Yes, later this fall when we’re picking the nation’s next president, but also right now Don’t let your right to vote be wasted — primary elections historically have super low voter turnout, usually in the 30th percentile most non-presidential election years. For comparison, just under half of Spokane County voters turned in their ballots during the 2020 primary, when it was time to narrow down the list of candidates for Washington state’s 5th Congressional District, as well as for Washington’s governor, attorney general, and a dozen or so other state and local positions.
Between now and Aug. 6, it’s time for voters to choose who’ll appear on the general election ballot once again, in an especially historic moment for the 5th District now that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is retiring, leaving her long-held seat open for a newcomer.
As that catchy song from Hamilton goes, don’t throw away your shot to participate in democracy, and get those ballots filled out. Our PRIMARY ELECTION coverage starts on page 16.
— CHEY SCOTT, Editor
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IF YOU LIVED IN MEDIEVAL TIMES, WHAT WOULD YOUR ROLE BE?
CAIT WEBER
I would want to be maybe a jester or a bard musician-type person. I just graduated with a bachelor’s in music, so honestly if I could be like a court musician, that would be really cool, and I would want to play this really big [instrument], it looks like a lute but it has a really long neck. It’s called a theorbo, and it’s not like a bass, but it’s kind of like a bass.
KATIE YEIGH
I would be a king. I would love to be a king.
Would you make any executive decisions or changes?
Several, all of them, yes! No more feudalism, let’s get some democracy going real early.
CHRIS ELL
I think a mason. Somebody that’s working for something and is kind of working on something solid and real, and focused and helpful.
What kind of things would you build? Homes, walls and something to help protect people or bring people together.
TALLULAH HARRIS
I would most likely be a knight. Something about the code of conduct loyalty.
Would you enjoy wearing the armor and stuff?
Honestly, yeah.
Would you like going into battle? I mean, maybe a little less.
JAYCELYN SIMONS
I would play, if it was not real and very fake, I would be a magic user. But if it was more real, I would probably just be a baker.
What kind of things would you bake? Oh, bread.
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OVER 1000 WHISKEYS ON THE WALL & GREAT FOOD
Trails to Prosperity
Other cities are making the most of their greenways and waterfront trails; Spokane and the Inland Northwest could be doing more
BY ANTHONY GILL
Acouple months ago, I visited Detroit on a “study mission” with a bunch of fellow economic development professionals and a few elected officials. I had known from a couple prior visits that the city’s post-Great Financial Crisis reputation was quickly becoming outdated, but seeing the place — and listening to techno, walking the waterfront, exploring gritty, artsy neighborhoods — firsthand with peers really solidified my sense of a city on the rise.
I was particularly impressed with their effort to develop (or, in some cases, redevelop) greenways across the city connecting neighborhoods with the city’s newly active urban waterfront. It seemed like every neighborhood had a tentacle of paved trail, often with beautiful playgrounds, parks and other amenities in the right-of-way. Many had public art and murals and community gardens. Near a few of them, you could tell that
businesses were starting to adapt, with large outdoor patios and (of course) abundant bike racks. Spokane certainly isn’t a slouch for multiuse urban trails. The Centennial Trail is a 37-mile (or 61-mile, if you count the stretch in North Idaho) cultural icon.
The new South Gorge Connector is poised to provide breathtaking new views of the Monroe Street Bridge. WSDOT is constructing a new paved trail (the Children of the Sun Trail) near the North Spokane Corridor. Even Spokane Valley has a 6-mile stretch of rail trail paralleling Sprague Avenue.
But I’d argue we don’t take nearly enough advantage of them.
Connections between nearby retail and commercial spaces and our regional trails should be emphasized. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
In too many places, we’ve missed huge opportunities to develop businesses and buildings that interact directly with users of the trail. No-Li Brewhouse, for example, is only a couple hundred feet away from the Centennial Trail, but you certainly wouldn’t know if you were riding by. Kendall Yards makes a better effort, but even there, most of the retail shops and restaurants are up on Summit Boulevard, and a Premera Blue Cross office planned in the area could make the trail area seem like a bit of an afterthought.
In part because of the success of projects like the ones I saw in Detroit and others in Atlanta (like Ponce City Market along the Beltline), Indianapolis, Minneapolis and New York City (yes, the High Line counts!), property developers and urban planners are increasingly advocating for trail-oriented development. In other words, making housing, retail and office development as compatible and integrated with urban trails as possible. Instead of facing away from a trail, development and businesses would open directly onto it. Of course, this makes trail users prime customers, but it also increases property values, as seen near analogs in Atlanta, Detroit and Indianapolis — and in Seattle, along the Burke-Gilman Trail.
…property developers and urban planners [in some cities] are increasingly advocating for trail-oriented development.
What would trail-oriented development look like in Spokane? Well, it would probably start with simple marketing — help for small businesses to understand the customers they miss if they fail to take advantage of their location along a local trail, how much they typically spend, and what types of products they tend to be looking for. Gradually, perhaps a retailer or a restaurant will shift its offerings or create new outdoor spaces. Other businesses might specifically choose to open to be close to the trail, and the city should support them however it can.
In time, the city could adopt zoning rules that require some level of increased interaction for properties adjacent to the Centennial Trail or other regional trails. This would ensure that new-construction buildings offer additional amenities to serve trail users. For apartment buildings, this might mean providing high-quality bike storage, prioritizing patio or balcony spaces for people-watching, allowing more units so more people can live near such an incredible amenity and ensuring direct access to the trail itself. For commercial buildings, it might mean providing a “main” entrance directly from the trail and requiring “active uses” — generally, retail and restaurant spaces — along it on the first floor.
Finally, the city could do more to construct additional offstreet trails across the city — particularly a north-south route through the core of the city. Bicyclists of all ages generally feel safer on dedicated routes where they never have to interact with motor vehicles, and the biggest obstacle to trail-oriented development here in Spokane is a simple lack of urban trails. In the 1990s, the Centennial Trail was a huge lift, but few would argue that it hasn’t paid off. I’d argue that it’s time for our next big effort.
Trail-oriented development like I am describing takes time. But after what I’ve seen in Detroit, Atlanta and elsewhere, I’m convinced it can make our city more livable, economically thriving, exciting, community-oriented and healthy. n
Anthony Gill is an economic development professional, Spokane native and writer of Spokane Rising, an urbanist blog about ways to make our city a better place to live.
‘People Are Overheating’
As Spokane inches toward a new shelter system, unhoused people take to parks to beat the heat
BY NATE SANFORD
There’s relief in the shade.
It’s noon on Friday, July 19. About 30 people, apparently unhoused, are seeking shelter from the sun under trees in Cowley Park, a 2-acre park nestled in the South Hill medical area a few blocks south of the freeway. People are scattered across the grassy field in groups of three to 10, sitting next to tarps and piles of belongings.
The air is dry. It’s 91 degrees and rising. A couple people are smoking fentanyl, but most appear to be simply chilling out and trying to beat the heat. The park
is close to the downtown core and has seen an influx of people as temperatures surged in recent weeks.
“There’s shade and it’s more peaceful,” says Champagne Liddle, who is homeless and sitting under a tree with a group of people in the northwest corner. “There’s no drama or anything down here. Everyone’s just peaceful and quiet and stays to themselves.”
During the heatwave, Cowley also has one big feature that most other city parks lack: a small creek.
“That creek is a really vital resource,” says Levi Flagel, a friend of Liddle’s.
Flagel says he and others staying in the park sometimes use the creek to wash up and clean themselves. It’s like a “bird bath,” he says.
While Flagel doesn’t personally drink from the creek, he says some other people staying in the park do.
“In heat, you’ve gotta have water, right?” Flagel says.
STAYING COOL
Spokane City Council member Paul Dillon arrives at the park shortly after noon.
“I’m with the City Council, I’m just coming to see how things are going down here today,” Dillon says to Flagel and Liddle. “Are you staying cool down here?”
Dillon’s district covers Cowley Park. He decided to check it out — coincidentally at the same time we did — because of an unusual email he received from Julie Garcia, the CEO of homeless nonprofit Jewels Helping Hands.
Levi Flagel, left, and Raerey J. found relief from the heat last week in Cowley Park. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
On July 11, Garcia had emailed Dillon, Mayor Lisa Brown and other city officials with a list of recommendations for how the city can better address its homelessness crisis. One suggestion stood out.
“Sweep Cowley Park,” Garcia wrote.
It wasn’t the type of message you’d normally expect from Garcia. She’s an outspoken homeless rights advocate who regularly does outreach handing out water and food to homeless people across the city. In her email, she stressed that she has never been one to encourage police sweeps.
“This is one exception,” she added. “This park needs [to be] swept for the sake of those children and families.”
Garcia tells the Inlander that she’s concerned by the amount of drug use in the park. She was alarmed by the sight of a woman bathing in the creek, and she worries about children at the hospital and nearby day care. The number of people camping at the park has grown rapidly in recent weeks, she says.
On the same day as Garcia’s email, Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium Director Ben Stuckart told a crowd of supporters at a fundraiser for his run for state Legislature that he’d counted 64 people at Cowley Park while handing out water there earlier that day.
When I drove by that evening, the number appeared closer to 25 or 30. It was still a pretty shocking scene. The park is tiny — just 316 feet long and 264 feet wide. Every corner seemed occupied by a tarp or a tent.
Garcia suspects that recent efforts to clamp down on drug activity and camping in the area near Second Avenue and Division Street — which was recently designated as a “priority encampment zone” under the same state’s Rightof-Way Encampment Resolution Program — has pushed some homeless people away from the downtown core and into Cowley and other nearby parks.
I wasn’t able to independently confirm this. The five people at Cowley I talked to on Friday all gave varying reasons for being there, including the fact that it’s shady, quiet and a place where you’re less likely to get
told to move by law enforcement. (I wasn’t able to talk to everyone at the park; some groups were suspicious of the question and didn’t want to talk.)
After seeing the park for himself, Dillon says he disagrees with Garcia’s assessment that it needs to be swept.
“People are here to cool off, it’s clean, I’m not seeing litter,” Dillon says. “If you’re coming here to cool off, you’re not breaking any laws. We need to be humane.”
A NEW SHELTER MODEL
Both Liddle and Flagel say they’re frustrated by the lack of shelter options provided by the city.
“They say go to the shelters or whatever, but the shelters are at maximum capacity right now,” Flagel says. “We get on our phones, and we check every single day.”
The city has a website called sheltermespokane.org where people can check shelter capacity. It assigns each shelter a color based on capacity: Green means more than 25% of beds are open, yellow means less than 25% are open, and red means the shelter is full.
On Friday, the website looked like a wildfire.
Family Promise, House of Charity and Hope House Women’s Shelter were all full. The Crosswalk Youth Shelter had four beds, Truth Ministries had seven beds, and the YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter had one bed.
The city’s largest shelter, the Trent Resource and Assistance Center, listed 65 of its 350 beds as open. But Dillon notes that the shelter is way out in an industrial area and not easy to get to.
Dillon tells Liddle and Flagel that the city is working toward a new “scattered site” shelter model. The new approach is part of Mayor Brown’s plan to de-congregate homeless services, and will involve a number of small shelters with space for 20 to 30 people scattered across the city. Dillon says the conditions at large congregate shelters with hundreds of beds are inadequate, and that the scattered site model would be calmer and safer while also reducing neighborhood impact.
During a recent meeting, Arielle Anderson, the city’s
Community, Housing and Human Services director, told City Council members that the scattered site model also gives providers space to give clients the individual attention they need.
“We’re going to take the time to get to know you, understand what your needs are, where you’re at medically,” Anderson said.
The city has put out a request for proposals for operators to run the shelters. Officials have yet to identify locations.
The scattered site model was inspired in part by an effort Garcia spearheaded this winter to use churches across the city as warming centers with space for 20 to 30 people each. The program launched in January this year, and was touted as a success by city leaders. But Garcia says it has recently started running into hurdles at the two churches that continue to operate as shelters: New Aposolic Church and Morning Star Baptist.
The church shelters operate on “more of a high-barrier” referral system, Garcia says. That means people can only get a bed if they agree to rules regarding substance use and have been screened and referred by a local service provider. But not everyone knows that. Garcia says people from downtown have recently been traveling to the churches because they incorrectly believe they’ll be able to get a bed for the night. It’s resulted in an uptick in safety incidents and calls to police, she says.
Between Jan. 1 and July 21 this year, there were 23 calls for service at the New Apostolic Church, according to Julie Humphries, a spokesperson with the Spokane Police Department. There were four during the same time period in 2023, before it was operating as a shelter.
Morning Star Baptist saw a similar increase — from 2 calls for service during the first six and a half months of 2023 to 27 during the same time period this year. The people causing issues aren’t the ones staying at the churches, Garcia says.
“It’s people coming onto our property looking for beds to go to and refusing to leave,” Garcia says.
Garcia’s organization has applied to be one of the operators for the city’s new scattered site plan, but she isn’t sure if she’ll get it because the city is looking for a more “low barrier” model. As the city prepares to close the Trent shelter, she’s worried the new plan won’t be enough to replace it.
“We’re going to head into winter in a few months, the scattered site models are definitely not enough,” Garcia says.
HUMAN NEEDS
Liddle, 24, says she grew up in and out of the foster care system in Spokane. She was recently in California, but returned to Spokane about a month ago because the father of her children was arrested, and she’s hoping to regain custody. She’s on a waitlist for housing, but says it’s taking forever.
Sometimes Liddle is able to stay with friends. But when she isn’t, she’ll sometimes sleep downtown in the area near Second and Division. She says she’ll often pay someone to watch her and make sure she’s safe while she sleeps.
Spokane City Council Member Paul Dillon, left, speaks with Champagne Liddle, who is unhoused, at Cowley Park. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
“Sometimes I don’t really sleep, just because you never know,” Liddle says.
The bathroom in Cowley Park is closed, and the water fountains are shut off. Dillon says that’s “unacceptable,” and tells Liddle he’ll talk to the Parks Department to get it turned back on.
“That’s a huge frustration, this is a bodily function,” Dillon says.
While we’re talking, a man arrives at the park with a crate full of plastic water bottles and stashes them in the creek to keep them cool.
In an email, Parks spokesperson Fianna Dickson says the bathroom and water fountains have been out of service all season because of a sewer issue. A porta-potty was in place earlier this summer, but later removed because of repeated vandalism, she says.
Dillon and other advocates have long argued that Spokane’s public restroom shortage is a public health issue that impacts everyone — not just homeless people. In June, the City Council voted to spend $100,000 in pandemic relief funds to study the feasibility of installing public restrooms downtown.
The idea of adding public restrooms has been floating around for years, but some groups have pushed back. In 2021, a survey commissioned by the Downtown Spokane Partnership found that 56% of downtown property and business owners believed building public restrooms would “only further enable life on the street.”
‘BEING HOMELESS IS NOT A CRIME’
Over the weekend, temperatures soared to 105 degrees. Dillon visited Cowley Park again on Sunday and counted about 25 people.
“Everyone minding their business in the shade, very calm,” Dillon said in a text.
Next month, the City Council will consider a law introduced by Council members Kitty Klitzke and Lili Navarrete that would add “housing status” to the city’s list of protected classes. If passed, the law would strengthen homeless peoples’ property and privacy rights and increase protections against discriminatory hiring.
The move to add homelessness as a protected class comes as the city grapples with how far it wants to go in criminalizing homeless people for camping in public.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled to reverse Johnson v. Grants Pass, a precedent-setting 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that found it’s unconstitutional for cities to punish people for camping outside when there isn’t sufficient shelter space.
The Supreme Court ruling gives Spokane the go-ahead to implement broad camping bans. That includes Proposition 1, the citizen ballot initiative passed in November that made it a misdemeanor to camp within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and child care facilities — an area that covers 60% of the city.
Proposition 1 has previously gone unenforced, but earlier this month City Attorney Mike Piccolo told City Council members that the Supreme Court ruling means Spokane has no legal reason not to enforce the law.
“Our flexibility is much greater now,” Piccolo said.
Dillon says he hopes the city will move toward a model where outreach workers, not police, are the first to respond to encampments. He says he is also working on an ordinance to make sure people’s belongings are secure when camps are cleared.
At Cowley Park, Dillon tells the group sheltering under the tree that “being homeless is not a crime.”
“Well they’re making it a crime,” Flagel responds. “Why is that? Is that fair?”
“No,” Dillon says. “It’s not fair.” n nates@inlander.com
Taking the Lead
July - August Issue ON STANDS NOW!
Pick up your copy at area grocery stores and Inlander stand locations
Deteriorating lead paint affects thousands of homes in Spokane County; local government is applying for federal dollars to help
BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM
Home ought to be a haven. But in thousands of Spokane homes, walls could harbor hazards instead.
In 1978, the U.S. government banned the consumer use of lead paint. But a home built before the ban might still be painted with lead paint, and the likelihood of lead paint increases the older the house is.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, houses built from 1960 to 1977 have about a 1 in 4 chance of containing lead paint, while those built from 1940 to 1959 have close to a 3 in 4 chance. For those built before 1940, the likelihood increases to almost 90%.
Spokane County has close to 12,000 homes built before 1940. Most of them are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods in downtown Spokane and southeastern Spokane County.
This June, the U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a grant opportunity for cities, counties and tribal governments to pay for lead hazard control reduction efforts for low-income residents.
Spokane County is eligible for anywhere from $1 million to $4 million to eradicate lead paint in old homes, mostly for residents who have children under 6 years old and make 50% to 80% of area median income. Eligible residents may live in rented or owned homes.
blood-lead level in children” can have adverse effects.
The EPA says the effects of lead in children can include slowed growth, behavioral and learning problems, lower IQ, anemia, and hyperactivity. Children in lower-income communities are often at a higher risk of lead exposure because families earning lower than the area median income often live in older or more deteriorated homes.
The grant prioritizes remediation efforts for homes built before 1940. The city of Spokane has the majority of pre-1940 homes in the county, with an estimated 10,402 homes built over eight decades ago.
Not all of those homes would be eligible for grant-funded lead hazard control efforts. Federal dollars would be spent on homes inhabited by low-income residents with young children. A minimum of 65% of the awarded grant would have to be used toward direct remediation efforts, Fritz said in a presentation to the county commissioners. But the remaining 35% could be used for indirect services like temporary relocation, data collection and blood tests for children. However, the grant would not be able to cover ongoing medical costs, if any were necessary.
In early July, the Board of County Commissioners gave the greenlight to the county’s housing and community development team to apply for the HUD grant. The effort is spearheaded by community development program manager Aidan Fritz, who is in discussions with the City of Spokane and community partners like SNAP to identify the highest areas of need in the county.
If Spokane County wins the grant, Fritz and his team will contract professional repainting services after identifying homes for remediation. Getting rid of lead paint can be too dangerous for amateurs.
“If you’re going to be stripping the paint, it will definitely be risky,” says Pavel Parfilo, an affordable housing program manager with the county who’s also involved in the project. “That’s where risk [also] comes in — if you’re trying to get rid of the paint and then you’re spewing it everywhere.”
If it stays on the wall, lead paint is essentially harmless. But if the paint starts chipping, deteriorating and getting into the air or piles of dust on window sills and flooring, that’s when it can become dangerous.
Lead is especially harmful to young children, who are also the most likely to be playing on the floor and sticking objects in their mouths. According to HUD, “lead exposure at any measurable
Nationally, the average cost for lead remediation is anywhere from $9,000 to $30,000 per house, Fritz said. The number of houses this grant could affect depends on how much the county applies for and how much each remediation costs.
Fritz said he wants to rehab as many homes as possible, but does not want to apply for more money than his team could responsibly oversee.
In 2013, the City of Spokane was audited by HUD’s Office of Inspector General after being awarded the largest Lead Hazard Control grant that year in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
The Inspector General reported that the city “failed to ensure cost reasonableness” for four contracts and “did not accurately report the final total expenditure amount, the number of jobs created, and the amount of its vendor payments.” The city was asked to clarify its records or return nearly $1.4 million in grant money.
Fritz said the city decided not to apply for this HUD grant. But that decision makes it easier for Fritz and his team, should they be awarded grant money, to coordinate lead remediation efforts in highest need areas across the entire county. In the meantime, if you are concerned about your own home, for now your best bet might be to contact a private lead paint remediator. As the project gains steam, outreach efforts may help you determine whether you are affected. n
Joe Says It Ain’t So
Local candidates react to President Biden’s decision. Plus, don’t forget to apply for Washington tax credits; and Spokane dodges the worst of Crowdstrike’s cyberglitch.
BY INLANDER STAFF
BIDEN BOWS OUT
It’s Joever. After weeks of pressure to step aside from members of his own party concerned about his age and ability to defeat Donald Trump in November, President Joe Biden, 81, announced on Sunday that he is stepping aside as the Democratic presidential nominee and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place. The news was met with praise from local Democrat-affiliated politicians like City Council member Zack Zappone and Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown. Biden’s fitness as a candidate had been a subject of disagreement among Democrats in the race to represent Eastern Washington in Congress. Two weeks ago, Dr. Bernadine Bank, an OB-GYN, was the first Democrat in the 5th Congressional District race to call on him to drop out. In a statement on Sunday, she threw her support behind Harris. “With so many Senators and party leaders already endorsing Harris, the party leadership has been working behind the scenes with Biden to make things happen,” Bank said. The only Democrat in the Congressional race who had explicitly called on Biden to stay in was Ann Marie Danimus, a small-business consultant. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she thanked Biden for his service and pledged to support the new nominee. (NATE SANFORD)
FORGOTTEN FUNDS
More than 17,000 Spokanites are missing out on precious tax money through the Washington state Department of Revenue’s Working Families Tax Credit. These funds are available on a sliding scale based upon family size and income level. For example, a single individual with no children would need to make less than $17,460 a year to qualify for $315 of credits, while a married couple with three kids — the top of the scale — would need to make less than $63,398 to qualify for $1,255. So far only 42% of eligible Spokane County residents have applied for these credits, with about $9.3 million in payouts since the tax credit was funded by the Legislature in 2021. To address this, Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners will assist folks with their applications at an Aug. 3 Back-to-School Resource Carnival. Additionally, Nuestras Raices Centro Comunitario will be holding walk-in Wednesdays at its 1214 E. Sprague Ave. location to assist families with their applications too. (COLTON RASANEN)
COMPUTER CHAOS
Last Thursday, a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused widespread chaos — shutting down millions of computers using Microsoft Windows systems and disrupting airports, local governments, banking and hospitals across the country. Thankfully, the Spokane region managed to ride the Crowdstrike disruption with minimal road bumps. MultiCare’s Deaconess and Valley Hospitals rescheduled nonemergency procedures. Spokane government agencies fared better against the disruption than other large cities, such as Portland, which declared a citywide emergency. Spokane Transit Authority’s social media accounts stated the system disruption was minimal and wouldn’t impact riders. City of Spokane spokesperson Erin Hut reported no disruptions or outages impacted the city due to the Crowdstrike update. “So far, everything has been going pretty smoothly on our end,” Hut says. Spokane County communications director Patrick Bell says the county experienced some disruption, but the systems affected were back online within the workday. The cloud-based SmartGov permitting software was impacted and was only intermittently accessible before the workday. According to CrowdStrike’s website, 82% of U.S. state governments and 48% of the largest 50 U.S. cities use their cybersecurity software. (VICTOR CORRAL MARTINEZ)
SUNDAY
CARMELA CONROY DEMOCRAT
As a retired Foreign Service Officer, Carmela was stationed in combat zones, shoulder-to-shoulder with our military, negotiating trade deals, and helping America lead during international conflicts. She built partnerships and promoted our shared American values under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
As Eastern Washington’s Representative in Congress, she’ll work with both parties to protect Social Security and Medicare, and expand tax credits for parents, small businesses, and farmers, while doing more to get housing prices under control.
Streamlining Student Wellness
Three Spokane high schools are now equipped with on-campus medical centers for day-to-day health services
BY COLTON RASANEN
Do you remember how exciting it was in high school when you got to leave class early for a doctor’s appointment? That moment of relief as you spent an hour or two away from the classroom felt magical, but if you asked your parents, they might remember it differently.
They’d probably recall the frustrating work it took to rearrange their entire day to take their kid across town for a regular checkup that couldn’t possibly be scheduled at a more inconvenient time. In response to that lack of easily accessible student health care, Spokane Public Schools (SPS) has partnered with CHAS Health to build health centers inside three of the district’s high schools: Rogers, Shadle Park and North Central.
“A huge component of excellent, equitable health care is access,” said Rebecca Doughty, the executive director of School Support Services for SPS, in a June 2024 announcement about expanding the clinic offerings. “Delivering care to people where they are at — in this case, students — helps address this issue.”
Another component of that equitable health care access included building those clinics in schools with high rates of lowincome students. More than half of students at the three schools — 54% at Shadle Park, 63% at North Central and 79% at Rogers — are considered low-income, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Districtwide, about 62% of SPS’ 29,444 students are considered low-income.
Rogers High School’s clinic opened in fall 2019 as a pilot program. While it faltered in its infancy due to pandemic restrictions preventing students from attending school in-person, it’s since seen positive results. In the last 12 months alone, Rogers’ clinic has served more than 650 patients through nearly 2,000 visits.
Students are allowed to visit the school clinics without a parent or guardian present, but they must provide explicit parental consent before any care can be provided. Providers often connect with students’ families to talk about their health and to provide resources on preventative health such as nutrition and exercise.
“Parents really appreciate being able to have a close connection with their provider,” says Tamitha Shockley French, CHAS Health vice president of communications and public policy. “They’re not having to leave work to go pick up their kid and take them across town — nobody misses school or work, so I think that’s a thing parents really love.”
The clinics inside North Central and Shadle Park, which both opened in May 2024, have already proved invaluable to some students, says Jeff Hayward, one of CHAS Health’s lead physician assistants. For example, Hayward saw a student who’d been struggling with poor vision and was able to get them prescription lenses.
“This was like the week before school was done,” he says.
“That’s almost the whole school year he was struggling to even read the board, and we got him glasses in just a few weeks.”
Born and raised in Spokane, Hayward always knew he wanted to make a difference for his community. So, when he attended Western Washington University in 2001, he decided to pursue a degree in psychology. A few years after graduating, he took a job as a mental health case manager at Frontier Behavioral Health.
Hayward loved his job providing mental health care, but there was no chance for advancement with only his bachelor’s degree. So in 2013, after about five years at Frontier, Hayward enrolled in the University of Washington’s physician assistant master’s degree program. He completed the program in 2015 and returned to Spokane to work at CHAS Health. After the Rogers High clinic opened in 2019, Hayward was named lead physician assistant there.
“I feel like I’m giving back in the same way that I received from my community,” he says.
Hayward’s work in the health centers is mainly focused on a generalized regimen of care, but his background in mental health has proved vital while working with students.
“As far as really helping people, I don’t think I’ll ever do anything better for an individual person than I used to in mental health,” he explains. “But, it feels like in family medicine I can do a greater spectrum of care for people where I can address multiple aspects of their health.”
As he bounces between the three high schools, his work includes both in-person and telehealth visits. And unlike school nurses who deal with in-the-moment care, such as stomachaches and administering medication, Hayward can address patient health, including making diagnoses and prescribing medications. Additionally, Hayward’s team can provide school-required medical services like annual physical examinations required for sports participation and up-to-date vaccines. The clinics are open year round, from 7:30 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.
“This is the age when you connect with people… and help them build a pathway where they’re stable for the rest of their life,” he says. “I think to be able to intervene in this way has such a profound effect on them, and that’s what I love.”
Each new clinic cost about $300,000 to install. About half of the funding came from Spokane city government, and the rest came from the school district’s annual capital project funding, which includes leftover funds from the district’s bonds.
Hayward says SPS and CHAS Health plan to open more health centers as the need arises.
“Wherever there’s a need, we want to be there,” Hayward says, “and what else is better for them than to meet their needs right in the place where they’re at during most of the day?” n coltonr@inlander.com
WINNING IS JUST THE BEGINNING
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25TH | 4:30 PM – 8 PM
Enjoy one-pound crab, half-pound shrimp, half-pound crawfish, half-pound clams, sausage, red potatoes and a corn on the cob boiled in a Louisiana broth. Served with cornbread and coleslaw. Join us outdoors near the Spa Tower hotel entrance.
Hurry! Tickets are limited.
$50 (Advance Purchase) | $55 (Day of the Event)
Advance ticket purchase highly recommended. Tickets will include designated entry times and the supply of tickets is limited. All ages are welcome. Reduced ticket pricing for children is not available at this special event. Serving sizes are based on uncooked weight estimations.
Medical assistant Jeremy Rinde at the front desk of Shadle’s CHAS clinic. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
The 10-candidate race to represent Eastern Washington in Congress
The Fight for the
It was going to be a normal election year in Eastern Washington.
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, seemed poised to run for reelection again, and win, as she always has.
But then, in early February, McMorris Rodgers abruptly announced that she would be stepping down after two de cades representing the 5th Congressional District. The news turned the race on its head. The floodgates were suddenly open.
Five months later, the race for Washington’s 5th Congres sional District — which stretches from west of Ritzville to the Idaho border, and from the Oregon border to the Canadian border — is one of the most crowded in the state. Six Republi cans and four Democrats are running for the seat.
A fifth Democrat, Bobbi Bennett-Wolcott, will also appear on the ballot. But on July 19, Bennett-Wolcott announced that she was dropping out and endorsing fellow Democrat Bernadine Bank.
The two candidates with the most votes in the Aug. 6 pri mary election will advance to the general. Republicans have a historic 8-point advantage in the district, but Democrats say they’re hopeful. Republican Michael Baumgartner says his campaign’s polling data indicates that voters “will likely see a Democrat in the general election.”
The 10 candidates are running in the shadow of a histori cally tumultuous presidential election. Most say political divi sion is one of the biggest concerns they hear from voters. It’s a fast-moving race with a lot of big ideas and big per sonalities. To help break it down, here’s a rundown of who’s running and what they’re talking about.
THE SIX REPUBLICANS
JONATHAN BINGLE
THE CHRISTIAN CITY COUNCIL MEMBER
Bingle’s decision to run was prompted by frustration over COVID lockdowns. Shortly after his election to Spokane City Council in 2021, he was censured for refusing to wear a mask. His trivia events company was also impacted by business restrictions. He thinks every elected leader — even McMorris Rodgers and Trump — should have done more to fight back.
“My business got shut down,” Bingle says. “My elected leaders failed me.”
Bingle, 37, is a devout Christian. He’s staunchly pro-life and lists “reviving the American Spirit through a return to our Judeo/Christian roots” as one of his top priorities.
MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER
THE SEASONED SPOKANE LEGISLATOR
On the campaign trail, Baumgartner, 48, likes to paint himself as an experienced legislator who knows how to defeat Democrats in competitive elections. He previously served as a state senator and is currently Spokane County treasurer. He highlights his efforts in Olympia to bring a medical school to Spokane, fund the North-South Freeway and pass legislation eliminating five state government agencies through consolidation.
Before entering politics, Baumgartner, a WSU grad with a master’s degree from Harvard, worked in Afghanistan and Iraq doing economic and counterinsurgency work for the State Department. Today, he says the effort to spread democracy in the Middle East was “noble in its goals, but was not practical in its abilities and costs.”
Baumgartner has a sizable fundraising lead. He has $616,866 in reported campaign funds — more than double the amount raised by Jacquelin Maycumber, the Republican with the second-highest total. He also boasts endorsements from prominent local Republicans including state Sen. Mike Padden and former Spokane Mayors Nadine Woodward and David Condon.
BRIAN DANSEL
THE TRUMP APPOINTEE Dansel, 41, has one big asset that sets him apart from the other Republicans: a direct connection to the former top boss himself. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump appointed Dansel to serve as an adviser at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and later as an adviser on the National Economic Council. Dansel’s references to Trump got him big applause breaks at a recent Republican debate.
“It was an honor to serve in his administration,” he says.
Dansel, a former state senator who currently serves as a Ferry County commissioner, has been endorsed by the Spokane County GOP and the Washington state Republican Party. He paints himself as an ordinary guy who drives the establishment “a little crazy” because he was “never part of the fundraiser, photo-op crowd.”
At a debate hosted by North Central High School this spring, Dansel joined Republican opponent Rene’ Holaday in claiming Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020. Candidate Maycumber said she had “grave concerns” about that election, and the other Republicans acknowledged, somewhat begrudgingly, that Biden was, in fact, legitimately elected.
JACQUELIN MAYCUMBER
THE RURAL POLICE REPRESENTATIVE
Maycumber represents northeastern Washington’s 7th District in the state Legislature. She grew up there and describes seeing the challenges her constituents face firsthand.
“I live in one of the poorest areas in the state,” Maycumber says. “I see the struggles every single day.”
Maycumber, 44, also has experience as a legislative assistant and as a deputy with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. She has a slew of endorsements from law enforcement leaders and gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association and the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs. She also has endorsements from nearly three dozen state lawmakers.
Maycumber describes herself as a “workhorse not a show horse,” pointing to a string of legislative victories that includes capping the price of insulin, securing auto theft prevention funding, creating a high school apprenticeship program and providing mental health support for first responders.
DR. BERNADINE BANK
THE OB-GYN Bank, a gynecologist at the Community Health Association of Spokane, says she was prompted to run for Congress by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” was a proposed Alabama bill in 2023 that would have charged women who terminate pregnancies with murder.
“I was thinking, ‘Are they going to go back 50 to 60 years?’” Bank says.
Bank, 64, currently has a slight lead over the other Democrats when it comes to fundraising, with $239,006 in reported contributions compared with Carmela Conroy’s $224,226. She is also interested in expanding rural health care and reforming Veterans Affairs.
RENE’ HOLADAY
THE RIGHT-WING RADIO HOST
Unlike the other candidates, who did not bring it up once, Holaday used the words “communist” and “communism” a total of 55 times in our 50-minute interview. The Christian talk radio host and former legislative aide to former state Rep. Matt Shea is deeply worried about the ideology. Holaday, 53, has written two books about her belief that communists are working through the United Nations to infiltrate America in a shadowy plot to destroy individual freedom.
Holaday and Rick Valentine Flynn are the only two candidates who have not reported raising any money so far.
RICK VALENTINE FLYNN
THE MODERATE REPUBLICAN
Flynn, 48, is a longtime Republican. But in recent years, the disabled veteran and farmer says he’s started thinking of himself as more of an independent. He says the Republican Party has shifted to the far right and lost sight of its roots in fiscal conservatism.
Flynn was also driven to run for office because of his frustrations with Veterans Affairs — an organization that he says mistreated both him and his wife, who is also a disabled veteran. He thinks the agency should be done away with entirely so veterans can receive treatment through the Medicaid system instead.
CARMELA CONROY
THE DEMOCRATIC DIPLOMAT
Like many other Democrats, Conroy, 62, was inspired to run by the fallout of the Trump administration.
The former deputy prosecutor served as a foreign service officer in the U.S. Diplomatic Corps up until 2020. When she returned to Spokane, she became involved in local politics and served as chair of the local Democratic Party.
Conroy, Bank and Ann Marie Danimus are the only candidates who filed in the race before McMorris Rodgers announced she wouldn’t run again. Conroy has endorsements from local Democratic lawmakers including state Rep. Marcus Riccelli and outgoing state Sen. Andy Billig.
As with Bank, Conroy is reluctant to support withholding U.S. military aid to Israel to hold the country accountable for civilian casualties in Gaza. Doing so could hurt the “security umbrella” in the region, she says.
...continued on next page
ANN MARIE DANIMUS
THE LIBERAL ACTIVIST
Danimus has done this before. In 2022, she ran for the 5th District seat and was bested in the primary election by Democratic candidate Natasha Hill.
Danimus, who owns a marketing company, is one of the most unapologetically outspoken of the Democrats.
“I’m so tired of nay-saying, crying Democrats,” she wrote in one recent post on X, formerly Twitter. “If y’all haven’t noticed, Biden is running against a f---ing Nazi.”
Danimus, 54, has pledged to accept zero dollars in corporate money, and she emphasizes her focus on rural economic issues.
She was the only Democrat in this race to explicitly call on President Joe Biden to stay in the race amid concerns about his age and ability to beat Trump. Of her fellow Dems, Bernadine Bank said Biden should drop out, while Matthew Welde declined to comment. Carmela Conroy said both parties need to “think long and hard about who is best suited to serve.”
MATTHEW WELDE
THE WOMEN’S RIGHTS PROSECUTOR
Welde, a Liberty Lake resident, has spent more than a decade working as a domestic violence prosecutor, most recently in Kootenai County. He lists the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women as one of his top priorities.
“I fight for women’s rights in the arena of domestic violence every day in court,” Welde says. “An extension of that is fighting for their reproductive and privacy rights.”
Welde, 47, also emphasizes his upbringing in a union household and his support for organized labor. He wants the U.S. to adopt a more universal health care model similar to Japan’s.
ABORTION
The Democrats running for office this year say reproductive rights are a top priority. Many of this year’s Republicans, however, don’t like talking about it at all.
“I don’t like to talk about it because it is just such a soundbite,” Dansel says. “I never had one person ask me about it except for reporters. Never. It’s not an issue.”
Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee approved a new platform that, for the first time in 40 years, did not include a national abortion ban. Bad polling data and a string of recent electoral defeats have prompted some in the party to view it as a political liability.
“An uncomfortable truth is that no matter how you feel personally on abortion, the overturning of Roe v. Wade — coupled with the push for abortion bans — has succeeded in pushing a lot of women to vote Democrat,” Flynn said at a forum hosted by the Republicans of Spokane County earlier this month.
If a national abortion ban did come up in Congress, Maycumber says she would look at it as long as it had exceptions. Baumgartner takes an originalist view of the Constitution and thinks abortion issues should be decided by individual states. Dansel stresses that he’s pro-life, but says he doesn’t like talking about hypothetical scenarios.
Bingle, on the other hand, thinks abortion is the “humanitarian issue of our day,” and he is critical of his fellow Republicans for shying away from the issue and dropping it from the national platform.
Bingle and Holaday would support a national ban on abortion starting at conception. Bingle would also support limits on in-vitro fertilization treatment. He’s OK with exceptions for the health of the mother, but says he would only consider exceptions for rape or incest if it was a “serious, nuanced discussion.”
The four Democrats all say they’d vote to codify the right to abortion nationwide. Danimus, Bank and Welde support some form of limit based on the modern standard of when a fetus be-
Building a healthier future together
For 140 years, we’ve been partnering locally to support communities in the ways they need it most. Because healthy communities need more than health care.
comes viable, while Bennett-Wolcott and Conroy think it should be left up to the provider.
The Democrats push back on the idea that abortion should be a state issue.
“If you’re a second-class citizen in Idaho state because of this, you’re also a second-class citizen here,” Bank says. “It just feels like we’re going backwards and not moving forward with equality for women and their families.”
THE BORDER
The Republican candidates say “securing the southern border” is their top priority. Bingle and Baumgartner even flew down there to check it out in person as part of their campaigns.
“In every conceivable way it’s worse than you can imagine,” Bingle says, recalling his experience standing near the border wall with an agent and watching people cross.
Baumgartner, who toured the border with former Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, recalls similar scenes. It’s a “humanitarian crisis,” he says.
Bingle and Baumgartner have faced criticism from some other candidates for using their border trips as a “photo op.”
“Frankly, I don’t think taking a trip down to look at the border wall could tell anybody what they need to know,” Dansel says.
Regardless, the Republicans all agree that the border desperately needs reform to stop fentanyl and human trafficking. They support building out the wall, investing in drone technology and hiring more agents. Some candidates suggest more dramatic approaches: Holaday supports closing off the border entirely, and Bingle says he would support sending U.S. troops into Mexico to
“eliminate the cartels.”
The Democrats agree the border needs fixing. They all say they’d support the Border Act of 2024, a sweeping border security bill that would have increased funding for more agents and detention facilities. The bill had brief bipartisan support but died amid partisan opposition prompted in large part by Trump.
“It would have been extremely helpful,” Bank says.
“You’ve got to get more personnel down there.”
Baumgartner claims he talked to “a number of Border Patrol agents” who said it wasn’t a good bill. Welde notes that the bill was endorsed by the Border Patrol Union.
You can read more about the candidates’ policy stances on Inlander.com/Election2024. n nates@inlander.com
The Republican candidates met for a forum last week. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
Spokane Valley Six
Who will replace state Sen. Mike Padden? Six candidates are seeking his spot in the Legislature BY
COLTON RASANEN
Pam Haley
Al Merkel
Leonard Christian
Mike Kelly
Paige Scott
Miguel Valencia
The race to represent Washington’s 4th Legislative District in the state Senate is dominated by candidates from Spokane Valley, though the district also covers Colbert, Green Bluff, Liberty Lake and Millwood.
Few among the four Republicans and two Democrats running for the state Senate seat have significant elected experience.
Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley, a Republican, who has more elected experience than any of her competitors, has served on the Spokane Valley City Council since 2016. In that time, she served a stint as deputy mayor and was later elected mayor in 2022 by her fellow council members.
One of her primary election competitors, fellow Republican Al Merkel, also serves on the Spokane Valley City Council. He was elected in November 2023 and has been on the council for less than a year.
Merkel says he uniquely plans to hold both offices if elected — maintaining his seat on the City Council and serving in the state Senate. Haley hasn’t decided whether she would do the same.
While it might be taxing on an elected official to hold two seats, it’s not against the law. There’s precedent in the 4th District, where the late Bob McCaslin Sr. was elected to the Spokane Valley City Council in 2009 while he was still in the state Senate, where he served until 2011.
Mike Kelly, a Republican who moved from Portland to Spokane Valley in 2020, has minimal elected experience, serving only as a Republican precinct committee officer. He may have the least amount of political experience among the Republican candidates, but touts his experience owning and running contracting, property management and investment companies in Oregon and Spokane Valley.
“I have the broadest business experience, and I think I’m the most adept in my prior involvement with government,” Kelly explains. “We have City Council members and a state rep., but I’m looking at it from outside the government.”
Kelly has received some of the most impressive endorsements, including from outgoing 4th District Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, and the Spokane County Republican Party.
State Rep. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, is the final Republican vying for the Senate seat. First elected to the state House in 2022 (he also served an 11-month appointment to the seat in 2014), Christian says he takes a more moderate, conservative approach to politics, breaking from the far-right extremism that he says has invaded the party.
“It seems Mike Kelly is a far-right extremist,” Christian claims, drawing comparisons to former state Rep. Matt Shea because of similar four-leaf clover branding used on Kelly’s website. “I can’t blame him for running, but it’s still a little frustrating seeing two camps in the Republican party.”
Kelly, however, tells the Inlander that he’s not an extremist and he plans to collaborate with state lawmakers regardless of their political beliefs if he’s elected.
SHIFTING DEMOGRAPHICS
Washington’s primary election narrows the field to the top two candidates in each race, who then advance to the general election in November, regardless of their party affiliation. Two Republicans could advance, but it would not be unusual to have a candidate from each major party on the ballot, Haley says.
“The citizenry of the 4th District has changed,” she says, noting that the Republican-Democrat divide in the district is closer than it’s ever been before. “I don’t know if the Democratic Party has realized that, but we’ll see what happens in August.”
While a Democrat has not been elected to the Senate in the 4th District since 1977, two hopefuls think they could break that streak.
The first is Miguel Valencia, an Army veteran and law student whose only political experience so far has been as a Democratic precinct committee officer. Frustrated by Padden’s uncontested races in 2012 and 2016, he filed for election before Padden announced his retirement.
Valencia believes his experience in the military plus his
unequivocal support of the working class will make his campaign appealing to the consistently conservative voter base.
The other Democrat in the race, Paige Scott, has no elected experience but says she was inspired to run because her parents were involved in politics. Originally from the Inland Northwest, Scott lived in Massachusetts for about a decade while serving in the National Guard.
Some of the top issues she hopes to advocate for if elected include a higher minimum wage, affordable housing and addressing homelessness. Scott did not specify which policies she supports to impact these issues.
When the Inlander asked how she might differentiate herself from her Democratic opponent, Scott said she hadn’t researched Valencia’s campaign platform and was running against all of the candidates.
“I’m just competing with myself to see if I can make an SOS sign that [Democrats are] still here,” she says.
When it comes to campaign funds, Kelly is blowing his competition out of the water. His $62,276 in campaign contributions (including $27,717 that he contributed personally) is larger than all of the other candidates’ reported contributions combined, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Other candidate contributions include: $25,945 for Christian; $18,716 for Haley; $12,818 for Valencia; $1,171 for Merkel; and $0 for Scott.
A CONFUSING ENDORSEMENT
It’s not unusual for outgoing politicians to endorse the candidate they hope will fill their spot. However, according to the 4th District’s other Republican candidates, it was certainly unusual when Padden chose to endorse Kelly in this election.
“Mike Padden has been grooming Mayor Haley for his office the last several years,” Merkel says.
Haley says part of the reason that Padden didn’t endorse her was because she got into the race later than others. But it was actually his endorsement of Kelly, in part, that inspired Haley to run.
“When I looked at who was running, I didn’t feel that they would be the best for our area,” she explains. “I have worked with Padden for years and done a lot of things for him, so I don’t really understand that endorsement.”
Haley has drawn a number of endorsements from current Republican lawmakers, including state Sens. Jeff Holy from Cheney and Shelly Short from Addy, as well as Rep. Mike Volz of Spokane. Christian agrees that the endorsement was confusing, especially considering Padden and Kelly’s seemingly opposite backgrounds. In addition to decades in the Legislature, Padden also served as a District Court judge from 1995 to 2007.
“Padden’s whole career has been about law and order, but he’s now endorsing a felon from Portland,” Christian says. “I would’ve understood if he had endorsed Haley, but this whole [endorsement] for Kelly makes no sense.”
Kelly served seven years in prison in the 1980s and ’90s. He originally pleaded guilty to two felonies, including attempted cocaine possession and carrying a firearm while drug trafficking, and was sentenced to 15 years, but in 1994 a judge reduced his sentence due to an error in processing his case, dropping the firearm charge and amending the drug charge to possession with intent to distribute, the Spokesman-Review reports.
Kelly has been transparent about his conviction, with a section of his campaign website referencing it, but he says he believes that his competitors are only bringing it up because they have nothing else to talk about.
“A lot of individuals are bringing that up because it’s the only thing they can point to,” he tells the Inlander. “I’d question their sincerity.”
Padden says he thinks Kelly’s past conviction gives him a unique lived experience as a redeemed man.
“I do believe in redemption, and while his conviction is certainly not a good thing, it was a long time ago and he changed his lifestyle,” Padden says. “We have some good candidates, I just think Mike Kelly is a little better than the others.”
...continued on next page
“SPOKANE
VALLEY SIX,” CONTINUED...
OUT-OF-TOUCH OLYMPIA
While each candidate has their own issues they plan to address if elected, the general consensus seems to be that current lawmakers are not considering those in the 4th District when enacting new legislation.
Candidates say state taxes are too high, the pre-K and K-12 education systems are subpar as evidenced by OSPI report card data, and affordable health care is lacking.
Democrat Valencia doesn’t understand why the state hasn’t implemented a universal health care system to support its working class and low-income populations.
“We need to work more on our education system in Washington because schools haven’t brought their test scores up at all,” Christian says. “We are spending half the state’s budget on education, we should be able to show better results than this.”
(Lawmakers allocated more than $30 billion of the nearly $70 billion 2023-2025 state operating budget to K-12 education.)
Kelly says he’s also worried about the state’s education system, but he thinks the answer could lie in something like Arizona’s schoolchoice legislation that provides tax credits for students to attend private schools.
Re-Elect
SPOKANE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT, POSITION 11
Primary ballots have been mailed, and we’re encouraged by the many words of support we’ve received from all over Spokane County. It would be a privilege to receive your vote and a pleasure to serve another term for our community. Re-Elect Judge Fennessy!
I have known Tim for years, saw his dedication to practice and have spoken with him and others about him since taking the bench. His experience will be a valuable asset for Spokane’s Superior Court going forward and I endorse him.
– Justice Debra L. Stephens, Washington State Supreme Court
I have had multiple cases in front of Judge Fennessy. While there have been times I have disagreed with Judge Fennessy, I can tell that he takes his position seriously and he has proven that he will continue to think about his decisions and has the humility to change his position.
– Sandy Jones, Deputy Public Defender
He is the only candidate with decades of experience as a judge and as a lawyer – experience that is crucial for maintaining confidence in our local justice system.
–Judge Maryann Moreno, Spokane County Superior Court, retired
“It’s ridiculous: We live in the richest country in the world, and people go bankrupt because of medical debt,” Valencia says. “There are other countries that are the same size as Washington state that have universal health care. We need a massive update here.”
Council member Merkel says a lack of police officers is a serious problem in the 4th District, and that if elected to the Senate, he could address that problem more easily from the Capitol than from the City Council dais.
Rep. Christian says his time in the state House, as well as his adverse childhood experience growing up homeless, which led to inconsistent instruction, have illustrated to him how the state’s handling of public education has faltered.
“I’m not advocating that we follow their model, but that’s a direction I think we should head towards,” Kelly says.
Haley owns a day care facility and says Washington’s child care policies have had unintended consequences on her business. For example, one of her infant room teachers with three decades of experience might lose her job because the state has added a two-year degree requirement, she says.
“I think people who are making the rules maybe haven’t worked in child care,” she says. “These unintended consequences happen a lot, and both sides can understand this.” n coltonr@inlander.com
On Patrol
Airway Heights asks voters for more police department funding
BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
The City of Airway Heights is asking its voters to provide additional money for the police department.
On the Aug. 6 ballot, Airway Heights voters will be asked to support a measure that would increase the city’s regular property tax levy by $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. That equates to about $25 per month for the owner of the average home (about $300,000) in Airway Heights.
If passed, the public safety levy would enable the department to hire four additional patrol officers and buy more vehicles, Police Chief Brad Richmond says. Currently, the department has 14 patrol officers, who each respond to about 1,500 calls per year.
“Our calls are up 133% in the last five years. We have a need for more patrol officers, and our patrol cars are costing more to fix than they are worth,” Richmond says. “We don’t have a vehicle replacement program.”
Richmond notes that police vehicles are offices on wheels for officers who respond to everything from theft and vandalism calls to overdoses and traffic safety issues.
The police department budget for 2024 is about $4.9 million, which includes various state and federal
grants that may not be ongoing sources of funding, City Manager Albert Tripp says.
If passed, the levy would bring in an additional $1.2 million in 2025, which would increase over time to about $1.6 million in 2030.
The funding would ultimately become part of the city’s permanent levy, Tripp says. That means eventually, as the city continues to grow and more properties are added to the tax rolls, the financial burden on individual homeowners should be reduced.
“We expect the dollar amount to go down,” Tripp says. “As the city continues to grow, the amount will be less than $1 extra per $1,000 [assessed value] each year. The property tax will be spread out over more hands, making the load lighter for everyone.”
A 2022 public safety needs assessment identified additional funding for law enforcement as a top priority. Part of what’s driving that need is rapid growth. The city’s population (approximately 12,070 people) increased by 7% in just the last year, Tripp says, and since 2020 it has grown by about 12%.
Voters can ask Richmond and Tripp more about the levy during a public meeting at 5 pm, Thursday, July 25, at The Hub, 12703 W. 14th Ave., Airway Heights. n
Weighing Experience
Three candidates are running against an incumbent Spokane County Superior Court judge, pointing to negative experiences in his courtroom and his disqualifications from sensitive cases
BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM
Most election years, Superior Court judges don’t face any opposition. All 13 Spokane County Superior Court judge positions are up for election every four years. This year, 11 of the 13 judges are running uncontested and have already won by default.
For Superior Court Judge Position 8, incumbent Judge Marla Polin is facing one candidate, Brandon Casey. That race will be determined by the general election ballot on Nov. 5.
But for Superior Court Judge Position 11, incumbent Judge Timothy Fennessy faces three challengers: Superior Court Commissioner Jerry Scharosch (pronounced “sharsh”), Washington state Court of Appeals senior staff attorney Andrew Van Winkle, and former Spokane County deputy prosecutor F. Dayle Andersen.
Fennessy originally said he would retire this year, but decided to seek re-election in the middle of filing week in May.
Fennessy’s critics claim that he is dismissive in court, offending attorneys and participants in sensitive cases such as sexual assault or domestic violence incidents. His supporters, including many on the Superior Court bench, say Fennessy brings much needed experience and a “brilliant” legal mind to the court.
All four candidates will be on the primary election
ballot due on Aug. 6. Only the top two candidates will advance to the general election in November.
EARLY CHALLENGERS
It’s difficult for any outsider to unseat a sitting judge, though that’s exactly what Fennessy did when he won the 2016 election against former Judge Greg Sypolt.
Andersen says he is running to “make a statement,” claiming that he and other attorneys have felt “belittled” and “humiliated” in Fennessy’s courtroom. Andersen quit his job with the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office on April 11, after an incident where he says a supervisor verbally abused a female coworker and the office retaliated against people who reported it. Newly out of work, Andersen decided to run to unseat Fennessy because of his experiences with the handful of cases he tried in front of Fennessy in 2020 and 2021.
“With Judge Fennessy, I felt that there was a personal anger or animosity that I couldn’t explain,” he says.
Andersen hasn’t done any fundraising. He says he worries that anyone in the legal community who publicly supports him could face challenges in future work.
Van Winkle has no personal experience with
Fennessy. But he points to public records he obtained (and the Inlander reviewed) that show more than 450 disqualifications against Fennessy from 2019 to 2024 as evidence that Fennessy is ineffective. That’s more disqualifications than there were against the next four most frequently disqualified judges combined.
Attorneys can disqualify a judge if they don’t think they are going to get a fair hearing. However, they don’t have to give a reason why they are disqualifying the judge.
Scharosch used to be a prosecutor for the Special Assault Unit and began feeling concerned about Fennessy’s demeanor and legal rulings. Scharosch started disqualifying Fennessy in 2020, and the entire unit started routinely disqualifying Fennessy soon after.
Fennessy says that judges have the responsibility to make sure attorneys are doing their job well.
“I believe that I exercise that responsibility,” Fennessy says. “Clearly, there are disqualifications from the special assault unit. I do not know why. It’s been said — I think in a rumor fashion — that I somehow don’t have empathy for victims. I don’t find that at all credible. ... There’s a lot of reasons for disqualifications, and it’s a raw number that somebody has thrown out. But I don’t know what that number means.”
Andrew Van Winkle
F. Dayle Andersen
Jerry Scharosch
AUGUST EVENTS
August 10
Inland Northwest Rail Museum 8th Anniversary
August 22-24
Lincoln County Fair
August 24
Vintage Harvest
“WEIGHING EXPERIENCE,” CONTINUED...
“I got several calls from friends, several inquiries from current sitting judges, and most surprisingly and important to me, my daughter,” Fennessy says.
Two years ago, Fennessy was elected by his peers to be presiding judge for the Superior Court. He says he realized he could offer valuable experience that most of the other judges, who are newer, still lack.
By the time Fennessy filed, Scharosch had put enough money into his campaign and received enough support that he decided to keep going, too.
Sitting judges typically “circle the wagons” around incumbent colleagues in reelection campaigns, Van Winkle says. But the endorsements by the sitting Superior Court judges are split between Scharosch and Fennessy.
All seven female judges have endorsed Scharosch, while the other five judges, all male, have endorsed Fennessy. Judge Dean Chuang has endorsed both candidates.
While some judges gave their endorsements before Fennessy announced his reelection campaign, Scharosch says that some decided to continue to support him after all four candidates filed.
At a panel hosted by the nonprofit People for Effective Government, Andersen and Van Winkle were asked what they thought the division of endorsements implied (neither Fennessy nor Scharosch attended the panel).
“I think it’s a bad thing, period,” Andersen responded.
“I think the split along gender lines is concerning,” Van Winkle answered. “[However,] I don’t mind saying bad things about Judge Fennessy, but not once have I heard anyone allege that he is sexist.”
Judge Breann Beggs, who has endorsed
Fennessy, says the split is coincidental.
“My observation of it was that people made commitments,” Beggs says. “It’s a little bit of an awkward situation [...] But my speculation is that if Judge Fennessy had announced earlier on that he was running, other judges probably would not have endorsed someone other than him.”
As a lawyer, Beggs tried cases in front of Fennessy and was impressed with the judge’s demeanor.
“I tried a trial with him for two weeks — a really challenging trial,” Beggs says. “I lost in front of the jury but thought that he still handled the courtroom dynamic so well and so professionally and judicially. There was really a lot of conflict between the lawyers. It was brilliant.”
None of the female Superior Court judges who were contacted were willing to respond on the record about their endorsement of Scharosch.
Scharosch also is endorsed by Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Haskell and the supervisors of the special assault and domestic violence units. He says that voters can decide for themselves what to think.
“Judge Fennessy has been practicing longer than I have,” Scharosch says. “So if you’re looking at experience alone, he does have longer practicing law. [But] I think that my character, my demeanor and my varied legal experience would be an asset. ... I tend to talk mostly about the facts and then let people draw their own conclusions.”
“Commissioner Scharosch is doing a great job as commissioner, and I have no doubt that he will be a Superior Court judge someday,” Beggs says. n
elizab@inlander.com
Andrew Van Winkle (left) and F. Dayle Andersen participated in a panel last week. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO
STUDENT CHECKING
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Moved to Teach
Devika Gates shares her Indian heritage with the community as often as she can through dance, art and yoga
BY CARRIE SHRIVER
During the academic school year, Devika Gates can often be found in a classroom at Spokane Falls Community College teaching chemistry. When school’s not in session, however, she trades the chem lab for a dance studio or local library to share not science, but the rich culture of her Indian heritage.
“I think the best part of teaching is that I know everyone I teach is going to go on to pursue something new. They’re going to be able to take this knowledge and do something with it,” Gates says.
While Gates, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, finds science interesting and fun to teach, she also loves sharing her Indian heritage and culture whether it’s dancing, yoga, or art forms like rangoli and henna painting.
“Growing up in America has been amazing, I feel so lucky. But I never fully feel like I belong here, and I never fully feel like I belong in India,” Gates says. “Being able to share my culture gives me a sense of belonging. Having other people share their culture makes me feel like
they understand how I feel.”
Gates opened her Natanam Dance School in Spokane Valley in 2018. She offers Bollywood dance classes that fuse traditional Indian dance with modern dance forms like hip-hop and jazz. This energetic dance style gives students more than a workout.
Bollywood dancing attracts a diverse group of students, ranging from children as young as 5 to adults in their 60s. It’s an easy class for beginners, and Gates says there’s no right or wrong in the style.
Gates started teaching Bollywood to help cover her studio’s rent so she could also teach bharatanatyam, an ancient form of South Indian dance. It was originally performed by women in temples, and was often used to express Hindu religious stories and devotions. The dancers’ graceful movements contain theatrical elements in poses, facial expressions and hand gestures.
The performance and teaching of bharatanatyam across India was banned in 1910 while the country was under British rule. But when India regained independence in 1947, the classical dance returned to temples and public stages. Still, Gates wonders how much knowledge was lost during nearly four decades of prohibition.
“Bharatanatyam is very rigorous, hard and complex. You’re either doing it right or you’re doing it wrong,” Gates explains. “It’s really a dance that you pass on, and I feel like I need to pass it down to the next generation.”
Gates’ bharatanatyam classes attract dancers with Indian heritage, mainly because the dance is not wellknown.
“Bharatanatyam is an incredibly aerobic activity, and you have to be in good health,” she says, noting that many movements require the dancer to be in an upright, squat-like pose.
And unlike Bollywood dance, bharatanatyam can take as long as a decade to truly master.
“But it’s so worth it at the end of it to be able to do something that people were dancing to thousands and thousands of years ago,” Gates says.
Performing bharatanatyam without knowing yoga, however, is impossible.
“They are intertwined. You can’t really do one without the other because [in] the dancing [there are] yoga poses,” Gates says.
For that reason, she also teaches authentic Indian yoga, a style passed down through generations like bharatanatyam. Gates herself started yoga around age 7 while also learning the dance.
Yoga — a word meaning “yoke” or “union” — began thousands of years ago in India. Beyond exercise, it offers
Devika Gates, center, rehearses bharatanatyam dance at her home. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO
mental and spiritual awareness.
“It allows you to find yourself in whatever way you are,” Gates says. “You want to be peaceful. If thoughts come in, you’re letting them in [and] out, you’re not beating yourself up. It’s about being your best self. And it’s about finding some type of spiritual awareness about who you are and how you affect the energy around you. Yoga is an acceptance of everybody where they’re at, and where you’re at.”
“Authentic Indian yoga differs [from Western yoga]. You’re really focusing on spirituality and the aspects of yoga,” she continues. “So when you did yoga [in ancient India] you were also engaged in the performing arts, or you were trying to get into a pose that was somewhat uncomfortable to be more in touch with your spirituality, whatever that might be.”
Gates starts and ends each of her yoga classes with meditation. “I think that’s really important to remember that we’re all connected in some way.”
Like yoga, creating rangoli can also produce a meditative state.
Rangoli is a bright, decorative Indian folk art used to celebrate happy occasions. It features “a lot of vibrant colors because it means happiness, prosperity, wealth, and knowledge,” Gates says.
Holidays during which rangoli is made include birthdays, weddings, important religious events (like the Hindu celebration of the birth of Krishna), and annual holidays like Indian Independence Day on Aug. 15, commemorating when the country was freed of British rule.
Rangoli is a mesmerizing display in the form of religious symbols, floral designs or geometric patterns. These patterns have a variety of meanings, like bringing good fortune, and each color represents something, like green for the sea. Also often pictured are elements of nature, like mangoes and other fruits, and animals, like peacocks.
The designs are made using a variety of materials such as colored sand, flower petals, chalk powder or spices. A few simple tools are utilized, but it’s mostly made with one’s hands or spoons. Due to its transitory nature and placement on the ground, rangoli can be easily ruined.
INDIAN CULTURE WITH DEVIKA GATES
Sun, July 28: Rangoli from 1-2 pm, authentic Indian yoga from 2:30-3:30 pm Sun, Aug. 11: Henna painting from 1-2 pm, authentic Indian yoga from 2:30-3:30 pm Both sessions are free at Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave., details at spokanelibrary.org
“It’s the worst when someone steps on it. So, I’m gonna step on it first,” Gates says with a laugh.
Like yoga and bharatanatyam, Gates has also practiced rangoli from a young age, learning it from her family.
“When we would visit India, everyone lived in an extended family. People would be doing different designs,” she recalls. “I was watching them and doing my own [smaller version].”
Another traditional Indian art form is mehndi, the adornment of henna ink on the hands and arms for happy occasions. As a child, Gates learned how to apply henna from seasoned mehndi artists. She perfected her techniques during the COVID shutdown. When public gathering restrictions were lifted, she felt confident enough to offer mehndi at vendor booths during fundraisers for her dance school.
To create even more opportunities for locals to learn about and participate in Indian culture beyond those events and at her studio, Gates often hosts free Indian yoga and Bollywood dance classes at local libraries. This summer, she’s already taught several such classes, such as Indian kite making, Kundan jewelry and henna art.
“I hope this encourages other people to teach us about their culture,” she says. “A lot of times minorities [are] trying to teach other people, but I hope that I can learn about cultures that were here and not [from] here.” n
Spokane’s live action role players welcome all to join them for weekly training sessions in Manito Park
BY CASSANDRA BENSON
In the southeast corner of Manito Park, a group of about 30 people meet every Saturday afternoon to whack each other with foam-covered weapons.
At least that’s what it looks like to the average passerby. The full story, like the activity itself, is more complex.
The Spokane live action roleplay group, AmtgardDuchy of Stormhaven, has been around for 31 years. Live action role playing, or LARPing, is a hobby for which individuals create a persona and act as that character during group events — sort of like Dungeons & Dragons if the game was played on a life-size scale.
Amtgard is a global LARPing organization dedicated to medieval and fantasy combat and recreation. The activity itself is a chance for players to let go of their everyday responsibilities and socialize and exercise with people who are excited and passionate about similar interests.
“I love it because it’s a suspension of reality,” Stormhaven member Alphie Curtiss says. “You get to have fun and be a nerd every Saturday with a group of people who also just want to be nerds.”
Taking a break from reality means something different to everyone. For LARPers, it’s constructing a highly intricate world in which creativity — and intense combat — reigns supreme.
“I used to do some kendo and fencing, and I came out here, and they were better than me. Honestly. They’re fast, they’re dedicated,” says Michael Silverwood, known in the group as the “Hippie Healer.”
“It’s taken very seriously by some people, and I love
that,” he continues. “I’ve been out here for three years, and I’m not one of the best, by far.”
The LARP combat he’s talking about is impressive to behold; intricate as well. Foot and body position play a major role. Different players adapt unique fighting styles — some prefer fighting with shields, and others dual wield swords.
A recent Saturday is tournament day. That means
wounded: left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg and torso. No shots to the neck or head. Safety is the top priority. And when you’re dead? You’re dead. No speaking or interacting with other players.
“You can never stop learning,” Silverwood says. “And the way you learn is hanging out with your friends and hitting them with swords. Can you ask for a better hobby?”
players fight one-on-one, scoring points for each win. Dawning tunics and braided ropes around their hips (which signify players’ accomplishments), two fighters step onto the fighting ground. Both hold foam swords in their right hands and a foam shield in the left.
As Sir Gwaine lunges forward with the sword, the other instinctively retreats with his shield up to block the attack. The offensive attack continues, but this time, the defending player’s arm gets hit. He can’t use that arm anymore. With just one arm to attack and defend, the fight ends quickly. Two hits, and you’re done.
While this scene summarizes a typical tournament match, the Amtgard rulebook is 80 pages long. Among the major rules of combat, body-to-body contact is prohibited. Players have five locations which may be
For many, the most fulfilling part of LARPing isn’t the role play itself, but the community found within it.
“I mean, hitting nerds with sticks is fun, it’s great,” Stormhaven member Brandon Carroll says. “But [it’s the] community for sure. These people are awesome. Campouts are great, we have great parties. We fight all day long, and then all night long hang around fires and tell stories.”
Andy Roberts, who’s been LARPing since the early 1990s, reaffirms the sense of community within the group.
“Being the first openly gay man knighted in the Northwest in 1998 — it was huge,” Roberts says. “It was lonely. I was the only one out there for a long time. It’s a
Members of Spokane’s Duchy of Stormhaven LARP group practice at Manito Park every Saturday. ERICK DOXEY PHOTOS
little family if you don’t have a family.”
The Amtgard Duchy of Stormhaven accepts people from all walks of life and seeks to be a welcoming place for those who’ve not always felt accepted in mainstream society.
“We’re very accepting to the odd kids,” says Ana Michaud, who’s been LARPing for seven years.
Fellow LARPer Kristi Starlight, who manages Stormhaven’s social media pages, agrees.
“It’s the weird kid friend group for sure,” Starlight says. “I love watching new people come in and realize how nice of a community it is. Watching people open up, it’s so good to watch.”
Amtgard is always accepting new players, so long as they are willing to learn. And while LARPing revolves around the intricate choreography of sword-based
combat, there are other ways to participate. Players can rank up by doing volunteer work, sewing tunics for other players and even cooking.
“If you’re interested and you want to come hang out, we’re here every Saturday,” Curtiss says. “We’re super open to the idea of people coming, that’s how we keep going and create a new generation. Everyone has aspects in their lives that they bring to the table.”
Yet because LARPers tend not to stifle themselves in an attempt to fit into a world that values conformity, outside reception is not always positive. Starlight and Michaud say the group sees a lot of criticism and hateful comments on their TikTok account.
“It gets really bad. There’s a huge misconception that we’re just a bunch of people who don’t have lives and this is all we do,” Michaud says. “Sure, some people are just
so into it, but they also have lives. It’s not just Amtgard all the time.”
“There’s like doctors and lawyers and stuff that come play. Not just nerds,” Starlight adds. “Well, I guess we’re all nerds.”
Even so, the group doesn’t let the detractors hold sway over them.
“People see us and they go, ‘Oh, that’s outside of the societal norms, so we don’t like these guys,’” Michaud says. “But once you actually get into it and start talking to the people you realize we are just people who just come out here for fun.” n
Amtgard Duchy of Stormhaven • Meets Saturdays at noon • Free • Manito Park • 1702 S. Grand Blvd. • facebook.com/groups/DuchyofStormhaven
AUGUST 1ST — 5TH BINGO UPSTAIRS
THURS Special Session – Tip-Top
Thursday Night Bingo –
Admissions 4 PM. Session 6 PM.
FRI Regular Session
Summer Night Minis –after regular session
SAT Matinee Session
Regular Session
SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in
(minimum electronic buy-in $25). All regular games pay $1,000.
SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).
All regular games pay $1,000.
$5 Pulled Pork BBQ Food Bar –Available with bingo buy-in on August 11TH only.
MON Monday Night Bingo
AUGUST 16TH — 19TH
FRI Regular Session
Summer Night Minis –after regular session
SAT Matinee Session
Regular Session
SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25).
All regular games pay $1,000.
MON Monday Night Bingo
SUMMER NIGHT MINIS!
AUGUST 23RD — 26TH
FRI Regular Session
Summer Night Minis –after regular session
SAT Matinee Session
Regular Session
SUN Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25). All regular games pay $1,000.
MON Monday Night Bingo
AUGUST 30TH — 31ST
FRI Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25). All regular games pay $1,000.
Summer Night Minis –after regular session
SAT Matinee Session
Regular Session – $5 Buy-in (minimum electronic buy-in $25). All regular games pay $1,000.
HOLY SMOKES!
Smokey Bear is 80 years old this year. Wildfires are worse than when he was born.
BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM
Comedian Trevor Noah has a joke where he makes fun of the most popular song in the world, “Happy Birthday,” because he thinks it sounds like a funeral dirge. He has a point — slowed down, off key, with the lights off and a just few candles burning, the whole thing could easily be misinterpreted as a vigil.
That’s the scene I imagined when I read a 2018 headline from The Salt Lake Tribune in honor of Smokey Bear’s 74th birthday: “Was Smokey Bear wrong? The beloved character may have helped fuel catastrophic fires.”
Now, let’s be clear. An adorable cartoon bear isn’t at fault for anything except stealing hearts. He’s the longest-running American public service campaign for a reason — who could resist a bare-chested hunk with a cute face in dungarees and a ranger hat?
It’s real-life humans who are at fault. Or at least, human miscalculation.
Eighty years ago, forest fires were a matter of national security. Incendiary-loaded balloons launched by Japan during World War II threatened to set forests ablaze. Most firefighters were abroad fighting fascism overseas, so putting out fires became the responsibility of citizens at home.
The best way to do so was to prevent fires altogether, it seemed. So the Forest Service created the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention program to motivate and educate the public. The CFFP needed a winsome face, and the first one it got was none other than Bambi, Disney’s beloved character orphaned by fire.
Disney was a bit stingy, though, and only leased Bambi for a year. So in 1944, artist Albert Staehle designed a poster with a brown bear in ranger gear dumping a bucket of water on a smoldering fire. The caption read, “Smokey says — care will prevent 9 out of 10 woods fires!”
Smokey the cartoon was a hit. But in 1950, firefighters rescued a badly burned American black bear cub from a fire in New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest. Veterinarians nursed the bear back to health and named him Smokey in honor of the Forest Service’s mascot.
Smokey lived the rest of his life at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., a real-life Smokey Bear promoting wildlife conservation and fire prevention to adoring children.
At first, Smokey seemed an incredible success. According to The Salt Lake Tribune article, wildfire damage from 1942 to 1988 had decreased from 30 million acres annually to less than 8 million.
But suppressing fires and eliminating controlled burns in the past paved the way for larger, more dangerous wildfires today, at least according to fire ecologist Richard Minnich.
“Smokey the Bear says, ‘Only you can prevent forest fires,’” Minnich said in an interview with Grist in 2016. “Let’s change that last part. Smokey the Bear
We’re sure Smokey is celebrating his 80th with all his forest friends.
says, ‘Only you can prevent earthquakes.’ Or how about ‘Only you can prevent tornadoes’ — except no one thinks that.’”
Smokey Bear is spot-on that you should break your matches, put out your campfires and be an all-around responsible camper. But his creators may have gone overboard in villainizing forest fires altogether.
Turns out, the best way to prevent huge wildfires would have been to let small wildfires burn up fuel before it spreads to huge areas. Now, we’re at the point in the West where small wildfires are nearly impossible to control because fuel is everywhere.
So, it’s a complicated birthday for Smokey. As an octogenarian, he’s as handsome as ever. But his challenges have changed. No matter what, though, you can count on one thing — he’s definitely going to blow those candles out really well. n
TONIGHT WE’RE GONNA MOVIE LIKE IT’S…
Among film nerds there’s an ever-going debate about the greatest year in movies of all time. And when the topic comes up, 1999 is always part of the discussion. Find out why by checking out the Garland Theater’s “Party Like It’s 1999” film series highlighting just a small sample of the best from that lauded year. After kicking off earlier this month with screenings of The Matrix and Fight Club, the upcoming slate features Office Space (July 26-28), 10 Things I Hate About You (Aug. 2-4), The Sixth Sense (Aug. 9-11), The Mummy (Aug. 16-18), and Life (Aug. 30-Sept 1). That’s loads of summer popcorn munching goodness without the fear of Y2K destroying society! (SETH SOMMERFELD)
UPPING THE ANTE
It’s been a newsy few weeks for Spokane Tribe Resort & Casino After making waves by opening its Spokane Live venue last year, the Airway Heights outpost continued its expansion on July 12 with the opening of its new 175-room hotel, complete with a pool and spa. The casino also just announced a partnership with the famed Laugh Factory comedy club to bring more stand-up shows to Spokane Live. That branded partnership kicks off with a performance by Greg Morton on Aug. 15. It’s a safe bet to say the tribal-owned gaming complex is going all-in on becoming more of a getaway destination. (SETH SOMMERFELD)
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online on July 26.
ICE SPICE, Y2K!
If you need an indication of how much the music industry has shifted, Ice Spice became a megastar rapper without ever releasing an LP. Y2K! is her debut full-length album.
MAITA, WANT
The Portland indie standout returns with more heart-wrenching poeticism and subtly cunning rock instrumentation.
GHOST, RITE HERE RITE NOW
The theatrically gothic Swedish hard rock band’s latest album is the soundtrack for the group’s recently released hybrid narrative/ concert film of the same name. (SETH SOMMERFELD)
SCIENCE
Woodn’t It Be Lovely
Local entrepreneur Cal Larson is trying to change barrel aging and save old-growth forests
BY ELIZA BILLINGHAM
First, a 2022 Merlot from Central Washington.
Then, a Pilsner Urquell, followed by a Guinness stout, a No-Li amber ale, a Sierra Nevada pale ale, two nonalcoholic beers and a Trader Joe’s tequila. Three tasting glasses are perfectly lined up behind each beverage: one for brewer Thomas Croskrey, one for entrepreneur Cal Larson, and one for me.
Here at Townshend Cellar in Spokane, Larson is introducing me to a unique product that has the potential to disrupt barrel aging for wines, beers and spirits — a process that has remained essentially the same since the Celts used wood barrels to store wine before the Common Era.
Larson is the founder of Soluble Oak, a local company that has figured out an all-natural process to extract flavor compounds in white oak wood and condense them in a liquid form without additives. A few drops of Soluble Oak can instantaneously make wine, beer or liquor taste like it’s been barrel aged for years.
It’s a bold claim, indeed — hence the taste test that he’s set up for us in the front of the winery.
“I feel like the industry is a little bit like coffee was in the ’80s,” Larson says. “There’s a few companies that really understand the nuances of oak and the problem with barrels. The problem is wine, beer and spirits are not extracting the right thing.”
Croskrey of Emrys Fermentations is here, too, because he and Brendon Townshend have been instrumental in fine-tuning the product. Other local producers like The Grain Shed, Hat Trick Brewing and Dry Fly Distilling have also tested it. Chances are good that local imbibers have gotten to sample a pint or glass that benefited from Soluble Oak.
But now, Larson, an international salesman by trade, is ready to take the innovation global. If it takes off, Spokane would be the birthplace of one of the only significant changes to barrel aging since Romans stole the idea from the Celts.
White oak is one of the most common trees in North America, covering the eastern half of the U.S. from Maine to Minnesota to Texas
and Florida. It grows best in cooler northern climates, including much of Europe. Some of the most sought after old-growth wood comes from France.
Before he was an inventor, Larson was a lumber salesman who specialized in selling American white oak to Western Europe. It’s a “bizarre niche” that hyper-familiarized him with the molecular differences between white oak grown in different areas. In France, for instance, buyers and sellers distinguish trees by which specific French forest they grew in.
White oaks can live for hundreds of years, which is why France is currently chopping down trees planted in Napoleonic times. Many of those trees are destined for barrel making, since almost all wine barrels are made from white oak.
But in order to be made into a barrel, the wood has to be clear of all knots. Larson says that’s typically only the bottom 12 feet or so of the tree, (the average white oak is between 80 and 100 feet tall), and only the outer third of that section of the trunk. Which is a shame, Larson says, because barrel makers end up missing out on a lot.
Cal Larson can turn oak compounds into liquid. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
“It’s sort of like a watermelon — the best flavors are in the middle,” he says. “But the problem is, in the middle, there’s a bunch of knots. So the industry as a whole is not is not extracting the best flavors.”
Then, to become a barrel, the wood must go through heat and water treatments that kill many of the 200 or more sensitive compounds in white oak, Larson says.
Once the barrel is finally finished and filled, the alcohol inside slowly extracts the remaining chemicals, like cinnamonols and vanilloids that add those desirable cinnamon and vanilla flavors. It also slowly oxidizes, which helps round out a young wine if the process is minimal and slow enough.
White oak is prized because the hardwood doesn’t allow for too much oxidation or evaporation. But the density also means the alcohol can only penetrate 5 millimeters or less into the side of the barrel, leaving any of the flavor compounds in the remaining 80% of the wood untouched and unutilized.
As Larson sold more and more wood, he got more and more bothered by all the waste in traditional barrel aging. So he recruited two chemists to figure out how to extract flavor from all parts of the tree.
After seven years of experimenting, the team invented a secret, patented process that creates a liquid form of the wood without any synthetic additives. They also offer three different “roasts” that highlight different flavors within white oak. Plus, they separate American oak and French oak products so that manufacturers can choose which flavor profile they prefer.
“At the heart, it’s an environmental company,” Larson says. “The goal is to point the industry towards, like, don’t do this crazy stuff that takes down old-growth forest. There’s a much better way to do it that doesn’t involve environmental devastation.”
Not to mention that Soluble Oak’s final product costs about one-third as much as a comparable amount of barrels. Talk about saving green in multiple ways.
The tasting test at Townshend starts with the red wine first. After an introductory sniff and sip, Larson drops one drop of Soluble Oak into each glass. I’m skeptical, because I don’t have a very advanced palate and it’s a pretty tiny drop.
But without Larson or Croskrey saying anything, I feel a difference in the next sip immediately. Yes, feel — the wine feels softer in the mouth and the aftertaste is rounder. Larson adds one more drop and that’s when more prominent wood notes appear.
“There’s a lot of oak products on the market, but they taste like syrup or medicine,” Croskrey says.
He was ready to send Larson away when they first met because he was so skeptical that any liquid product could taste good. Now, he’s changed his mind.
Soluble Oak doesn’t taste artificial “because it’s impossible,” Larson says. “We don’t use anything artificial.”
With just a drop, the pilsner becomes softer and deeper. The Guinness gets more chocolatey. The pale ale suddenly has vanilla notes, the NA beers are more complex and the tequila loses an unfriendly edge. It feels like magic or witchcraft. But it’s just chemistry.
Larson has lofty goals for his sapling start-up.
“Since it’s a small operation, our goal is to get a couple big fish on the line, and then build up manufacturing, sales staff, etcetera,” he says.
This isn’t something that will be available anytime soon for the public to do their own taste test like ours. But it could mean your favorite wine, beer or liquor that usually has to wait a few years in a barrel could be hitting the shelves much quicker.
“I’m just stoked to see this sort of a product that’s actually good, and that does live up to the sustainability claims,” Croskrey says. “It’s tasty. It’s responsible. I’m proud to know him.” n
REVIEW
LET IT DIE
Deadpool & Wolverine may not be 2024’s worst, but it’s the one that reeks most of desperation
BY CHASE HUTCHINSON
The greatest trick the “hero” known as Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) ever pulled was convincing the world his films are different from the other superhero movies. Now, the mask has come fully off to lay bare the ugly truth.
Hiding under the veneer of subversiveness that is just a cover for its creative bankruptcy, Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the most tiresome, tepid and tacky superhero movies yet. Deadpool is now fully in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, allowing for plenty of mostly superficial surprise appearances by old characters, but this all just proves to be dead weight. Helmed by Shawn Levy, who worked with Reynolds on 2022’s The Adam Project, you can feel the director floundering about, trying and failing to inject energy into a lifeless experience. It’s a sad excuse for a road movie that, despite all the knowing jokes it makes about how bad Marvel movies have gotten lately, is close to the painfully low lows of 2023’s abysmal Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
The story is that Deadpool has essentially retired yet must put the suit back on when his world comes under threat from a looming cataclysmic event surrounding goings-on at the Time Variance Authority. If you didn’t do what is now essentially homework, this organization was central to the so-so series Loki and is now how this latest film brings various timelines/worlds together. Specifically, Deadpool must team up with Logan, aka Wolverine. Played once more by Hugh Jackman (who is still great as
an alternate version of the character despite how terrible everything else is), they’ll set off through a new realm for fights and shenanigans that all fall completely flat.
Credit where credit is due, the film finds a fitting metaphor right out the gate. Things start with that rascal Deadpool digging up a rotting corpse of a familiar face and repeatedly using it to smash some generic baddies in an attempt to (unsuccessfully) assuage any fears viewers might have that the MCU in general is in its braindead zombie phase.
Without giving away the gag, this is how the film initially establishes it couldn’t care less about how the story of Wolverine came to a graceful end in James Mangold’s infinitely better and more thoughtful 2017 film Logan. Though this is the high point of Deadpool & Wolverine (one it chases for the next two hours), it establishes how the movie will never be mistaken for having even one remotely creative thought in its head. It’s all well and good to flip the bird to the past as well as those who hold it up as something sacrosanct that can’t ever be touched. You just better have something spectacular of your own up your sleeve. Deadpool & Wolverine never finds any personality.
Not only does it just try to continually rehash the same jokes over and over, but it’s also desperately digging up corpse after corpse of old characters to try to give this new film life. Most of them don’t work at all. The one that does just makes you wish you were watching a movie with them rather than whatever this reheated
sludge is supposed to be. The action outside of the opening is generally lackluster and the excuse for a story that essentially plays as poorly written fanfiction. The only saving grace is Jackman, who still has the juice, whereas Reynolds, operating on autopilot at this point, makes plenty of jokes about how his superior co-star is going to be made to do this until he dies, all of which represent the film’s greatest flaw.
Where the prior Deadpool movies skewered superhero movies and how much they feel like corporate-driven products, Deadpool & Wolverine feels exactly like what it is making fun of. No matter how much it jokes about how depressing it is to imagine Marvel dragging a talented actor like Jackman out to do these often miserable movies every decade or so until he dies, seeing the final result here shows we’re already there.
But hey, it persistently winks at you about it! They’re shoveling superhero slop, but they’re in on the joke with us, so it can’t really be bad…right? …right?
Just sit back, consume the latest product, laugh at how empty it is, and then do it all over again!
The greatest joke of the whole thing is that Deadpool & Wolverine might very well be the movie that indeed saves Marvel. It won’t be from itself by finding some actual new ground and trying something different. No, it will be by providing just enough of a cover for what is the glorified equivalent of a corporate rebrand. As this film reveals, there will always be plenty more corpses they’re shameless enough to dig up when everything else runs dry. That’s the Marvel guarantee. n
Claws out, bub.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Directed by Shawn Levy
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman
Do Androids Dream of Electric Dogs?
The Oscar-nominated Robot Dreams is a wordless animated delight
BY MARYANN JOHANSON
Did I have long stretches of happy grinning while watching Robot Dreams, even on my subsequent rewatches, when I knew what was coming? Yes, I did. An Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature earlier this year, this sweet, deceptively simple, dialogue-free story immerses you in pure unalloyed joy. Oh, my face sometimes fell — this is an emotional roller coaster, for sure — but even the poignant bittersweetness that this beautiful movie ultimately leaves you with is affirming and uplifting in a way that far too films achieve. Yes, this is a movie about an anthropomorphic dog — who lives in a human-free world populated by other anthropomorphic animals — and his robot bestie… in 1980s
New York City. We’re in an alternate universe where the electronics chain Radio Shack is called Robot Shack and Popular Mechanics magazine runs articles on helping you build a metal buddy.
Not Rated
This is a cartoon, with (again) a deceptively simple animation style of broad strokes of solid colors. But while it is perfectly suitable for children and families — a couple of brief middle fingers, deployed humorously and in jest, are the extent of anything “objectionable” — this is one of those cartoon movies that adults will get so much more out of than kids will.
ship, about the transience of life and the connections that make life worthwhile. You see, Dog is sad in his loneliness. So he orders an Amica 2000 robot off a latenight TV ad, a sort of build-it-yourself Ikea-esque robot. Suddenly, Dog has a new best friend. Dog and Robot are instant soulmates. Their carbon-silicon platonic romance is beyond delightful. Everyone should experience the effortless pleasure of a friendship like Dog and Robot have.
We do get glimpses of a dark undercurrent in this world of on-demand besties. Robot briefly witnesses another domestic android whose family experience is far less pleasant than its own. Later there comes a certain, well, dehumanization at the hands of others who don’t seem to understand that Robot is a feeling, thinking, sentient being.
When Dog and Robot are cruelly separated by inescapable circumstance? This is where the robot (and dog) dreams arise, as their desires to be together again become achingly overwhelming and manifest in fantasias of loss and of reconnection. These dream sequences tickle with their connection to old movies: The Wizard of Oz and the huge song-and-dance productions of Busby Berkeley get overt, oddly touching nods.
Robot Dreams is a wonder of a movie. Spanish director Pablo Berger, working from the graphic novel by Sara Varon, follows on from his gorgeous 2013 film Blancanieves (a silent-movie reimagining of the story of Snow White) with another dialogue-free movie. The hugely expressive animation does all the heavy lifting here; we never lack for any understanding of what is passing between Dog and Robot, or even between them and other passing characters. (Dog’s wagging tail says so much!)
And the invocation of late-1980s New York — and especially of the East Village, where Dog lives — is so perfect that it made me weep: I literally lived this; the tenement flat I lived in on St. Mark’s Place from 1989 to 1994 was pretty much Dog’s apartment! I gasped when I saw it. Huge kudos to animation director Benoît Féroumont and art director José Luis Ágreda for capturing such a particular time and place so beautifully, even in its occasional ugliness.
Robot Dreams
Directed by Pablo Berger
At the Magic Lantern
Because this is a story about loneliness and friend-
Obviously not everyone will have such a personal connection to the setting. But for me, the authenticity of time and place helps cement the emotional genuineness. The gentleness of Robot Dreams’ nostalgia — this is an NYC that has slipped away 30 years later (A Kim’s Video rental VHS! The Twin Towers looming over a foggy lower Manhattan!) — is matched by the pathos of Dog and Robot’s friendship, their aching determination to reunite, and the utterly heartbreaking way in which their separation is resolved. Much like the duo’s memories of each other, this film is unforgettable. n
Escape to the colorful world of Robot Dreams
Write a Line, Erase a Line
Colin Meloy chats about
The Decemberists’ new double album, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, and the creative process of a hyperliterate polymath
BY SETH SOMMERFELD
Listening through The Decemberists’ discography calls to mind ambling into a top-flight used bookstore. The breadth of offerings can be somewhat overwhelming. Each tune feels like one of the novels crammed onto the shelves — a colorful rainbow of lovingly worn spines that beckon the literary-minded to explore their lushly detailed worlds. Some of these stories stand alone, while others unfold over multiple volumes. The walls are strewn with tales of history, whaling, political commentary, the sporting life, espionage, and, of course, the joy of love and the ache of loss expressed via frontman Colin Meloy’s finely crafted prose.
While it might take a few months’ residence in such welcomingly musty confines, The Decemberists’ newest opus, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, continues the
Portland’s groups hyperliterate and sonically diverse indie rock storytelling ways. It’s also undeniably a tome, the first Decemberists’ double record, unfurling over the course of four distinct sides in vinyl form. It’s an expansive 13-song listening experience — one that the band will heavily explore when playing the Riverfront Pavilion on July 27 — which caught Meloy somewhat by surprise despite having a backlog of songs accumulating since The Decemberists’ last record in 2018.
“I really did not expect it, even though I did come into the session with certainly more material, more demos than I had really ever before,” Meloy says. “There were like 25 or 26 songs, which is kind of unheard of for us. Usually it’s more a couple songs above the bare minimum for the record. So that had a big part of it.”
Colin Meloy (right) and The Decemberists deliver more bookish indie rock. HOLLY ANDRES PHOTO
INDIE ROCK
“Once we had to start actually sequencing it, it just became clear that ‘I think this has a shot. I think this could be a double record,’” he continues. “And I’d always sort of wished What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World had been a double record. So I always harbored this desire to make a proper double record, which we hadn’t done, and figured this was the time to do it, if ever.”
As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again commences with bursts of catchy and lively mirth on the album’s side A. The opening track, “Burial Ground,” finds The Decemberists at their most gleefully gothic, an upbeat folky tune about spending time where bodies lie that feels like a summery picnic at the graveyard. The horn-driven “Oh No!” blurs European musical traditions — somewhere in the Venn diagram of tango, oom-pah and Balkan folk music — while the band is just having a blast. The side-closing “Long White Veil” catchily touches on always fertile lyrical ground for Meloy — love and tragedy crammed together with a dash of macabre mystery and possibly an unreliable narrator.
Side B of the album certainly gets more somber tunes like “The Black Maria” and “All I Want Is You” slowly creating an eclipse-like darkness to shut out the album’s early bright rays. But the third act attempts to let a bit of light back in, starting with “Born to the Morning,” which finds The Decemberists in their most fuzzed-out and spacey psychedelic rock-esque mode. Things further chill out to a soft-drifting sway on “Tell Me What’s on Your Mind” and the loving ease of “Never Satisfied.”
As It Ever Was… doesn’t go out with a whimper as the entire final side of the double record is a single song — “Joan in the Garden.” The meta 19-minute epic finds Meloy wrestling with his own creative process after reading a book about Joan of Arc and wanting to make it into a song. After starting out in the group’s traditional style, things shift about 10 minutes in to become an instrumental exploration of sonic space, before once again shifting into almost a Dio-esque hard rock/metal tune to close things out in style.
“The whole process of doing ‘Joan in the Garden’ was a really interesting and fun experiment. That really required everything of everybody. I felt like I was always learning something from that song as we were recording it,” Meloy says. “I knew that it was going to be long. I think the way I had demoed it was three different parts. It wasn’t until we started working on it, that I realized it needed to be as long as it became. It needed that kind of sound bath experience in the middle of it to make the whole thing structurally work. So it definitely expanded as we continued working on it.”
It’s no shock that Meloy revels in the creative process behind songs that put writing at the forefront. Considering his prodigious vocabulary is what has drawn many listeners to the Decemberists since the band’s formation in 2000, it came as no surprise to anyone that the Montana native would eventually find his way into the more formal literary world.
After penning a 33 1/3 book about The Replacements’ classic album Let It Be in 2004, Meloy turned his attention to writing children’s novels.
Starting in 2011, he teamed up with his illustrator wife, Carson Ellis, to craft the best-selling Wildwood series, in which young protagonist Prue has adventures in a magical Pacific Northwest forest.
For Meloy, having both songs and books as creative outlets helps keep his writing brain firing.
“Not being a neurologist, I can’t speak to it, but I assume that they come from essentially the same part of your brain. They definitely tap into a very similar impulse,” Meloy says. “But structurally, as far as the labor goes, the actual work, they feel very different. I mean, as different as baking to computer programming. I think they do tend to complement each other in that way. Each one kind of feels like a break from the other. And the kind of limitations of one can feel freed
by another. They’re kind of perfectly complementary. Like the brevity and the simplicity of songwriting can be just such a relief if you’ve been struggling through, you know, writing thousands of words in a book. Similarly what you can do writing prose is not nothing that you will ever quite get from writing songs with all the sort of structural limitations.”
But much like the work life with The Decemberists, Meloy’s collaboration with Ellis helps keep the writing process from being a solely solitary endeavor. Having an artistic partner beside him helps fuel both the prose and the music.
“The fact that we are fellow travelers in this very strange world of making art for a living is huge, doing this thing that is so strange and feels like it comes out of nowhere sometimes,” Meloy says of his partner. “I think in some ways, even though we’re always doing very different things, just having somebody who has a similar experience to you that you can relate to and who can push you, and you can see their work and decide that you kind of need to drive yourself a little harder too? I mean, that’s invaluable.”
Browsing The Decemberists’ sonic bookshelves remains a completely invigorating way to while away a summer evening, but as both Meloy and the characters in his books and songs know, it’s an even more enlivening and joyous life when you’re not perusing alone. n
The Decemberists, Ratboys • Sat, July 27 at 7 pm • $50-$199 • All ages • Spokane Pavilion • 574 N. Howard St. • spokanepavilion.com
2 Person Mixed Scramble
August 17 & 18
Deer Park Golf Course
$140 PER TEAM
Must have active GHIN HDCP!
• 8:30AM Shotgun start on both days
• KP Prizes both days
• Optional Net & Gross Skins Games
Must be 21. Drop off or mail entries to Swinging Doors
Filling quickly, get your entry in ASAP!
Sunday awards and Prime Rib Dinner included with entry
1018 West Francis Ave 509-326-6794 • theswingingdoors.com
The Inlander’s annual philanthropy guide highlights many of the region’s non-profit organizations and the di erence they’re making in our community. Don’t miss your chance to reach Inlander Give Guide readers!
Carson Ellis has illustrated every Decemberists album cover.
Soak Up the Sun and Sounds
Checking out some of the free summer concert series in the Inland Northwest
BY SETH SOMMERFELD, MADISON PEARSON, CASSANDRA BENSON AND MADI OSWALT
While some of the best concerts of the summer take place under an open sky at the Spokane Pavilion and Northern Quest Resort & Casino’s BECU Live, you needn’t pay headliner ticket prices to get your outdoor live music fix. Before it gets too late into the season, the Inlander team went to check out a few standout free family-friendly outdoor concerts series.
ROCK THE NEST
Wednesdays from 5-8:30 pm through Sept. 18 Kendall Yards, Summit Parkway, Spokane Much like Las Vegas is home to a much smaller version of the Eiffel Tower, Kendall Yards is home to a mini version of the Spokane Pavilion that also hosts live music in the summer.
Near Inlander HQ, we’re lucky enough to catch the beginnings of the Rock the Nest Concert Series as we leave the office each Wednesday evening of the Kendall Yards Night Market while the sounds of local musicians drift up and down Summit Parkway.
It’s the perfect storm really: Night Market attendees wander up and down Kendall Yard’s main drag browsing the various booths while at either end of the event’s stretch, local acts play original tunes and covers under the Nest (the mini Pavilion across from Molé) and in Adams Alley between Marmot Art Space and OutWest Wines & Ciders. The lineup rotates every hour and a half. With longtime scene staples like The Rub and some fairly fresh faces like Snacks at Midnight, Rock the Nest has a wide range of sonic stylings and a small, cozy feel that’s hard to find in an outdoor concert setting. (MP)
BROWNE’S ADDITION CONCERT SERIES
Thursdays from 6-8 pm through Aug. 15
Coeur d’Alene Park, 2195 W. Second Ave. Cool respite can be found on hot Thursday evenings in the heart of Spokane. That’s because the gazebo nestled in Coeur d’Alene Park hosts the Browne’s Addition Summer Concert Series.
Despite the early July heat wave when I trek to the park, the temperature is surprisingly comfortable, with the many trees in Coeur d’Alene park providing ample shade. Residents bring lawn chairs and blankets to rest on, coolers to keep their drinks fresh, and a hankering for good music.
A cover of “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Villa Blues and Jazz fills the warm July evening air as locals arrive at the park, picking out a spot on the grass to sit. The band follows it up with a bossa nova-esque rendition of “Night and Day,” during which the flutist steals the show.
Browne’s Addition’s summer concerts continue to mid-August, so don’t miss the chance to experience some fantastic live music in Spokane’s first park. (CB)
SUN TIME MUSIC SERIES
Fri & Sat at 5 pm + Sun at 2 pm through Aug. 31
Big Barn Brewing Company, 16004 N. Applewood Lane, Mead Shadowed by many trees surrounding the grassy yard, Big Barn Brewing can be found tucked away next to Beck’s Harvest House (which also has its own free summer outdoor concert series). Outside the eponymous big barn, there’s plenty of space to plop your chair or blanket down and listen to the musician(s) on the quaint, wooden
stage. And don’t worry about food and drink — with a food truck outside and beer, wine, water, etc. inside the barn, the options are plentiful.
On a recent visit, kids dance in front of the stage, and parents and adults laugh at sudden changes in music. It’s a fulfilling and worry-free vibe. Grab your favorite lawn chair and put on your best sunglasses: Green Bluff is calling. (MO)
RIVERSTONE SUMMER CONCERTS
Thursdays from 6-8 pm through Aug. 29
Riverstone Park, 1805 Tilford Lane, Coeur d’Alene
In terms of venues for free outdoor shows, it’s hard to top the amphitheater at Riverstone Park. Sitting on the banks of a man-made lake, spectators can take in the sounds of the Riverstone Summer Concert Series on Thursday nights with the performers set against the lovely watery backdrop while enjoying the abundance of shade from an overhanging canopy. While regulars bring their lawn chairs and snap up the best spots on a sloping grassy hill early, there’s plenty of space in front of the stage for those who want to dance.
The sound system is also sharp for an outdoor setup, so when local Motown and soul cover band Nu Jack City kicked off the series in early July, the assembled masses felt every soulful note and deep groove resonate throughout the park. While patrons can bring their own picnics, Cascadia Pizza Co. and Ben & Jerry’s food trucks are on site, along with drink sales for those needing some refreshment. The park’s playground a stone’s throw away from the stage makes things extra family-friendly. (SS) n
The Brandon Jackson Band performs at Kendall Yards’ Rock the Nest concert series. ERICK DOXEY PHOTO
FOLK PUNK VIOLENT FEMMES
HIP-HOP BIG BOI
Thursday, 7/25
ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, RCA
J THE BIG DIPPER, Boss’ Daughter, The Emergency Exit, Flyborne CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Pete Johnson and The Jam Band
CHECKERBOARD TAPROOM, Weathered Shepherds
COEUR D’ALENE CASINO, Telsa
J COEUR D’ALENE PARK, Soul Proprietor and Rob Vaughn
J WAR MEMORIAL FIELD, Festival at Sandpoint: Blues Traveler
ZOLA, SideStep, Jason Lucas
Friday, 7/26
AK ASIAN RESTAURANT, James Motley
BIG BARN BREWING CO., Reynuetta and Dave
J THE BIG DIPPER, Nattali Rize, Minori
THE CHAMELEON,
VIBE: Alegria Dance Club Night
CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Eternal Jones
THE DISTRICT BAR, Milonga
While we can be a bit too nostalgiafocused as a music consuming culture, there are times when fans want to hear all the songs from beloved albums when going to a concert. Folk punk favs Violent Femmes are fully leaning into that on their current tour. When the band best known for its ultra catchy cult single “Blister in the Sun” (one of the best opening tracks on a debut album ever) stops at Festival at Sandpoint, it’ll play its first two albums in their entirety. The always stripped-down trio will start with 1984’s Hallowed Ground before backtracking and ripping through its 1983 self-titled debut album. Even if you’re not high as a kite, you just might (want to) stop to check Femmes out.
— SETH SOMMERFELD
Violent Femmes • Fri, July 26 at 8 pm • $60-$95 • All Ages • War Memorial Field • 801 Ontario St., Sandpoint • festivalatsandpoint.com
J LIVE AT ANDRE’S, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble J = THE INLANDER
J THE GRAIN SHED, Haywire
PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, BTP RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs
SPOKANE EAGLES LODGE, Into the Drift Duo, Over Easy Duo
J SPOKANE TRIBE CASINO, Dream Like Taylor
J STELLA’S ON THE HILL, The Buckley Storms
J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Mel Dalton
J J WAR MEMORIAL FIELD, Festival at Sandpoint: Violent Femmes
ZOLA, Dan Conrad ZOLA, Rockabilly Spaceforce
Saturday, 7/27
BIG BARN BREWING CO., Joel Hauegn
J THE BIG DIPPER, Malinois, Bent Outta Shape, Eva
J BLUE HERON CAFE, JamShack
J BRICK WEST BREWING CO., Inland Sessions Live
CHAN’S RED DRAGON ON THIRD, Da and The Blue Notes
J DAHMEN BARN, Kristin Rebbeca
J THE GRAIN SHED - TAP HOUSE, Starlite Motel
J HAMILTON STUDIO, Jared Hall
J KNITTING FACTORY, Aaron Watson, Jenna Paulette
NOAH’S CANTEEN, Son of Brad
J J NORTHERN QUEST CASINO, Bush, Jerry Cantrell, Candlebox
J ONE SHOT CHARLIE’S, Rhythmic Collective
J J PAVILION AT RIVERFRONT, The Decemberists, Ratboys PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Truck Mills
J PONDEROSA BAR AND GRILL, Mel Dalton
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Live DJs
ROCKET MARKET, Hannah Siglin SCHWEITZER, The Cole Show
J SPOKANE TRIBE CASINO, Spin Doctors
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are an amazingly energetic and wildly talented live act, as anyone who saw the band perform at the Pavilion last year can attest. That said, it feels crazy that Big Boi would be opening for almost anyone. For goodness sake, the Outkast MC is one-half of one of the greatest musical groups of all-time! While André 3000 may have got more attention for being a flashier, more atypical performer, the depth and still-frenetic swaggering airtight rhymes Big Boi provided the foundation upon which Outkast was built. Getting both Trombone Shorty and Big Boi in the same show is the definition of an embarrassment of riches. Just make sure to put some respect on the legendary Atlanta rapper’s name.
— SETH SOMMERFELD
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Big Boi • Sat, July 27 at 7:30 pm • $60-$95 • All Ages • War Memorial Field • 801 Ontario St., Sandpoint • festivalatsandpoint.com
J J WAR MEMORIAL FIELD, Festival at Sandpoint: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Big Boi
ZOLA, Tanya Low ZOLA, Mister Sister
Sunday, 7/28
ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS, Nu Jack City
J CRAFT & GATHER, Jona Gallegos
HOGFISH, Open Mic
J KNITTING FACTORY, Dexter & The Moonrocks, Red Leather
RECOMMENDS THIS SHOW
J LYYV ENTERTAINMENT, Lord Lawrence, Cykloen, Lil Rose, 56Heavy, YP
J ONE SHOT CHARLIE’S, Gil Rivas
J SOUTH HILL GRILL, Just Plain Darin
J WAR MEMORIAL FIELD, Festival at Sandpoint: Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, The National Parks ZOLA, Red Hot Kitten Stompers
Monday, 7/29
EICHARDT’S PUB, Monday Night Blues Jam with John Firshi
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Open Mic Night
J STELLA’S ON THE HILL, The Philosopher’s Daughter
Tuesday, 7/30
J THE BOATHOUSE BAR & GRILL, Wiebe Jammin’
THE DISTRICT BAR, Anna Tivel, Sam Weber
THE KENWORTHY, Open Mic Showcase
J RIVERFRONT PARK, Dario Ré ROCKET MARKET, Calliope
SWING LOUNGE, Swing Lounge Live Music Tuesdays ZOLA, The Waymores
Wednesday, 7/31
J THE BIG DIPPER, Green Jellÿ, The Convalescence
J THE CHAMELEON, Danielle Durack, The Bed Heads, Micah Clay Lubben
THE DRAFT ZONE, The Draft Zone Open Mic
J KENDALL YARDS, Rock the Nest: August to August, Rosie CQ, Hunter Koss, Jona Gallegos
NEATO BURRITO, Ghostwriter
PEND D’OREILLE WINERY, Bob Breadling
J PRINCE OF PEACE LUTHERAN, Sidestep with Max Daniels
RED ROOM LOUNGE, Red Room Lounge Jam
J TIMBERS ROADHOUSE, Cary Beare Presents
J TRUE LEGENDS GRILL, Dallas Kay
J J WAR MEMORIAL FIELD, Festival at Sandpoint: Maren Morris, Delacey ZOLA, Kaitlyn Weins
The Looff Carrousel is a Spokane institution. Opened in 1909, the Carrousel is approaching its 115th birthday. Those of us who grew up in Spokane fondly remember riding on the backs of its colorful wooden horses, and thankfully this is a tradition that carries on for kids here today. Thursday, July 25, is National Carousel Day, and the Looff is offering $1 rides for the occasion. If that offer isn’t enticing enough, all merchandise in the carousel gift shop is 15% off, the first 115 riders get a free cupcake, and there’s a special storytime featuring Ponies in the Park, a story set at the Looff written by Mary Louise Carpenter and illustrated by Mary Pat Kanaley. Whether you want to make new memories or look back on old ones, bring the whole family down to the park to celebrate this part of Spokane’s history.
— CASSANDRA BENSON
National Carousel Day • Thu, July 25 from noon-3 pm • $1 • All ages • Riverfront Park • 507 N. Howard St. • riverfrontspokane.org
COMMUNITY PRAISING PROGRESS
In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensuring that all disabled Americans were afforded the same protection from discrimination as their peers. The ADA, along with its 2008 amendments, is arguably the largest movement forward for disabled citizens in the nation’s history. Now 24 years later, disabled people and the allies who fought beside them are celebrating this hard-fought moment of history across the country, including in the Inland Northwest. On Saturday, the Disability Action Center, which recently opened a location in Spokane, hosts an event to celebrate that progress. To top it off, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown will attend the event to give a proclamation.
— COLTON RASANEN
Disability Pride Celebration • Sat, July 27 from 11 am-3 pm • Free • All ages • Riverfront Park • 507 N. Howard St. • dacnw.org
THEATER COME TO MY GARDEN
When 11-year-old Mary Lennox is orphaned in India, she’s sent back to England to live with her withdrawn, hurting uncle and his disabled, bitter son. In her misery, she discovers a secret garden hidden in the estate’s extensive grounds that also holds the secrets to friendship, healing and love. Based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s early 20th century novel that’s enchanted many a modern childhood, the musical adaptation of The Secret Garden is now playing on North Idaho College’s campus thanks to Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater. The promise of the show’s refrain will almost certainly be fulfilled: “Come to my garden, rest there in my arms. There I’ll see you safely grown and on your way.”
— ELIZA BILLINGHAM
The Secret Garden • July 19-28; Thu-Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm • $50-$192 • Schuler Performing Arts Center • 880 W. Garden Ave., Coeur d’Alene • cstidaho.com
GET LISTED!
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COMMUNITY WONDROUS WEDNESDAYS
Every last Wednesday of the month, the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture turns into a cultural hotspot for its new MAC After Hours program. Replacing Thursday Night Live, the new program still offers half-off museum admission and opportunities to engage with current exhibits, but it also includes live music, gallery talks from local artists and special events on campus. For the July event, catch DJ Rosethrow in the plaza, hear Chris Bovey talk about the graphic design behind the MAC’s newest exhibit, Driving the American Dream: 1970s Cars, attend an art workshop with local artist Meghan Perkins, and enjoy an outdoor beer garden. Though Ben Stiller won’t be chasing a T-Rex skeleton around, you never know what might happen during a night at the museum…
— MADISON PEARSON
MAC After Hours • Wed, July 31 from 5-9 pm • Half-off admission; free for members • All ages • Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture • 2316 W. First Ave. • nwmuseum.org
VISUAL ARTS ALL SYSTEMS GOGH
It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t know of Vincent van Gogh or his vibrant, post-impressionist paintings. Armed with a paintbrush and a creative mind, van Gogh created paintings that invite viewers into landscapes and still lifes, and allow imagination to run wild. At this immersive exhibit, you can literally step inside of a van Gogh painting and experience the wonder and whimsy for yourself. Housed in what used to be the Arc of Spokane thrift store, the spacious warehouse is now filled with glorious, colorful floor-toceiling projections of some of van Gogh’s most notable work. Along with the immersive experience, visitors can learn more about van Gogh’s life and his art career through an education exhibition as well as contribute their own drawings to a gallery.
— MADISON PEARSON
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience • Through Sept. 30; Mon/Thu from 10 am-7 pm, Fri from 10 am-8 pm, Sat-Sun from 9 am-8 pm • $18-$60 • All ages • Exhibition Hub Spokane Art Center • 808 N. Ruby St. • vangoghexpo.com/spokane
I SAW YOU
7-ELEVEN 14TH & GRAND (7-17) You had multi colored hair and with your friend. You asked me how the weather was up there. Classic. You were very kind and sounded like a lot of fun! Talk sometime? rex.taylor@ hotmail.com
RIVER SERENADER To the gentleman serenading river floaters and kayakers on the shore of the little spokane on Saturday July 13th. You sir are extremely talented, you should be famous, somebody find this guy and make him famous!! Your beautiful voice and lovely guitar playing was a wonderful surprise on our kayaking trip. I just wish we could have stopped and listened to you more! Hope to see you there again soon!
YOU SAW ME
PRETTY PAINTER We met briefly on a construction site. You seemed interested in holding a conversation whenever we bumped into each other; for better or worse I was more focused on cleaning bricks than flirting. Wish I would have had enough sense to ask for your #. I hope you see this.
CHEERS
A GIFT OF LUCKY NUMBERS Cheers to the generous gentleman at the new Maverick on Freya & Francis on Monday 7/15 at about 5 pm. You gifted my son a winning scratch ticket right in time for his 7th birthday. Thank you, sir, for your generosity! He is
over the moon, and our whole family’s hearts are touched by your gesture.
LIFE ALTERING BROWNIE AT CHAPS I’m from out of town, and today my friend who lives here and I had brunch at Chaps. Last minute, I added an Oreo brownie to the order. We were full from our delightful meals, when we remembered the brownie on the table. We decided to try it, before boxing it up. We both took a bite, and immediately locked eyes in unified awe. This brownie is THE MOST PERFECT BROWNIE IN OUR COMBINED EXISTENCES! It is simultaneously gooey, silky, perfectly moist, flavorful and decadent, while not being too rich. As silly as it may sound, this brownie changed our lives. THANK YOU, Chaps for creating this brownie - that literally almost brought us to tears with its perfection!!!
THANK YOU CHEERS to all the teachers at the Central Valley School District! YOU GUYS ROCK!!! Teaching our kids and making them grow into the great people you make them become! I appreciate all you do, especially when they graduate and make it out into the real world! THANK YOU!
GOOD ARREST When I see police arrest someone in a way that doesn’t seem over-the-top, it helps heal a wound of resentment that festers in my heart. Every good interaction with police that I have makes a big difference. There are a lot of negative stories about police because that’s what gets media attention. I’m glad the guy realized the game was up and listened to commands and no guns were drawn. It’s easy to be influenced by fear of what could happen, but the two police seemed confident, capable, and level-headed.
I LOVE THEM ALL I love my dog/cat friends no matter what color they are. Think about it.
JEERS
BIKE TRAIL NO PARKING BOULDER BEACH
Jeers to all those who park on the bike trail off the Centennial Trail. You know those signs that indicated “no parking - bike trail”? Well, that means no parking of your car because it’s a bike trail...dummy. Last weekend some of you were so stupid that you actually weren’t just occupying the bike trail but were also parked on Upriver Drive; the street itself. With cars driving both ways, why don’t these cars get ticketed or towed or both? The bike trail is for bikes.
The street is for driving. Neither place is suitable for your junky car. Spokane: near nature, near people who can’t read.
CONSPIRACY? OMG! Both Trump and Vance are married to immigrants. Is their plan to round up immigrants and deport them their form of divorce? Hmmmm.
SOUND
be heavily glossed over. The Bible has sexy stories in it. This does not mean Christian parents read the story of Tamar or David and Bathsheba to their children. They carefully cultivate which stories to expose their children to at which age, and when those kids are old enough for the salacious material, they emphasize the moral lesson imparted by the story and gloss over the
RE: CAR BREAK-INS AT LOCAL FITNESS CENTER While I sympathize with your ordeal, I also know that Spokane is a really cruddy place to live with known thievery as well as hit and runs going on frequently. All you have to do is look around the city to see that law abiding isn’t taken seriously. People don’t signal. They speed. They drive around without valid license tabs (or any license at all). Yet, I never see people being pulled over by law enforcement (probably due in large part to shortages in employees). HOWEVER, you indicate that you had to have hours on the phone with the credit card company, insurance, drivers licensing, and Chase Bank. Why would anyone leave those items in their car in a city that is known for its high theft? Spokane: near nature. Near high criminality.
RE: SCHOOL REPAIR BUDGETS You ask people to “look into the West Valley school district repair budget” and ask why they would spend more than half the repair budget on an admin building that doesn’t affect the education of the kids. How would you know? People in those buildings do a lot to support exactly that. As one of many examples, who do you think cuts and signs the checks? Do you think the teachers cut and sign their own checks early in the morning before they start classes or late in the day between the stack of papers they’re grading? There are plenty of more examples, but I don’t think people like you are capable of understanding much anyhow.
RE: RE: LIBRARY PROTESTERS Go to a Christian bookstore. Pick up a picture Bible, or a Bible storybook written for children, and thumb through it. If you do find any sexual content (and that’s a big if) it will
sex. I’m a proud exvangelical but I am so goddamn sick of seeing one smug nonChristian after another pretend that “Well, the Bible has sex in it” is an automatic win against parents objecting to sexually explicit material for children. It is not. It is proof of your ignorance.
RE: LEASH YOUR DOG I agree with the Jeers submission last week imploring people to keep their dogs on leashes (following Spokane leash laws). However, these are the same “peopl” (term used loosely) who allow their dogs to defecate in public places and then leave it for someone else to walk through (ex. along the Centennial or bike trails). Those who don’t have the ability to obey the dog leash laws or the ability to clean up their dog’s excrement aren’t able to do so because they’re the exact (walking) excrement their dog leaves behind.
RE: LIBRARY PROTESTERS... ...the Bible would be such a benefit in place of the sexualialized content that they are trying to keep out of the eyes of children.
RE: STUPID DO-GOODERS You know what? I’m going to help them even harder. I love my community so someone sleeping outside is more of an affront to me than some cardboard litter. Stay mad though.
TOP THIS!!! Entrance to the Corbin House. A red pickup, Idaho license plate last registered 2007. A boat, Washington license last registered 2006. A white van with no license plate at all. The trailer hauling the boat no license plate at all. These vehicles parked by the entrances to the Marycliff Center and Corbin House for months on end.
HEY NADINE “YOU are demanding $1.4 million from the taxpayers of Spokane? For what? Why should we pay YOU? This is all YOUR fault! YOU prayed with Shea. YOU realized it was a mistake. YOU disavowed Shea the very next day. And now you want $1.4 million because the city council denounced YOU by legal resolution for what YOU did. And now, because YOU lost the election due to YOUR behaviour, YOU are trying to fleece $1.4 million from the taxpayers of a city YOU purport to love. Have YOU no sense of Decency? Shame on YOU!”
STOP BUILDING SO MUCH CRAP! Jeers to more new housing! Affordable or otherwise, why settle for life in a crackerbox future slum when so many perfectly useable buildings already exist and are allowed to sit empty? No one cares about your stupid real estate portfolio, there’s a housing crisis NOW, and that crisis was engineered by rich pricks who forgot the monopoly man was a villain. It’s time to stop lining developers’ pockets and start preserving & expanding green and wild spaces. Fewer new buildings means more parks, more trees, less concrete, less urban overheating. Repurpose what’s already here before it’s too late! Want to rehabilitate downtown? Remember that mixed-use and affordable housing don’t have to be mutually exclusive: don’t price the workforce out of their own community. Instead of pushing for more new construction, why aren’t candidates pushing for best-use taxes to eliminate empty buildings and urban sprawl? Or tax credits for using existing spaces in ways small business and individuals in want or need of housing can afford? There’s a better way to do things, and “more more more” is NOT it. n
EVENTS | CALENDAR BENEFIT
HOOVES & HOPS A pub crawl fundraiser benefitting Vindicate Horse Rescue & Training. July 27, 8-midnight. $25. Coeur d’Alene Resort Plaza Shops, 210 Sherman Ave. fb.me/e/3GAlX8bPF
EVENING AT THE DEPOT An annual benefit auction supporting the daily operations of the Dayton Historic Depot Museum featuring live music by Mari Gisele, and a buffet and auction items. Ages 21+. Aug. 3, 6-9 pm. $45. Dayton Historic Depot, 222 E. Commercial Ave. daytonhistoricdepot.org
COMEDY
ADAM FRIEDLAND Friedlan is a standup comedian, talk show host and podcaster. July 26-27, 7 & 9:45 pm. $25-$35. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com
FINDERS CREEPERS Blue Door Theatre players improvise a search for the creatures of legend through improv games and skits. Fridays at 7:30 pm through July 26. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.org
LATE NIGHT AT THE PLAYHOUSE A show featuring elements of late night TV, improv games and other forms of entertainment. July 27-28, 7 pm. Pend Oreille Playhouse, 236 S. Union Ave. pendoreilleplayers.com
SAFARI The Blue Door Theatre’s version of Whose Line with short improv comedy skits from audience suggestions. Every Saturday at 7:30 pm. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.com (509-747-7045)
IMPROV An all-ages improv session hosted by John Connelly. Every Wednesday at 5:30 pm. Free. Pend Oreille Playhouse, 236 S. Union Ave., Newport. pendoreilleplayers.com
FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY JOKE JOKE
JOKE A comedy experience that combines stand-up, live sketches and other mixed-media comedic bits with a rotating lineup of comedians. Hosted by Josiah Carlson. Every first Thursday from 7:30-9 pm. $15. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org
JP SEARS Spears is a conservative YouTube comedian focused on comedy about fitness, faith and politics. Aug. 1, 7 pm, Aug. 2-3, 7 & 9:45 pm. $25-$79. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com
MULTIPLE CHOICE Audience choices and suggestions drive the twists and turns of this improvised adventure. Aug. 2-30, Fri at 7:30 pm. $9. Blue Door Theatre, 319 S. Cedar St. bluedoortheatre.org (509-747-7045)
JEFF DUNHAM Jeff Dunham performs ventriloquist comedy with his collection of puppets including Peanut, Walter, Jose Jalapeno on a stick and more. Aug. 3, 7-10 pm. $80-$130. Coeur d’Alene Casino, 37914 S. Nukwalqw. cdacasino. com (208-769-2464)
COMMUNITY
DRIVING THE AMERICAN DREAM: 1970S CARS Learn about the changes in the world that heralded a new era of auto making in the United States through automobiles of the 1970s. TueSun from 10 am-5 pm through Sep. 14. $8-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)
IT HAPPENED HERE: EXPO ’74 FIFTY YEARS LATER This 50th anniversary exhibition revisits the historical roots of Expo ’74’s legacy. It incorporates recognizable elements from Expo’s built environment with museum artifacts and archival materials. Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm through Jan. 26. $7-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org
NATIONAL CARROUSEL DAY Celebrate the Looff Carrousel’s 115th birthday with $1 rides, treats for the first 115 riders, 15% off all merchandise and a special story time. July 25, 12-3 pm. $1. Looff Carrousel, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.org (509-625-6600)
YOGA & MIMOSA CRUISE A two-hour cruise and a 45-minute on-board yoga class taught by CDA Power Yoga. Thursdays at 9 am and 10 am through Aug. 29. $36. The Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. cdacruises.com
AMERICAN RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE
To schedule an appointment go to redcrossblood.org/give.html/find-drive and enter 99203 into the location search. July 26, 11 am-4 pm. Free. South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry St. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
HAYDEN DAYS A community event featuring live music, vendors, food, dancing, a beer garden and familyfriendly activities. July 26-27. Free. McIntire Family Park, 8930 N. Government Way. cityofhaydenid.us (208-772-4411)
PRAYER IN PAINT Paint and write prayers or intentions on wood paneling that will be sealed into the ceiling of the building. July 26-27 and Aug. 3, 8:309:30 am. Free. Harmony Woods Retreat Center, 11507 S. Keeney Rd. harmonywoods.org (509-993-2968)
GLASS ON GRASS CORVETTE CAR
SHOW The 31st annual car show benefitting Shriners Children’s Hospital features Corvettes of all kinds from around the region. July 27, 9 am-2:30 pm. Free. Mirabeau Park Meadows, 13500 Mirabeau Parkway. spokanecorvetteclub.org
DISABILITY PRIDE CELEBRATION A multicultural event featuring a proclamation from Mayor Lisa Brown about the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act 24 years ago, dance presentations, folk music and an award presentation. July 27, 11 am-3 pm. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. dacnw.org (208-883-0523)
KIDS FREE MARKET A sale featuring gently used children’s items for ages 0-18. Brand new backpacks will be distributed while supplies last. Limit one per child (child must be present). July 27, 9 am-noon. Free. True Hope Church, 1316 N. Lincoln St. truehopechurch.org
PANEL AND PIZZA This discussion focuses on Christian nationalism. Two reporters lead the discussion by describing their reporting and interest in the subject. July 27, 5:30-6:30 pm. Free. Central Library, 906 W. Main. favs.news MAC AFTER HOURS Every last Wednesday of the month, the MAC offers live, local music, a mix of programming, drinks and more. Last Wednesday of every month, 5-9 pm. 50% off admission. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org (509-456-3931)
56TH ANNUAL ART ON THE GREEN
Explore over 120 fine art booths including painting, pottery, jewelry, woodworking, metal work and more. The weekend also includes free live
entertainment and food available for purchase. Aug. 2-4; Fri from 11 am-7:30 pm, Sat from 10 am-7:30 pm, Sun from 10 am-4 pm. Free. North Idaho College Student Union Building, 495 N. College Dr. artonthegreencda.com
COEUR D’ALENE STREET FAIR An arts and culture fair with over 250 vendors selling art, crafts, clothing and more. Aug. 2-4; Fri-Sat from 10 am-8 pm, Sun from 10 am-5 pm. Free. Downtown Coeur d’Alene, Sherman Ave. cdadowntown.com (208-415-0116)
CHEWELAH SUMMERFEST An array of family-friendly activities from duck races and musical performances to food vendors and local artisans. Aug. 3, 11 am-11 pm. Free. Chewelah City Park, N. Park St. chewelah.org/summerfest-2024
SPOKANE SCOTTISH HIGHLAND GAMES A full day of Scottish entertainment including heavy athletics, highland dancing, pipe band exhibitions and more. Aug. 3, 9 am-5:30 pm. $5-$10. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. spokanehighlandgames.net (509-477-1766)
UPRISE BREWING SECOND ANNIVERSARY BLOCK PARTY A party featuring limited release collaboration beers, live music, food and more Live music by Starcourt and The Bed Heads. Aug. 3, 2-8 pm. Free; Beer Fest $25. Uprise Brewing Co., 617 N. Ash St. uprisebeer. com/2year
FILM
ART HOUSE THEATER DAY: EYES WITHOUT A FACE A doctor attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured countenance at a horrifying price. July 25, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)
GARLAND FREE KIDS MOVIES Screenings of free kids movies every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 11 am. See website for movie details. Free. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org (509-327-1050)
SUMMER FAMILY MATINEE SERIES A free screening of a kids movie. See website for list of movies. Tue-Thu at 1 pm through Aug. 22. Free. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
SUMMER OF STUDIO GHIBLI: CASTLE IN THE SKY An English-dubbed screening. July 25-27, daily at 2 pm. $5. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org (509-327-1050)
CINEMA CLASSICS: THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE Two down-ontheir-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. July 26, 2-4 pm. $6. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)
KINDS OF KINDNESS A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife’s demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an individual prophesied to become a renowned spiritual guide. July 26 & 28, 7-9 pm, July 27, 3-5 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
MOVIES IN THE PARK Screenings of family-friendly movies in Sally’s Park. Fridays at sundown through Aug. 2. Free. The Salvation Army Spokane, 222 E. Indiana Ave. facebook.com/TheSalvationArmyofSpokane (509-325-6810)
EVENTS | CALENDAR
MOVIES IN THE PARK: WONKA An outdoor screening of Wonka with yard games and other activities. Movie begins at sunset. July 26, 7 pm. Free. Tullamore Park, E. Bogie Dr. postfalls.gov
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1999: OFFICE SPACE
Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss. July 26, 5 pm, July 27, 7:30 pm and July 28, 5 pm. $5. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org
FARMERS MARKET CARTOONS A selection of kid-friendly animated shorts. Drop in anytime during the Moscow Farmers Market. Sat from 8 am-noon through Aug. 31. Free. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)
GARLAND FREE SUMMER MOVIES Free movies at the Garland Theater every Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. See website for movie details. Free. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org
SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER: BACK TO THE FUTURE Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown. July 27, 7-9 pm and July 28, 4-6 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org
MOSCOW FILM SOCIETY: GOODFELLAS The story of Henry Hill’s life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito. July 31, 7-9 pm. $8. The Kenworthy, 508 S. Main St. kenworthy.org (208-882-4127)
SUMMER OF STUDIO GHIBLI: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE An English-dubbed screening. July 31-Aug. 3, daily at 2 pm. $5. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org (509-327-1050)
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1999: 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU A high school boy can’t date Bianca until her anti-social older sister has a boyfriend. So he pays a mysterious boy to charm Kat. Aug. 2-4, 7:30 pm. $5. Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave. garlandtheater.org
FOOD & DRINK
HAVANA NIGHTS COCKTAIL CLASS
Dive into the rich history of classic cocktails. Renée, a historian with over 20 years of experience, guides an interactive cocktail class. July 25, 6-9 pm. $85. Commellini Estate, 14715 N. Dartford Dr. commelliniestate.com
BBQ & BANDS Live music by Jacob Maxwell. Dinner is a London broil. July 26, 5-7 pm. $20. The Culinary Stone, 2129 N. Main St., Coeur d’Alene. culinarystone. com (208-277-4166)
MAKING SNACKS FROM AROUND THE WORLD Make and eat snacks from other countries, learn fun food facts and sample unique candies from around the world. Ages 13-18. Registration is required. July 26, 3-4 pm. Free. Cheney Library, 610 First St. scld.org (509-893-8280)
RIDE & DINE SERIES Enjoy a scenic gondola ride, live music and a barbecue meal. Fridays from 3-7:30 pm through Aug. 30. $8-$63. Silver Mountain Resort, 610 Bunker Ave. silvermt.com
ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKE BREAKFAST A pancake breakfast with cherry sauce, sausage and eggs. July 28, 8-11 am. $4-$8. Green Bluff Grange, 9809 Green Bluff Rd. greenbluffgrowers.com
SUNDAY BRUNCH CRUISES Enjoy a
brunch buffet with a full-service, no-host bar while on a cruise around Lake Coeur d’Alene. Sundays at 11 am through Sep. 1. $60-$73. The Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. cdacruises.com (208-765-4000)
POPCORN SEASONINGS & MOVIE
PAIRINGS Local spice shops provide samples of popcorn seasonings and movie suggestions to pair with each flavor. With Inland Empire Spice. July 30, 1-2 pm. Free. Medical Lake Library, 3212 Herb St. scld.org (509-893-8330)
RIVERFRONT EATS A food festival featuring local food vendors and live music. Tuesdays from 11 am-2 pm through Aug. 20. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.org (509-625-6600)
BBQ & BANDS Live music by Faron Gilbert. Dinner is beef and chicken sliders. Aug. 2, 5-7 pm. $20. The Culinary Stone, 2129 N. Main St. culinarystone.com
MUSIC
LILAC CITY COMMUNITY BAND CONCERT The band performs works from their repertoire in various city parks. July 25, 6:30-8 pm. Free. Riverview Retirement Community, 1711 Ross Ct. hnmc.org
TAIKO JAPANESE DRUMMING OPEN
HOUSE Learn the traditional Japanese drumming, Taiko. Listen to a couple of songs and then play the drums yourself. July 25, 5:30-6:30 pm. Free. Salem Lutheran Church, 1428 W. Broadway Ave. spokanetaiko.com (509-270-5308)
ANDREW FERIANTE: STRING STORIES Feriante performs traditional Spanish music on guitar. July 27, 7 pm. $25. The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William St. thejacklincenter.org
PALOUSE MUSIC FESTIVAL A one-day music festival featuring Jens Hegg, Smith & Reilly, The Chelseas, Floating Crowbar, The Range Benders and Tone Sober. The event also features a beer garden. July 27, 11 am-7 pm. $5-$10, children 6 and under free. Hayton Greene Park, 102 Idaho Rd. palouseartscouncil.org
IN A LANDSCAPE A nine-foot concert grand Steinway piano is set in natural landscapes instead of the traditional concert hall. The audience is encouraged to wander and explore the surrounding environment while listening to the music through wireless headphones, creating an immersive and intimate experience. July 29, 6-7:30 pm. $40. Pine Street Woods, 11915 W. Pine St. kaniksu.org
BOB BEADLING Contemporary selections on piano. July 31, 5-7 pm. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St. powine. com (877-452-9011)
SPORTS & OUTDOORS
GO PLAY PASSPORT PROGRAM Download or pick up a Spokane Valley Parks and Recreation Passport, complete all tasks and mark them off as you go. Bring your passport to the Parks & Rec office by July 31 to get a prize. Free. Spokane Valley. spokanevalleywa.gov
GREATER SPOKANE PARKS CHALLENGE Visit 20 of Spokane’s parks, marking them off on the OuterSpatial mobile app as you go, to complete the challenge. Winners receive a sticker and are entered to win a $500 Target gift card. Through Sep. 3. Free. outerspatial.com
OPEN PLAY PICKLEBALL Play pickleball at the HUB. Every week Mon-Thu
from 10 am-noon or 1-3 pm. Mon-Thu, 10 am-noon & 1-3 pm. $5.50-$7. HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. hubsportscenter.org (509-927-0602)
RIVERFRONT MOVES: BARRE Barre3 North leads a 60 minute total body workout featuring small and large range movement sequences. July 25, 6-7 pm. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.com (509-625-6600)
THE SHOWCASE A celebrity golf tournament benefitting Community Cancer Fund. July 26-27. The Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. showcasegolf.com
SUNSET KAYAKING: UPRIVER DAM A flatwater paddle from Upriver Dam to Argonne Bridge at sunset. Meet at Spokane Upriver Dam Facility. July 26, 6:30-8:30 pm. $39. my.spokanecity.org/parksrec
B IS FOR BISMARK MULE BARN A short hike to the former Bismark Ranger Station and an update on the Mule Barn. July 27, 9-10 am. Free. Priest Lake Museum, 38 Priest Lake Museum Rd. priestlakemuseum.org (208-443-2676)
KAYAK AND CAVE PEND OREILLE RIVER Explore Gardner Cave on a guided, educational walking tour of the 1,055 ft. limestone cavern. July 27, 7 am-6 pm. $99. Yoke’s Fresh Market, 14202 N. Market St. my.cityspokane.org/parksrec
PLANT CLINIC WITH WSU SPOKANE COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS Get advice from WSU Spokane County Master Gardeners about plant selection, maintenance, environmentally friendly practices, pest management, effective landscaping practices and more. Saturdays from 11 am-3 pm through Sep. 28. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
SPOKANE VELOCITY VS. CHARLOTTE INDEPENDENCE Regular season game. July 27, 6 pm. $21-$41. One Spokane Stadium, 501 W. Gardner Ave. spokanevelocityfc.com
XERIC GARDENING Learn about gardening in dry landscapes. July 27, 2-3 pm. $10. Ritters Garden & Gift, 10120 N. Division St. 4ritter.com (509 467-5258)
SPOKANE VALLEY CYCLE CELEBRATION A 10, 25 or 50 mile bike ride along the Centennial Trail. July 28, 7:30 am. $15-$29. Mirabeau Point Park, 2426 N. Discovery Place. cyclecelebration.com
LET’S HIKE: ROUND LAKE A summer hike led by local rangers commencing with a story book session. Meet at the Round Lake trailhead near the boat launch. Ages 6+. July 29, 9 am. Free. Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar St. ebonnerlibrary.org (208-265-9565)
RIVERFRONT MOVES: ACRO YOGA Coil Studio leads an acro yoga class focused on movement and communication with a partner. July 30, 6-7 pm. Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. riverfrontspokane.com (509-625-6600)
SPOKANE INDIANS VS. HILLSBORO
HOPS Promotions during this six-game series include Fireworks Night (Aug. 2), Storybook Princess Night (Aug. 3), Augtoberfest Day Game (Aug. 4) and more. July 30-Aug. 3 at 6:35 pm, and Aug. 4, 1:05 pm. Avista Stadium, 602 N. Havana St. milb.com/spokane (509-535-2922)
NORTHWEST CUP 2024 A three-day downhill bike racing competition with various levels of competition. Aug. 2-4. Silver Mountain Resort, 610 Bunker Ave. nwcup.com (208-783-1111)
SPIKE & DIG An outdoor, co-ed, six-onsix volleyball tournament with over 200 teams competing. Registration closes
July 31. Aug. 3 and Aug. 4. $225-$300. Dwight Merkel Sports Complex, 5701 N. Assembly St. spikeanddig.com
SPOKANE MIDNIGHT CENTURY A 100-mile bike ride through Spokane, to Liberty Lake, through the Palouse, into Spangle and back into Spokane. No registration required. Aug. 3, 11:59 pm. Free. The Elk Public House, 1931 W. Pacific Ave. midnightcentury.com
THEATER & DANCE
AS YOU LIKE IT An adaptation by the Spokane Shakespeare Society. Performed in Manito Park (July 25-28) and Riverfront Park (Aug. 1-3). Wed-Sat at 6:30, Sun at 2 pm. Free. spokaneshakespearesociety.org
FOOTLOOSE When Ren moves from Chicago to a small farming town he’s not prepared for the rigorous local edicts, including a ban on dancing instituted by the local preacher, who is determined to exercise control over the town’s youth. July 25-28; Thu-Sat at 7 pm, Sat-Sun at 3 pm. $20. Gonzaga Prep, 1224 E. Euclid Ave. cytspokane.org
FROZEN A stage adaptation of Disney’s Frozen about Elsa, an ice princess from Arendell, and her sister, Anna, filled with songs from the movie. Wed-Sat at 7:30, Sat also at 2 pm, Sun at 1 pm and 6:30 pm through Aug. 4. $40-$160. First Interstate Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. broadwayspokane.com
HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL Westerberg High is terrorized by a clique: Heather, Heather and Heather. Veronica Sawyer rejects their regime for a boyfriend who plans to put the Heathers in their place. Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm through July 28. (Sat, July 27 performance at 2 pm.) $15-38. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard. spokanecivictheatre.com
THE LITTLE PRINCE When a plane crashes in the Sahara Desert, the Aviator encounters a Little Prince from another planet who shares incredible tales of intergalactic travels. July 19-27; Wed-Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $15-$28. Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St. spokanecivictheatre.com
THE SECRET GARDEN Orphaned Mary Lennox returns to live with her uncle Archibald and his disabled son. The estate includes a magic garden which beckons the children with haunting melodies. Thu-Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm through July 28. $50-$192. Schuler Performing Arts Center, 880 W. Garden Ave. cstidaho.com
BUDDY: THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY Experience Buddy Holly’s life story at the most successful rock ‘n’ roll show of all time, from his rise to fame to his final legendary performance at the Surf Ballroom. Thu-Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm through Aug. 11. $25-$45. Central Valley High School, 821 S. Sullivan Rd. svsummertheatre.com
LOVE AND BASEBALL A chance meeting creates sparks between Will and Michele, but like the pristine moments of an unforgettable baseball game, love is also a sport of luck, skill and timing. July 25Aug. 4; Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. $6-$26. The Forge Theater, 404 Sweet Ave. uidaho.edu/class/theatre
IMPROV CLASS Working together as a group, learn the basics of improv in a positive and encouraging environment. Learn how to create and tell stories
through scene work. Ages 13-18. Presented by Blue Door Theatre/Spokane School of Improv. Registration required. Aug. 2, 10 am-noon. Free. North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. scld.org
LEGALLY BLONDE This musical follows the transformation of Elle Woods as she tackles stereotypes and scandal in pursuit of her dreams. Aug. 2-11; Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm. $22-$28. Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Rd. aspirecda.com (208-696-4228)
PIPPIN A mysterious performance troupe tells the story of Pippin, a young prince who longs to find passion and adventure in his life. Aug. 2-18; Thu-Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 2 pm.$25-$30. Stage Left Theater, 108 W. Third Ave. stagelefttheater.org
VISUAL ARTS
SPLASH: A WATERCOLOR GROUP
SHOW A shpecase of watercolor artwork by Elise Beattie and other known local artist consignors and collective members. July 12-27, Wed-Sat from 11 am-5 pm. Wed.-5-9 pm through July 27. Free. New Moon Art Gallery, 1326 E. Sprague Ave. manicmoonandmore.com
4D RISO RESIDENCY OF SPOKANE SHOWCASE Mykola Haleta releases their series of riso printed materials focusing on graphs, grids, patterns and typography. Includes a workshop, a zine launch and more. July 25, 5-8 pm. Free. Catalyst Building, 601 E. Riverside Ave. ewu.edu/ cstem/design/4d-lab
BETWEEN BORDERS: FOLKLIFE THROUGH THE COEUR D’ALENES Folk and traditional artists from the region. Wed-Sat from 9 am-3 pm through Sep. 4. Free. Chrysalis Gallery, 911 S. Monroe St. theartchrysalis.com (509-991-7275)
JULIE ALEXANDER: BLINK MARGIN WEFT The Seattle artist creates paintings on various fabrics using acrylics and ink. Daily through July 31, by appt. Free. Kolva-Sullivan, 115 S. Adams St. mobile. kolva.comcastbiz.net (509-458-5517)
EXPO GROUP SHOW A show featuring 19 local artists showcasing art inspired by Expo ’74’s 50th anniversary. Daily from 11 am-6 pm through July 29, 11 am-6 pm. Free. Entropy, 101 N. Stevens St. explodingstars.com (509-414-3226)
HIGHER GROUND: AN EXHIBITION OF ART, EPHEMERA AND FORM Artwork and archival material from across the Palouse that speaks to the history of queer experience in the area including historical photographs, writings and pieces of art. Mon-Fri from 8:30 am-4:30 pm through Oct. 31. Free. Washington State University, 2000 NE Stadium Way. libraries.wsu.edu/masc (509-551-4231)
INLAND NORTHWEST JURIED LANDSCAPE ART EXHIBITION This juried display seeks to present the diversity and dynamism of contemporary artistic activity in the Inland Northwest. Mon-Sat from 10 am-4 pm through Aug. 24. Free. Jundt Art Museum, 200 E. Desmet Ave. gonzaga.edu/jundt (509-313-6843)
JAN CLIZER Paintings featuring Scottish, Irish and Cornish culture. Wed-Fri from 10 am-6 pm, Sat from 9 am-noon and Sun from 1-4 pm through Aug. 14. Free. The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William. thejacklincenter.org
KIM MATTHEWS WHEATON The Eastern Washington-based painter shows landscapes of the Columbia Basin. Mon-Fri from 8 am-5 pm through July 31. Free. Chase Gallery, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. spokanearts.org
LESLIE LAMBERT: WESTERN COLORS Award-winning artist, teacher, illustrator and author Leslie Lambert is known for her dramatic watercolors. Daily from 11 am-7 pm through July 27. Free. Liberty Building, 203 N. Washington St. spokanelibertybuilding.com
ANTONIO ROMERO & DIANE LIND -
BLADE Digital art by Antonio Romero and landscapes by Diane Lindblade. Both artists are members of the River Ridge Association of Fine Arts. Daily from 6 am-8 pm through July 31. Free. Indaba Coffee Roasters, 518 W. Riverside. rrafaofspokane.com
SPOKANE ART SCHOOL EXPO ’74
50TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW Art relating to Expo ’74 from Gina Freuen, Jo Fyfe, Tom Quinn, E.L.Stewart, Gordon Wilson and more. Mon-Fri from 10 am-5 pm through July 26. Free. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave. spokaneartschool.net
VAN GOGH: THE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE A digital art exhibition featuring the work of Vincent van Gogh. ThuMon from 10 am-7 pm through Sep. 30. $21-$41. Exhibition Hub Spokane Art Center, 808 N. Ruby St. vangoghexpo.com/spokane
LAST FRIDAY ART Hand crafted art for sale provided by local artisans during the farmers market and food truck rally. The last Friday of the month through Aug. 30 from 4-8 pm. Free. CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Pl. spokanevalleyarts.org (509-986-8333)
MACRAMÉ WORKSHOP Fiber artist and educator Adrienne Overstreet from Feathered Sparrow guides the creation of a macramé plant hanger. July 27, 11 am-1 pm. $45. Emerge, 119 N. Second St., CdA. emergecda.com
ODE TO PINCH POTS Collista Krebs shows participants how to make a round pinch pot. July 27, 10 am-1 pm. $71. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave. spokaneartschool.net
CREATE RANGOLI Bharatanatyam dancer and Natanam Dance School owner Devika Gates teaches how to make rangoli, a decorative Indian folk art. July 28, 1 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley. spokanelibrary.org
INTERMEDIATE CROCHET Andi Keating teaches funky stitch patters, colorwork and how to make 3D objects in this comprehensive crochet class. July 28-Aug. 1, Sun from 12:30-3:30 pm. $101. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave., Ste. B. spokaneartschool.net
INTERMEDIATE KNITTING Andi Keating teaches how to knit in the round, cable knit, do stranded colorwork and more in this comprehensive knitting class. July 28-Aug. 18, Sun from 10 amnoon. $101. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave. spokaneartschool.net
DEBBIE HUGHBANKS: FEATHERS & FUR Local artist Debbie Hughbanks shares her love of animals and art with a unique collection of creatures from around the world in pastel, acrylic, scratchboard and mixed media. July 28-Aug. 31, daily from 11 am-7 pm. Free. Liberty Building, 203 N. Washington St. spokanelibertybuilding.com
SKETCHING HISTORIC BROWNE’S ADDITION Sketch various locations in Browne’s Addition with local artist Meghan Perkins. July 31, 6:30-8:30 pm. $20-$25. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org
FIRST FRIDAY LIVE BOOK BINDING
Emma Claire demonstrates traditional book binding with recycled and vintage materials from 5-8 pm. The shop holds flash tattoo specials from $80 all day. Aug. 2, 1-8 pm. Free. Heartbreaker Tattoo & Artist Co-op, 830 W. Sprague Ave. heartbreakerspokane.com
FIRST FRIDAY: DANIEL DROZ & MARIE NOORANI Droz displays steampunk instruments and Noorani presents her unique paper creations. Also features live music. Aug. 2, 3-7 pm. Free. Avenue West Gallery, 907 W. Boone Ave. avenuewestgallery.com
ILDIKÓ KALAPÁCS: SYMBIOSIS AND CO-EXISTENCE Kalapács blends Hungarian folk culture, themes of environmental preservation, identity and more through paintings. Aug. 2-30, Mon-Fri from 10 am-5 pm. Free. Spokane Art School, 503 E. Second Ave., Ste. B. spokaneartschool.net
WORDS
PRIEST RIVER EXPERIMENTAL FOR-
EST: A BRIEF HISTORY Superintendent Forester Hannah Basham shares the rich history of this research center, established in 1911, about 10 miles south of Coolin. July 25, 7-8 pm. Free. Priest Lake Community Church, 25 Creekside Dr. priestlakemuseum.org
WRITE TOGETHER: A COMMUNITY
WRITING SESSION Bring your current writing project and write alongside local author Sharma Shields. This is not a critiquing workshop and is purely generative. July 26, 10 am-noon. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org (509-444-5300)
ADRIANA JANOVICH: UNIQUE EATS & EATERIES OF SPOKANE Celebrate the new book about Spokane restaurants by journalist Adriana Janovich. July 27, 3 pm. Free. Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave. spokanelibrary.org
BROKEN MIC A weekly open mic reading series. Wednesdays at 6:30 pm; sign-ups at 6 pm. 6:30 pm. Free. Neato Burrito, 827 W. First Ave. bit. ly/2ZAbugD (509-847-1234)
LAKE ADVENTURES: 19TH CENTURY EXPEDITIONS Kris Runberg Smith offers earlier stories of the lake’s rich 19th-century history she uncovered while researching Wild Place: A History of Priest Lake, Idaho. Aug. 1, 7-8 pm. Free. Priest Lake Community Church, 25 Creekside. priestlakemuseum.org
3 MINUTE MIC Auntie’s Bookstore’s First Friday poetry open mic. Readers may share up to three minutes’ worth of poetry. Open to all ages. Aug. 2, 7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com
FRIENDS OF THE SANDPOINT LIBRARY BOOK SALE Browse gently used books, DVDs, CDs and more Aug. 3, 10 am-2 pm. Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar. ebonnerlibrary.org
AUNTIE’S BOOK CLUB: QUEER & WEIRD Discuss The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang. Aug. 3, 6-7 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com
WRITE TOGETHER: A COMMUNITY WRITING SESSION Bring your current writing project and write alongside local author Sharma Shields. This is not a critiquing workshop and is purely generative. Aug. 3, 10 am. Free. Hillyard Library, 4110 N. Cook St. spokanelibrary. org n
STATE LAW
Tweaking the Code
Washington cannabis regulators moved forward with a pair of changes to state code
BY WILL MAUPIN
Last week, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) approved a pair of rule changes that will impact how cannabis is taxed and tested in the state.
The rulemaking action concerning taxation is further along in the process than the one concerning testing. It regards changes to the excise tax levied on medical marijuana.
Cannabis products sold in the state are subject to a 37% excise tax in addition to other state and local sales taxes. The new rules would remove that tax for approved medical cannabis patients who buy from specific dispensaries. These changes are a direct result of Substituted House Bill 1453, which became law earlier this year.
To qualify for the excise tax exemption, three criteria must be met. The purchase must be made by a qualifying patient, or a designated provider, with a card from the state Department of Health; the purchase must be made at a licensed dispensary with a medical endorsement; and the product purchased must be usable cannabis specified by the state code.
Essentially, medical marijuana patients buying cannabis from medically endorsed dispensaries would be eligible for the exemption. Of Spokane County’s 33 licensed
dispensaries, 18 are medically endorsed. These changes went into effect on June 6, but formal language on the rule issued by the LCB has not yet gone into effect. The exemption is set to last through June 2029. A public comment period regarding the changes is open through Aug. 28.
The second rulemaking action taken by the LCB last week relates to regulation of cannabis testing labs.
Authority to regulate quality standards and accreditation of cannabis testing labs was originally given to the LCB. A 2019 bill transferred that responsibility to the Department of Ecology, with the LCB playing a smaller role. A subsequent bill in 2022 once again moved responsibility, this time to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Under current state law, Agriculture will take responsibility for quality standards and accreditation. The LCB’s rulemaking action proposes several changes to the wording of state code to accommodate this shift in responsibility.
The LCB’s most recent rulemaking on this issue is a “Preproposal Statement of Inquiry,” meaning it is not a final change. A public comment period on these proposed changes is open and runs through Aug. 16. n
The state is easing some cannabis rules.
NOTE TO READERS
Be aware of the differences in the law between Idaho and Washington. It is illegal to possess, sell or transport cannabis in the State of Idaho. Possessing up to an ounce is a misdemeanor and can get you a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; more than three ounces is a felony that can carry a five-year sentence and fine of up to $10,000. Transporting marijuana across state lines, like from Washington into Idaho, is a felony under federal law.
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