Inlander 05/04/2023

BLOOMSDAY

Running every race from womb to adulthood

PAGE 24

DELI-CIOUS

Zozo’s serves up cold cuts on North Monroe

PAGE 26

INSIDE

F

I was sad for them. But I thought, for a story about parents of people who are homeless, this is probably the ending most people experience. No sign of their kid. No way to resolve the pain. No relief. What is a parent supposed to do when their adult child is addicted to drugs, or struggles with mental illness, or just simply refuses help? What’s that child supposed to do, navigating a world where good jobs are scarce or lack meaning, rent’s too high, and every other marker of adulthood is increasingly out of reach?

There are no easy answers to these questions. And there isn’t always a happy ending. But, as Daniel’s story reminds us, there’s always hope.

KARDONG ON BLOOMSDAY PAGE 6 GET OUT! PAGE 42 CDA SCHOOL LEVY PAGE 10

SPOKANE ART SCHOOL PAGE 22

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or a moment during the reporting of this week’s cover story — MISSING — Daniel Walters thought his story was in jeopardy. Seamus, one of the story’s two main subjects, was gone. He was out of jail, but there was no sign of him at the bus station, where he was supposed to grab a Greyhound home. His dad, Ryan, didn’t know where he was. Daniel came to me, saying the joyful reunion between worried father and troubled son didn’t happen.MAY 4, 2023 INLANDER 3 40 44 47 ppgwni.org Easily book appointments online, anytime. 1.866.904.7721 Se habla español The Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area is served by two Planned Parenthood health centers offering the same broad range of services. NOISENOISE NOISE NOISE HEARING LOSS CAUSED BY NOISE EXPOSURE? If you’ve experienced hearing loss from your job, you may be eligible for hearing aids & other benefits! The Dept of Labor & Industries claim staff will determine if you have an acceptable claim. Call Today to schedule your FREE hearing evaluation and consultation 509-924-3459 12211 E Broadway Avenue, Suite 4 Spokane Valley BE AWARE! Planning some D.I.Y. projects that involve digging? DON'T DIG INTO TROUBLE! In Spokane County? Visit www.callbeforeyoudig.org In Kootenai County? Visit kootenaicounty811.com Two business days before to alert utilities. Know what’s below. Click or Call before you dig. Spokane County Or Scan me! Kootenai County

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WHAT ART FORM WOULD YOU LOVE TO MASTER?

ELEANOR BONIKOWSKY

I think I’d love to master watercoloring, because that’s what my grandma does. She’s really good at it.

CORBIN MEYRING

I would love to master videography. Specifically, adventure and nature videography because I like to do a lot of outdoorsy activities, and I want to be able to remember that and share my experiences with others.

ERIN BELL

Definitely would be poetry. I went to the Eastern Washington University Get Lit! festival last weekend, and was just so astonished by the poets, and I just think it would be so fun to be able to make a career out of poetry like they do.

NATHAN

COOPER

If I could master one, like become the best at it, I think it’d be glassblowing. And like, specifi cally, making sculptures out of glassblowing.

ASHLEY BARTELS

I would say hyper-realistic pointillism, because I think it’s a very good balance between being able to say something super abstractly while also making it something really beautiful and cohesive.

DaVonte’ Lacy

Get Your Vintage Here

ACity in Full Bloom

The founder of Spokane’s once-a-year running race/walkabout reflects on slowing down to enjoy the company of his 30,000 fellow Bloomies

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BY DON KARDONG

On Sunday, May 6, 1984, my wife, Bridgid, and I were the last starters at Bloomsday. I don’t mean we were somewhere near the end of the pack. I mean we were last. Dead last. When we looked behind us, we saw nothing but empty pavement.

We were pushing our daughter Kaitlin in a Baby Jogger that year. Baby Joggers were a new item at the time, the invention of Phil Baechler of Yakima, who had developed the product so parents like us could continue to run after starting a family. Phil had given me one of the early models, and he had joined Bridgid and me at Bloomsday, pushing his young son in one of the prototypes.

This was the year that it snowed on Bloomsday morning. By the 9 am start, there was no longer any snow on the streets, but it was still doggone chilly. The temperature would hover just above freezing all morning. Kaitlin,

eight months old and well snuggled in the Baby Jogger, would sleep most of the way. In spite of the inclement weather, 30,463 Bloomies would hustle through the 12-kilometer route. It was another year when the Bloomsday field would grow by roughly 5,000 participants. A third starting street, Sprague, had been added in an attempt to give everyone the ability to get moving when the gun fired.

This was the eighth Bloomsday, and I had run, not walked, in all previous editions of the event. In those days I could run pretty quickly, starting at the front of the pack and finishing in under 40 minutes. On this day, though, I would learn some things about walking Bloomsday. When the gun fired, we didn’t move. Eventually the crowd in front of us began to thin out, and we were able to start jogging, albeit very slowly. We moved through downtown,

Don and Bridgid Kardong (center) at the 2019 starting line, with daughter Kaitlin and their grandson (right).

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crossed Monroe, and in time reached the mile point in Browne’s Addition. I don’t remember what our split time was, but I do remember looking to the right and seeing helicopters over the Spokane River gorge. I was puzzled. What were they doing there?

Enlightenment came a moment later when I looked at my watch and did a quick calculation. The helicopters were tracking the leaders. The top runners had reached the six-mile point. And here I was, someone who might normally be not far behind those leaders, pushing a Baby Jogger. I had to laugh. I was already five miles behind.

Much later, Bridgid and I would cross the finish line, our time recorded as 1 hour, 53 minutes and 43 seconds. The next year, I would be back to running Bloomsday, back to finishing under 40 minutes for a few more years.

Alot has changed since 1984, for Bloomsday and for me. Bloomsday will draw over 30,000 participants this year, well off the all-time high of over 60,000, but still an impressive crowd. A few thousand of those will be virtual, doing the 7 1/2-mile distance at a time and on a course of their own choosing. Those who do the in-person Bloomsday will be timed courtesy of a “computer chip,” which will time them from when they cross the starting line to when they cross the finish. (Would have been nice to have this system back in the day, instead of employing dozens of volunteers to do the timing by hand, with no way to know how long it took each finisher to actually get started!) And of course there have been other high-tech embellishments over the years, like email, a website, online entry, social media and the like.

Along the way, there has been hot and cold race day weather, wind and rain. (But so far, no more snow.) There have been organizational challenges, course adjustments because of construction, a surge in participation by parents pushing children in strollers, exciting races on the front end by some of the world’s fastest runners and wheelchair racers, and the renovation of Riverfront Park that was brand new when Bloomsday was born. One year, the cups for the water aid stations didn’t arrive. Another year, a platform on the media truck broke off when the starting gun fired and scattered a half dozen photographers in front of the lead runners. And for two years in a row, a pandemic caused a shutdown of the in-person race, making Bloomsday participation totally virtual.

In the end, though, the heart of Bloomsday hasn’t changed a bit. It’s still an opportunity to celebrate spring with thousands of fellow citizens and visitors from around the world. It’s a time to see if you can muster your forces to challenge 12 kilometers of hilly terrain. To wear a T-shirt afterward that can only be earned, not purchased.

I enjoy all of that, even now when I walk not of choice, but of necessity. Those sub-40-minute Bloomsdays are a distant memory. It no longer surprises me to be five miles behind the leaders. And in spite of all the challenges over the years, in spite of two COVID years, in spite of everything that might threaten this huge event over the years, there is this: It is still impossible to imagine spring in Spokane without Bloomsday. n

Don Kardong was a new Spokane teacher and recent Olympian (fourth place in the 1976 Montreal marathon) when he happened to get in the same elevator at City Hall as Mayor Dave Rodgers. Soon after, Spokane was shutting down its streets on Sunday, May 1, 1977, and Kardong would add another title: founder of Bloomsday. This weekend marks the race’s 47th running. Kardong retired from the Bloomsday organization in 2019, but continues to volunteer for the event.

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The heart of Bloomsday hasn’t changed a bit. It’s still an opportunity to celebrate spring with thousands of fellow citizens and visitors from around the world.

FALLING FOR SPOKANE FALLS

BY NATE SANFORD

Like most years, the season came slowly and then all at once.

T-shirts are back. Everyone suddenly has cool sunglasses. Fans are blowing, birds are chirping, mountain snow is melting, and in downtown Spokane, the waterfalls are roaring

It sounds like an airplane jet, or endless thunder. You can hear it all around, even while standing next to traffic on the Monroe Street Bridge more than a hundred feet in the air. The falls’ gentle winter stream is gone. In its place: pure aquatic power.

In this first week of May, more than 10,000 cubic feet of water are passing over the falls every second. A cubic foot is roughly the size of a basketball, so picture 10,000 basketballs bouncing over the falls. Every second. After two and a half seconds, that’s enough balls to equip every person who competed in Hoopfest last year.

And we aren’t even at peak flow yet.

As temperatures climb and mountain snow continues to melt, the flow will keep rising. By around May 10, the flow will start to peak at just over 20,000 cubic feet of water per second.

“What you see out there today, it’ll be even more amazing,” says Meghan Lunney, a river license manager with Avista, which operates several dams along the river, including at the upper and lower Spokane Falls.

During years of record snow and rainfall, the flow can get as high as 40,000 cubic feet per second, Lunney says. But that only happens every decade or so, and this year’s peak is expected to be pretty standard.

The flow will remain strong throughout May before tapering down in early June. In September, the falls will shrink back down to a gentle stream of less than a thousand cubic feet per second and settle down for a long quiet winter.

Come spring, they’ll explode once more.

There’s something mesmerizing about the falls in peak flow that makes people want to stop and watch. Part of it lies in the natural beauty, but there’s also something deeper — a sense of smallness and connection to the region’s past.

“It’s that kind of amazing timelessness you get when you look at the ocean or you look at the stars,” says Jerry

White, the Spokane Riverkeeper. “It’s something really bigger than ourselves and deeply motivating.”

For thousands of years, tribal groups from the Inland Northwest gathered at the falls to fish for salmon. Warren Seyler, a historian with the Spokane Tribe of Indians, says oral traditions describe the river being so full of salmon, it seemed like you could walk on their backs from one side to the other.

“It was our lifeblood,” Seyler says. “People today can’t even imagine the magnitude of what a great fishery it was.”

It wasn’t just the Spokane Tribe — people from the Kalispel and Coeur d’Alene tribes, the confederated Colville tribes, and others would also travel to the falls to fish there. It was a reciprocal relationship, Seyler says. Tribes from other areas would ask permission to fish there, understanding that members of the Spokane Tribe would later ask to take berries or roots from their land.

When Europeans came, they built fish wheels upstream of the falls that scooped the salmon from the river. By the late 1800s, the salmon stopped coming to the falls.

Once thick with salmon, Spokane’s thundering waters pulse through our past and present — coursing on toward climate change

Imagine 10,000 basketballs going over the falls — every second. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Failed Fix

Washington lawmakers’ failure to update drug possession law could end in compromise or piecemeal rules

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

Cities and counties could soon find themselves in charge of drug criminalization if Washington state lawmakers don’t reach a deal on drug possession penalties before July 1.

For two years, the state has tested out lower penalties (making possession a misdemeanor instead of a felony) and required police to steer people toward treatment options during initial contacts. The pilot drug law was hastily crafted in 2021 after the state Supreme Court ruled the state’s possession statute unconstitutional.

But even though lawmakers knew that their self-imposed sunset on the pilot was coming up this summer, the House and Senate failed to agree on how much to change or keep the same before the session ended April 23. While negotiations continue, places like Spokane and King County have already started the process of passing local rules against public drug use.

“There was a lack of communication and collaboration towards the end regarding how we could get something done in a bipartisan manner, because that’s what we’re hoping for,” Abbarno says.

One of the sticking points for Republicans was a section that would preempt local rules for the siting of harm reduction facilities such as opioid treatment programs and needle exchanges. The preemption would eliminate the required public meeting before a program can move into a community, and prevent local governments from putting more restrictions on those programs than they put on other public facilities.

“I understand there’s some reticence to siting of facilities and there’s always that NIMBY mentality that happens, but for any treatment to be successful you need local buy-in,” Abbarno says.

Wilcox says Republicans aren’t all against programs like needle exchanges, but they believe local governments should have a say in their regulation.

In fact, Wilcox says that local control of drug possession in general could be better than a bad statewide compromise. Much of the new treatment funding wasn’t tied to the bill.

“FALLING FOR SPOKANE FALLS,” CONTINUED...

The falls represented food and sustenance for the local tribes, but for the newcomers, Spokane Falls represented water power. The white settlers built flour mills and sawmills and in 1890, Washington Water Power, now called Avista, built a dam to generate electricity for the city.

The city continued to grow, and by the 1960s, the falls were surrounded by a tangle of railroad lines, parking lots and industrial waste. The water was heavily polluted.

It’s taken a lot of work to wind back the damage.

The 1974 World’s Fair saw the railroad tracks and parking lots removed. Further collaboration between state and local agencies helped remove many of the pollutants from the river.

In the House, Democrats pushed to keep possession a simple misdemeanor, while the Senate passed a bipartisan bill making possession a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail with the opportunity to drop charges and convictions if people successfully complete treatment.

House Republicans negotiated with Senate Democrats and Republicans through the final hours of the session. But outgoing House Minority Leader Rep. J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, says that the conference committee that tried to reach a compromise did not come out with the expected deal.

“The thing for me that is the most frustrating is there was such a clear path they’d already done in the Senate,” Wilcox says. “Three of the four caucuses seemed to arrive at an alternate path, so why they chose the one that was the least likely to pass and then pretended it was a huge surprise when it failed, I cannot understand.”

Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, who worked on a compromise with Senate leaders, says that House Democrats didn’t reach out to negotiate.

“I don’t think that no bill is the best-case scenario, but it’s not the worst-case scenario either,” Wilcox says. “No bill means that local governments will be free to impose their own punishments up to gross misdemeanors.”

Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, DSpokane, says there’s bipartisan agreement that drug possession should be a criminal offense, and the state should treat addiction as a health problem. He believes lawmakers can find a compromise in coming weeks and update the law during a special session, avoiding a scenario where possession penalties depend on what side of the street you’re on.

“Addressing drug possession on a statewide basis is a much better solution,” Billig says. “If each city and county makes their own laws it will be very confusing for citizens.” n samanthaw@inlander.com

Throughout the 20th century, Avista-operated dams on the Spokane River would divert water from the falls and often leave them dry during the summer months. In 2009, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy reached a settlement with Avista that required the utility company to maintain a year-round flow.

As part of the work to restore water flow, Avista installed a number of weirs to more evenly spread the water. The weirs are painted and shaped to resemble the falls’ natural rock foundation — preserving the aesthetics was important, Lunney says.

The falls are beautiful, but they’re also deeply dangerous. That might be part of the appeal.

“We’re so small with respect to the forces of nature, and the falls bring that home. There’s this intense danger and risk,” White says. “The fact that you can observe that and be safe, it excites a wonderment.”

For a handful of people, it’s not enough to just observe from a distance. The pull of the falls is just too strong.

During the 1974 World’s Fair, 25-year-old Terry Brauner braved the upper falls wrapped in three inner tubes tied together, which trapped and nearly killed him. He was rescued near the Washington Water Power station.

Brauner tried again in June of that year, but was stopped by police. The Associated Press reported that he was arrested for breaking a law against swimming in that part of the river, which was passed in response to his earlier attempt to float the falls.

Decades earlier, in 1927, a logger named Al Faussett rode over the upper Spokane Falls in a hollowed-out spruce log named Skykomish Queen. The event was heavily publicized, and the Spokesman-Review reported that between 20,000 and

40,000 people turned out to watch.

Strangely, authorities didn’t try to stop him. Police Chief Angus McDonnell called it a “hare-brained stunt,” but still assigned a detail of officers to manage crowds. When Faussett became stuck in a whirlpool ahead of the plunge, police tossed him a rope to help pull his craft back on track.

Despite the crowd’s shouts of “He’s a goner,” and “He won’t make it,” Faussett survived the upper falls. He had planned to continue over the lower falls, but the first drop left him injured, exhausted and unable to maneuver his boat. Bystanders pulled him to safety and took him to the hospital.

The Skykomish Queen went over the lower falls without him and smashed into 100 pieces.

The falls’ power in the face of human fragility can make them seem immortal, but they’re not. As our combustion of fossil fuels continues to warm the earth, Spokane Falls — like everything else on our planet — faces very real danger.

White says warmer winters are projected to shift the falls’ peak flows to earlier in the year. Instead of May, we could start seeing peak flows in April, March and one day even February. Reduced snowfall would also lead to smaller overall flows.

It’s already happening. Since the 1980s and ’90s, scientists have observed a noticeable shift in Spokane River water flows trending earlier in the year, White says.

“This can no longer just be attributed to bad luck of hot weather,” White says. “We’re watching a macro climate change driven by ocean temperatures changing.”

That has big implications. Less cold mountain runoff and higher daytime temperatures would “tilt the ecological playing field,” White says. Native bull fish and trout would struggle while invasive species like small mouth bass and pike would take over.

The threat is very real, but it’s not inevitable. The falls have come back from the brink before.

The railroad tracks are gone, along with many of the water pollutants. Tribal groups continue to hold annual powwows at the falls and, after an extended absence, the water now flows year-round. Efforts are also underway to reintroduce salmon to the river.

“Just seeing the falls continues to ignite that fire,” says Seyler, with the Spokane Tribe. “That free flowing water, seeing it helps keep the spark alive that someday the salmon will return. To us, there’s no doubt in that.” n nates@inlander.com

Climate change could push peak flows to earlier in the year. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

Running Out of Time

Coeur d’Alene schools teeter on the brink of sizable layoffs, school closures and the removal of extracurricular programs

BY SUMMER SANDSTROM

In March, voters in Coeur d’Alene narrowly defeated two ballot measures that would’ve kept their 18 public schools afloat and funded repairs and maintenance to the school district’s buildings.

The defeated $20 million levy, which would’ve accounted for nearly a quarter of the school district’s $89 million operating budget, left school administrators in a bind. Without the new infusion of funds, they said they’d have to cut a quarter of the district’s staff, all sports and extracurricular programs, and close four or five schools. Consequently, the district’s board of trustees declared a financial state of emergency in April.

In the meantime, school leaders threw the decision back to the voters by placing a $25 million levy on this month’s ballot. Unlike the defeated levy, this levy has a two-year sunset on it. (Due to Idaho law, school districts can only run two-year or perpetual levies.)

The current $20 million two-year levy, which expires at the end of the school year, funds the salaries of 157 teachers and staff; 13 principals, assistant principals, and administrators; and 139 of the school district’s support staff, which includes nurses, school resource officers, and special education aides.

Shon Hocker, Coeur d’Alene School District’s superintendent, says elementary schools and kindergartens would shoulder a majority of these cuts and closures.

“I don’t have an option to close a high school and move it into the other high school. We would not be able to function to do that, and the same goes with our middle schools,” he says.

If passed, the levy would increase the typical homeowner’s taxes about $6 a month. But it isn’t this increase that drives opposition to the levy, both supporters and detractors say. Coeur d’Alene has consistently passed school levies for over 30 years.

“After working on levy campaigns for 13 years, this is the first year where there was an organized, well-funded opposition to funding public education,” says Chris Meyer, who leads

the fundraising campaign for Yes CDA Schools, a group that advocates for the bonds and levies that fund schools in the area.

Brent Regan, chairman of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, said in an email that opposition to the levy is focused on administrator pay, and that the budget cuts proposed by the district are wrong-headed.

“The district seems to be focusing on cuts that will have the greatest impact rather than cutting the administrative bloat,” he wrote.

Ralph Ginorio, a conservative educator at a charter school in Coeur d’Alene who has written columns for the Kootenai Journal, a website with a “Christian worldview,” says the school district should accept the results of the March vote and reassess its budget next election cycle.

“This is just an attempt to game the system and hope that they can pressure more people into going to the polls than went in March,” he says. “What public stances the district has taken since the March vote, in my judgment, backs up the claim that they are trying to pack people into stampeding and voting their way.”

But Rebecca Smith, chair of the Coeur d’Alene School Board of Trustees, says waiting isn’t an option.

“Because our March levy didn’t pass, we listened to our community, we got feedback,” she says. “To wait to re-ask your community to support it would have a devastating effect on our district.”

Hocker says this year school district leaders spent a majority of their time and hundreds of thousands of dollars working on the levy and connecting with voters to inform them of what it funds and why it’s important.

“I’m not sure if I know of an educator in my school district that likes to run levies,” Hocker says. “We do them because it’s a necessity and we have to.”

Hocker notes that the school district is one of the largest in the state, yet receives the thirdlowest in levy taxes. Still, it ranks among the highest in the state in areas such as test scores and graduation rates.

To Meyer, school levies should be treated like fire and police levies, which are often automatically placed in perpetuity, as he believes they are of equal importance to the community.

“We will have an amazing loss of talent in our educators, we will have an amazing loss of infrastructure in these superb athletic and extracurricular programs we have, and it will take us a decade or more to rebuild,” he says. n summers@inlander.com

Coeur d’Alene voters get a second chance to fund public schools.

Sun Meets Centennial

Not much length has been added in the last five years to the bicycle and pedestrian trail that mirrors the route of the north-south freeway, but this year promises to bring a big level up for the Children of the Sun Trail: its intersection with the Centennial Trail. Work on the trail will begin again on June 1, and when it’s complete this fall, users of both trails could in theory ride from Wandermere to Long Lake to Coeur d’Alene. Sections of the trail have been constructed over the past year by Graham Contracting, but so far they’ve been off-limits, says Ryan Overton, a spokesman for the state Transportation Department. “The bridges, the girders are set,” he says. “There are some portions in Hillyard that are rideable, but there are no bridges open due to lack of rails.” Still more work is needed. There are major gaps in the 40-mile Centennial Trail that impact its safety and usability. And the 11-mile Children of the Sun Trail won’t be fully complete until the North Spokane Corridor connects with I-90, a project first envisioned in the 1940s that is expected to be complete by 2030.

(NICHOLAS DESHAIS)

ELECTRIFYING INVESTMENTS

Will oil and gas soon be replaced by zips and zaps? Climate-focused nonprofits are celebrating several of the Washington Legislature’s recent green investments, which will help transition homes and vehicles to electric options and address pollution. Some highlights in the two-year budget include: $120 million in incentives to buy electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and charging stations; $80 million to help low- and moderate-income households install electric heat pumps for heating and cooling; $40 million to weatherize homes and make them more energy efficient; and more than $60 million to improve air quality and address health disparities in overburdened communities. “There is so much we can look forward to: more clean vehicles on the roads, less smog and dirty air in our homes and neighborhoods, and more thoughtfully planned clean energy projects across our beautiful state,” said Kelly Hall, Washington director for Climate Solutions, in an emailed statement. (SAMANTHA

WOHLFEIL)

COMING UP DRY

Last weekend was a hot one. But when local activist David Brookbank’s 9-year-old grandchild was thirsty, outdoor drinking fountain after drinking fountain at Riverfront Park failed to work, he says. And that reminded him of the Inlander’s 2021 coverage of the broken drinking fountains in the midst of COVID. Back then, the issue was supply chains and staffing shortages. But now? The problem: “warmer weather sooner than anticipated,” says Fianna Dickson, spokesperson for the city’s parks department. The parks department shuts off the outdoor drinking fountain during the coldest months, to prevent the pipes from freezing. There was still that risk as recently as two weeks ago, Dickson says. Then, the city has to send in the maintenance folks to flush the pipes to get the water turned on. But future thirsty grandchildren can take comfort in this: The drinking fountains in the skate ribbon and the carousel are open year round. (DANIEL WALTERS)

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ON SALE TOMORROW

FOX PRESENTS

Pink Martini featuring China Forbes

Monday, January 29, 2024 at 7:30pm

THE SPOKANE SYMPHONY

Summer Solstice at Brick West Brewing Co.

Wednesday, July 21 at 7:30pm All New Programming. Tickets $15

TICKETS: 509 624 1200 •

Spokane Symphony Plays

Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

Tuesday, June 27 at 7:30pm

Lawn Seats $25; Table Seats $55

Doors open early to enjoy food and wine.

FOXTHEATERSPOKANE.ORG

The trail along the north-south freeway will grow for the first time in years. Plus, reviewing this year’s legislative climate action; and waterless fountains at Riverfront Park.

The thirst is real. DANIEL WALTERS PHOTO

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY HOMELESS SON?

A tech executive from San Diego wanders the streets of Spokane with one mission — find his son

BY DANIEL WALTERS

Live Lounge Entertainment

and 27-year-old Seamus Galligan is climbing out of a broken window of Spokane’s Something Else Deli on Second Avenue, his backpack filled with hundreds of dollars of liquor.

A guy walking a dog spots him and calls the cops.

Seamus is arrested and, from the back of the patrol car, he looks out the window. And there, across the street — absurdly, impossibly — is his dad. The guy’s wearing a Voterly T-shirt, the name of the app his dad’s company developed. It doesn’t make sense. His dad lives in San Diego, 1,300 miles away. They haven’t talked in months, back when he’d promised, once again, that he’d try to get clean.

For a moment, he thinks he could yell loud enough for his dad to hear. But through the tinted windows of the squad car, he knows his dad wouldn’t be able to see him. And then his chance is gone, and the paths of the father and son diverge once more.

There are more than 2,000 homeless people living in Spokane. But Ryan Cook — Seamus’ dad, a tech executive — had flown in trying to find just one, his firstborn son, by the only means he knew: walking the endless streets of Spokane, talking to the many people who live on them.

Nearly a year passed — a year of false hopes and false starts, of jail stints and drug overdoses, broken windows and broken promises, near misses and near-death experiences, of crushing disappointment and impossible fortune — as Cook searched for his missing son.

And Cook carried with him the same question: Is my son still alive?

SPRING OVERTURE

In a sense — a philosophical but profoundly real sense — Seamus had once rescued his dad from homelessness.

When Cook was 16 and 17, he was living on and off the streets of San Diego. At 18, he learned that he was going to have a child. That prospect — being a dad, forging a future for his son — became that shit-just-got-real, everything-is-different-now moment.

So he got serious. He took up work at a shipyard. He started teaching himself computer programming. His son, Seamus Rune Galligan, was born in January 1995.

Twenty-eight years later, Cook is now the CEO of a tech startup called Vidaloop, which developed a voter information app called Voterly. But his son had become homeless, and now it was Cook’s turn to rescue him.

By May 2022, the search had almost become a ritual, almost daily: Cook Googles “Seamus Spokane” or “Seamus Galligan Spokane.”

His care package — trail mix, a new phone, pictures of their family — sent to Union Gospel Mission, where Seamus had said he planned to check himself in for drug treatment, is returned to sender. Seamus promised he’d call, but the phone hasn’t rung in weeks.

And so Cook keeps Googling, keeps scrolling past the posts with the guitar player with the same name — keeps looking for even a single mention.

Desperate to find his son’s name. Dreading to find his son’s name.

“I’m worried he’s been killed or overdosed,” Cook says. Multiple friends of his have died from heroin overdoses, and the stuff his son is dealing with on the streets these days, fentanyl, is a whole lot worse.

This is the purgatory that countless parents of unhoused and addicted people are trapped in: desperately wanting to help their children, but not knowing how.

But Cook’s wife has an idea. “Go find your son. I’’ll take care of things here,” she tells him. “We can handle it. Just do it.”

Cook’s plane lands in Spokane on the afternoon of May 27, 2022, and he sets up in a room in the downtown Best Western. He gives himself three days to find his son. He’d researched homeless shelters online. He remembers the places Seamus talked about, like House of Charity.

t’s about noon, late May 2022, ...continued on next page

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“My plan was just to talk to every homeless person and go in the shelters,” Cook says.

But first, he grabs dinner at Iron Goat Brewing, where Galligan used to work. The manager can relate to Cook’s pain — her own son ran away just two weeks after his 14th birthday, but the despair still lingers. She connects him with a guy named Kyle, who says he’s definitely seen Seamus around, dragging a rolling suitcase behind him.

“Definitely homeless,” Kyle says to him. “Definitely on drugs.”

Cook rented a car but quickly realizes that he needs to be on foot. He needs to duck down alleys. He needs to see the people who are so easily ignored from the confines of a car.

He checks Browne’s Addition, the staircase to Peaceful Valley, and around Grocery Outlet. He stops by the Cannon Shelter. He talks to a tall deaf man, whose friend translates Cook’s questions into sign-language. Some of the places he visits make Spokane look like a “shithole,” Cook says, but the homeless people are kind and helpful.

“They really liked my cause,” Cook says. “It was almost like they wished someone was looking for them.”

As night falls, he ducks into the liquor store on Sunset Boulevard. Nearby, a crowd of young homeless people, some of them armed with knives, dismiss his questions. But an older man behind him overhears.

“I know Seamus,” the man tells him. “I can get ahold of him. I have to know he wants to be found first.”

Cook hands him his business card.

The next day, Cook parks at the Spokane Valley Walmart and begins walking. He carries a sheaf of onedollar bills. When he sees someone with a panhandling sign, he gives them a dollar and asks them a question. That gets him a new lead: Someone thinks that Seamus is at Camp Hope — a homeless encampment in the East Central neighborhood that, at the time, had grown to about 450 campers, the largest in the state.

So he walks toward Camp Hope.

THE LOST AND THE WANDERERS

Cook is not the first person to come to Camp Hope searching for a child.

Even today, as Camp Hope has dwindled in size, there’s a bulletin board inside one of the tents — a collage of pictures of smiling relatives, appended with “MISSING” and “please call.” There’s Danny. Samantha. Hazel.

“Raquel, your three beautiful girls, your family and friends are ready to have you home safe,” one reads. “Please let us help you.”

The missing person reports are full of homeless people who’ve wandered through their camp.

“Tons of people are looking for their children, their aunts, their uncles, their parents,” says Julie Garcia, cofounder of Jewels Helping Hands, the nonprofit that has helped manage Camp Hope.

“I’m sure every person in that camp, every person downtown — they have somebody who loves them, somebody who remembers who they used to be and are still searching for that person,” Garcia says.

But there’s not a shelter in town, Garcia says, that will even confirm if your family member is there.

“We can’t even do that at Camp Hope, which really sucks,” Garcia says. “We don’t know their story. We don’t know what they’re running from.”

These relationships are complicated — they can involve substance abuse, domestic violence, bigotry and custody disputes. Sometimes they don’t want to be found. But she does pass along the message.

Even if they don’t want to return home, even if they don’t want to get clean, she pleads with them to call their

parents anyway. Because sometimes, when she’s helping a woman who’s addicted or who had her children taken away, she sees her own daughter.

This is Garcia’s origin story. It’s the reason why the controversial homeless activist has been willing to piss so many people off, burn so many bridges, fight for what she believes in.

A long time ago, she says, her daughter “met a boy” and “met meth” and that was it. She says her daughter was in and out of homelessness for years, though she’s housed today.

“I went from drug house to drug house. I dragged her home and tried to force her into treatment and tried to force her to stay,” Garcia says.

Garcia blames herself for contributing to her daughter’s trauma and knows there’s little hope of reconciliation today. (Her daughter says she’s been clean for years.)

Experts caution against conflating homelessness and addiction — housing costs remain a much stronger predictor of a community’s homelessness rate than overdose rates. But for many individuals, the two are inextricably linked.

“We have patients here who have space available in the most beautiful housing, the most expensive housing in the world,” says Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry professor who co-leads the Stanford Network on Addiction Policy.

But first they have to give up using fentanyl, and they’re not willing to do that. And their parents share in that suffering.

“It’s the fellowship of those who sit home alone at midnight, hoping the phone will ring and also being terrified that it will,” Humphreys says. “Will it be him saying I want to be home? Or will it be the police saying, ‘We found your child.’”

EXIT STRATEGY

Seamus isn’t at Camp Hope.

The young man has interacted plenty with the informal Camp Hope economy, which includes dealers and stolen property, but he hasn’t been inside the camp itself in a while. Instead, at the very moment his dad is walking the streets of Spokane, he’s being arrested.

Seamus tries to call his dad from the Spokane County Jail — Are you in Spokane? — but the call won’t go through. On the outside, Cook repeatedly tries to punch in his credit card number to accept the collect call, to no avail.

Now, at least, he knows where his son is. He stays in Spokane. Two days later, he learns that his son will be released that day, but no one will tell him exactly when. So he waits for more than four hours, standing under the eaves near the juvenile corrections facility. The rain pours, night approaches, and he waits, watching other offenders trickle out of the jail across the street.

When Seamus exits, his dad is waiting for him. They talk for a long time, and Seamus wants to come home but can’t because he doesn’t have ID. And Cook’s daughter, Seamus’ half-sister, is graduating from high school the next day. So they work out a plan — Cook will pay for a hotel in Spokane until Seamus can find an apartment and get treatment. They’ll stay in touch.

It was a mistake. Seamus is kicked out of the hotel, and they quickly lose touch.

“My regret is I didn’t just force him,” Cook says. “I could have talked him into coming home in May.”

Months pass. In November, Seamus goes into the same Walmart where his dad parked in May, and he steals a $99 hoverboard. Leaving out the emergency exit makes it a felony.

SOMEBODY YOU USED TO KNOW

“We want to say, ‘We love them, they love us, love conquers all,’” Garcia says. “It doesn’t conquer addiction.”

Mary Jenkins, a donor relations director at the Washington State University Foundation, describes seeing her “perfect child” transformed by drugs. Her daughter’s insecurity over childhood surgery scars — and the bullying she received — made her susceptible to being pulled into bad relationships, sucked into addiction.

Today, those scars have faded. But there are new scars, the kind acquired through years and years of meth use.

“Had I not been told that was my child, I would not have recognized her,” Jenkins says. “I just wish that people could see past the ravaged person they see in the streets and just realize that’s a human being.”

Flyers of missing sons, daughters and mothers are posted at Camp Hope, the homeless encampment in East Central Spokane. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

Those scars that make her unrecognizable are inside, too. Jenkins’ daughter has been through rehab multiple times, but “as soon as she’s out, she just can’t stay away from it.” Each failure compounds, making it harder to seek help. It creates this horrible cycle — they do awful stuff to get the drugs they need to forget the awful things they’ve done.

Bridget Cannon, vice president of shelters and crisis intervention at Volunteers of America in Spokane, knows young people who walk right up to the front door of getting housing, and then just turn around.

“A lot of times they don’t see themselves worthy enough,” Cannon says. “They’re saying, ‘My fate is this because I’m not a worthy person.”

They think the alleyway is all they deserve.

ALMOST SEAMUS

Seamus had come to the Inland Northwest, ironically, to turn his life around. He was using opioids and amphetamines, and his family got him into mental health care treatment, and on medication.

“He got his mind straight,” Cook says.

Seamus moved to Coeur d’Alene, where his uncle lived. It was the chance for a fresh start, a chance to live independently. He thrived. He trained to become a bartender. He worked for a time at Crafted Tap House + Kitchen.

“He got a job, got a girlfriend, had a condo, had a cat — everything’s good for a while,” Cook says.

Sam Rowland, an Army veteran with his own rough past, remembers Seamus showing up to play bass in Rowland’s band wearing a Compton hat and a tie-dyed shirt — looking very much like a California kid. But the kid was brilliant — Rowland could tell from the words he’d used — and crackled with passion.

“Miss that fire,” Rowland says. “I wish the fire that he had was in every other person that I played with.”

They called their band Almost Anything, Rowland says, as in “a bunch of people who never did much, but almost did something.”

But success wasn’t the point of it. It was music for music’s sake, music as healing. It was powerful. But after he and his girlfriend had an ugly breakup, Seamus spiraled.

“Everything kind of fell apart,” Rowland says, and Seamus fled to Vegas. “Maybe he got into some f---ing trouble there. My last thought about him was, shit, I hope this kid figures it out.”

It was 2020, a lot went wrong. The pandemic had devastated the restaurant industry. Seamus fell back into his heroin habit. He moved back to Spokane, seeking another fresh start. He found fentanyl instead.

But sometimes the deepest despair can lead to change. Rowland remembers 2017 in Reno, snow still on the ground. He was homeless. An alcoholic. Security spotted him trying to hide in the bushes outside of a casino and chased him away.

“I lost my ID that night,” Rowland says. “I just literally had nothing. I had no way to help myself. All I had was my cellphone.”

But that cellphone contained the only thing he needed. His dad’s phone number.

“My parents never gave up on me. I always had an open door to come home to them,” Rowland says. “It was my pride that continued to keep me away.”

WINTER OVERTURE

The winter deepens, and Seamus is in trouble.

A week before Christmas 2022, he gets caught trespassing into Genesis Church, and the pastor presses charges. A few weeks later, he’s camped out near House of Charity when he’s busted under the new version of the city’s anti-camping ordinance. He’s booted from River Park Square twice in one day. He’s repeatedly caught breaking into buildings — sometimes to sleep, sometimes to steal something.

As Cook flies back to Spokane on Jan. 31, he doesn’t know any of this. He just knows he hasn’t heard from his son in months. There’s still snow on the ground when the plane lands.

“I didn’t even have a return flight,” Cook says. “I didn’t know how long I was going to be there.”

...continued on next page

But almost immediately, he can feel the difference. The first time around, it felt like everyone he talked to was on his side, wanted to help him with his mission. This time, almost “no one I even talked to even knew him, had even heard of him.”

“People seem angry. Hostile,” Cook says. “Got a knife pulled on me.”

A man he approaches downtown yells at him, a large dagger clutched in his hand. Cook jumps into the street, triggering a chorus of horns honking from downtown traffic.

If there was hostility from the homeless population, it was a kind of protective hostility, says Shaunti Cole, a homeless woman who considers herself the “mother hen” of the homeless community in central Spokane.

“It’s cold. Everybody’s dirty. Our stuff’s wet,” she says. “We’ve had a lot of our friends that have been killed. We still have a lot of people we don’t know where they are.”

On top of that, she says, there’s the strain of having been “headline news” for the past year — and not in a good way.

Cook has been reading those same headlines, about the backlash to Camp Hope, about the tug-of-war between the state and the city over the issue. He’s developed opinions as strong as any Spokane voter, including about the city’s mayor and the former sheriff.

“I think their attitude is hostile towards the homeless,” Cook says. “If you treat people without dignity, how do you expect them to get their dignity back and their humanity back and enter society again?”

As if to illustrate that hostility, Cook finds a homelessness resource guide, with a plan to hit up the free meals to look for his son, only to learn that the guide is riddled with errors.

“Almost all the places I went to were not actually giving out food at a time that it said,” Cook says.

He wanders the frigid streets without results, his fitness tracker’s GPS Etch A Sketch-ing his aimless spirals around Spokane, cataloging every fruitless step.

“When you’re on these walks, all day, by yourself, looking for your son who might be dead... my whole life with him from the time he’s born goes through my head,” Cook says.

Jan. 31: 6,610 steps.

Seamus is a toddler. They spend the day together, dad pushing son in one of those trolleys that look like a tricycle.

Feb. 1: 20,123 steps.

Seamus turns 1, and he’s already speaking in full sentences. He’s in kindergarten and already reading chapter books. This kid is crazy smart. Prodigy smart, his dad thinks.

Feb. 2: 19,525 steps.

Seamus is 7 and at La Mesita Skate Park. He’s pulling off weird skateboard tricks nobody has ever seen before. He’s best friends with his dad. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe your dad shouldn’t be your best friend.

Feb. 3: 47,047 steps.

Seamus is in second grade and he’s in trouble again, this time for drawing violent pictures. Dad’s worried about his son’s empathy. Years later his dad concludes that Seamus is probably on the autism spectrum, though he’s never officially diagnosed.

Cook’s getting nowhere. He’s walking in circles. He surrenders and grabs a flight home, drowning under waves of regret.

Maybe he never should have praised his son so much for all the things that came naturally, instead of the stuff that was hard for him. Maybe he should have forced — or at least convinced — Seamus to come home last May.

This is the kind of second guessing, the kind of guilt, that is inevitable for parents in this situation.

“Kids who get struck by lightning, their parents still feel guilty,” Humphreys says. “It’s wired into us.”

CHECKED OUT

Two weeks after Cook flies home, I’m in Spokane’s Central Library, working on a story about the library’s approach to homelessness, when I corner a trio of homeless patrons who are willing to talk.

“I’m Seamus. They call me Shamedawg,” says one of them, a dude in his late 20s wearing a beanie and lugging around a roller suitcase. “I washed up in Spokane about a year and a half ago.”

That’s when he starts unspooling his whole story. He tells me about street kid days, about his breakup, his ill-fated trip to Vegas, about how his would-be entrepreneurial venture — a pill press to make ecstasy he bought with his stimulus check — got stolen. He tells me about how he wants to make a new start in Spokane, but that “homeless bullshit” keeps getting in the way.

He’s blunt and open. He talks about the stealth video game style thrills of commercial burglary. He reviews various opioids.

“I f---ing hate fentanyl... Fentanyl is garbage,” he says. “I prefer heroin to fentanyl vastly.”

Heroin has a nice warp to it, he says, and lingers for six to eight hours.

“Fentanyl skips all of that and goes straight to unconsciousness,” he says.

Seamus refers to Camp Hope derisively as “Camp Dope Tent Shitty,” and compares it to the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong — packed slums that were demolished in the 1990s. He flashes his intellect, dropping words like “actualizing” during our conversation.

He breaks out in a brief debate about public drug use

Mother’s Day Tour

with Jeremy Root, another homeless library patron. You wanna know, Seamus says, why homelessness is on the rise these days? Society.

“People just being like, I can’t f---ing take life in the corporate world, or life in the rat race,” he says. “It’s too farcical for me to pretend eight hours a day like it’s not a f---ing farce.”

But as Seamus stands up to leave, that cynicism fades for a moment. He says he knows what he needs to do. Go back home with his dad. Get clean. Get his career started again.

Back in San Diego, Cook Googles his son’s name again. There’s a hit — my Inlander article about the library — and he’s hit with a barrage of contradictory emotions.

It’s anger: “Why aren’t you calling your freakin’ dad?”

It’s happiness: He can still see Seamus’ personality, in the rhythm and tenor of the quotes.

It’s relief: His son is still alive.

THE LONG WAY HOME

The day the article on the library came out, Seamus lands in jail again — he’s found trespassing in a Kaiser Permanente building. This time, thanks to missing his court date for the deli theft, he spends a month in jail.

But in its own way, it’s a stroke of luck — it’s an opportunity for his father to connect with him, to draft a new plan. When Seamus gets out on March 28, there’s a Greyhound bus ticket waiting for him.

But it’s all up to Seamus. He has to get on the bus and stay on the bus until it reaches San Diego.

The first part goes smoothly. Cook confirms his son got on the bus, and rode as far as Sacramento. But then weeks pass, and he doesn’t hear from him.

He thinks Seamus might be somewhere in the Los Angeles area. There are over 18 million people in greater LA.

...continued on page 20

“HAS ANYONE SEEN MY HOMELESS SON?,” CONTINUED...

Seamus at the downtown Spokane Public Library. DANIEL WALTERS PHOTO

“HAS ANYONE SEEN MY HOMELESS SON?,” CONTINUED...

“There’s no way I can go to LA and walk around intersections and yell his name,” Cook says. “It was a ridiculous idea in Spokane.”

All he can do is wait. Hold his breath. Hope.

foils. He hates fentanyl. It’s garbage. But he asks her for a hit anyway.

Why not just one last hit? Just to get it out of your system before you give it up for good.

Addict logic.

But he hasn’t used the stuff in over a month. His tolerance is a lot lower. He makes the mistake of holding Blow it out, blow it out, the woman says, but —

A hospital bed. Anaheim Regional Medical Center. Seamus is vomiting, trying to breathe, choking on his own throwup. The nurses tell him he was taking just two breaths a minute. Seamus is booted out of his bed, and he’s on the sidewalk outside, wearing a hospital gown

Coming so close to death doesn’t change him, at least not yet. He returns to his old rhythms: Shoplifting from grocery stores. Dosing fentanyl a couple of times a day for weeks on end. Same shit, different streets. This is, in part, why it’s so difficult to break the fentanyl addiction, says Stanford’s Humphreys, “how much of each day you spend getting high, being in withdrawal, thinking about fentanyl and hunting for

And when Seamus gets a little sleep, after a few days pass when he isn’t high, he begins to see. For him, it wasn’t the fear of getting stabbed or overdosing that moved him. It was the slowly dawning realization that if he didn’t escape homelessness and addiction now,

“I had relevant things in my life that I didn’t want to pass me by,” Seamus says. “What am I doing?”

END OF A LONG ROAD

“He called us to say, he just woke up and realized, ‘I need help,’” Cook says. “The next thing you know, we’re meeting with him at Old Town San Diego when he gets off the train.”

He hugs his son at the train station, for the first time in a long time. There’s not a big celebration — everyone is too exhausted, too hungry.

“It’s good to be home,” Seamus says. They’re at Cook’s house, and I’m talking to both of them over Zoom. “It’s the end of a long road.”

At times, it can feel like being back at square one. He’s walking through his old neighborhood. He’s spending time with his brothers and sisters. It’s good, but it’s sad — the relationships you make on the streets are by their very nature transitory, Seamus points out. You hope you never see them again — because they got clean or housed. But you miss them.

That leads to guilt, leaving people behind, Cook says of his son.

“I just keep telling him that he can’t help them by being there with them,” Cook says. “The way he helps them is to get out and he can dedicate his life to trying to help these people if he wants to.”

It’s dangerous out there. At the library, Seamus told me about a friend who got stabbed, nearly killed, in Mission Park.

“Lacerated his liver, punctured his lung, left him in the hospital for three weeks,” he said.

In the glow of the setting sun, he sees her fentanyl

Job Fair

He walks into a T-Mobile store. He knows the number by heart. He makes the call.

A few weeks later, Root — the fellow homeless intellectual Seamus debated at the library — reported getting stabbed multiple times by five teenagers on the Monroe Street Bridge, which led to Mayor Nadine Woodward

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Seamus’ bus out of Spokane ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

and Police Chief Craig Meidl saying that gangs of youths were “roaming in packs looking to prey on other people.” Garcia calls them “predators.”

Still, Seamus wants to come back to Spokane someday. But for now, he and his dad are planning a family vacation to Japan.

For all the confident opinions that people have about homelessness, those whose children have been through it are left with a kind of humility. They try everything: Carrots. Sticks. Tough love. Unconditional mercy. Until all they can do is simply wait for their son or daughter to say they want to get better. To finally return home.

Seamus knows it can be hard on them.

“It can take a lot of effort to hold out hope, against really dire circumstances and across years of misfortune and regret.” Seamus says. “Hold out hope.” n

danielw@inlander.com

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Ryan Cook and Seamus Galigan, reunited in San Diego. COURTESY PHOTO

USA BREWERY OF THE YEAR

Reaching New Heights

Spokane Art School unlocks new potential with its recent move to bigger U-District space

BY MADISON PEARSON

In the 54 years since its inception, the Spokane Art School has called many places home.

From its humble beginnings as an art school for Rotary Club members’ children in the basement of Litho Art Printers on South Lincoln Street to the Garland Avenue building the school called home for the last decade, the nonprofit always made it work.

Until it couldn’t anymore.

“Have you been inside of the Garland space?” asks Lisa Soranaka, a longtime board member and ceramics instructor at the school. “It’s tight. It’s so small.”

Along with art supplies stacking up in odd places and structural issues with the building’s foundation, the location lacked some ADA-required accessibility. Narrow stairways led up to bathrooms and classrooms, doorways were slight, and there was hardly any wiggle room once teaching spaces were filled for instruction.

“We could fit 10 to 12 students in one room at one time,” says Jodi Davis, the art school’s office manager. “We were bursting at the seams.”

Then came 2020. While student enrollment hit an all-time high in 2019, the school had no option but to close for four to five months during the pandemic’s early months. Once Davis and Spokane Art School’s board figured out how to continue operations through the pandemic, classes resumed fully online.

At that time Spokane Art School’s small-but-mighty team of two paid staff members and a volunteer board of eight also

Jodi Davis (left) and Lisa Soranaka are excited about Spokane Art School’s future at a spacious new home in the University District. YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

began searching for locations to rent or buy. At one point, they considered tearing down the building at 811 W. Garland Ave. and building a new home.

“This was the middle of the pandemic,” Soranaka says. “We could’ve just torn it down and built on top of it, but construction costs were through the roof.”

In a perfect world, she says the school would have remained in the Garland District if it weren’t for lack of space.

“We had so many limitations there and simply outgrew it. Of course the Garland location served a great purpose,” Soranaka says. “It helped us set up a foundation in the community and get our feet on the ground, but this new space has always been the dream.”

Upon entering Spokane Art School’s new home at the corner of Sherman Street and Second Avenue, it’s apparent that tight spaces and accessibility issues are a thing of the past. Now located in the University District, the nonprofit arts hub brings a different kind of education to the area than its neighboring schools: Eastern Washington University’s Catalyst campus and the medical school outposts of Washington State University, University of Washington and Gonzaga University.

The first floor of the new space features swathes of exposed brick walls. Paintings by Spokane artist Karen Mobley burst with color thanks to all the natural light invited in by floor-to-ceiling windows along the back wall of the main room. Other works by Mobley, who was the art school’s featured artist for April, hang on a smattering of room dividers throughout the main floor’s vast gallery space. The upper floor is home to an ADA-accessible restroom as well as one classroom.

Just after entering the new building, those familiar with the Art School’s old space may sense a breath of fresh air, with plenty of room to move around, enjoy the current exhibition and shop for goods created by the school’s instructors.

The school offers about 30 classes a month now, with a session taking place nearly every single day — something that would not be possible had it not relocated.

The school’s lower floor features a large, open space fit for classes of all kinds. Drawing, sketching, sculpting, painting and pottery classes are but a sampling of what’s on the schedule for May and June.

“Our one-year goal is to get a ceramic studio up and running,” Davis says. “This space can now accommodate the kiln we already had, but couldn’t use, plus an additional kiln.”

The ceramics program has long been Soranaka’s dream. She’s currently creating a mosaic sculpture alongside fellow artist Mallory Battista as part of Spokane Public Library’s artist-in-residence program at the Hive.

Davis mentions that, along with the opportunity for more classes, the art school’s relocation has opened up possibilities outside its regular class schedule.

“We’re also able to host our events in-house now,” Davis says. “Not only does that save us some money, but it also gives us the opportunity to invite the community in and make the entire space more community-oriented.”

Spokane Art School is hoping to bring back Yuletide, its juried art market that hasn’t been held since 2016, as well as the Spokane Drawing Rally (formerly known as the Monster Drawing Rally), which serves as the main fundraiser for its children’s drawing and painting programs.

“Our big, long-term goal is to be involved in more community partnerships,” Davis says. “We love our community, and our main mission has always been to teach Spokane to make and enjoy art. We hope to accomplish that through more interaction with the community.”

“That’s huge for us, and now that we have a space that’s more functional, we can really work toward bigger things. We can share this gift that we’ve been given with the community that’s given us so much over the years.” n

BLOOMIN’ SINCE BIRTH

Why Bloomsday is the prime example of what it means to be a Spokanite

BY MADISON PEARSON

Growing up in Medical Lake, about 20 minutes from downtown Spokane, I had a very limited understanding of what community actually is.

Back then, community was going to the fire station for the Fisherman’s Breakfast on the opening day of fishing season. It was knowing all of the cashiers at the singular local grocery store by first and last name, and walking three blocks with friends to get to the Homecoming dance, heels and all.

But each May, I had a chance to experience community in a totally different way.

Along with eating Zip’s crinkle-cut fries with tartar sauce and being a Zags fan, participating in Bloomsday each year is — in my book — almost required to keep your status as a resident of the Inland Northwest.

Personally, I’ve done the race since the womb. I’m not kidding! In 1997, I was there in utero, and I’ve been there almost every year since. My mom pushed me in a stroller for years until I was able to walk it myself, and in 2020, because the race was virtual, I took the opportunity to walk the course backwards starting at the Monroe Street Bridge and ending on Riverside. I’ve done Bloomsday in almost every form there has ever been.

The Spokane-hosted, largest timed road race — now in it’s 47th year, happening this Sunday, May 7 — in the world is a spring staple here in the Lilac City, yet I still encounter people who’ve never participated. Home-grown Spokanites who have never set foot on the Bloomsday race course. Huh?! As far as I’m concerned, to be a Spokanite is to be a Bloomie.

Though I’d never give up my small-town childhood, there’s something special about being in a packed crowd of strangers all congregated for the same purpose: to be a part of something bigger than themselves. It’s why lining up on the streets of downtown Spokane at 7 am on the first Sunday of May each year is something I always look forward to.

I feed off the energy of the runners ahead of me. I

don’t know them, but I’m mentally cheering them on. I always take pride in the lilac-colored number that’s pinned to my chest and in knowing that I’m participating in something that makes Spokane special.

Slowly, as the color groups are released from the starting line, the adventure begins. We wind down Riverside Avenue and into Browne’s Addition for a moment before heading down the hill to Government Way. At each mile marker, spectators cheer us Bloomies on with signs and music. People who live along the route decorate their front yards and hand out water and treats. Live bands perform every few miles, and the vulture is waiting to congratulate everyone who makes it up Doomsday Hill.

Along the route, I’m always reminded of the beauty of our city. Each year, I pause on TJ Meenach Bridge to catch my breath and gaze out at the Spokane River in all its glory. Once I’m at the corner of Broadway and Monroe, I stare down the bridge toward downtown and remember I’m lucky to live here.

Without fail, I’m always astounded that I’ve actually completed Bloomsday as I cross the finish line on the Monroe Street Bridge. After the race, I finally get to see what color the participant T-shirt is and don it as a token of my accomplishment. (In middle school, wearing that T-shirt the Monday after Bloomsday was an automatic invitation to the cool kids club.)

Some people run Bloomsday to beat personal bests or set new ones, but I’ll keep participating year after year for the way Bloomsday makes me feel: connected to the community that I love in the city that I have always treasured and have been proud to call my own. n

Bloomsday 2023 takes place Sunday, May 7. The Bloomsday trade show will be held at the Spokane Convention Center on Fri, May 5 from 11:30 am-8 pm, and Sat, May 6 from 9 am-6:30 pm. For more info, visit bloomsdayrun.org

A SAP FOR LAUGHS

Never has a stand-up special’s stage been as packed with tree branches and ferns as the woodsy one in Mae Martin’s new Netflix comedy special SAP. The tree-related title is a nod to the nonbinary performer’s romantic streaks, a theme that also runs through the comic’s Netflix dramedy series Feel Good. On stage in the faux woods, using a cut log as a cup rest, Martin crafts endearing, meandering stories about their parents, exes, rehab — with more tangents than punchlines. Yet rather than feel tedious, Sap, directed by Abbi Jacobson (A League of Their Own), felt soothing and left me wanting more from the charming yarn-spinner. The cherry on top is a wild bit about a huge moose — around these parts, that’s relatable. (ELISSA BALL)

ARPA FOR ARTS

Individual artists in Spokane can now apply to receive federal funds from the AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA) as part of the $81 million received by the city back in 2021. Earmarked for arts and cultural communities that were negatively impacted by the pandemic, and distributed by Spokane

Arts, the funds are available to groups within the following broad definition: “Those who contribute to fashion and costume design, architecture, traditional and folk arts, culinary arts, and arts promotion and production work. It also includes both those who are paid AND those who are volunteering their time and talent for the benefit of the community.” Because the funds are not competitive grants, applicants must only demonstrate eligibility, rather than propose a specific program or project. The first round is for individuals and households, with a deadline of June 15. Application periods for businesses/organizations and performing arts venues are coming soon. More at spokanearts.org/ARPA. (CHEY

SCOTT)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST

Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on May 5.

ED SHEERAN, - The ginger pop superstar singer-songwriter finishes out his mathematical cycle of albums (+ , x, ÷ , = , -) before even getting to square roots and algebraic equations. Coward

BILLY WOODS & KENNY SEGAL, MAPS. NYC rapper Woods and LA producer Segal team up for another heady, chill-flow hip-hop album with help from guests like Danny Brown, Future Islands, Aesop Rock and more.

JENNY OWEN YOUNGS, FROM THE FOREST FLOOR. The singersongwriter put the singing part on pause for a 12-song ambient folkie instrumental record meant to evoke the feelings of 24 hours in a forest. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

The Doomsday vulture is your friend! ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

A Step Up

Renowned architect Meejin Yoon’s interactive sculpture Stepwell is unveiled at Riverfront Park

BY ELLIE ROTHSTROM

Riverfront Park’s newest art installation is delightfully outlandish. Opposing wooden staircases create a gravity-defying inverted pyramid, inviting park goers into the heart of the structure, named Stepwell Inside the installation, they’re greeted with the familiar scent of cedar, the rushing sounds of the river, and a vantage with 360-degree views of the Spokane River gorge’s natural beauty.

The artist behind this piece is J. Meejin Yoon, a world-renowned artist and architect who currently serves as dean of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning. Yoon has created other large-scale, public art installations in Virginia, Boston and Shanghai, to name a few. Bringing her talent to our neck of the woods, Yoon says via email, she wanted to highlight and celebrate the distinct natural landscape of Riverfront Park while offering a gathering place for locals.

“The most important things to us were the landscape, the context, and the way the public would engage with Stepwell,” Yoon says. “The inhabitable sculpture frames views across the landscape while also creating an intimate space for gathering. Conceived as part of a larger public art master plan, the project references the legacy of environmental activism dating back to the Spokane World Expo of 1974.”

To embody the spirit of Expo ’74, the world’s first en-

vironmentally themed World’s Fair, Yoon not only sought to play off the park’s natural features, but also chose to use sustainable engineered wood, also called mass timber.

“Stepwell traces the long history and great body of knowledge on wood in the Pacific Northwest region. Because of this, we knew we had to use mass timber, but we wanted to rethink how it’s used,” Yoon explains. “We wanted to explore the sculptural potential of mass timber — to use it in a volumetric way that could be of the place and provide a place for others to enjoy the landscape.”

member at the time the art was chosen.) Akin to the park’s iconic Red Wagon, formally named The Childhood Express, Stepwell is interactive and whimsical while also being environmentally sustainable.

“We’re thrilled to see Stepwell come to fruition,” says Garrett Jones, Spokane Parks and Recreation’s director. “Meejin is known for creating interactive art that reflects a community, and this beautiful Expo ’74-inspired piece certainly lives up to that reputation. We can’t wait for the public to be able to see, touch, and explore this new artwork.”

Now, with the piece finally installed, Huggins imagines Stepwell as a place where locals can gather with one another, make memories and engage it with a critical eye. The installation is located just north of the inclusive Providence Playscape, and is easily accessed from the north or south via either of the park’s Howard Street bridges.

Stepwell is one of two public art pieces commissioned as a part of the yearslong Riverfront Park redevelopment project. While Yoon isn’t a local artist, her passion for Expo ’74 and her expertise made her the perfect candidate to create this piece. Spokane Arts Director Melissa Huggins says there’s value for local artists, too, in engaging someone of Yoon’s caliber.

“For Spokane Arts, we’re an arts organization, we support local artists in everything that we do,” Huggins says. “And also, for our city and for those local artists, it’s healthy and good for the ecosystem that we, every once in a while, bring in someone of international renown, you know?”

It was crucial to Huggins and the rest of the art selection committee, including stakeholders with Riverfront Park, that this piece reflect the community, which is why Stepwell was chosen after a year and a half of public meetings. (Inlander publisher Ted McGregor was a park board

“I love imagining how people will use this and interact with this, both in the short term and the long term,” she says. “I am picturing people having poetry readings here, people playing live music. This is a lovely place to have a coffee or have your lunch, have this really lovely break in the middle of the day. We hope that it’ll be a destination piece that visitors will want to check out and that people will bring their families to visit when they come down to the park.”

While Stepwell’s official unveiling is this weekend, it’s already gained attention. Huggins says she’s received many passing comments from locals speculating about what the piece might be, judging it to be a boat or a spaceship. With a smile on her face, Huggins happily explains that this carefree engagement and curiosity is what art thrives on.

“Everyone can experience it in a different way, everyone can interpret it in a different way, and that in and of itself is beautiful and valuable,” she says. n

Stepwell Grand Opening • Sat, May 6 from 11 amnoon • Free • Riverfront Park • 507 N. Howard St. • spokanearts.org

Stepwell boasts a sweeping new perspective of Riverfront Park. YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

MEATS ON MONROE

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

Sure, when Zozo’s Sandwich House owners Jen Hesseltine and her husband, Aaron, plan a vacation, they consider things to see and do. But more importantly, they want to know what they can eat.

From cheesesteaks and roast pork in Philadelphia to chicken cutlets in New York and Chicago beef, Hesseltine says the two have long focused on delicious sandwiches in their travel plans.

“The delis are so much fun,” Hesseltine says of these East Coast eateries. “It’s not like we were traveling all the time. We’d save up and be like, ‘OK, where are we going to go for food?’”

That’s partly how their dream of opening a restaurant started.

“There’s so many great places here, but there was just some of the stuff that we would travel for that you couldn’t find here,” Hesseltine says. “So we knew there was a niche for it.”

Jen worked in restaurants for more than 25 years — including at Red Robin and Elliotts an Urban Kitchen — and Aaron has worked in the grocery industry for about 30 years.

So when the pandemic hit, the couple honed that food-centered dream.

“Where’s a good spot to open a restaurant?” they asked themselves. “What do we crave? How could we make everything as fresh as possible?”

The magic combination landed them in the old Azars building on Monroe after that 42-year-old local spot closed last fall. After some fresh paint, new flooring and a kitchen revamp, the couple opened Zozo’s Sandwich

Shop in mid-March.

The name? That’s from their 7-year-old dog, Zoey, who they endearingly call Zozo. Guests can find an artist’s portrait of the pup chowing down on a sandwich inside the shop.

Since opening, Zozo’s has had great success. But Hesseltine wants people to know that even if there’s a line out the door, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get your food quickly.

“We’ve been blessed by people talking about our line and how busy we are,” she says. “But I just really want people to know that they can still come here and get a fast lunch.”

Putting in 12- to 13-hour days, Jen ensures the restaurant is constantly stocked with freshly roasted meats, like beef for their signature Monroe St. Dip ($13.95) featuring garlic aioli and juicy, slow-roasted beef topped with melty provolone and served with a side of jus for dipping.

By far, their most popular item is the Zozo’s Cheesesteak ($13.95), Hesseltine says, which also features the house beef, house-made cheese whiz and chopped, grilled onions. People love to add on fries and sweet peppers for the full experience, and it’s one of the only things on the menu served on rolls shipped in from the century-old Philadelphia bakery Amoroso’s.

Another popular choice is the Italian beef, the Hesseltine’s take on the popular Chicago sandwich topped with house-made giardiniera (pickled veggies).

The staff hand bread every pork and chicken cutlet. All other premium meats and cheeses come from Boar’s

Head and get sliced in the kitchen each day. Most of Zozo’s bread is baked locally by Yoke’s, and the soups and sides are made fresh, including the popular dill pickle pasta salad, which features a creamy dressing with finely chopped pickles and chunks of cheddar sprinkled throughout.

Many dishes call back to family-style favorites, like the Turkey Crunch ($12.95), a simple and delicious cold combo of turkey, provolone and satisfyingly crunchy pickles with shredded lettuce and house chips. The handful of napkins Zozo’s provides is needed, as the delicious dressing drips from this sandwich that’s large enough for two meals, depending on your appetite.

Hesseltine says she’s eager to implement even more changes soon, as Zozo’s to-go ordering system just went online (further speeding up that lunch ordering time), and her team works to create lunch box catering options for businesses.

For now, Zozo’s is open from 11 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday, with plans to expand those hours with the warm weather. Guests could also soon see breakfast options in the mornings, some happy hour deals (they have beer and wine, in addition to soda and tea) and even stay for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays with a patio opening up for outdoor dining.

“We have some fun, fun stuff planned,” Hesseltine says. n

Zozo’s Sandwich House • 2501 N. Monroe St. • Open Mon-Sat from 11 am-5 pm • zozossandwichhouse.com • 509-413-2558

Zozo’s Sandwich House brings East Coast deli options to North Monroe, with a focus on house-made ingredients

Zozo’s Wendy Byrd sandwich and dill pickle pasta salad YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

FOOD | TO-GO BOX

Short Stack

Original Pancake House expands to Spokane; “mis-steak night” returns to Churchill’s

BY ELLIE ROTHSTROM AND CHEY SCOTT

The Original Pancake House takes its pancakes seriously. Well, as seriously as pancakes can be. More refined than your average Bisquick flapjack stack — and arguably more delightful — the Original Pancake House

around the world, including plate-sized Swedish pancakes with lingonberries ($14.59), Continental Crepes filled with sour cream, adorned with triple sec and sprinkled with powdered sugar ($13.29), and the German-style Dutch baby ($15.29), an oven-baked, souffle-like pancake swimming with butter, powdered sugar and lemon juice. There’s also a vast list of savory breakfast items, from meat and eggs to omelets and benedicts.

The Original Pancake House moved into the former home of Luigi’s restaurant, and is open daily from 7 am to 3 pm. Learn more at iloveoph.com. (ELLIE ROTHSTROM)

UPDATES

As one of the city’s top fine-dining destinations, Gander & Ryegrass is known for its focus menu, allowing diners to enjoy its fine-dining fare

popular ever since, so Gander & Ryegrass recently SaltBox’s core Italian-inspired sandwiches ($11-$13

and daily specials keep things fresh.

SaltBox’s menu is available at Gander & Ryegrass for dine-in during lunch (Monday through Friday from 11 am to 3 pm.) Pickup orders can be placed at bit.ly/ordersaltbox, or for delivery via Treehouse, Uber Eats and DoorDash.

Craving a perfectly prepared (to your liking, of course) USDA Prime New York steak? Well, you better run to your nearest device to snag reservations for the one-night-only return of

Find much more than flapjacks at The Original Pancake House.

COURT MONITORS &

IN THE

TACO GUIDE TACO GUIDE TACO GUIDE TACO GUIDE

Looking for taco inspiration?

From classic carne asada to innovative vegetarian options, our guide will take your taste buds on a culinary adventure. Discover new taco hotspots, flavor combinations, and become a true taco connoisseur. With this taco guide, you’ll never settle for a boring taco again.

cochinito Taqueria

DOWNTOWN SPOKANE | 509-474-9618 cochinitotaqueria.com HAYDEN | 208-518-1517

Cochinito Taqueria serves Spokane’s Best Tacos

We are honored to have be voted #1 THREE years in a row! Cochinito’s focus is on local & responsibly sourced ingredients prepared with fine-dining techniques - all served in a casual atmosphere along with craft cocktails, thoughtfully-selected cervezas, and spirits

Catering services available for your next event.

De Leon’s Taco & Bar

| 509-822-7907 deleonstacoandbar.com

Voted Best Mexican Food in Spokane!

De Leon’s Taco & Bar, a family-owned restaurant, brings you generations of recipes and techniques all the way from the Texas/Mexico border. Come and enjoy our Taco Sampler and choose between 6, 12 or 24 di erent tacos. Made-to-order Street Tacos with your choice of slow cooked and perfectly seasoned meats and fish.

Check out our other menu o erings like Burritos, Enchiladas, Quesadillas, Tamales, Nachos and several salad choices. You will love our tasty, freshmade Salsa’s and Guacamole! Come see us soon!

 Daily Happy Hour- 3-5:30. $1 OFF selected tacos, appetizers, draft beer and our award winning margarita

 Taco Tuesday- Happy hour all night

 Check our instagram @ cochinitotaqueria for specials, upcoming events and promotions

 Our Taco + Margarita flights have become a favorite! Choose from 9 di erent Margarita flavors!

 Try our Taco Boat… it’s full of our best tacos!

 Enjoy dinner at our patio with family and friends (outdoor dining only at our GU District and North Spokane locations)

Indigenous Eats

Served on frybread with choice of ground beef, bison, vegetarian, or chicken. NdN (Indian) tacos are served on frybread, a soft golden-brown fried bread, pu y through the middle and crispy on the skin. We o er options of ground bison, ground beef, diced chicken; all cooked with house blended seasonings. All NdN tacos are topped with choice of beans, lettuce, tomato, onions, jalapeno, choice of salsa, and sour cream —the usual taco fixings. Weighing almost a pound and half, diners often use a fork and knife. Regardless of how you eat it, it’s fast, fresh, and filling!

Tacos El Cabron

SPOKANE VALLEY | 509-315-5857

Home to Spokane’s First and Best Birria Tacos!

If you like tacos you will love our mouthwatering Birria Tacos and Consommé. Crispy, cheesy and flavorful - yum! Pair it with a rim-dipped homemade, traditional, chamoy Michelada or any other cocktail from our Cantina. At Tacos El Cabron, we pride ourselves in serving you the freshest, most authentic Mexican food. Stop in and enjoy a delicious meal!

Parking & entrance also available at rear of building.

Vaqueros Mexican Restaurant

& Taqueria Tacos-al-Pastor

Zola

 Ground bison, black beans, all toppings and tomatillo sauce

 Diced chicken, pinto beans, all toppings and pico de gallo

 Ground beef, chili seasoned beans, all toppings and red sauce

SPOKANE VALLEY | VaquerosMexicanSV.com 509-922-0770

Spokane’s Best New Mexican Restaurant!

Vaqueros Mexican Restaurant & Taqueria, a family owned and operated business originating from the state of Jalisco in Mexico. We prioritize giving our customers the largest variety of quality Mexican dishes and best dining experience for families and friends.

Check out our top class interior design and feel the vibrant atmosphere of dining at a restaurant that provides fresh ingredients and top quality products. There’s a bit of everything for everyone when it comes to our large menu. We have endless options such as taquitos, quesadillas, street tacos, enchiladas, caldos(soups) burritos, fajitas, seafood dishes and so much more!

We look forward to serving you in the future!

DOWNTOWN SPOKANE | zolainspokane.com 509-624-2416

Zola Tacos are Back and Better Than Ever!

Korean Bulgogi Tacos - Bulgogi marinated beef short ribs, with Korean-style slaw and soy and lime dressing. Garnished with scallions and toasted sesame seeds.

Fish Tacos – Your choice of grilled or batter-fried fish, with cabbage slaw, pico de gallo, and lime tequila cream sauce. Served with tortilla chips and house-made salsa verde.

Brisket Tacos with Cucumber Mango Salsa!

Carne Asada Tacos with slaw and Salsa Verde

Pork Tacos with Slaw and Pico de Gallo

Korean Bulgogi Tacos!

 Best Birria Tacos & Micheladas in Town

 Join us For Taco Tuesday & check out our kids menu!

 Full Cantina: Draft beer, cocktails, and happy hour deals

 Happy Hour Mon-Fri 2-6PM Specials on our Margaritas, Draft Beer and Appetizers

 Taco Tuesday Specials $3 OFF all Street Taco Entrees and $2.99 for each Chicken or Ground Beef taco

 Check out our Facebook @ Vaqueros Mexican Restaurant Spokane for specials and giveaways!

 Live Music Nightly!

 Happy Hour 4pm to 6pm Daily!

 Check out our Facebook page for our Music Calendar!

Regular

House Specialty Birria Tacos

SPOKANE VALLEY 5704 E Sprague Ave

Superhero Send-Off

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gives Marvel’s intergalactic champions a fond farewell

The Guardians of the Galaxy movies have always held a unique place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the personal vision of writer-director James Gunn. So it’s fitting that he gets to end the franchise — at least for now — on his own terms. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is almost certainly not the last time all of these space-faring superheroes will be seen in the MCU, but it is Gunn’s farewell to the characters, some of whom will likely be taking a well-deserved break.

As such, Vol. 3 is a bit overstuffed, as Gunn works to include all of the themes and relationships that have defined the previous two movies, while also introducing a new villain and significantly expanding the back story of one of the Guardians. The previous movies have been anchored by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), the quippy galactic

BY JOSH BELL

adventurer who calls himself Star-Lord, and greenskinned alien warrior Gamora (Zoe Saldaña). Quill continues to lead the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Gamora plays a significant role as well, although thanks to the intricacies of MCU continuity, she’s actually a different version of the character, plucked out of the past following the original Gamora’s death in Avengers: Infinity War.

The story in Vol. 3 is driven by another character, though — the scrappy, tough-talking, raccoon-like Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper). After Rocket is critically injured during an attack, the Guardians must seek out his creator, the mad scientist known as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), to retrieve a key that will allow them to treat his injuries. Rocket remains inert and unconscious for a good two-thirds of the movie, but Gunn uses that time for extensive flashbacks to his treatment at the hands of the High Evolutionary, who conducts cruel experiments on helpless animals in his efforts to engineer a perfect race of elevated beings.

The Guardians movies have always featured a potentially awkward mix of snarky humor and gooey sentimentality, and Vol. 3 too often goes overboard on the pathos, especially in the manipulative flashbacks to Rocket and his doomed friends. Putting cute animals — even entirely CGI ones — in peril is a cheap tactic, and the emotional resonance of this movie relies almost entirely on the audience’s investment in the personal development of a

talking, gun-toting space rodent.

Although Rocket’s story is the primary focus, there’s still plenty of material for the other Guardians, including super-strong lunkhead Drax (Dave Bautista), Gamora’s sullen sister Nebula (Karen Gillan), bug-eyed empath Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and tree creature Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), who takes a new, disturbingly buff-looking form. That’s a lot for Gunn to handle, as he wraps up arcs and sets the characters on new paths. The relationship between Quill and this different Gamora gets shortchanged, replacing the connection they had in the first two films with a half-formed new dynamic. Secondary antagonist Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), whose debut has been teased across multiple movies, turns out to be a complete dud.

As ungainly as it can be, Vol. 3 is still an entertaining ride, full of creatively designed alien worlds and vessels, with Iwuji as an enjoyably unhinged villain. The effects have a more tactile feel than the plasticky environments of recent MCU movies Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, even if the action is largely underwhelming. The characters remain endearing, and while the comedy has worn a little thin, there are still moments of humor amid the schmaltz. Gunn mostly insulates the movie from the endless MCU set-ups and references, making it a satisfying — if bumpy — conclusion for longtime Guardians fans. n

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3

Rated PG-13

Directed by James Gunn

Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista

ALSO OPENING

KENWORTHY SILENT FILM FESTIVAL

Who needs cinematic sound? Every Thursday in May, Moscow’s Kenworthy Theatre screens an old silent film scored by a local musician. The lineup includes The Wind, Blood of a Poet, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Sherlock Jr

Not rated At Kenworthy Theatre

LOVE AGAIN

In this rom-com, when a woman dealing with the passing of her fiance copes by texting loving messages to his old number only, the journalist who gets assigned her ex’s old phone number begins falling for her before they even meet. Rated PG-13

Next Door But Worlds Apart

What’s Love Got to Do with It? adds genuine cross-cultural heart to typical rom-com formula

BY MARYANN JOHANSON

What’s love got to do with it? You may be unsurprised to learn that a romantic comedy that poses such a question upfront will also answer it... and that the answer will turn out to be exactly what you suspect it will.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, of course, that a lighthearted movie about romance with two appealing and charismatic people — who are definitely not a couple in spite of their obvious attraction to each other — not only will inevitably fail to surprise you, but that the lack of surprise is a feature, not a bug. These movies are built around a will they/won’t they pseudosuspense that dare not overtly concede the certainty of a happily-ever-after, yet also dare not deny the audience such an ending.

The only question, then, with a movie like What’s Love Got to Do with It? is this: Do we care? Do we like these people enough to get swept up in their temporary troubles and buy in to their obliviousness toward the perfect-for-them person right in front of them until they overcome that big ol’ blind spot?

London than we usually see in mainstream films (though that’s beginning to change — see the just released Polite Society and Rye Lane) and it’s a companionable multiculturalism on display, one that recognizes that much more unites us across religious and ethnic lines than divides us. Kazim has not agreed to an arranged marriage, but an “assisted” one. It’s about getting some help meeting other marriage-minded people, definitely not about forcing anyone to do anything. We all know that it’s tough to meet someone special no matter how you go about it. Zoe certainly does.

But the film also doesn’t downplay the bigotry that still exists even in liberal London. When speaking about the next door neighbor address of their family homes, Kazim informs Zoe, “There’s an entire continent between number 49 and 47.” But mostly there’s lots of cheerful cultural melting pot: Kazim’s just-married brother, Farooq (Mim Shaikh), met his new wife, Yasmin (Iman Boujelouah), when they bonded over a discussion of how Islamic ideals are reflected in Harry Potter.

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Rated PG-13

Directed by Shekhar Kapur

Starring Lily James, Shazad Latif, Emma Thompson

And the answer to that question in this case? Absolutely. The congenial thirtysomething Londoner not-couple here are Zoe (Lily James), a documentary filmmaker whose love life is a bit of a mess but she’s happy being single anyway, and her childhood friend Kazim (Shazad Latif), a doctor who is letting his Pakistani-immigrant parents find him a bride.

Perhaps the best measure of a romantic comedy is whether you like the destined-for-each-other partners not only when they are sparking off each other but also when they’re not even in the same scene. Zoe and Kazim? They are delightful together and separately. What’s Love fits into the crowd-pleasing cinematic tradition of films where you don’t even care what the beautiful, charming people onscreen are doing, as long as you get to spend time with them.

There’s plenty more to recommend about What’s Love, however. It showcases a more diverse

The film’s depiction of Zoe’s casually racist mom, Cath, might be seen as a downplaying of bigotry as something goofily endearing (especially since she’s played by the goofily endearing Emma Thompson), but she is more a rather accurate portrait of offhand, almost performative narrowmindedness that is more tolerant than it realizes. That sounds unfortunate, but maybe it’s hopeful? Like, maybe, scratch the surface of some racists, and there’s actually a decent person to found underneath and coaxed out?

Is What’s Love Got to Do with It? a slice of Asian experience through Zoe’s white lens? A bit... though scriptwriter Jemima Khan, a journalist and film producer making her feature-screenplay debut, does sneak in a joke about that. But director Shekhar Kapur — in a departure from his previous films, such as the sweeping Cate Blanchett-led historic epics Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age — brings grounded authenticity to a tale that is, ultimately, about navigating old and deeply valued traditions through the modern world. Kapur shepherds What’s Love to where it’s going gently, with genuine smarts and real sentiment. n

INDIE ROCK

DOWN (UNDER) BUT NOT OUT

Charly Bliss found themselves stranded continents apart during COVID, but that’s only made the band closer

BY SETH SOMMERFELD

No one would accuse Eva Hendricks of having a normal life. The singer/guitarist for the New York indie pop rock group

Charly Bliss spent her 20s traveling the world singing bratty bubblegum anthems, gets to dress like a colorful fashionista for work, and even met her boyfriend via Tinder swiping while on tour in Australia.

But life got even more bizarre and surreal for Hendricks when she went to visit her Aussie squeeze down under…

…in March 2020.

What was meant to be a six-week vacation, turned into Hendrick’s new normal when COVID lockdown restrictions made her an accidental Australian resident for a year and a half.

“It was really bizarre, honestly. It happened basically right after a period of time where we’d been on tour pretty much

nonstop for a few years and so much of my life was just consumed by never being in one place for more than a week,” says Hendricks. “I was living in New York, obviously, but I was hardly there. And the kind of life that you’re able to build when you’re always leaving somewhere is strange. It forces your life to be very fragmented. And would I have ever predicted that the time that I would finally get to spend a significant amount of time in one place would happen across the globe in a place where I knew one person — the person I was dating? No. That was really wild. Because it wasn’t just that I was in Australia, it was also the experience of being in one place solidly for a year and a half was so new to me.”

Up to that point, Charly Bliss had both literally and figuratively been Hendricks’ family. In addition to guitarist Spencer Fox and bassist Dan Shure, the group also

After being separated for a year and a half, Charly Bliss are grateful to be together again. EBRU YILDIZ PHOTO

features her brother Sam — who Eva lived with — on drums. After spending basically all their time together for years while creating and touring in support of the group’s first two LPs — 2017’s Guppy and 2019’s Young Enough — Eva was basically having to reboot her life from a hemisphere away from her bandmates.

“Having to build a new life sort of from the ground up and make new friends in a place where this thing that had been my whole life — Charly Bliss — was no longer like the central driving force in my life, and that was really interesting. It was the first time in my adult life where that was true,” says Hendricks. “And I think what it really left me with was tremendous appreciation for Charly Bliss and all of the really strange and wonderful things that the band has brought me. I mean, there’s no way I would ever have ended up living in Australia, weirdly, if it wasn’t for the fact that we had toured there and met someone and fallen in love. But also I think I just grew up a lot, because I think when you’re always moving, and you never really have to be accountable and living in one place, and really building a life, you kind of get frozen as your teenage self, or whenever you started touring. And I think it was a big opportunity for growth for me as a person… And no one over in Australia really knew about our band, so I definitely had like a Hannah Montana life for a minute.”

Prior to the pandemic, Charly Bliss had built up quite a bit of momentum as a group. The Barsuk Records band’s debut album Guppy is one of the most vibrant announcements of arrival in recent memory — a bratty sugar buzz blast of pop punk emotional chaos expressed via Hendricks’ sweet nasal melodicism. If Josie and the Pussycats were a real band, they absolutely would’ve toured with Guppy-era Charly Bliss.

The band definitely took an evolutionary step with its follow-up LP Young Enough. The album still has a frenetic feel at times, but the aggression is toned down in favor of some Lordeinfluenced synth-laden pop rock as Hendricks explores the messy confusion of young adulthood with a more composed and complex outlook. For Hendricks, a large part of Charly Bliss’ growth over the years has come from finding space and variety within her voice and allowing herself to be a bit more real to herself.

“When I was younger, when we were working on Guppy, I think I just wanted to sound like a brat,” Hendricks says with a laugh. “Like I really just wanted to sound like this kind of caricature of myself and these big feelings that I was feeling and sort of embody a really heightened version of myself. And then I think on Young Enough, I was still sort of working out how much of myself I wanted to show and how much of that character I still wanted to embody. And I think on these new songs, I think there’s just more room for me vocally to... enjoy singing? [laughs]”

With travel restrictions lifted and concerts returning, Charly Bliss was finally able to reunite last year to play some dates with Jimmy Eat World. This spring the band is playing its first headlining shows in years, as well opening up for indie rock band Hippo Campus (which will bring Charly Bliss to the Knitting Factory on May 10).

“Now just being in a place where we’re finally getting back to being in the same room as our

fans and people who care about our music, it just feels... I mean, we never took it for granted to begin with, but it’s so overwhelmingly special now, because we’ve been away from it for years and kind of had time to process just like everything that’s happened throughout our career. We sort of just really appreciate being in front of people who care about our music, because we went years without feeling any of that,” says Hendricks.

Perhaps surprisingly, the band has thrived in the remote work setting. While their normal process was often cram writing while touring or in the tiny gaps between stints on the road, technological advances and Hendricks’ remoteness have opened up new creative processes.

“I’ve never enjoyed writing more as I have over these last couple of years, really having time to dig in and work on this [upcoming] record. We were Zoom writing, and it actually was an incredible way of working for us,” say Hendricks. “I think it’s maybe become our favorite way to work with each other. I don’t know, I guess maybe something about the fact that we were all just able to be really focused.”

Charly Bliss has been sitting on some fresh songs for a bit — ones Hendricks categorizes as thematically splitting the difference between Guppy and Young Enough — and plans on releasing at least some new music in 2023, though just how much remains to be seen because of typical music industry rollout logistics.

“The four of us are dying to put new music out and going totally insane,” Hendricks says with a chuckle.

While Charly Bliss anxiously awaits releasing new music, Hendricks is splitting her time between living in Australia and returning to the states to work and tour. (She’s halfway to attaining Australian citizenship and, unlike many, she and her beau’s relationship survived the pandemic.) But the time physically apart from her bandmates and the careerist grind has only deepened her love for them.

“I really feel like I took my bandmates for granted a bit at that point, because we were all exhausted. We were so tired. And I think I just couldn’t even see it. I couldn’t see what was happening or what was working,” says Hendricks. “And I think this time away has just left me feeling so much gratitude for my bandmates, and just able to really feel secure in who we are to each other and how much of a family we are to each other. And the fact that I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone else. This is unquestionably the most right thing in my life throughout the last decade. That’s really special and really rare.”

“I think I heard Katie from MUNA say recently that being in a band is sort of like getting married at a really young age,” she continues. “Like you pick your life partners when you’re like 19 or 20 and build your life with them. Because every choice you make is going to affect these other people, and vice versa. And I think that’s exactly right. I just feel profoundly lucky that the people I’ve chosen to build my life around are the most incredible, loving, talented, beautiful people I know. And I feel that more than ever now.” n

Hippo Campus, Charly Bliss

• Wed, May 10 at 8 pm

• $30-$90

• All ages

• Knitting Factory

• 919 W. Sprague Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com

Spokane Ukulele Festival ScorpioGuitars.com

PRODUCED BY

ROCK SHINEDOWN

Answer instinctively without thinking about it — what band completely dominates mainstream rock? While names like Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons and Red Hot Chili Peppers might spring to mind, there’s a statistical case to be made that the correct answer is Shinedown. The Floridian hard rock outfit has the most No. 1 singles in the 40+ year history of the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs Charts (18!) and the band’s first 30 singles (and counting) have all cracked the Top 5. The group’s blend of an aggressive but accessible level of thrash paired with the melodic touches of Brent Smith’s vocals remains on the band’s 2022 album, Planet Zero. With opener Three Days Grace having the second-most No. 1 in the Mainstream Rock Chart’s history, it goes without saying there will be a glut of rock radio hits when Shinedown swings in for a headlining (and headbanging) night at Spokane Arena.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

Shinedown, Three Days Grace, From Ashes to New • Sat, May 6 at 7 pm • $50-$301 • All ages • Spokane Arena • 720 W. Mallon Ave. • spokanearena.com

Thursday, 5/4

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Thursday Night Jam

CHECKERBOARD TAPROOM, Weathered Shepherds

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL, Riley Grey

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, American Aquarium, Emily Nenni

J NORTHERN QUEST, Gary Allan

J QQ SUSHI & KITCHEN, Just Plain Darin

J REPUBLIC BREWING CO., Claude Bourbon

STEAM PLANT RESTAURANT & BREW

PUB, Pamela Jean

J THURSDAY MARKET, DJ Lydell and DJ Catnip

ZOLA, The Desperate Eights

Friday, 5/5

BACKWOODS WHISKEY BAR, The Rusty Jackson Band

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Hoodoo Udu

CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA & SPIRITS, Riley Anderson

HAMMERS BAR & GRILL, Sapphire

IRON PIZZA ATHOL, Son of Brad

KNITTING FACTORY, The Taylor Party

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Scott Pemberton O Theory

NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE, Los Vigiles

OSPREY RESTAURANT, Jacob Burrows

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Kat Heart

J STOCKWELL’S CHILL N GRILL, Just Plain Darin

TURNING POINT OPEN BIBLE

CHURCH, Rend Collective

PUNK MANNEQUIN PUSSY

Rarely is a band’s evolving sound captured accurately on an album cover, but such is the case with the art for Mannequin Pussy’s 2021 EP, Perfect. The cover features a drawing of an enraged barking dog surrounded by lovely flowers in muted tones. The Philadelphia punk band led by singer/ guitarist Marisa Dabice has long thrived with a snarling angry energy (similar to the pup’s) to create a frenzy of noise, but Perfect also finds Dabice exploring dream pop realms on a track like “Darling.” Expect greater doses of the former when Mannequin Pussy is joined by ’90s-influenced, Mexican grungy alt-rock band Margaritas Podridas for an angst-relieving Monday night gig.

— SETH SOMMERFELD

Mannequin Pussy, Margaritas Podridas • Mon, May 8 at 8 pm • $18-$20 • 21+ • Lucky You Lounge • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. • luckyyoulounge.com

J TWO SHOE BBQ, Cinco de Mayo

Saturday, 5/6

BACKWOODS WHISKEY BAR, 3rd Switch

CHALICE BREWING CO., Son of Brad

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, The Usual Suspects

CHINOOK STEAK, PASTA & SPIRITS, Riley Anderson

THE CORK & TAP, Just Plain Darin

J THE DISTRICT BAR, Pretending We’re Just Like Them

HAMMERS BAR & GRILL, Sapphire

J HISTORIC DAVENPORT HOTEL,

Sacha Boutros, Brent Edstrom Quartet

J HUCKLEBERRY’S NATURAL MARKET, Daniel Hall

LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Kneebone, Pit

NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE (CDA CASINO), Heather King Band

OSPREY RESTAURANT & BAR, Sean Kavanaugh

PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Mike Wagoner Trio

J J SPOKANE ARENA, Shinedown, Three Days Grace, From Ashes to New ZOLA, Blake Braley

Sunday, 5/7

HOGFISH, Open Mic

RIVERSIDE PLACE, Dirt Monkey, Jantsen

J SOUTH HILL GRILL, Just Plain Darin

Monday, 5/8

J THE BAD SEED, The Imagine Collective

J EICHARDT’S PUB, Monday Night Blues Jam with John Firshi

J LUCKY YOU LOUNGE, Mannequin Pussy, Margaritas Podridas

RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic Night

Tuesday, 5/9

THE DISTRICT BAR, Jeff Crosby

LITZ’S PUB & EATERY, Shuffle Dawgs

ZOLA, The Night Mayors

Wednesday, 5/10

CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Wednesday Night Jam

J J KNITTING FACTORY, Hippo Campus, Charly Bliss

J PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Dwayne Parsons

RED ROOM LOUNGE, The Roomates

J SOUTH PERRY LANTERN, Gil Rivas

ZOLA, Brittany’s House

J = THE INLANDER RECOMMENDS THIS SHOW

J = ALL AGES SHOW

WORDS FIVE, SEVEN, FIVE

The world of poetry is vast. Epic poems range anywhere from 10,000 to 200,000 lines of verse, whereas the Japanese poetry form haiku is usually limited to just three lines and a set syllable pattern. This generative workshop takes place outdoors, as most haikus take inspiration from nature, and is taught by Spokane Print and Publishing Center founding owner and member Dorian Karahalios. Generate your own haikus after a short lecture from Karahalios and a stroll through the Nishinomiya Tsutakawa Japanese Garden at Manito Park. Journals, pencils and refreshments are provided, just bring your creative spirit, literary chops and willingness to break out of the mold of what you typically believe to be a haiku.

— MADISON PEARSON

Hike-oo • Sun, May 7 from noon-2 pm

• $25

• Nishinomiya

Tsutakawa Japanese Garden • 2025 S. Bernard St. • spokaneprint.org

COMMUNITY CULTURAL CELEBRATIONS

Beginning just hours after Bloomsday, a multicultural celebration happening as part of May’s national designation as American Pacific Islander Heritage month is set to take place. Organized by the Filipino American Northwest Association, the Spokane Chinese Association, the Indian Youth Club of Spokane and the Marshallese Full Gospel Group, the Asian Pacific American Heritage Day features a number of food vendors, plus a potluck with a variety of Asian and Pacific Islander dishes. Attendees can also watch local dance groups perform cultural dances and music. The event celebrates and honors the cultures, contributions and traditions of Spokane’s Asian American Pacific Islander community.

— SUMMER SANDSTROM

Asian American Pacific Heritage Celebration • Sun, May 7 from 3-7 pm

FOOD & DRINK VIVA MEXICO!

America’s favorite celebration of Mexican culture and pride is here — on a Friday, no less — and that means bars and entertainment venues around the region are ready with margaritas, mole and mezcal and more. While the date itself marks Mexico’s unexpected victory over France in the 1862 Battle of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo’s first observance began in California the next year. The holiday is still mostly observed in the U.S. by Mexican Americans, and became more of a commercialized event in the 1980s and ’90s. Locally, the Hispanic Business Professional Association of Spokane is hosting an all-ages celebration with live music by Los Faraones Del Norte and Prestigio Total, both from Wenatchee, plus opportunities to learn more about the holiday’s history. For more Cinco de Mayo festivities, check the Inlander’s online events calendar at inlander.com/events.

— CHEY SCOTT

• CenterPlace Regional Event Center

• 2426 N Discovery Place Dr., Spokane Valley • aanhpispokane.com

FILM SPIRAL OUT

Upon release, Vertigo received mixed reviews and just barely broke even against its shooting costs, doing significantly worse in the box office than other Alfred Hitchcock productions up to that point. Despite what the early critics said, it’s well worth seeing Vertigo on the big screen at the Garland Theater this week because now, like several Hitchcock films, it’s considered one of the greatest movies ever made.Vertigo creates incredible suspense with small easter eggs only noticeable to the trained eye, a wonderfully intense musical score and stunning visual effects, well, as stunning as they can be in 1958. Don’t go looking for an in-depth synopsis of the film, you definitely don’t want the ending of this fascinating film spoiled for you.

—MADISON PEARSON

Vertigo 65 Year Anniversary • May 8-11; times vary • $2.50 • Garland Theater • 924 W. Garland Ave. • garlandtheater.com

DANCE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Most of us know the timeless tale of Alice, the girl who tumbles down the rabbit hole into the wondrous and weird world of dreams. But when this familiar tale centered on the power of imagination is told with physical emphasis by the dancers of MOMIX, Alice’s adventures become even stranger and more delightful. MOMIX, a Connecticut-based contemporary dance company helmed by artistic director Moses Pendleton, strives to showcase the beauty of the human form in movement with a mix of the unexpected: illusions, props, costumes, lighting, music and more. Considering this multimedia approach, Alice’s romp through Wonderland as she encounters talking animals, angry queens, and quirky tea party hosts becomes an ultimately fitting point of inspiration, and a treat for audiences of all ages.

— CHEY SCOTT

I SAW YOU

STORY ABOUT MANAGING HOMELESSNESS

Simple question: Why not ask them what they need to get off the streets? Then work on filling the need.

RE: I SEE YOU EVERYDAY Hi gub! You’re the best gublet ever! Love you lots! You owe me a date to our favorite spot soon. Hehe. Lllaaawwwhhhlll!

LUCY B, RAGNAR MISSES YOU Last time I saw you was at PetSmart over a year ago. Came to see you, but you were gone. They told me you were alive when I asked if you were okay. Please get in touch...I miss you so much. Just let me and Chuck know you’re okay and where you’ve gone.

LAX TO SPOKANE...U/B AT THE AIRPORT…

I saw you both at LAX and in Spokane airport. You, dark and long haired beauty, me with green eyes and a tan. I saw you following me out of the terminal while I was pushing my carts of baggage, and our eyes met (not for the first time) just before you turned around. “Yes” is my answer to you. Feel free to ask me anything... as you wish. Your top was black, and very memorable.

CHEERS

NOW IS OUR CHANCE Our Great President just confirmed he is running for re-election! That’s a load of stress off the people of Spokane’s back! Four more years of this administration, and we haven’t seen

anything yet! Now is the time for this city to catch up with the rest of America. Are we biased or even worse racist in Spokane?

I think not! Thank You, Mr. President, for all the hard work you have put in to making America see what truly is important!

JEERS

SPOKANE MAYOR Quit trying to cover up for Meidl! There has been NO interrogation, only a report, listen to the people, let the council do their job. Quit being a roadblock; lead, follow, or get out of the way.

CITY COUNCIL You’re killin’ the vibe. Live, laugh, love.

NRA MYTH A small cadre of armed to the teeth civilians with AR-15s and a boatload of ammunition is not going to protect anyone from an Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines with Abrams, Stealth fighters/bombers, howitzers, Apache helicopters armed with Hellfire missles, RPGs, and the myriad weapons of which you’ve never heard or imagined. The cadre will become a stain on the road.

BALLOON HEAD To those people that thought the rocket hot air balloon that flew over the Spokane Valley on April 23 was a Chinese spy balloon, please either move to China so you can monitor the activity from the source or buy yourself a brain that works.

PRIDE OF PLACE Something needs to be mentioned now that spring is here. We are blessed (maybe a too religious of a word here in an ever more agnostic city) to have a beautiful river flowing through our downtown! However, if you ever go to the Waste-to-Energy plant out on the West Plains, you’d see a lot of similarities to the Spokane River — if a river ran down the middle of the dumping floor. Instead of having pride in the natural beauty, we have a garbage dump with a river flowing down the middle! There is no doubt that to clean up parts of this space would take some real abilities as some of the garbage is in dangerous places to get to. So just any civilian showing up with trash bags won’t fit the bill. From the Division Street bridge to the pedestrian bridge in People’s Park should be pristine! Cut out ALL of the hand-wringing over the “World’s Pollution” until you take responsibility for Spokane’s pollution! Otherwise, it just you look insincere!

RE: CONSERVATIVE VOTER While you present that the “conservative voter” has a narrow-minded view of the world around them, you present a narrow-minded view of the conservative voter. A conservative voter isn’t ignoring established sciences of biology and chemistry to push a progressive nature of feelings and the affirmation you’d expect. At the same time, like most progressives, you fail to really know what communism and facism are. You throw those words around, but ignore the current world around you. Sure, don’t condone slavery, but don’t ignore its existence and relevance in the world we live in. Guns used to kill is a very unfortunate event, yet your problem is with guns, not the people who use them, and perhaps their inability to be mentally stable. Start there. Defining freedom is a good start, but a simple Google search could debunk all of your intolerant rant.

THE DRUG STATE Thanks to our inept leadership in Olympia, drug possession will become legal come July 1. This state is a joke when it comes to the war on drugs. It’s long overdue that we the people vote out these people that take away our freedoms and actively promote degeneracy.

RE: NO

4-PLEXES ON 5 MILE I had no idea

Five Mile was such an idyllic paradise. With such good neighborhoods and low crime, how dare these developers think they can bring such unwanted elements into our little enclave — help support our bigotry. Are you serious? Typical observations from the entitled class. Personally I hope they line the whole street for blocks with affordable housing. People have every right to live where they want. Get over yourselves.

WHAT HAPPENED TO 3 STRIKES?! SPD recently arrested an eight-time convicted felon. Whatever happened to the three strikes law? Jeers to those that think these people can change. Lock them up and let the community thrive without having to try and “save” these felons.

KENDALL YARDS JERKFACE DOG OWNER

You live in the apartments facing the

Centennial Trail and the river. You have two dogs and some damned nerve to be leaving them out on your balcony to bark at literally every jogger, pedestrian, cyclist, and any other moving thing for long periods at a time. It’s not like they can run around or relieve themselves; do you just put them out there to apparently get them out of your hair or something? Do you know what

age 85, is a Democratic House member from the District of Columbia. And these are just the ones over 85 — there’s a lot of members 80 years and above, but this doesn’t seem to be an issue for them, just for other politicians (Republicans). If age is truly the issue, then it needs to be across the board. If you can’t run for president if you’re 80, then you shouldn’t be able to run

the real rub is? I am not your neighbor! I may as well be, since I now know your dogs’ voices as if they were friends. See, I realized these dogs had been barking all day, thought someone had left them in a car, and went out to check. Well, I soon found that these dogs were not on the street, but on the ridge. That’s right, we can hear your dogs in Peaceful Valley, folks. The other day, I heard them on Riverside while walking to the store. Ain’t no way you’re deaf to it; you’re just a turd! I just want you to know you suck bad. If your nearby and next-door neighbors haven’t already beat me to it, I’ll come over there and get your address to report you to SCRAPS as a nuisance.

SAY WHAT NOW? Y’all want how much for a new jail? $305 million! I’m all about law and order but it seems to me you might already have some of those funds if you weren’t paying out multimilliondollar lawsuits every other day for totally avoidable situations. Yeah, let me give you more money, to house more inmates, to expose yourselves to more financial liability when you predictably mishandle a situation or violate someone’s rights. I’m startin’ to wonder if one of y’all ain’t related to one of these attorneys, ‘cause at this point we’re basically giving money away. Our money, in case you forgot.

AGE DISCRIMINATION Reading Sunday’s paper about “How old is too old for president” really shocked me. But how old is too old for Congress? The oldest members of congress are: Dianne Feinstein, age 89, is a Democratic senator from California. Chuck Grassley, age 89, is a Republican senator from Iowa. Grace Napolitano, age 86, is a Democratic House member from California. Bill Pascrell Jr., age 85, is a Democratic House member from New Jersey. Eleanor Holmes Norton,

or serve in the House or Senate after 80. And if some politicians believe a cognitive tests need to be done on anyone running for president, then the same for the Senate and House members. These politicians vote on very important issues for our country too; it seems only fair. I bet this issue would be dismissed pretty quickly if it pertained to them.

UNMANLY MAN Real men take responsibility for their actions. The first place cowards run and hide is behind lies. So what kind of man never takes any personal responsibility and takes credit for the success of others? How do we measure the cowardice of a man who was documented telling over 31,000 lies in a mere four years and still continues to lie at a breakneck pace? How should we measure the character of the men who worship and defend such moral cowardice? Is it because they see themselves in the man? Are they fine with being cowardly liars and unmanly puppets that bear no personal responsibility for their unsuccessful lives? I respect real men. I will never respect those who wallow in lies like pigs in mud. You are an embarrassment to our great nation and the men and women of extraordinary courage who made it the beacon of democracy around the world. We reject your bigotry, hatred and violence. n

NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.

BENEFIT

IDAHO GIVES CORNHOLE TOURNAMENT The winning two-person team chooses a nonprofit to receive all entry fees. May 4, 4:30-6:30 pm. $5. Coeur d’Alene Fresh, 317 Coeur d’Alene Ave. idahogives.org (208-676-2200)

GETTIN DIRTY SILENT AUCTION This fundraiser benefits Newby-Ginnings and two Kootenai County Elementary schools, with live music by 32 Flavors. May 6, 1-5 pm. Free. Curley’s, 26433 W. Hwy. 53. fb.me/e/CNh5Zhbv

SEND A FRIEND A GOAT This 18th annual fundraiser allows participants to send a live baby goat to the person of their choosing within the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area. Proceeds benefit Wishing Star Foundation, a nonprofit that grants wishes for children ages 3-21 who are terminal or battling a life-threatening illness. May 8-12, daily from 8 am-3:30 pm. May 8-12, 8 am-3:30 pm. $75. wishingstar.org/events/goats

STAGE LIGHTS FOR OUR PLACE Our Place Spokane’s fundraiser to support services provided to the West Central neighborhood and beyond. May 11, 6-8:30 pm. $35. Salem Lutheran Church, 1428 W. Broadway. ourplacespokane.org

COMEDY

POETS UP Poets write poems on the spot based on what the BDT players are doing; the players create new scenes based on the poems. May 5, 7:30 pm. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland. bluedoortheatre.com (747-7045)

COMEDY NIGHT Presented by Social Hour Comedy and featuring Jeremiah Coughlan. May 6, 8-9:30 pm. $12. Black Diamond, 9614 E. Sprague Ave. blackdiamondspokane.com (509-891-8357)

GONZAGA THEATRE SPORTS Gonzaga

’s student comedy improv group. May 6, 9 pm. $1. Gonzaga University Magnuson Theatre, 502 E. Boone Ave. gonzaga.edu/ theatreanddance (509-313-5383)

SAFARI Blue Door’s version of “Whose Line,” a fast-paced improv show. Saturdays in May from 7:30-8:45 pm. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com (509-747-7045)

BAD FRIENDS PODCAST Comedians Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee perform a live version of their podcast. May 9, 8 pm. $35-$65. First Interstate Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. firstinterstatecenter.org (509-279-7000)

COMMUNITY

MOUNTAIN FRESH FIESTA Celebrate the new Rainier Beer x The Great PNW clothing collab with beer specials, free tacos for the first 500 people, live music, a tattoo booth and more. May 5, 6 pm. Free. The Wonder Building, 835 N. Post St. thegreatpnw.com

MOSCOW RENAISSANCE FAIR This 50th annual fair is two days of live music, arts/ crafts booths, food vendors, a beer garden and more. May 6, 10 am-7:30 pm and May 7, 10 am-5:30 pm. Free. East City Park, 900 E. Third St. moscowrenfair.org

A/AA & NH/PI GRADUATION CELEBRATION Asian/Asian American and/ or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander high school seniors are invited to celebrate their academic accomplishment with food, music and cultural unity. May 6, 11 am-1 pm. Free. Whitworth University, 300 W. Hawthorne Rd. apicspokane.org

HAYDEN KITE FESTIVAL This annual festival features prizes for high flyer, best homemade kite, best of show and more. Takes place in Broadmoore Park. May 6, 12-2:30 pm. Free. cityofhaydenid.us

MARSHALL ISLANDS CONSTITUTION

DAY CELEBRATION Drop in for food, live music, and activities relating to the Marshall Islands Constitution Day. May 6, 4-6 pm. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org/ (893-8350)

STEAM NIGHT: REVENGE OF THE SIXTH Create various STEAM-based crafts at this Star Wars-themed evening. May 6, 5-7 pm. Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org

STEPWELL GRAND OPENING The grand opening of a new interactive public art piece created by J. Meejin Yoon. May 6, 11 am. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. fb.me/e/13T768NZ1 (509-625-6600)

TIN CAR SHOW & SWAP MEET This 51st annual event features cars of all makes and models, food vendors, live music and an award ceremony. May 7, 9 am-2 pm. Free. Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St. streettincarclub.com

ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC HERITAGE CELEBRATION Featuring cultural presentations from Spokane Chinese dancers, Filipino American Dance group, Japanese Bon Odori dances and more. May 7, 3-7 pm. Free. CenterPlace, 2426 N. Discovery Place Dr. aanhpispokane.com

POKEMON TRAINERS TABLE Learn about Pokemon, play the game and trade with others. May 7, 2-4 pm. Free. Wishing Tree, 1410 E. 11th Ave. wishingtreebookstore.com

ASIAN & ASIAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH PROCLAMATION READING Join

APIC Spokane at a proclamation reading by Spokane City Council to commemorate May as Asian & Asian American Heritage Month. May 8, 6-7 pm. Free. Spokane City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. apicspokane.org (509-755-2489)

MOTHER’S DAY SPRING MARKET Purchase plants and other goods from local vendors, take family photos and participate in crafts for Mother’s Day. May 8, 3-6 pm. Free. Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook St. fb.me/e/2T87EjyPB

FILM

KENWORTHY SILENT FILM FESTIVAL

Showings of The Wind (May 4), Blood of a Poet (May 11), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (May 18) and Sherlock Jr. (May 25). All showings at 7 pm. $10-$50. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org

STAR WARS DAY: MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU A screening of The Return of the Jedi. May 4, 7:30 pm. $5. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.com (509-327-1050)

BEAU IS AFRAID Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on a Kafkaesque odyssey back home. May 5-6, 7 pm and May 7, 4 pm. $7. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org

MMIWP FILM SHOWINGS & OPEN MIC

This fundraiser brings awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People with various film showings on the topic and an open mic with prizes. May 5, 4:30-8 pm. $10. Magic Lantern Theatre, 25 W. Main Ave. yoyotspqni.org

FULL DRAW FILM FESTIVAL A lineup of bowhunting films from independent filmmakers as well as giveaways of hunting gear. May 6, 7-11 pm. $12-$22. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. bingcrosbytheater.com (509-227-7638)

SPELLERS Inspired by the book Underestimated, the full-length documentary challenges conventional wisdom regarding people with non-verbal autism. May 7, 1-3 pm. Free. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (772-538-4404)

VERTIGO: 65 YEAR ANNIVERSARY A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail. May 8, 2:20 & 7:30 pm, May 9, 2:20 & 7:30 pm, May 10, 2:20 & 7:30 pm and May 11, 2:20 pm. $2.50. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland. garlandtheater.com

FOOD & DRINK

CINCO DE MAYO TEQUILA DINNER Don Julio spirits are paired with an exclusive five-course menu crafted by Beverlys’ food and beverage team. May 5, 6-9 pm. $125. Beverly’s, 115 S. Second St. beverlyscda.com (208-292-5678)

CINCO DE MAYO PARTY Celebrate with Angie’s taco truck, tequila specials and festive music. May 5, 5 pm. Free. Garland Drinkery, 828 W. Garland Ave. facebook. com/drinkerynation

LUNARIUM SOFT OPENING The new location’s soft opening features late night coffee, tea and treats. May 5, 5 pm-midnight. Free. Lunarium, 1925 N. Monroe St. lunariumspokane.com

BREWS DAY PUB WALK This pub walk takes participants to six local breweries and raises money for the Spokane Symphony Associates. Ages 21+. May 6, 12-7 pm. $25. Iron Goat Brewing Co., 1302 W. Second. irongoatbrewing.com

SPOKANE SOCIETY OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA DINNER & LECTURE This event features a 2,700-year-old funerary meal that King Midas once served guests. Following is a lecture on the Great Tumulus of Gordion excavation by Dr. Richard Liebhart. May 6, 6-9:30 pm. $65. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place Dr. spokaneaia.com (509-688-0300)

SWING WITH BING An evening ocelebrating the 120th birthday of Spokane native Bing Crosby with a live swing orchestra, a three-course meal and more. May 6, 6-10 pm. $35-$150. Historic Davenport Hotel, 10 S. Post St. davenporthotelcollection.com

WHAT’S COOKING WITH JUAN JUAN Spokane Public Library and SpokaneJecheon Sister City Association teach how to make Korean bulgogi. May 6, 1-2 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley. spokanelibrary.org

MUSIC

AWAKE MY SOUL The BYU Singers perform in collaboration with Gonzaga at this friendship concert. May 4, 7 pm. $14-$24. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga. edu/mwpac

Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. firstinterstatecenter.org

TAPESTRY WOMEN’S CHOIR CONCERT

An evening of choral selections that celebrate meaningful relationships. May 5, 7:30-8:30 pm. Free. First Presbyterian Church Moscow, 405 S. Van Buren St. facebook.com/tapestrywomenschoir

THE LULLABY PROJECT This program pairs parents with professional artists to write personal lullabies for their children. The Spokane edition culminates in this performance by Andy Rumsey, Liz Rognes, Sarah Bass, Roberta Bottelli and Jennifer Slaughter. May 6, 11 am-noon. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main Ave. spokanesymphony.org

MOMIX: ALICE MOMIX’s dancer-illusionists conjure the magical world of Lewis Caroll’s novel. May 6, 7:30 pm. $32-$60. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org (509-624-1200)

SOUTH FORK DETRENDED An immersive musical composition and visual display by Dr. Ben Luca Robertson based on biological data and the growth of freshwater pearl shell mussels. Free, reservations required. May 6, 7-8 pm. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet. gonzaga.edu/mwpac

SPOKANE TAIKO DRUM The Japanesestyle drumming group performs and invites attendees to try the drums. May 6, 3-4 pm. Free. South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry St. spokanelibrary.org (444-5331)

GONZAGA SPRING CHORAL CONCERT

Featured choirs include Gonzaga’s Discantus, Glee Club and Concert Choir. May 7, 3-4:30 pm. $10-$15. Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, 211 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu/mwpac

SPOKANE STRING QUARTET FEAT. LEONARD BYRNE The quartet concludes its “All in the Family” season with guest artist Leonard Byrne, principal tuba player with the Spokane Symphony, and perform selections by Mendelssohn, Chaffin, and Beethoven. May 7, 3 pm. $20-$25. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. bingcrosbytheater.com

WHITWORTH CHOIR This spring concert takes listeners from the United States to Europe, to an alley in Hong Kong. May 7, 3 pm. $8-$10. The Fox Theater, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. foxtheaterspokane.org

WASHINGTON IDAHO SYMPHONY

HARRY POTTER FILM CONCERT SERIES

Watch the first Harry Potter film while a live orchestra performs the movie’s score. May 5, 8 pm. $49-125. First Interstate

WINDS CONCERT Selections include works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sousa and more. May 8, 7:30 pm. $35. Gladish Community Center, 115 NW State St. waidsymphony.org FRIDAY MAY 12TH 6-10PM

NATIVE AMERICAN PORTRAITS FROM A NORTHWEST BORDERLAND

Images from the studio archive of Washington-based Japanese photographer Frank S. Matsura explore Indigenous representation through an artistic lens. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Nov. 26. $7-$12. The MAC, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

IN & OUT OF THE GARDEN Ceramic forms for interior home display or patio, garden bouguets, Ikebana forms, outdoor planters and bud vase. May 5 from 5-8 pm and May 6 from 12-4 pm. Free. Trackside Studio, 115 S. Adams St. tracksidestudio.net (509-863-9904)

FIRST FRIDAY Art galleries and businesses across downtown Spokane and beyond host receptions to showcase new displays of art. May 5 from 5-8 pm. Details at firstfridayspokane.org

HATCHLINGS An art show featuring over 100 students from 11 area high schools. May 5-27, Wed-Sat from 11 am-5 pm. Free. New Moon Art Gallery, 1326 E. Sprague. (509-413-9101)

RACHAEL ZUR & ANNA REYNOLDS

WALLIS Zur uses themes of domestic spaces to explore what remains when a life is over. Wallis showcases three tapestries showing her progression in learning the craft. May 5-27, Thu-Sat from 4-7 pm. Free. Terrain Gallery, 628 N. Monroe St. terrainspokane.com

KURT MADISON, BRADD SKUBINNA & SARA OSEBOLD This group exhibit features mixed media pieces and collaborative collage. May 5-27, Fri-Sat from 12-8 pm. Free. Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main. fb.me/e/FJ91OuEt

ERIC SANCHEZ: SPOKEN A selection of paintings and drawings inspired by the natural beauty of Spokane. May 5,

5-8 pm. Free. William Grant Gallery & Framing, 1188 W. Summit Pkwy. williamgrantgf.com (509-484-3535)

IDYLLIC This show features eight regional female artists honoring the idyllic of the natural world through their works. May 6-28, Wed-Sun from 11 am-6 pm. Free. The Art Spirit Gallery, 415 Sherman. theartspiritgallery.com

WORDS

DAVID GOODRICH: ON FREEDOM

ROAD A reading from Goodrich’s book, which chronicles a bicycle journey along the Underground Railroad by a climate scientist seeking to engage with American history. RSVP at link. May 4, 7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks. com (509-838-0206)

J. MEEJIN YOON A lecture by the artist behind Stepwell, an new interactive sculpture in Riverfront Park. May 5, 5 pm. Free. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. spokanearts.org

SUSAN MULVIHILL: THE VEGETABLE GARDEN PROBLEM SOLVER HANDBOOK Celebrate Mulvihill’s latest book, covering organic solutions to manage insect pests in home veggie gardens. RSVP at link. May 6, 7 pm. Free. Auntie’s, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com

DOUBLE CROSSED: THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY SPIES OF WORLD WAR

II Historian Matthew Avery Sutton tells the extraordinary story of missionaries, priests and rabbis who played an outsized role in leading the U.S. to victory in WWII. May 8, 6:30 pm. Free. South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry St. humanities.org (509-444-5331) n

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: MICHAEL GRAY

Michael has worked to improve mental health coverage under Medicaid and Medicare, improve statutory criteria for inpatient hospitalization and educate the public and providers on HIPAA as a barrier to mental health treatment. He received his Juris Doctor, master in urban planning and bachelor’s degrees in history and philosophy from the University of Louisville.

Tuesday, May 9, 2023 8am - 10am (doors open at 7:30am)

Davenport Grand Hotel (333 W Spokane Falls Blvd Spokane, WA 99201) (light breakfast will be served) SCAN

Gavin Cooley and Rick Romero will provide an important update on the 90 day due diligence process currently underway exploring a Regional Integrated Authority in Spokane County

LAWS

Legislative Sesh

State lawmakers got busy with cannabis last month

Late April saw a flurry of cannabis-related activity in Olympia as the state Legislature worked to wrap up its 2023 regular session ahead of the annual recess. Over the final days of the session, lawmakers passed four bills that directly deal with how the state regulates cannabis.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION

Senate Bill 5123, which will help to protect lawful cannabis users from employment discrimination, is arguably the most impactful of the four cannabis bills.

The Legislature found that the legalization of cannabis created a disconnect between hiring practices and legal rights. It also noted that cannabis drug screenings typically test for cannabis metabolites rather than for active intoxication. That meant that someone who lawfully used cannabis up to a month before a pre-hire drug screening could be denied employment.

Once the bill becomes law it will be illegal for employers, with few exceptions, to discriminate against employees

BY WILL MAUPIN

who use cannabis lawfully and away from the workplace.

In a similar vein, the New York Times recently reported that the federal government has changed some of its employment rules around cannabis, and has even been allowing potential employees to re-test if they fail their first drug screen.

MIXED DRINKS NIXED

If you were hoping to someday pick up a six pack of cannabis beer or a bottle of infused vodka at the local grocery, House Bill 1772 is here to kill your dreams.

The entire text of the bill is less than one page long, and the first sentence sums it up quite nicely as a law to prohibit “the manufacture, importation, and sale of products that combine alcohol and [THC].”

MEDICAL PROTECTIONS

House Bill 1563 tweaks the existing state code surrounding medical cannabis patients and providers in an effort to protect them against arrest.

Previously, qualifying patients and providers who did not enter their names into a state database could be charged or prosecuted for certain violations. In those situations, the patient or provider could present an affirmative defense in court. Under HB 1563, the affirmative defense option will no longer be necessary as the new wording of the state code will include civil and criminal protections for those patients and providers.

INTERSTATE CANNABIS

Senate Bill 5069 establishes guidelines for Washington to engage in interstate commerce of cannabis with other states where it is legal for recreational use. Cannabis grown in Washington could be sold in Oregon, for example. However, SB 5069 only goes into effect if there is change at the federal level, where cannabis remains illegal.

Should the federal government legalize interstate cannabis commerce between legal states, or if the U.S. Department of Justice issues a memorandum effectively condoning it, Washington will be ready. n

Washington State Capitol

WARNING: This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Cannabis can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 and older. Keep out of the reach of children.

BE AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g., RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052). State law does not preempt federal law; possessing, using, distributing and selling marijuana remains illegal under federal law. In Washington state, consuming marijuana in public, driving while under the influence of marijuana and transporting marijuana across state lines are all illegal. Marijuana has intoxicating effects; there may be health risks associated with its consumption, and it may be habit-forming. It can also impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Keep out of reach of children. For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at www.liq.wa.gov.

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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.

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1. Boogie Down Productions member ____-One

4. In need of nourishment

9. Sith Lord’s title

14. Part of a giggle

15. Cook in a wok, say

16. Cinematic playboy portrayed by Michael Caine and Jude Law

17. Totally assured, as victory

19. Shoes with swooshes

a great night at the comedy club

PHONE:(509)444-7355

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INPERSON: 1227WestSummitParkway Spokane,WA 99201

the ends of this puzzle’s themed answers, what the circled letters spell out)

44. “Child’s play!”

45. Events with booths

46. Jenna of “Wednesday”

49. Completely consumed

54. Declutter

57. “Flashdance” director Adrian

58. Site of Italy’s Blue Grotto

60. It may be slippery

61. Lose a staring contest

65. Make more constricted

67. Terrific, on Broadway

68. Indian ____

69. Higher ed. hurdle

70. Expenses

71. Mathletes, stereotypically

72. Ref. work that added “essential worker” in 2021

DOWN

1. Casual Fridays attire, perhaps

2. Enjoy immensely

3. Supply with goods

4. What a Swiss army knife has lots of

5. Opposite of “yep”

6. Dejected state

7. Sewing cases

8. Complexity

9. Scandinavian-inspired shoe brand

10. “Baby Cobra” comedian Wong

11. Peter Sarsgaard’s role in 2016’s “Jackie,” for short

12. Even score

13. “For ____ a jolly ...”

18. Steady partner?

22. Tic-____-toe

25. Sch. level

26. Silver of FiveThirtyEight

27. Yaki ____ (stir-fried noodle dish)

28. Breathe quickly

30. Fresh, to Franz

31. One calling you out, perhaps

32. “La Vie en Rose” singer Edith

35. Queens airport code

36. Lake that feeds Niagara Falls

38. Underling

39. Steakhouse order

40. “Cómo ____ usted?”

41. Opposite of “da”

42. Paleozoic ____

43. Many a population fig.

47. Creatures known to lick their own eyeballs

48. “SNL” alum Gasteyer

50. Fashion magazine since 1945

51. “Us” star Lupita

52. Defiled

53. Took a little look

55. “The Jungle” author Sinclair

56. Asking ____

59. Bob who became CEO of Disney for a second time in 2022

60. RR stops: Abbr.

61. “Doctor Who” network

62. Londoner’s

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