also address environmental injustice, racism and inequity. Host organizations are provided with 150-plus films to choose from to create a unique viewing experience for their local community. In the Inland Northwest, the Idaho Sierra Club hosts the festival at Moscow’s Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, with proceeds going toward the Idaho Sierra Club’s work for climate justice, clean energy and salmon recovery.
— DORA SCOTT
Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour • Sat, Jan. 11 at 6 pm • $15-$23 • Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre • 508 S. Main St., Moscow • kenworthy.org
COMMUNITY IT’S SNEAKERNIGHT
The folks at 4AM Spokane know that your shoe choice can make or break a killer outfit. So much so, in fact, that they’re hosting a summit dedicated to sneakers and streetwear. If you missed the first iteration of this event in December, head to Shoot 360 Spokane this Sunday to explore the world of sneakers through buying, selling and trading shoes with fellow sneakerheads. The summit also includes sneaker giveaways, exclusive merch, food trucks, music by DJ Nae Nae and $20 fill-a-bag opportunities. Whether you’re just dipping your sneaks into the world of streetwear or you’re a certified sneakerhead, the Sneaker Summit is sure to help you up your kicks game.
— MADISON PEARSON
ERICK DOXEY PHOTO
GET LISTED!
Submit events online at Inlander.com/getlisted or email relevant details to getlisted@inlander.com. We need the details one week prior to our publication date.
WORDS ROCKIN’ ROMANCE
It’s the time of year when bookworms make lofty reading goals. Whether that’s to read 50 books in 2025 or more classic literature, there’s also still time for a good romance when a break from reality is desperately needed. Helping fill that need, local author Jessica James has cooked up a unique rockstar romance for her debut into the literary world. In For One Night Only, two former bandmates find themselves back in each other’s lives, concocting a fake dating scheme for publicity after not speaking for six years. Can the two face the music and revive the harmony they once had? Attend this conversation between James and romance author Bethany Bennett to find out.
— MADISON PEARSON
Jessica James: For One Night Only • Fri, Jan. 10 from 7-8:30 pm • Free • Auntie’s Bookstore • 402 W. Main Ave. • auntiesbooks.com
MUSIC BIRTHDAY BASH
The Hamilton Studio Listening Room is easily one of the best places for live music in Spokane. The space is meant to amplify acoustics without any unnecessary distractions, which means musicians can present their art in its most authentic form. That sonic excellence will be on full display this Saturday as Spokane singer-songwriter Aspen Kye takes the stage — on her 30th birthday, no less. Kye, whose sultry music falls somewhere between soul, jazz and folk, often centers her songwriting in human growth and simple existence. At her Jan. 11 performance, she’ll be joined by Cameron LaPlante on saxophone, Justyn Priest on guitar, Vinnie Nickoloff on drums and Barry Gross on bass.
— COLTON RASANEN
Aspen Kye • Sat, Jan. 11 at 7 pm • $20 • Hamilton Studio • 1427 W. Dean Ave. • hamilton.live
I SAW YOU
VALUE VILLAGE SPRAGUE & PINES
Saturday, Dec. 28, around 5:30 pm.
UNFORTUNATELY I was only afforded a painfully brief glance, from the far right side of the first isle on the right side of the store. You were browsing the “collectables” section, and i being incredibly shy chose the other side of the isle in fear of coming off as a weirdo. I was wearing a cap, glasses and a leather jacket. And you were clad in obsidion a classy goth with possibly a couple facial piercings... and so brutally gorgeous, it almost hurt my soul to look at you. you were with a friend also gorgeous with long fusia locks. I could see intelligence in your gaze and your energy was playful... if you see this you will know it is you it’s written for and i can only hope for a response...even if you’re not single id be down to be your friend and i perfer that first anyways. hit me back i promise im worth it... you wont be dissapointed, an interesting distraction at the very least...
CHEERS
PAID FOR GROCERIES while trying to pay for my stuff with my ucard it was rejected you stepped up with no hesitation and paid for my stuff $114.00 you are an angel thankyou so much and thankyou jesus please bless this women for all of her life
PEOPLE VS. MEDIA You know what, media people, we’re not as polarized as you say we are. Every day, I come across fun, kind, caring people. We share a smile, a laugh and a good quip. I don’t know how they voted and I don’t care. Perhaps media is the problem, always telling us about our divisions. Maybe you should shut up?
KIDDO EXTRAVAGANZO Thanks to all who make space for the kids of our community. Early on New Year’s Eve, Taco Vado hosted a Kiddo Extravaganzo where young people could perform. Kids sang, danced, told jokes, and found some time when they could be themselves in a way that was joyful and fun. There are so many in our community like this, educators, community organizations, and businesses, who make room where kids can be included while being themselves. They’re not only giving kids and families a thing to do, they’re nurturing hope and potential in our youngest generation. I so loved seeing, as the New Year was about to begin, kids having joy in being kids at Taco Vado, and the food was fantastic, too.
RE: NEWSPAPERS Bless your heart for your jeers about font size! I have just been thinking about this issue. Even my bifocals don’t help. I would love a 14 font to allow me to read with both eyes open. C’mon newspapers, increase the font to 14! Please!!!
and ogle the younger guy with the beer belly that comes in at 6 am. It’s a shame that the multiple complaints about you two haven’t seen you booted out of there, even though I can think of a dozen people who have left because of your rude behavior. Makes me wonder how many children you bullied as teachers. Find a new place to hold court or at least a new time. A lot of us work for a living and are on a schedule. Sincerely, the people who actually go to the pool to swim
RE: LICENSE TABS Your welcome, Happy new year.
SLAVERY LITE Shame on Trump, Elon and Vivek for their support of H-1B Visas. Rather than fix the broken immigration system to cut waiting time and prioritize the skilled, they cheerlead a system that puts its users in a form of servitude. Can’t quit, don’t dare complain or you will be sent back. Tied to one employer and paid less than native employees. Who benefits? Immigration lawyers, personnel handling companies, and the employer, of course. This is both immoral and un-American.
FIRESALE! There is a source, a pipeline, and a willing and eager market (consumers). The Chinese and other manufacturers of (illegal but easily obtained) fireworks hope we will continue enjoying and blowing ourselves up while perpetuating their
JEERS
GERIATRIC MEAN GIRLS To the two elderly “ladies” that bullied a millennial out of the pool at the fitness center in the valley, kudos. No, really. I can’t imagine how pathetic your lives must be that you need to kick someone who was already swimming out of the pool, just so you could gossip about people
profits. How many products are you aware of that are now unavailable or are no longer made due to a lack of sales (demand)? Ring any bells, or are your ears still ringing? Best stock up now!! (No real hurry, a thriving market won’t go away.)
RE: NEWSPAPERS Yowza, are you kidding with your suggestion for larger fonts? There is an invention called
reading glasses. My guess is you are one of those people who send emails/texts in all capital letters. As a comparison Portland is down to one newspaper a week, the rest are e-versions. Kudos to both the Inlander and SR for still having old style printed pages.
RE: NEWSPAPERS If you want a larger font, you can read all the Inlander articles on their website. The Spokesman probably offers the same. Or, you can give this FREE newspaper a monthly donation. I’m sure a large enough amount will let them deliver a large-font page to your door, or even let them publish a larger-font size for everyone to enjoy. Paper publications aren’t only read by people with aging eyes, but with a larger community of readers being online now, they do still have to watch their production costs as carefully as ever.
RE: ILLEGAL LICENSE TABS With respect to the comments about others paying for the license tabs of those who willfully drive on the streets without licensing their cars, I have another idea. What about penalizing the behavior? All over city streets are tabs that are expired; some with tabs from many years ago. When people are that brazen, police should be empowered to impound the vehicle and have it auctioned off to the highest bidder. Ticket the vehicle first. If it’s not paid within an allotted time, then sell the vehicle. If you can’t afford the small price of a tab (compared to other states that enforce the law), DON’T DRIVE!!!! Losers.
TV PROPAGANDA Shame on the local station for its biased story on transgender athletes. Consider the source: a 17-year-old who feels they are being discriminated against, without any consideration of the feelings for the biological females who are at a physical
disadvantage. Stop undermining women’s rights to appease a small minority with gender dysphoria. This is wrong, and it damages your credibility as a journalistic institution.
RE: PRESERVATION HALTS PROGRESS
Claiming historic preservation causes urban sprawl is to claim that the existence of older buildings somehow displaces housing. Many historic structures are not luxury, acting as affordable apartments and adding density – actively reducing sprawl. Somehow, cities with far stricter preservation regulations survive and thrive. Does Spokane want to be a place with flavor and roots, or a place paved over with the same big-box, lowestbidder developments plaguing other cities? Preservation includes adaptive re-use, creates jobs, unites community, and attracts visitors. If today’s rules had been in place in the past, we would have more flavor and more benefits. Each historic building should be (and is) reviewed individually, in context, for its financial viability, opportunity cost, effect on housing, community impact, and the potential loss of irreplaceable history. The balance of all these things, together, makes successful cities. Historic preservation being some insurmountable hurdle for development, and thus the cause of urban sprawl, is just not true. n
EVENTS | CALENDAR
BENEFIT
CUP OF COOL WATER Chowderhead is sponsoring a benefit for Cup of Cool Water, the charity picked this year by the Compass Club of Spokane. A portion of the entire day’s revenue will be donated to Cup of Cool Water. Jan. 16, 10 am-8 pm. Chowderhead, 825 N. Monroe St. instagram.com/chowderhead.spokane
COMEDY
FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY JOKE JOKE
JOKE A unique comedy experience that takes full advantage of the Garland Theater’s projector system, combining stand-up comedy, live sketches, and other bits. This month features Sam Miller, Ruben Kerson and Michael Glatzmaier. Hosted by Josiah Carlson. Jan. 9, 7:30-9 pm. $15. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org (509-327-1050)
CHOOSE TO LOSE A one-of-a-kind improvised game show where the audience calls the shots by choosing the players and games. Fridays at 7:30 pm through Jan. 31. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar. bluedoortheatre.org
MOSHE KASHER Kasher is the author of several comedic memoirs and three comedy albums. Jan. 10-11 at 7 pm and 9:45 pm. $27-$37. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com
LAURA PEEK Peek is a rising comic coming from Nashville’s comedy scene, and has performed at Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival. Jan. 12 at 7 pm. $22-32. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com
EXPEDITION: AN IMPROV ADVENTURE A family-friendly edition of the popular Safari show featuring unscripted comedy skits and games. Saturdays at 7:30 pm through Jan. 25. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.org
OPEN MIC MONDAY Hosted by local comedian Anthony Singleton, this open mic welcomes artists and entertainers of all genres. Open to all ages. Every second and fourth Monday of the month from 7-9 pm. Free. Lyyv Entertainment, 8712 E. Sprague Ave. lyyv.tv (509-557-3999)
NEW TALENT TUESDAYS Watch comedians of all skill levels work out jokes together. Tuesdays at 7 pm (doors at 6 pm). Tues., 7 pm. Free. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com/ (509-318-9998)
AARON CHEN Chen has performed at several international comedy festivals and has his own stand up special, If It Weren’t Filmed, Nobody Would Believe. Jan. 15 at 7 pm. $20. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com
OPENLY MIC: A QUEER COMEDY OPEN MIC Stand-up comedy open mic with a queer sensibility. First, third and fifth Wednesday of each month at 7 pm. Sign ups at 6 pm. Free. The Q Lounge, 228 W. Sprague Ave. instagram.com/ openlymic
INTRODUCTION TO IMPROV An eightweek class for improv veterans and beginners alike featuring skill-building practice and improv games. Jan. 16-March 6, Thu from 6-8 pm. $200. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.org (509-747-7045)
COMMUNITY
BITCH ‘N’ STITCH Grab your crochet, knitting, embroidery, weaving, cross stitch, felting, looming, macrame, friendship bracelets and craft casually in the company of others. Every second and last Thursday at 6:30 pm. Free. Lunarium, 1925 N. Monroe St. facebook. com/Lunarium.Spokane
FREE IMMIGRATION CLINIC A free clinic or anyone in need of an immigration legal consult. Second Thursday of each month from 5-7 pm. Free. Latinos en Spokane, 1502 N. Monroe St. latinosenspokane.org
IT HAPPENED HERE: EXPO ‘74 FIFTY YEARS LATER This 50th anniversary exhibition revisits the historical roots of Expo ’74’s legacy. It incorporates recognizable elements from Expo’s built environment with museum artifacts and archival materials. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Jan. 26. $7-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org
LOCAL HISTORY: EARLY RURAL
SCHOOLS OF SPOKANE COUNTY Erika Deasy discusses her research project to map the locations and document the history of 187 original rural pioneer schools that peppered the county’s landscape between 1880-1929. Jan. 9, 5:30-7 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org
MAGIC FOR MUGGLES: CRAFTS & ACTIVITIES Celebrate the return from winter break in Hogwarts style. Explore crafts and activities, including charms, care of magical creatures, quidditch practice and more. Ages 5+. Jan. 9, 3:30-4:30 pm. Free. Spokane Valley Library, 22 N. Herald Rd. scld.org
MINECRAFT CLUB Drop in and explore architecture, engineering and art through Minecraft. Participants are given a building prompt related to one or more of these fields. Grades 3-8. Every Thursday from 4-6 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. sparkcentral.org
FROSTED FRAMES: A WINTER WINDOW MURAL Children and teens are invited to design a frosty, winter-themed mural on the library windows. Work together to create a stunning display that will brighten the space throughout January and February. Ages 9-18 and 4-8 with an adult. Jan. 10, 3-4:30 pm. Free. Hillyard Library, 4110 N. Cook St. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
INTRO TO AROMATHERAPY Learn the basics of aromatherapy, the potential health benefits, and how to incorporate them into your self-care routine. Jan. 11, 1-2 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
SPOKANE MENDING CIRCLE Bring a piece of clothing or a textile in need of repair and mend alongside fellow menders. BYO supplies. Jan. 11, 10 am-noon. Free. Art Salvage Spokane, 610 E. North Foothills Dr. artsalvagespokane.com
TRADITIONAL GAMES IN SPANISH
Play games like “Huevo podrido,” “A la víbora de la mar,” and “Jugemos en el bosque mientras el lobo no está.” Kids in grades K-3 and their families. Jan. 11, 2:30-3:30 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org
WA LGBTQ+ SURVEY INFORMATION
SESSION Members of the WA LGBTQ+ survey team present information on the statewide survey and take questions. Jan. 11, 4-5 pm. Free. Central Library,
906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org
SNEAKER SUMMIT 02 A buy, sell and trade sneaker convention featuring vendors, hoops, giveaways and live music aimed at connection fellow sneakerheads and those interested in streetwear. Jan. 12, 12-4 pm. Free. Shoot 360 Spokane, 3700 E. Francis Ave. instagram.com/4am.spokan
NATIVE CULTURAL CRAFT NIGHTS
Make cultural crafts with provided supplies. Every other Monday from 5-7 pm. Free. American Indian Community Center, 1025 W. Indiana Ave. aiccinc.org
DIGITAL CAMERA PHOTOGRAPHY
Learn how to use a digital camera and the basics of digital photography. Jan. 14-Feb 4, Tue from 6:30-8:30 pm. $112. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave. spokaneartschool.net (509-325-1500)
DROP IN & ZINE Drop in and learn how to make your very own eight-page mini-zine using a single piece of paper and Spark’s art supplies. Every Tuesday from 5-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org
COFFEE & CONVERSATION The conversation is free form and the event includes low-key activities like coloring, puzzles and more. Every Wed from 10:30 am-noon. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanelibrary.org
DROP-IN & DRAW, PAINT, KNIT, STITCH... Bring your current creative project to the Hive and create in company with others. Every third Wednesday of the month from 5:30-7 pm. Free. The Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
EASTERN REGION CONNECTS: PEOPLE, PLACES & POSSIBILITIES Come share your thoughts, ideas and concerns about WSDOT projects in your neighborhood. Jan. 15, 5:30-7 pm. Free. Liberty Park Library, 402 S. Pittsburgh St. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
LILAC CITY LIVE! Spokane’s version of a late-night talk show with special guests each month. Guests TBA. Jan. 16, 8-10 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main. spokanelibrary.org
ENGINEERING CHALLENGE Test your engineering and construction skills with library materials and tools and a specific challenge. Ages 8+. Jan. 18, 10 am-noon. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org
INDOOR PLANT SWAP Bring an indoor plant to share and pick up one left by another houseplant enthusiast. Jan. 18, 2-4 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org (893-8350)
PAINT NIGHT MURDER MYSTERY For this mystery, the murder has already happened and all participants are undercover detectives. Jan. 18, 6-10 pm. $59. Crime Scene Entertainment, 2775 N. Howard St. crimesceneentertainment.com
POST FALLS BRIDAL TOUR Visit two venues and explore everything from catering, florals and photography to DJs, planners and rentals all in one day. Jan. 18, 10 am-3 pm. Free. Trailhead Event Center, 12361 W. Parkway. postfalls.gov
FILM
MOSCOW FILM SOCIETY: ALMOST FAMOUS A highschooler in the early ’70s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone about an up-and-coming rock band. Jan. 9, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
EVENTS | CALENDAR
DIGITAL SHORT-VIDEO WORKSHOP
Create digital short videos from start to finish with fellow teens during this twoday video workshop. Learn the basics of scripting, planning, shooting and editing video. Ages 13-17. Registration is required. Jan. 10, 4:30-5:30 pm and Jan. 11, 3-5:30 pm. Free. Spokane Valley Library, 22 N. Herald Rd. scld.org
SENSORY RELAXED MOVIE SCREEN -
INGS Screenings of various movies with slightly brighter lights, lowered volume and designated areas to move around, dance, walk or sit. Second Tuesdays (PG 13) at 6:30 pm, second Saturdays (all ages) at 11:30 am. $5. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org
STAGE TO SCREEN: THE MOTIVE & THE CUE Two huge stars. Two even bigger egos. Will the groundbreaking production of Hamlet ever get off the ground? Jan. 12, 2-5 pm. $20. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague. bingcrosbytheater.com
BANNED TOGETHER SCREENING A 90-minute doc about the current wave of book bans in the U.S. It tells the story of Beaufort, S.C., where 97 books are suddenly pulled from school libraries. Registration required. Ages 12+. Jan. 19, 2-4 pm. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org
FOOD & DRINK
ECO EATS: ULTIMATE TASTE TEST Try a variety of unusual snacks that have been reimagined for the food connoisseur’s delight in this environmentally conscious experiment. Jan. 9, 4-5 pm. Free. Indian
Trail Library, 4909 W. Barnes Rd. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
STEAK 101 WITH CHEF AL BATSON Learn how to season, sear and slice five different steaks with chef Al Batson. Jan. 9, 5:45-8:15 pm. $100. The Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon Ave. thekitchenengine.com (509-328-3335)
BREAD BASICS BAKING CLASS Learn the basics of bread and make a loaf of triticale sandwich bread with Jeff in this educational, hands-on class. Jan. 13, 5:45-8:15 pm. $85. The Kitchen Engine, 621 W. Mallon Ave. thekitchenengine.com
PUBLIC COOKING CLASS Learn how to cook with Commellini’s chef Frank in this hands-on class focused on technique and skills. Jan. 14-15, 6:30-8:30 pm. $85. Commellini Estate, 14715 N. Dartford Dr. commellini.com (509-466-0667)
NORTH IDAHO WINE SOCIETY: WINES OF SOUTH AFRICA Taste wines from South Africa with Jack Chase, regional sales director. RSVP by Jan. 13. Jan. 17, 7-9:30 pm. $30-$35. Lake City Center, 1916 N. Lakewood Dr. northidahowinesociety.org (208-667-4628)
MAC & CHEESE FESTIVAL Try variations prepared by local chefs competing for the Golden Noodle Award. Vote for your favorite to win the People’s Choice Trophy. Jan. 18, 12-6 pm. Downtown Coeur d’Alene. cdadowntown.com
MUSIC
AMIEL ELFERT ORGAN CONCERT Amiel Elfert holds an Associate Diploma from the Royal Canadian College of Organists and has studied with numerous leading
organists including David Briggs, Eduardo Bellotti, Johann Vexo, and Robert Quinney. Jan. 12, 3-4:15 pm. $10. St. John’s Cathedral, 127 E. 12th Ave. stjohnscathedral.org (509-838-4277)
KEBERLE JAZZ MASS An originally composed jazz mass by Dan Keberle, retired Whitworth jazz professor, with a jazz band and the St. Mark’s Chancel Choir. Jan. 12, 8:30-9:30 & 10:45-11:45 am. Free. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 316 E. 24th Ave. stmarks-spokane.org
PETER LUCHT Jazz selections for piano. Jan. 15, 5-7 pm. Free. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St. powine.com
SATURDAY WITH THE SYMPHONY The Coeur d’Alene Symphony performs, hostsan interactive activity, and a book is read by the children’s librarian. Third Saturdays at 11 am. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. cdalibrary.org
SPOKANE SYMPHONY MASTERSWORKS 4: BEETHOVEN VS. A.I. Can artificial intelligence compose as well as humans? Could it even outwit Beethoven himself? Find out when you hear AI’s completion of the third movement of Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony. Jan. 18, 7:30 pm and Jan. 19, 3 pm. $21$72. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org
SPORTS & OUTDOORS
JACKASS DAY An annual tradition of cel-
ebrating the ski area’s roots with retropriced lift tickets. Don your vintage ski gear. Jan. 9. $19.95. Silver Mountain Resort, 610 Bunker Ave. silvermt.com
LILAC CITY KENDO CLUB Classes for beginner and long-time kendo practicers. Every Monday and Thursday from 6:308:30 pm. West Valley City School, 8920 E. Valleyway Ave. lilaccitykendo.org
OPEN PLAY PICKLEBALL Play pickleball at the HUB. Every week, Mon-Thu, from 10 am-noon or 1-3 pm. $5.50-$7. HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. hubsportscenter.org (509-927-0602)
CLUB SHRED Kids learn and practice ski skills with instructors and participate in fun activities like snow fort building, movies and more. Every Friday from 5-8 pm through March 14. Advance registration required. Ages 4-10. $49. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. mtspokane.com
DJ NIGHT ON THE ICE Skate with music, lights, contests and more. Every Friday at 6 pm through Jan. 24. $7-$10. Numerica Skate Ribbon, 720 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. riverfrontspokane.com (509-625-6600)
JUNIOR RACE SERIES A low-cost race series for young snow athletes with instruction and time NASTAR runs. Jan. 10-31, Fridays at 5 pm. $35-$45. Schweitzer, 10,000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555)
NIGHT RIDERS A nighttime ski/snowboard opportunity for intermediate athletes guided by instructors. Ages 8-17. Advance registration required. Every Friday from 5-8 pm through March 14. $25-$45. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr.
mtspokane.com (509-238-2220)
PBR PENDLETON WHISKY VELOCITY TOUR Two nights of bull riders dueling with some of the highest ranked bovine competitors. Jan. 10, 8-9:30 pm and Jan. 11, 7-8:30 pm. $18-$108. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokaneareana.com
SNOWSHOE MOONLIGHT TOUR A guided snowshoe tour around Mount Spokane at night. Fee includes guides, snowshoes, poles, headlamps instruction and transportation. Meet at Yoke’s Fresh Market (14202 N. Market St.) Pre-registration required. Ages 16+. Jan. 10, 6-9:30 pm. $39.00. Mt. Spokane State Park, 26107 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. my.spokanecity. org/parksrec (509 -363-5414)
COACHES CORNER Coaches from Spokane Figure Skating Club offer valuable tips and guidance to emerging skaters. Regular skate admission is required. 11, 11 am-1 pm. $7-$10. Numerica Skate Ribbon, 720 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. riverfrontspokane.org (509-625-6600)
CROSS COUNTRY SKI LESSON Learn to cross-country ski and tour the trails of Mt. Spokane. Learn the basics from Spokane Nordic Ski Association P.S.I.A certified instructors. Equipment and lunch provided. Meet at the Mt. Spokane Selkirk Nordic Area. Jan. 11, 10 am-noon $77. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr. spokanerec.org
WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL A curated selection of films highlighting local stories of environmental action and communities coming together to create change. Jan. 11, 6 pm. $12-$23. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
THEATER & DANCE
THURSDAY NIGHT DANCES A seniorfriendly dance extravaganza with live music by TNT. Refreshments and adult beverages available. Every second Thursday from 7-9:30 pm. $5. Southside Community Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave. southsidescc.org (509-535-0803)
GRADIENCE This show is about the blurred lines between Flamenco and other dance styles. It also highlights traditional flamenco improvisation in a tablao setting. Jan. 10, 7-9 pm. $35. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet Ave. quieroflamenco.com
VISUAL ARTS
FINN POND: TURBULENCE & FLOW
Paintings that attempt to capture what is at the heart of natural phenomena and beauty. Daily from 11 am-6 pm through Jan. 28. Free. Entropy, 101 N. Stevens St. explodingstars.com (509-414-3226)
CONNECTIVE STRANDS OF SPIRIT A group exhibition featuring works by Joe, Carly and Ryan Feddersen; William Passmore, Emma Noyes, Michael Holloman, Britt Rynearson, Michelle Jack and Frank Andrews honoring the Plateau people’s past, present and future. Thu-Sat from 4-7 pm through Feb. 1. Free. Terrain Gallery, 628 N. Monroe. terrainspokane.com
PORTRAY A POEM A group show of local artists who turn words into images to portray the heart and soul of a favorite poem. Daily from 9 am-5 pm. through
Jan. 25. Free. Liberty Building, 203 N. Washington St. potteryplaceplus.com
TEA CUP WORKSHOP In this four-week course led by local ceramic artist and tea maker Jennie Knutson, students make a set of tea cups, learn about tea blends and spend the last day enjoying tea from their own cups. Jan. 9-30, Thursdays from 10 am-noon $175. Emerge, 119 N. Second St., Coeur d’Alene. emergecda. com (208-930-1876)
WHITWORTH ART & DESIGN DEPARTMENT FACULTY EXHIBIT Art and work by Whitworth faculty. Mon-Fri from 10 am-4:30 pm, Sat from 10 am-2 pm through Jan. 24. Free. Bryan Oliver Gallery, Whitworth, 300 W. Hawthorne Ave. whitworth.edu
SARANAC ART PROJECTS FRIENDS SHOW Saranac members invite a friend to exhibit up to two works in the gallery. Featured artists include Carl Richardson, Robin Nelson Wicks, Olivia Evans and more. Fri-Sat from noon-8 pm through Jan. 31. Free. Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main Ave. sapgallery.com
SECOND FRIDAY ARTWALK Stroll the streets of downtown Coeur d’Alene and enjoy locally and nationally acclaimed artists, along with local shops, restaurants and businesses. Second Friday of every month, 5-8 pm. Free. Downtown Coeur d’Alene, Sherman Ave. artsandculturecda.org (208-415-0116)
THE WINDOW IN WATERCOLORS OR ACRYLICS Select a few items to draw in this still life window drawing class. Jan. 10-31, Wednesdays from 1-4 pm. $168. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave. spokaneartschool.net (509-325-1500)
PAINT & SIP: COZY CARDINAL Paint a cardinal in a winter scene in acrylics while learning how painting can reduce stress. Ages 10+. Jan. 14, 6-8:30 pm. $45. Iron Goat Brewing Co., 1302 W. Second Ave. artvana.life (320-805-0206)
BASIC DRAWING This beginner level class provides an introduction to monochromatic drawing, the foundation of all art media, with instructor Tom Quinn. Jan. 14-Feb. 18, Tuesdays from 10 amnoon. $168. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave. spokaneartschool.net
HEARTISTRY: ARTISTIC WELLBEING
A relaxed and inspiring environment for self-discovery. Participate in basic artistic concepts and activities or respond to a mindfulness prompt. Every Tuesday from 3-5 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org
WATERCOLOR CLASS Learn the basics of painting with watercolors. Supplies included for first-timers. Open to all levels. Every other Tuesday from 10 am-2 pm. $20. Create Arts Center, 900 Fourth St. createarts.org (509-447-9277)
ACRYLIC PAINTING An introduction to the medium of acrylic paint with instructor Tom Quinn. Jan. 15-Feb. 19, Wednesdays from 10 am-noon. $168. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave., Ste. B. spokaneartschool.net (509-325-1500)
OPEN ART NIGHT Bring your own materials and grab a chair for creative time with a side of friendly chatting with fellow creatives. Every first and third Wednesday from 6-9 pm. Free. Lunarium, 1925 N. Monroe St. facebook.com/ Lunarium.Spokane
OPEN STUDIO Stop by The Hive to see
what current Artists-In-Residence are up to, and tour the building. Every Wednesday from 4-7 pm. Free. The Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave. spokanelibrary.org
PAINT THE RAINBOW: BEGINNER’S COLOR THEORY Using primarily watercolors as the instrument of demonstration, students learn to mix whatever color they wish using limited color palettes. Ages 11+. Jan. 15, 5-7 pm. $38. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave., Ste. B. spokaneartschool.net (509-325-1500)
SPINNERS WORKSHOP Bring your spinning wheel or current projects to work on. Every Wednesday from 10 am-12 pm. Free. Create Arts Center, 900 Fourth St. createarts.org (509-447-9277)
TEEN ILLUSTRATION CLASS Local Illustrator Terren Weirick shares his skills and insights to immerse students in the world of ink drawing. Jan. 15-Feb. 5, Wenesdays from 3:30-5:30 pm. $150. Emerge, 119 N. Second St. emergecda.com
KNIT A LOG-CABIN BLANKET Learn how to knit a log-cabin blanket using leftover yarn. You’ll receive in-person instructions and be sent home with a paper copy. Bring your own needles. Jan. 18, 2:30-3:30 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
WORDS
NORTHWEST PASSAGES: PATRICK
HUTCHINSON Author Patrick Hutchinson discusses his memoir detailing his journey from an office job to restoring a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, based on his popular Outside Magazine piece. Jan. 9, 7-9 pm. $10-$45. Bing Crosby Theater,
901 W. Sprague. bingcrosbytheater.com
JESSICA JAMES: FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY
When two former bandmates are thrust back into each other’s lives in a fake dating scheme for publicity, they’ll be forced to face the music in local author Jessica James’ debut novel, One Night Only. Jan. 10, 7-8:30 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com
FORAY FOR THE ARTS Various artists present poetry, comedy, art, music, dance and more. Hosted by Sarah Rooney and Greg Bem. Jan. 10, 6-9 pm. Free. Patera Lounge, 1507 E. Sprague. instagram.com/ foray4thearts
BOOK CLUB: THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE BY MAGGIE O’FARRELL
Read this month’s book and discuss with others. Jan. 11, 10:30-11:30 am. Free. South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry St. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
JOURNALING TOWARD YOUR AU -
THENTIC SELF A group focused on spiritual resilience and the practice of gratitude. Every second Saturday from 10:30-11:30 am through Feb. 8. Free. Coeur d’Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave. kimemorgan.com (208-769-2315)
POETRY BEFORE DARK EWU MFA students lead discussions about craft elements, style and form in poetry. Every Saturday from noon-2 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. sparkcentral.org (509-279-0299)
STORY AND CRAFT A read-aloud of a popular children’s book followed by an optional craft. Ages 3-7.Every Saturday from 11 am-noon. 11 am-noon. Cost of admission. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org n
REGULATION
Pay Heed to Potency
You may have noticed some new information posted at your local dispensary if you’ve paid a visit in 2025.
Since Dec. 31, all retail stores in the state are required to post information on high-THC products and the potential risks associated with their use.
The signage, designed by the state Department of Health, focuses on two specific health disorders that have been associated with “frequently using products with 35% THC or higher,” specifically cannabis use disorder and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
Cannabis use disorder — or, simply put, addiction — is essentially the cannabis version of alcohol use disorder and is associated with tolerance, cravings and excessive use.
According to Yale Medicine, approximately 10% of cannabis users will become addicted to the substance, and nearly one in three current users meet the criteria for at least mild addiction.
As for the second set of risks — psychotic disorders — the scientific community is still learning the depths of the connection, but much of the research on the topic has been concerning. The signs warn that the risk is higher if you have a personal or family history of mental health disorders and are younger than 25.
In fall 2022, a team from the University of Washington School of Medicine published a
report on the proliferation of high-potency cannabis products in the state’s legal market. They found that prior to legalization, typical cannabis potency ranged between 8% and 10% THC.
As of 2022, that potency had increased dramatically, with many products clearing well above 20%. However, the focus was not so much on traditional flower, but rather on products that can often reach concentrations of 90% THC or more.
“The more you use THC, the more content of THC in your products, the more likely you are to become addicted to it,” says Beatriz Carlini, an addiction researcher at the University of Washington. “Or we would say technically having a cannabis use disorder, and [the] more likely you are to develop a psychotic episode, acute psychotic episode, and potentially a psychotic disorder, which is rare.”
Washington has grappled with how to respond to the rapid increase in popularity of these high-THC products. In 2023, the Washington Legislature considered a bill to increase the tax rate on products above 35% THC, though that didn’t pass.
For now, the state is taking an educational rather than financial approach to these products, by requiring stores to post signage illustrating the risks.
If you are struggling with cannabis use, you can call the Washington Recovery Hotline at 1-866-789-1511. n Stores
This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Cannabis can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do
under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks
of
NOTE TO READERS
Be aware of the differences in the law between Idaho and Washington. It is illegal to possess, sell or transport cannabis in the State of Idaho. Possessing up to an ounce is a misdemeanor and can get you a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; more than three ounces is a felony that can carry a five-year sentence and fine of up to $10,000. Transporting marijuana across state lines, like from Washington into Idaho, is a felony under federal law.
now need to warn users of the risks of high-THC products.
Kapoor
Growing business?
Country crossover album that made many “Best of 2024” lists
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