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DEAR READERS,

The week in random review

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

quotable

“You’re more of a yellow mustard person.

I’m a Sweet Hot Beaver person.”

— My 10-year-old son to my 7-year-old daughter in an overhead debate about the merits of various mustards. I’m a proud father.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT ART THIS WEEK

Despite being one of the most influential European artists of all time — and whose macabre style is instantly recognizable — we know almost nothing about the life of early Dutch master Hieronymous Bosch. We know he was born sometime around 1450 and died in 1516. We know he lived almost all his life in the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, that he married a wealthy woman and took lucrative commissions for his work. He belonged to an elite religious organization called the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady. Other than that, he left no known record of his artistic training or the personal meanings embedded in his work. He didn’t even sign or date most of his pieces, and many of the works we ascribe to Bosch may have actually been executed by his many admirers. More than 500 years after his death, he remains as mysterious as his inscrutable ouvre.

NOV. 1, 1478

That’s the date the Spanish Inquisition was founded. It lasted until July 15, 1834 — three years before British mathematician Charles Babbage described his “analytical engine,” which (while never completed before his death in 1871) established the foundations of computer technology. Today, computers are the primary technology used for inquiry — and maybe the occasional “inquisition.”

7.26 BILLION

The number of mobile devices in the world, according to BankMyCell. That’s enough for more than 91.5% of the global population (and counting). When it comes just to smartphones, that number is more than 6.6 billion. Surprisingly, 20.1% of those smartphones in 2021 were manufactured by Samsung, followed by Apple with 17.4%.

The evolution of cellular phones over the years. Courtesy photo.

The summer is kicking along nicely and we have some exciting events headed our way, including the Festival at Sandpoint from July 28-Aug. 7. If you stroll

by War Memorial Field this week, you’ll see the Festival crew hard at work raising the iconic white tent in preparation for the two-week concert series.

Also, Mattox Farm Productions is reopening the Heartwood Center under the direction of Robb Talbott, and they have a couple of great shows coming up, including the Slocan Ramblers with Headwaters on Thursday, July 28 and Anna Tivel playing with Sandpoint’s own Josh Hedlund on Sunday, July 31.

Pivoting to other matters, I feel the need to explain a political ad that ran in last week’s Sandpoint Reader. We believe firmly in the First Amendment here at the Reader. It allows us to continue speaking truth to power so that you, our dear readers, can keep abreast of what’s going on in our neck of the woods. I understand it might be uncomfortable for some of you to see an anti-government activist scheduling an event in Sandpoint. It doesn’t please me too much, either. But that doesn’t mean we go the way of Fox News and forbid anyone we don’t agree with from advertising or holding an event to exercise their First Amendment right. Everyone has a right to buy an ad in the Reader, as long as it doesn’t violate any of the terms of our advertising policy. As repulsive as Ammon Bundy is, he has a right to hold a political event just as all of you do, too.

That’s the messy reality involved with freedom of speech and assembly — you don’t always agree with what is said at a specific gathering, but that doesn’t mean you shut it down. You have the right to disagree with Bundy’s politics, and you can be disappointed that he chose to come here, but to write emails shaming the Reader for running the ad is counterproductive.

The one thing I’m bummed about is that the event was listed on the ad by the Bundy campaign as taking place at Tango Cafe, which is wrong. Tango Cafe has nothing to do with this event. They are merely a tenant inside The Sandpoint Center. The event was not booked by Tango Cafe, so please don’t direct any negative attention their way. They have nothing to do with this event whatsoever. Thanks for understanding.

– Ben Olson, publisher

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

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Ben Olson, Bill Borders, Steve and Linda Navarre, Alex Carey, Tricia Florence, Racheal Baker, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Emily Erickson, Jim Jones, Erik Daarstad, Cameron Rasmusson Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID Subscription Price: $155 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

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

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

Sandpoint Reader letter policy: The Sandpoint Reader welcomes letters to the editor on all topics.

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

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

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

About the Cover

This week’s cover was designed

by Ben Olson and contains a stock image.

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NEWS

Bridge Street land swap agreement amended

Vote comes amid widespread public concerns about Sand Creek waterfront overdevelopment

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Sandpoint City councilors voted 4-2 to amend the land swap agreement with Bridge Street, LLC at their regular July 20 meeting, making the exchange final as of Monday, Aug. 1 and giving the company until Aug. 30, 2023 to complete foundation improvements adjacent to Bridge Street.

The item had originally been on the council’s consent agenda — reflecting the seemingly minor nature of the change, which came about because of a delay caused by survey work needed to complete the plat.

“This is an agreement for timelines,” said City Attorney Andy Doman. “We’re not asking for a new agreement, we’re asking for a modification.”

That may have been so, and the amendment may have sailed through without any comment, but for a website loaded with slick renderings depicting a 65-foot-tall mixed-use development billed as “small town luxury living” that ripped through the local social mediascape beginning July 15. Outrage at the scale of the project only grew, as observers parsed through the onebridgestreet. com site seeing 13 high-end condos towering over the creek.

“You can’t just let this go down.

You really can’t,” testified longtime resident Rebecca Holland. “It’s not in the historic character of our town … it’s a monstrosity, as I heard someone put it today.”

Residents recoiled based on those images, generating so much reaction that the land swap amendment was moved from the beginning of the meeting so as to accommodate more public comment.

Sandpoint Infrastructure and Development Director Amanda Wilson said early in her opening presentation that the city has not received any permit applications from the developer, but had attended multiple pre-application meetings.

Also, what appears to be construction occurring on the site is actually work requested by city staff to support the road and sidewalk.

As for the renderings that circulated throughout the community in recent days, Wilson called them “promotional materials … that are 4 /

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released to attract pre-sales.”

“They are cartoon in nature,” she said. “They are not construction drawings.”

That said, much is still in flux despite the new land swap finalization date of Aug. 1, including closing on the exchange, receipt of the money and security and recording the plat. Only after that can a building permit be submitted.

After that follows a staff review estimated to last anywhere from two to four months. Once code compliance has been assured, only then could construction begin with a date of completion “to be determined,” Wilson said, adding there are “too many variables” to say exactly when anything will be built on the site — or even what it will eventually look like.

Of course, that’s despite One Bridge Street, LLC’s website’s claim that the project will be delivered

by September 2023. The company — with its registered jurisdiction in Delaware; a street address in Carson City, Nev.; and an office in Newport Beach, Calif. — did not respond to a request for comment.

In September 2020, Bridge Street, LLC developer Cliff Davis told the council via Zoom that his company “is currently owner of the biggest eyesore in Sandpoint, and we’d like to take care of that as soon as possible.”

Indeed, since a fire gutted five businesses at First Avenue and Bridge Street in April 2019, the corner has been a deep scar on downtown. So it was with great anticipation that residents awaited what might come next to the core property — formerly home to busy retailers, bars and restaurants.

Bridge Street, LLC acquired the two gutted parcels in September 2019, yet the hole remained.

With the land swap amendment approved, the ball could get rolling on filling it as soon as Aug. 2, depending on when the developer submits its permit application. Yet, in the biggest sticking point for City Councilor Jason Welker, the process through which the project will move won’t include a public hearing process.

Rather, Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton told the Reader in an email ahead of the

meeting that because the development would occur inside a commercial zone it would only trigger a public process if it included features such as a drive-through or a footprint larger than 15,000 square feet — all of which would require a conditional use permit. That rule has been on the books since 2010, with some “minor edits adopted in 2014,” she said.

“Had this development been submitted in 2010, it would still have gone through a staff review process,” Stapleton added.

How that works: the applicant applies for a building permit, then staff reviews it for code compliance, including zoning, building, fire, and engineering for stormwater and utilities. Changes and corrections are typically required, triggering resubmittal and another round of review. That process continues until the project complies with code. If a development is larger than eight units, adjacent property owners are notified of the staff decision, along with notification of a comment and appeal period — the latter offering the only other opportunity for the public to weigh in.

“Assuming it’s not appealed, a building permit is issued,” Stapleton said.

She underscored that the city has a “significant amount of design criteria” in the code, “which is not necessarily reflected in this rendering, which is typical.”

“The renderings are used primarily for promotional and pre-sale purposes,” Stapleton added.

That didn’t sit right with Welker, who despite having served on the Planning and Zoning Commission said he was surprised that such a largescale potential development wouldn’t be subjected to public review.

“When I first saw the cartoon drawings of this development last week and saw that it included 13 dwelling units … I just naively assumed there would be a CUP process because this is more than eight units,” he said. “I only learned recently that residential developments of any size are allowed within the commercial zone without a CUP.” What’s more, despite the number and size of the units — the smallest on the One Bridge Street website described as more than 1,100 square feet and the largest

at just more than 3,000 square feet — the total footprint would be less than 15,000 square feet, below the threshold for a CUP. “I was quite surprised this afternoon to learn that there will be no further opportunity for public comment on this project after tonight,” Welker said.

Every citizen who did comment on July 20 was adamant in their objection to what the One Bridge Street website portrayed.

Lauren Sanders, of Sandpoint, wondered why the decision on the land swap amendment couldn’t be delayed to look at code changes to protect against overdevelopment, adding, “I would just hope y’all vote against this. We’re kind of setting the precedent for the future of our town.”

Sandpoint citizen Will Harrison worried about affordability and suggested that a CUP process might help ensure some income limits for future dwellings. Holland agreed, saying that, “hand-wringing about affordable housing is just a facade if this is allowed. … You represent the people who live in this town — not developers from Nevada.”

Husband and wife Jamie and Mark Terry — the former a yoga instructor and the latter the general manager of the 219 Lounge — testified that such a development would harm, rather than benefit the community.

“In five years we’ve had to move six times … because of greed,” Jamie testified. “Because we keep getting kicked out of rentals, because rental prices keep skyrocketing.”

“I don’t begrudge anyone their abundance at all, but I hope there’s a really strong sense of ‘why’ this

A promotional rendering of a multi-use luxury condo development fronted for the corner of Bridge Street and First Avenue.

Image courtesy of Bridge Street, LLC. kind of development should go forward,” she added.

Mark said later that, “Having 13 new condos just doesn’t outweigh keeping people in the community year round. … When you bring in another building with $1 million condos, it’s just going to raise everybody’s rent.”

“People are leaving left and right,” he added.

After some discussion about further amending the agreement for a finalization date of Sept. 1 or outright tabling the decision, Councilor Justin Dick said he sees the issue “slightly different than what some of the citizens have brought.”

Noting that he probably traverses Bridge Street more than any other resident in the city, being owner of Trinity at City Beach, he said that while he was “sickened” by the One Bridge Street renderings when he first saw them and thought they were “a little bit reckless,” he remembered previous uproar over the bypass, Seasons at Sandpoint and the Sandpoint Center — all considered “monstrosities” in their early days, but “they have added vitality to our community,” he said.

“There will be a positive outcome when it’s finally done,” he said of whatever eventually gets built on the corner of Bridge Street and First Avenue.

Council President Kate McAlister voted “yes” to approving the land swap amendment, as well as Councilors Dick, Andy Groat and Deb Ruehle. Councilors Joel Aispuro and Welker voted “no.”

NEWS

Bonner County signs updated contracts with Davillier Law Group

Legal firm’s political reputation raises questions from Arizona to Idaho

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey and Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Bonner County commissioners voted unanimously July 12 to approve two new retainer agreements with Davillier Law Group, approving increased hourly rates in order for the firm to continue to represent the county in both general legal matters and litigation specific to aviation.

Deputy Prosecutor Bill Wilson presented the new contracts on behalf of Davillier, which raised the rate for attorneys Mauricio Cardona and Allen Schoff — who do the bulk of the work for Bonner County, Wilson said — from $200 per hour to $300 per hour.

The new contracts also feature a $500 per hour rate for attorney George Wentz, a partner in the firm; $400 per hour costs for attorneys Brant C. Hadaway and Richard Seamon; $250 per hour for the services of Andrew Drexel; and any necessary paralegal work costing $125 per hour.

Wentz, who authored the new agreements, noted in his letter to commissioners that Davillier was “offering the county its services at a deeply discounted rate, in furtherance of our civic commitment and to serve our local community.”

While one agreement refers to legal services for “general matters,” the second refers specifically to legal matters related to the county’s airport operations. Wilson said the agreements had not been updated in “three or four years.”

“We haven’t had others come asking to renegotiate their retainer agreements,” Wilson said, “but it wouldn’t be beyond the pale given the cost of everything right now.”

In deliberation, Commissioner Jeff Connolly expressed concern about the increased rates.

“I don’t like the new numbers very well, but I mean, we’re seeing that throughout our costs,” he said. “[They’re] going up and up.”

He emphasized that the board

must vote on a case-by-case basis on whether to utilize Davillier’s services.

“The more this costs us, the more I would encourage us not to use them if possible,” he said.

Still, the board voted to approve both new contracts.

Davillier Law Group did not respond to a request for comments on a number of points.

Gun suits, Bears Ears, COVID masks and Cyber Ninjas While it is atypical for constituents to be familiar with the law firms representing their local municipalities, Bonner County residents may recognize the Davillier name from the firm’s time representing the county in its suit against the city of Sandpoint challenging the Festival at Sandpoint’s no-weapons policy during the annual concert series at War Memorial Field.

The lawsuit, which launched in late-summer 2019, concluded just over a year later when Kootenai County District Court Judge Lansing L. Haynes ruled that the county had no standing in the case.

Bonner County paid Davillier nearly $230,000 to litigate the Festival gun suit, according to records obtained by the Reader in March 2021. Haynes also ruled that the county would need to pay about $71,000 to the city to fulfill a motion for costs and fees, bringing the bill for Bonner County taxpayers to just over $300,000.

Davillier — which is based in New Orleans but has offices in Sandpoint and Phoenix — has also grabbed national attention for its attorneys’ involvement with a number of high-profile cases.

In Utah from 2015 to 2017, the firm was deeply involved with public land issues, beginning with a report commissioned by the Utah Legislature that concluded the state could sue the federal government and take control of about 30 million acres of public land. Based on that report, Utah Republican lawmakers signaled their willingness to put at least $14

million toward a lawsuit against the feds, in spite of the fact that, as the Salt Lake City Weekly reported at the time, “nearly every other legal opinion across the country has concluded that such an attempt has almost no chance of success.”

Davillier also represented opposition to the Bears Ears National Monument, ultimately costing one southeastern Utah county $500,000, though the effort ended when then-President Donald Trump reduced Bears Ears by 85% following his election.

More recently, in April, Davillier attorneys Brant C. Hadaway and George Wentz — who Bonner County will now pay $400 and $500 per hour, respectively, for their services — led the legal team representing the anti-masking and -vaccine nonprofit Health Freedom Defense Fund and two Florida women who successfully argued before Trump-appointed Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle that the federal government had overstepped its authority by requiring masks on planes and other forms of public transit. That decision triggered a nationwide reversal of the travel mask mandate.

While the American Bar Association said Mizelle lacked enough experience to serve on the bench, public health officials and travel industry leaders alike described the ruling as “unimaginable,” “shocking” and “perilous,” according to The New York Times.

Then there is Davillier’s yearslong and ongoing involvement with a raft of legal actions in Arizona centered on “election integrity.”

In April 2021, Arizona Senate Republicans hired Florida-based firm Cyber Ninjas to “audit” the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, which is the state’s most populous region, suggesting the results were somehow fraudulent — a conclusion that has been roundly debunked.

Alexander Kolodin, a Davillier partner who leads the firm’s Phoenix office and serves as co-counsel to the Arizona Republican Party,

ters — notably a claim of defaas well as practices under Kolodin mation against a fellow Arizona Law — represented Cyber Ninlawmaker who alleged Finchem jas throughout its legal travails participated in the Jan. 6 attack. as it refused to release a number Arizona Democrats in January of records related to its review, including in September 2021 when 2021 contacted the Department of Justice and FBI with the request Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. filed to investigate Finchem, among a motion in Maricopa County to force their disclosure. Among those others, for what they described as records was an email from Kolodin participating in, encouraging and inciting the violence to Arizona Repubon Jan. 6. Though lican Rep. Mark “The more this costs faced with a number Finchem, copied us, the more I would of ethics complaints, to former Arizona encourage us not to use the Republican chair Republican Party them if possible.” of the Arizona House Chairman Randy ethics committee Pullen and Wentz.

— Bonner County Commissioner Jeff Connolly cleared Finchem of Cyber Ninwrongdoing. jas’ parsing of That Finchem the Maricopa was at the Capitol on that day is vote made big news, especially without question. Text messages when a report by election officials released by Finchem’s attorney shot down nearly every one of its findings and identified almost 80 Kolodin to the Phoenix New Times of its claims to be false or misin early February 2021 showed leading. The company went out of him communicating directly with business in January even as it was “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali threatened with a $50,000-perAlexander about his appearance day penalty for refusing a public at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington records request from the Arizona D.C., which was canceled as events Republic for documents related devolved into the deadly attack on to its “conspiracy-laden audit,” as the Capitol.

NBC News described it.

In the text messages, Finchem talks of being “swept up” in the Finchem et al crowd and identifies himself as The appearance of Mark having been present “on the side Finchem’s name in the Cyber of the Capitol facing the Supreme Court.” Images published by the Ninjas records disclosure case Arizona Mirror in June 2021 isn’t surprising to those who have showed Finchem directly in front followed the “Stop the Steal” of the east steps of the Capitol after movement and Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was “stolen” protesters had broken the barricades and breached parts of the building. by fraud. The Arizona lawmaker is running for secretary of state on There is no evidence that Finchem himself entered the Capitol. an unrelenting campaign alleging Kolodin, of Kolodin Law this massive voter fraud and election insecurity. So much so that The At- time, as well as Wentz and Hadaway of Davillier, threatened a lantic referred to him in a July 14 defamation suit in February 2021 article as “Steve Bannon’s Man in against Arizona Democratic House Arizona.” He has ridden baseless Member Charlene Fernandez claims of a “stolen election” to for her claims about Finchem’s the national spotlight and earned participation in the events of Jan. a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 6, alleging that she had acted with “malicious purpose” to “chill de2021 attack on the Capitol. bate, not encourage it; to shut down Throughout 2021, Davillier served consistent representation < see DAVILLIER, Page 7 > for Finchem in a handful of matJuly 21, 2022 /

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NEWS

County to consider wastewater treatment facility at Camp Bay Panhandle Health District: ‘Proposed wastewater disposal system is in the review stages’

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff The Bonner County Zoning Commission will review an application for a conditional use permit from M3 Idaho Camp Bay, LLC on Thursday, July 21, considering the developer’s proposal for a wastewater treatment facility off Camp Bay Road.

The hearing, slated for 5:30 p.m. at the Bonner County Administration Building, is already drawing public attention due to comments from Panhandle Health District, which handles all septic permitting in the five northern counties.

In a letter emailed to planning staff July 6, PHD officials directly contradict a piece of the CUP application, which alleges that there are “no lakes, streams, rivers or other bodies of water on the site.”

“However, PHD did observe numerous water bodies (creeks, streams, drainages, swales, etc.) on the site,” the letter states. “The proposed wastewater system infrastructure will be going near, over or under many of the water bodies.

All components of the proposed system must meet current standards; including setbacks to surface water.”

PHD went on to state that while the district has conducted field work at the site for the proposed wastewater facility and M3 has submitted a Preliminary Engineering Report and Facilities Plan to PHD, “the proposal has not yet been 6 /

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A portion of the applicant’s wastewater treatment site plan, illustrating the conceptual storm drainage plan. Screenshot from Bonner Co. Planning website.

reviewed or field-verified by PHD and no approvals have been granted.”

Further, if M3 receives PHD approval, PHD will then submit those plans to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality for further review.

According to PHD, “the proposed wastewater disposal system is in the review stages” and, per Idaho Code, “wastewater system infrastructure shall not be installed without a valid septic permit, and a septic permit shall not be issued unless the proposal meets all current standards.”

Groups like the Idaho Conservation League are pointing to these discrepancies as a means to delay consideration of the CUP application.

“It would be inappropriate for the Zoning Commission to approve the CUP until Panhandle Health and the DEQ have approved that the proposal meets current standards,” ICL North Idaho Lakes Conservation Associate Jennifer Ekstrom wrote in an email.

The Zoning Commission hearing July 21 will be streamed online at the Bonner County Planning YouTube Channel. To view the M3 CUP application and other applications and associated documents currently under review in the Bonner County Planning Department, visit bonnercountyid.gov/departments/planning/current-projects.

Bits ’n’ Pieces From east, west and beyond

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

A recent sampling: In a newly discovered tape of former-Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, made Oct. 31, 2020 and released by Mother Jones, Bannon tells a private audience that Trump will win in 2020 simply by stating he won, even if he did not. Bannon predicted that after Trump declared himself the winner, before all ballots were counted, the former-president would tweet, “You lose. I’m the winner. I’m the king.” Bannon added, “Here’s the thing.

After then, Trump never has to go to a voter again… He’s gonna say ‘eff you.’

How about that? Because it will be his last election. Oh he’s going to be off the chain — he’s gonna be crazy.”

News from the Jan. 6 House select committee, from a variety of sources: the committee has subpoenaed deleted text messages from Jan. 5-6 from the Secret Service.

They appear to want more details about why former-Vice President Mike Pence said, “I’m not getting in the car,” when agents wanted to remove him from the Capitol on Jan. 6, before President Joe Biden’s election could be confirmed by Pence that day.

The Department of Justice has requested that the first person to be convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 riot — a leader of the Texas III%ers — be given a 15-year prison sentence since his actions were regarded as terrorism.

Highlights from the seventh hearing on July 12: Committee Co-chair Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said Trump’s advisers have shifted from saying Trump did not know the election was fair to saying he was “misled” by bad actors like attorneys John Eastman and Sidney Powell. Cheney stated, “This is nonsense.

Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in this country, he is responsible for his own actions … he cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind.”

Despite public acknowledgments by GOP leaders that Trump had lost, the ex-president’s confidants communicated closely with the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. When Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was warned those people were “crazies,” he responded that Trump “likes crazies,” because they “will viciously defend [him] in public.” Trump met with un-elected and un-appointed individuals Dec. 18 to discuss reversing

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

the election; they had drafted an executive order that called for Trump to order the seizure of voting machines, hoping Trump would activate the draft order.

When White House Counsel Pat Cipollone learned of the meeting, he asked those assembled for evidence that the election was stolen; he got shouts and insults. One aide called the meeting “unhinged.” Trump was persuaded to not follow the advice of the “outside” advisers, but neither would he follow advice to concede his loss. The next morning, Trump tweeted the election was stolen and his followers should be at the Capitol on Jan. 6 for a “big protest”: “Be there, will be wild.” A former Twitter employee said what he witnessed of Twitter comments was the appearance of a mob being organized, “ready and willing to take up arms” to keep Trump in office. The march to the Capitol to thwart the election count was intentional, not spontaneous, as evidenced by Trump urging attendees to march to the Capitol.

Other evidence introduced July 12 included the White House coordinating with some members of Congress to both fight the election results and fan the idea of “the big lie” that Trump had won. Those lawmakers later asked for presidential pardons.

The hearing included testimony from a former Oath Keeper’s social media manager, who stated that the militia group is a continuing danger to the country. As well, a Trump supporter who was at the Capitol riot, but not affiliated with any particular group, said he was there at Trump’s direction.

Trump could face manslaughter charges for his delay in calling off the violent mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to former-Attorney General Barbara McQuade, speaking to MSNBC.com.

The House Committee notified the DOJ that Trump allegedly attempted to talk to a witness (who contacted a lawyer), which raised the possibility of a witness-tampering investigation. The next, and possibly last, hearing is scheduled for Thursday, July 21.

Blast from the past: The 14th Amendment of the Constitution, Section 3, bars any person who has held federal office and taken an oath to support the Constitution from entering any political office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the country.

NEWS < DAVILLIER, Con’t From Page 5 > any discussion of election fraud in the 2020 Presidential election and of the larger question of election integrity in general; and, if possible, to criminally punish Plaintiffs for exercising their First Amendment right to peacefully demonstrate and petition the Government for redress of grievances.”

Meanwhile, the group Rural Arizonans for Accountability launched a campaign to have Finchem recalled, prompting a cease-and-desist letter in May 2021 signed by Kolodin and Wentz demanding the organization retract statements made on its website and in a trio of newspapers for 30 days, as well as destroy other materials related to claims against Finchem.

Also in the letter, Kolodin and Wentz wrote that Finchem was in Washington D.C. “to hand deliver a package to Vice-President Pence, as well as to attend President Trump’s speech in front of the White House and to speak at a permitted event outside the Capitol.”

A Yuma County Superior Court judge threw out the defamation suit on April 29, 2022, saying Fernandez had the First Amendment right to send a letter to federal law enforcement officials asking them to investigate Finchem and former-Arizona lawmaker Anthony Kern.

The recall effort fizzled in June 2021 when organizers failed to gather enough signatures.

While those legal actions appear to have wrapped up, Davillier has remained active in Arizona Republican politics, particularly as they pertain to elections and Jan. 6.

In February this year, the Arizona Republican Party contracted Davillier to represent it in a lawsuit asking the Arizona Supreme Court to strike down vote-by-mail in the state ahead of the 2022 election.

Davillier attorneys argued that the only constitutional form of voting is physically “at the polls,” according to an Associated Press report, which added that 90% of voters in Arizona cast ballots received in the mail during the 2020 election.

In March, Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey criticized the lawsuit to eliminate early voting, saying, “I’m certain the way it’s written it’s destined to fail,” according to Phoenix-based KTAR News 92.3 FM.

ownership or financial interests in And fail it did, in April, when businesses, trusts or investment CNN reported the Arizona high funds, claiming the approximate court dismissed the suit, followed equity value of his by another disinterest in the commissal in June “Personally, I don’t care pany at more than by a Mohave what other cases they are $100,001.

County judge involved in as long as they The address who ruled that handle county business for Clean Power mail-in voting responsibly...”

Technologies listed is perfectly — Bonner Co. Commissioner on Finchem’s 2020 constitutionDan McDonald form is 212 N. First, al. However, Ave., Ste. 300 in according to The Arizona Republic, Kolodin — this Sandpoint — three doors down time of Davillier — said it’s likely from Davillier’s former Sandpoint office at 212 N. First Ave., Ste. 303. to be appealed.

Neither company is currently Also in February, the Arizona at that address, Davillier having Republican Party hired Kolodin relocated to the Sandpoint Center and Davillier to represent Arizona on Church Street and Fourth AveGOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward nue nearly three years ago. and her husband as they sought Clean Power Technologies’ to challenge a subpoena from the website appears to have been Jan. 6 House select committee for taken down as well and, while the phone records pertaining to the Idaho Secretary of State still has it so-called “slate of fake electors” listed among active businesses, the submitted by Republican officials company’s address is now in the in some swing states, including Boise area.

Arizona, in an effort to turn the However, Clean Power Tech2020 election to Trump. nologies still had an operating Ward, her husband and others were again subpoenaed by the De- website as recently as late March, and when the Reader accessed partment of Justice over the fake it at that time, the site included electors in June.

Wentz’s profile, among others “The document at the heart of associated with the company. the matter, which led the DOJ to Finchem did not respond to issue a subpoena, involves 11 Ara request for comment, but his izona Republicans who met at the LinkedIn account still describes state party headquarters to falsely his occupation as “VP Energy declare themselves the state’s Policy Analysis at Clean Power official presidential electors,” the Technologies, Inc.,” dated January Arizona Mirror reported on June 2018 to present, though now 24. Kolodin is again representing identified as being located in Oro the Wards in the matter, the media Valley, Ariz., which he represents outlet reported. in the Arizona Legislature.

Meanwhile, Davillier received The only other individuals a combined total of $78,094.60 from the Arizona Republican Party associated with Clean Power Technologies, LLC on LinkedIn and Republican Party of Arizona, are current registered agent Nick LLC from Jan. 24 to June 27, according to data from the Arizona Hansen, of Boise, and Steve Secretary of State.

Youngdhal, of Sandpoint, whose profile lists “VP Business DevelCloser to home opment,” dated October 2018 to That Davillier’s relationship present. Youngdahl’s profile also with right-wing Arizona politics indicates he has been managing — especially as they pertain to director at Make a Difference Venthe 2020 election — is abundantly tures, LP since January 2020. clear from public sources and reMAD Energy, a subsidiary of porting. But one of that state’s most Make a Difference Ventures, on high profile actors, Mark Finchem, its website lists three directors: appears to have even closer ties to Youndahl, Walt Teter and George Davillier than legal advice.

Wentz, while a search of the comAccording to a campaign pany’s address returns 414 Church finance disclosure form filed with St., Ste. 303 — the same address the Arizona Secretary of State and as Davillier’s current office in the dated Nov. 25, 2020, Finchem Sandpoint Center. listed Clean Power TechnoloIt’s there that Davillier’s name gies, LLC as one of his only two has most recently become the cen-

ter of public attention locally, after the Ammon Bundy for Idaho governor campaign advertised a town hall July 21 — featuring “snacks provided, compliments of George Wentz” — at what the advertisement described as “Tango Cafe” at 414 Church St. That prompted blowback against the cafe by Bundy opponents, with some going so far as to call for a boycott.

On its Facebook page July 20, Tango Cafe emphasized that the popular eatery, located in the ground floor of the Sandpoint Center, never had anything to do with the Bundy event — or the man providing the snacks: “Tango Cafe, The Sandpoint Center and Sandpoint Property Management are not affiliated with Ammon Bundy or the Davillier Law Firm, and in no way take responsibility for the contents of next Thursday’s program, or any controversy engendered by any program presented at this facility by such users.”

‘Attorneys are contractors’ Asked why Bonner County continued to contract specifically with Davillier despite the outcome of the Festival suit and the other implications of obtaining legal representation from such a politically involved firm, Commissioner Dan McDonald kept his replies strictly fiscally based.

“In the past, their rates were below what would be considered a market rate for a firm of that caliber and they hold a great deal of institutional knowledge that a new firm wouldn’t have and the county would have to pay for a new firm to come up to speed,” McDonald wrote in a July 13 email to the Reader. “The new rates are closer to what a market rate should be.

“So we could search for a new firm that would probably be one without an office here and pay extra to bring them up to speed,” he continued, “or go with a local firm who already has the background and subject matter knowledge.”

Pressed in a follow-up email, McDonald elaborated.

“Attorneys are contractors.

They work at the pleasure of paying clients,” he said. “Personally, I don’t care what other cases they are involved in as long as they handle county business responsibly and they have helped the people of Bonner County very much over the years.

“As far as the Festival issue, were it not for our sheriff backing out, I truly believe we would have prevailed in the appeal,” he added.

Commissioner Jeff Connolly told the Reader that he has long been a proponent of doing as much litigation with in-house counsel as possible, and has advocated for the Prosecutor’s Office to hire more attorneys, “especially if the prices continue to rise” for outside counsel like Davillier.

Currently, he estimated that the county keeps four or five outside firms on retainer.

When it came to the Festival suit, Connolly said it is “surely something I’d never want to repeat.”

“Gosh, what a waste,” he said, referring to the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to litigate the case.

“All we needed was for them to answer a question,” he added — that question being whether private entities can police weapons on leased public property. “It’s a moot point at this point.”

As for Davillier’s dealings in other states, Connolly said: “It’s not on my radar.”

Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer commented on behalf of the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office regarding the new contracts, stating that “if the board wants to hire a specific firm, as long as [Prosecutor Louis Marshall] agrees that they are reasonably competent to do it, and the board wants to bring particular litigation that’s colorable litigation, he usually goes with the board’s wishes.”

“In terms of any ongoing relationship with any particular firm, the Prosecutor’s Office has no formal position,” Bauer continued.

“It’s basically, if the board wants to do this and it’s reasonable, that’s great.”

Bauer acknowledged that the county contracting with Davillier has been “politicized” and that “there are questions.”

“We don’t rule out public comment or concern about costs or whatever it is, but I would just say that this contract itself is not a watershed thing at all,” he said.

“It’s not a commitment. It’s only a commitment, when they do the work, to pay the amount of money.”

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Where have all the big trees gone?…

Bouquets: • Cheers to the organizers of the second annual Sandpoint Pride Festival. I was able to check it out for a couple hours last weekend and really enjoyed watching all the smiling people who had gathered to celebrate love.

GUEST BOUQUET: • “This bouquet is dedicated to people who give compliments. We all know it feels good to receive them, but the secret is that it feels even better to give a compliment. I challenge everyone to give a compliment this week, on someone’s appearance or artwork or manners or cute dog. Say something nice and it will absolutely make the world a nicer place.”

— Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

Barbs: • I realize I have a job that puts me in the “public eye” quite a bit. I’ve accepted that fate, even though I’m a private person most of the time. Being well known in a small town is like winning the lottery for 50 cents. (“Yipee, now back to work.”) One thing I’ve never been able to figure out is, when people see me around town, why some feel the need to tell me about a typo or grammatical error they witnessed in the Reader from a previous edition. I don’t understand how the motivation hits people. Do they see me and think, “Oh, there’s Ben, let me tell him about a period he forgot to include in this sentence in a story he wrote three weeks ago.” It’s frustrating to be out having a beer with friends and have someone remind you that you messed up at work the other day.

We all need some time off the front lines. We put a lot of work into making sure this newspaper goes to print without typos or factual errors, but we fall short sometimes and say our mea culpas accordingly. Just know that you’re not helping the situation by stopping me in the produce aisle to let me know some pedantic factoid that was slightly misrepresented. We appreciate your diligence to keep the record straight, but please, send us corrections via email.

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Dear editor, Thinking of a Peter, Paul and Mary song, I lament: Where have all the big trees gone, carbon sequestering, where have all the forests gone not so long ago, where have all our wild spaces gone, gone to developments every one when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?

Thank you, Pam Duquette Sandpoint

What’s next for the Idaho Legislature?…

Dear editor, Our Idaho Legislature recently decided that any pregnant girl or woman must do her darndest to carry her baby to full term, with very few exceptions. Now that they have solved that sticky problem, I look forward to the next legislative session when I’m sure they will tackle the financial responsibilities of the boy or man who helped to create this baby, including adequate child support for the next 18 years.

Surely they won’t ask Idaho taxpayers to foot the bill?

Nancy Renk Sandpoint

Got something to say?

Write a letter to the editor.

We accept letters under 300 words that are free from obscenities and libelous statements. No trolls. Please elevate the conversation.

It’s A Good Thing

By Mike Wagoner Reader Contributor Some of you are gonna cuss me for this one… but these high prices for gas is a good thing. You know how we are… we get after it to really change something in a hurry when our wallets are in real distress, like they’re gettin’ to be now. It’s at these times when real change happens.

It’s becoming pretty obvious that we gotta quit pumpin’ all this exhaust into our finite atmosphere and that also is a good thing… we just need to hope now that we’re not too late.

I remember when I was a kid and was walkin’ by a mechanic’s garage in the winter… the rig they were workin’ on was runnin’... they had the garage door closed for the cold and a big flexible tube comin’ out of a hatch so the exhaust wouldn’t build up inside and kill ’em. Well, too bad our atmosphere doesn’t have one a those.

Wouldn’t be such a big deal if there was only a few million of us but… well… those days are long gone and this ecological hole we’ve dug for ourselves isn’t gonna be easy or painless to get out of… but we can do it.

We are good at adapting when we have too.

I sure don’t have all the answers but I’m hopeful that we as an informed group will come up

with ’em. The government will try and tell us what to do but, you know... it’s hard to legislate something that isn’t in people’s hearts. An informed free market economy just might do it best.

When we all decide to act… when our collective backs are against the wall… along with our wallets… that’s when the magic may really happen.

PERSPECTIVES

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

Illusion

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

As a society, we love optical illusions. All I have to do is mention “the dress” and memories flash back to global internet feuds and televised celebrity takes on whether the grainy image posted to social media by a woman somewhere in England captured a blue-and-black or white-and-gold-striped dress (it was blue-and-black, obviously).

Entire rows in children’s bookstores are dedicated to similar illusions, with instructions to stare at a static dot until the page around it comes to life with swirling lines and moving color splotches — teaching us at a young age to take delight in the ways our eyes and brain collaborate in constructing the world around us.

But our eyes are not the only sensory organ susceptible to illusion. Recently, I listened to a Vox Unexplainable podcast episode called “Making Sense: How Sound Becomes Hearing,” exploring the science of sound and all that we still don’t know about it.

In this episode, psychologist Diana Deutch discussed her 1970s discovery of an audio illusion. It began with Diana playing a sequence of two alternating notes in one ear (high to low) and then the same sequence of notes reversed in the other ear (low to high). Despite knowing there were two unique sequences of high and low notes being played on either side of her head, she only heard high notes in one ear and low notes in the other.

Her experience of hearing wasn’t consistent with the sound she knew was being played.

Emily Erickson.

Upon expanding the auditory illusion into a full scale scientific study, she concluded that the brain edits sensory input, only presenting us with some of the information it’s receiving.

In her experience with the first illusion, her brain was reorganizing the high and low notes to either side of her head because that’s the way sound usually works in the world: one note coming from one direction, and a different note coming from another direction.

Rather than directly computing sound to hearing, our brains run any input through its filter of understanding, presenting us with its best guess as to how something should sound — a result that inevitably varies on a person-to-person basis.

Other popular auditory illusions that traveled nearly as far and wide as their optical cousin, “the dress,” are the “Laurel” versus “Yanny” illusion and Grover from Sesame Street’s, “That sounds like an excellent idea“ versus “That’s a effing excellent idea.“ These illusions, wherein we’re literally seeing, hearing and experiencing the world differently from one another, are

sensory representations of a psychological concept that’s been on my mind a lot lately: confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is our predisposition to process new things by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with our existing beliefs. We naturally filter our experiences, accepting information that supports what we think we know, and ignore or reject any conflicting evidence — a phenomenon only exacerbated by media platform algorithms and targeted content serving. We take the information we like, from the sources we already trust, and write the rest off as false or misleading.

If you’ve attempted a conversation with anyone who holds a different belief system than you lately, it’s obvious we’re not only drawing different conclusions from the same sets of information; but, also, that we’re experiencing completely conflicting realities. And that poses the question, “If we’re all living in different versions of the same world, is seeing eye-to-eye even possible?”

The good news is, the same studies that identify our collective proclivity toward confirmation bias also demonstrate that we’re capable of broader, more objective, thinking, if given strategies to overcome our natural filters.

From an information-consumption standpoint, we can seek out multiple and neutral sources from credible authors on any given topic, diving deeper than headlines and cover images to discern whether or not the information being presented is accurate and worth considering further.

Regarding our predisposition to faulty interpretation, we can

employ a “consider the opposite” strategy when presented with data we think supports our point of view. In this, we can ask ourselves, “Would I have drawn the same conclusion if the information supported results on the other side of this issue?” If answered honestly, we can check ourselves for a biased blindspot.

And finally, we can reach out to people we respect and know to think differently than us, and practice having considerate conversations about our experiences

in the world. Having space to explore impartiality and engage in the openness and vulnerability required of changing our minds, can help us overcome our biases and reclaim the illusive middle ground that so often feels like an illusion.

Emily Erickson is a writer and business owner with an affinity for black coffee and playing in the mountains. Connect with her online at www.bigbluehat. studio.

Retroactive

By BO

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Mad about Science:

Brought to you by:

hummingbirds

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist Hummingbirds are unique creatures. They are capable of hovering, similar to many winged insects, and they feed from flowers similarly to bees. What you might not realize is that hummingbirds actually eat insects as well. They are very strange and wonderful creatures.

It’s likely that you’ve seen a hummingbird around here, whether you’ve set out a feeder or clocked the distinctive hum of their wings as they zip by. But did you know that there are only three different types of hummingbirds that are known to visit 7B? Hummingbirds experience something called sexual dimorphism, which means that males and females of the same species will look very different from one another — this can make males and females of the same species look completely unrelated to the untrained eye.

Sexual dimorphism is common among avians, particularly in the Western Hemisphere. Numerous South American bird species will have very dull or speckled brown females but very brightly colored males. There is an evolutionary reason for this occurrence. The primary function of the male bird is to attract females and spread its genes through mating. The female birds need to remain camouflaged and relatively stationary for long periods of time to care for their offspring.

Being camouflaged dramatically increases the odds for female birds to survive for years and raise multiple clutches in their lifetime.

In the case of hummingbirds, males will often display impressive iridescent scale-like feathers on the underside of their necks, while females will usually forgo this display with a white underbelly and neck. If you see a hummingbird without “sequins” on 10 /

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its neck returning to your feeder multiple times per day, it’s likely that she has a nest somewhere nearby and is slurping up the sugar water to return to her young.

Hummingbirds will store and partially digest food in their “crop,” a storage space between their mouth and stomach, then regurgitate it back into the baby hummingbirds’ mouths. This would be pretty disgusting behavior for a human, since we don’t have a crop.

You’ve probably noticed that hummingbirds don’t fly like other birds. Comparing a hummingbird to a chickadee, you’ll notice that the hummingbird can stop and “levitate” in mid-air, while the chickadee cannot. Comparing the two to human flight machines, a hummingbird acts similarly to a helicopter while a chickadee is more like a plane. Hummingbirds beat their wings incredibly quickly, averaging 15 beats per second but being capable of pushing that number up to 80 beats per second if they’re in a hurry. The pattern in which hummingbirds beat their wings is also different from normal birds, as they will create a figure eight pattern with their wingtips.

Have you ever gone kayaking?

Have you tried paddling at your maximum speed for 15 minutes on end? Chances are, your whole upper body is going to feel the burn, and you’ll have worked up a good sweat by the end of it. This is the closest approximation to what a hummingbird endures in flight.

Producing enough energy to keep up flight requires an extremely efficient metabolism.

Hummingbirds consume almost nothing but carbohydrates and protein, which is converted at almost 100% efficiency. A human athlete at their very peak performance will only have about 30% metabolic efficiency. This also means that hummingbirds need food constantly to stay alive. That is, until they go to “sleep.”

A rufous hummingbird captured in mid-flight. Courtesy photo.

Hummingbirds require vision to feed. They’re attracted to brightly colored flowers and insects. This means hummingbirds cannot effectively feed at night — so what do they do if they can’t survive more than 60 minutes without a meal?

They enter a state called torpor, during which time their metabolic function drops to nearly 0%. While humans continue to breathe, sweat and digest food at a slower rate during sleep, these functions virtually stop for hummingbirds. Their internal body temperature even drops to a level that would be lethal for any other animal. Shortly before dawn, a chemical reaction occurs in the hummingbird that triggers it to begin “waking up.” This process starts with rapid muscle contractions that cause shivering, with those little bursts of energy generating heat inside of the bird’s body that begins to return it to its normal state. This takes anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, then the hummingbird will start the day to forage for food.

There are three documented species of hummingbirds that spend time in Bonner County.

The rufous hummingbird, which migrates up to 3,900 miles in a single year, is a common sight in our neck of the woods. These hummingbirds will often present with a copper-colored backside and white belly, while males will have a ruby red neck. It’s not unusual for there to be green on a rufous hummingbird, but the copper color is a dead giveaway.

They are also one of the most aggressive hummingbird species, and will actively dive-bomb other hummingbirds and humans near their favorite feeder.

Black-chinned hummingbirds are a little rarer around here. They will usually have a green or gray back and white belly. The males are easily identifiable, as they

have a deep purple or black iridescent neck.

Calliope hummingbirds can appear deceptively similar to rufous hummingbirds if you only see them in passing. Calliope hummingbirds will usually appear as green and white, with females having black speckles along their face and neck, while males will have magenta neck feathers that look like long slashes. They like to nest in conifer trees, and have been observed frequently hunting

insects with a technique called “hawking,” where they will perch on a branch and observe the patterns of their prey before dive-bombing them and intercepting them mid-flight.

Have you seen other hummingbirds around? Take a picture and share it with the library or the Reader. There’s so much negativity in the world, sometimes you just want to see a cute little bird to feel better.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner Don’t know much about taco • Glen Bell, the founder of the Taco Bell chain, actually started out with a burger stand called Bell’s Burgers. By the 1950s, he began experimenting with Americanized Mexican food. Tacos hadn’t yet become a popular food for most Americans at that time, so Bell’s aim was to bring this different fast food offering to the masses.

• Bell’s tacos became an instant hit and he gradually phased out the burgers, opting to serve only Mexican food. He opened Taco Tia in San Bernardino, Calif., in 1954, selling tacos for 19 cents each. Later, he opened a similar restaurant in Los Angeles called El Taco. The first Taco Bell didn’t open until 1962 in Downey, Calif. It was franchised in 1964 and, within three years, there were 100 locations. As of 2021, the chain (now operating under the Yum! Brands) boasts 7,791 restaurants.

• PepsiCo worked with Taco Bell to develop a unique Mountain Dew flavor, hoping to increase sales at the drive-thru. In 2004, they unveiled Mountain Dew Baja Blast, with a blend of Mountain Dew and lime flavor.

bell?

We can help!

• The most popular item on the Taco Bell menu is nacho cheese fries, which patrons dip in liquid cheese sauce. Mmm? • Two men sued Taco Bell after the company’s famous “Yo quiero Taco Bell” ads with a chihuahua dog.

The pair claimed they had created a “psycho chihuahua” character and discussed adapting the character for Taco Bell ads. The two men were ultimately awarded $30 million by a federal jury in 2003 and an additional $12 million in interest was added a few months later.

• Taco Bell generated a lot of outrage in 1996, with its infamous April Fool’s Day ad announcing the fast food restaurant had just purchased the Liberty Bell. Around that time, federal budget issues led to many national landmarks closing the previous year. Although the company issued a statement later the same day as the ads were published announcing it as a prank, customers had lodged thousands of complaints to the National Park Service against the company.

OPINION

Is a Moon waxing over the Idaho Republican Party as Luna wanes?

By Jim Jones Reader Contributor The present-day Republican Party has revealed who it really is and it ain’t pretty. Many of us thought that Tom Luna was way too far to the right, but the newly elected GOP chair, Dorothy Moon, eclipses Luna by a country mile. Moon’s political beliefs verge on lunacy.

Moon has given aid and comfort to the ravings of a pillow merchant who claims the Idaho presidential vote was rigged. She told us during her ill-fated campaign for secretary of state that Canadians had voted in the Idaho elections. To prove it, she said somebody had told her so. Wonder if it was the pillow peddler.

There is a darker side of Moon, as she has been quite chummy with any number of militias and anti-government extremists, including the Panhandle Patriots, the Real 3%ers of Idaho and the Ammon Bundy crowd.

The new GOP chief was apparently moon-struck by a former legislator from Lewiston who was convicted of raping a legislative intern. During his trial, she testified that he was “a perfect gentleman.” The victim and trauma witnesses did not seem to think so.

The antics of Moon and her John Birch Society husband, Darr, have brought national and world attention to the Gem State on occasion, such as a mask burning event at the Idaho Capitol in March of 2021. The publicity has doubtlessly caused decent out-of-state people and businesses to have second thoughts about relocating to Idaho.

So, this person will henceforth be the face of the Republican Party in Idaho: The person who will preside over events that invoke the name of the founder of the Party, Abraham Lincoln. I’m sure Honest Abe would be quite proud of the present white nationalist phase of Moon’s party.

After her lopsided election (434287), Moon got the crowd riled up, saying that “with the Democrats coming at us with full force” we must “have

our barriers up, our guns loaded.” Even dripping wet, the Idaho Democrats do not have the forces or guns to take the battle to the locked-and-loaded GOP forces. These are extremely dangerous words, given the weaponry of Moon’s militia pals and the incessant claims that Democrats are true enemies of all that is good and holy. Authoritarians characterize their opponents in that fashion and it can have horrendous consequences.

The GOP delegates got to work on personal freedom issues, like voting to keep anyone but real Republicans from exercising their right to vote in the Republican primary, where most officials are elected in this one-party state. That will be revisited in January but the GOP is likely to try once again to disenfranchise the over 300,000 independent voters in Idaho. That will make it necessary to run a citizen initiative to ensure that every Idahoan has the right to vote in our elections.

The convention heard from a representative of the Family Policy Center, a soul mate of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, that the state should sponsor Christian education at taxpayer expense.

Who cares about that pesky language in the U.S. Constitution prohibiting state establishment of religion? Or, the Idaho Constitution’s flat prohibition of spending state money on any kind of religious teaching?

So, a different Moon now hovers over the Idaho Republican Party, as the old Luna wanes from the stage.

Methinks it is a waning crescent moon — a dark Moon.

Watch out for the werewolves, vampires, torch-wielding crowds and things that go bump in the night. I predict that Idaho voters will not be enamored by the Moon that is now the face of the Idaho Republican Party.

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho attorney general (1983-1991) and 12 years as a justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He is currently a regular contributor to The Hill online news. He blogs at JJCommonTater.

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PERSPECTIVES

Looking back

Fears for the future from Nazi-occupied Norway to a changing nation, state and city

By Erik Daarstad Reader Contributor Having grown up during World War II and lived under German occupation for five years, I watched the planes drop the bombs that killed my Dad, passed through Gestapo checkpoints on the way to school, feared arrest for listening to BBC broadcasts, as well as being deprived of the many freedoms that w had taken for granted.

Right after Christmas in 1953, at the young age of 18, I boarded an airplane at our local airport in Norway and set off on a 6,000-mile journey to Los Angeles to embark on a journey to enter the world of filmmaking.

As I remember the mid-’50s in this country, it was an age of optimism for what might lie ahead. The devastating World War II was behind us and a new war in Korea had ended in a truce. The world was at relative peace, the economy was good and the middle class was prosperous.

However, there were troubling signs. The Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was heating up, Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee was investigating people for their political activities and beliefs. Racial discrimination, especially in the South, was alive and well.

Against this background and the belief that my opportunities in filmmaking were greater than they would be in Norway, I decided to immigrate to the U.S. and what followed was a lifetime of making movies and helping to tell stories, traveling the world several times over and being part of situations you normally would never be in, and meeting and working with many fascinating people you would normally 12 /

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Erik Daarstad. Photo by Ben Olson.

never meet — from presidents and celebrities to farmers and fishermen.

Now, 65 years later, I find myself living in a country divided by distrust, lies, fear and anger with the potential of leading to violence, which is exactly what happened in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Many people feel left out of the political process. The middle class has suffered economically and the fear is that they might turn to a strongman, like what happened in Hitler’s Germany in the ’30s. Trump was their man, but I am concerned that a person like Trump — but smarter — might emerge from the political wreckage.

Somehow we survived four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, but the politics have turned as ugly and divisive as any time in our country’s history.

We barely survived losing our democracy to an attempted coup, and are now living on the edge where the loss of freedoms and the threat of fascism is as strong as it has ever been.

The Republican Party has turned into a personality cult without any sense of governing except for exercising raw power.

The Supreme Court has turned political to serve the ultra-right wing. No other country is experiencing the gun culture and mass shootings that we have — killing hundreds of innocent human beings in addition to about 40,000 lives lost every year to gun violence. In addition,

climate change is raising its ugly head to threaten our children’s and grandchildren’s future.

Sandpoint has not been immune to some of these issues, and is experiencing issues of its own.

We discovered Sandpoint in the mid-’70s and moved here because we would like living in a small town that had a ski area. Sandpoint at that time was like most other small towns in America, except that it was situated in an area of exceptional natural beauty.

Politically, it was largely Democratic and somewhat liberal — something that has completely changed over the past 20 years or so because of a large influx of very conservative people from other states, especially California.

Locally we have seen the in-migration of people from the extreme far-right and Christian evangelical right who are looking to establish a base in part of the Northwest largely populated with white people. They seem to be people driven by fear and anger toward people with other views and toward the institutions of this country in general. Their aim seems to be to infiltrate local political positions and boards to

gain political control. Some of them seem intent on establishing their own wilderness fortress to fight an imaginary enemy.

It has resulted in armed militia members lining First Avenue in 2020, making threatening comments and gestures to a group of young people marching for “Black Lives Matter.”

The county initiated a lawsuit against the city of Sandpoint because the Festival would not let people with guns enter the Festival grounds. This year’s primary election resulted in an extreme right-wing candidate winning nomination to a state Senate seat over a much more qualified moderate incumbent candidate. This year’s Fourth of July parade saw a young man along the parade route dressed in black and carrying an assault rifle, claiming he was there to defend his freedom.

Ever since we moved here we were convinced that one day Sandpoint would be discovered, like what happened in so many other places like Aspen, Colo., and Park City, Utah. It has taken a lot longer than we thought, probably due to the fact that it is not blessed with a lot of sunny winter weather like many of those other towns.

When the pandemic hit, it seemed to draw people in from bigger cities and, all of a sudden, real estate prices shot up and greed seemed to take over.

Downtown was populated with a steady stream of people that you had never seen before. Outside companies saw opportunities to make a fast buck and the pace of change has accelerated — not always for the better.

To many of us who have lived here a long time, it no longer seems to be the friendly town and giving community we all appreciated and loved to be part of.

Thinking back on my life I cannot say I regret the decision to stay in this country. It has given me the opportunity for a very full and rewarding life, personally and professionally, but I am very concerned about the direction it might be headed in and what that might mean for its future.

Erik Daarstad is a longtime Sandpoint resident, community volunteer and filmmaker whose decades-long career included working on about 300 films and winning an Academy Award for cinematography.

City of Dover recognized with City Achievement Award

By Reader Staff The Association of Idaho Cities recognized the city of Dover with a City Achievement Award at a banquet June 23, during the 75th AIC Annual Conference in Boise hosted June 22-24.

The City Achievement Awards recognize the work of cities around Idaho that have implemented pioneering

approaches to improve quality of life, address community challenges and enhance service delivery in cost-effective ways.

This year, awards were given in six categories: Community Engagement, Economic and Community Development, Parks and Recreation, Public Safety, Public Works and Transportation, and Youth and Youth Council.

The city of Dover was recognized with a City Achievement Award in the Community Engagement Category for its project “New Post Office” — an important project because Dover has P.O. box service only. The new post office, with more than 1,000 post office boxes and parcel lockers, will be constructed on property purchased by the city in 2021.

PERSPECTIVES

<insert deep, fortifying breath here as I contemplate raising a girl at this particular time in history> <insert long, drawn-out f-bomb as I stall for time to develop lesson plans on how to smash the patriarchy when the patriarchy no longer seems like a concrete wall, but something more gelatinous and insidious. Sort of like the “Upside Down” in Stranger Things, where every surface is sticky and the end game is mind control> Welcome to the world of parenting Generation WTF, my personal term for an entire cohort who will someday look back at our generations’ attempts at governance and meet the memories with many WTFs. Or so I hope.

But seeing as forward progress for women, minorities and the environment (among other entities) seems to be a myth, maybe the 2020s will be viewed fondly by our descendants — as the era when we finally drove women back into the home. As the era when we finally eradicated gender nonconformism and the idea that racism is a thing. As the era when we still had water and food and the energy to celebrate these milestones from the comfort of air-conditioned spaces and the cocoon of American exceptionalism.

No, I don’t have a lot of faith in forward progress these days.

The narrative of each generation having it better than the last is faltering. My 20-something, Nixon-era mother had more bodily autonomy than my daughter will.

Our kids will inhabit a world squeezed on all sides by climate change and its attendant scarcities, even as thought leaders deny its existence. Denial, rather than rushing to forestall imminent catastrophe.

How do I explain all this to a newly emerging soul who still sees the possibility of rainbows and

Jen Jackson Quintano. unicorns behind every cloud and tree? How does one translate the sense of WTF for consumption by little minds and hearts, preparing them for all the confusions — and betrayals — they will feel in the future? How does a mother ensure that her sometimes-despair doesn’t become infectious?

Coming of age during feminism’s Third Wave, I was taught that I could do anything, be anything. I was taught to celebrate at the party whose confetti was the shards of every glass ceiling breaking. And I believed it. I felt empowered. But now I see that sense of power came from wearing blinders. That era was far from perfect (think of the treatment of Monica Lewinsky, Britney Spears, Hillary Clinton and basically any woman in the public eye that wasn’t Barbara Bush or Nancy Reagan). That era bore the seeds for today’s backslide.

While I was busy believing in my power and worth, Anita Hill’s congressional testimony played in the background in my home: A Black woman in a sea of white men, recounting sexual improprieties. Not being believed. Clarence Thomas appointed to the Supreme Court anyway, casting Hill’s testimony as a “high-tech lynching.”

Even though this had nothing to

do with race and everything to do with his objectification of women and crap social skills (Whose pickup line is “Who put this pubic hair on my Coke?” anyway?).

Now, Clarence Thomas is one of a small cadre of individuals with the power to overturn 50 years of women’s bodily agency. And when he did it, he indicated access to contraception might be next.

Well… <insert expletive> I recently saw a T-shirt with a picture of the female reproductive system that said “no country for old men.” Amen. Because, unless you’ve lived with a uterus in a world wherein the realm of sexual experience is defined by men (meaning that ejaculation into said uterus is nearly always the goal), then, well, stop. Just stop.

Please. In such a world, women don’t often enough get to choose the terms of their impregnation.

Let them at least choose what they do with said pregnancy. Especially when the world into which that baby will be delivered is so freaking problematic. I’m thinking about climate change, warfare, white male supremacy and the fact that, on average, empires last 250 years. The American experiment is at year 246. Bring on the chaos.

Yet, I understand that I’m preaching only to the choir here. I understand my words will change no minds or hearts. I understand that, in Idaho especially, our trajectory on such matters is out of my hands. I can rail all I want, but we may soon live in a state wherein the family of a woman’s rapist can sue a doctor for performing an abortion. Some politicians here have promised to revoke the incest and rape exceptions for abortion and rescind access to certain forms of birth control during the 2023 legislative session. Awesome.

Just… awesome.

But still, I write. It’s all I know

to do. I write so that you, dear (receptive) reader, might see that you’re not alone in your beliefs.

I write so that our community is made visible even amid the sweeping tides of regression, abiding islands above the waves.

I write, mostly, for my daughter, so that she might come up in a world wherein support for her agency and her future is manifest.

She’ll know I’ve got her back.

And if you speak up as well, she’ll know you’re there for her, too.

I write, also, as a form of practice for the near future, one in which I’ll have to explain all this stuff to my girl. Not just her decreased reproductive rights in comparison to mine, but the myth of the level playing field when it comes to gender. It’s never been level, and now our thought leaders are taking excavators to the female side. We’re just that scary, apparently.

(Let’s keep being scary, shall we?)

In the face of this, all I can do is arm my daughter with the truth. No blinders for her. I will ensure she knows everything about her body so she can take every precaution. I will ensure that she knows of her power, personally, and all the ways our society might try to strip it from her or make it seem inconsequential. I want to empower her not with white lies about equality but with hard truths. I want to temper those hard truths with the knowledge that she’s got a community here. Because of you, and you, and you.

I want her to someday say “WTF” with a wry smile, not a grimace.

What does any of this have to do with running an

arborist business, you ask? How is this within the purview of “The Lumberjill”? Well, I was once faced with a fork in the road. I chose this one, which became this marriage and this daughter and this business. All on my terms.

I am here thanks to the agency I once had.

Now, I want the same for my girl. I want her to be the author of her own story, in a country not quite so dominated by old men.

Jen Jackson Quintano writes and runs an arborist business with her husband in Sandpoint. Find their website at sandcreektreeservice.com. See more of Quintano’s writing at jenjacksonquintano.com.

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To submit a photo for a future edition, please send to ben@sandpointreader.com.

Top Left: Steve and Linda Navarre brought the Reader with them while traveling to Ireland with 11 family members. In this photo, Steve and Linda are at the Cliffs of Moher. “It really took four hands to keep the Reader from blowing away!” they wrote in an email.

Top Right: News Editor Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey took the Reader to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, during her honeymoon in June. She said the exhibits were everything she hoped they would be, and more. Photos by photographer extraordinaire husband Alex Carey.

Far Right: Sand Creek, with some thoughtful clouds in the background. Photo by Tricia Florence.

Immediate Right: The iconic sign at Connie’s Cafe was recently restored to its vintage appearance by the new owners. Photo by Ben Olson.

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This page: The Sandpoint Pride Festival celebrated its second year at The Granary on Saturday, July 16. It was a hot day, but everyone stayed cool and showed each other love.

All photos by the brilliant Racheal Baker.

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COMMUNITY

POAC offers collaborative exhibit ‘Celebrate Making Do’ open at the University of Idaho Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center

By Reader Staff

“Celebrate Making Do” is a collaborative fiber arts exhibit that features the history of how housewives utilized every scrap to make clothes, dolls and quilts. Bits and pieces of fabric, flour sacks, snips of ribbons and repurposed buttons all contributed to the creative housewife’s ability to “make do” when clothing their families in the early 1900s.

These fiber artistic talents are being highlighted at the unique exhibit hosted in the Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center, 10881 N. Boyer Road, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, July 23 and Saturday, July 30.

This open house event is a collaborative effort between

the University of Idaho Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center, Bonner County Historical Society and Museum and POAC with members of the Bosom Buddies Quilting Group in attendance to explain how women used quilting techniques not only in the past, but in present day.

“This exhibit celebrates the meticulous art of creating the essential fabrics of life,” POAC Art Administrator Claire Christy said. “Antique, vintage, and modern-day textiles and furnishings, accompanied by informative descriptions, educate viewers about the history behind each piece.

This is an extraordinary exhibit you won’t want to miss.”

The Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center is located just past the turnoff to Schweitzer Mountain on North Boyer, with a gated entrance that will be noted with Pend Oreille Arts Council flags.

“If you haven’t been to the SOAC facility you will be surprised,” Christy said. “It is a beautiful building in an idyllic setting.”

For more information go to artinsandpoint.org or call the POAC office at 208263-6139.

Super One Foods honored as July Business of The Month

By Reader Staff

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The Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce has selected Super 1 Foods as its July Business of the Month, highlighting its many contributions to the community.

Super 1 Foods is a family owned and operated grocery store chain founded in 1970 by Ron McIntire. The first store in Hayden was called Ron’s Thrift.

The first store under the name Super 1 opened in 1985 in Coeur d’Alene and, with the latest opening in Oldtown, there are now 16 Super 1 stores — all located in North Idaho and Montana.

It is the only local grocery store that is open 24 hours a day and, besides in-store shopping, it also features online ordering with curbside pickup as well as delivery.

Since opening its Sandpoint location in July 2010, Super 1 Foods has allowed numerous / July 21, 2022

Super 1 manager Steven Furin, left, with Bob Witte from the Chamber. Courtesy photo.

nonprofit organizations to promote their fundraisers in front of the store and has donated to area schools, sports teams, the Senior Center, scouts, Bonner General Health, Kinderhaven, 4-H, the Bonner County Fair and Rodeo, and more. Super 1 employees also volunteer for a number of charitable events.

Learn more about the chamber at sandpointchamber.org or Super 1 Foods at super1foods. net.

COMMUNITY

Music Bridges Borders offers free concerts with exchange students

By Reader Staff A decade ago, Elinor and Rick Reed founded a cultural enrichment and exchange program known as Music Bridges Borders, which has swapped musicians between Sandpoint and Northern Baja, Mexico every summer since. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit offers this program as an annual cultural experience to study music abroad for the music students in Sandpoint as well as Mexico.

Students will benefit from this one-of-akind collaborative educational experience and music lovers will also come out ahead, too, since the students will play a series of

free concerts to showcase their abilities on the following dates and locations: • Friday, July 22, 7 p.m. at The Gardenia Center (400 Church St., Sandpoint); • Sunday, July 24, 6 p.m. at Matchwood Brewing Co. (513 Oak St., Sandpoint); • Thursday, Aug. 4, 7 p.m. at the Jacklin Arts Center (405 N. William St., Post Falls) For more information, contact Elinor or Rick Reed at 208-304-9506 or email musicbridgesborders@gmail.com.

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FEATURE

A quarter-century in the courts Rock Creek Alliance celebrates milestone anniversary

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff Twenty-five years is a long time to fight for any cause.

But if the past several decades have taught us anything, it’s that environmental issues are a public interest requiring constant vigilance. Between an escalating climate crisis and industrial forces moving to maximize profits, there’s no time to fall asleep on the job.

It’s a reality Mary Costello, executive director of Rock Creek Alliance, knows all too well. With Rock Creek Alliance on the cusp on its 25th anniversary, it’s time to reflect on a two-and-a-half-decade legal fight to keep Northwest waterways and lands unspoiled.

Maintaining the energy, focus and commitment to oppose the proposed Rock Creek Mine for 25 years has not been easy. But when the stakes are as high as RCA’s members and supporters believe they are, there’s little choice but to renew the fight daily.

“The alliance attracts talented and passionate people, and our accomplishments are a testimony to both the longevity and the determination of those who want to protect what matters to them, whether it is Lake Pend Oreille or wilderness lakes or grizzly bears,” Costello said. “Prevailing against four mining companies is no small accomplishment.”

But what exactly are the stakes? According to the plans outlined by mining companies, Rock Creek mine will require blasting and hauling rock to a mill facility within a grizzly bear habitat, resulting in 10,000 tons of rock moved per day; approximately 3 million gal18 /

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lons of wastewater discharged into Clark Fork River per day; a half-square-mile, 300-foottall mountain of tailings containing arsenic, lead, copper, zinc and blasting-compound nitrates leaching into groundwater; and a 64-acre reservoir of polluted mine water.

The Rock Creek Alliance contests that this would not only have catastrophic impacts on the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and surrounding lands.

Drainage from the operations would also make its way via the Clark Fork River to affect downstream communities as well, damaging water quality, fisheries, animal populations and habitats, and more along the way.

The mineral claims for the proposed mine site have passed

through many hands over the years. But for Costello and the rest of the RCA, the work truly began when news of the proposed mine broke more than 25 years ago. A trained biologist, Costello was convinced that the mine’s environmental impact statement was based on sloppy science and could spell disaster for the regional ecology.

“Several of us came together and decided we needed a local group in Sandpoint to take on this work because there is so much at stake downstream from the perpetual pollution that the mine would generate,” she said.

The team gradually came together, individual by individual and organization by organization. Groups like the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club, Panhandle

Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Cabinet Resource Group provided the initial funding.

Local attorney Charlton Mills assisted with incorporation and nonprofit status, while co-founders Costello and Diane Williams and founding board members Jean Gerth and Loren Albright formed the initial leadership backbone.

“I had been on the board of the Clark Fork Coalition (at the time it was called the Clark Fork Pend Oreille Coalition),” said Gerth. “CFC decided to close their Sandpoint office and I saw the need for a local presence here in regard to the proposed mine. Lake Pend Oreille is the water body that stands to suffer from the mine, but because the mine is in a different state, it makes it difficult

Cliff Lake, near the proposed site of the Rock Creek Mine, Photo by Woods Wheatcroft.

to drum up local interest.

From the beginning, every individual in the organization had a sense of what was at risk.

“We all know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Williams. “There would be no fixing a catastrophic failure of this proposed mine that would be one of the largest hard rock mines in North America, just 25 miles upstream of Lake Pend Oreille.”

Early activist work centered on spreading the word to the potentially impacted communities. Supporters reached out to local media, engaged regional organizations and turned out < see ROCK CREEK, Page 19 >

< ROCK CREEK, con’t from Page 18 > at public meetings, resulting in large turnouts.

“Our organization gained much of its early recognition in the community through the 1998 Jackson Browne benefit concert,” Costello said. “We converted the Sandpoint High School gym into a concert venue with the help of Sandpoint’s Jeff Bond and Fred Forssell, both former ’roadies’ for Jackson.”

Of course, public engagement, organization and meeting comments aren’t always enough when mining companies are aggressively pursuing legal approvals as quickly as possible.

Mineral claims passed through numerous corporate entities, from American Smelting and Refining Co. to Sterling Mining to Revett Minerals to Hecla Mining.

The RCA quickly joined forces with environmental partners and lawyers — particularly Earthworks, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and Western Mining Action Project. Those relationships proved fruitful, stymying the mine’s approval year after year after year.

“There have been many notable events over the last two decades, and many were legal victories,” Costello said. “In fact, we have won far more legal victories than we have lost, resulting in the loss of state and federal permits. What makes this remarkable is that the deck is stacked against us in terms of agency bias in favor of the proponent and the available resources.”

For Rock Creek Alliance, the good news is that — to date — it has managed to litigate the Rock Creek Mine to a standstill. Still without an operating permit, Hecla plans to update its data about the ore body and environmental impacts, which hitherto was between 40 to 60 years. All this unfolds as Hecla pursues a neighboring proposed mine called Montonore, which generated many

of the same concerns. Hecla is simultaneously pursuing data collection on both mines that the company hopes will advance its goal of securing operating permits.

Another factor slowing the proposed mines’ progress was Hecla CEO Philips S. Baker’s own history in the mining world. In 2018, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality hit the mining executive with violations of its bad actor laws for his previous involvement in mining company Pegasus Gold. The mining operation went bankrupt in 1998, saddling the state of Montana with millions in cleanup costs.

Montana DEQ sought to prevent Hecla from pursuing any mining operations in the state until it was compensated for the costs.

In 2019, Hecla Vice President of External Affairs Luke Russell told the Reader that, “When we get to the arguments on the merits, we feel that the company and CEO will be exonerated.”

Two years later, Montana, under the administration of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, dropped the case.

“Unfortunately, the end is not in sight,” said Gerth. “I have no illusion that Hecla is backing away from the mine, I think they are strategizing. We have to hold firm. As always our challenge is to keep the public informed when there is little happening except boring lawsuits.”

Part of Hecla’s strategy, RCA leadership believes, is to turn the tides in the areas of politics and public opinion.

That includes making their case before congressional committees and generating positive press.

“This is what well-financed mining corporations do: exert political pressure and use spin doctors, instead of addressing the real issues and reasons why they have not been able to obtain permits,” Williams said.

That’s why RCA leadership believes much of the work

hangs on keeping supporters alert, engaged and motivated to keep up the fight.

“Regardless of where the Rock Creek mine saga leads, I believe RCA will always exist and continue to fight development of this ill-advised, monstrous mine that threatens our water quality and communities,” said Williams.

In the meantime, however, it’s time for RCA staff, leaders and supporters to celebrate.

They plan to host an annual party Thursday, Aug. 25 under the tent at Trinity at City Beach. The party will feature live music, a rock-skipping contest, silent auction, legal update and presentation on successful mine-fighting tactics

by Bonnie Gestring of Earthworks.

RCA members also hope to raise funds through the sale of commemorative wine bottles from Pend d’Oreille Winery and specialty RCA coffee at Evans Brothers Coffee. RCA is also a featured nonprofit at Winter Ridge’s Bags of Change, where shoppers can donate to a nonprofit of their choice by bringing their own shopping bag.

Those efforts are key opportunities to build up a war chest, RCA leaders said.

After all, Hecla has made clear its intentions to pursue the Rock Creek Mine as long as it takes. The company isn’t going anywhere. But as RCA leaders assert on their website, they have plenty of fight left in them, too.

“It is important to remember that as long as a mining company holds subsurface mineral claims there is a very real threat of development,” Costello said. “An ideal solution would be for the company to relinquish its claims.”

Cameron Rasmusson is editor-in-chief at MultiLingual Media, communications specialist at Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness and editor emeritus of the Sandpoint Reader.

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FEATURE

Surviving and thriving

Priest River Ministries Advocates for Women to celebrate 20 years of service with July 28 event

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff Bonner County is home to an array of hardworking nonprofits that keep their heads down and their doors open, providing essential services to people who find themselves working through some of the most difficult times of their lives. One of those nonprofits is Priest River Ministries Advocates for Women, which commemorates 20 years of service this month — during which it will also help its 14,000th client.

PRMAFW is marking that milestone with a celebration on Thursday, July 28 at the Priest River Event Center (5399 Highway 2) from 5-8:30 p.m. Organizers invite survivor families, supporters, nonprofit partners, law enforcement and the community at large to enjoy hors d’oeuvres, craft mocktails, a silent auction and testimonials that shed light on PRMAFW’s past, present and future, with all proceeds from the auction going to support the women and children who walk through the doors at PRMAFW’s Priest River, Sandpoint and Spirit Lake offices.

Katie Begalke, an advocate with PRMAFW who is spearheading the event, said it is the organization’s effort to “celebrate alongside and thank all those who have made our 20 years possible.”

“Whether that’s the person who gave us $10 one time or the folks who continually bring in items for our clothing stores or our large grantors who keep our lights on and our staff paid — this event is meant to celebrate all those in our community who make this work possible,” she told the Reader, adding later: “We also want to celebrate with the women and children who have not just survived but thrived after receiving our services.”

PRMAFW began first as a small Bible study run by Priest River woman Rhonda Encinas, who offered an anonymous survey of the group’s women to find out how many had been abused.

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“An alarming amount of women in that group had been affected my domestic violence and sexual assault,” Begalke said.

Herself a survivor, Encinas used this knowledge to build a robust network of support for other victims in the North Idaho region.

What started as a Bible study has grown over the past two decades into an organization with three offices hosting free clothing closets, a computer lab, paralegal services, counseling, a food program and much more.

Begalke first became familiar with the nonprofit five years ago, when she moved to North Idaho to escape abuse. She utilized PRMAFW services and now works with the organization to help women who find themselves in similar situations.

“It really empowered me not to go back,” she said.

Begalke has been able to experience firsthand the power of having outreach offices across the county.

“It’s amazing how many people will just walk in off the street not knowing necessarily why they’re walking into our offices, but feeling called to,” she said.

“Sometimes they’ll talk about needing baby formula, and we’ll give that to them, and then all of the sudden they’ll just open their hearts and tell us about what’s going on at home. Sometimes that leads into further services, and sometimes that’s just a 40-minute conversation that they just needed to have that day.”

While PRMAFW is a faithbased ministry, Begalke said “we don’t care about your race, your religion, your sexual orientation, what you identify as — we just want to help.”

“We have open arms and an open-door policy,” she continued, “so you can come in and share with us whatever is on your mind and on your heart and know that that information isn’t going anywhere.”

As PRMAFW looks toward the next 20 years, Begalke said there is certainly a desire to continue expanding across the county. She

An encouraging paperweight sits atop a stack of forms that women are welcome to fill out upon visiting the Priest River Ministries Advocates for Women office in Sandpoint, located at 808 Lake St. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey. said that in rural areas, domestic violence is difficult to navigate because “there’s a lot of isolation that can happen there.”

“They’re always in the car with their abuser, or they’re given 35 minutes — they need to be back by a certain time — so they’re on task, they need to go get … groceries, their haircut, the gas in the car,” she said. “They’re strictly on task, and for them to be able to drive past Priest River Ministries Advocates for Women and see a phone number — that could save their life.”

The nonprofit also wants to partner with other groups interested in addressing North Idaho’s worsening housing crisis, Begalke said.

“We get calls consistently for people looking for housing. That’s heartbreaking, because we don’t have a lot of sources we can share with them at this point,” she said.

“We know the sources we can share, we just know the outlook. We can send them all these directions, get them signed up for low-income housing, but we just know that everything is booked

and full with the current state of where things are at.”

More important than ever, Begalke said, is that the community know PRMAFW is seeking volunteers passionate about furthering the group’s mission.

“The reality … is that this is a 20-year organization and a lot of these [volunteers] are going to be aging out eventually,” she said.

“Getting new blood in and being able to engage a new group of volunteers and advocates is going to be essential for us upcoming.”

Encinas is adamant that the story of PRMAFW’s 20 years not be focused on her, but rather the many people who keep the organization going. Still, she shared a little bit about the nonprofit’s humble beginnings with the Reader.

“In July of 2002, God asked me to lead a Bible study group for women who had suffered from or were currently experiencing domestic and sexual violence. That was all,” she wrote in an email.

“He put many amazing women in my life from across the country

and world who were professors, educators, writers and authors about domestic violence, sexual assault and trafficking. They were doing this work in and out of the church and they wanted to include me and teach me. I had no plan.

I just wanted to learn, teach and serve. I kept doing the next thing.”

She said that PRMAFW grew out of the “non-acceptance” of the Bible study group she first launched. It continues to grow, thanks to a collective mindset that acceptance is exactly what will support women and children through difficult times.

“It continues to grow and serve women and children of the Northwest because God puts it on the hearts of men and women in our community to volunteer, support and find ways to assist those in crisis,” Encinas said. “We all just show up.”

To learn more, visit prmafw. org. If you or someone you know is in crisis, reach the PRMAFW 24/7 hotline at 208-290-6529.

COMMUNITY

Pancakes and firefighters SOFD hosts the 2022 Pancake Breakfast fundraiser

By Reader Staff Get your bottles of syrup ready, it’s time for Sam Owen Fire District’s annual pancake breakfast on Saturday, July 23. Let the volunteer firefighters cook you a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, all for only $5. Breakfast will be served from 7:30 a.m.-11 a.m.

A scenic drive along Highway 200 will take you to the Sam Owen Fire Station No. 1, located at the junction of Peninsula Road and Highway 200 in Hope. Enjoy your breakfast, then tour the station, climb into the trucks and pick up free handouts for the kids.

This is the major community event and only fundraiser for the Sam Owen Fire District. The monies raised are used for supplies for the fire house, including uniforms, communication devices and important firefighting equipment. More than 60 volunteers, plus the firefighters and fire chief spend untold hours to collect donations, cook the meal and serve you a delicious breakfast.

The Sam Owen Fire District is committed to providing the highest level of fire protection and emergency services to all its res-

A future firefighter tries on some equipment at the Sam Owen Fire Station No. 1. Courtesy photo. idents, businesses and visitors. The district’s volunteer staff made up of local residents of various ages and backgrounds trained three times per month and is equipped for both structure and wildlands firefighting as well as rescue operations.

Contact Co-Chief Stu Eigler or Co-Chief Tim Scofield at 208-264-5745 for more information on Sam Owen Fire and Rescue.

YANIK EARNS BRUHJELL SCHOLARSHIP The 2022 recipient of the Erik Bruhjell Memorial Scholarship is Caiya Yanik from Clark Fork High School. Yanik will use her $500 scholarship when she begins attending Boise State University this fall.

Sponsored by the Bonner County Democrats, this scholarship honors the memory of Erik Bruhjell, a 2014 graduate of Sandpoint High School and human rights and environmental activist, who was killed by a drunk driver in July 2018.

— Reader Staff

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events

July 21 - 28, 2022

THURSDAY, July 21

Speakeasy with LPO Rep company 7-10pm @ 219 Lounge The second installment of this interactive evening of song, dance and comedy. $35 tickets, funds support Lake Pend Oreille Repertory Theater Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz 5:30-8pm @ Drift (Hope) Live Music w/ Ron Kieper Jazz Trio 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery All of your favorite jazz melodies Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin 7-9pm @ The Back Door Live Music w/ The Wow Wows 8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Psych-rock for the punk in us all

Magic Night at Jalapeño’s 5-8pm @ Jalepeño’s Mexican Restaurant Starring veteran magician Star Alexander

Karaoke night 8pm-close @ Tervan

monDAY, July 25 Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Group Run @ Outdoor Experience 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after

tuesDAY, July 26 Trails and Tails 11am-12pm @ Pine Street Woods Weekly gentle hikes through Aug. 19.

Volunteers needed: 425-577-1197

wednesDAY, July 27

Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 3-5:30pm @ Farmin Park Live music w/ Chris Paradis

NAMI Far North support group 5:30pm @ VFW, 1325 Pine St. (Spt.) Guest speaker Justin Hughes, LPC

Live Piano Music w/ Bob Beadling 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Contemporary, popular, professional music

Benny on the Deck • 6-8pm @ Connie’s Featuring Scott Taylor Sandpoint’s Got Talent Open Mic 6-10pm @ The Tervan Live Music w/ John Firshi 6pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Great guitar tunes with a lake view

ThursDAY, July 28 Festival at Sandpoint: The Revivalists 7:30pm @ War Memorial Field Chart-topping rock band The Revivalists will open this year’s Festival at Sandpoint concert series! Tickets $54.95 at festivalatsandpoint.com. Gates open 6pm The Slocan Ramblers in Concert 8:30pm @ The Heartwood Center A free show as part of the Sandpoint Summer Music Series, this Canadian bluegrass band has won multiple awards for their string music. Good times!

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Live Music w/ Chris Paradis 6-8pm @ The Back Door

FriDAY, July 22

Live Music w/ Truck Mills Trio 6:30-9:30pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. Best blues in North Idaho Karaoke night 8pm-close @ Tervan Trails and Tails 11am-12pm @ Pine Street Woods Weekly gentle hikes through Aug. 19.

Volunteers needed: 425-577-1197 Live Music w/ The Other White Meat 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

SunDAY, July 24

Sandpoint Chess Club 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Meets every Sunday at 9am

Live Music w/ John Firshi 5pm @ Bottle Bay Resort Great guitar tunes with a lake view

Priest River Ministries Advocates for Women 20th anniversary fundraiser 5-8:30pm @ Priest River Event Center This Bonner Co. nonprofit serves women and children victimized by domestic violence, sexual assault and trafficking. Enjoy hors d’oeuvres, craft mocktails, silent auction and testimonials with a goal to raise $20k with proceeds going to support women and children in Bonner County

SATURDAY, July 23 Live Music w/ KOSH 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery A full rangle of rock, pop and indie

Live Music w/ Alcohol and Feelings 9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge A little country, a little Americana and some honky-tonk, too. FREE 21+

Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 9am-1pm @ Farmin Park Fresh produce, artisan goods, live music

by Mobious Riff

Live Music w/ KOSH 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery A full rangle of rock, pop and indie

For Pete’s Sake event and fundraiser 1-6pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall A day in honor of Pete Johnson, who has late stage IV kidney cancer. Music, food, cornhole tournament sign-ups from 1-2 pm with the competition started at 2 pm

Live Music w/ Steven Wayne 7-9pm @ The Back Door Live Music w/ The Powers 7-10pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. CDA-based husband-wife duo playing alt-country and Americana

Live Music w/ Joey Anderson 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

Karaoke night 8pm-close @ Tervan

Old-Time Fiddlers Jam Session 3pm @ Sandpoint Library The local District 1A chapter of the Idaho Old-Time Fiddlers will meet for an acoustic jam session in meeting room B. More info: 208-263-7234

STAGE & SCREEN

Main character energy

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff There’s a viral video going around this week featuring British actor Joseph Quinn, who has risen to international acclaim this summer thanks to his portrayal of Eddie Munson in Season 4 of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things.

In the video, Quinn sits onstage at a fan convention in London. An audience member approaches the mic and takes the opportunity to thank him.

“I just wanted to say, thank you from all of us — we’re really grateful [for] you sharing the time,” said the fan, identified by various media outlets as Kimberley Burrows.

“Thank you for signing our things, spending time with us and making our summer.

“I think we’ve all connected with Eddie for one reason or another,” she concluded.

Quinn was moved to tears by Burrows’ comment, and thanked her while wiping his eyes.

The video may be going viral in part simply because it shows a sweet moment and a man crying, but I believe the interaction is remarkable because of something even deeper: Eddie Munson is an incredible character, and Burrows spoke for all of us when she thanked Quinn for the obvious care and passion he put into his work.

Is Eddie the main character in Stranger Things? Not even close. Is he the one I’ve been hearing the most about from friends who watched the new season? Absolutely.

For those who are unfamiliar with the show, Stranger Things is based in the 1980s and tells the story of a small, Midwest town plagued by a portal to an alternate dimension, out of which pours all manner of evil

that a band of local kids are compelled to fight. Eddie entered Season 4 as the metalhead ringleader of the high school nerds, including some core characters trying to find where they fit in as freshmen. He is intense, funny and uninterested in conforming to social standards. When he gets caught up in the wild life of helping the main characters battle literal monsters, viewers see Eddie rise from defiant goofball to hero, all while staying true to himself.

Munson is a classic example of a supporting character that boasts what todays’ youth might call “main character energy” — that is, the potential to be a powerful protagonist. Here are a few other notable examples:

story and certainly because of Carrie Fisher’s brilliant protrayal.

Princess Leia There is a large school of thought that sees Princess Leia Organa is the real main character of Star Wars. As Nerdist points out: “Leia’s fight for the good of the galaxy started long before A New Hope and never ended. Leia is the first character of the main trio we see in A New Hope, minutes after it begins, literally fighting the Empire.”

Of course, there is no real argument to be had about who the real protagonist of Stars Wars is. For better or worse, it is Leia’s brother Luke Skywalker and, by and large, the franchise is one dominated by male stories. Still, Leia persists in popular culture as a symbol of feminism and just general female badassery, likely due in part to her continued importance to the galaxy’s

Ron Swanson Of all the quirky characters in the comedy series Parks and Rec, Ron Swanson — played by Nick Offerman — is one that has transcended the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department to become a king of deadpan quotes and hilarious memes.

The brilliance of Swanson lies squarely in his central contradiction: he is the director of the parks department, while also being so staunchly liberitarian that he opposes any and all levels of government intervention. Details about the man’s deeper personality are revealed haphazardly, such as his unmatched love for breakfast food and his alter-ego as a saxophonist named Duke Silver.

Swanson is a perfect foil for the real

Sometimes the supporting cast steals the show main character, Leslie Knope, who is almost insufferably optimistic and chirpy. Without Swanson, it’s safe to say Parks and Rec could never have so fully embedded itself in our pop culture.

Joseph Quinn plays Eddie Munson in Season 4 of Stranger Things on Netflix. Courtesy photo.

Margaret Brown There is no research to suggest that Margaret Brown holds any place in the larger social subconscious as the best character in James Cameron’s 19997 film Titanic, but this humble reporter is willing to die on this hill. Based on a real person who escaped the sinking in 1912, Brown plays a very small part in the movie. Still, it’s an important one.

Brown is from “new money,” thanks to her husband striking gold in the American West. The more established aristocrats on the Titanic shun her, including the mother of main character Rose. Brown’s roughand-tumble demeanor and genuine nature — brought to life by Kathy Bates — make her likable, and her limited actions during the film are powerful nonetheless.

Most recall Brown’s heroism during the final scenes of Titanic, when she advocates for her lifeboat to turn around and search for survivors in the waters of the Atlantic.

My love for Brown is cemented much earlier, when she loans her son’s tuxedo to Jack so that he can attend a first-class dinner and be closer to Rose. Without the right clothes, he’d have never made it past the door, and this timeless love story may never have been realized.

Panida gears up for Crazy Days Play It Again sale Sales of records, CDs, DVDs and other media to benefit scholarship

By Reader Staff While some people feel the seasonal need to clear out the old to make room for the new, others want to keep finding more treasures to enjoy. Both sensibilities will be served the week of Monday, July 25-Friday, July 29, the Panida Theater will gratefully accept any used CDs, records, videos and DVDs, cassettes, audiobooks, stereo equipment and any other media you may wish to donate.

“Last year, much of the leftover invento-

ry went away so we are almost starting from scratch,” theater event organizers wrote in a release. “Please scour your shelves, garages, basements, attics, shrines and hidey-holes.”

Each year on Crazy Days Saturday, slated for Saturday, July 30 from 8 a.m.-3 p.m., the Panida hosts its fundraising swap and shop at the theater, selling your recycled items at really enticing prices to others who want to collect, listen to or watch those vintage items. All funds raised go to the Laurel Wagers/Panida Theater Music Scholarship, which helps a deserving Sandpoint area

student going on to college in the performing arts.

“To help us keep this event thriving, please help us rebuild by setting aside any music items, films, equipment or audiobooks,” organizers stated. “You can drop them off at the theater the week of July 25-29 by prior arrangement, contact Steve Garvan at 303-809-1676 with questions or to make an appointment to do so.”

The Panida is glad to acknowledge donations in writing, as needed.

Courtesy photo.

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MUSIC

Everything you need to know about the Festival at Sandpoint

By Ben Olson Reader Staff The Festival at Sandpoint’s iconic white tent will soon rise into the air at War Memorial Field, and locals and tourists alike will gather for nine exciting nights under the stars. Whether this is your first Festival or you’ve gone every year since the beginning, here are a few guidelines to make your experience more enjoyable: Tickets Tickets are still available for most shows, but the Beach Boys show is sold out, while Kaleo and Lindsey Sterling have the potential to sell out. Online etix.com orders will send out electronic tickets five days before the given performance, and again the day of. Be sure to buy tickets through etix.com or the Festival office (525 Pine St.) — there are online resellers charging much higher prices than face value. General admission seating is always firstcome, first-served. The venue is wheelchair accessible with designated seating in the grandstands — just check with front gate staff at least 20 minutes prior to gates opening for an escort.

Chairs and coolers Chairs can be rented at the Festival so you can pack light or, if choosing to bring your own

chair, make sure it’s a low-back chair.

Higher lawn chairs are permitted, but you’ll be asked to sit further back behind the blanket seating area.

Personal coolers are allowed, and patrons 21 and over can bring their own alcoholic beverages — no glass is permitted inside the venue other than wine bottles and growlers.

Food and vendor information Due to supply chain issues, the Noble mobile-ordering app will not be available at the venue this year. However, online ordering will be available for select vendors via the Festival’s website. In-person credit cards and debit cards will be accepted by all vendors — no cash or checks are accepted anywhere inside the venue.

security staff aims to get concertgoers through quickly, so the less you bring, the faster the process. Dogs and other pets are not allowed inside. If you have a service dog, call the Festival office at 208-265-4554 for details about admittance. Weapons will not be allowed inside the venue, which includes guns, ammunition, pepper spray, mace, etc. This includes off-duty law enforcement or individuals with concealed carry permits. No drugs or drug paraphernalia will be allowed inside, including cannabis and cannabis products. No flammables are allowed, including fireworks, explosives or road flares. Cigarettes can be smoked only in the designated smoking area. No personal vehicles allowed inside, including bikes, skates, scooters, skateboards and hoverboards.

Personal mobility devices for ADA guests are allowed. Finally, no tents, toy guns, water guns or sling shots.

No-No’s There will be security checkpoints at all points of entry. The

To dance or not to dance Certain shows are classified as “dance” nights, which means the

Line standing Festival organizers ask those standing in line early to not arrive before 6 a.m. the day of the show.

The box office at Memorial Field opens one hour before the gates each performance day. Be sure to ask volunteers for the correct line, as general admission, early entry and patron tickets all have different lines.

blanket seating area in the front of the stage is open ground for dancing and standing. On nights not designated for dancing, the usual blanket and chair setup will occupy that section. For non-dance nights, it’s always best to respect those around you and remain seated during the show.

Last notes The Family Matinee and Grade Finale shows both have discounted advance-purchase ticket prices, with slightly higher ticket prices for day-of purchases. There will be a complimentary wine and beer tasting from 5-7 p.m. before the Grand Finale, with the concert starting at 7:30 p.m. Due to consistent issues with temperatures dropping too low for the Spokane Symphony, the Grand Finale will no longer have an intermission.

“We are extremely excited about this year’s lineup and ticket sales agree with us,” Festival Executive Director Ali Baranski said.

“We have record ticket sales this year and encourage early ticket purchases to guarantee to not miss out on the fun.”

For more information about the Festival at Sandpoint’s guidelines, visit festivalatsandpoint.com or call the office at 208-265-4554.

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint The Wow Wows, Idaho Pour Authority, July 22

The Powers, Matchwood Brewing Co., July 23

Homegrown North Idaho band The Wow Wows come front-loaded with a full electric sound that never feels sludgy or bass-reliant.

Rather, it exudes a slinky sensibility with its jangly guitar and frequently shoe-gazy rhythms.

The Wows Wows rock, too, especially on tracks like “She’s My Lover,” “Next Surprise” and “Blue Van” from the 2019 album River Dolphin, on which shades of psychedelia mingle with the

The live music scene at Matchwood Brewing Co. has been on fire this summer. Their next great concert scheduled is fan favorites The Powers. This husband-wife Americana and alt-country duo hails from Coeur d’Alene and has graced stages large and small across the region with their comfortable, warm and powerful music.

Dan and Shelley Powers combine to present a strong presence both on stage and in their community, where family and relation-

best of vintage punk and, dare we say, the merest hint of rockabilly.

Catch the band at Idaho Pour Authority and you’ll say “wow” more than once.

— Zach Hagadone 8 p.m., FREE, 21+. Idaho Pour Authority, 203 Cedar St., 208-597-7096, idahopourauthority.com. Listen at thewowwows. bandcamp.com.

ships come first, according to the band.

Whether you’ve watched The Powers under the big white tent at the Festival at Sandpoint or at a local venue, they’re always worth another listen.

—Ben Olson

This week’s RLW by Zach Hagadone

READ

The Library of Congress announced July 12 that the U.S. has its 24th poet laureate: Kentucky-based writer, professor and poetry podcast host Ada Limón. Known for her sonorous work, weaving human feelings with the natural world, For her work — including six books — Limón has earned a Guggenheim fellowship and National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as a finalist nod for the National Book Award. Learn more at adalimon.net.

LISTEN

When you’re stuck in a sonic rut, it’s sometimes hard to find whatever undiscovered song or artist will help pull out. I’ve tried random searches on YouTube, scrolling through the music mags online and simply searching “new music” on Google — rarely do those methods yield satisfactory results. Lately, I’ve been looking to NPR’s new music page (and specifically its #nowplaying) blog to get small samples of what’s out there. Find it at npr.org/sections/ new-music.

WATCH

Martha Mitchell has long been considered a bit player in the Watergate scandal, but the critical role played by the wife of then-Attorney General John Mitchell in revealing Nixon’s dirty tricks is starting to get the recognition it deserves. There’s the brand new Starz limited streaming series Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts as Mitchell, as well as the 2022 Netflix documentary The Martha Mitchell Effect. Do yourself a favor and watch the doc first to rediscover this complex patriot.

7-10 p.m., FREE. Matchwood Brewing Co., 513 Oak St., 208718-2739, matchwoodbrewing. com. Listen to The Powers at thepowersmusic.com.

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BACK OF THE BOOK

Eat a peach From Northern Idaho News, July 21, 1908

STOLE A TYPEWRITER FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE Chief of Police Stewart made a trip to Spokane last Saturday at which time he secured three men who were wanted in this city on a charge of grand larceny. The men, Frank Wilson, Harry Stewart and John Williams, were arrested on the streets of Spokane by police officers of that city while in the act of trying to dispose of a L.C. Smith typewriter which they had in their possession. The men had been at several places trying to sell the machine but without success.

The first place they visited, the proprietor thought by their actions that they were very anxious to get rid of it and naturally suspicioned they had stolen it. After they had left the store, he immediately telephoned the police department of the affair and officers were at once sent after the trio. In the meantime they had gone into a couple of other places in an attempt to sell the machine, but had failed.

After their arrest, they were taken to the police headquarters and after questioning, confessed they had stolen the typewriter from a schoolbuilding in Sandpoint.

Officers of this city were notified by telephone of the fact and an investigation was made and it was discovered that the new typewriter recently purchased by Prof. H.T. Irion of the high school had been taken from the professor’s room on the second floor. Finger marks in the dust which had accumulated on the desks were plainly to be seen.

The men waived examination and were bound over to the district court, bond being fixed at $500 each.

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By Ben Olson Reader Staff In Shakey, Jimmy McDonough’s massive 750-page biography of Neil Young, he described the moment when Young bailed on Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young midway through a 1976 tour. The soon-to-be solo rocker told his bus driver to turn off the interstate and head toward the Memphis airport while the rest of the band’s caravan continued on to a gig in Atlanta.

By way of explanation, Neil penned a note to bandmate Stephen Stills: “Dear Stephen, Funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach, Neil.”

The pithy sendoff was perhaps Young’s way of telling his former bandmates to eff off without being too much of a jerk. Or perhaps, like me, he was a fan of fresh peaches and wanted to encourage his friends to take advantage of the delectable fruit.

Each summer, Cadie and I declare one fruit to rule them all. One year, it was the “summer of the pear,” thanks to so many juicy bartletts, boscs and Anjous, which melted in our mouths as only ripe pears can.

Another year, the “summer of the cherry” poked its head out, offering bings, blacks and Rainiers in delicious proportions, staining our fingers deep red.

But, more often than not, we declare the “summer of the peach” as the all-time winner. There is no other fruit that symbolizes summer more perfectly than the noble peach.

First cultivated in China more than 8,000 years ago, the mighty peach is related to plums, apricots, cherries and almonds.

They are loaded with vitamins, fiber and antioxidants, which help prevent aging and disease. If you peel off the skin, you’re giving up many of these nutrients.

When first encountering a ripe peach, I like to place the fuzzy skin under my nose

STR8TS Solution

and fill my lungs with the aroma. The first bite is almost overwhelming. The juice fills your mouth and runs down your chin onto the ground. The taste is sweet and slightly tart, varying slightly between varieties and flesh colors.

A common stance for eating a peach is bending over at the waist with both hands holding the succulent morsel out about a foot from your chin as the juices cascade down and splatter the sidewalk or grass beneath your feet. Then, after devouring it to the stone pit, you jump immediately into the nearest body of water to wash off all the nectar before the ants come to carry you away. Rinse and repeat.

There are dozens of varieties of peaches, which are considered drupes, or stone fruits.

They are separated among three different categories. Freestones contain pits that are easily removed and have firmer flesh, making them most often found in grocery stores because they have a harvest period that starts early and ends late.

Clingstones have flesh that clings tightly to the pit. They are sweeter and juicier than freestones, making them good for canning and desserts. The flesh is usually yellow with red flecks near the stone. You’ll find clingstones most often in farmers’ markets and fruit stands nearer to mid-season, but rarely in stores.

The final peach category is semi-freestone, a hybrid between the others in which the pit stays partially attached to the inner flesh. All categories have both white and yellow flesh varieties.

Popular varieties include Babcocks, early ambers, Arctic supremes, belle of Georgias and the juiciest of them all, Elbertas.

Donut, or Saturn, peaches are flatter, shaped like saucers and have a slightly different sweetness than their brethren. They look

like someone sat on a peach and slightly squashed it.

Nectarines are actually a genetic mutation of peaches that do not have fuzz on the skin.

A great place to find peaches is our very own “Peach Guy,” located next to the Schweitzer Conoco in Ponderay. These wonderful people sell peaches, cherries, sweet corn and other produce every summer. Catch them every Thursday-Sunday through the summer, but they sometimes sell out by Sunday, so don’t delay when stocking up for the week. You can buy a whole box of peaches for a reasonable price and eat them like a glutton or one at a time.

No judgment here.

These hot months are the only times during the year we can eat fresh peaches to our hearts’ content. Canned peaches just don’t taste the same, and frozen slices are lacking that perfect texture.

Embrace your inner Neil Young.

Eat a peach.

Crossword Solution

Sudoku Solution

I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad.

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22

By Bill Borders

CROSSWORD

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

Laughing Matter

ACROSS

egalitarian

Woorf tdhe Week

/ih-gal-i-TAIR-ee-uhn/

[adjective] 1. asserting, resulting from, or characterized by belief in the equality of all people, especially in political, economic, or social life.

“If you seek to pass laws based on egalitarian ideals, it’s inevitable that extremists on the fringes will oppose them at all costs.”

Corrections: I apologize for a few mistakes on the calendar in recent weeks.

It’s a really tough thing to keep organized — like herding cats. For best results, please email your events for the upcoming week on Mondays and try to avoid sending event info weeks or months early, where it can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Please remember, this is a FREE calendar that we provide for our readers and business owners. All you have to do is send in your events to calendar@ sandpointreader.com and we’ll do our best to list them accurately. If we don’t receive your emailed events, there’s no guarantee it will make it on the page.

Thanks for your help. — Ben Olson, Publisher

1. Assembly 6. Acid related to gout 10. Dull 14. Sporting venue 15. Wealthy 16. Not prerecorded 17. Absorbs written material 18. Notion 19. Largest continent 20. Gloomy ill-tempered feeling 22. Applaud 23. East southeast 24. Nominal 26. Calculator’s ancestor 30. False move 32. Hue 33. Type of leather 37. Biblical garden 38. Eagle’s home 39. By mouth 40. Dehydrate (var. sp.)

42. Deception 43. Give a speech 44. Focusing glass (plural) 45. Made a mistake 47. Mister 48. Spoiled child 49. Relating to electricity 56. Hubs 57. Female horse 58. Love intensely 59. Gulf port 60. Computer symbol

Solution on page 22 61. Stop 62. Large mass of floating ice 63. Vesicle 64. Aromatic compound

9. Criticize sharply 10. Hawthorn 11. Fine thread 12. Birdlike 13. Pile 21. S 25. Half of a pair 26. Passed with DOWN flying colors 1. A place of cultivation 27. Foreshadow 28. Anagram of “Sale” 2. Black-and-white 29. Keep company cookie 30. Specialty 3. Towards the back 31. A Great Lake 4. Cancel 33. Miami basketball 5. Massager team 6. Liquid bodily waste 34.

Colored part 7. Fair attraction of the eye 8. Frosts, as a cake

35. Minnow-like fish 36. Large northern deer 38. Scholarly 41. Anger 42. Apartment balcony 44. Ignited 45. Wear away 46. Formula 1 driver 47. Smell 48. Spill the beans 50. Delicate 51. Cupid’s Greek counterpart 52. Mid-month days 53. Jacket 54. Rear end 55. Lascivious look

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ower

ons

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