Reader March30 2017

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(wo)MAN compiled by

Susan Drinkard

on the street

Do you believe every citizen has a right to affordable health care?

“I would say yes, but I don’t think it’s fair that others often end up paying for it.”

Lana Fish Stay-at-home mom Sandpoint

“Yes, though the question really is—what is ‘affordable’ healthcare?”

Jason Zolezzi Caretaker Hope

“Absolutely. It’s outrageously expensive for even reasonable insurance because health care costs are so high.”

Travis Tyler Sandcreek Medical coach, and volunteer fire department Sandpoint “Yes, everyone has a right to affordable healthcare; poor people’s Medicaid should not be touched or eliminated.”

Kelley Roberts In transition Sandpoint “Yes! Every progressive country in the world has affordable health care and affordable medication.”

Kerry Kresge CNA Sandpoint

DEAR READERS,

It feels like springtime just arrived, but I’m already a little sick of it.

Nonstop rain and small lakes of standing water have a very short window of novelty. But what’s the point of complaining? Whether you welcome it or hate it, it’s an inevitable change.

Change seems to be in the air. I don’t know about you, but I’m still trying to find a sense of equilibrium in the shifting political climate. Many of you, like me, were caught up in the drama of the GOP’s failure to replace Obamacare. Perhaps you wondered what it meant for the future of American health care and found yourself, once again, with more questions than answers.

Likewise, new political norms are trickling down into Idaho. The State Legislature just wrapped up the strangest session I’ve witnessed in my five years of watching Idaho politics, and I’m not the only journalist who thinks so. Reading the Twitter feeds of Boise journalists coping with the fitful starts and stops of legislative business over the past month was akin to watching a Lovecraft protagonist go slowly insane. In the words of the Associated Press’ esteemed Idaho politics reporter Kimberlee Kruesi: “What a week.”

Certainly, change is the defining dynamic here at the Reader office as we round the corner on another week without fearless leader Ben Olson.

We survived last week relatively intact, a few dumb mistakes notwithstanding. Now we will see what the next seven days brings.

However you deal with the changes in your life, Sandpoint, I hope the day finds you well. And as always, we’ll see you next week, space cowboys.

-Cameron Rasmusson, Editor OPEN 11:30 am

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READER 111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208)265-9724

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editor: Cameron Rasmusson cameron@sandpointreader.com Zach Hagadone (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Taylor Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Ben Olson Contributing Writers: Cameron Rasmusson, Ben Olson, Jodi Rawson, Christian Rose, John Williams, Jessica Bowman, Kathleen St. Clair-McGee, Rhonda Armburst, Tom Woodward, Marcia Pilgeram, Ed Ohlweiler, Dianne Smith, Art Piltch Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Griffin Publishing Spokane, Wash.

Subscription Price: $95 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 400 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.

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208.263.4005 A SandPint Tradition Since 1994 March 30, 2017 /

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COMMENTARY

Civil asset forfeiture invites abuses

By Christian Rose Reader Contributor Benjamin Franklin once said, “They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.’ A truer statement couldn’t be more applicable today, even in liberty-minded Idaho.

Historically, our laws are drafted in ways that give vast interpretative authority to enforcement officials. We cede this because we trust that police officers and prosecutors act in our best interest. For the most part, they live up to this standard. Rarely do we question their intentions. But our founding fathers didn’t trust good intentions, and neither should you.

Directives for law enforcement should be clear, concise and grounded in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

When they’re not, despite good intentions, abuses can occur. Sadly, some Idaho residents have become victims of a relatively new section of law that has its genesis in the War on Drugs.

It’s called Civil Asset Forfeiture and it works like this: a law enforcement officer receives a tip concerning narcotics trafficking, or finds evidence of drugs and cash during a traffic stop.

Based on even finding small amounts of narcotics, or cash, the officer has the authority to seize the car, cash, or other personal property—all without a criminal conviction. It’s perfectly legal under Idaho law.

After seizure, prosecutors have five days to file a forfeiture complaint. Officers write a sworn affidavit explaining why they believe the asset was connected to drug activity. The property owner then has 20 days to respond. If 20 days

pass without an answer, the money, car or other property is awarded to the law enforcement agency, which gives part of the proceeds to the prosecuting attorney’s office.

The practice nationally is becoming increasingly abusive. But even in Idaho, law enforcement agencies are beginning to take the tactic too far.

In a 2010 case from Twin Falls County, the sheriff’s office received a tip from an anonymous source that a man and his wife, Jasil Gomez, were trafficking drugs from their home. Deputies arrived at her front door to investigate, but Gomez told them she didn’t have any drugs or cash. The deputies insisted they search the house. Gomez consented, and while looking through a dresser in a bedroom, they found a plastic bag with a small amount of marijuana, and a glass pipe. After a warrant was obtained, the deputies found more personal-use quantity marijuana and $11,000 in cash. In total, they ended up seizing $12,010.

Gomez claimed the money came from her business, a shop called Botanica San Judas, that sold candles and other religious items and accepted only cash. Ultimately, $3,000 was returned, while the sheriff’s office kept $9,010.

No formal criminal charges were ever filed against the couple.

In fairness, Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall sees his role differently than prosecutors in other jurisdictions. “We take into account a number of factors when looking at a case,” he said. “First and foremost, it is important (even though not required) there is some evidence that the owner of the property is involved in the sale and/or

distribution of narcotics,” Marshall told me in an email interview. He added, “We have hundreds of drug cases every year---mostly for possession and only a small percentage have corresponding forfeiture cases.”

While we’re lucky to have a prosecutor here that takes a measured approach utilizing the law, we should still be concerned. Why? Prosecutors aren’t appointed to life-time terms, they’re elected. Political winds change. Who’s to say our next county prosecutor will see things the same way?

That’s why State Reps Ilana Rubel (D-Boise) and Steven Harris (R-Meridian) have been working on reform. I spoke with both a few weeks ago, and while they’re getting push-back from prosecutors, Harris agrees that full repeal of the law is “too far to go.” Rubel believes the law is allowing prosecutors to use the civil court process, which operates on the lesser preponderance of evidence requirement, as an “end run around the constitution.”

Criminal convictions require the higher, beyond a reasonable doubt standard.

The Rubel-Harris legislation, known as HB 202, just passed the Senate in amended form and will go back to the House for another vote. Under the amended legislation, law enforcement would no longer be able to confiscate property that has no connection to a drug crime other than being “in proximity” to a controlled substance. Additionally, vehicles cannot be taken unless there is a drug trafficking offense shown - mere drug possession is not enough.

The bill also makes clear that the possession of cash, without any evidence of

a drug offense, is not grounds to seize that cash.

Prosecutor Marshall isn’t abusing the law, but is still concerned about any change to the law that prevents forfeiture from defendants that aren’t convicted of crimes. He told me that “the problem with seizing assets only for defendants which have been convicted of drug crimes is sometimes we catch the guys after they have sold the drug on the way back with the money.”

He did describe a few seizures, including one from Garfield Bay, “where a Bay Area drug dealer had an operation...he converted a house into a marijuana grow and then had local associates deposit sales proceeds into his bank account.” Marshall’s office seized $10,000 from a bank account despite an inability to “make a criminal case against him.” The defendants CA attorney admitted “it wasn’t worth contesting” the claim.

Now I’m all for punishing drug dealers. Once they’re actually found guilty.

But nobody should have to worry about a sheriff’s deputy seizing hard-earned cash traveling on Hwy 95. Prosecutor Marshall thinks this concern is “blown out of proportion.” I respectfully disagree. So should you.

We should all agree drug trafficking is a serious crime and deserves an aggressive, lawful response. But even if law enforcement intends to follow the Constitution, that’s not good enough.

If we fail to demand our due-process rights, eventually they’ll be lost.

It’s clear: Our current law affords an opportunity for abuse and needs to be changed. HB 202 is a good start. I think Franklin would agree.

Listen in Sandpoint to KPND @ 106.7 in HD 4 /

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OPINION

Library services deserve national support others. These are services used in our communities, by our friends and family members.

With the recent political climate, Last year, nearly 400 kids in there has been much talk on budget Sandpoint participated in the Sumcuts to certain areas covered by mer Reading program. Read to Me federal resources. I am here today allows thousands of low-income to advocate for one program on the children to take home books of their chopping block. very own. For some children, it’s This is a program that many of the first book they’ve had that is you love and use on a regular basis, theirs. possibly without even knowing The Make It program is relativeit. Nestled within the plethora of ly new. It gives communities access acronyms set to be cut, the IMLS to STEAM technology: 3D printers, might not sound important. And I arduinos, robots, coloring programs wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t and pays for librarians to be trained even sound familiar. But it is exto teach their patrons about exciting tremely important. IMLS stands for new technology. the Institute of Museum and Library If I so far have not sold you on Services. the importance of federal funding Basically, it’s the federal fundfor libraries and their important role ing granted to libraries across the in educating and exciting children nation. The IMLS proposed budget and young adults in reading and for this upcoming fiscal year is learning, let me tell you about $186.6 million.

Talking Books.

That sounds like a lot of monTalking Books is a service ey, but it really isn’t. That money provided through IMLS funds. It is disbursed to libraries across the delivers recorded books, and a spenation to fund federal programs. cial player, right into the hands of Without this money, Idaho’s librar- people who either can’t read tradiies will no longer be funded for tional books because of their vision Summer Reading programs, Make or because they are unable to hold a It programs, Talking Books Serphysical book. vices or Read to Me, among several Libraries provide these services

By Jessica Bowman Reader Contributor

for their communities because we genuinely enjoy helping people. We want your children to have books and to enjoy reading. We want you to be able to design something on CAD software and then print out a prototype. We want your grandma to be able to listen to books.

In 2015 the Idaho Rural Partnership (IRP) conducted a meta-analysis of 26 community reviews. Out of 67 community values across all of the reviews, fire protection ranked as most valued, with an average score of 4.01. Second in importance, right behind fire protection with an average score of 3.99, was the quality of the public library.

This budget cut will have very real consequences in our communities. Libraries are here to serve you but now we need your help.

Defunding libraries will have very real, long term consequences in our town, not in some far away place.

You can help by contacting your representative. House representatives need to hear from their constituents by April 3 that libraries and IMLS funding are important.

Tell your representative why libraries are important to you.

Get on social media and share this information. Tell your friends,

your family, a stranger or two, about why you think libraries are important.

If not you, who? If not now, when?

March 30, 2017 /

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LETTERS A hateful letter...

Dear Editor, This letter is a response to Lee Santa’s letter, published March 8, which suggests that those who are opposed to immigrants are “wussies” and have never served in the military. Thank you for your hateful letter, condemning hate. You have elicited a response from a 10-year U.S. Army veteran. I fought in the Operation Iraqi Freedom campaign in 2006, in Baghdad, as a Tier-1 Personal Security Detachment soldier for an Iraqi President and a Prime Minister (the biggest targets in the entire combat zone). I am also married to a German immigrant. I assume that you, too, are a veteran and are married to an immigrant, and according to your letter, have moved to North Idaho for reasons other than “running from your shadow,” hence the gross leeway that you’ve given yourself to write what you have written.

We fled Germany due to the results of your own ideas. Violent crime has skyrocketed there since the beginning of the migrant crisis, and we felt that it was no longer a safe place to live. Leaving, so it seemed, was preferable and more intelligent than living in a place where we would constantly have to “defend ourselves”—especially because people like you have chosen to give your dreams a higher priority than that of reality itself. Clearly, many on the left are also unwilling to live with the consequences of their fantasies. You are just one of millions of examples. Take a bow. Why not adhere to your own ideas and go pursue an exciting new life in Detroit?

The world is a complicated recipe. As a die-hard advocate of multiculturalism, you should see a rather clear difference between a Bavarian sweetheart and an Iraqi jihadi who beheads people with a knife. Yet, despite these differences that should be as obvious as the sun, the narrative that we continue to receive from the left, is that “we are all the same.” How can this be? It’s perhaps this kind of uni-polar thinking that has somehow landed me into the “anti-immigration crowd,” because I (and my German wife) support President Trump’s executive order and immigration reform.

Whether you agree or disagree, one thing’s for sure: Calling those who refuse to support your media-induced psychosis “cowards” is not a winning political strategy. I’m afraid you’ll need a better, more intelligent argument than that.

Richard P. Howell Hope

False claims...

A letter in the March 9 issue by a Marty Stitsel insinuated that I was either categorically ignorant or lying, baseless insults that, considering the source, I will of course ignore. Marty Stitsel either has a problem with blood flow to the brain, or maybe just can’t read.

Nowhere in my letter did I claim that fishing, hunting, huckleberry picking, etc., would be eliminated if the Scotchman Peaks were designated wilderness, as Marty claims. Only that traditional access by mechanical means would be outlawed, selfishly limiting use to only those who can handle heavy-duty hiking and 6 /

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backpacking.

Read it again, Marty. If you still don’t get it, maybe you can get some third- or fourth-grader to explain it to you.

David Reynolds Hope

Scotchman Peaks...

Dear Editor, We see letters for and against the proposed Scotchman wilderness. Regardless of your position on this, you should seriously question why the USFS and FSPW never held meetings with the closest communities or city councils in all their self-promoted “outreach” and “collaboration”. From the USFS, we hear of “hundreds of meetings across the forest” in the decades of their own special process and yet, not a single one in the local communities. From FSPW, we saw them fly all the way to Washington D.C. to falsely tell our legislators that Bonner County “loves” this wilderness, yet, in their 12 years of storied existence, they also never met with the closest cities (we have been half-expecting someone to dredge up a meeting from 10 years ago, but no luck yet, eh?). And you wonder how many times they drove through Hope and Clark Fork on their way to Scotchman Peak. At least at the first Clark Fork meeting held this January, a meeting that was held at the request of local concerned citizens, there was plenty of “love” expressed about this blatant lack of respect and communication. No matter where you stand on this, ask the USFS and FSPW (and also the former county commissioners), to explain exactly why they never held a single public meeting in Hope or Clark Fork? Were there ANY meetings in Bonner County, outside of Sandpoint?

Besides the complete lack of serious local engagement (sorry, but marching bands, painting contests and mushroom gurus don’t count), other serious issues with this include the inability to manage a wilderness for forest health, fire and wildlife, due to routine lawsuits by radical environmental groups (how many FSPW supporters also belong to these groups?). This is why current and former Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commissioners, Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are opposed to new wilderness. RMEF has received several letters of concern regarding Scotchman, from both Idaho and Montana residents. Supporters may continue to cite the passage from the Wilderness Act, regarding wildlife management, but they are ignoring reality (which they must know, unless they hang too much with mushroom gurus).

Thanks to the many concerned citizens, groups and communities making their voices heard, Sen. Risch has no plans now to reintroduce the legislation. If the supporters want to continue on with this, they need to ground themselves in reality, start talking and listening to local communities and be prepared to address some incredibly important issues they have overlooked.

Stan Myers Hope

Racist fliers...

Dear Editor, Author C.S. Lewis once asked, “Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?” That’s how I felt at my Sandpoint High School (SHS) ten-year reunion last summer, before the November election results, and the impression has only intensified since.

Recently, a SHS classmate’s father, George Rickert, wrote a letter to the editor, a call to action urging his fellow community members to put their energy into the grassroots justice-based movement taking place.

Days after the porch of his house, and many others, was violated by racist community members under the cover of dark with fliers that read “…Keep Idaho safe… Keep Idaho clean… Keep Idaho WHITE.” To the individual(s) who distributed these fliers: the Kutenai, Kalispel, and Coeur d’Alene tribes are the only ones who should be distributing fliers about how we should “keep Idaho.” If in fact you do not belong to one of these tribes, consider joining the movement to protect immigrant rights, because your people didn’t originate here and you could really do your ancestors a symbolic solid.

Folks, here’s the real lesson: Now is the time to consciously evolve locally, nationally and globally to understand our neighbors, regardless of color, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation or class, and are not who we ought to fear. If fact, eradicate fear altogether. In its place, make space for anger. Fear, and its brethren, hate and silence, won’t make healthy that diseased root in this country that has led us to joblessness, income inequality, violence, etc. The root of these sorrows isn’t a nasty root that we cut down, poison, or yank out; it is a diseased root to a precious plant that we nurture back to health, so that humanity may reap and feast upon the gorgeous, plentiful fruit it bears. So, get angry, and observe that anger softening into a deep compassion each time you work to better humanity.

I left Sandpoint for the city of Chicago when I was 18, where I remain to this day. One day I will leave this home-away- from-home, and return to the sacred Northwest, and when I do, I am bringing back the lessons in love, peace and equality I’ve gained in my twenties. Much is different since I was growing up on Lake Pend Oreille. Racist rhetoric, sexist perspectives, homophobia, classism, and ableism need to change.

They are outdated, ugly and most importantly, if we are to leave a home for our children, and for their children after them, they are unstainable ways of navigating this world. If that doesn’t sell you on equality, then perhaps this kindergarten logic will: people who get along with others have more fun. Reader, if you have sat until this point, please stand with George Rickert, with the native people of America, with 350Sandpoint. org, and with the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force. Stand with your neighbors and evolve in love.

Imagine how we might one day look back and proudly observe how beautifully different things look if you do.

Casey Pilgeram Chicago

OPINION

Welcoming refugees is a luxury we can’t afford

By John Williams Reader Contributor

I have read with some interest recent articles in the Reader concerning refugees and whether they are “welcome” in North Idaho. I offered to write something that would elucidate how the refugee industry works and the risks associated with accepting refugees here. My offer was accepted provided I include facts and not emotions.

I think it would be helpful to begin with some historical background and how the term “refugee” is defined. This is important inasmuch as refugee programs are based upon this definition. One of the early challenges to the United Nations was the humanitarian disaster that was post WWII Europe. In response the U.N. promulgated the 1951 Convention, which defines a refugee as someone who has a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

Thus, migrants of various sorts, such as children in El Salvador fleeing gang violence, are not refugees. It is also important to understand that the original Convention and the Protocol of 1967 are inherently euro-centric. In the case of the U.S., the first major refugee crisis was closer to home, in Cuba. In response was the Refugee Act of 1962. The next decade witnessed the disasters in SE Asia, which begat an Act in 1975.

In an effort to create a general framework to handle refugee problems, Senators Kennedy and Biden crafted the Refugee Act of 1980, which amended or superseded the earlier legislation. This law created the refugee industry that we have today.

An inherent feature in any

A refugee camp in a disputed zone called Marsa Oseif on the Sudan/Egypt border. The shacks are made of whatever junk blows past,including tin cans wired together. Photo by John Williams.

law is the Law of Unintended Consequences. The Act of 1980 envisioned a public-private partnership wherein charitable groups and non-profits would help the federal government resettle refugees. These groups, known as “voluntary agencies” or Volags, contract with the feds to provide various services. Over time, these Volags have evolved to become what the British call “quangos” (quasi-NGOs). On paper, they are private but in reality they are almost entirely (95 percent) funded by federal tax dollars. Their principal source of income is a per-head fee of about $1,000. This creates what is often a perverse incentive to move as many people as possible through the system.

The crisis they are now declaring is due to the reduction in the number of refugees allowed resettlement this year, which will shut off the money spigot.

The original cap in the Act of 1980 was 50,000, which can be increased by the President if it is deemed in the “national interest”. During the last administration the average year saw a cap of 65,000. Last year the Volags lobbied for an increase to 200,000 and Obama compromised at 110,000. Thus,

the 110,000 figure is anomalous. The Volags had planned for this cap but as of 2/24 the number of arrivals is about 37,000, which means arrivals and the associated fees will end soon. As a result, the Volags are downsizing fast, closing offices and laying off employees. If they had worked harder on fundraising they might have a cushion, but the government money was too easy.

In theory, each state is supposed to have an office of refugee resettlement that is supposed to coordinate with the Volags to facilitate the placement process. The office should represent the state and its interests. In the case of Idaho, there is no state office.

Idaho is what is called a “Wilson-Fish State” and the state office has been replaced by the official-sounding Idaho Office for Refugees, which is supported by the Episcopal Migration Ministries, a Volag. The point is that the state office has been replaced by a quango that represents the interests of the Volags and is not accountable to our state government or state taxpayers. This is a problem.

If the above incentives are not perverse enough, it is important to understand that

what drives a lot of refugee resettlement is big business.

In Idaho we currently have two major resettlement areas, Boise and Twin Falls. The hidden magnet in Boise is the nearby Kuna meat plant, built

by Caviness and our own J.R. Simplot Co. Meatpacking used to be a source of high-paying, unionized jobs. Not any more.

Meatpackers discovered cheap refugee labor in the 1990s and have never looked back. In Twin Falls we have Chobani and the world’s largest yogurt plant. Chobani claims they are bravely humanitarian, but their motives are more prosaic and pecuniary. The basic problem with these situations is that the employers get cheap labor and the social costs are dropped on local and state taxpayers.

A very serious problem with resettlement offices is the lack of transparency and local control. Once the flow of refugees begins it is almost never stopped. Local governments are expected to provide many services for which they are not reimbursed. This includes the educational system, hospitals and the courts. Unfunded mandates include the requirement that interpreters be provided for any languages spoken, no mat-

ter how exotic. Some school systems boast 44 languages, some even more, all of which require interpreters. This strains the limited resources of small communities. It would help if the Volags would not mix so many different refugees into a given area, but that’s not how they work. The community is neither consulted nor even informed as to origin or number of new refugees.

Which brings us to North Idaho. When Bonner County commissioners voted against welcoming refugees, they were wise to do so. If Sandpoint arranged for a refugee office to be opened there, it is unlikely any refugees would be settled in town. They would much more likely end up in Ponderay, Kootenai, Naples or Bonners Ferry. A refugee office has an operating radius of 100 miles, so Sandpoint would be writing a check all the rest of us would be expected to cash. There is a lot of poverty outside of tidy little Sandpoint. Our school system is underfunded as it is.

Welcoming refugees, however noble and edifying it may sound, is a luxury we can’t afford.

March 30, 2017 /

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NEWS

Laughing Dog Brewery opens new tap room

ny spokesperson Michelle Sivertson, Laughing Dog Right in time for National moved its location to 805 Schweitzer Plaza primarily Beer Day on April 7, Laughto increase its production ing Dog Brewery is reopening its tap room this weekend. capabilities. This, in turn, opened up new distribution In a moment long-awaitmarkets for the company. ed by local beer fans, the brewery tap room is debuting Shortly before the move, the company expanded into Utah, in proper style on Saturday, which has performed very April 1. And while locals well. Since then, Laughing will be eager to see the work done on the new digs, the real Dog added Reno, Nev., and stars of the show might be the several grocery chains.

“What [the move has] newest brews being introduced: Dogs of Helles (a Ger- meant is we’re able to proman lager), American Amber duce on a schedule that meets (a true blue amber) and Bock needs of more retailers,” said at the Moon (a German-style Sivertson.

The reopening of the tap bock). room brings back Laughing According to compa-

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff

A sneak preview of the new Laughing Dog tap room. Courtesy photo

Dog’s local public face, and many of its employees will be well-known to longtime patrons.

“A lot of the same crew is coming back, so people will

see familiar faces behind the bar,” Sivertson said.

To celebrate the occasion, a grand re-opening event is set for Saturday, April 1, starting 2 p.m. Laughing Dog

officials invite the public to stop by, check out the new interior, catch some live music from Justin Lantrip at 6 p.m. and enjoy a little locally-crafted beer.

Idaho Legislature wraps up 2017 session

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff

The Idaho Legislature adjourned Wednesday after a tumultuous session that saw a far-right faction of House Republicans disrupting the political routine.

Completing business three days past its scheduled Friday adjournment, the Legislature was delayed last week largely due to the insistence by a faction of House Republicans that bills be read in full.

It was an issue that came to the forefront in early March when District 7 Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, objected to a bill updating Idaho’s notary laws. The Spokesman-Review reported 8 /

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that the bill had come under fire in committee by a group that included Giddings and District 1’s own Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard. They objected to its model language drafted by the Uniform Law Commission—a group of legal experts that drafts legislation language to ease the business process between states and countries. Opponents call the group a tool of centralized planning and globalization.

When the 21-page bill reached the floor for discussion, Giddings forced it to be read in full, ultimately doing the honors herself. The reading pushed the legislative session hours later than expected.

The cohort of far-right

Republicans used the tactic again last week, this time objecting to the rapid movement of legislation in the race toward adjournment. House Speaker Scott Bedke urged representatives complete its work, including the passage of a major transportation bill, as a matter of responsibility.

However, Scott characterized the rift as an example of improper governance.

“Legislators are elected to review, debate and make sure they understand the bills before the final vote; not act like they are in a legislative sprint to the finish,” she wrote in her newsletter.

From the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, Scott established herself as a figurehead in the tension

between the populist, anti-establishment GOP contingent and the more mainstream Republicans. The session kicked off at the beginning of the year in dramatic fashion when Bedke stripped Scott of her committee assignments as punishment for commenting that female legislators only advance if “they spread their legs.” The tension between Scott and Bedke during this suspension separated both lawmakers and citizens into two camps: those who wished in mimicry of President Donald Trump’s words to “drain the Boise swamp” and those who sought a return to the workmanlike process typical of previous legislative sessions.

Despite the drama and

in-fighting, Idaho lawmakers passed some major legislation in the 2017 session.

According to Kimberlee Kruesi of the Associated Press, taxes and transportation ranked chief among their accomplishments. A $320 million transportation package capped off the legislative session in a bid to fund repairs to damages dished out by a long, unforgiving winter.

And session-long efforts to cut Idaho’s top income and corporate tax rates refocused as an elimination of Idaho’s 6-percent grocery sales tax.

This passed both the House and Senate, but many, including Scott in her newsletter, speculate that Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter will veto the bill.

FEATURE

Celebrating human connection and diversity: A profile of Sandpoint’s own Eric Ridgway

By Jodi Rawson Reader Contributor “I really love my job,” says local councilor Eric Ridgway. “I see people healing, growing, making progress. If I won the lottery ... I would show up to work tomorrow, next week, next year. I get to contribute to the world through the community I live in.”

Ridgway has lived and worked as a counselor in Sandpoint since 1991 and calls it his “dream place to work.” He is involved with many different community projects including hosting PFLAG events.

“I like a deep emotional connection,” he says. “I think all of us are starving for deep connection. If we have close connections in our life the quality of our life is so much better. I believe everyone is capable of loving themselves and connecting with others if they have been given enough support. I want everyone to have the ability to get that support, and it doesn’t have to be counseling. I believe in healing through connection.”

In his youth Ridgway was depressed often; he thought that it was normal to want to die. Swimming was what helped him get out of his funk. As he improved physically, he knew he could improve emotionally, too. He didn’t make the swim team his sophomore year of high school, but he worked hard and made the team his junior year. He swam through college where he was team captain his junior and senior year.

“I wasn’t the best swimmer, but I was REALLY enthusiastic,” he said, adding that swimming helped save his life.

Many people know and respect him for the Long Bridge Swim, his personal vision that became a reality in 1994 (with the help of kayaking buddies), and a community event in 1995. Nowadays it is a major event attracting thousands of people to the community.

Prior to his counseling degree, Ridgway designated most of his 20s to the study of rocks. He got his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and a pinch of

The many facial expressions of Eric Ridgway. Photos by Jodi Rawson. his Ph.D. in geology. Ridgway and his wife have hundreds of rocks collected over the years, that are “part of the family,” he says.

After a year long trip to Africa, Ridgway changed directions. “Africa changed my heart,” he says. After that, he knew he needed to study and work with people rather than rocks.

People, rocks and everything in between: Ridgway is a lover and advocate for animals and nature. He and his wife co-founded the Sandpoint Vegetarians, which has held monthly potlucks and informative meetings for nearly a decade. He also held an art show I had the pleasure of being involved with titled “Compassion for Animals.” He says that his cardiovascular health really improved as a result of becoming a vegetarian, cycling faster in his 40s than in his meat-eating 30s. He historically enjoyed eating meat, but when he researched the treatment of 99 percent

of the animals raised for meat, he became a vegetarian.

“What I am spending a lot of focus on is learning about neuro-therapy,” he says. “Neuro-therapy is new to me, but it is a tool that has been around, in some form, since the 1950s. It is a form of biofeedback.”

He explains that by seeing the visual diagrams of our heart’s rhythms we can consciously change them.

“We can lower our heart rates willfully and our skin temp willfully,” he says. “Monks have been doing this for thousands of years. ... Nuero- therapy is looking at the brain waves and putting them on a screen, so we can visualize it and change it. The VA (Veteran’s Administration) is using it for depression, anxiety, PTSD ... I want to add this to my toolbox. I want to open a clinic like that here.”

Currently, a person must drive to Spokane to get a “brain map.” “This is

very scientific, and I am doing a lot of research at this time,” says Ridgway, referring to his stack of books.

“Some people are like rhinos,” Ridgway said to my very sensitive youngest son, (Ridgway is awesome with kids) “They are tough and thick skinned. ... They tromp around and not very much affects them. The world expects us to be rhinos sometimes. ... Other people are like frogs, with thin skin, and they are much more sensitive ... It is okay to have thin skin. It is good to be sensitive.”

Ridgway wants to be informed of current events, but he is sensitive to “drowning in the negative,” so he really limits his news watching.

“When fear becomes big enough, people can become fear-based... they see different as bad, something to be shunned and defeated. Different is an opportunity to expand our understanding. I would like to see greater understanding and less fear-based interactions, not only in our community, but the whole world.”

“No matter what is going on in Washington, D.C., all of us in the North Idaho area can help each other out. It doesn’t matter what political party or religious affiliation or non-religious affiliation. Gay, straight or transgender ... we are all neighbors. Let’s be good to each other.”

Ridgway continues: “Diversity makes life fun! I want to live in a world and community with huge diversity! I celebrate people being different. Different ideas make discussion more lively.

I want diversity of culture, custom, philosophy, ways of making music, ways of dancing. ... I travel because I seek diversity.”

“I think Sandpoint is amazing and we could be even better,” he concludes “With people immigrating into Sandpoint we are seeing different skin colors, and I love to see more of that.

We need more diversity. I would like to see more celebrations across religions.

We are brothers and sisters and we can enjoy each other.”

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By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist As the old adage goes: They grow up so fast.

One minute you’re cuddling an adorable little ball of cheeping fluff, the next minute a confusedlooking dinosaur is pecking you in the eye.

Such is the life and times of the chicken.

So if they’re not going to stay cute and little forever, why keep them?

I can give you four good reasons.

1. Eggs. Even if you don’t eat eggs, it doesn’t take Warren Buffet to turn a profit from a steady stream of delicious eggs. Your neighbors will appreciate knowing the source of their breakfast, and everyone will sleep soundly knowing that’s one dozen less hens crammed into an industrial farm’s cages.

2. Meat. While definitely not for everyone, the butchery of chicken is one of the easiest ways to fill a freezer, next to rabbits. If butchery turns out to be your passion, pursue it and arm yourself with sharp knives, hot water and a whole lot of knowledge. A smart butcher is a happy butcher.

3. Pets! Your neighbor might have a $3,000 poodle, but you have a flock of colorful birds that will eat out of your hand and poop out breakfast for you. Plus it makes a cool conversation piece at dinner. You know you have that one chicken friend (me) who won’t shut up about their farmyard exploits. At the very least, their stories are usually pretty good.

4. Therapy. Believe it or not, these weird little dinosaurs are phenomenal therapy. Actual licensed therapists have used flocks of chickens to calm and soothe patients suffering from anxiety and depression. I can’t explain it scientifically, but there’s just something about watching and analyzing all of them going about their daily

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chickens

tasks that calms the mind.

So, thinking about adding to the family? Thought about what purpose you want your bird to fill?

If you want to become your area’s egg tycoon, poll your neighbors. See what eggs they like. Do they like brown eggs? White eggs only? Do they like to be surprised?

No preference?

Some of the best brown egg layers are Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorps and Barred Rocks. These are universally seen through just about every feed store every spring.

Orpingtons are very hardy in the cold and do well at surviving our insane and unpredictable winters.

If you want strictly pearl-white eggs, you’re going to want a flock of Leghorns. Yeah, that Leghorn, just like the Looney Toons character. You will have to take a little extra care of them in the winter, though. They have big floppy combs that need to be rubbed down with petroleum jelly to keep them from catching frostbite. They are reliable layers and they drop some beautiful eggs and are well worth the extra work.

If you’re looking for something more adventurous, try an Easter Egger, Ameraucana or a Marans. The first two lay pastel green eggs, and the latter lays very dark brown eggs that are a sight to behold. If you get a little bit of everything you can offer a unique kaleidoscope of eggs for sale and be the talk of the town.

Thinking about meat birds?

Rotisserie chicken is delicious…

Farm and Feed stores and hatcheries alike list the best breeds as “Broiler” to avoid confusion.

Certain breeds, like the Cornish Cross, will literally eat themselves to death, so you have to carefully monitor their food intake. It’s a lot of work, but if you have the time and patience to butcher them you could save hundreds on your

grocery bill through the winter, especially if you incubate your own chicks.

If pets and therapy are more your thing, the world of chickens is not lacking in awesome diversity. Polish chickens rock stellar afros. Silkies are basically fluffy cotton balls that can fit in the palm of your hand. Sultans are calm and striking birds that look more like cockatoos than chickens. Even the previously mentioned Easter Eggers can look very striking and beautiful with different patterns of plumage and big fluffy cheeks (I kid you not). My personal favorite is the Silver Sebright, a bantam breed with beautiful laced feathers. Google it and be awed!

Be warned, though. Your first ornamental chicken is a gateway drug that will lead you down a rabbit hole you won’t soon escape.

Not that it’s a bad thing. Raising kooky animals is fun!

Grown chickens take some care, especially during winter.

You just can’t set and forget them.

They need a place to sleep and stay warm and safe (a coop), they need regular food and water, and they need some space to trot around and scratch. The only time you want your chicken in a cage is when you’re moving them somewhere briefly. They can’t live in a cage, just like we can’t.

Their coop needs to be cleaned out regularly. If you think it’s unsanitary for you to be around, it’s definitely time to clean it up.

If you garden, you should compost what you shovel out. There’s black gold in them hills (of poo)!

If you have neighbors or friends that garden, they’ll pay primo for compost, especially if they know where it’s coming from. Just be sure you let the stuff season and compost, don’t put fresh poo on your garden, especially if you plan on harvesting the plant for food within 90 days.

If shoveling food for them is getting cumbersome, you can set up an easy feeder that can last for weeks. Cut six feet of six-inch PVC pipe, attach some couplings to form a U at the bottom and fill ‘er up. Each one can hold anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds of feed, and most of our Farm & Feed stores have all of the parts readily available this time of year.

Don’t forget to put a cap on the top so rain doesn’t spoil the food!

Not everywhere allows chickens to be reared in backyards. This is definitely a question for your neighbors, since every place is different. The rules in Hope won’t necessarily apply to Sandpoint, and Sandpoint’s rules won’t apply to Newport. Lots of towns have been retracting language in their legislature barring the rearing chickens in recent years. Communities have been coming together to appeal their local lawmakers to let chickens in, and it’s been working for a lot of small towns.

There is one case, however, that is almost universally unacceptable.

Roosters. You’ve heard horror stories of them, and if this is your first time raising them you’ll probably deny that your favorite one is a rooster. It’s just growing faster!

And then it crows.

As a responsible chicken owner, you must face R-day head on. If you live out of town and your neighbors really aren’t that bothered by the crowing (egg bribery mutes even the loudest crows.), maybe you can dodge the bullet, but if you’re in town I guarantee you’ll start getting noise complaints and police visits. One of two things will happen: The rooster will be re-homed, or the rooster will be euthanized.

My personal philosophy is that if the bird must be euthanized, you might as well do it yourself and get a meal out of it.

However, if it’s a sweet animal,

doesn’t fight, doesn’t peck, and doesn’t beat up hens, ask around on several of the poultry communities on Facebook. Sometimes people are looking for roosters to diversify their flock, or they are in need of a big meaty protector (or hawk bait).

You can do a pretty successful job avoiding this altogether by being aware of the language used at the time of purchase, when you’re buying baby chicks.

Pullet means young female chicken. Batches of pullets are sold together when you don’t want any surprises, and you just want eggs. A roo may occasionally slip the filters and end up in here, but some hatcheries may reimburse you. Farm and Feed stores usually can’t reimburse you.

Cockerel means young male chicken. It will eventually grow into a crowing rooster. They’re great for stability in a farm setting, but they’re loud and have the chance to be aggressive.

Straight Run means the gender of the birds are a complete mystery. You could bring home a bucket of 10 roosters or 10 hens or anything in between. This is most commonly seen in bantams and ornamental breeds.

Sex Link means the gender of the birds is determined at birth.

They’ve been bred in a way that females appear as one color and males appear as another so you won’t get any surprises.

If you’re still missing some info, I invite you to stop by the library and check out one of our books on raising your own poultry. My personal favorite is anything from the Storey’s Guides series. They cover everything from hatching your first egg to butchering your first flock to raising the perfect bird for show.

Best part about it is it’s free to check out, as long as you promise to bring it back!

OUTDOORS

Bees and wasps: Why are we afraid of them?

By Kathleen St. Clair-McGee Reader Contributor Why are humans afraid of a little black and yellow flying insect? It’s the fear of the sting!

These animals are considered unwanted by many but the truth is that they are valuable to a maintaining a healthy ecosystem. These species of insects not only pollinate many plant species but others keep insect populations down. Did you know that Bald-faced hornets (a member of the yellow jacket family) has a diet that consists of the common fly?

The nest is constructed in the spring. The colony survives only one year. The old nest site is not reused. The facts: 1) Once

the insect has lost its stinger it will die. The act of stinging is either accidental or in self-defense. 2) Once a wasp is killed, it will release a pheromone that will attract others from the colony to the area. 3) Late summer causes a peak in activity as the workers do not have to care for the larva in the nest and are free to forage. To reduce conflict keep the lids on food items at those picnics. 3) Do not try to remove a live hive. The colony will die when the weather cools.

It is safe to remove it them.

Helpful websites are www.polinator.com/identify/whatsbuzzin.htm or www.bumblebee.org

or www.edis.ifas.ufl.edu/scripts Just in case you were not aware –the native striped skunk will help eradicate the underground nests for you.

Kathleen St. Clair-McGee is the founder and Board of Directors President of the American Heritage Wildlife Foundation, which works towards the preservation of all wildlife through rehabilitation and community education.

Check out www.ahwf.org for more information.

Rognstad proposes sweeping protections to skiers’ rights

By Shelby Rognstad, Tom Eddy and Cameron Rasmusson For the Reader With Schweitzer playing a important role in many Sandpoint residents’ lives during the winter season, the city of Sandpoint is aiming to take action.

Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad plans to propose a resolution ensuring the town citizenry gets its fair share of sweet, sweet powder.

In a proposal entitled the Equal Powder and Timely Bell Resolution, Rognstad recommends far-reaching action to protect local skiing rights. The text of the resolution is as follows: “WHEREAS: There are many evenings in which Schweitzer Mountain Resort (SMR) receives

abundant fresh pow. Blasting is therefore necessary to prevent avalanche.

“WHEREAS: SMR has a policy whereby ski patrol blasts ridgelines immediately prior to opening the resort to skiers and snowboarders (S&S). The City recognizes the importance of this practice to ensure safety of all users.

“WHEREAS: Ski patrol continues to track up the mountain until safety from avalanche can be relatively assured. In the process, choice fresh lines are unnecessarily sacrificed in the name of “public safety.”

“WHEREAS: Blasting often occurs immediately before opening and often delays opening well past 8:30. In the process, poor powder starved S&S are left to suffer in long lines impatiently awaiting opening bell. While waiting, S&S endure cold weather, oc-

casional blistery winds and are disheartened to witness public pow shredded by Ski Patrol in the name of “public safety.”

“WHEREAS: The cumulative pain and suffering endured by said S&S is immeasurable.

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The City Council requires Ski Patrol to reserve choice lines for the general public, AND “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT: The City Council requires all blasting activity be completed prior to 8:30 so that first chair is loaded at 8:30 sharp, each and every morning, to ensure maximum value to pass and ticket holders and to maximize benefit for all users.”

Councilman Tom Eddy, himself a Schweitzer snow safety supervisor, has already weighed in on the proposal.

In an emailed response, he recommended the following

alterations: “Whereas: Ski Patrol tries its best to complete the serious duty of avalanche mitigation by the prescribed time of 8:50 a.m., sometimes Mother Nature has different ideas.

“Whereas: NOAA is the primary source of the Ski Patrol’s weather forecast. NOAA should be held accountable for any mistakes in forecasting necessitating what is known among Ski Patrol as a scramble, which has the unfortunate tendency to delay said opening.

“Whereas: Ski patrollers are ranked as the poorest paid career (especially considering the vast amount of training and experience to perform the job to the expected professional level). Sometimes we need to reap the rewards of fresh powder before the public ruins it.

“Whereas: On these

‘Powder Pig’ mornings, Ski Patrol strives to ‘farm’ snow and powder lines to the best of their ability, displaying their grace and uniformity of turns in an attempt to educate the general public in proper technique.

“Whereas: If you see said farming of fresh powder, you know that Ski Patrol has had a good morning and will be better able to serve your needs over the course of the day.”

The issue is sure to be a contentious one when it makes its way into the next council meeting. Sandpoint council members say they are committed to giving the matter a full hearing, as well as wishing Sandpoint residents a healthy amount of incredulity on a very special 2017 APRIL FOOL’S DAY. March 30, 2017 /

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1 2 3 4 5 6

Dollar Beers!

8pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Learn to dance the Country Two-Step 7pm @ Sandpoint West Athletic Club With instructor Diane Peters. 610-1770

Live Music w/ The Riff Hangers 5:30-8:30pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Acoustic varieties of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and swing music Live Music w/ Moses Willey 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Traditional bluegrass, folk and Appalachian mixed together into greatness

Live Music w/ Benny Baker and Aaron Williams 6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Williams plays in the band In Walks Bud from Bozeman, Mont.

Live Music w/ Beat Diggers 9pm-12am @ 219 Lounge This up-and-coming six-piece band brings great variety Live Music w/ Aaron Williams 5-7pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Williams brings his solo set to Sandpoint for a special show.

Museum’s Free First Saturday 10am-2pm @ Bonner Co. History Museum Everyone is invited to enjoy the museum free of charge. Come see “The Dark Side of Bonner County.”

Sandpoint Street Scramble 9:45am @ SWAC Meet at Sandpoint West Athletic Club before 9:45 a.m. to register. Run or ride your bike around Sandpoint to the spots marked on the map, and once you find them, answer questions about something there. $7 for general public. 263-9894

Hope P 6:30 @ Studen diums

Illusio: To 7:30pm @ For one ni ing magic er dangero will be a n

Cedar St. Bridge Public Market 10am-2pm @ Cedar St. Bridge Come enjoy indoor shopping on the bridge spanning Sand Creek Book signing 11am-1pm @ Vanderford’s George Brinkman signs his book “Origins of Christianity”

Firs All d Catc mus

Used Bike Sale 9am-3pm @ Greasy Fingers All used bikes will be discounted, plus there will be a used parts table

FSPW Winter Tracks Appreciation Party 5-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Enjoy a special Red Cedar Red brew with the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.

L 5 It S

Sandpoin 9am @ Ev Meets eve

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ Truck Mills 7:30pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Night Out Karaoke 9pm @ 219 Lounge

Seniors Day 9am-12pm @Bonner Mall Walk the mall, listen to speakers, learn health tips, enter drawings, play bingo and enjoy free refreshments

Hiawatha Drum Circle! Unite the Tribes!

6:30-8pm @ Memorial Community Center (Hope) A journey through the spirit world. Not a class! Try to bring your own drum. For more info contact Jack (208) 304-9300 or memorialcommunitycenter.com Dollar Beers!

8pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Good until the keg’s dry

First Tuesday at E 7pm @Eichardt’s P A monthly music

by Jake Robin, fea cial musical guest a

Replant Your Refund Day 11am-8pm @ Baxter’s Restaurant Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society (K on Cedar Street to host “Replant Yo will share a percentage of their day’

New Beer’s Eve 219 Lounge Celebrate the night before National Beer Day at the 219 Lounge. All craft beers $1 off

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March 30 = April 6, 2017

O f f t h e G r i d G a ry

Live Music w/ Doug Bond and Marty Perron Hope Paint and Sip 6:30 @ Memorial Community Center 5:30-7pm @ The Wine Bar at Cedar Street Bridge Student work includes a variety of me- A great duo to go with great wine diums

Illusio: Tour of Magic 7:30pm @ Panida Theater For one night only. Come see amazng magic, daring escapes and other dangerous feats so astounding it will be a night you won’t forget

Off The Grid Gary 7:30pm @ Di Luna’s Catch Gary’s entertaining country funk at Di Luna’s. Dinner served beforehand starting 5:30pm. Tickets $10. Call 263-0846.

First year in business party All day @ Ol’ Red’s Pub the Catch drink specials, prizes and music by Miah Kohal at 8 p.m.

et

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A weekly entertainment guide to keep you on your toes. To list your event free, please send an email to calendar@sandpointreader.com.

Reader recommended

Live Music w/ Brandon Watterson 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Grab a pint and listen to a signature Sandpoint solo artist.

Live Music w/ Devon Wade 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall An independent country artist from Sandpoint with a great following

Live Music w/ Truck Mills 5-7pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Live Music w/ Chris Lynch It’s never a bad day to see one of 6pm @ Arlo’s Ristorante Sandpoint’s favorite artists

Tap Room Grand Re-Opening 2-9pm @ Laughing Dog Brewery ed, plus Come try Laughing Dog’s new brews in the new tap room.

It’s going to be a fun-filled evening

Student Art Show 5:30-7pm @ Pend Oreille Arts Council Student work includes a variety of mediums Live Music w/ Chris Lynch 6pm @ Arlo’s Ristorante Live Music w/ Still Tipsy and the Hangovers 9pm-12am @ 219 Lounge A great rockabilly sound at your favorite local watering hole

Sandpoint Chess Club Game Night at the Niner 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee 9pm @ 219 Lounge Meets every Sunday at 9am. All are welcome

esday at Eichardt’s ichardt’s Pub ly music event hosted Robin, featuring a specal guest and great beer

Animation Show of Shows 6:30pm @ Panida Theater Catch screenings of this animation showcase 3:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 2; 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 3; 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4; and 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5.

April 7 National Beer Day!

April 14 Sandpoint Conay The Conversation tra Dance @ staurant 6-8pm @ Ivano’s Society (KNPS) pairs with Baxters Reno and Clay Hutchison discuss their mission Sandpoint Com Replant Your Refund Day.” Baxters to restore an early 20th century carousel to its mu nity Hall their day’s receipts with the KNPS former glory.

April 20 Poem in Your Pocket Season Bender: 12 pm @ Sandpoint Library Rude Girls Room The Motet @ The Share your favorite poem with the Friends of Day the Library for National Poetry Month, or just Hive listen!

Friday March 31st Backwoods Country Funk & Southern-fried Rockbilly Blues Doors @ 5:30pm Concert @ 7:00pm Tickets $10 in advance or $12 day of the show (call for a reservation)

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FEATURE

Is there a housing crisis in Sandpoint?

By Rhonda Armburst Reader contributor The real estate market is heating up, and prices are beginning to soar. Last year had a more robust real estate market than we have seen in 10 years. Since the recession, many homeowners are keeping their homes instead of selling because they owe more than the property is worth. In many instances, not enough equity has been gained to justify selling.

This has resulted in a serious shortage of properties available to purchase in communities across the nation including Sandpoint. When supply is too low to keep up with demand, prices go up.

Rising prices mean rising rents.

Housing and Urban Development reports the average gross rents in Sandpoint range from $541 for a studio to $1,202 for a four-bedroom. Rental costs are lower than buying with the average sales price of a three-bedroom Bonner County property in 2016 at $281,298.

But 50 percent of renters are hampered by housing costs taking up a large chunk of their income, while 34 percent of homeowners are cost burdened.

The most at-risk populations caused by the lack of affordable housing in Sandpoint are baby boomers seeking retirement, the homeless and those in need of low-income housing and Millennials wanting to live in the area. Women are especially vulnerable. On any given day, approximately 175 victims of domestic violence/sexual assault seek refuge in a shelter somewhere in Idaho.

The Gospel Mission in Ponderay provides shelter for men, but there is nowhere to send homeless women, according to Rich Crettol, president of the Sandpoint Community Resource Center.

Bonner Homeless Transitions shelters typically have waiting lists. Low income apartments have long waiting lists.

A Washington Post article stated that one-third of Millennials (age 18 to 34) live with their parents. A Fannie Mae Survey showed that 93 percent of those in this age group still want to buy a house, but only 9 percent plan to do this within a year. Most are hoping to buy within three to five years.

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Young people today make relatively less money than previous generations, given their education levels, and are encumbered by student loans, thus making it difficult to save. Millennials are putting off buying primarily due to financial reasons.

The largest age group in our region are those that are 55 to 70.

They are termed “baby boomers,” as they are among the 76 million individuals born between 1946 and 1964.

Today baby boomers are moving into retirement. Many want to downsize into a home they can afford with their retirement income. With rising prices, it can be a challenge for them to stay in Sandpoint.

Local entities are addressing the lack of affordable housing. The Sandpoint Community Resource Center has established a housing committee. Idaho Housing and Finance Association held a caucus in February to discuss homeless solutions. The city of Sandpoint has reduced hook-up fees to encourage construction.

Bonner Community Housing Agency is a local non-profit established in 2007.

Its mission is to provide affordable homes while being the central hub of information on housing issues in Bonner and Boundary Counties.

The Finally HOME program utilized

by BCHA helps with down payment and closing costs. Idaho Housing and Finance Association administers the program that eases a major obstacle to home ownership. So far, BCHA has built and sold four homes, plus bought then rehabilitated six homes that were

sold or are available for sale. Currently, they are seeking four more houses to purchase and sell.

To qualify for the program, you must have income less than 80 percent of the county’s median income level per family size and obtain a first loan. Depending on where the buyer falls within the guidelines, IHFA will contribute up to 10 percent of the sales price for closing costs and down payment. This money is a no interest, no payment, silent

second, that would be repaid when or if the property is sold or refinanced. All participants in the program are required to complete the informative Finally HOME! course presented by BCHA monthly. The property must be the buyer’s primary residence, and they must contribute $500 toward the purchase.

For further information about the down payment, closing cost assistance Finally HOME program contact Rhonda Armbrust of BCHA at 208-263-5720.

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Duck and Cover: Memories of the desk from the atomic age

By Tom Woodward Reader Contributor The classroom desk of the early ‘60s in America’s public schools was a rather basic affair.

It stood on four sturdy metal legs with a cubby shelf underneath for storage. The chair was sparse and separate from the desk and could be pulled out. The desk was our post. Our anchor to the classroom and our personal station of learning.

However, the desk also served a much different role then its intended purpose.

In the 1950s the Civil Defense Administration put into place the “Duck and Cover” drill. This was in response to the growing threat of thermal nuclear war. It required school children to scramble under their desk and cover their heads upon hearing an alarm. This would happen with frequency, perhaps once a month. We became quite deft at the drill and hardly seemed to lament about the possibilities.

Our teacher, Miss Sheridan, never participated in that part of the drill. Perhaps she was too large a woman to fit under her desk. In any event it was more reassuring for her to be up and about, softly padding up and down the aisle, gently whispering directives: “Cover your heads, eyes closed.”

As she passed by, you took a furtive peek and saw brushing by the baggy silk stockings with the dark leg hairs showing through. And the ankles stuffed into impossibly small patent leather shoes.

A musky waft from her floral print dress comingeled with the industrial strength lemon floor polish. Could this powerful

trifecta of the senses be our last world view before the great flash? Bravely we sat cross-legged like Zen monks awaiting rebirth. The specter before us had no gravitas. We were exercising the child’s mind.

We imagined our intrepid teacher leading her charge safely out of nuclear dystopia. Carefully stepping over a fallen acoustic ceiling tile, squaring her broad shoulders to the jarred door and springing us out into the darkened hallway where a red exit light guides us outside. We all squint up at the bright sun and the distant yellow school bus that will safely whisk us home. Gathered about the dinner table that evening we regale one another of the exploits of our atomic day. It would not be long in life before we realized the absurdity of what they put us through.

The CDA’s duck and cover program was the governments not so subtle role in normalizing the specter of nuclear war and making it seem winnable.

It has been decades since this writer has given much conscious thought to my own duck and cover experience. It was all part of growing up under the dark shadows of the Cold War. It has only been more recent events in the political arena that have brought me back to those strange days of the duck an cover spectacle of more then a half-century ago.

Oh yes, the comfort and security which that tight space under the desk offered.

And the beautiful lilt of Miss Sheridan’s directives. In any event I am now too big to fit under the desk, and Miss Sheridan is long gone. I will have to ride this one out by myself.

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WEATHER

Climate Change series: Global Melting

By Art Piltch Reader Contributor The arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on earth. This is due to a combination of the human enhanced greenhouse effect and the albedo effect.

The albedo effect refers to the fact that ice reflects sunlight. When the ocean is no longer covered with ice, it absorbs the sunlight, which turns into heat. The minimum extent of sea ice in the arctic has decreased by 40 percent since 1979!

Because of this rapid and accelerated warming, the arctic ocean will be entirely free of summer ice sometime in this century. The heat that’s now going into melting ice during the summer, will instead be heating the ocean even more.

The situation in the antarctic is different. Whereas the area around the north pole is mostly covered with ocean, the area around the south pole is covered by the continent of Antarctica. The sea ice that forms in the southern hemisphere is further from the pole, and most of it melts each summer. The ice that’s present in the winter has little effect on the albedo, because there is so little sunlight to reflect. The sea ice that forms during the antarctic winter had a slight upward trend from 1979 - 2014, but decreased in 2015 and 2016. The slight increase in antarctic sea ice was very small compared to the large decrease in arctic sea ice. In the long term, antarctic sea ice is expected to decrease as well.

A major concern has been ice shelves in the antarctic peninsula and west antarctic regions which have recently collapsed dramatically. 75 percent of Antarctica’s coastline is surrounded by ice shelves, which are floating tongues of ice that extend from glaciers on land.

Warmer air and ocean temperatures have been causing the shelves to thin both from above and below. Fissures form on the top, and meltwater forms ponds, causing the cracks to deepen. When a threshold is crossed, the ice rapidly breaks up, and the shelf collapses in a matter of hours or days. The ice shelves help buttress the land glaciers. Their sudden removal brings glaciers as thick as 3,000 feet face to face with the ocean, and now these glaciers start to fracture at the edges. Ice from the center of the glaciers flows outward more rapidly. Unlike sea ice, which 16 /

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Photo by Norbert Rosing National Geographic Creative.

floats, melting of ice on land contributes to sea level rise. The ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica have been losing mass, contributing to around 50 percent of the eight inches in sea level in the last century. The 2014 report by the IPCC projects another two inches of sea level rise by 2100 if we continue business as usual. However, recent studies are predicting that six inches of rise is more likely. The IPCC report didn’t take into account the accelerating mass loss of ice in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The report also didn’t account for the impact of melting permafrost in making its climate change projections. Permafrost (perennially frozen) soils underlie much of the Arctic. The Arctic’s extremely cold, wet conditions prevent dead plants and animals from decomposing. Over hundreds of millennia, Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon—an estimated four times more carbon, in the form of undecomposed organic matter, than all the carbon released by burning fossil fuels since 1850! As the permafrost thaws, this huge sink of

organic matter is starting to decompose, adding methane and CO2 into the atmosphere. If the thawing soil remains soggy, the decomposition will be anaerobic, yielding mostly methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. As methane is released, the thawing of the permafrost will accelerate in a positive feedback loop, which in turn will speed up melting of sea ice, ice shelves, land ice and thereby sea level rise. Whether sea level rises by two feet or six feet by 2100, the extra heat absorbed by the ocean due to the increased level of greenhouse gas will cause sea levels to keep rising for several centuries. Paleoclimate evidence suggests that during an interglacial period around 120,000 years ago, when temperatures were only slightly warmer than they are now, that sea level was 20 feet higher.

Another way the melting of polar ice might potentially cause dramatic changes to climate all around the world would be by stalling the oceanic global conveyor belt, also known as thermohaline circulation. As sea water freezes in the Earth’s polar regions, the surrounding sea water gets saltier, because the salt is left behind.

As the sea water gets saltier, its density increases, and it starts to sink. Warm surface water from lower latitudes is pulled in to replace the sinking water, which in turn eventually becomes cold and salty enough to sink. This initiates the deepocean currents driving the global conveyer belt. If polar sea ice doesn’t freeze, or if melting freshwater land ice decreases the salinity, this has the effect of slowing down the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt includes the gulf stream. It’s also a vital component of the global ocean nutrient cycles. Warm surface waters are depleted of nutrients, but they are enriched again as they travel through the conveyor belt as deep or bottom layers. The base of the world’s food chain depends on the cool, nutrient-rich waters that support the growth of algae and seaweed. It’s hard to know what all the consequences of disrupting such a major component of global climate will be. Dr. James Hansen, the former NASA director, who first drew attention to the climate crisis, predicts it will result in superstorms greater than any we’ve witnessed, and even more abrupt melting of polar ice.

Pet of the week

Getting to know our nonprofits

By Dianne Smith Reader Columnist

Bonner County is so fortunate to have some wonderful community organizations whose purpose is to help make the community a better place to live. They all provide something special through whatever is their passion and many of them are supported through the work of wonderful volunteers. There are great thrift stores that help support organizations and provide great shopping opportunities.

Sandpoint Area Seniors offers so much to the local community and resources that are important for the seniors who live in the area. They provide day care for seniors needing supervision to give caregivers a break and support groups for caregivers to let them know they are not alone.

On the fourth Monday of the month, they have a “Widows Helping Widows” group which meets at 10 a.m. These women with their motto: “Women getting strong together!”are supporting each other during a difficult time and sharing about referrals to services in the area for repairs that

Part 1 of 4 their husbands had done in the past. Anyone can go to the senior center and use their computers, a wonderful resource if you don’t have one at home. If you are simply looking for a way to give back the Senior Center is always looking for volunteers.

The Sandpoint Music Conservatory promotes the arts through low cost lessons and performances.

They provide some wonderful opportunities for youth to share with others a love for the arts without cost being a factor. Their list of instructors is quite impressive and filled with the local talent. The Conservatory also provides adults and families local cultural experiences without the commitment of a drive to Spokane. It is also another great place that loves volunteers, and a way to give, back if music is your passion.

Creations, which is located in the back of the Cedar Street Bridge is the place to go to enjoy art, engage in imaginary play or just relax and enjoy time with your children. Color, paint, glue as long as you clean up is the rule. If you have a few dollars to donate that is great, but not required. Sheri Meekings

wanted a place for everyone and she supports the nonprofit through sales in her store right there. Liz shops for great bargains, so there are some very cute things which means shopping there a winwin. You get some cute clothes while helping support a wonderful program. Creations merged with the Art Alliance, and they now also offer some wonderful art classes, as well as it is a great place to hold children’s birthday parties.

Priest River Ministries Advocates for Women have a location in Sandpoint as well as Priest River. They provide support for women and children of domestic violence, sexual assault and trafficking free of charge.

Their goal is to build relationships with women and encourage them in their journeys. They can provide shelter and housing for those who need a place to be immediately in order to be safe if needed. They can also be a listening ear that provides the moral support and encouragement to take that first step.

This 5-year-old, Moses, is a beauty inside and out. For more about Moses, please go to www. pasidaho.org and click on the “Adopt” tab. Photo courtesy of Shery R. Garrison.

Defining achievement and success is easy.

Mapping out your family’s goals and staying on track to reach them takes determination, planning and a team you trust.

The Gibson Wealth Strategy Group can partner with you on your path to success at many different stages: from wealth accumulation through retirement, and into legacy planning. We would love the chance to become part of your team.

805 Pine Street | Sandpoint | (208) 263-2010

Left to Right: Candice Nelson, RP®, Senior Registered Associate; Tom Gibson, CPA, CWS®, Senior Vice President, Financial Advisor; Emma Gibson, RP®, Associate Financial Advisor

March 30, 2017 /

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IN COUNTRY Vietnam Veterans living in Sandpoint

Part 3: BILL COLLIER, USMC

By Ben Olson Reader Staff Editor’s Note: This is the second in a five-part series highlighting the stories of Sandpoint men who served combat duty during the Vietnam War. As always, I am eternally grateful for those who served and sacrificed so much for our country.

Bill Collier has led an interesting life, to say the least.

The decorated Vietnam War veteran served a year in combat, flying the H-34 helicopter on over 9,200 sorties, most of them pulling wounded Marines out of combat.

He is the author of two books based on his experiences, has flown for just about every outfit from Air America to aerial logging and has recently rescued a derelict H-34 from the junkyard. Here is his story.

Dreams of wings Collier was born in Sonoma, Calif., an agricultural area that became the center of the budding wine industry.

He was fascinated with airplanes early on because his childhood home was located on the north end of Hamilton Air Force Base.

“Frequently airplanes would fly over our school,” said Collier.

“You’d see the F-86s joining up in formation ... I remember I said, ‘Cool, I want to be a pilot when I grow up.’”

While most boys in the late ‘50s collected baseball cards, Collier collected airplane cards.

When Collier graduated high school in 1961, he went to two years of junior college in Napa 18 /

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with aspirations to become an engineer, but after realizing it involved higher math and physics, he realized it wasn’t his path.

It was during a period of transition and indecision when Collier met a Marine recruiter who put him on the path that ended with him behind the stick of a combat helicopter.

With the assistance of the recruiter, Collier entered MARCAD — a Marine aviation cadet program — and was sent directly flight school. This was in 1964 when the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was still ramping up.

After flight school, Collier was sent to the New River Air Facility near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for training.

“It was obvious by then that we were all going to Vietnam,” said Collier. “Actually, I like to tell people I volunteered for Vietnam to get out of North Carolina.

It was a shithole, and you can quote me on that.”

When asked why he chose helicopters instead of jets, he said there really wasn’t a choice in the matter.

“I’m glad I flew helicopters,” he said. “The reason for flying jets is to kill people. You drop bombs on them, or you shoot them down with your air to air missiles, or your gatling guns or whatever they have on the jets. My job as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot was saving lives. I feel really good about that.”

Trial by fire

Second Lt. Collier arrived in country in July, 1966, to a place called Phu Bai, about 50 miles south of the DMZ. He started out in the co-pilot seat.

“The way the military does it, you spend a few months flying

co-pilot while you learn the ropes,” said Collier. “Then you’re the aircraft commander and the new pilots fly with you and you teach them. It’s a very good way to do things because you’re not thrown into combat without any experience at all.”

It was a medevac mission that served as Collier’s baptism by fire.

“It was one of the scariest events of my life,” he said.

After only six weeks in Vietnam, Collier’s mission was to fly into a place called Mutter Ridge where an ongoing battle had taken place to gain control of a hill.

“We turned off all of our lights and spiraled down very carefully,” said Collier. “The Marines were shooting up the hill at the enemy and the enemy was shooting down at the Marines. The Marines had red tracers and the enemy had green ones, so it was like horizontal fireworks.”

Once in a while, a few tracers would point into the air toward the sound of his approaching helicopter.

“There were a lot of bullets in the sky,” he said. “I could barely see anything and neither could the captain.”

The captain then asked Collier to be ready to hit the hover floodlight switch, which flooded light everywhere—also making the H-34 the biggest target around.

“A helicopter is made out of magnesium,” he said. “And we had the highest octane fuel. All it takes is a few tracers to go through the fuel tank and it would explode.

I knew I was dead, right then, when I hit that switch. I was only 23 at the time, and I didn’t want to die yet.”

But Collier, being the dutiful Marine that he was, swallowed his fear and flipped the switch, flood-

ing the battlefield with light.

“Amazingly enough, nothing happened,” he said. “I have no idea why they didn’t shoot us full of a million holes.”

The hoist was lowered to the battle, the Marines on the ground loaded the wounded man into the basket and he was pulled successfully into the helicopter. They cut the lights, cleared the trees and flew home.

“It still makes me nervous to talk about it,” he said.

After his first experience at the terror of battle, Collier found himself shutting down emotionally to cope with the trauma of flying into live fire.

“After that, I thought there was no way I was going to survive this war,” he said. “But I’ll just do my best and hope I’m lucky and be careful and see what happens.”

Six weeks later, Collier had another incident that shook him even harder.

“I was the same area, same ridge, the same Marines, the same battle,” he said. “Marines would take a hill and they didn’t have enough troops to occupy what they took, so the enemy would take it again and we’d take it back.”

When Collier was halfway to the extraction point, the Marines on the ground told them to standby because they were involved in a heavy firefight. Collier and the captain orbited at 4,000 feet waiting for the signal to move in.

Unbeknownst to Collier at the time, the Marines on the ground had become overrun and called for emergency artillery. Normally, helicopter pilots communicated with artillery officers to safeguard against friendly fire incidents, but in this emergency situation, the artillery came without warning.

“We were in the way,” he said.

“One of the [artillery] rounds hit my wingman, about 100 feet off my left wing. My wingman exploded into a fireball and fell into the bushes. Five men, instantly incinerated.”

Combat helicopters had an attrition rate of about 20 percent, which meant that 1 out of every 5 pilots were killed in combat. The odds went up with every mission flown, and Collier racked up an astounding number of missions during his tour.

Helicopter pilots received an air medal after flying 400 sorties.

By the end of his tour, Collier received 23 air medals. By Collier’s estimations, he pulled 375 wounded Marines from combat and performed 9,200 landings.

The effects of combat

There was only one incident that Collier felt himself losing composure while flying the H-34.

He was a week from being sent home and had been flying voluntary missions circling around to locate enemy mortar and rocket flashes to notify ground teams.

“It was boring, but I didn’t want to go back in the field,” he said. “You don’t want to die in your last few weeks.”

Normally, two helicopters were kept on standby for medevac missions, but they were both tied up, so Collier was called to go pick up wounded.

“I just about lost it,” he said. “I had to tell my co-pilot that he had to do this mission. I was so shaky.

I couldn’t even hold onto the stick.

That’s the only time during my 32 years flying helicopters that I ever got scared.”

But Collier made it to the end of his tour and was sent to California, now a Captain, to finish out his service. By late 1968, he was out

< see COLLIER, page 19>

< COLLIER, con’t from page 18 > of the military, searching for what his next moves were.

“I bumbled around a lot,” he said. “I had a pretty bad case of PTSD from all the horror that I saw. I had trouble focusing, I had trouble committing and staying in one place, so I kind of became a rolling stone for awhile.”

Over the next 27 years, Collier stumbling in and out of fly jobs all over the world: fire fighting to truck driving, aerial logging to Air America.

He flew with a reserve squadron in Alameda, worked in Alaska for the original oil exploration on the North Slope. He tried to go back to school several times, but it didn’t take. Airline jobs were tough to come by in those years due to a national recession.

Collier sent his resume out to an airline employment agency, but the only hit that came back was from an outfit called Air America.

“I’d seen Air America helicopters in Vietnam,” said Collier. “I said to someone at the time, ‘What is this purple and silver helicopter? That’s not military,’ and somebody said, ‘CIA,’ but I hated to do that spook business. But just for the hell of it, I filled out the application and sent it off as a backup.”

Six months later, after returning from his first stint in Alaska, Collier received word from Air America. He was returning to Southeast Asia.

“There was a whole second war going on in Laos … after the war was going on,” said Collier. “Almost nobody knew about it.”

Pen to paper

Collier grew up in a family of storytellers in the days before television. He never envisioned himself a writer, but slowly began to realize that in putting pen to paper, his experiences could help him cope with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress that was consuming his life.

“I went into the VA and got into some group therapy,” he said. “I did some regular one-on-one with the doc every once in awhile, but it wasn’t enough.”

Collier said he still remained dysfunctional and couldn’t hold down a job. He estimated that in the span of time between the end of his combat to 1994 he had had 100 jobs and moved 50 times.

“One day my girlfriend, who I loved dearly, said ‘Get out,’ and that pushed me over the edge,” he said. “I had nowhere to go, no money, my car was dying. It was a big hammer blow to me.”

After crashing his motorhome and searching around for a place to live, he ended up renting a room at 50 years old with a 23 year old.

“We hit it off,” he said. “He kept telling me he wanted me to meet his mother. To make a long story short, I met his mother and I eventually married her.”

Collier and his wife, Carlita, have been

married for 23 years, and he ardently credits her for putting him back on track in life.

“She encouraged me and put the pressure on me to help myself,” he said. “I owe her my life, really. Otherwise I’d be living out in the woods somewhere in a Volkswagen bus on blocks.”

Collier began compiling his experiences over the years and eventually published a book called “The Adventures of a Helicopter Pilot: Flying the H-34 Helicopter in Vietnam for the United States Marine Corps,” which was published by Keokee Books in 2014. The book has garnished over 40 reviews on Amazon, most of them four or five stars.

“Writing was very cathartic for me,” said Collier. “You know how you feel when you get too drunk and puke all that poison up? That’s how I felt when I put that book on the counter. It felt good.”

Collier said the reason he began writing was not only to shed his own personal terrors onto the page, but hopefully to reach other veterans who might be going through the same thing.

“I encourage people to read it,” he said.

“If it will reach one guy who needs to go to the VA for help, that would make my life.”

As the second part of his proposed three book series on his experiences as a helicopter pilot, Collier announced that his next volume will release soon.

“Air America: A CIA Superpilot Spills the Beans,” will be published by Keokee Books and highlights the extraordinary time Collier spent flying with Air America.

The third volume will most likely include his experience flying in the South Pacific working for the US Army in a missile testing program.

Collier also serves as president of the Idaho Writer’s League in Sandpoint, which meets two times a month, every first and third Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Sandpoint Library. If anyone is interested in joining, his phone number is (208) 610-0873.

Phoenix from the ashes

In 2011, Collier received an email about a company that had bought a bunch of surplus H-34 helicopters and were selling the remains. Collier asked the Sandpoint chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America to team up so that donations would be tax deductible and ended up purchasing an H-34 for $4,500. You’ve probably seen it towed in various parades through Sandpoint.

Though Collier last flew in 1996, he said the experience of being able to see and touch such an important piece of his life is priceless.

“It means a lot to me,” he said. “I love those old machines. Of all of my experiences, the most interesting happened in that machine.”

To donate toward the restoration project, please contact Cpt. Collier at the number listed above.

Looking back over his thousands of missions and hundreds of wounded comrades pulled off the field of battle, Collier said he never did it for the glory or the medals, or for any reason other than his duty as a United States Marine.

“The best medal is the live man’s smile,” he said.

Top: A H-34 helicopter lands atop the Rockpile in Vietnam. Photo by Bill Collier.

Bottom: VT-5 aviation cadets from left to right, Curt Huffman, Bill Collier, Jon Bake and Marty Drexler.

Opposite page: Then-Lt. Bill Collier’s photo after graduating flight school.

Inset: Bill Collier today.

March 30, 2017 /

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STAGE & SCREEN

‘Animation Show of Shows’ returns to the Panida

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff

Female empowerment. Parent-child relationships. The primal nature of man.

Those are just a few of the subjects tackled in the “18th Animation Show of Shows.”

A collection of the world’s best offerings in the medium of animation, the traveling, curated shorts compilation returns to the Panida Theater for an international smörgåsbord of art and culture. True to form, the visual inventiveness and thematic depth on display in some of these shorts is a testament to the strength of the short film format in the hands of a skilled artist.

Variety is a strength in any compilation, and that’s nothing if not true for the “Animation Show of Shows.” This year’s compilation features entries from Belgium, Canada, France, Israel, Korea, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, the U.K. and the U.S., with shorts ranging from computer animation to stop motion to painstakingly hand-drawn work.

The series also features this year a mix of family-friendly content and more mature fair. While the thematic variation is welcome for adult fans, it could pose a problem for those who want to bring the kids when the show hits the Panida. Luckily, there will be a convenient five-minute intermission before the more adultthemed content begins. These mature shorts range from a light-hearted look at the nature and common struggles of women—the charming “All Their Shades” from Chloé Alliez of Belgium—to a more disturbing exploration of masculinity and unrestrained id—“Manoman” by Simon Cartwright of England.

As for the family-friendly content, they range from thought-provoking to sweet to charming. Some may already be familiar with “Piper,” which tells the story of a tiny sandpiper hatchling stymied by its fear of ocean waves. The Disney-Pixar short played before the hit Pixar movie “Finding Dory” and won the Oscar for best animated short at the 2017 Academy Awards ceremony. Likewise, it’s hard

Friday, March 31 @ 3:30 & 7:30pm

illusio: tour of illusion

Come see Illusio, a show the whole family will enjoy, one day only!

Saturday, april 1 @ 8pm

Alive She Cried: The Ultimate Doors Tribute Alive She Cried is honored to carry on this legendary music for a new generation and provide a nostalgic glimpse back to a time when conventions were being tested and revolution was in the air. Tickets $25 General admission, $35 VIP

april 2@3:30&6:30, April3@6:30, April 4@3:30. April 5@6:30

Animation Show of Shows

april 4 @ 6:30pm | April 5 @ 3:30pm

“E.T. The extra-terrestrial” 35 years later! All tickets only $5

april 6 & 7 @ 3:30 & 6:30pm april 8 @ 7:30pm | april 9 @ 3:30pm

“Growing Up Smith”

A tribute to childhood heroes, first love, and growing up in Small Town, America...in simpler times.

SION!!

EE ADMIS

FR

april 8 @ 2pm

“jumanji”

april 21 @ 6:30pm

Team Autism 24/7 presents: “Life Animated” 20 /

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A still from the short “Pearl.” Courtesy photo. not to be moved by “Pearl,” directed by Patrick Osbourne of the U.S. Utilizing stylized animation, it tells the story of a father who gives up his dream of life on the road as a traveling musician to give his daughter a stable life, only to find her following the same path years later.

“Pearl,” as well as several other shorts included in this year’s series, uses music

as an effective storytelling tool to communicate the emotions and themes of the piece.

“The Animation Show of Shows” is rare opportunity to see the best work in an artistic medium that often doesn’t enjoy a wide audience. Curated by industry veteran Ron Diamond, the show is both produced and supported by enthusiasts, with this year’s effort made possible by 550 Kickstarter supporters. Thanks to their efforts, “The Animation Show of Shows” will be seen in 435 screenings in 50 cities in the U.S., Canada, Spain, South Africa and Australia. It’s a welcome showcase for such unique artistic voices, all of whom find human moments in animated images.

Be sure to check out the “18th Animation Show of Shows” at the Panida Theater. There are several showings to choose from: 3:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 2; 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 3; 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4; and 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5.

Crossword Solution

MUSIC

This week’s RLW by Ben Olson

Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba:

By Ed Ohlweiler Reader Contributor

A musical friendship and human rights legacy

While Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte both faced the institutionalized prejudice of the time, Belafonte in many ways escaped much of the persecution that fell on Makeba, possibly because of his elegant speech and good looks or perhaps because his style of music made an easier transition into the pop charts.

[I remember sit-com personality Archie Bunker once proclaiming, “Harry Belafonte is not black, he’s just a good-looking white guy dipped in caramel.” This reveals both how far we’ve come—I don’t think you’d hear that today—and how far we have to go—it wasn’t very long ago that we found a bigot with a few redeeming qualities to be amusing.]

His path to becoming “King of Calypso” was full of interesting anecdotes and unexpected turns of events. He was actually born in Harlem, but sent to live with his grandmother in Jamaica after his parents’ divorce. His mother thought it would be safer, however there he was exposed the exploitation of the black workers at the hands of the British colonists.

In both places Harry’s life was struck by poverty, but it was in Jamaica that he developed a fondness for the local folk music and singing that would become his trademark many years later.

After a stint in the Navy during WW II, he found himself as a janitor in NY City.

Strangely, it was not music that was his first love, but acting.

He was struggling to afford acting classes, studying with classmates like Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau and Marlon

Part 2: King of CalYpso

READ

When is the last time you read the “Little House on the Prairie” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder? If it’s been a long time, I suggest picking them up again.

Set during the pioneer days of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the books chronicle the author’s life growing up on the Western frontier.

My parents read them to us most every night while I was growing up, and I still find them full of insight, nostalgia and fun.

LISTEN

Harry Belafonte, left, and Miriam Makeba, right. Courtesy photo.

Brando. He and his friend, Sidney Poitier, were so poor that they would share a ticket to the theater, one going for the first half and then summarizing the play at intermission for the other who would take the seat for the second half. When he was discovered singing, someone suggest he try his luck at the local jazz club. He was backed by the Charley Parker Band that night and soon became a regular, but he still saw himself as a club singer for the sole purpose of putting himself through acting school.

He also performed with Miles Davis and a young harmonica player named Bob Dylan, and found that black acting roles were not as easy to get as he’d hoped. Belafonte continued to plant a foot in both worlds until he switched from jazz to the music of his youth. Once he released Calypso in 1956, there was no turning back. The album would be the first in history to sell over 1 million copies in the first year, and establish Harry as the harbinger of calypso in America.

“Day-O (the Banana Boat Song)” reflected the struggles of his family members in Jamaica, but for the most part his songs were less about protest and more about touching people’s lives in simple ways or making folks dance. His speech, on the other hand was all about protest: like Miriam Makeba, Belafonte took full advantage of his fame to address important issues of the day, often to the point of being criticized. But his popularity allowed him to get away with more and also introduced him to kindred spirits in politics, entertainment, philanthropy, and activism. Soon he was hanging around with Elanor Roosevelt, Jack and Robert Kennedy and more controversial figures like Stokely Carmichael and Paul Robeson (who released albums as a singer, protested tirelessly for civil rights, and played in the NFL—all at the same time!)

Perhaps he was closest to Dr. Martin Luther King, whom he exchanged ideas with and even supported financially at times

(as a preacher, King made $8,000 a year).

Belafonte did realize his dream of being an actor in the end. Both he and Makeba would make several movie and TV appearances and inspire numerous books and movies about their lives. Harry filled in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show in 1968 and among his interview guests were Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. His accolades and awards are too numerous to mention, and much to his credit, he’s still speaking out today at nearly 90 years old. The most recent footage I’ve seen is right after the 2016 election.

Barack Obama is seated on one side of him and Hillary Clinton is on the other. He is speaking in his soft voice and strong words about the failure of the Democratic Party. Barack and Hillary are listening intently.

To return once more to “The Dash”, by Linda Ellis: “...What matters is how we live and love, and how we spend our dash...”

My girlfriend and I purchased a record last Christmas that has really found a cherished place in our collection.

“Heartworn Highways” features more than two dozen tracks from some of the best pioneer troubadours in the business.

Whether it’s Guy Clark’s down home voice or Townes Van Zandt’s haunting ballads, or surprising favorites by artists such as Gamble Rogers and Steve Earle, this record is worth every hard-earned penny.

WATCH

If you’ve ever been a fan of westerns, you’ve no doubt seen “Lonesome Dove” starring Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall and Danny Glover. If you haven’t, put this paper down and rent them quick!

The miniseries follows the exploits of Larry McMurtry’s characters Gus McCrae and Capt. Woodrow Call as they embark on a trip from the dusty environs of Texas to a new life in Montana, herding their herd of cattle along the way. It’s funny, poignant and damn good acting.

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FOOD

The Sandpoint Eater Baking with purpose

By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Food Columnist Turns out my half-sour pickles and bone broth, while comforting, are not lifesaving. And on my most recent trip to Tampa I learned there was to be no miracle cure for Shay, my lovely sister-in-law. There was a miracle though. Somehow, she waited for my girls (Ryanne and Casey) and me to come and bid her adieu.

The first day we sat on her sunny lanai, overlooking a pond filled with turtles, alligators and exotic waterfowl and laughed over old anecdotal Montana-ranch-tales her family was famous for. And just the next day, in hushed tones, we sang to her and prayed with her as she made her farewell journey.

Ryanne and I traveled back home and it was a long 22 hours between waking in Port Charlotte and our short night’s stay at the Airport Ramada in Spokane. The next morning, looming over my tired and grief-stricken self was the thought of co-hosting a shower for one of Casey’s high school friends, a young woman whom I adore, who’d recently had a baby.

Mechanically, on the drive home I made the obligatory stop at Costco and half-filled a cart with my standard lot of prerequisite-party ingredients.

My first day home should have been a prep day, but I couldn’t muster the energy, so after a long period of procrastination, I finally forced myself into dicing and slicing most of the recipes’ ingredients and went to bed Friday night, satisfied with my culinary progress. I’m an early riser so it made perfect sense to just hop out of bed and get started when I woke a little before 4 a.m.

Cinnamon rolls weren’t on the 22 /

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menu, but time was on my side, so I began a sponge for sweet dough. Cathartically, I turned the mass out onto a floured board and kneaded it into a soft and smooth mound, reminiscing about life’s many events that caused me to bake when I was unsure about what else to do. My recipe for sweet dough came from my mother, and in 40-plus years filled with life’s surprises, this dough has never failed me. I do love working with yeast dough and still marvel at the magic when it comes to life, doubling in size in a warm corner of my kitchen.

I love many cuisines and cooking styles, but I was born with a baker’s heart. I’m happiest with a dusting of flour on my brow, in my kitchen in the quiet of morning, armed with my first cup of strong hot coffee, where I go about the ritual of silently preparing sustenance for all those still sleeping. Finally, I pop a pan in the oven and soon pleasing aromas waft throughout the house to greet my waking offspring and entice them down the stairs.

There’s also something really magical about the handful of simple and pure ingredients used in baking. Even without yeast, ingredients such as flour, butter, sugar and eggs can produce a variety of doughs, and depending on how you incorporate the ingredients, you can produce flaky scones or crusts, tender bread, dense muffins, light and airy cakes or crisp shortbread.

I constantly consider the early baker’s delight, imagining how centuries ago they stumbled upon techniques that we use to this day.

My favorite baked good to produce is the scone, and I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say I’ve turned out thousands of them.

I’ve made hundreds at a time for wedding brunches and made my first savory ones (adding cooked sausage and peppers) upon the recommendation of past Missoula neighbor and client Rose

Qualley (AKA Andie McDowell).

Another discerning client once told me, “I’m not bragging about my travels, my point is letting you to know I’ve eaten scones on every continent in this world, and I have never tasted another as good as yours.” I’ve received similar commendation from my gaggle of grandbabes, and these days I mostly bake for them, though annually, several Angels Over Sandpoint gather with me to produce nearly two hundred of them for our annual tea. Some are served as the first course and the rest are packaged to-go, and quickly sold.

The secret to a flaky scone is very cold ingredients and quick handling, so the butter doesn’t get soft and meld into the dough.

My favorite part of the process is cutting the butter into the flour by hand, rubbing it swiftly between my thumb and index finger until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

Ryanne argues that she has the same success with her food pro-

cessor (which I don’t agree with, as the processing bowl gets a little warm from the pulsing).

The morning of the baby shower, I loaded my offerings and arrived at the host’s home, decorated simply with lots of fresh flowers. Our newborn guest of honor never made a peep as he was passed from one set of waiting arms into another. Champagne toasts, well-intended advice

for the new mother and love for this new little life flowed freely around this circle of women, who lingered long after the shower’s designated two hours. And so, it goes, this never-ending circle of life, filled with precious beginnings and poignant farewells. This month, I was grateful for both.

Whatever your reasons for gathering, bring along a basket of scones.

Marcia’s best scones INGREDIENTS:

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1/3 cup sugar 3/4 tsp salt 1 tbs baking powder 1 cup cold butter, cut into one inch pieces

Additions: Sweet - 1 to 2 cups chopped dried fruit, chocolate or other flavored chips, nuts Savory -1 to cups cooked and cooled crumbled sausage, bacon, onions, peppers and fine chopped herbs

2 large eggs Additional 2 tbs sugar 2 tsp vanilla 1 ½ - 2 cups cream

amount of cream, add additional cream to dry mixture, if needed).

Add the liquid ingredients (reserve a couple tablespoons) to the dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holds together.

Scrape the dough onto a floured surface, and with floured hands, lightly knead dough, adding a bit of flour to the mixture if sticky. Roll to about 3/4” thick and cut with 2 ½” round cutter. Repeat until all dough is used.

Place scones on parchment paper-lined sheet pan, about ½” apart.

Brush each scone with leftover liquid mixture, then for savory, sprinkle top with sea salt.

Bake immediately, or freeze to bake in the next couple hours, or wrap and freeze for up to a month.

Bake the scones on middle rack, for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown.

Remove the scones from the oven, and cool briefly on the pan. Serve warm.

DIRECTIONS: Pre-heat oven to 425 F. •In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

Work butter into flour just until the mixture is crumbly Stir in the fruit, chips, and/or nuts, if you’re using them.

Set aside (you can even freeze at this point, to have ready on a busy morning).

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the, eggs, additional sugar, vanilla and cream (start with the lesser

Family Outdoor Adventure Raffle goes live North Idaho CASA is excited to announce the Family Outdoor Adventure Raffle! Tickets are only $50 each and every ticket gives you the chance to win any of our 15-plus prizes including a hot tub, Honda Side-by-Side, Towable Trailer and a R3 Cobalt Boat! All money generated from this raffle will go to creating an Endowment Fund for North Idaho CASA! We are grateful for our lead sponsors: Contractors Northwest, Hagadone Marine, RNR RV, CDA Powersports, Priano’s Billiards & Backyards and Black Sheep Sporting Goods!

WHERE TO BUY YOUR TICKETS: Finan McDonald - 301 N 1st Ave. Sandpoint, ID 83864 Petal Talk - 120 W Cedar, Sandpoint, ID 83864

Angels Over Sandpoint offer scholarships CROSSWORD ACROSS

1. Lummox 5. Backside 9. Astrological transition point 13. Hubs 14. A dish of tomatoes and greens 16. Paris airport 17. Circle fragments 18. A loud sleeping sound 19. Close 20. Tranquility 22. Toward the front of the stage 24. Kind of bean 26. A keyboard instrument 27. Ancient Roman galley 30. Assembles 33. In a cheapjack manner 35. Free-for-all 66. Feudal worker 37. Family 67. Anagram of “Store” 38. Be in trouble with 68. Bristle /STIK-ee-beek/ 41. Prefix meaning “Modern” 69. Not the original color [noun] 42. Foul-up 70. Be dressed in 1.

Australian Slang. a busybody; meddler.

45.

Moves with slow, e 71. At one time (archaic) of th sinuous movements “There go our neighbors, the stickybeaks, peeping through their blinds.” 48. Any unsaturated aliphatic DOWN hydrocarbon 51. Provide commentary 1. Applaud 52. Outspoken 2. Old stories Corrections: I was worried a dumb error would creep into my first solo pa54. University administrator 3. Irregular per, and sure enough, I forgot to change the headline in the Straight Poop 55. Unwanted 4. Strife article about Understory Coffee. The good folks at Understory were very 59.

Assistants 5. Donkey gracious about the mistake. Sorry, guys!

62. Not sweet 6. South African 63. Anagram of “Sneer” monetary unit Also, in the Foxie Foodie column, the author made mention of Cafe Bode65. ___ du jour = Meal of ga’s gelato and homemade bread. Unfortunately, those items are not on the 7. A single-masted ship the day menu, the gelato having been phased out some time ago. -CR 8. A type of insect

Sometimes I think the so-called experts actually are experts.

Word Week

stickybeak

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

The Angels Over Sandpoint and Ivano’s Ristorante offers scholarships to high school and home school seniors, or even students that have taken a one year gap before applying to college or trade school. This scholarship is directed towards students who exhibit determination, courage and a desire to continue their education in the face of difficult circumstances that may have derailed others. Financial need, references, a short essay and an interview will help the committee determine the awards.

Applications can be attained online, through any Bonner County high school guidance office, or follow the link under assistance at www.angelsoversandpoint. org The deadline for applications is 9 a.m., April 10. They can be turned into the student’s local high school guidance office or mailed directly to: Angels Over Sandpoint, Attn: Lippi Scholarship, PO Box 2369, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

The Jim Lippi Family Scholarship is funded through an annual golf scramble held each September honoring the work that Jim Lippi and family have done through the years supporting our community. Any questions can be directed to the committee chair: smittys2now@gmail.com

Solution on page 20 9. Shape 10. Urine component 11. Smelting waste 12. Combustible pile 15. Macedonian monetary unit 21. Gave the once-over 23. Prig 25. Dogfish 27. Sounds of disapproval 28. Rhinoceros 29. Santa’s helper 31. Beggar 32. Sugary 34. Ouch!

36. Fail to win 39. A large vase

40. Its symbol is Pb 43. Excited 44. Flying saucers 46. Region 47. Gallivant 49. Less friendly 50. Thin 53. Slowly, in music 55. Utilized 56. Prying 57. A ridge of sand 58. Caribou 60. Dines 61. Immediately 64. South southeast

March 30, 2017 /

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Please Join Us for Our

Festival FUNdraising Extravaganza!

Minimum Age 21 Black Tie Optional

at Bonner County Fairgrounds

Friday, April 28, 2017 • 5:30pm

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Wine Tasting Presented by Jalapeno’s Sponsored by Odom Southern, Vehrs, Idaho Wine Merchants, Click, Hayden Beverage, Pend D’ Oreille Winery and Woodward Canyon Winery

www.festivalatsandpoint.com or call: (208) 265-4554