DRINK LOCAL
CHECKING IN ON OUR LOCAL DRINK MAKERS PAGE 24
RAIDING THE PANTRY DISRUPTIONS HIT AMERICA’S FOOD SYSTEM PAGE 8
UNOFFICIAL BLOOMSDAY CHAFING ALONG THE COURSE ON SUNDAY PAGE 21
MAY 7-13, 2020 | HEEDING DOCTORS’ ADVICE SINCE 1993
WHY INCONSISTENCIES IN IDAHO AND WASHINGTON’S RESPONSES TO COVID-19 COULD SPELL DISASTER BY DANIEL WALTERS AND WILSON CRISCIONE PAGE 14
Community is our greatest asset.
Assets, balance sheets and growth are all important. But we never forget that the Inland Northwest’s greatest asset is how we support each other as a community. #awesometogether
2 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
INSIDE VOL. 27, NO. 30 | ON THE COVER: YOUNG KWAK PHOTO OF APRIL 17 PROTEST IN NORTH IDAHO
COMMENT 5 8 NEWS COVER STORY 14
CULTURE 21 FOOD 24 FILM 32
MUSIC 33 GREEN ZONE 35 I SAW YOU 38
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EDITOR’S NOTE
T
he federal government has largely left it to individual governors to set their own strategy against the coronavirus pandemic. In some cases, health officials say local or regional plans might make sense. COVID-19 has devastated some places while it has oddly seemed to spare others. However, officials warn, the virus cares nothing of state borders, and inconsistencies between them can cause critical issues. It’s worth noting that polls show the vast majority of Americans support stay-home orders. But with our community straddling two states, staff reporters Daniel Walters and Wilson Criscione set out this week to examine Washington and Idaho’s responses to the pandemic and identify points where they’re out of sync. Part of the differences, of course, can be chalked up to philosophy; in some ways, the politics of the two states couldn’t be further apart. “When you’ve got diametrically opposed philosophical practices and approaches, it makes public health work a lot more difficult,” warns Dr. Bob Lutz, the health officer for both Spokane and Asotin counties. Find our special report on page 14. — JACOB H. FRIES, Editor
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1227 WEST SUMMIT PARKWAY, SPOKANE, WA 99201 PHONE: 509-325-0634 | EMAIL: INFO@INLANDER.COM THE INLANDER is a locally owned, independent newspaper founded on Oct. 20, 1993. It’s printed on newsprint that is at least 50 percent recycled; please recycle THE INLANDER after you’re done with it. One copy free per person per week; extra copies are $1 each (call x226). For ADVERTISING information, email advertising@inlander.com. To have a SUBSCRIPTION mailed to you, call x213 ($50 per year). To find one of our more than 1,000 NEWSRACKS where you can pick up a paper free every Thursday, call x226 or email frankd@inlander.com. THE INLANDER is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. All contents of this newspaper are protected by United States copyright law. © 2020, Inland Publications, Inc.
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Thesetimes times are are extraordinary. extraordinary. These These times times are are extraordinary. extraordinary. These Fortunately, so is our community. Fortunately, so is our community. These times are extraordinary. Fortunately, so is our community. Fortunately, so is our community. Fortunately, so is our community. To every caregiver and health care provider, To and health care provider, provider, Toevery everycaregiver caregiver andhealth health care to every first responder and essential worker, To every caregiver and care provider, toto responder and essential worker, toevery everyfirst first responder andvolunteer, essentialworker, worker, to every donor and every first responder and essential Toand every caregiver health care in provider, to every and volunteer, to every donor and volunteer, to all whodonor areand helping others need, to every donor and volunteer, to every first responder andothers essential worker, and toall allwho who arehelping helping others in need, and to are helping others inneed, need, and to all who are in to every donor and volunteer, and to all who are helping others in need,
thank you thank you thank thank you
Together, we will meet the challenges of the present and look Together, wewill will meet thechallenges challenges of the present and look to the future with optimism. Together,of we are #InlandStrong. Together, we will meet the challenges the present and Together, we meet the of the present andlook look tothe thefuture futurewith withoptimism. optimism.Together, Together,we weare are#InlandStrong. #InlandStrong. to
to the future with optimism. Together, we are #InlandStrong. Together, we will meet the challenges of the present and look to the future with optimism. Together, we are #InlandStrong.
4 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
COMMENT STAFF DIRECTORY PHONE: 509-325-0634 Ted S. McGregor Jr. (tedm@inlander.com) PUBLISHER
J. Jeremy McGregor (x224) GENERAL MANAGER
EDITORIAL
TELL US ABOUT A SKILL OR HOBBY THAT YOU’VE STARTED OR PICKED BACK UP SINCE THE COVID-19 SHUTDOWN. ALICIA SCHIMMELS KANE: Water coloring has been a good distraction.
Jacob H. Fries (x261) EDITOR
Dan Nailen (x239) MANAGING EDITOR/ARTS & CULTURE
HANK GREER: I am teaching myself how to write music notation so I can put my songs on paper instead of keeping them in my head.
Chey Scott (x225) FOOD & LISTINGS EDITOR
Nathan Weinbender (x250) FILM & MUSIC EDITOR
JESSE VAUGHAN: I’m painting when I can find supplies. Was going to do some acrylic work but they’re out.
Derek Harrison (x248) ART DIRECTOR
Quinn Welsch (x279)
We Are Gearing up to Reopen When it’s safe to do so. We will be over staffed and open extended hours to accommodate everyone. We will be offering our LOWEST PRICES OF THE YEAR for all of your favorite services. Like us on and follow us on for UPDATED SPECIALS and WEEKLY GIVEAWAYS. You don’t want to miss this! WE MISS ALL OF OUR CLIENTS and are looking forward to seeing each and every one of you!
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Normally, we ask our question of the week of people we randomly encounter on the street. But with the Inland Northwest in lockdown, we instead asked our followers on social media to share their thoughts.
SARAH WELLIVER: I have started bread baking… trying to perfect sourdough! BRENDAN FLYNN: Learning more songs on my bass guitar. My six string is feeling neglected. CHELSEA INMAN: Sourdough baking with the starter I made from scratch. It’s been so rewarding! CASEY SMITH: I am dehydrating fruit and vegetables, doing embroidery and cooking more while my 17-year-old son makes soap for the homeless every Monday and has started growing a dwarf orange tree, bell peppers and has hydroponic greens growing. Keeping busy helps us stay positive while staying safe.
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Derrick King (x238), Tom Stover (x265)
RAYNA EHRGOTT: Learning videography/editing videos and taking better pictures too.
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his is what it feels like to live during an historic event. Sixty-thousand dead. Tens of millions unemployed. Even for those of us lucky enough not to experience the pain of bereavement or the hopelessness of losing our job, the impact of COVID-19 on our daily lives is unmistakable. At the same time that our homes have become a literal refuge from the outside world, we have transformed them into schoolrooms for our children, and offices for our work. There is no longer a divide between work and leisure: These two activities occupy a single physical space. Dizzying as these rapid changes have felt, it is helpful to remember that the idea of separating home from the workplace is a relatively new development in human history. For thousands of years, the home was the site of most human activities, including work, raising children and play. In the United States, the structure of our lives began to change in the first decades of the 19th century. Early industrialization began in the textile mills of New England. Until the 1800s, most commercial cloth was either imported from England (which experienced the Industrial Revolution about 50 years before the U.S.) or made at home through “cottage industry.” Families worked together to produce cloth to earn a little extra money on the side. Kids would get in on the action, carding wool to make sure that the fibers faced the same direction, before their mothers spun the wool into yarn, and their fathers then weaved the yarn into cloth.
The invention of mechanized power looms changed all this. Work moved outside of the home because early looms were powered by water wheels, which meant that the new factories had to be built on rivers. Mill workers, who were most often young women and children (chosen for their small, dexterous fingers, and ability to crawl between moving machine parts to fix threads), had to leave their homes to travel to work. The work patterns established during the early years of the textile industry spread to other sectors of the economy as the Industrial Revolution accelerated in the 19th century. Industrialization altered time through the creation of shift work and the concept of the working day. Families who had produced cloth at home used to work to a quota. It was up to them when they worked, just so long as they filled their order. Mill workers, however, worked set shifts. Workshop foremen exercised new discipline over their workers. Stopping to use the bathroom or to take a drink was forbidden. Indeed, one of the most significant changes wrought by this new industrial discipline was sobriety at work. Tradesmen had traditionally boozed it up at work (in part because alcohol was often safer than the local water source), but industrialization put an end to drinking on the
INVALUABLE Our journalism makes a difference, and so can you. The Inland Northwest knows that the Inlander is free. But making it isn’t. Meanwhile, the value of independent, local journalism has never been more apparent. So we’re launching the INLANDER Work has come home with us. job. It also changed the way we sleep. The idea that we should sleep eight hours a night is a product of the industrial age. Before industrialization reorganized our time, most people slept in two four-hour sessions, separated by several hours of wakefulness. As work changed, so did the home. The Victorian ideal of the home as a refuge from the ravages of the working world encapsulated the new separation of family life from the workspace. It also reflected the growing gendered division of labor. Men and women had not enjoyed equality before industrialization, but men and women had labored alongside one another when the home was a site of production. When industrialization moved work outside of the home, it changed male and female roles. Work was a place for men; home was a place for women. Men earned a wage; women kept the home as a tranquil domestic space separate from work.
INSIDER program. With your help, the Inlander’s reporters, editors and photographers can stay focused on what they do best: in-depth, community-focused journalism that highlights issues and topics important to the Inland Northwest.
“As we try to navigate the challenges of pandemic life, we need to remember that the way we work has changed before.”
MISSING KIDS SCHOOLS SCRAMBLE TO REACH STUDENTS PAGE 12
WORKER PROTECTIONS UNIONS RUSH TO THEIR MEMBERS’ DEFENSE PAGE 8
OPENING AMID A PANDEMIC THESE NEW FOOD BUSINESSES SOLDIER ON PAGE 23
APRIL 23-29, 2020 | THINK GLOBAL. LIVE INLAND.
Industrialization also changed how we raise children. Most ordinary children labored at home through much of their childhood. Industry, however, required skilled workers, who could read and do basic math. The growth of public education in the 19th century was aimed at providing industrialists with enough skilled workers to fulfill their needs. In doing so, public schools moved education out of the home. Work has come home. Work, school, play have literally changed overnight. One day we were yucking it up at the water fountain, the next day we were on a Zoom meeting with our kids fighting in the background. But as we try to navigate the day-today challenges of pandemic life, we need to remember that the way we work has changed before. It can and will change again. The great hope is that once the pandemic is over, we can choose how we organize where and when we work. In the meantime, perhaps we can resurrect the great American tradition of cracking open a cold one at work? Drink responsibly. n Lawrence B. A. Hatter is an award-winning author and associate professor of early American history at Washington State University. These views are his own and do not reflect those of WSU.
Inlander.com/Insider MAY 7, 2020 INLANDER 7
HUNGER
INSIDE OUT OVERNIGHT Food banks prepare to feed far more as COVID-19 disrupts America’s food system at every level BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL 8 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
Members of the Washington National Guard distribute food from Second Harvest Food Bank on April 16. MICHAEL BROWN/WASHINGTON NATIONAL GUARD PHOTO
A
t every level of America’s food system, mandated closures and outbreaks of COVID-19 have interrupted the finely tuned network that normally gets food from farmers and food processors to restaurants, grocery stores and food banks. With unprecedented unemployment levels, many are turning to food banks for immediate needs. In the Inland Northwest, the first glimpse of what’s expected to be a massive increase in demand came as soon as schools were closed in mid-March. “Overnight almost we saw folks turn up at our pantries in the same ways they were flocking to our grocery stores to load up on food,” says Drew Meuer, chief of staff for Second Harvest Inland Northwest, which provides food to about 250 food banks and pantries in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. “We saw it immediately at our pantry levels and heard about it all over the region.” Since then, there’s been about a 20 percent increase in demand at Second Harvest, which feeds 55,000 people in the region each week. But as they prepare, staff are looking to lessons learned during the Great Recession, which saw their demand double as impacts lasted for upwards of two years. They feel the worst is likely yet to come. It took several months for the recession to impact families and create job losses, Meuer says. Current closures created unprecedented job losses in mere weeks. Significant need is already there, and unfortunately, Meuer says, the overall food chain has also seen unprecedented interruptions. “The food chain has been turned inside out over the last couple of months,” Meuer says. “It’s really bizarre to see stories of farmers in Florida turning their crops under, or other foods not being picked, while food banks are seeing this incredible surge in demand.” But the trucks meant to deliver certain products to restaurants may not be in the same chain as those supplying grocery stores. Food storage is backed up. And meat processing plants across the country have seen virus outbreaks among their employees, forcing closures including at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant near Pasco. The plant, which normally processes enough beef to feed 4 million people every day, temporarily closed while hundreds of its 1,400 employees tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, Pacific Northwest growers are planting for an uncertain fall demand, and tree fruit growers worry about summer harvest as they plan for seasonal workers, who they must provide housing for amid a pandemic. “You think it takes a long time to turn a cruise ship around, think about food processing,” says Hal Meenach, a grain grower and former president of the Spokane County Farm Bureau. “It’s going to be a fairly long road to get those things turned around to where they can service the new normal. When agriculture lost one-third of all its markets overnight, you don’t fix that in a day or two.”
FOOD BANK RESPONSE
With many virus-vulnerable volunteers and recipients, food banks and pantries around the Inland Northwest have shifted away from models that allow people to come inside and choose what they want, instead providing pre-packed
boxes through drive-up or delivery. Second Harvest has been helped six days a week by 70 National Guard members split between the organization’s Spokane and Tri-Cities warehouses. They efficiently divvy up food for delivery to food banks and clients at drivethrough sites, Meuer says. Second Harvest increased its mobile market distributions in community parking lots from about 18 per month to 70 in April. A typical market would see 150-300 families come through before COVID-19, he says, but recent events have seen 400-500. Spokane Food Fighters has also helped distribute about 1,200 boxes directly to people who can’t leave their homes. In Pullman, the Community Action Center has seen a 40 percent increase in need, serving about 80 households per week, says Ashley Vaughan, food and nutrition specialist. “We’re normally a shopper model, but we have to limit the number of people in our building,” Vaughan says. “So we’ve worked the last month to get the most needs and nutrition for people into one box.” The food bank has also partnered with area restaurants for Pullman Serves it Forward, where community donations provide $25 gift cards to area restaurants for food bank recipients. Like many pantries and food banks, the Community Action Center’s food largely comes from suppliers like Second Harvest and Northwest Harvest. Those suppliers continue to do their best, but it’s difficult to provide variety along with quantity right now, Meuer says. The best help for them right now is monetary donations, he says. “Those dollars and our partnerships really give us the greatest flexibility to get food where it’s needed most,” Meuer says.
pig farmers in the Midwest have already started culling herds as it costs too much to keep feeding them while waiting for processing. The impacts for Pacific Northwest beef ranchers don’t appear too devastating yet, but the impacts will be long term, as it takes 2-1/2 years to go from calf to an adult cow ready to be harvested, explains Washington Beef Commission Executive Director Patti Brumbach. “It’s a fairly long-term commitment,” Brum-
When agriculture lost one-third of all its markets overnight, you don’t fix that in a day or two.”
bach says. “On the consumer side of the supply chain, we’re seeing some shortages at grocery stores, but we believe those to be temporary. It’s not so much that we might not have products, just that it might not be the specific products consumers want to buy.” For instance, some more labor-intensive cuts of meat may not be as available as ground meat or roasts, she says. Unlike other parts of the country, Washington hasn’t seen milk stores being dumped either, says Washington Farm Bureau CEO John Stuhlmiller. But ensuring that food can get exported to other states and countries in coming months is essential. Some growers are having issues finding available shipping containers, Stuhlmiller says, as fewer products are going back and forth between America and other countries. While it’s clear commodity prices are down, issues for this year’s crops aren’t clear yet, he says. What is pressing now is labor. Many Inland Northwest grain and legume growers don’t expect to be as impacted as their crops aren’t labor-intensive, says Meenach, with the Spokane Farm Bureau. But the state, unions and tree fruit growers As some farmers don’t know what to do with are figuring out how they can house workers their excess produce — multiple farms around who typically come every summer on H2A the Inland Northwest have been giving tons of temporary visas and live in bunkhouses. Farmers potatoes away to make room in storage — conneed to figure out a safe way for those workers cerns are growing of a temporary meat shortage to be available, Stuhlmiller says. in coming weeks, after processing plants around “You contract months in advance for H2A, the country have had to close and if you can’t house them, you due to outbreaks. can’t have them,” Stuhlmiller says. LETTERS Despite an order from Presi“The domestic workforce isn’t Send comments to dent Donald Trump for meat there. There aren’t enough people editor@inlander.com. plants to remain open, systems willing to work in ag, so we look must be put in place for emoutside to meet that pressure.” ployees to return to work safely, experts say. Without enough skilled laborers to pick In Wallula, Washington, Tyson Fresh Meats pears, cherries and apples, crops could be left on closed its beef processing plant for nearly two trees to rot as happened in recent years, he says. weeks while about 1,400 employees were tested. Still, while many things remain uncertain, More than 200 confirmed and probable cases Stuhlmiller says he’s got faith that farmers will have been linked with the plant in neighborbe able to adapt. After all, they deal with uning Benton and Franklin counties. After the known weather and markets often. company installed social-distancing and safety “The best, safest, most plentiful food supply measures, the plant reopened on Tuesday. in the world is produced here in the U.S., but the There is plenty of beef, pork and chicken challenges are great,” Stuhlmiller says. “There’s to feed people right now, experts say. But as a lot of those things that are catching up with us, soon as one part of the system gets backed up, but I still look and see an amazing system we’ve the rest follows, and animals are raised on very got. It’s really resilient.” n specific schedules to be ready for harvest. Some samanthaw@inlander.com
FARMING AND PROCESSING
MAY 7, 2020 INLANDER 9
NEWS | DIGEST
ON INLANDER.COM
ILLEGAL DUMPING Since Washington’s stay-home order temporarily closed some official hazardous materials disposal sites, the Department of ECOLOGY has had multiple reports of illegal dump sites on public lands. While Ecology staff have responded to the hazardous dumps, there are many other roadside litter sites that have built up over the winter, and the department will have to wait to clean up until the order allows litter crews to go out. (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)
FEATURING NATIONAL NEWS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
LET THE GAMES BEGIN Northern Quest Resort & Casino REOPENED on Tuesday, albeit with strict social-distancing and other safety protocols in place, becoming the second regional casino to reopen after closures caused by the coronavirus. While visitors will encounter many machines shut off and table games limiting the number of players at a given time, Northern Quest General Manager Nick Pierre thinks the place will feel familiar to visitors returning for the first time in nearly two months. “As normal as it can be,” Pierre told us during a tour on Monday. (DAN NAILEN)
GO ZAGS! Gonzaga Athletic Director MIKE ROTH took to the Zoom online meeting app last week to answers questions. One of the most noteworthy takeaways regarded whether sports on college campuses will return to normal for the 2020-21 school year, and what fans can expect. “Right now, no one knows what this is going to look like going forward,” says Roth, completing his 23rd year at the helm of Gonzaga athletics. “We’re all hoping the restrictions will start to ease ... at some point. We don’t know what fan participation will look like.” (DAN NAILEN)
Shelter In Place Does Not Mean You Are Alone We Are Still Here For You
Times like these are challenging and maintaining your mental health is critical. Through telehealth, we are providing individual, and group services including same day intakes if there is an urgent situation.
For More Information, Visit Our Website Or Call: (509) 892-9241 Passage-Spokane.org 10 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
CAMP HOPE 2.0 The TENT CITY that popped up last Thursday in Spokane’s Coeur d’Alene Park was filled with homeless men and women who’d been booted from the Cannon Street shelter after the city opted not to continue contracting with the shelter’s operator. “We obviously have a Camp Hope 2.0-type situation here,” formerly homeless activist Elizabeth Osborn said, referencing the multi-week City Hall tent city from 2018. Eventually, police officers formed a horizontal line and slowly advanced upon the campers, offering to give them a ride to the downtown library shelter, but required the camp to disband. Tensions dissipated when the police agreed to allow the homeless patrons to return to Cannon Street. (DANIEL WALTERS)
CORONA-CANCELED Amongst last week’s batch of POSTPONED EVENTS is the Festival at Sandpoint, which usually takes over War Memorial Field for two consecutive weekends in August. That, obviously, isn’t happening in 2020. The Browne’s Addition summer concert series, an annual tradition in the historic neighborhood since 1996, also isn’t happening this year. And the Gorge Amphitheatre has had to nix a number of its events this upcoming concert season, including Journey and Brad Paisley’s now-canceled May gigs. But there is a glimmer of hope here: Popular jam band Phish has rescheduled their three-day Gorge stint to July 16-18 of next year, and Gorge regular Dave Matthews (above) has also moved his celebrated Labor Day weekend concert to next summer. (NATHAN WEINBENDER)
CLAIMS QUESTIONED At a press conference last week, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich claimed that a recent spike in PROPERTY CRIMES is due to the local courts releasing dozens of inmates to guard against a potential COVID-19 outbreak inside the facility. “Because of COVID, the courts have released a lot of people that should be in jail,” Knezovich said. “You cannot continue to not hold people accountable and not expect crime rates to be affected.” But other criminal justice players, like local judges, are skeptical, arguing that the sheriff doesn’t have data directly linking the released inmates to the crimes. They float other theories, such as businesses shuttered during the pandemic being vulnerable to burglaries. (JOSH KELETY)
Pouring Back Into Our Community Restaurants are hurting. Our community is hurting. And health care workers are rising to new challenges. Providence Health Care Foundation and its generous supporters have stepped up to help. Funds typically donated to The Pour, an annual fundraiser, will be used to purchase meals from local restaurants, which will then be delivered to caregivers at local Providence hospitals. Donations will also help needy patients and families whose struggles are being compounded by the pandemic.
You can help. thepour.info.
Medical Staff Services of Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Providence Holy Family Hospital
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MAY 7, 2020 INLANDER 11
NEWS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Hacker Cops The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has discretely acquired technology that enables them to bypass phone passwords, prompting concern from civil liberties advocates BY JOSH KELETY
C
ops are hackers now, too. Sort of. In recent years, law enforcement agencies across the country have been buying technology dubbed GrayKey, hardware that can access password-protected iPhones. Notably, the tech was recently acquired by federal immigration authorities, who were previously sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for warrantless searching of people’s phones and computers at airports and other points of entry. For civil liberties and privacy advocates, the trend
12 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
The Atlanta-based company behind GrayKey has regularly outmaneuvered Apple over the years. is worrisome. They point to troubling accounts of law enforcement searching personal devices without proper warrants and limited public scrutiny of cops’ use of phone password-busting Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) technology like GrayKey. And while Apple has repeatedly tried to upgrade its software to thwart GrayKey, the Atlanta-based company behind the tool, GrayShift, has regularly outmaneuvered the tech giant over the years. And now, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has the technology, too. According to records obtained by the Inlander through a public records request, the Sheriff’s Office spent roughly $18,000 in April of last year to acquire GrayKey under a one-year license. And Lt. Khris Thompson, who works in the agency’s investigative division, tells the Inlander that they’ve renewed their license. “We’ve renewed our license with them, it runs from year to year,” Thompson says. “So we purchased for this year and next. “We, as in law enforcement, are always looking at ways to make our investigations more complete, better, and technology changes so quickly,” he adds. “We talked to other agencies that have used it and found out how successful it has been. That’s how we decided to move forward with it.”
S
pokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich did not respond to the Inlander’s request for comment. Cpl. Mark Gregory, an agency spokesman, declined to answer many questions, citing a desire to keep investigative methods secret. “We don’t reveal our investigative tools,” he says. “We use whatever legal means that we can to be able to do our investigations and through aid of search warrants, etcetera, we’ll continue to do that, but we don’t talk about the specifics of what we do.” But it’s this lack of transparency in the agency’s acquisition and use of GrayKey, coupled with its potential for abuse, that has privacy advocates worried. “[These devices] are small portable computers that can extract the entire contents of your phone. They’re able to bypass passwords and other security features on your phone to get your data in seconds,” says Jennifer Lee, technology and liberty manager at the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. “This is super concerning because 90 percent of American adults carry cell phones and today’s phones carry increasingly detailed information about our lives, daily habits and relationships. “There needs to be public scrutiny before law enforcement acquires these tools,” Lee says. “Agencies across the U.S. and across the world are also interested in these devices because they are such powerful surveil-
lance tools. Law enforcement may say we want to use this for one specific purpose and that purpose only and it’s a really compelling purpose, but the question is, ‘What are the unintended consequences? For what other purposes can law enforcement and immigration agencies use this tool?’”
L
t. Thompson tells the Inlander that the Sheriff’s Office typically errs on the side of getting a warrant before using GrayKey or Cellebrite — a similar device that the agency has used — to hack a phone. “We think a search warrant is the cleanest route, most lawful,” he says. “We’re very adept at writing our search warrants.” However, Thompson adds that the agency would use the tool without a warrant in “exigent circumstances,” such as a life-threatening emergency. Drug investigations, for instance, don’t fall into that category, he says. “When you’re talking exigency, we do exigent entry when we believe someone could be inside the house or needs immediate aid or their life is in immediate danger,” he says. “Absent exigent circumstances, we’re going to always go with a search warrant or consent.” While a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling established that warrantless search and seizure of content on a digital phone is unconstitutional, case law in Washington state allows for cops to freely search devices that are considered abandoned. “What’s problematic in the context of cellphones, cellphones are not really like a bag, they’re much more like a home,” says Andrew Crocker, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It’s extremely revealing, it doesn’t seem right that you can ‘abandon’ the physical object of the phone.” GrayKey and Cellebrite can be applied in a variety of casetypes, Thompson says. “There’s a variety of cases on which it could be used, it could be used on homicide cases, robbery cases, drug trafficking, sex crimes cases, depending on the severity of certain property crimes, it could be used there as well,” he says. “It could be used in just about any type of instance in which we have a criminal investigation.”
“The Fourth Amendment requires particularity in a search warrant but the general warrants are violative of that. So that’s a huge concern.” Even in cases where law enforcement use warrants to search phones and seize content on them, they can still be written so broadly that they can snag more data than is actually needed for a specific investigation, argues Andrea George, head of the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington & Idaho. “The concern is really the general warrants, that if they get a warrant, they’re not specifying specifically what it is they’re looking for,” she says. “But we keep everything on our cellphones, everything, our personal thoughts, everything. “The Constitution requires that warrants be particularized,” she adds. “The Fourth Amendment requires particularity in a search warrant but the general warrants are violative of that. So that’s a huge concern.” Even if law enforcement agencies are lawfully using tools like GrayKey for legitimate public safety purposes, advocates argue that oversight mechanisms should be in place. Lee with the American Civil Liberties Union points to Seattle’s surveillance ordinance, which requires public scrutiny of surveillance tools, such as community meetings and routine reports on the equity impacts of the tech and how it is used. “What oversight mechanisms are actually in place? And has there actually been a discussion of the impacts of law enforcement using this technology on civil liberties and free speech and free association?” Lee asks. n
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14 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
PANDEMIC,
IDAHO STYLE While Washington state forges alliances, Idaho battles the coronavirus its own way BY DANIEL WALTERS AND WILSON CRISCIONE
W
hen Washington Gov. Jay Inslee solemnly looked into the camera on Friday, May 1, he wasn’t ready to declare victory yet. “We have not won this fight against this virus,” Inslee said. Washington has been under a stay-home order for more than five weeks. But even though the coronavirus infection rate was slowing in the state, Inslee said it would be at least another month before Washington could return to any semblance of normalcy. “We don’t want to do this twice,” he said. By contrast, on the same day Inslee delivered his address, some businesses in Idaho were already going back to work and, on Sunday, churches resumed services. In his own address the day before Inslee’s, Idaho Gov. Brad Little said “90 percent of businesses” would soon open their doors in the state even as most in Washington remain closed. And while Inslee, a Democrat, has publicly sparred with President Donald Trump over the federal response to the pandemic, Little proudly touted Idaho’s approach as being in line with Trump’s. “Every step of the way, we have followed the president’s guidance to slow the spread of the coronavirus and responsibly open businesses back up,” Little said. As they unveil their plans to reopen their states, each governor has had to fend off a rising death toll with one hand, and a collapsing economy with the other. Led by Inslee, Washington has been heralded as a national model in slowing the spread of the coronavirus, taking early steps to shutter schools, restaurants and large gatherings. But where Washington is one of the most liberal states in the country, Idaho is one of the most conservative.
breath,” Little wrote. “Keep doing your part — listen to our public health experts about what to do and, most of all, ‘love thy neighbor.’” But there’s the problem: Viruses don’t respect state borders. And so despite having mismatched politics, Washington and Idaho’s fates are intertwined. As Dr. Bob Lutz, Spokane Regional Health Officer, says: “It’s not like you have this wall that exists at the state line that says, ‘COVID-19 isn’t east of this wall, it’s west of this wall, stay over there.’”
LITTLE CHOICE
By March 17, everyone knew the world was beginning to fall apart. In Washington state, 54 people had already died from COVID-19 and more than 1,000 were infected. Inslee had taken unprecedented steps to shutter schools and sit-down restaurants and ban gatherings of more than 50 people. By then, even President Trump, who had been skeptical of the coronavirus, had called for gatherings to be limited to 10 people. Yet, the Idaho Legislature was still in session, with lawmakers packed inside the capitol. And so when Moscow Sen. David Nelson stood to speak, he didn’t simply see his colleagues as Democrats or Republicans, but as potential disease vectors — envisioning infected legislators unknowingly spreading the virus throughout the state and into rural towns where the hospitals couldn’t take the strain. To continue to meet was utterly reckless, argued Nelson, one of Idaho’s rare Democratic lawmakers. “I will not put my family, neighbors and community at risk,” he told his colleagues. He was going home: “Good luck to all of you in this national crisis.” Meanwhile, Little and his team of experts were watching for evidence of “community spread” showing that the virus was spreading within Idaho. In Blaine County, in the south-central part of the state, they spotted the early signs of what would be Idaho’s first major outbreak. Should Little shut down the entire state, before other areas had their own cases? Or should he resist following the path of liberal states like Washington? “He’s always cognizant of the pressure, on both sides,” says Dave Jeppesen, director of the state Department of Health and Welfare, who’s been at Little’s side throughout the pandemic. ...continued on next page
“When you’ve got diametrically opposed philosophical practices and approaches, it makes public health work a lot more difficult.” Outside of Sandpoint, Kay Jorissen joined other protesters marching against Idaho’s stay-home order on April 17. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
Little, himself a Republican, has been thrust in the crossfire between health officials, libertarian activist groups and members of his own party. Still, he’s aware of the stakes: Back in March, he published a statement declaring that “history will remember how we dealt with coronavirus.” “Let’s keep everything in perspective and take a deep
MAY 7, 2020 INLANDER 15
COVID-19 “PANDEMIC, IDAHO STYLE,” CONTINUED...
REASONS WHY
Publicly, Little initially suggested that a statewide shut down was unlikely. That would be like Trump closing down the whole country when “things started in the Seattle area,” he told reporters. But privately, as cases in Blaine County began to explode, he and his team of experts watched for signs that could force him to issue a statewide order, Jeppesen says. While Little grew up on a ranch and sometimes dons a cowboy hat, he was never the type of leader to shoot from the hip. Friends and former colleagues describe the governor as a details guy, the sort who digs into research and surprises legislators by hitting them with arcane questions about their bills. But there was a lot to consider: First, Idaho isn’t Washington. “Idaho’s a lot different than those other states,” Little said recently. “We don’t have mass transit. We don’t have a high percent of our population that lives in crowded areas.” Still, the pressure on Little was mounting on a variety of fronts. On March 16, more than 80 restaurants signed a letter to Little begging him to force them to close. “We need you to shut down our industry to save it,” the restaurant owners argued, reasoning that only by defeating the virus would they be able to thrive.
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Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, has faced criticism from members of his own party. On national television, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow hammered Little on multiple segments, contrasting Little’s relative lack of action with the rising death toll. “Yeah, no rush, governor,” Maddow scoffed in late March about Little’s refusal to order a statewide shutdown. “It will probably work out OK. Why not risk it.” Even the Idaho Statesman editorial page decried Little’s behavior as a symptom of a typical Idaho mentality. “Are we just waiting to take action only until there’s an outbreak? By then, it will be too late,” the editorial reads. “God forbid that we should use the heavy hand of government to stop this thing.” But for all the criticisms, Little’s team maintained a close watch on the data, Jeppesen notes. They were looking out for two things in particular, he says. First, they kept an eye out for community spread in multiple locations. Second, without strong testing for the coronavirus, they were watching how many people were going into emergency rooms and testing negative for the flu. “In the third week of March, we saw a dramatic increase across the state in people showing up at the hospital with COVID-like symptoms,” Jeppesen says. On March 25, Little announced a stay-home order, “following the guidance of public health experts.” Cue the backlash: That same day, Wayne Hoffman, president of the libertarian Idaho Freedom Foundation, fired off a letter to the governor’s office claiming it was unconstitutional to “take away people’s right to earn a living, to assemble, and to move about freely” and that history would remember “how people were forced to surrender their freedom for the notion of security.” Other objections came from defiant pastors. Despite personally knowing two people who contracted COVID, Coeur d’Alene pastor and state Rep. Tim Remington held an in-person service anyway and argued that the virus was targeting particularly sinful cities. “It’s kind of funny, all the ones that are coming against God, a
lot of this is hitting in those cities,” Remington preached on March 29. “In Seattle — big time. Waiting on D.C.” But another profession heaped praise upon Little: doctors. Tommy Ahlquist, a former ER doctor, had run for governor in 2018, and he was hammered with Little’s attack ads. But after that, he called Little “one of the finest men I know,” praised his stay-home order and declared he would “spend the next 21 days doing all I can to support his order and leadership.” Ahlquist went one step further. He started making phone calls to board members and CEOs, hammering together a coalition, dubbed Crush the Curve Idaho, to fight the spread of the coronavirus enough to reopen business. And as he spoke with experts, one problem kept rising to the top. “All I heard from everyone is there’s not enough testing,” Ahlquist says. Without testing, tracking the virus is impossible. Already, the virus was spreading unseen through rural Idaho.
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UNSEEN KILLER
On March 27, Monty Spears went to visit his father, Jack, at the Life Care Center of Lewiston. Monty was worried. Jack, 93, was vulnerable to the virus, and it snuck into the facility days earlier, infecting him and several other residents. Monty spoke to his dad through a pane of glass. It turned out to be the last time they’d see each other. “I told him I loved him and he told me that he loved all of his kids,” Monty Spears says. “It was really painful because we couldn’t go to him, and we knew he was sick.” Within days, Jack went into a coma and, on April 6, died. Other residents on the same floor were infected, including his wife. So far at least eight have died of COVID-19. With 18 deaths and counting, Nez Perce County has the most coronavirus deaths in the state, with most of those cases connected to the Life Care Center of Lewiston. It’s the exact scenario health experts fear for Idaho: The virus spreading undetected in rural communities, before a burst of deaths among a vulnerable population. And that doesn’t just impact Idaho. It impacts the other side of the border.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has been celebrated nationally for taking aggressive steps. “When you’ve got diametrically opposed philosophical practices and approaches, it makes public health work a lot more difficult,” says Lutz, the health officer for both Spokane and Asotin counties. On the other side of the Snake River from the Lewiston facility, Lutz was growing concerned for Asotin County. Even though there were no confirmed cases, he suspected otherwise. For rural areas anywhere, testing is difficult. The tests are often sent to labs far away, in Boise or Seattle, and can take days to get results. In Clarkston, test kits were sent across the river to Lewiston, but that lab operated on stricter testing criteria than Washington in order to preserve resources. By April 7, Lutz asked the state to send 300 test kits down to Asotin County so the health department could test more people. As he expected, the virus had jumped the border. ...continued on next page
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COVID-19 “PANDEMIC, IDAHO STYLE,” CONTINUED... On the Idaho side, it’s a different story. While Lutz sees increasing testing as an essential duty, Carol Moehrle, district director for public health in Idaho’s North Central District, tells the Inlander that COVID-19 testing is not a public health function. They don’t have physicians like Lutz on staff, so instead hospital systems must conduct the tests. At one point, Nez Perce County had 11 deaths out of 22 total cases — reflecting both how the virus attacks vulnerable populations and the early lack of testing. “Some of our counties are very rural, and one of the early challenges is that the hospitals have had very few test kits,” she says. “They’ve had to prioritize.” That’s caused some hospitals in rural areas to refuse tests to symptomatic individuals entirely, unless they’re health care workers or elderly. In late March, Lindsay Wagenmann, 34, tried desperately to get tested when her doctor told her she “100 percent” had COVID-19. But local hospitals refused to test her. Her sister, a nurse in Pullman, Washington, told her to come there, where they were doing drive-thru testing, but Wagenmann didn’t have the strength for the four-hour trip. She never got tested, and neither did anyone she potentially came in contact with as a hairdresser. “It was absolutely frustrating,” she says. Through most of April, Washington was testing at twice the rate of its population compared to Idaho. Yet Washington’s numbers are skewed because of Seattle. In Eastern Washington, just like much of Idaho, health districts have limited testing resources, Lutz says. And if you’re talking about any reopening plan, robust testing of even some asymptomatic individuals is a must. “If we had done that from the get-go, we’d be a lot further along in flattening the curve and the phases of reopening,” Lutz says. Without that, rural areas remain vulnerable. They may be able to avoid seeing the virus for a while, but if it starts to spread, struggling hospitals in rural areas typically don’t have the intensive care units to handle big surges. “It’s sort of a tightrope” that rural communities are walking, says Eric Lofgren, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Washington State University. Ben Ridenhour, a University of Idaho researcher who’s developed a COVID-19 model for Idaho, says the virus is less predictable with an aging population in rural areas. What makes Idaho unique, he says, is its sparse and aging population. Bigger cities will see higher case counts. But smaller communities can be just as devastated. “Essentially, there’s more variability to how the disease will play out in small populations,” Ridenhour says. The result? Hotspots. Sometimes it’s easy to control. Yet sometimes it upends smaller tourist communities like Blaine County, which had one of the highest per capita infection rates in the country. It wipes out nursing homes like the Life Care Center of Lewiston. It forces a son to see his dad for the final time through the window.
THE RESISTANCE
In Sandpoint, Idaho state Rep. Heather Scott stands near the city’s iconic Long Bridge. For six years, Scott tells the crowd, she’s worked with Health Freedom Idaho, the anti-vaccine group that helped organize the rally, filled with “Trump Train” flags and signs with slogans like “Give Me the Virus, Don’t Take My Country.” Scott, who drew international attention last month for calling Gov. Little “Little Hitler,” is right at home. “I think a lot of us up here are always worried that they’re coming for our guns,” Scott says. “But they don’t need to when we’re locked in our houses.” In April, a segment of Idaho’s right-leaning activists
18 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
Jack Spears, 93, seeing his son for the last time. turn lockdown defiance into a brand. The Freedom Foundation takes a coiled snake — a symbol of the Revolutionary War, the Tea Party, of not being tread upon — and transforms it into a “Disobey Idaho” logo. Over 1,000 show up at a Disobey Idaho rally in Boise, waving signs like “How many lives have we lost for this freedom?” At a park in Meridian, located outside of Boise, a police officer arrests an anti-vaccine activist with Health Freedom Idaho after she repeatedly refuses to leave a closed-off playground. Her allies yell “This is the flu!” and “who’s your führer?!” at the police as she’s led away. The video goes viral. And soon, Ammon Bundy — leader of the 2016 armed occupation the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge — and members of Health Freedom Idaho are in front of the suburban home of the arresting police officer, intending to present him with a “redress of grievances.” Similar acts of rebellion have unfolded across the country, including in Washington state. When Inslee banned events of more than 250 people in March, Tim Eyman, a longtime anti-tax crusader now running for governor, invited 251 people to a party, saying, “Let’s stick our finger in the eye of Jay Inslee.” Nationally, however, these protesters only represent a slim portion of the country. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 80 percent of Americans supported stay-home orders. So while “Liberate Moscow” rally leaders believe plenty of business owners don’t believe the coronavirus is a threat and are too scared to say so, Moscow City Councilwoman Brandy Sullivan says she’s been flooded with hundreds of emails suggesting otherwise. About 80 percent have been offering praise for Little and urging
BRENDA SPEARS PHOTO
Idaho to stay the course, she says, while an additional 5 percent actually want more restrictions. “We have sacrificed a lot,” Sullivan says. “We don’t want it to be for nothing.” Ultimately, the important distinction between Idaho and Washington may be less about members of the public than those in power: Washington state’s GOP leadership showed reluctance to attack Inslee for his stayhome order early on. But in Idaho, Little keeps taking
“I think a lot of us up here are always worried that they’re coming for our guns. But they don’t need to when we’re locked in our houses.” friendly fire. “The cure cannot be worse than the disease!” Idaho Republican Party Chairman Raul Labrador wrote last month, warning that continuing the shutdown would “impose real costs on Idaho families that will be felt for years to come.” On April 12, Idaho Speaker of the House Scott Bedke sent Little a letter empathizing with the governor’s position, but also issuing a warning: “The way you exercise legislative powers now will affect how the Legislature views those powers when it next convenes.” Bedke called for Little to seek an “acceptable level of risk” in order to “avoid a major, long-lasting economic ...continued on page 20
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
DANIEL WALTERS, born and raised in Spokane, has been writing for the Inlander since 2008. In that time, he’s written about Idaho Rep. Heather Scott’s stardom among the far right, the challenges of the opioid epidemic, and Idaho’s failure to send kids to college. He wrote this from his bedroom, his desktop computer surrounded by old ramen bowls. He can be reached at danielw@inlander.com.
Since the start of the pandemic, WILSON CRISCIONE has dug into how the coronavirus has taken a toll on local hospitals, how it’s forcing schools to search for missing kids, and how residents at the Spokane Veterans Home find themselves at the epicenter of the local outbreak. He’s reporting from his apartment in Spokane, where his two cats keep good company. Reach him at wilsonc@ inlander.com.
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COVID-19 “PANDEMIC, IDAHO STYLE,” CONTINUED... catastrophe” and to hand control of coronavirus policies to public health districts instead of an ill-advised “onesize-fits-all solution.” The harshest hits came from inside the executive branch. “I AM ESSENTIAL!” declared the Facebook profile of Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin. “Don’t Tread on Me.” McGeachin vowed to do whatever she could to ensure that the shutdown didn’t continue beyond April 30. In a three-page letter to Little, she warned of a potential “constitutional showdown between some of the people of Idaho and your administration.” Indeed, when Hardware Brewing Co., a small business northeast of Lewiston, opened its doors again on May 1 — in defiance of Little’s stay-home order — McGeachin and Labrador attended the reopening and proudly posed beside the owner. No masks. No six feet of separation. No united front with the governor. But in Washington state? Inslee got elected members of Republican leadership on board early. He personally called the House minority leader, J.T. Wilcox, before issuing the stay-home order. “I told him that I thought he was doing the right thing. He was bold in his first response,” Wilcox says. “We needed to take action immediately.” As time has gone on, Wilcox has expressed more frustration with provisions of Inslee’s order, critiquing the governor for a lack of transparency, specificity and consistency. But Eyman says that the Republican leaders’ early support for the order left them trapped. “They were kind of locked down,” Eyman says. “They kind of felt like, ‘Well, we were there at the beginning. Maybe we’ve got to be there at the end.’” With Inslee’s recent decision to extend his stay-home order through the entire month of May, however, Eyman believes the dam is cracking, and Inslee is going to get deluged with an angry flood from citizens and politicians alike. “You’re just like, gasping, thinking, ‘OK, I’m finally at the finish line, I’m 2 yards away, I finally can get past your crap.’ And he says, ‘It’s just another 30 days,’” Eyman says. “People are losing their minds, man.”
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s swift actions, suggests Karen Yao (pictured), a virologist in Coeur d’Alene, might have helped save lives in Idaho as well.
offered, to join the Western States Pact. Lee, with Inslee’s office, says it “didn’t come up” in the conversation between the two governors about Washingtonians going to Idaho to hunt and fish. Idaho is playing by its own rules: Already, Little has allowed some businesses, churches, day cares and camps to open, and by May 16, his “Idaho Rebounds” plan calls to open restaurant dining rooms and gyms — as long as social distancing rules are followed. Bars, nightclubs and movie theaters won’t open until June 16 at the earliest. While it’s more aggressive than Inslee’s plan, it’s a lot more cautious than Republican governors in states like Georgia. Ridenhour, the University of Idaho researcher, was pleasantly surprised with On April 27 — long after the first coronavirus case was Little’s gradual approach. detected, after the first death, after businesses were shut “I thought they might try to be pretty lenient about down and stay-home orders issued — Little and Inslee all of this to start off with, then see what the effect was,” finally talked on the phone. Ridenhour says. The topic? Washingtonians crossing the border to Crucially, Little’s plan requires the state to show low hunt, fish and play golf. or decreasing numbers of coronavirus cases to move to “A lot of folks were going into Idaho and [Little] each new stage. That’s why fixing the testing deficit has wasn’t crazy about that,” says Tara Lee, a spokeswoman become critical. for Gov. Inslee’s office. Ahlquist, the former ER doctor, says that the state’s It’s the first time the two spoke about the pandemic, Crush the Curve effort has now pulled together the she says, and it suggests that as the two states try to safely supply lines to run up to 4,000 tests a day — testing for reopen and avoid a dreaded second wave of COVID-19 not just the coronavirus but for antibodies to the disease, deaths, they’ll continue to do so separately. learning just how many people have LETTERS The consequences of that remain to be contracted the virus but already conSend comments to seen. quered it. He says it’s enough to justify editor@inlander.com. On April 13 — ignoring President gradually reopening Idaho — and just Trump’s assertion that he had total authorin time. ity on when states reopen — Washington, Oregon and “The economy is crumbling,” he says. “People are California announced that they were joining together in losing their livelihoods.” a shared vision to reopen the states called the Western There’s a caveat: The tests show that most Idaho States Pact. Colorado and Nevada soon followed. Colresidents don’t have antibodies, meaning the state is still laboration can “ensure the virus can never spread wildly vulnerable. And if the cautionary tale of the 1918 panin our communities,” they said in a joint statement. demic is anything to go by, a second wave could be even Jeppesen says Idaho has had plenty of discussions deadlier — and a second shutdown could be a lot harder about sticking to the same timeline as bordering states. for people to accept. But he declined to say if Washington asked, or Idaho And Little knows that. At a recent press conference,
IDAHO TIME
20 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
he laid out some of his fears: He’s concerned that some people won’t do the right thing. He’s nervous about big events held without social distancing, held in rural communities without hospital capacity or enough testing to handle it. He’s worried about more outbreaks, more surges in places like Blaine County and Nez Perce. “That’s what keeps me up at night,” Little says.
“I think those early decisions that were made probably helped slow the spread significantly.” Critics of Little’s stay-home order like to point to the state’s comparatively low numbers of death as proof that his restrictions weren’t necessary. But Inslee’s swift actions, suggests Karen Yao, a virologist in Coeur d’Alene, might have helped save lives in Idaho as well. “I think those early decisions that were made probably helped slow the spread significantly,” she says. But now, as Idaho starts to reopen, Washington and other neighboring states lag behind. Little knows regional timelines being out of sync can be a problem. It’s why he imposed a statewide order in the first place — to prevent people from simply traveling to the place that’s open. “One of the issues we have in Idaho is the state of Washington: All of their areas are closed,” Little said during a recent press conference. “So if you go to North Idaho, everywhere in North Idaho has been besieged by our friendly neighbors from Washington coming across the border.” Little currently requires non-essential out-of-state travelers entering Idaho to self-quarantine for 14 days — but it’s difficult to enforce movement across the border. And it’s difficult for even the experts to say how the actions of surrounding states could impact Idaho. “It’s probably the biggest unknown in the whole thing,” says Ridenhour. “It’s hard to act like you’re an island unto yourself.” n
LOSING IT COMMUNITY
T-shirts of past Bloomsdays past decorated the top of Doomsday Hill Sunday.
YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
A first-timer hits the Bloomsday course on its original date and walks away with some memories — barely BY DAN NAILEN
T
he chafing. No one warned me about the chafing. Of course, if you don’t have thighs big enough to rub together when you walk 12 kilometers, chafing might not be an issue. But I’m not what you would call “in shape” or “physically fit,” and the extra corona-pounds I’ve put on while under Washington’s stay-home order meant there was no avoiding the chafing when I hit Riverside Avenue Sunday for an unofficial Bloomsday jaunt. “Jaunt” might imply running, but rest assured, there was no running. Even during my high school athletic years, running for fun was not for me. Running was punishment for screwing up a play at basketball practice, for missing a cut-off man in baseball. The only running
I would contemplate now as I approach 50 is running for my life, and even that would be done knowing my hamstring is more likely to explode than me successfully avoiding anything chasing me for food or sport. No, my Bloomsday was done as a luxurious, if long, walk. And I thought I was prepared, maybe overly so. I had a Camelbak of water, a snack bag loaded with dried apricots and nut clusters, layers for fighting the 9 am chill, extra padding in my shoes, and some reporter tools: camera, notebook and a pen that exploded in my pocket around mile 2, eventually giving my hands the same hue as vibrant blue toilet cleaner. An ink-stained wretch was I, quite literally. I did not, however, think of my thighs. And roughly
four hours after I started my Sunday exploration of the course, I hopped in a hot shower. The water poured its way down to my rubbed-raw nether regions and gave me a stinging jolt that buzzed me awake. “Is this pain really the satisfaction people feel when they finish a race?” I thought. “Sickos.”
S
unday was supposed to be my first Bloomsday. Not running it, or even walking it. It was supposed to be my first time even seeing it in person since moving to Spokane in 2014. I’ve come to learn the revered place Bloomsday holds in the city’s culture, but I never gave it much thought ...continued on next page
MAY 7, 2020 INLANDER 21
CULTURE | COMMUNITY
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Kathleen Dix cheered on the unofficial Bloomies Sunday, subbing in for her 100-year-old mother.
“LOSING IT,” CONTINUED... each spring. Last summer, though, my family moved into a house on Lindeke Street in West Central, unwittingly planting ourselves right on the Bloomsday route near the Mile 6 point of the 7.45-mile race. We quickly pegged May 3 as the perfect housewarming party date. Friends, mimosas, coffee and a little cheering for passingby Bloomies on a spring morning — what could be better? That plan, like so many this spring, was dashed by the coronavirus. Maybe it was the disappointment, or maybe it was the sheer madness of being cooped up in the house since early March, but I decided that since I couldn’t play Bloomsday host, I’d instead go ahead and walk Bloomsday at its intended time, even if I had to do it by myself. Of course, come Sunday morning, I was most certainly not by myself. The official Bloomsday might be rescheduled for Sept. 20, but you can’t keep some Bloomies down. Even virgin Bloomies like me.
I
dumped my car downtown and immediately wondered if I was going to freeze on this challenge. Standing in the shade as the wind ripped through the intersection of Monroe and Riverside around 9 am Sunday was not pleasant. But it was not enough to slow any of the other folks I noticed meeting up and taking off jogging. I knew doing this unofficial Bloomsday would mean no bands along the way, no water stations or finisher’s T-shirt at the end. But I didn’t realize I would run into some of what Bloomsday is known for. Other “racers” nodded encouragement and said hello as they passed me by — even a Spokane Police Department car honked a cheer during the last mile, as did an SUV with a dinosaur sticking out of its sunroof. There were even people lined up at some spots to cheer on the racers. Almost as quickly as I started, I paused to chat with Kathleen Dix, who was set up on Riverside with a cup of joe. She runs Bloomsday every year, ever since Don Kardong talked her into doing the first one, and she’d be doing it Sunday if all was normal.
22 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
DAN NAILEN PHOTO
“I’ve trained and everything!” Dix said. She opted to keep her social distance, instead taking the spot her 100-year-old mother normally does to catch the family’s sweatshirts as they start running. She even wore her mother’s “The Bloomsday Bag Lady” T-shirt. I thanked the course designers as Riverside tilted downhill, excited to finally see where People’s Park is for the first time, and bummed at the amount of litter along the otherwise beautiful road. On Government Way, I was passed by all manner of senior citizens, young children and stroller-pushing young parents, but I felt pretty good going up Cemetery Hill. Up top, I met Marsha Thomas and Richard Geltsch, who’ve watched the race since moving to the neighborhood four years ago. They weren’t sure anyone would be running Sunday, but when Geltsch stepped out on his deck in the morning, he immediately saw Bloomies in action, so they set up their chairs on the road near Life Center church and got to cheering. “We usually can’t go anywhere on Bloomsday,” Thomas said. “This year we can, but we’re staying here.” A couple miles later, after trudging up Doomsday Hill, I ran into Joe and Marilyn McManus, who’d hauled their Culligan water cooler from home to serve up cups to Bloomies. By 11 am, Joe said he’d seen about 400 runners and walkers go by, including some race luminaries they’ve gotten to know by taking part in Bloomsday every year. “Our daughter, she’s 50, she’s done every one but the first one,” Joe said. “It’s a family thing.” That explains the appeal of Bloomsday, even an unofficial one. Sure, some people are running to win, or mark personal-best times. But for a lot of folks I met and saw on Sunday, it seemed a way to regain some sense of normalcy with their families during trying and strange times. Something they could do from a safe distance, but still be together. A celebration. You don’t need bands or T-shirts for that. n
CULTURE | DIGEST
SHATTERED GLASS Emily St. John Mandel blew onto the literary scene with her 2014 bestseller Station Eleven, a dystopian ensemble set amid the aftershocks of a pandemic — sounds familiar! Her long-awaited follow-up The Glass Hotel is another gripping character study with hints of the supernatural that stretches across multiple decades and several fractured timelines. At the story’s center is the 2008 financial collapse, but its tendrils extend to the past and the future, introducing us to a wealthy shipping magnate, a Bernie Madofftype investor, a bartender-turned-trophy wife, a drug-addicted experimental composer and the luxury hotel on an isolated Vancouver island that links them all. (NATHAN WEINBENDER)
An open letter to Tom Hanks, from a Wilson
T
BY WILSON CRISCIONE
he truth is, Tom, we never had a chance. I didn’t choose my name. And you, I’m sure, didn’t know Cast Away would inevitably lead to half the people I’ve met since I was 9 yelling “Wiiiiiiiilsssoooooon” upon meeting me. It was that movie, which I’ve refused to see, that did irreparable harm to our once-promising relationship. It’s left me brooding over ways to justify my distaste for you, as you become ever more adored by the masses. When I was a young child, you were like an uncle to me. In the short time I’d see you, I laughed with you. I cried with you. I looked up to you. That movie changed every interaction I have with new people. I can see it in their eyes when I introduce
THE BUZZ BIN
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST Some noteworthy new music hits online and in stores May 8. To wit: HAYLEY WILLIAMS, Petals for Armor. The Paramore singer’s solo debut veers into poppier directions. NORAH JONES, Pick Me Up Off The Floor. Nice rootsy vibes permeate Jones’ seventh album. MARK LANEGAN, Straight Songs of Sorrow. The former Screaming Trees singer might be the perfect voice for going slightly mad in self-isolation. (DAN NAILEN)
myself. They think of that beach, the blood on the volleyball. They’ve heard my name before, and they must say it. They must scream it. And afterward, they must ask me, “Do you get that a lot?” Yes. Because everyone who meets me thinks of that face on the volleyball, every time I see you I think of all their faces smirking at their bad joke. It’s a seed of annoyance that’s grown into disgust with each new movie, with each SNL monologue, with every attempt to embrace your role as America’s dad. Your face is everywhere. And it doesn’t help that you always play the hero — Tom Hanks as Sully, Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips, Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers. Ugh. “How can you not like Tom Hanks? What’s wrong with you?” people say. I dig in my heels and give some explanation about how I just don’t like your whole thing, how you’re trying too hard to be loved, how it feels disingenuous. Nobody else can fathom why I avoid your movies. It’s like I’ve been left alone on an island with no one around to understand me. But I’m writing to tell you that all of my excuses for avoiding you are gone. You were the first celebrity who got the coronavirus, and you’ve handled it like a true hero. I see headlines about you donating your blood to help develop a vaccine. When an 8-year-old boy named Corona wrote to you because he’s bullied for his name, you replied, “You’ve got a friend in me.” It’s so sweet that it makes me want to puke. It makes me feel like a jerk for thinking I got an unlucky first name. But I’m ready to let it go. You’ve fully disarmed me. Maybe, now, I’m finally ready to watch Cast Away. n
LOVE AND RESPECT I went into Apple+’s Beastie Boys Story expecting a basic documentary, albeit one with creative twists thanks to the direction of Spike Jonze. Instead, it’s a filmed live stage show featuring Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) waxing on about the Beasties’ long career and, primarily, their third partner Adam Yauch (MCA), who died of cancer in 2012. Superfans might not learn a ton, but the surviving members’ ease with each other and obvious affection for Yauch, who comes through as the Beasties’ driving force and spiritual center, is enough to elicit plenty of laughs and tears on this nostalgic trip. (DAN NAILEN)
RAGE! A sad synth plays as a city made of pixels appears on screen. “This city was once a happy, peaceful place… Until one day. A powerful secret criminal organization took over.” In Streets of Rage, you must restore order with your small band of vigilante ex-cops by punching and kicking your way through waves of criminal henchmen. More than two decades since Streets of Rage 3, the franchise gets a modern reboot. And guess what? The city is under siege by criminals once again! Pick up where you left in Streets of Rage 4. Available for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and PC. (QUINN WELSCH)
VAMPY VIBES Being stuck at home feels, I imagine, similar to the lifestyle of vampires. I’ve had this thought while escaping into the utter absurdity of the new season of What We Do in the Shadows, FX’s vampire mockumentary based on Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 film. Season two brings us back inside the delightfully weird, sometimes grotesque, naivete of ancient vampire roommates Nandor, Nadja and Laszlo, plus energy vampire Colin Robinson and loyal human servant Guillermo. So far, the group has attended a “Superb Owl” party, called upon ghosts of their past selves via seance, and unwittingly turned a character played by Haley Joel Osment into a crazed zombie. (CHEY SCOTT)
MAY 7, 2020 INLANDER 23
DRINK LOCAL
All Together Local breweries are forced to adapt and an upcoming beer collaboration aims to support the industry BY DEREK HARRISON
F
or the majority of regional craft breweries, most revenue comes from two avenues: direct-to-consumer sales out of a tasting room and selling beer to local bars and restaurants. The statewide shutdown of taprooms issued in March nearly put a complete halt on both of the above. For Spokane Valley’s YaYa Brewing Company, which opened in September last year, the tasting room is where it makes the bulk of its profits. “The business models of small breweries like us, and
the majority of breweries in Spokane, are set up for inhouse consumption,” says co-owner Jason Gass. “That’s where our best margins are.” With the brewery closed to the public, Gass says tasting room sales are down. The brewery is kept afloat with the help of online to-go orders available for pickup through a roll-up garage door and — thanks to recent changes in the law — home deliveries. The brewery takes an even bigger hit with local bars and restaurants mostly closed as well. ...continued on page 26
Local craft breweries make a shift to packaging to survive the shutdown. DEREK HARRISON PHOTO
THE ROAD BACK In the days ahead, the Inlander plans to check in on local businesses and how they’re evolving in a world with the coronavirus. Follow along at Inlander.com/recovery.
24 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
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FOOD | DRINK LOCAL
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“ALL TOGETHER,” CONTINUED... “I wouldn’t really say it’s devastating, but the wholesale aspect of our business has been all but wiped out,” Gass adds. He still remains optimistic. Weeks before the shutdown, YaYa launched two of its flagship beers in 16-ounce cans — Angel IPA and Fluffy Puffy Sunshine, a hazy IPA. Gass says having beer available pre-packaged made the transition easier. It streamlines the process of online orders compared to filling glass growlers or aluminum crowlers one by one.
ration, Lumberbeard, Hello Brew Co., Project Craft Brewing, River City Brewing, For the Love of God Brewing and YaYa all partnered up. The 20-barrel batch will be canned on May 20 then distributed by each participating brewery and select bottle shops. The participating breweries are currently deciding who the proceeds will benefit, but the Inland Northwest Brewers Guild and a GoFundMe for Spokane hospitality workers are potential ideas that have been thrown into the ring. The Spokane collaboration was organized by newcomer Hello Brew Co. — the latest addition to the Steel Barrel incubator brewery. Owner and brewer Ryan Maliski released his first beer in mid-February, just a month before the shutdown. Since then, he’s been taking online orders for bottles with curbside pickup outside of the Steel Barrel. It’s a type of sale he wouldn’t have been able to do with his brewery license pre-coronavirus. For Lumberbeard, another new brewery opening late last year, the statewide shutdown came at a time when its taproom was booming. “The first week of March was our best week ever,” co-owner and brewer Bret Gordon says. “Then it was like hitting a brick wall.” HOW TO HELP River City Most craft breweries around brewer Christopher the region are still open durAnderson says ing this time. Check out social they’ve had to drasmedia channels to find out tically switch their how you can order beer tobusiness model. In go or in some cases, like YaYa a typical month, he and Iron Goat Brewing, have estimates 80 percent it delivered to your door. of their production goes to distribution. That’s now turned to at least 80 percent of production currently going to packaged products, which they then have to sell during limited hours out of their taproom. He says he’s worried about a lot of small craft breweries not being able to make it through the shutdown because they were just starting out or just getting traction. “Really go support your local businesses because honestly, they might not be there tomorrow,” Anderson adds. n
“If you’re drinking a local beer, put it on social media, let your friends know.” He also believes being newer gives YaYa a financial advantage over some of the more established craft breweries. “We’re so small and so brand new that we don’t have a whole lot of overhead,” he says. “Unbeknownst to us, we kind of were set up for this situation.” Outside of ownership, YaYa only has one part-time employee, which Gass hopes to keep staffed throughout the duration of the shutdown. He mentions the company currently has an application under review for the Paycheck Protection Program from the Small Business Administration. Aside from potential government assistance, he says YaYa and other regional breweries are dependent on the support of customers. He encourages people to buy local when they can and even promote breweries beyond that. “If you’re drinking a local beer, put it on social media, let your friends know,” he says. “Basically just getting the word out that Brewery A is delivering to your home or Brewery B has to-go options.”
L
ast week, six local breweries gathered at Lumberbeard Brewing for a special brew day. The beer is a hazy IPA called All Together. It’s part of a worldwide collaboration created by New York brewery Other Half to provide support and relief for the brewing industry. In most cases, a craft brewery uses the opensource recipe to brew a beer with partial proceeds going to a charity of its choice. For this collabo-
26 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
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FOOD | DRINK LOCAL
Creative Resilience How local wineries are trying to adjust to the new business landscape BY JOSH KELETY
L
ife under the COVID-19 pandemic is rough for everyone, individuals and businesses alike. And local wineries are no exception. With people unable to congregate due to social distancing measures, prime money-making events like tastings and live music are off the table. Meanwhile, sales to local restaurants have evaporated. And for some smaller wineries, the changes are a big hit. “The tastings and people coming in and having a glass of wine is a good 45 percent of our business, so we’re missing out on that,” says Margo Shelman, owner of Craftsman Cellars tasting room THE ROAD BACK in Kendall Yards. More at Inlander.com/recovery. “We just don’t know what’s going to come down the pike and how long it’s going to be before we’ll be able to be open.” But the pandemic also isn’t a death blow to the entire industry. Larger players are riding it out, loyal customers are still supporting their favorite local wineries, grocery stores are still stocking shelves with regional wine, and some wineries are offering to-go cheese platters and various takeaway food options in addition to bottle sales. But it’s still rough on the little guys. “Small wineries are taking the brunt of it. The midsized to larger wineries, those that already had brand loyalty and brand recognition, are doing really well,” says Jim van Loben Sels, executive director of the Spokane Winery Association and brand manager at Arbor Crest Wine Cellars. “But those that didn’t have a presence in the grocery stores and a distribution network are going to be the hardest hit.” Some wineries have grappled with supply-chain issues as well. Mobile bottling services are booked out while some wineries have struggled getting bottling materials like corks or labels. Other wineries may not be in the position to keep their contracts for bulk grape orders. Van Loben Sels says that wineries that can pivot quickly to different business models will be able to better weather the pandemic. For instance, he points to online sales and curbside pickup or programming that follows social distancing guidelines (and may eventually be allowed under Gov. Jay Inslee’s reopening plan) like intimate, small-group dinners will be better able to weather the pandemic. “There’s opportunity, and creativity is what’s going to help you succeed,” van Loben Sels says. Take Sarah Lathrop, co-owner of Liberty Lake Wine Cellars, for instance. Her business cut their hours and came up with special events and sales for their devoted members, like a weekend virtual party for wine club members and to-go picnic packs. And longtime customers still come by to buy bottles. Still, it doesn’t make up for all the lost revenue from
28 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
Liberty Lake Wine Cellars’ Mark and Sarah Lathrop. live music events and tastings. “That’s how we’ve opted to stay afloat,” Lathrop says. “It’s been really slow, except for when I put out these specials. “It’s been mostly wine club members that have come in. In the last 40 days we’ve had maybe four new customers, so that’s been kind of tough,” she adds. On the other end of the spectrum, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars is doing pretty well. They sell to local grocery stores, van Loben Sels says. Now they’re eying new programming as the state slowly reopens. “We’re going to get into the food program. We’re already doing picnic foods, but now we’re looking at more restaurant-style foods because the groups will be so much smaller, we’re probably going to do more seated, plated food,” he says. “It’s going to become more about the intimate experience and giving them something we haven’t done before because we don’t have those crowds. “Maybe we’ll do some drive-in theater music con-
MAX LATHROP PHOTO
cepts, where they buy their tickets online,” van Loben Sels adds. But the creative notions aren’t without risk: Even if public health officials say it’s safe for people to drink and dine at wineries in small, controlled groups, will they even come? “I think this is where the biggest challenge is going to be,” van Loben Sels says. “How much risk is the consumer willing to take?” n
HOW TO HELP
The one thing that community members can do to support local wineries, wine makers say, is to buy local. Buy local wine — or buy cheese plates from local wineries. “When you buy local and drink local, it stays local,” says Jim van Loben Sels, executive director of the Spokane Winery Association. “By making sure that when people purchase something … those dollars can stay local.”
Shop L O C A L
Now more than ever, your neighbors need YOU to help support their businesses. Next time you are heading out for supplies, choose a locally owned business and feel proud that you are supporting our local economy.
For our searchable spreadsheet, visit Inlander.com/ShopLocal To add your business to our growing database, visit Inlander.com/ShopLocalForm DOWNTOWN SPOKANE Audrey’s Boutique Barrister Winery Boulevard Mercantile Cues Decorum Giant Nerd Books Greencastle Soap and Supply Incrediburger and Eggs Kizuri Maryhill Winery Tasting Room & Bistro Mom’s Custom Tattoo & Body Piercing Mountain Lakes Brewing Co. reSkued Sixth Avenue Medical Pharmacy Soft Paws Pet Spa The Bike Hub The Source CBD The Tin Roof Two Women Vintage Goods Wandering Table Whiz Kids toy store Yards Bruncheon NORTH SPOKANE 1889 Salvage Co Chic & Shab Grace & Joy Clothing Company Infused Wellness Northwest Seed & Pet Prairie Dog Pet Mercantile
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FOOD | DRINK LOCAL HOW TO HELP
Distilleries are relying on bottle sales now more than ever, and although local tasting rooms aren’t open, they are still providing bottle-to-go sales, and you can also arrange to have someone bring your orders to your car. Warrior’s tasting room, at 714 N. Lee St., is open every weekday from 8 am to 4 pm. Dry Fly, 1003 E. Trent Ave., is open Monday through Saturday from 8 am to 5 pm. Savage Boar Spirits, 11902 W. 21st Ave. in Airway Heights, has an easy online order function; savageboarspirits.square.site to choose your spirits and arrange for a pickup. Up North Distillery, 846 N. Boulder Ct., in Post Falls is open Wednesday through Sunday, and they’re currently offering bottles of their premixed cocktails — margaritas, whiskey sours, bloody marys and even gift packages just in time for Mother’s Day. See store. upnorthdistillery.com for all the options.
Co-owner Mary Clemson (left) rings up customer Laurie Brown at Warrior Liquor. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
Lifting Spirits Local distilleries are relying on curbside bottle sales — and small batches of hand sanitizer — to stay afloat BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
I
n tumultuous times, one thing remains true: People still want their spirits. In fact, tumultuous times almost demand more spirits than usual. Bars, restaurants and entertainment venues may be sitting empty, but local distilleries are still moving their vodkas and gins, despite public tasting rooms remaining currently shuttered. That shuttering has, of course, impacted business. Rich Clemson, co-owner of Warrior Liquor Distillery, says the closure of their east Spokane tasting room has resulted in an estimated 50 percent reduction in sales. He says 400-600 customers came through the tasting room per month, with folks stopping in for tastings before taking home a bottle or ordering cocktails.
30 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
Clemson says he considered those customers, many of them regulars, to be a focus group of sorts, providing him with feedback on some of the new products that were ready to be introduced to the market. Those products are now on hold. “Everything was in an upward trajectory,” Clemson says, “but that all got wiped off the face of the earth. I find myself saying the old phrase, ‘it is what it is.’” Don Poffenroth, the president of Dry Fly Distilling, says that there may have been a dip in his in-person sales, but that alternate avenues of sales have nearly made up for it. “People being shut in has increased consumption,” he says. “Our retail business doesn’t exist anymore, but online sales have increased to cover for THE ROAD BACK that loss. Sales from More at Inlander.com/recovery. outside the region have slowed down considerably, but Dry Fly’s sales figures in and around Spokane have actually gone up. “But we’re starting to see trickling of non-Northwest business coming back,” Poffenroth adds. “There seems to be a move in this last week of people seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.” Over at Warrior, Clemson says he has lost a couple employees for the time being, as they weren’t totally comfortable working in an environment that required human interaction, however limited. But he’s hopeful that they’ll be back soon, as will customers in his tasting room. “We’re starting to be cautiously optimistic,” Clemson
says. “I think the worst is behind us. I’m an optimist by nature, there’ll be a different tomorrow. There are some days that are slow, and some that are busy.” Before the statewide closures, Dry Fly was already in the process of opening a new location in the downtown Spokane building where the Spokesman-Review once printed its papers. There has since been a delay in moving out the old press equipment, Poffenroth says, but the upcoming tasting room and distillery is still a go. “If everything worked out perfectly, we’d be [open] by the end of the year, but ‘perfect’ doesn’t happen in construction,” he says. Now they’re aiming to open by early 2021: “We had a month or two setback in that scenario, but it allowed us to dial in on engineering details and get the design perfected.” Both distilleries have also been producing batches of hand sanitizer; right before he hopped on the phone with the Inlander, Poffenroth was handing out sanitizer products to a truck full of firefighters. Clemson also says they’ve been working with local restaurants to provide sealed bottles of liquor that those businesses can then sell with cocktail kits as a way of bringing in revenue while their doors are closed. “This community has been incredibly grateful, from groups that have fundraised for us to the average consumer who picks up product and makes a $2 or $3 donation,” Poffenroth says. “On the other side of this, people are going to appreciate the community more,” Clemson says. “I hear that refrain from a lot of our folks — they’re going to want to support what we have.” n
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STREAMING
A FILM LOVER’S LIBRARY If you’re a serious movie nerd in isolation, then you need the Criterion Channel BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
W
hen streaming became a viable method for watching stuff at home, it was presented as the great equalizer. You can see anything you want, whenever you want! Of course, that’s not entirely true — ask anyone who has gone hunting for a specific older movie and discovered it’s not available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or elsewhere. The Criterion Channel, the digital extension of art film distributor the Criterion Collection, fills a lot of those gaps. Most of the popular streaming services don’t dedicate much bandwidth to movies that are more than 50 years old, or not in English, or not in color. When I was a budding movie nerd, I would have killed for a library as comprehensive and intuitive as the Criterion Channel, and it has made this period of self-isolation a whole lot more vibrant. Here’s why any movie nut needs to get the Criterion Channel. OLD MOVIES. Go to Netflix’s “classics” section and it’s about as barren as a gas station DVD bin: Sure, they’ve got a few of my favorite movies — Once Upon a Time in the West, Taxi Driver, Tootsie — but it’s mostly (weirdly enough) public-domain WWII propaganda films. I can find just one movie from the 1940s — that’d be Orson Welles’ The Stranger (1946) — and none from the 1950s or early 1960s. (And I suppose we could argue whether included titles like Philadelphia or What’s Eating Gilbert Grape are even old enough to earn the “classic” designation.) Hulu’s classics offerings are just as middling. Amazon Prime has a better track record, including a lot of long-forgotten Bmovies and exploitation films, though they’re not always presented in the best quality prints. Criterion, meanwhile, has hundreds of films from every era, from the silents to the early talkies to the golden age of Hollywood to the envelope-pushing movies of the ’60s and ’70s.
32 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
Cane River ORGANIZATION. Most services haphazardly separate their film libraries by genre, and even then it’s not always accurate — one time I found Alexander Payne’s caustic satire Election in the “romantic movies” category. But the programmers at Criterion put a lot of care into their presentations, packaging films into highly specific categories: Right now, they offer a package of films starring Rita Hayworth, a gritty collection of noirs produced in the 1940s and ’50s by Columbia Pictures and 13 features that were scored by the great Quincy Jones. It gives the library a sense of careful curation; this isn’t just a random grab bag of whatever stuff they could get the rights to. Beyond that, you can easily adjust your searches alphabetically, by year, genre and even by country of origin. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS. One of the pleasures of disc media is the extra content that was included — deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes documentaries, trailers, alternate soundtracks. None of those special features carry over to streaming sites, but Criterion has changed that. Many of their movies come with filmed introductions from critics and filmmakers, as well as making-of documentaries and commentary tracks (don’t miss the infamous one for The Limey, in which director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs fight on mic about whether the movie is any good). The service also offers multiple versions of films that have been re-edited or modified over the years: You can choose to watch Ingmar Bergman’s miniseries Scenes from a Marriage and Fanny & Alexander in their shortened theatrical versions, and pick between multiple versions of Orson Welles’ famously troubled 1955 thriller Mr. Arkadin. EXPIRATION LISTINGS. It’s happened to all of us: You pause a movie midway through, and when you go back to finish it, it has expired from the streaming service you were watching it on. The Criterion Channel has expiration casualties, too, and as dozens of new titles are added each month, an equal number are taken down. But at least the fine folks at Criterion have devoted a separate page letting you know what’s expiring at the end of the current month, giving you a few more weeks
to cross titles off your to-watch list before they go away.
AND FINALLY, SOME RECOMMENDATIONS:
Cane River (1982) The only film by director Horace B. Jenkins, this low-budget drama made with an all-black cast and crew was long thought lost. It was recently rediscovered and is now available to stream for the first time. Celine & Julie Go Boating (1974) An arthouse classic that has been out of print on home video for years, this landmark surrealist film from Jacques Rivette is a loopy, dreamlike three-hour trip. Japanese cinema Akira Kurosawa tends to be most folks’ introduction to the classic films of Japan, and while Criterion hosts a majority of his films, they have so much more — films by great directors like Yasujiro Ozu, Nobuhiko Obayashi and Seijun Suzuki, as well as influential genre franchises like Lone Wolf and Cub and Lady Snowblood. Silent films If you’ve never seen a silent film but have always meant to give it a shot, Criterion Channel has a cool selection in the best possible quality. Brush up on influential classics like Battleship Potemkin and The Passion of Joan of Arc, the early shorts of Charlie Chaplin or the work of groundbreaking black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The Three Colors trilogy (1994) Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski is one of the greatest filmmakers to ever live, and his so-called “three colors trilogy” — Blue, White and Red — is a thrilling, genre-defying masterpiece about time, love, destiny and coincidence. You might find yourself watching them all in a single sitting. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) I’ve been meaning to tackle Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 14-part crime saga for some time, and now that it’s streaming in its entirety, I might finally get around to it. Directed by David Lynch Plunge into the strange mind of the master of the weird, with three features — Eraserhead, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Mulholland Dr. — a host of his early short films and the biographical documentary David Lynch: The Art Life. n Sign up at criterionchannel.com; plans start at $11 a month, with a 14-day free trial period.
Magnetic Fields
ROUND-UP
Your Moment of Zen Soothing sounds: Fixtures of the local music scene weigh in on their go-to comfort listens BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
I
n times of trouble, escaping into the art that calms you is key to keeping your sanity. And you could certainly classify right now as a troubled time. Lately I’ve had the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs, a three-disc opus from musician Stephin Merritt, on constant rotation. The title is both a cheeky innuendo and a gauntlet throw of sorts, and though it’s epic, it’s not daunting terrain to traverse. There’s something about the sheer expanse that’s soothing. Sinking into it is like getting lost in a dense novel, and there’s a sense of discovery with every listen: A 45-second song you’d once passed by without so much as a second glance now catches you off guard as a classic. I put out a call on social media and got dozens of responses from local musicians, venue owners, engineers, talent managers and music fans about the songs and albums they’ve been listening to in this moment of global anxiety. Here’s what some of them said.
NORMAN ROBBINS, LEAD SINGER AND GUITARIST OF BALONELY
The two-man British band Ultimate Painting was only in existence for a few years, and mostly stayed under the radar during that time. But one of their biggest fans is Norman Robbins, who opened for them at a local show and became obsessed with their music, particularly their album Dusk. “The music became more and more special to me the longer I listened,” he says. “It really did become a sort of
drug to me. I needed it all the time.” Most of the songs on Dusk lock into a low-key groove, pulling you into their patterns before ending a couple minutes later. That’s exactly what’s most satisfying about them, Robbins explains. “When a band repeatedly gives you what you want, whatever that may be, it is comforting,” he says. “It changes for everyone, but I think that generally, comfort is repetition in music.”
KARLI INGERSOLL, OWNER OF LUCKY YOU LOUNGE
At the beginning of the year, Karli Ingersoll ran an end-ofthe-decade scan of her Spotify profile and discovered her most-listened-to artist was the Innocence Mission, the longrunning indie folk act from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The husband-and-wife duo Karen and Don Peris have mastered the art of lo-fi folk, buoyed by ethereal vocals. “I found them in my early 20s when I was first starting to play music,” Ingersoll says, and it was the band’s third album, 1995’s Glow, that was her gateway. “I bought a used CD of it at Hastings, and I played it so much that it started skipping.” Ingersoll says she covered some of the Innocence Mission’s songs during early concerts, and acknowledges she once tried to approximate their style. ...continued on next page
MAY 7, 2020 INLANDER 33
RELATIONSHIPS
Advice Goddess WHEN HAREM MET SALLY
My ex just started dating a female friend of his. When we were together, I always worried about the chemistry I felt they had, and it hurts that they got together right after our breakup. Does this mean he’s always had feelings for her? Does it cheapen our entire relationship? —Bummed “I only have eyes for you” is sometimes actually true, like when two people in a relationship are being held AMY ALKON hostage together in the trunk of a car. Beyond small-space kidnappings, the reality is typically more like: “I only have eyes for you. And you. And you. And, hey, is that your sister?” We’re each attracted to a whole crop of people. However, attraction doesn’t necessarily lead to action, at least for those of us who have a psychological moat holding us back. It’s largely two things that keep us from sneaking out and having sex with the hot neighbor: love for the person we’re with and a personality trait called conscientiousness. Conscientiousness, which has a bunch of letters in common with “conscience,” is defined by social and personality psychologist Brent Roberts and his colleagues as “the propensity to follow socially prescribed norms for impulse control, to be goal directed, to plan, and to be able to delay gratification.” A person with a solid helping of conscientiousness cares about the impact of their behavior on other people. However, being attracted to somebody happens automatically; it isn’t a feeling we can decline like a questionable package. So, conscientiousness does not prevent a wandering eye, just wandering sex parts that get busy in its wake. Even people high in conscientiousness probably have a mental file drawer of potential partners — “backup mates” — even when they have a partner they love. Research on backup mates by evolutionary psychologists Joshua Duntley and David Buss suggests we evolved to have these in mind, at least subconsciously, to shorten the reproductively costly breaks between being dumped or having a partner die on us and landing their replacement. Ultimately, you have no control over another person’s feelings. What you can control are your choices, using love (plus physical attraction) and conscientiousness as a guideline for whether to stay or move on. Regarding conscientiousness: A man whose actions day to day suggest he’s ethical is a man who’s less likely to end up in bed with somebody else while he’s still in a relationship with you. As for love and attraction, a man who seems to have serious hots for you, sexually and as a person, is more likely to stick around and keep loving you. You’ll still probably catch him glancing at sparkly ladies at parties, but try to keep in mind that window-shopping is not the same thing as robbing the store. (Breakfast at Tiffany’s; lunch at Rikers!)
COMPARISON CHOPPING
My boyfriend and I broke up two years ago, and I guess I’m not over him. I’m not still pining for my ex, but I find myself comparing every guy I date to him. How do I get him out of my head? —Haunted When you’re looking for love, it’s good to avoid wearing distracting jewelry, like an ex-boyfriend-shaped anvil on a chain around your neck. But maybe you don’t have the problem you think you do: not being over your ex. After all, you say you aren’t pining over the guy. Consider that we don’t make judgments by pulling them out of thin air. We need comparisons — to things, people, or prices — as a starting point. An example of this comes from economic psychology. Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky observed that the price a person is initially exposed to serves as an “anchor,” influencing decisions they subsequently make. For example, Kahneman writes that upon mention of a charitable contribution of $5, research participants were willing to contribute $20, on average. “When the anchor was a rather extravagant $400, the willingness to pay rose to an average of $143.” However, when we have no reference point, no starting point for comparison, judgments we make tend to be all over the place, not refined or useful. For example, “Is ice cream good?” versus the comparison, “Is ice cream better than gluten-free kale cookies sweetened with artisanal tree rot?” Chances are you’re using your ex as a reference point to recognize the qualities you do and don’t want in men you encounter. Consider divorcing these qualities from the man by listing them, perhaps in a note on your phone you can periodically reflect on. It might not entirely remove him from your mind, but it could make you feel less haunted by him, less like you aren’t over him. Remember, “Objects in the rearview mirror...” um, look much closer when you rope them to your mental hood like a deer. n ©2020, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. • Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)
34 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
MUSIC | ROUND-UP “YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN,” CONTINUED... “With every musician, there’s a sound they wish they could do, but maybe they don’t sound enough like it naturally,” she says. “And that’s them for me.”
JAMES HUNT, OWNER OF BERSERK
When Kelly Fay Vaughn died earlier this year, her extensive vinyl collection was donated to other music obsessives, including her friend James Hunt. “Her mother gave myself and another friend of hers from Portland all of her records,” Hunt says, “and he and I sat together and went through them.” Amongst her collection was a treasure trove of ’70s power-pop from bands like Dirty Looks and Neon Hearts, and a bunch of obscure ’60s garage rock releases, including the Icelandic band Thor’s Hammer and the Pleasure Seekers, an allgirl rock band that featured future rock star and Happy Days star Suzi Quatro and her sisters. Hunt has been hosting virtual sessions of Berserk’s weekly DJ feature Vinyl Meltdown, which Vaughn was a part of, spinning records under the name DJ Suzanne Bummers. In a way, she’s still participating along with him. “I’ve been missing her a lot,” Hunt says. “What’s been providing me a lot of comfort is going through those records and just letting Kelly turn me on to music I hadn’t heard.”
MATT DeLONG, LIVE SOUND ENGINEER
In a good month, sound engineer Matt DeLong is behind the boards at 20 different shows. Of course, that’s no longer a possibility. “It’s a whirlwind of emotions right now, especially with something I’ve done more days than not halting to a complete stop,” DeLong says. “I definitely never thought that would happen.” He says he often eases the tension with the work of neo-psychedelic or jazz-fusion artists, and he specifically points to the song “Don’t Blame Yourself” by Chaz Bundick Meets the Mattson 2, a shuffling, ever-mutating eight-minute track. “It’s got a little bit of a jam feel to it,” DeLong says. “It’s a lot of pleasant phrasing. I like longer songs, so it kind of tells a story throughout it. It’s all very relaxing chords and calming Beach Boys Pet Sounds-like harmonies.” In the meantime, DeLong says he’s seen enough support and harmony within the scene to be convinced that it will eventually recover. “It’s almost relieving to see how the community has come together to support themselves and support each other,” DeLong says. “It reassures my idea of what the Spokane music scene is.”
RYKER, LOCAL TALENT MANAGER
It makes sense that Ryker would be thinking about local music right now. A manager and mentor with several indie artists under her wings, she’s always thinking about their future. “We have no idea what comes next,” she says, “and we have no idea when live performances come back.” She points to Blake Braley’s new EP Darlin’ as a notable musical salve (“Thank God he just put that shit on Spotify, because I was going crazy”), and to the work of hip-hop artists Jango and T.S The Solution, and Tri-Cities artists MistaDC and Karma.
Ryker also praises Vanna Oh! — “I just love how unapologetic she is” — and her friend Cami Bradley’s folk duo the Sweeplings, particularly the track “Carry Me Home.” “The way that song starts, it’s like Cami can create such an eerie environment, like the mist is rolling and you can’t see more than 5 feet in front of you,” she says. “She starts with this whisper in your ear and the way it rises, and it’s like you’re in another world.”
Nipsey Hussle, Victory Lap
T.S THE SOLUTION, HIP-HOP ARTIST
Devonte Pearson considers himself a homebody by nature, but maybe not to this degree. The musician and producer, who performs as T.S The Solution, says he’s staying sane by “talking to positive people, people who can take the positive out of these weird situations rather than sulking in misery.” While live shows are on hold, Pearson is still mixing songs for other artists and featuring on other peoples’ tracks, and he’s working on new material that he hopes to release later this month. “It forces us as artists into different directions,” he says. “We’re used to explaining our lives and our stories through music, and now our lives are just four walls. You’ve got to get creative in figuring out which stories to tell.” As far as comfort listening goes, Pearson name-checked the late Nipsey Hussle and his album Victory Lap, which he considers a testament to “staying ambitious through it all.” “That definitely helps in those borderline depression and anxiety moments,” he says. “It gets me refocused and recentered. It’s up to you to brush the dirt off and get back to it.”
MATTHEW HUGHES,
LEAD SINGER AND GUITARIST OF ATARI FERRARI
There’s a moment in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 epic Magnolia when its ensemble cast stops cold to sing Aimee Mann’s song “Wise Up,” a deliberately showy device that critics at the time either called a pretentious flourish or a transcendent moment of coincidence and beauty. It had the latter effect on Matthew Hughes, who had never experienced Mann’s music before. “I had just moved into my own place, and that was the first movie I watched in my new place alone,” he recalls, “and I just cried so hard.” It led him to check out more of Mann’s work, and it was her 2002 album Lost in Space that stuck with him most. It’s “the last album I want to hear before I die,” Hughes says. “Her music has a way of existing in that kind of reality, but still with grace and humor,” he explains. “I think that’s how I like to exist when I’m put in the same situations. She is writing from pretty dark and anxious feelings and making something productive, honest and communicating how she feels with the music.” n
GROWERS
All in the Family The great pivot to cannabis BY WILL MAUPIN
T
he legal cannabis industry has only been around for a handful of years, but one local farm’s green thumb goes back generations. Since the 1950s the Lima family has been in the business of growing — their namesake Lima Greenhouses dominate Vinegar Flats, where they still grow bedding plants and vegetables. In 2015, the Limas decided to expand into a new facility on the other side of town and Novo Dia was born. “My grandfather saw things coming with cannabis being a big thing, and obviously knew we had an ideal set up,” says Joe Lima, general manager at Novo Dia and part of the fourth generation of the family business. Currently operating out of one greenhouse, with two more soon to come online, cannabis has proven to be a financial boost. Last year, when national retailer Shopko shut down all of its stores, Lima Greenhouses lost a major client. It would have been a serious blow in years past. With the success of Novo Dia, though, they’ve been able to supplement a lot of what was lost through cannabis. The family’s experience growing plants helped them transition into a different market quickly and efficiently. ...continued on next page
Co-owners Joe Lima and his father Ed. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
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GROWERS “ALL IN THE FAMILY,” CONTINUED... “That gave us a tremendous advantage. We have not just the facility and the infrastructure but the knowledge of plant science and plant nutrition, even things like where to source pots and soil,” Lima says. Of course, moving into cannabis isn’t as easy as moving from cucumbers to carnations. Regulations are much stricter for Novo Dia than they are at the other Lima Greenhouses. They have to measure and trace everything they produce. It’s also a new industry, so all growers are forced flowerstoshe really wants. use equipment that isn’t fully developed or optimized for cannabis. Not to mention, it’s still technically illegal at the federal level, which
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Lima says is the greatest concern for him and his family. At the end of the day, though, it’s just an extension of their longtime family business — a legacy that is very much an integral part of the family. Even the name, Novo Dia, Portuguese for “new day,” and the packaging, adorned with a rooster, the national bird of Portugal, pays homage to the family’s heritage. “My grandparents were in the greenhouse business forever. They now babysit all our girls. We’ve got five girls that they babysit while we all work in the grow. It’s my parents, my sister and my brother. It’s a tight group,” Lima says. n
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brightening my day with our brief interaction, it’s the little things these days. I sure hope to see you next time I need some recommendations! Or perhaps share a J when its legal to do so of course ;) YOU AND ME SF, It’s been a year since I saw you last, and you are still the most beautiful thing ever! This time isolating with you has been so sweet. You are the best. I love the way you Love. CL
I SAW YOU WALKING DOWN THE STREET I saw you, walking alone, down Riverside near People’s Park. You opted to walk down the middle of the road, which I thought was odd, but who am I to judge. Cars stopped to let you walk. I was on a run and was awed by your independence to go wherever you wanted. You maintained 6 ft of distance which I thought was kind. I was also in awe because you are an emu, which is quite a strange animal to see just walking down the street. You go emu. Hope you found your home. CINEX I dropped in today at Cinder downtown, 4/29 and was met by you! You’re magnetic in your chill demeanor and it was nice to see such a friendly, and handsome, face during one of my government approved outings. Youwearing a dark colored jacket, small hand tattoos, and a warm charming smile. Me-just another girl surfacing from quarantine for some flower. I only had a 20, and since you don’t get tips anyway, perhaps I could buy you a drink or two? You know, when social distancing eases up. Thanks for
SOUND OFF
I SAW YOU IN ALL THE STRANGEST PLACES And I kept seeing you, and hearing you, and you were generating auditory nerve stimuli to create sound I could only hear inside my head, and it reminds me of the Book of Ezekiel. Wheels within wheels. Trippy Bro I guess we’re all just in a reality projection field and all those beautiful telescopic images are not real, or maybe those supernovae silently think colorless green thoughts seamlessly. Dont you get tired of making everything up? All that claptra to steer a bummed out mood? Waste of time — look at the weather! Choooooo Looooose. You people aren’t exclusionary and prejudiced and obsessed with the hegemony of whatever you are... not human. I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE I see you. You see me, and you think I don’t see you so much. But I always know it’s you, because it’s everybody. Thanks for helping me to think out of the box. Goodbye.
CHEERS CONOCO 4/29 Cheers!! To the lady that paid for the gentleman’s gas tonight. It really shocked him and he was very humbled and said “tell her
thank you.” You restore my faith in humanity during these trying times
“
themselves with an AR-15 and march on their state capitols, demanding the
I guess we’re all just in a reality projection field and all those beautiful telescopic images are not real, or maybe those supernovae silently think colorless green thoughts seamlessly.
THANK YOU Thank you to the wonderful employees at DeLeon’s, who not only found my wallet but tracked me down to return it!
JEERS BLOOMIES BLUNDER Jeers to KHQ for reporting on the unmasked “Bloomsday”’runners/walkers/water passer out-ers was a positive thing. Shame on KHQ, Bloomsday was postponed for a reason. Shame on you stubborn, selfish Spokane-ites who not only embarrassed our whole community but put it at further risk. Why is your desire to run a race more important than the well being of a whole community? OLD GROWTH TREES CUT DOWN Jeers to everyone involved in the recent felling of several beloved old growth trees at Holmberg Conservation Area in North Spokane near Whitworth campus. There were about 7 old growth trees felled alongside the gravel road leading to an unknown fenced-off gov-
1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3. Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”
38 INLANDER MAY 7, 2020
ernment utility structure; apparently the access road wasn’t wide enough.
I aver that cutting down any 200+yr old tree inside a “conservation area” for such frivolous reasons is a terrible crime. These massive trees were even growing on a sloped hillside within the Little Spokane River watershed. I don’t need to explain how much stability (against erosion/landslides) an old growth tree’s roots can lend to a steeply sloped, and moist landscape of soil and rock; it’s very irresponsible to kill them. Since I moved to the neighborhood, I have cherished Holmberg Conservation Area because I am a proud tree hugger, and I seek out old growth specifically because they give the best tree hugs. Since the fellings, my heart fills with sadness and drifts towards anger when I visit the site, but I hope that by spreading awareness about the importance of old growth trees, I can bring some redemption to their deaths. Learn to love the older trees in your neighborhood, and if you see something, say something! FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO... Anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to arm
”
Right to Mill Around Outside, should work a 36 hour shift at the local hospital. FURNITURE SALES SLUT To the person that works at a popular furniture store. You’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing... sleeping with the whole office... stalking men who are already in relationships?! Destroying marriages (just like you did your own. Stop blaming him for that by the way) for what? So you can try and feel attractive for once in your life? n
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1. Air rifle ammo 2. Synthesizer pioneer Robert 3. Sun and Sky org. 4. Bygone Swedish auto 5. Away 6. “In all probability ...” 7. Spiral shape 8. Main part of a ship 9. Actress Fanning 10. Antic 11. Prepare to surf, perhaps 12. “That sounds bad!” 13. Huey, Dewey and Louie, e.g. 21. Do fall yardwork 22. Peter Fonda title role of 1997 25. Melissa Jefferson, ____ Lizzo 26. Like bulls and bucks 27. Gas or elec., e.g.
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regular Cheri 39. Not too shabby 41. Apt casting choice for a remake of “9 to 5” ... because of her name 44. Stood on the hind legs, with “up” 45. How sardines are often packed 46. Head covering 49. Poke 51. Apt casting choice for a remake of “9 to 5” ... because of her name 58. A, in Arabic 59. Neighbor of a Saudi 60. Dua ____ (2018 Best New Artist) 62. Bewildered 63. French : merci :: German : ____ 64. Its license plates say “Life Elevated” 65. Shoddy pair?
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28. They bring up ticket holders 29. “____ a drink!” 30. Friend of Mary Poppins 31. ____ Tzu 33. Crowd noise
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ACROSS 1. Jaguar alternatives 5. Something to carve out 10. Pay phone feature 14. ____ fide 15. Two-time N.L. batting champ Lefty 16. Hostess snack cake 17. Japanese bowlful 18. Govt. security 19. Brand with “Thick & Fluffy” products 20. Apt casting choice for a remake of “9 to 5” ... because of her name 23. Kitchen counter crawler 24. Territories 25. In a frenzy 29. “Hedda Gabler” playwright 32. Apt casting choice for a remake of “9 to 5” ... because of her name 37. Et ____ 38. Former “Saturday Night Live”
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34. Men at Work’s “Who Can ____ Now?” 35. “This will ____ further!” 36. “The Avengers” villain 40. Broadband initials
42. Shocks 43. Nickname for Israel’s Netanyahu 46. Burn 47. Actress Sevigny 48. Greet the day 49. Of poor quality, in modern slang 50. Sign after Pisces 52. Italian luxury shoe brand 53. “____ my wit’s end!”
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