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PEOPLE compiled by

Susan Drinkard

watching

“Are you ready for winter?”

“Yes, everything’s winterized and put away. There’s plenty of wood and pellets. My winter clothes are out.”

Al Beltran Retired Sandpoint

“Oh yes. I am so ready to slow down, stay home and hibernate.”

Kendra Rader Artist Sandpoint

DEAR READERS,

Well, this is it, dear readers. Just a few short days until Election Day. Polls will be open on Nov. 3 from 8 a.m.–8.p.m. Please vote. Participating in our democracy is a right that many don’t have around the world. To those of you who choose not to cast your ballot, remember that there are people around the world who have fought and died for this right. Please don’t take it for granted. The last day for early voting is Friday, Oct. 30.

Also, I’d like to remind everyone to stay vigilant and continue practicing social distancing protocols whenever you gather in public places. There are many in this region who oddly believe the pandemic isn’t here in Bonner County. It is. It’s everywhere. We are experiencing another spike in cases, and we have also seen the first two deaths from this horrible disease in our county. This is a personal issue for me as well, as one of my family members just found out last weekend they are infected with COVID-19. Please wear a face mask, wash your hands and please don’t expose our vulnerable population to this virus – it could be your own family member who is put at risk. Be well.

– Ben Olson, publisher

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

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Cadie Archer (cover), Ben Olson, Melizza Chernov, Bill Borders.

Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert, Lorraine H. Marie, Emily Erickson, Brenden Bobby, Paul Graves, Sandy Compton, Hannah Combs.

Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID

“Yes. I’ve got stabilizer in all my diesel. I have a blower on my big tractor, a snow pusher on my medium tractor, heated water for the cows and horses, and a bottle of Scotch.”

Richard Neher Retired surgeon Sandpoint

“Yes. It’s my 17th year here.

I’ve learned you have to start preparing in March! The number one thing is to make sure you have enough light.”

Danielle Ahrens Retired Sandpoint

“No, I think our summer was way too short. Winter has come too early.”

Holly Melanson Sagle

Subscription Price: $115 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

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

The Reader is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink.

Leftover copies are collected and recycled weekly, or burned in massive bonfires to appease the gods of journalism. Free to all, limit two copies per person.

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

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

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

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

About the Cover

This week’s spooky cover photo was taken by Cadie Archer of one of our favorite little humans on earth dressed up for Halloween in 2019.

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NEWS

COVID-19 update

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

Idaho has made national headlines in the past week both for its dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases — part of a nationwide trend of increased caseloads as the country heads into winter — as well as resistance both by public officials and private citizens to any efforts at mitigating its spread. Even as Idaho Gov. Brad Little moved the state back to Stage 3 reopening during a Statehouse address Oct. 26 — stating that the decision was “not made lightly” — he remained noncommittal about his administration’s seriousness in addressing the health crisis that has claimed more than 220,000 American lives over the past eight months, including 599 Idahoans as of Oct. 28.

Little said he wants to chart a “middle path” for the state’s response to COVID-19, encouraging people to wear the face coverings

Idaho goes back a stage in reopening while protests (and cases) ramp up

that every reputable public health official, agency and care provider has stressed is the easiest, most cost-effective means of battling the virus, yet refusing to institute any statewide mandates.

The prior week, on Oct. 23, the Panhandle Health District board — composed of elected members — voted 4-3 to rescind the Kootenai County mask mandate, which had been in place since July. PHD Chairman Marlow Thompson, nurse Jai Nelson and Dr. Richard McLandress all voted against lifting the order.

Representing Bonner County, board member Glen Bailey said that while he recognized masking and social distancing do help limit the spread of COVID-19, the mandate limits people’s “choice and ability to comply or not comply.”

The PHD vote came amid a record-breaking addition of 138 new districtwide cases in a single day and a plea from Kootenai Health

— the area’s largest hospital — that it had reached 99% capacity for due in part to the coronavirus.

The district reported 141 new cases on Oct. 28.

The city of Coeur d’Alene stepped in where some PHD board members refused, and instituted a city-wide mask order effective Oct. 27 — this despite protests outside the City Council meeting where demonstrators chanted “no more masks, we will not comply,” according to KREM 2 News.

Coeur d’Alene’s order will remain in effect for 90 days unless officials vote to end, modify or extend it. Violation of the mandate is an infraction that carries a $100 fine.

According to news reports, children 10 and under are exempt, as well as first responders and individuals with medical conditions.

Coeur d’Alene police are permitted to ask maskless people about their medical condition but are not

allowed to require proof.

Protests against masks have come to Bonner County, most recently with a demonstration on the sidewalk on Boyer Avenue east of Sandpoint Middle School. More than a dozen individuals, including students, stood with signs Oct. 23 protesting the mask requirement in district schools. At their meeting Oct. 27, the Lake Pend Oreille School District Board of Trustees heard from a number of speakers opposed to masks on constitutional and perceived physical (and mental) health grounds. Surrounding school districts have responded to the rapid increase in cases by further limiting schedules to limit exposure. Kootenai and Boundary counties are both in the “red” category for incidence of community spread. Shoshone County is at “orange,” while Bonner and Benewah counties are “yellow.”

Meanwhile, a handful of Idaho lawmakers, including Lt. Gov.

Janice McGeachin and Blanchard Republican Rep. Heather Scott, took part in a video released Oct. 27 by the right-wing lobby group Idaho Freedom Foundation, with some questioning whether the COVID-19 pandemic is real and generally decrying any pandemic response as government overreach.

In the video, Scott vows that any future emergency order related to COVID-19 “will be ignored.”

During a particularly surreal moment in the video, a smiling and business-dressed McGeachin sits in a military-esque van, holding a bible and talking about constitutional rights before producing a pistol and placing it atop the book. Released immediately after the governor’s announcement that Idaho would go back a stage in reopening, Little’s office has yet to issue a statement on the video and the participation in it of the lieutenant governor.

family, have long planned to knock down the existing building and rebuild with a different brand of lodging and a larger footprint — doubling occupancy to 100 rooms, increasing outdoor seating and bringing in additional convention space. That won’t be possible, they argue, without additional property at the site.

The city, meanwhile, wants to move and expand portions of the City Beach parking and boat launch facilities — a component of the sweeping Parks and Recreation Master Plan that would be made easier with the proposed land swap.

With the respective property values established, the City Council set a public hearing on the proposed property exchange for Wednesday, Nov. 18, while Stapleton said Sand-Ida intends to demolish the hotel building after Labor Day 2021 with reopening preliminarily scheduled for spring 2023.

Though the city and its corporate partners have lauded the

deal as a “win-win” — including for the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad company, which as Great Northern Railroad originally deeded the property to the city — some have argued that the city shouldn’t be trading away some of its precious waterfront property to the benefit of private business.

To that, Stapleton told

council members that Sand-Ida has committed to city staff that the corporation will continue to allow public access to the grassy area in front of the hotel. She said both properties are fee-simple owned by the city and SandIda. The GN Railroad transferred its property to the city for $1 while Sand-Ida acquired its parcel directly from the railroad.

A preliminary design for the proposed new hotel site at the Edgewater in Sandpoint. Courtesy image.

Council approves valuation for City Beach land swap, sets public hearing date

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff After more than a year of hints and intimations, the Sandpoint City Council heard some concrete figures regarding the City Beach land swap at its Oct. 21 meeting.

The proposal before city officials is whether to trade a portion of city-owned property immediately to the east of the Edgewater Best Western Hotel and Trinity at City Beach, in exchange for the current RV park owned and operated

by Sand-Ida Inc. to the south of the hotel across Bridge Street.

Though underscoring that no decisions have been made, City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton told council members that the city-owned property — a grassy swath of land that runs to the shoreline at the Windbag Marina — referred to as parcel No. 1 is worth $2.66 million. Meanwhile, parcel No. 2, the RV park, which includes frontage along Sand Creek, is assessed at $2.9 million.

Owners of the hotel, the Cox 4 /

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The public presentation will take place at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 18, in the council chambers at Sandpoint City Hall.

Participate remotely via Zoom at sandpointidaho.gov/your-government/meetings.

NEWS

Panhandle Health District: Get a flu vaccine

By Reader Staff

The Panhandle Health District, which oversees the five northernmost counties of Idaho, shared a public service announcement Oct. 28 urging its constituents to seek out the flu vaccine.

“As if 2020 has not given us enough to worry about, flu season is upon us,” PHD officials stated.

“You may be wondering what viruses the 2020-2021 flu vaccine will protect you from. Maybe you’re curious about how to safely get a flu vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic. As with all preventative care, it’s still important for you and your loved ones to receive this year’s flu vaccine.”

The health district shared that each year, the flu vaccine is updated to match the circulating flu viruses. Typically flu vaccines protect against the three or four viruses that research suggests will be most common for that flu season. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2020-2021 flu vaccines will come in a trivalent and quadrivalent option. The trivalent protects against two strains of influenza A and one strain of influenza B. The quadrivalent protects against all three viruses that the trivalent protects against, plus an additional strain of B virus.

“We recommend that individuals consult with their healthcare provider to find out what flu vaccine is best for them,” officials shared Wednesday. “There are high-dose vaccines that are recommended for those 65 years and older. There are also flu vaccines that are meant for only pediatric patients.”

PH announced that this fall and winter, the district expects that both the flu virus and COVID-19 will be circulating, so it’s important for everyone to take precautions to protect themselves and others. It is possible to have the flu and COVID-19, or other respiratory illnesses, at the same time.

Officials expect those occurrences to be rare, but could still happen.

Many symptoms of the flu are similar to COVID-19, so it may be hard to tell what you have become ill with. Seeking testing in these circumstances will help determine how you should move forward with

self-isolating and managing your symptoms. The flu and COVID-19 are caused by different viruses, so testing will confirm the diagnosis.

The fatality rate for COVID-19 is higher than with seasonal flu, according to PHD. Some people who have had COVID-19 struggle with continued health issues. COVID-19 reinfection may also be possible.

Today, in the United States, more than 225,000 people have died from COVID-19. That is more than the last five flu seasons combined, the PHD release stated.

When going out to receive your flu vaccine, health district officials recommend that people follow precautions that they would take while going to a public place: Wear a cloth face covering, avoid close contact with those outside of your household, wash your hands often, stay home if you are sick and cover your coughs and sneezes.

It’s also important to know who should not receive a flu vaccine. Anyone younger than six months of age is not recommended to get a flu vaccine. Also, those who are currently ill with COVID-19 are not recommended to receive the flu vaccine. After they have met the criteria to discontinue isolation, they can receive a flu vaccine, PHD stated.

Additionally, having a prior infection of the flu does not protect you from being infected again from either virus. For this reason, it is recommended that everyone get a flu shot every year.

Officials said that a flu vaccine this season can also help the health care system by reducing the burden COVID-19 and the flu could have on local hospitals.

A flu vaccine is the best defense against the flu. Combined with the flu shot, everyone can take everyday preventative actions, such as: Avoiding close contact with those who are sick, staying home if you are sick, cover your coughs and sneezes, wash your hands, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, and clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with viruses.

PHD shared that in Idaho, there were 39 influenza-related deaths in the 2019-2020 season.

Of those, nine occurred within the Panhandle Health District.

Judge hears costs and fees motion in Festival gun suit An order from the bench is forthcoming

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff A judge heard arguments for and against a reimbursement of costs and fees to the city of Sandpoint Oct. 27, marking the latest in the lawsuit brought by Bonner County regarding The Festival at Sandpoint’s gun ban.

Kootenai County District Judge Lansing L. Haynes started the hearing by granting a supplemental memorandum of costs and fees that legal counsel for the city submitted Oct. 23, requesting attorney fees accrued since the initial request filed Sept. 16 be considered for reimbursement.

In total, including the costs since mid-September, Sandpoint seeks almost $95,000.

Attorney Peter Erbalnd of Lake City Law Group, representing the city, pointed out that both the city and county acknowledged a piece of Idaho Code in previous filings that states: “In any civil judicial proceeding involving as adverse parties a governmental entity and another governmental entity, the court shall award the prevailing party reasonable attorney’s fees, witness fees and other reasonable expenses.”

Erbland said the purpose of the code is to provide a “disincentive for political subdivisions to sue each other.”

“You know why? It makes perfect sense, because they are doing it on the taxpayer’s dime. And in this case, Bonner County caused the expenditure of a quarter-million dollars, of taxpayer dollars, to advance an argument that was ‘unpersuasive,’ ‘vague,’ ‘speculative’ and ‘without merit,’” Erbland said, quoting Haynes’ Sept. 2 ruling which determined that the county lacked standing in the case.

“In other words, they caused the expenditure of $250,000 because they wanted to stick their nose into the business of the city of Sandpoint.”

In her response, attorney Amy Clemmons of Davillier Law Group — representing Bonner County — disputed Erbland’s claim that the county was on a “fool’s errand” in the lawsuit, and argued that the core of the case had not yet seen a ruling. The county has repeatedly argued that a ruling on the law was necessary to coordinate a law enforcement response to an “affray” involving pro-gun protesters outside the next Festivat event.

“Clarity on the law would help them respond to that safety concern,” she said. “That’s what this case was about.”

Therefore, Clemmons said the city should only receive costs and fees related to the narrow issue of standing — not for any research done on other aspects of the case.

She also alleged that the county’s suit could have saved the city from a “litany” of lawsuits should the gun ban move forward and arrests be made.

“It was the city’s actions that drew the county into this mess — not the other way around,” Clemmons said.

Judge Haynes asked city counsel whether a partial award for work done on the issue of standing seemed practical, to which Erbland responded: “We had to brief those issues, and the county should pay for it.”

“It becomes tiresome and wearying to listen to frivolous and concocted arguments such as these,” Erbland concluded in his response to county counsel.

Haynes said at the Oct. 27 hearing that he would take the arguments under advisement and issue an order soon.

City of Sandpoint’s snow removal policy

By Reader Staff Between Nov. 1 and March 1 — and any time winter conditions are present — residents within Sandpoint city limits are required to park on the even side of the street unless otherwise posted. The “even” side refers to even-numbered addresses. Recreational vehicles, boats, trailers, abandoned and broken-down vehicles, basketball hoops or any other items along the street must be removed prior to winter weather. Persistent violators may be issued parking tickets for non-compliance by the Sandpoint Police Department.

In addition, parked vehicles must be cleared of snow within 24 hours of a storm so that plow op-

erators can clearly see the vehicle.

Keeping sidewalks clear of snow and ice is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner and/ or occupant. It is also the responsibility of city residents to keep mailboxes and fire hydrants clear of snow and ice and avoid placing trash containers in the street until it has been cleared of snow.

Collection service trucks have the ability to reach approximately 12 feet, so placing it in the driveway is the best alternative.

Snow plowing operations are performed based on a priority schedule — a map of service areas is available at sandpointidaho.gov.

The annual citywide leaf pickup will continue through Nov. 20.

City residents are encouraged to

move leaves onto the street as they fall, instead of waiting until the end of the season, and crews will pick them up continuously over the next month.

In response to citizen feedback, the city rented a sweeper more equipped for this type of work than the city-owned sweepers.

Crews are hopeful this approach will have less impact on the stormwater system and prevent large piles of leaves accumulating in the street.

To ensure this service is successful, please help by keeping leaf piles knee high or lower.

Branches and bagged leaves will not be picked up.

For more information, contact the city at 208-263-3428.

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NEWS Off-duty Bonners Ferry police chief killed man in self-defense Details released in Tin Cup Campground shooting

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff

The Custer County Sheriff’s Office has released more information about the Aug. 1 shooting involving Bonners Ferry Police Chief Brian Zimmerman that resulted in the death of 73-year-old Boise man Russell Liddell.

According to KTVB-TV, the report says that Zimmerman was off duty at the time and partaking in a multi-day utility terrain vehicle trip with 17 other people. The group stopped for the night to camp at the Tin Cup Campground in the Salmon-Challis National Forest in central Idaho. Liddel arrived at the campground driving a pickup truck around 10 p.m.

Witnesses reported Liddle was having a difficult time backing up to park. When a member of Zimmerman’s camp approached the truck to offer assistance, Liddell reportedly responded angrily that the group was in his “spot.” Ted Stonehocker, who spoke to Liddell during the incident, said he smelled of alcohol.

According to the report, several witnesses heard Liddell say, “All you fucking Californians coming up here with your goddamn fancy toys,” despite one member of the group sharing with him that they were from North Idaho. At that point, Stonehocker told Liddell to leave or he’d “run him off with his .41 gun,” according to KTVB. Liddell responded by saying he had a .45-caliber gun with him, then drove about 20 yards away with his headlights still pointed at the camp.

In the meantime, according to the report, Zimmerman went to retrieve a .22 pistol from his UTV — without having heard Liddell admit to being in possession of a weapon — and placed it in his pocket. Zimmerman approached Liddell’s truck, at which point Liddell exited, reportedly “stumbling and nearly falling.”

Bonners Ferry Police Chief Brian Zimmerman. File photo.

He then reached into the back seat, and witnesses report hearing the slide on a semi-automatic pistol. Zimmerman took his pistol from his pocket.

Liddell turned around and reportedly fired two shots, and Zimmerman fired back “about five times” hitting the man, according to KTVB. Zimmerman then retrieved Liddell’s gun and other campers checked him for a pulse, finding none.

Liddell’s bullets did not hit anyone.

A member of Zimmerman’s group rode to a nearby ranch to call authorities.

Idaho State Police and Custer County personnel arrived at the campground at 1:44 a.m.

No charges have been filed in the investigation, which is being led by the Eastern Idaho Critical Task Force. Zimmerman remains the Bonners Ferry police chief, with city officials stating after the incident: “[T]he City does not feel that administrative leave or other personnel action by the City of Bonners Ferry is necessary at this time as Chief Zimmerman’s actions were in no way related to his employment with the City of Bonners Ferry.”

LPOSD extends free meals through June 2021

By Reader Staff The Lake Pend Oreille School District announced its free breakfast and lunch programs have been extended through June 2021 for all children aged 1 through 18 years of age. The United States Department 6 /

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of Agriculture has extended previously approved waivers and provided full funding for LPOSD to continue offering free meal services, regardless of household size and income, through the remainder of the school year.

Bits ’n’ Pieces From east, west and beyond

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

A recent sampling: South Korea, which observed its first COVID-19 cases and deaths at the same as the U.S., (with a sixth of the population of the U.S.) has seen 500 deaths as opposed to 225,000 in the U.S. The east Asian country’s response included intense contact tracing and establishment of isolation wards, according to ourworldindata.org.

NPR reports that two new studies show the risk of dying for those hospitalized for COVID-19 has gone from 25.6% to 7.6%. It still remains more deadly than the flu, and the possibility of being a COVID-19 “long-hauler” looms.

Long-haulers, The WEEK writes, seem to never quite recover and can have lingering symptoms, including scarred lungs, heart damage, headaches, kidney damage, hand tremors, fatigue, fever, nausea, hair loss, blurry vision, short-term memory loss and brain fog.

At least five of Vice President Mike Pence’s aides have tested positive for COVID-19, the Washington Post reported.

Pence chairs the White House COVID-19 task force. The White House chief of staff told CNN that, “We’re not going to control the pandemic,” and the administration has instead opted to look at mitigations.

Despite COVID-19 surrounding him, Pence is not following CDC recommendations to quarantine for 14 days after exposure and plans to continue campaigning and showing up in the Senate.

COVID-19 cases reached a new peak on Monday with 74,323 new cases. Cases have been rapidly rising in Republican states and counties, according to Harvard University data. And the American Academy of Pediatrics says 800,000 children have now been infected, with those numbers rising.

Nonetheless, President Donald Trump has declared that the pandemic is ending, and predicted at a mostly mask-less rally on Oct. 24 that after Election Day “the media will stop covering the pandemic.”

In his recent presidential debate, Democratic contender and former Vice President Joe Biden objected to Trump saying we have to “learn to live” with COVID-19,” and responded: “We’re learning how to die with it, and it’s wrong.”

After a rapid election-year confirmation process, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was approved in a 48-52 vote party-line vote, with one Republican dissenting. Barrett replaces Ruth Bader

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

Ginsburg who was approved with a 96-3 vote. Objections to Barrett are grounded in her lack of experience (she’s never argued an appeal or performed notable pro bono work, according to Mother Jones) and her “originalist” ideas of looking at constitutional decisions according to what the nation’s founders intended, with no regard for ramifications under different circumstances.

As noted by former insurance executive Wendell Potter, the founders were not thinking about health insurance, which did not exist at the time. Barrett will hear a case on Nov. 10 challenging the future of the Affordable Care Act. She also does not appear neutral on numerous topics, saying she cannot enforce secular laws against her religious beliefs (The Nation) and she disagreed with the Supreme Court’s previous finding that the ACA was constitutionally sound (The Atlantic). In commenting on Barrett’s rushed seating, Democractic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Republicans “can’t win” when “playing by the rules” (they refused to seat numerous judges proposed by the prior president) so “the American people will expect us to use every tool we have to undo the damage and restore the court’s integrity.”

The Economic Policy Institute says there are 22 million more people on unemployment today as compared to one year ago, a contrast to Trump’s claim of having created a “great economy.”

Texan Harrison Hunter, 26, is the third Boogaloo Boi to be charged in connection to the protests in Minneapolis after the police killing of George Floyd in May, The Guardian reports. Boogaloo Bois are linked to at least five deaths this year and more than two dozen arrests, and were allegedly involved with the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor.

Changes to the disposal of nuclear waste are being proposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Food and Water Watch says under current regulations, the waste is sent to specially-licensed disposal sites. But the NRC wants to reclassify some radioactive waste so it can go to unlicensed facilities, and even to local landfills, where it can leak into local water and food supplies. And if it’s incinerated it can be released into the air without the public’s knowledge.

Blast from the past: In the past two decades two winners of the popular presidential vote — both Democrats — lost out to votes from the Electoral College, giving new momentum to replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote.

PERSPECTIVES

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

10 years

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

Ten years ago today, my mom died, with just a few quick months between her cancer diagnosis and hurried departure. As a 19-year-old, I remember how large my grief felt, filling up every inch of my world view, and coloring my perspective with the fragility of promised tomorrows.

As years passed and 19 turned to 20 and then 21, my grief evolved and shifted, but was ever-present, like a badge of emotions tailor-made for my circumstances. At the time, I was surrounded mostly by peers who couldn’t relate to my loss, so this particular familiarity with grief felt uniquely mine — mine to navigate, mine to care for and mine from which to derive identity.

But, as these anniversaries stretch further and further away from the day she passed, and with a decade whittling away the sharp edges of my grief into a rounder feeling of nostalgia, I’ve been able to recognize the innate humanness of my loss.

Every person, at some point in their lives, will experience profound loss and the world-bending sensation of a forever goodbye.

So today, at a time when finding connection is more complicated than ever, and when feelings of division and fear about our collective futures linger inside every interaction, I know what my mom would want me to reflect upon. As a

Emily Erickson. champion of empathy and believer in the power of positivity, my mom would encourage me to hold on to the little pieces of shared humanity, like the loss and grief I carried for her, and use those pieces to draw a through-line between myself and everyone around me.

A stir of wonder at a sky suddenly filled with the orange and pink and red of twilight, and the gentle recognition of trees fading into silhouettes, is something most people experience.

And many of the same feelings are felt when people stare into a shoreline of crashing waves, accessing the deepest

parts of themselves as they follow each crest’s journey from the depths to the sand and back again. It’s that same sort of sensation as trying to focus on a single flame in a pit of dancing fire, when the heated blurriness prompts all background noise to dissolve into individual thoughts and memories.

Similarly, don’t most people shiver with nervousness in the hours before starting something they care about, checking their watches in a silent will for time to both speed up and also to slow down? It’s like the warmth of a heartfelt conversation with an old friend, with the simultaneous stretching and bending of time being something we can all admit to feeling.

Who doesn’t feel a squirm of vulnerability before admitting their failures or describing the ways in which they came up short? And isn’t the relief of forgiveness — and the way it feels like shedding the weight of all that you could have done differently — something to which we all can relate?

These shared feelings, like loss and love and wonder and joy, are the elements that connect us to one another. By

holding up a mirror to other people’s experiences, we can often find the simplest versions of ourselves in that reflection.

With 10 years having passed from that hospital room goodbye, and all the human moments that have transpired across a decade, my perspective is still colored, but not with the sharpness or pain of grief.

Today, my worldview is tinted with an ever-present awareness

of the preciousness of our days and the growing importance of finding ways to connect with the people around me.

So, as you head into the week ahead, with all of the political upheaval that’s sure to ensue, I hope you also find time to watch a sunset-painted sky and to lose yourself in waves crashing endlessly against the sandy shore. Be well.

Retroactive

By BO

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Dan Rose isn’t obedient to political masters in Boise…

Bouquets: • Everyone who votes gets a Bouquet this week. Don’t forget!

Polling places are open Tuesday, Nov. 3 from 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

Barbs • It’s a shame that whoever demolished the old Monarch Mountain Coffee building didn’t make an effort to save the beautiful art mural on the south wall.

This mural was the result of a lot of work from many children and local artists in our community. It should not have been destroyed with the building. At the very least, a call should’ve been made to one of our amazing local art cooperatives like POAC to see if someone wanted to salvage the artwork before demolition began. I just don’t understand this town’s infatuation with eradicating its history without a conscious thought. It would’ve taken 15 minutes to chisel the art piece from the wall, saving perhaps 75% of it. This mural brought smiles and warmth to everyone who saw it over the years. It didn’t deserve to be tossed into the rubbish heap. Believe it or not, people care about this stuff in Sandpoint. If you want to live here, build here, do business here or visit here, you’d do well to respect the art and artists that make this town more than just an empty street through another collection of American sprawl.

• Numerous voters have written to complain that while early voting at the Bonner County Elections office, they noticed that hardly any of the elections workers wore masks. I know there is a population of people in this region that think COVID-19 is just a hoax, or blown out of proportion, but for those of us who believe in science and protecting our community from this deadly pandemic, it’s especially dismaying to see a lack of protection from our elections staff – especially after this recent spike in cases we’ve seen the last week or so.

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Dear editor, Recently, Rep. Sage Dixon issued a letter to the voters of District 1 in which he says he has “consistently worked to protect individual liberties and to uphold the separation of powers between the branches of government.”

Actually, he was onboard with the governor’s destructive stayat-home orders, “non-essential” business closures, infringement on religious services and freedom to assemble, which violated the separation of powers, the U.S. Constitution and Idaho Code.

He claims he has “been part of the effort to alleviate these conditions since the beginning of the crisis.” There is plenty of proof of the opposite. I was shocked when he stood before us and claimed that he saw no errors in what the governor was doing. His refusal to take a stand for the people with the other constitutional legislators spoke volumes. Meanwhile, he collected hefty campaign contributions from the House speaker, PACs and large corporations. He is obedient to his masters in Boise.

If obedience is not your thing, you have a choice: Dan Rose, who decided to run as a write-in candidate against Dixon once all this information surfaced after the primary. Dan is an Iraq War veteran and retired law enforcement officer with a B.A. in business and finance and an M.A. in criminal justice. He currently serves in two unpaid local elected positions and has an extensive volunteer record including VFW junior vice commander. He is well known for his unwavering support for the constitution.

Please take the time to check out writeindanrose.com before casting your vote.

Monique Hutchings Sagle

this will end.

Oh! How I wish to move my clock ahead, and be with you again, my love.

Sandra Deutchman Sandpoint

Vote for Steve Johnson...

Dear editor, The votes by the three-member Bonner County Board of Commissioners are controlled by two extremists who have no qualms about spending taxpayer dollars to further their agenda. Just over a year ago, they voted 2-1 to sue the city of Sandpoint about guns at The Festival. They hired fancy out-of-town lawyers that eventually cost the county around $200,000.

The suit also cost Sandpoint around $94,000 for their lawyers. The county lawsuit was thrown out because they didn’t have standing.

Breaking news this morning, they now plan to pay their lawyers more to appeal the decision to the Idaho Supreme Court.

Defending gun rights is not part of the county commissioners’ job description. The county website says they are “responsible for providing administrative services to Bonner County.” This does not include enforcing the State Constitution or the U.S. Bill of Rights.

Now, Bradshaw is up for re-election to a four-year term, which would allow the two of them to remain in control until at least 2023 when McDonald’s term ends.

We now can see how they plan to spend more of our money. A change in the county commissioners is in order. In these contentious times, we really need a voice of moderation. Steve Johnson would bring that. Steve is a fiscal conservative and Bonner County can also use a dose of that right now.

Ken Thacker Sagle

My watch was upside down...

Disappointed at BoCo’s lack of masking at voting places…

Dear editor, When I looked at my watch this morning, it was upside down.

But then, I decided it was right.

It told me of our days now, when nothing seems to be upright When false is said as if true, and the truth being harder to find.

When we fear to go out.

When we fear to question how

Dear editor, I was distressed and surprised to see that most of the poll workers (and watchers) at the Bonner County early voting site today were not wearing masks or observing social distancing.

Nationally and locally, new COVID-19 cases and deaths are rising.

Idaho is in the top 10 states for new cases. Bonner County has just experienced our first known deaths due to

the virus, and new case numbers are rising. Active cases in Bonner County are the highest they have ever been (per Panhandle Health District numbers as of Oct. 15).

Even though Bonner County rejected a mask mandate, many local businesses and public offices have done the responsible thing and required mask wearing by customers and employees. Citizens must visit the county administration building, whether they want to or not, to transact necessary business, including and not least, voting.

They should be able to do so without endangering their health.

Bonner County supervisors, election officials and Panhandle Health District officials should fulfill their responsibility to ensure that everyone has the freedom to vote without endangering their health due to others’ lack of concern for their health and safety.

You might claim that those who do not want to vote at the polls are free to do so by absentee ballot, but at this point it may be too late to request and be sure of submitting one in time for the election. We all should have the freedom to vote in-person (early or on Election Day) knowing that reasonable precautions to protect our health and welfare are being taken by the responsible authorities.

Donald Laumann Sandpoint

Vote Steve Johnson for Bonner Co...

Dear editor, Steve Johnson will be a great county commissioner and would bring common sense leadership to our county. He will listen to, respect and represent all the residents of Bonner County. He will support public input for all land use decisions.

Steve is against any type of smelter operation in our area. Steve believes in keeping our air and water clean.

He will not pursue expensive lawsuits against our own cities.

He would see that the driver’s license office is staffed at a proper level so there are no longer threehour waits.

Steve Johnson will bring common sense leadership to our county.

Please join me in voting for Steve Johnson for Bonner County commissioner and help bring respect to our county government.

Susan Bates-Harbuck Sandpoint

Vote for commissioners who don’t sabotage local business…

Dear editor, The cost of Bonner County’s lawsuit to allow guns into Sandpoint’s Festival is more than its growing $205,000 in legal fees. Bonner County Commissioners Steven Bradshaw and Dan McDonald instigated this suit, which was struck down as “unpersuasive” and “speculative”

by Judge Lansing Haynes. Bonner County’s decision to appeal wastes taxpayer dollars, further damaging Sandpoint’s image as a destination for this and other events. Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler supports the suit. He and the two commissioners may ultimately cost Bonner County $3 million annually that The Festival generates even if the appeal is shot down by Idaho’s Supreme Court.

Many concert goers won’t buy tickets next year because Wheeler suggests a confrontation will result at the gate if the court rules that guns should not be allowed at concerts manifesting his self-fulfilling prophecy. Others won’t buy tickets if guns are allowed. Haynes ruled, “the court could not assume a confrontation would result from The Festival’s weapons policy.” Earlier this year, McDonald called his “base,” to police a BLM demonstration attended by 25 high-school kids. His militia friends showed up with guns, wearing camo, lining the parade route. Students said they were intimidated by the presence of armed individuals lining the streets. Ticket buyers will be as well. Wheeler supported McDonald.

Is this what concert goers have to look forward to after spending hundreds of dollars on tickets, dinner, gas and hotel room? If The Festival goes bankrupt as a result of this intimidation from Wheeler and McDonald’s base will it rebound or go away permanently? Will Bradshaw, McDonald and Wheeler sue the Lost in the ’50s dance next? Voted officials are supposed to support not sabotage business. Vote Wheeler and Bradshaw out. Their successors have a lot of fence mending to do.

Betty Gardner Priest River

We need Paulette Jordan to replace Risch in the Senate…

Dear editor, Jim Risch is one of the wealthier senators. While wealth in itself does not disqualify him, he has

< see LETTERS, page 9 >

< LETTERS, con’t from page 8 > lost touch with the average Idaho citizen. When was the last time he held a local town hall meeting? Why isn’t he out there campaigning (with mask and safe distancing) telling us all the things he has accomplished?

Does he ever ask you what you want from the government? All I ever see of him is a glossy flyer in my mailbox. He is primarily interested in pleasing his rich donors and corporate interests. I don’t see Sen. Risch working to assist people and small businesses who have suffered from the COVID-19 epidemic.

He enthusiastically voted for an unnecessary tax cut for the top 1%, then professed anxiety over the federal debt. He wants to cut every program for the less financially endowed among us, which includes Medicare and Social Security, along with Medicaid and food assistance.

Our health care is no concern of his. After all, he can afford the best insurance.

It is time for a change in our Senate representation. Paulette Jordan believes in a government “of, by and for the People.” She lives here in North Idaho, and knows our wants and needs. She will protect the environment while promoting a sustainable economy. She will be available to us, will hear our voices and take them to Washington, D.C. This is a time of needed transition. Instead of looking back for stale non-solutions, her attention is focused on the future of our beloved state and nation. We need good health care and support for besieged small businesses. We need to look to science for guidance in our decisions. We need sustainable energy development. We need common sense. We need Paulette Jordan to lead us toward these goals.

Ann Warwick Sandpoint

Reelect Bradshaw to protect Bonner County rights…

Dear editor, Do you want to preserve our way of life, our property rights, our legal right to carry guns and the right to go to church, as the constitution guarantees? Then your vote for county commissioner needs to go to Steve Bradshaw, who has been our commissioner for the past two years.

His opponent thinks the right to carry guns on public property should be suspended if a rock band demands it; that property rights of

longtime business owners should fall by the wayside if new subdivision residents don’t like that business; and that we should just obey and support the public institutions who are imposing draconic, ever-changing health-related restrictions on us that increasingly reveal themselves to have little or no basis in science or fact.

These are the attitudes of Democrats, and his opponent is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, although in the past he has called himself alternately an Independent or Democrat, depending on how the political winds were blowing.

With Steve Bradshaw you don’t have to guess where he stands on your rights, or which party he currently belongs to. He is a conservative Republican.

As such, he provides the balance on the board of commissioners that is quite fragile. Although all three commissioners are registered Republicans, one is a closet Democrat and votes like it. If an actual Democrat like Steve Bradshaw’s opponent were to win, there would be two Democrats on the board of commissioners, and there go our rights in Bonner County.

John F. Weyant Priest River

Bradshaw’s hat is the real deal…

Dear editor, The Daily Bee reported that Bonner County is appealing the issue of denying firearms possession at the Sandpoint Festival on grounds of multiple failures in the judge’s reasoning. This issue won’t go away, and we owe Commissioner Steve Bradshaw a debt of gratitude for having pursued it in the first place.

Steve took the initiative to not let our right to carry guns on public property be trampled. This outraged anti-constitutionalists in the county, who had suddenly become fiscally conservative when it came to the use of public funds to defend the Second Amendment. Steve promised during his 2018 campaign to uphold the constitution. Making good on his promise, he stands out from the politicians who make promises to uphold the Constitution but do not deliver.

Steve’s opponent is a Democrat — this year, having run several times for different positions under different party labels. He can’t seem to decide what he wants to be. For 2020, he wants to be a “Democrat commissioner.”

North Idaho deserves a public

servant who knows what he stands for: That being North Idaho values.

Not Berkeley or Martha’s Vineyard or Portland or Seattle values! We’ve a saying in the West: “all hat and no horse.” Steve wears his hat with authenticity — but his opponent is a phony who switches hats and mounts (currently he’s riding a jackass.) Vote Steve Bradshaw for commissioner, the real deal.

Michelle Parnell Rohrer Priest River

Vote for candidates who unite, not divide…

Dear editor, The largest fear facing us is not poverty, or health care, crime or government overreach, or even climate change. The largest fear facing us is taking sides.

I have felt safe here for 25 years. Then my neighborhood was robbed. Then the sheriff came out and we started a neighborhood watch. The thief was arrested, the stolen goods returned.

Guns appeared at the kids’ march for Black Lives Matter. But I listened to the police chief and to a gun-owning friend. Even though we still need police reform, I feel safer.

We are not at a point where the only way to feel safe is to support government (or anybody) using illegal coercive force or threatening it, something Americans feared even before the country was founded, and especially when it is used against people exercising free speech. This fear unites us.

How will we protect ourselves from COVID? What about fires? The local economy? Will our values of personal responsibility go down the tubes? Can we trust the vote?

Taking sides will only make these fears worse.

It’s hard work to talk to strangers and to listen to them, too. But that’s what we have to do.

Think local. Vote for candidates who do not promote partisanship, who value all of us. Who don’t take sides, but compromise.

Nancy Gerth Sagle

Vote for Steve Johnson...

Dear editor, I already have cast my vote for Steve Johnson for county commissioner. I am confident that he will serve all citizens of our county capably and well, based on his lifetime of work in education,

farming and service to others.

Three of his priorities are to unite our community by asking for and listening to input from citizens; to direct taxpayers’ dollars to funding infrastructure, not lawsuits; and to support our schools. Bonner County needs the leadership he offers.

Please vote early or on Nov. 3rd for Steve Johnson.

Judy Boucias Sandpoint

Steve Johnson for short DMV lines...

Dear editor, Steve Johnson has my vote for county commissioner because I am tired of waiting for county services like getting my drivers license renewed. DMV wait times are typically two to four hours due to a shortage of county staff. We could have hired an additional three DMV staff with the amount of money spent on recent frivolous lawsuits the county has filed. Steve Johnson will fix this.

Steve Johnson will spend our money wisely. Early, in-person, voting is open now (Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.) at the Bonner County Administration Building. Vote Steve Johnson for county commissioner.

Michael Lucid Sandpoint

Steve Johnson for commissioner..

Dear editor, It’s time fresh air blows through our Bonner County commissioners office. The current commissioners show disrespect for all county citizens: with their flagrant misuse of taxpayer dollars in frivolous lawsuits; their disregard for public input; and their misguided votes on the Panhandle Health District Board.

Steve Johnson is all about returning civility and common sense to governance. If elected he would reestablish open lines of “meaningful” communication within Bonner County. Regardless of size, each city or unincorporated area deserves respect and an opportunity to present information. The current climate of divisiveness is costing us not only in money and disharmony but in lives. Yes, lives. Recently, our commissioner to the PHD board voted to rescind the mask mandate in Kootenai County… basically, “because no one was following the mandate or enforcing it, so why bother.” This is ludicrous logic. This was done while Kootenai County is running out of capacity to house new patients during a pandemic.

Steve says, “I believe in science and I believe health care professionals when they issue guidelines and recommendations and the results of research. Yes, if these health care professionals tell us that masks and social distancing will protect vulnerable people and save lives then I believe it is necessary for government to support them.”

We need Steve Johnson to help guide us forward in these troubling times.

Robbie Gleason Sagle

Bring civility back to Bonner Co… Dear editor, I completely agree with Susan Drumheller‘s editorial “Outside agitators Try to turn us against each other” [published in the Daily Bee].

I grew up here in Bonner County and for over 60 years this has been the home I love. Our county citizens have always been a diverse group, but we have always respected each other. Our neighbors are loggers, farmers, back-to-the-landers, retired people, young families, And everything in between. At different times in my life I’ve been a member of all these groups, but I have never, repeat never, observed the rudeness, divisiveness and demonizing of people who disagree with each other. That is not who we are in Bonner County, and not who we want to become. As a candidate for county commissioner I pledge to respect everyone’s viewpoint, I pledge not to waste taxpayer money on lawsuits that should’ve been personal lawsuits with private money, and I pledge to work cooperatively with all the cities And groups in Bonner County. I will work continuously and faithfully to bring unity and mutual respect back to our friendly community, the Bonner County home we all love.

Steve Johnson

Candidate for county commissioner

Sagle

Steve Johnson cares about Bonner County…

Dear editor, Commissioner Steve Johnson will be good for our kids I have known Steve Johnson for a long time and last fall walked the streets with him when we were gathering signatures to put the school funding initiative on the

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state ballot. In addition to being a lifelong Bonner County resident and farmer, Steve Johnson has been a longtime educator. He cares what Bonner County will be like for future generations.

Please vote for Steve Johnson if you want a county commissioner who thinks about our children when making decisions.

Jill Trick Sandpoint

Local Democrat candidates offer solutions…

Dear editor, In this period of crisis, the Bonner County Democrats believe in a united response to our problems, with actions that will slow the virus and allow us to open up our economy again.

We stand behind working families through a living wage, affordable health care, outstanding education and workforce training that will attract businesses with good- paying jobs.

We have excellent candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot. Steve Johnson, running for county commissioner, is a 60-year resident of Bonner County and an experienced educator and administrator. He believes in planned growth, conservative fiscal policy and would display common sense leadership.

Cindy Marx, running for Bonner County sheriff, has served with the EMT Search and Rescue team and has the experience needed to manage the sheriff department’s budget and personnel.

Stephen Howlett, a homebuilder in Bonners Ferry, is running for state representative in District 1. He supports education, access to health care, and “keeping our businesses prosperous, along with a commitment to repair our crumbling highway infrastructures.”

Gail Bolin, running for a House seat in District 1, opposes Representative Heather Scott. Gail will represent all the people in her district, voting for sensible solutions to our problems.

These talented individuals will ensure that Bonner and Boundary counties will continue to lead the way in preserving our values and leading us forward in these uncertain times.

Lee Christensen Sandpoint

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Don’t count on Sage...

Dear editor, Commenting on the Oct. 22 feature story by Lyndsie Kiebert [News, “County appeals Festival suit to Supreme Court”]. I’m a Samuels resident. My question of previous legal fee transfer amounts was offered to establish the increasing annual legal costs to county taxpayers, from 2019 to 2020. I’ve deduced, that the county’s systematic response to violations of their oath of office,and/or the electorate’s public trust is to make one sue the county, who then hires Davillier Law Group to defend the county.

Though this is a counter-intuitive attitude of public service, it is often a successful risk management approach, as the citizen cannot compete on an equivalent financial level in battling two law firms, both funded by the taxpayers. Until the Legislature addresses this uncomfortable issue, the ballot box is the court of public opinion.

In the current county appeal to the Supreme Court, I maintain that the county return to the subordinate seat in the Herndon case, as was the county’s original position.

My representative experience permits the claim that Davillier Law Group also benefits in another cozy government relationship, defending the legal indiscretions of the hospital taxing district’s supermajority.

A two-year denial and ultimate capitulation to an out-of-district funding scheme, and $16 million of inappropriate funding as determined by the Idaho attorney general, are just two examples.

Notwithstanding, I will submit legislative language to address both issues at the upcoming 2021 legislative session. The incumbent received $500 from one who is instrumental in the above, don’t count on Sage for either issue.

Dan Rose Write-in candidate for state representative, District 1B Sagle

Steve Johnson is up to the tasks ahead...

Dear editor, Robust population growth is a serious challenge to Bonner County.

If it’s not properly addressed with land use planning, that growth will significantly impact the quality of our lives and those of future residents. Our southern neighbor, Kootenai County, expects to double

their population in 20 years to over 300,000 residents. One development proposal there, on fertile farmland and over a major aquifer, calls for 4,500 new homes. Bonner County is not immune from development proposals like that. It will happen here, too, without proper guidance from our county commissioners. How our commissioners respond, or not, to this challenge has consequences that will be felt for years to come.

I do not believe that Steve Bradshaw is up to this task. Commissioners make $84,500 per year. One would expect that an elected official with this compensation and responsibility would have good judgement and a strong work ethic. Just based on his response to COVID-19 public health measures, his support for the frivolous and harmful gun rights lawsuit against Sandpoint and his disdain for land use planning, I seriously question his ideologically based judgement.

Steve Johnson is the candidate for county commissioner who will put in the effort and work, and understands the challenges facing our county. His family farm goes back for generations. He will make decisions based on what is best for all its residents.

Ken Meyers Sagle

Bradshaw isn’t earning his pay…

Dear editor, Endorsement letters can be hard to figure out. They hint but don’t explain. I’ll explain.

Steve Johnson is hard working. Bonner County commissioner is a full-time job. Steve will work full time — or more — for you, the taxpayer. He will listen to all and make careful decisions in the interests of our residents, farmers, and businesses.

So what, you might ask?

It’s being said that incumbent Steven Bradshaw is known at county headquarters for not showing up.

He’s said to be barely part-time and not involved. So, he likely doesn’t really know what’s going on. We’re paying this commissioner a salary of roughly $80,000 per year plus benefits. Bradshaw appears to not be earning it.

If you don’t like government waste, vote Johnson. If you want full value, vote Steve Johnson.

Molly O’Reilly Sandpoint

Steve Johnson is up to the tasks ahead...

Dear editor, Robust population growth is a serious challenge to Bonner County.

If it’s not properly addressed with land use planning, that growth will significantly impact the quality of our lives and those of future residents. Our southern neighbor, Kootenai County, expects to double

Steve Johnson is better for Bonner County..

Dear editor, Steve Johnson is running for Bonner County Commissioner. *Steve Johnson will be better for Bonner County because he is a long-time resident with deep roots here. *Steve Johnson will be better for Bonner County because he will add a new voice and balance to the commissioners. *Steve Johnson will be better for Bonner County because he will use his common sense and down to earth experience to solve county issues. *Steve Johnson will be better for Bonner County because he will stand up against frivolous and expensive lawsuits. *Steve Johnson will be better for Bonner County because he will listen to and represent all county citizens not just special interests. *Steve Johnson will be better for Bonner County because he will be your seat at the table and your voice in the discussion.

Vote now! Vote early! Vote for Steve Johnson for a better Bonner County for you.

Cheryl McKee Sagle

Congress wastes money…

Dear editor, Here are a few examples of what Congress has slipped into the next $2.2 trillion corona relief bill. This is why I don’t trust any congressman. This bill is loaded with pork that has, in my opinion, absolutely nothing to do with helping we the people, but everything to do with congressmen’s reelection.

Animal & Plant Inspection Service: $120 million Federal Prison System: $100 million NOAA: $80 million Federal Building Fund: $275

million U.S. Forest Service: $70 million Smithsonian: $8 million JFK Center for Performing Arts: $25 million National Endowment for the Humanities: $75 million Railroad Retirement Board: $5 million Architect of the Capital: $25 million Peace Corps: $88 million Our tax dollars at work, huh?

And I’d bet not one congressman has read this seems-soon-to-be-law bill. But what the heck, let’s reelect them all. It’s just tax dollars.

God bless America, and God bless our military.

Steve Brixen Sandpoint

Dixon walks the talk...

Dear editor, I’d like to thank Rep. Sage Dixon for his continual support for the Lake Pend Oreille School Districts Early Learning Center. We have had a dream of creating a smaller, more adaptive playground for our youngest special needs students.

After hearing my story about trying to raise funds for this project Representative Dixon committed to giving us the proceeds from a walking contest he participates in annually in Boise. He has purposefully participated and earned the money knowing it would go to this project because he believes in it. He recently shared with me his childhood memories of having a special education teacher for a mother and his fond memories of helping with her volunteer work for Special Olympics. This project is close to his heart. He has raised over $2,500 toward our goal of $20,000 for fencing and play equipment. Thank you from all of us! I personally appreciate his attentiveness to our county and his calm presence during this very different year. He has remained attentive and approachable, listening and responding to the concerns of our county and beyond. He has been working to bring attention to struggling small businesses and to keep the public calm but aware. Another Thank you from my family. We will be casting our vote for Sage Dixon in November.

Kathy McDonald Sunnyside

OPINION

HJR 4 just makes sense

By Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke and House Minority Leader Representative Ilana Rubel Reader Contributors

The ballots submitted by the Republican speaker of the House and the Democratic leader of the House will probably look very different this year, but there is one spot where they will look the same.

We are both voting “yes” on HJR 4, and we encourage you to do the same.

The constitutional amendment HJR 4 might seem complicated but it’s really a very simple change. Idaho has had 35 legislative districts since the 1990s, but our constitution currently allows that number to be set as low as 30 districts. This is a census year, which means that next year a redistricting commission will meet to draw

new lines for our congressional and legislative seats, and those lines will be in effect for the coming decade. HJR 4 simply fixes the number of districts at 35, eliminating the possibility that the number of districts will be reduced. Why is this a good idea? Because more legislative districts mean smaller districts, and that means Idaho’s people will have closer contact and easier access to their legislators.

We’d like to put to rest some of the fears and counter-arguments we’ve heard: No. 1: “HJR4 will lead to gerrymandering!” No. Idaho’s district lines will still be drawn by a balanced commission that must reach bipartisan agreement on any new map, as required by our constitution.

No. 2: “HJR4 will lead to unfair over-representation of some parts of Idaho.” No. The

commission will still be required to draw districts that are equivalent in population, with minimal variance between districts. Nothing in HJR4 would allow for unfair over-representation of urban versus rural areas, or north versus south versus east.

No. 3: “HJR4 is a scheme by the Republicans/Democrats to disadvantage the Democrats/ Republicans.” No. There is nothing partisan about HJR4, and during the 2020 session it passed with overwhelming support from legislators of both parties. It just keeps districts smaller so it’s easier for legislators to stay in touch with constituents.

No. 4: “There’s no urgency to act on this right now.” We disagree. District lines will be drawn in 2021. This 2020 election is our last bite at the apple before districts are set for

Be more like Bob

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

The world of Bob Ross was a gentle one. The famed painter — best known for his permed afro, his quiet demeanor and ability to paint one hell of a landscape in less than 30 minutes — is who we should all strive to be more like, especially during these divisive days of 2020.

Ross hosted the show The Joy of Painting that aired from 1983 to 1994 on PBS, but his influence has only grown as internet culture has embraced the gentle soul in everything from ASMR to meme culture.

Now, Hulu is streaming the last five seasons of The Joy of Painting, granting access to this incredible man’s talent and calm presence when we need it most.

Ross was full of funny idiosyncrises. His timeless button-down shirt, jeans and signature afro and beard instantly gave viewers

the impression that they weren’t dealing with an ego-driven artist, but a kind, talented man who only wanted to spread joy through his chosen art form of painting. The most aggressive Ross ever got on his show was to “beat the devil” out of his “two-inch bristle brush” after cleaning it — an action that always made him laugh as he thwapped it dry on the easel legs.

Leading viewers along on his journey, Ross created landscapes filled with “happy little trees” and “big ol’ mountains,” for budding painters who followed along at home on their own canvases.

Whether viewers actually painted along or not, Ross’ show galvanized a huge audience that simply enjoyed watching him work and listening to his kind voice.

Ross grew up in Florida and spent his adolescence caring for injured animals like squirrels, armadillos, snakes and alligators. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and

10 years. At 35 districts, there would be about 51,000 people per district. Without HJR4, we could end up with 30 districts, with 60,000 people per district, a substantial increase that reduces access to representation. If that were to happen, we couldn’t fix it for a decade. The only way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to pass HJR4 now.

No. 5: “We don’t need to pass this because the commission would never choose to reduce the number of districts.”

We’re not so sure of that.

Moreover, It’s not necessarily up to the commission. Many maps are thrown out by courts, which could decide that the number of districts must be reduced to accommodate various criteria set in case law (e.g. you’re supposed to keep counties intact, keep communities of interest together, etc.). HJR4 is the only real assurance that

we won’t end up with reduced representation.

In short, there’s no Trojan horse that will be sprung on Idahoans if HJR 4 is approved by the voters. Idaho is the one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, adding 230,000 people since the last redistricting in 2011. We’d hate to see this larger population get fewer representatives than they have now. Our goal is simply to ensure that Idahoans are represented in the legislature by elected representatives they can readily access — people who share their streets, neighborhoods and businesses. Setting the number of legislative districts at 35 will advance this goal. We hope you’ll join us in voting “yes” on HJR 4.

From his ‘happy little trees’ to his calm demeanor, Bob Ross is who we should all strive to be more like in today’s world

rose to the rank of master sergeant over his 20-year service career.

He developed a quick technique to painting as a result of having brief daily work breaks — little did he know it would change the world of painting forever when starting his show a couple decades later.

He was based in Alaska for most of his tenure in the military, which inspired many of the mountains, lakes, snow and log cabin scenes that he is known for.

Many compared Ross to Fred Rogers, the host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, because they both exuded feelings of calm, acceptance and encouragement to their viewers that they could accomplish anything they wanted to if they only gave it a shot.

The Joy of Painting was ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, before anyone even knew what that was. To have the ability to watch Ross create his works of art and talk to the viewer

as if they were the only one in the room is stress relief personified.

“He’s sort of the godfather of ASMR,” Joan Kowalski, the president of Bob Ross Inc., once said. “People were into Bob Ross for ASMR reasons before there was ASMR.” When asked once about his calm and relaxed approach on the show, Ross said, “I got a letter from somebody here a while back, and they said, ‘Bob, everything in your world seems to be happy.’ That’s for sure. That’s why I paint. It’s because I can create the kind of world that I want, and I can make this world as happy as I want it. Shoot, if you want bad stuff, watch the news.”

Looking back on his career from today’s vantage point, a person like Bob Ross likely couldn’t exist in today’s harsh world. Cruel internet culture probably would have skewered him and made fun of him relentlessly for his sim-

Bob Ross in his element, hosting The Joy of Painting. Courtesy photo. ple, easy approach to loving the world around you and creating art that was devoid of the struggles that dominate our modern era.

I, for one, am glad he existed. I wish we could all be a little more like Bob Ross. Maybe then we’d realize that it doesn’t matter what political ideology we subscribe to or what god we choose to worship, because when you bring love to the table, you get it right back.

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Mad about Science:

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist

raccoons

This week’s topic was suggested by Kim Woodruff of Sandpoint Parks and Recreation.

Thank you!

Some call the raccoon cute and cuddly. Others call it a nuisance. Personally, I like to call it a trash panda.

Despite this silly moniker, raccoons aren’t actually related to pandas or bears at all. They are part of the procyon family, and are more closely related to ring-tailed cats, which are confusingly more like squirrels or lemurs than cats.

As you have come to know from living around here, raccoons are nocturnal omnivores that will eat just about anything they can get their dextrous little claws on. Most frequently, this means our garbage, simply because it’s easy to get into, as well as being aromatic — trash may not have an appealing smell to us, but for an animal that needs to load up on as many calories as it can, it must smell like an all you can eat waffle buffet.

Despite their adaptability and prevalence in human society, they are a relatively new creature on the evolutionary tree, having emerged only about 10 million years ago. This is in contrast to animals like primates, which have been around for at least 55 million years.

You have probably seen multiple raccoons at a time and watched them comically scatter the moment you make eye contact. This behavior is generally only among raccoon families — generally a mother and her kits. They aren’t particularly social creatures, but a mother and 12 /

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a nursery (a litter of kits) will stick to one another like glue for the first three months of life, until the kits grow large enough to venture out on their own.

A female raccoon can birth as many as seven kits in a nursery after two months of pregnancy.

Despite the short gestation period, raccoons will generally only breed once a year.

Winter is the hardest time of the year for raccoons. They will sleep (but not hibernate) for prolonged periods of time while their body uses stored fat cells to keep them alive through winter.

During particularly long and difficult winters, a raccoon will often leave its den to search for food. This is why you may tend to see them more frequently in late January and into February, especially if you own livestock, as they will kill and eat birds as large as geese.

Despite their cute and cuddly appearance, you should never attempt to engage with a raccoon. They can be extremely aggressive and protective of their young. They are additionally equipped with extremely sharp teeth and powerful foreclaws that could easily remove tender human fingers. Yet the bad news doesn’t stop there! Raccoons, being scavengers, are prime vectors for diseases such as rabies and roundworm. You’ll live without those 35 Instagram likes, don’t take a selfie with the raccoon.

Raccoons are remarkably athletic creatures. They are capable of running up to 15 miles per hour and falling more than 10 times their body length without suffering injury. Pair this with their five-toed prehensile claws and a mouth full of sharp teeth and you have a sneaky back-

yard bandit that can get almost anywhere. They will often make dens in trees in the wild, so climbing up a six-foot chain link fence is simplicity itself.

Trees aren’t the only places a raccoon will call home. Any cavity that is large enough to comfortably fit them and shield them from the elements is fair game, be it a tree, a cave or the attic above your head. They seem to prefer higher places, likely because of the absence of humans and other predators.

Despite their arsenal of natural weaponry, raccoons have a lot of predators in the natural world ranging from bears, foxes, wolves, cougars and even large owls. Most of those don’t venture into human settlements, which gives your neighborhood raccoon peace of mind.

Even though they’re frequently diseased, raccoons are obsessive neat-freaks. They are known for frequent grooming, and have been observed digging latrine pits near places they live. This is rare behavior in the animal world.

If you are suffering from a raccoon infestation, it’s probably time to call in professional help.

If you’re not even sure where to start, ask a librarian. They can easily give you better advice than I can. What I can tell you is that you should never attempt to catch the raccoon without first consulting someone with some experience. If you’ve managed to trap the raccoon and are unsure about what to do now, there aren’t a lot of options available.

Relocating wild raccoons isn’t legal unless you can irrefutably prove that it’s free of diseases — something no one with a pest problem will go out of their way to do.

“Say cheese! Or coffee grounds, or anything in your trash, actually.” Courtesy photo.

A few ways to prevent raccoons from inhabiting your home is to buy secure or lockable trash cans when storing your garbage outside. Racoons, like myself, love an easy meal.

If they have to spend too much time and energy trying to reach their food, they’re more likely to go bother your neighbors instead. Additionally, check your home (particularly your attic and

basement) for breaches or gaps as small as six inches wide, as well as checking these spaces every few days, and cleaning them every couple of weeks.

Increased human presence will usually make these denning sites too problematic for a raccoon, and it will look elsewhere for a home.

Happy Halloween! Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner es?

Don’t know much about zombi • The word “Zombie” has been derived from the African word “nzambi” which means “God.” • Around the globe, October 8 is celebrated as World Zombie Day. • There are many diseases that exhibit symptoms similar to the Zombies. Humans infected with rabies through the saliva of an animal bite show symptoms such as hallucinations, fever, paralysis and death. African Sleeping Sickness, referred to medically as African Trypanosomiasis is spread to humans from the bit of a tsetse fly and can be fatal if untreated. Leprosy is spread by airborne droplets from a cough or a sneeze and affets the nervous symptoms, skin, eyes and nose. Those suffering from Leprosy show red skin blotches, reduced sensation, numbness and weakness in hands and feet. Necrosis is a disease that literally destroys cells.

Kuru Disease, common among the Fore people of Papua New Ginea is a rare neurodegenerative disorder causing coordination loss and neurodegeneration. Finally, Yaws Disease can cause people to actually

We can help!

look like zombies.

• There is a law in Haiti that stated that is a crime to turn someone into a zombie.

• In 2011, the US government drafted CONPLAN 8888-11, a real plan detailing a strategy to defend against a zombie attack.

• On 18 May 2011, the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a graphic novel for providing tips to survive a zombie invasion.

• Films featuring zombies have been a part of cinema since the 1930s, when White Zombie was released as one of the earliest examples.

• Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man who may have actually been turned into a zombie, according to local legend (and some newspaper stories). The story is long, and skeptics are right to question some of the details, but it’s worth Googling for a spooky Halloween tale to scare your kiddos.

PERSPECTIVES

Voting: Encourage a generational difference

By Paul Graves Reader Contributor I offer a challenge to readers of the Reader: If you have adult children, grandchildren of voting age, or younger friends of voting age, please take this message seriously. We have a chance to make a generational difference.

Here’s a round-figure illustration of what I mean: Bonner County has about 46,000 people (give or take). The percentage of people aged 65+ in Idaho is 16.3%. That’s close enough to our county’s older population percentage for this example. That means approximately 7,498 people in Bonner County are aged 65 and older — a significant number.

I don’t know how many of those persons voted in 2018, but 48.1% of eligible Idaho voters did vote. That suggests about 3,606 county residents aged 65+ voted. Again, a significant number.

What if a majority of those people who voted intentionally urged their adult children or grandchildren (of voting age) to become registered voters and vote in the Nov. 3 General Election? That could mean 3,606 older adults could extend their own voting power beyond themselves.

When we talk with our children and vote-eligible grandchildren about voting, we

exercise responsible citizenship by example and education.

Wherever they live, they can vote. In Bonner County, we have only a few more days before Nov. 3. The time-urgency is upon us, folks.

My wife and I don’t have family here in Bonner County.

Our son and family live in the Portland, Ore. area. I checked with them a few days ago about whether they had voted.

Of the four votes in their family, two had mailed in their ballots and the other two were voting this week.

Have you voted yet? Are you planning to vote?

Or perhaps you are someone who believes your vote “doesn’t matter.” It does. Maybe it won’t look like it matters if a particular contest isn’t close. But consider this: If you don’t vote, you are basically giving some of your personal power over to “the masses.”

I often find myself voting for persons who lose. Why do I vote? In part it’s because I want the winner to know that he or she has people who disagree with him/her — and they are part of those he/she also represents. It’s an accountability thing with me. My accountability to the election process, as well as the candidates’ accountability to the citizens.

Do you know someone from another generation who hasn’t voted yet? Can you encourage

that person to consider voting in the next few days? Not haphazardly, but thoughtfully and informed. You may make a bigger difference in that person’s life than you ever expected.

Friday, Oct. 30, is the last day we can vote in person at the Elections Office at the County Administration Building. They are open for voting 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (On Nov. 3, go to your regular polling place.)

If you already have an absentee ballot but haven’t put it in the mail yet, consider bringing to the elections staff at the county building. You can actually give them your absentee ballot in return for an in-person ballot.

The absentee ballot will then be voided. Doing it this way will guarantee you don’t take a chance on delayed mail service.

And oh, did I mention? If you have a younger family member who hasn’t voted yet,

invite them to join you. You can vote together. Whether you’re a veteran vote, a first-timer or an occasional voter, step up Oct. 30 — or Tuesday, Nov. 3 — and do yourself and a younger voter a patriotic favor.

Designed by Ben Olson.

Paul Graves, M.Div., is Lead Geezer-in-Training for Elder Advocates, a consulting ministry on aging issues. Contact Paul at 208-610-4971 or elderadvocates@nctv.com.

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HISTORY

A brush with death at the museum

By Hannah Combs Reader Contributor

“D13, shelf 4; D13, shelf 4,” I muttered to myself as I hurried through the archives. I needed to pull one more artifact for tomorrow’s presentation before closing up. Though alone in the large building, I was at ease in the bright lights and familiar surroundings. The tiny coin I sought was probably at the bottom of a box; the entire shelf would have to be searched.

I carefully lowered a pot to the floor, and behind it was what looked like a piece of thick rope, neatly coiled. I lifted it off the shelf, brought it into the light, and my stomach dropped. I made myself take a deep breath and laid the noose out on the floor. Its stout knot looked bright and fresh, but the ends of the rope were frayed into tufts of soft fiber, and gray discoloration lined the noose’s loop. I suddenly wanted very much to be anywhere but alone in the archives. How in the world did the museum acquire a noose?

There are more than a million objects and archival materials in the museum’s collection, and they all arrived in the same way: because an individual believed that the object has value. Dr. Maryam Afshar wrote her dissertation at Washington State University on object attachment and identified six distinct reasons people assign value to things and hold onto them. But why would they donate them to a museum?

Tax benefits aside, most donations are made for sentimental reasons or what Afshar calls “self-concept” reasons.

When a museum accepts a gift from a donor, it promises to care for that object while it is in the collection. The high level of preservation is appealing to someone with sentimental attachments who can’t bear to see family heirlooms neglected or thrown away. Museums can also help tell the story of the object and the people to whom it belonged, preserving the sense of identity that the object extended to its former owner.

Dr. Milhaly Csikszntmihalyi, professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University, defines the reason people most often save objects as instrumental materialism, in which the object is “a

bridge to another person” or to a feeling.

To many people, special objects can trigger chains of memory that remind us who we are. A dress may not simply be a piece of cloth on a hanger, but an object that evokes a swirl of twinkling lights, the adoring gaze of a dance partner, even the essence of youth.

The more intensely we feel a particular moment, the more likely we are to make these connections between the event and the objects we associate with it. While our lives are marked by many deeply felt moments, few are as powerful or unavoidable as experiencing the death of a loved one. For this reason, objects connected to death are likely to be held onto and eventually to find their way to the museum.

Some objects in the collection are associated with ceremonies that honor a death, some are sentimental keepsakes and some are artifacts connected to the event of the death itself. These associations may be explicit or mysterious.

Two of the Native American pestles in the museum’s collection show the marks of deep cracks on the surface.

They were unearthed in the Hope area and may have ties to the Kalispel tribe.

It is believed that these cracks are the result of intentional breakage inflicted during a burial ceremony, symbolizing that in death the owner of the tool would no longer have need of it.

Many of us keep objects that belonged to a loved one as a way to honor their memory, but during the 19th century sentimental keepsakes were created from remnants of the loved one themself.

According to C. Jeanenne Bell, jewelry historian, Victorian women fashioned creative ways to wear the hair of their dearly departed by weaving it like bobbin lace into bracelets, rings, and brooches. At its culmination, hairwork jewelry designs became so elaborate that people would buy additional swatches of hair to supplement the hair from the beloved; during this period, hair fetched a higher price than silver in some parts of the country. One exceptional example of hairwork, an elaborate “mourning wreath” in the shape of a lyre, was made in the 1880s by Jennie Whitaker and passed down through the Gorsline family before being donated to the museum.

Perhaps the most unsettling are objects left behind that have a direct connection

to the event of a death. Lt. Jack Thomas Crawford, while on a “scramble” mission out of Geiger Air Force Base in 1953, was killed when his F-86D Sabre jet fighter crashed into the pole yard of the L.D. McFarland Pole Co. in Sandpoint. The foreman of the plant recovered a scrap of Crawford’s helmet, and it eventually made its way to the museum.

The noose as a symbol always evokes violent death, but this particular artifact sent shudders through me because of what it didn’t say. According to the museum’s database, on New Year’s Day in 2015, the noose was found in the museum’s collection with no note, with no documentation whatsoever. Its story and its arrival at the museum remain a mystery.

Every object in the collection holds within it a story of those who lived and died with the objects, as well as those who held onto them, seeking connection through them. Whether the story is well-documented or not, it demands our

The mysterious noose found by the author at the Bonner County History Museum with no known attribution listed for who donated it or why. Courtesy photo. respect and care. So with gravity, I coiled the noose back into its place, briskly left the building and took a deep breath of cold, clear air.

Research provided by the Bonner County History Museum, The Atlantic’s article “For the Love of Stuff,” and the book Collecting Victorian Jewelry. At the museum, we are fortunate to be able to preserve and share your objects for a lifetime; consider us if you would like to donate an object that tells the story of Bonner County — even its darkest history.

This article is brought to you by the Bonner County Historical Society and Museum.

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HALLOWEEN FEATURE

Rascal’s visit Encountering the afterlife in the presence of pets

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff While others walk around with a distinct and unsettling ghost story in their memories, I am nearly without.

Perhaps I should count myself fortunate in that regard. My creepiest tales are borrowed from years of listening to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark on tape, or from watching The Ring movies on repeat at slumber parties.

The only ghostlike experiences that have truly convinced me that I’m in the presence of an unsettled spirit have involved animals.

When I first brought home my cattle dogmix Mac, a friend of mine said, “Oh, those dogs like to stare.”

“OK?” I thought to myself. “Don’t all dogs stare?”

Still, I can admit, the intensity of Mac’s stare is far from normal. She went through a phase at around 6 months old when she would stand in the doorway separating our kitchen from our dining room and just stare into the empty room. Sometimes she

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would growl or whimper. On some occasions, she’d even bark — but never advance farther into the room.

There were no cars going by on the road outside, no commotion in the yard to prompt her strange behavior. The only answer in my paranoid mind? She was seeing something that I couldn’t.

The house I live in is a century old, and has no doubt seen a lot in its long life. I take solace in the fact that I knew the people who last called this place home, and who bid it farewell when they passed on. Could they have some unfinished business in this

world and still be hanging around? I’ve decided that I’d be cool with it if they are.

Would I be cooler with it if Mac would quit making me aware of their presence?

Most definitely.

But my most ghostly experience happened when I was around 8 years old, when my dad’s horse, Hickory, passed away. I had very little experience with death at that point in my life — save for a couple of family cats, Rascal and Milo — and had a hard time grasping the loss.

My dad and some family members took care of Hickory’s burial on my parents’ property near some fruit trees in a spot visible from the driveway. Weeks passed, the grass at the burial site began to grow back, and life continued unremarkably for an 8-year-old girl.

That is, until the cat arrived.

I’m sure he hung around for more than the one instance I clearly recall, but once was all I needed to believe that I’d seen something truly supernatural.

Our neighborhood was not known for stray cats casually hanging out in the open, so I immediately took note when I saw one sitting on Hickory’s grave. He had familiar white, gray and black markings, and sat completely still, looking at me. It was Rascal.

My memory only goes that far. I don’t remember if I was in a car or on my bike. I don’t remember him running off or casually sauntering away. My recollection of the event stops at that single, chilling thought.

I remain surprised today that my young brain jumped to that conclusion. Perhaps most likely is that I wasn’t fabricating the thought at all — I just knew. The feelings of eeriness and ghost-story-esque chills come to me only now, as an adult. At the time, it was an easy and comforting conclusion — our ghost cat came to reunite with our recently deceased horse, to say goodbye or, possibly, to lead Hickory’s spirit into the afterlife.

However you spin it, it made me a believer. Happy spooky season.

Road Reflections First snow

By Steve Klatt Reader Contributor After last week’s snow storm, the Bonner County Road Department received a few complaints and there is no doubt that many times we can do a better job. However, as with most issues, there is generally another side to every story.

I have lived in Bonner County for 65 years and this is the second snow storm of significance I have seen in October. A week ago it was decent fall weather and we were still working on road constructive maintenance. Our equipment was in summer mode when we became aware of the weather front moving our way on Friday.

Our crews busted their chops to convert dump trucks into sanders over the last week, including putting in overtime on Friday trying to get another truck ready. One complication in the conversion of trucks is the maintenance matters that become apparent when we pull dump boxes off and put sanders on. These must be addressed when observed at that point in time. This process slows things down.

October is a month when our crews schedule time off and all of our crews are shorthanded. Where people have directed criticism to our crew, I am commending their efforts and their response to the rural drivers of Bonner County. We had half our fleet ready and half our crew available, so our response was stretched pretty darn thin, but respond we did. We had people in on their days off, on major roads at night, and the crew rolled out by 4 a.m. on Saturday.

My observation is you are fortunate to have a road crew that cares about your driving safety as much as Bonner County’s crew does.

Steve Klatt is the director of Bonner County Road and Bridge.

November Parks and Recreation programming

By Reader Staff Sandpoint Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces will be offering the following programming in November: • Monday, Nov. 2: CPR/AED with optional First Aid. Online registration deadline Thursday, Oct. 29.

• Mondays, Nov. 9-30: salsa boot camp (partner work). Online registration deadline Nov 2.

• Sunday, Nov. 15: outdoor shooting range closes for the season. Dates and hours of operation are posted online. A range calendar can be found at sandpointidaho.gov.

LITERATURE

Previewing A Horn is Born

New illustrated children’s book by Bill Borders is a fun diversion from the mad, mad world

By Ben Olson Reader Staff Sometimes even the most innocuous objects get their time to shine. That’s the story behind the new illustrated children’s book A Horn is Born, by Sandpoint’s Bill Borders, on sale Nov. 1.

Featuring whimsical artwork by Melizza Chernov and warm prose by Borders, A Horn is Born is the story of Old Shoehorn, who lived a humble life backstage in a room where musicians prepared for their performances. Surrounded by musical horns who teased Old Shoehorn “with sour-note faces,” the hero of this fun children’s book gets his time in the spotlight after being relegated to his perfunctory chores of helping musicians put on their fancy shoes before the show.

When the maestro snaps his baton and is in dire need of a replacement, Old Shoehorn is finally given his time to shine when he’s used on stage, generating ovations and encores from the crowd. Old Shoehorn is pleased when all the trumpets, flutes, trombones and French horns finally “had to follow his beat.”

Borders, who many readers may recognize as the artist behind the weekly Reader comic Laughing Matter, said he was inspired to create the story while noticing an old shoehorn hanging in his closet.

“Every morning as I got dressed, I’d see this old, longish shoehorn hanging in my closet; something I somehow ended up with from my father,” Borders said. “I wondered why it was called a ‘horn’ at all. Eventually I decided there might be a story in that somewhere and started writing.”

Coming from a career in advertising, Borders said there are many similarities between a great ad and a great picture book.

“Both hinge on a fresh idea,” Borders said. “Both rely on the interplay of words and visuals to complete the message. Both tug at the heart more than the head. And both seem much easier to do than they actually are.”

Going from a “hotshot creative director to know-nothing novice,” Borders said he studied the craft, took workshops and webinars and enlisted the help of picture book guru and a former employee Matt Myers and his wife Maya.

After posting an early draft of A Horn is Born on 12x12’s Full Manuscript Forum, Alayne Christian helped prod Borders on to complete the project.

“Thanks to her ability to sniff the slightest of potential, [Alayne] reached out to

me,” Borders said.

“And the process of revising, re-writing, re-polishing and re-re-re-tweaking began.”

Written in rhyming couplets, A Horn is Born’s words pair with Chernov’s illustrations perfectly, painting the world of Old Shoehorn with a nostalgic glow. Borders said though it “complicated matters,” writing the book in verse was essential for the story.

“Shoehorn lives in a musical world, so, begrudgingly, it felt like the rhythm of rhyme was almost mandatory,” he said.

After the mechanics of the verse were smoothed out, Christian, as editor of Blue Whale Press, involved Borders in the illustrator selection process.

“We reviewed many cool portfolios and finally mutually agreed on our first choice,” Borders said.

But the first artist withdrew from the project after four months and sent Borders back to the drawing board.

“What seemed like a huge setback turned out to be a major blessing,” he said. “It led us to Melizza Chernov, with her own cute but not cutesy way — even a little edgy.”

Chernov, a Rhode Island School of Design alumna, said her artwork is inspired by “the quirky and the unusual.”

She and her five siblings spent their early years living in a project housing community in Queens, New York where she learned her most important lessons about artistic expression. She currently lives in Massachusetts.

Two-and-a-half years after it was first conceived, A Horn is Born was, well, born.

Borders acknowledges that A Horn is Born is a, “little unusual for a children’s book: no kids, no animals, no heavy equipment. Just an old-fashioned, long-handled shoehorn who’s hung around a band’s dressing room for years, putting feet into shoes while putting up with taunts from all the ‘real horns.’ Yes, it’s a tale about music and instruments, but it’s also about bullying and bearing up under it.”

Early reviews have been very positive, with one reader writing, “I can’t think of a better way to introduce a

young reader to the magic of music and tempt them to discover, like Old Shoehorn, where their musical talents may lie.”

Read more about Bill Borders at bocinc. com. See more of Melizza Chernov’s work at melizzachernov.com. To purchase A Horn is Born, check with your local booksellers, or purchase online. Published by Blue Whale Press, an imprint of Clear Fork Publishing.

Top left: The cover of A Horn is Born, written by Bill Borders with art by Melizza Chernov.

Top right: A sneak peak at one of the wonderfully drawn pages inside Borders’ book. Courtesy photos.

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COMMUNITY

Angels Over Sandpoint 2020 Back to School program

By Reader Staff The Angels Over Sandpoint 2020 Back to School distribution was a little different this year. Due to COVID-19, the plan relied on for many years needed to change.

This annual program is devoted to providing backpacks and school supplies for students residing in Bonner County each school year. Back to School was founded in 2002 as a grass roots initiative to assist limited income school children in Bonner County, ensuring they received the supplies needed to start their school year off right. Collaborating with local partners, Staples, Sandpoint Super Drug and Walmart have helped make the program a success for local students.

Before COVID-19, backpacks and supplies were picked up by students and families at the Farmin-Stidwell gymnasium the week before school started. Supplies were sorted by appropriate grade levels based on supply lists provided by the schools. Families signed up through the Community Action Partnership to receive supplies each year. Information about how to sign up is promoted in newspapers, on social media, through local services and organizations, and can also be found on the Angels website.

In order for supplies to be distributed this year, local school Superintendents Tom Albertson and Paul Anselmo were contacted and a plan was created to deliver supplies to individual schools. This meant supplies had to be unpacked, sorted and grouped by school.

It was a much bigger job than originally expected when planning for the project started earlier in the year. Deliveries were made the week school started and the week after.

“We had tremendous help from the West Bonner County School District,” the Angels wrote in a news release. “They picked up the supplies from Staples for the schools in their district.”

The program’s success would not be possible without the help of Staples, especially Ponderay General Manager Ryan Wells, and his team. Staples rents a moving van every year to deliver the supplies to the Angels at Farmin-Stidwell Elementary School. This year they used the moving van to deliver supplies to many of the schools in Bonner County.

When the program started, the Angels provided school supplies to about 20 students. In 2020, they provided school supplies to approximately 1,300 students. This program is sustained in large part by local donations and supplemental grant funding.

Washington Elementary School staff pose with school supSupplies go to all public schools in Bonner plies donated by the Angels Over Sandpoint. Courtesy photo.

County and some home-school students.

“Typically enough supplies are purchased each year for approximately 1,000 students,” but are still in need.” said Robin Hanson, Back to School Program The program continues to be a success coordinator for the Angels Over Sandpoint. because of the generosity of Bonner County “This year I increased the number to 1,300 community members. since we didn’t have to buy as many new “Donations not only give students backpacks because we distributed what we school supplies, they help out families in had left over from 2019. I also increased the need and in turn, makes our community number of students we provided supplies stronger,” the Angels stated. for due to the supplies being available at the For more information on the Angels schools. My hope is we can reach kids who Over Sandpoint, or to make a donation, visit have never signed up before to get supplies angelsoversandpoint.org.

North Idaho Cardiac Rehab reopens in Sandpoint

By Reader Staff

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Following the opening of North Idaho Cardiac Rehabilitation this month, the North Idaho Medical Village is now home to the first Pritikin-certified Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation program in the state.

Serving the Idaho Panhandle from its location at 30544 Highway 200, Suite 103 in Ponderay, NICR specializes in helping patients manage and overcoming the changes that have transpired following a cardiac event — assisting them in making the necessary lifestyle changes to prevent a recurrence. The clinic is now open and accepting patients.

During the Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation program at NICR, patients will experience medically supervised exercise tailored to current fitness levels; engage with Pritikin educational videos, workshops and cooking classes; and receive education on exercise, healthy eating and mind-set. Patients in the program will be led by a team consisting of experts in the fields of exercise, medicine, nutrition and mental health.

NICR is led by Dr. Ronald Jenkins, MD and Lori Morris, RN. The medical director is Dr. Ronald Jenkins, a cardiologist, who has worked in his field for 38 years. The program director is Lori Morris, a registered nurse, who has worked in the cardiac rehab field for more than14 years. / October 29, 2020

“We are excited to be able to reopen a cardiac rehab clinic in the Sandpoint area utilizing the Pritikin program,” said Morris.

“It offers our community’s cardiac patients a comprehensive approach to the cardiac care they need after experiencing a serious heart event.”

According to the World Health Organization, 80% of all heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes can be prevented through healthier lifestyle choices. The Pritikin program was developed by Nathan Pritikin, who believed that diet and exercise should be the first line of defense against cardiovascular disease. Numerous studies have documented the Pritikin program’s ability to lower blood cholesterol levels, improve blood pressure, control blood sugar and reduce other lifestyle-related risk factors.

Pritikin Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation has been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. People who have had a heart attack within the past 12 months, or have ever had a coronary artery bypass surgery, current stable angina pectoris, heart valve repair/replacement, stenting, heart or heart-lung transplant, or chronic heart failure are eligible for ICR. Potential program participants should ask their health care provider about eligibility for the ICR program.

For questions or more information call 208-946-5374, email at nicr@niosm.com or visit northidcardiacrehab.com.

COMMUNITY

Join the Forest Service

Agency accepting applications for more than 1,000 seasonal positions in Idaho and Montana

By Reader Staff The USDA Forest Service will be accepting applications for more than 1,000 seasonal spring and summer jobs across Idaho and Montana from Oct. 30-Nov. 9.

Nearly 100 positions will be located on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, working out of duty locations at Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, St. Maries, Avery, Bonners Ferry and Nordman. Positions are available in multiple fields, including fire, recreation, natural resources, timber, engineering, visitor services and archaeology.

Applications must be submitted on usajobs.gov. More information about seasonal employment, available positions and application instructions can be found at fs.usda. gov/main/r1/jobs. Interested applicants are encouraged to create a profile on USAJOBS

in advance to save time once the hiring process begins.

“Every year the Forest Service hires thousands of seasonal employees to help carry out the many tasks associated with the stewardship of our country’s National Forests,” said Jeanne Higgins, forest supervisor for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

“Here in North Idaho, we’re seeking a diverse group of candidates with a passion for public service and natural resources to join our team.”

The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world.

Free organs seek musical home Two free organs at Bizarre Bazaar, and CAL is seeking Healing Garden volunteers

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff The Community Assistance League is seeking homes for two organs that are collecting dust at Bizarre Bazaar, as well as calling for volunteers to help put the hospital’s Healing Garden to bed for the winter.

Despite their best efforts, CAL members have not been able to find loving, musical homes for two organs that have been donated to the organization’s secondhand store, Bizarre Bazaar. One is a computerized Wurlitzer Omni 4000, and the other is one of the first electric Conn Strummer organs.

The organs and their respective benches are free to whoever can pick them up and haul them off.

“These beauties really need to find a home,” said store co-manager Cheri Warber.

Those interested in an organ should call Bizarre Bazaar at 208-263-3400.

As for the Healing Garden, CAL members are planning a clean-up day for Saturday, Oct. 31 and need the community’s help 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Halloween masks are encouraged, and volunteers are asked to bring rakes, gloves and tarps, if possible. Bonner General will provide coffee and muffins, and volunteers might even be able to take some plants home to their own gardens.

The Healing Garden is located at the north end of the hospital on Sand Creek.

Those with questions can call Helen Tapp at 208-946-1080.

Rail bridge work extends into Sandpoint

By Reader Staff The city of Sandpoint recently issued an access permit to BNSF’s contractor performing work on and over Bridge Street near City Beach. Construction started the week of Oct. 12 and will continue through the end of April 2021.

Work includes constructing a new railroad bridge over Bridge Street between the byway and railroad structures. For the safety of workers, motorists and pedestrians, the contractor will occasionally close a single lane of travel.

Bridge construction will require removal and replacement of the sidewalks under the new structure. Pedestrian access will be maintained through the project on at least one side of Bridge Street.

Activities will primarily occur Monday through Friday, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pile driving is limited to the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. within city limits. The city encourages users to be alert in the work zone and to please keep travel speeds to a minimum. More information on BNSF’s project can be found at keepsandpointrolling.com.

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events

October 29 - November 5, 2020

THURSDAY, October 29 FriDAY, October 30

Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin 8-10pm @ The Back Door Live Music w/ Nick Canger 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Haunted Hope 5-7pm @ Davis Grocery and Mercantile Spooky, kid-friendly Halloween fun!

Live Jazz w/ Bright Moments Jazz 5-8pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co.

Singles costume contest @ A&P’s Bar and Grill Prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd and 4rd.

DJ Shanner . No cover.

Halloween Party 5:30-7:30pm @ Bonner Co. Fairgrounds Kid’s Halloween Party hosted by the Fair

SATURDAY, october 31

Live Music w/ Doug & Marty 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Live Music w/ Big Phatty and the Inhalers 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Trunk or Treat 3-5pm @ North Summit Church Parking lot is transformed into a Halloween hub. Space for 25 cars Brittany Jean in Concert 7pm @ Panida Theater Nashville recording artist. $15/adult, $10/18 and under. BJeanMusic.com Live Music w/ Nights of Neon 9pm @ 219 Lounge Funk, hip-hop, reggae and jazz fusion band playing until midnight

Couples costume contest @ A&P’s Bar and Grill Prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd and 4rd.

DJ Kevin. Must be present to win.

Halloween Party at the Back Door Music w/ Chris Lynch & Mike Thompson 8-10pm @ The Back Door Best costume design gets $100 gift card!

Museum Trick-or-Treating 4-7pm @ Lakeview Park Biggest Halloween celebration in town! Apple cider, popcorn, spooky photobooth, and the Haunted Woods open until midnight.

Free event. Volunteers wearing masks/gloves St. Bootober Bash 5-11pm @ St. Bernard (Schweitzer) The St. Bernard’s first ever Halloween party! Prizes for best costumes

SunDAY, November 1 monDAY, November 2

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ Truck Mills 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Lifetree Cafe 2pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant Practical Help for Getting Unstuck in Life

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Monday Night Run Posse (free) 6pm @ Outdoor Experience

COMMUNITY

BCEDC launches 2nd round of recovery funds Public-private partners contribute to fund

By Reader Staff The Bonner County Economic Development Corporation announced Oct. 22 a second round of Economic Response and Recovery Funds at bonnercountyedc.com/errfund.

Bonner County-based businesses are encouraged to review the criteria online and submit an application for consideration by the ERR Fund Committee. Grants awarded will vary in size and will be no larger than $5,000.

Applications are first-come, first-served, and will be reviewed and approved by the BCEDC Economic Response and Recovery Fund Committee. The BCEDC ERR Fund Committee is composed of BCEDC Chair Eric Paull, Fund Committee Chair Ryan Robinson, BCEDC Director Andrea Marcoccio, Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kate McAlister, and Priest River Chamber of Commerce President Amy Encinas-Yount.

The BCEDC is issuing three types of grants. Businesses will need to select one type and provide details about their needs.

The following types of grants are available: • funding for support in bookkeeping or CPA expenses, legal or human resources counsel, marketing or E-commerce, general business advice, COVID-19 compliance; • expenses incurred related to COVID-19 after June 20, 2020; • payment support for personal protective equipment used by employees, customers, clients and others at the recommendation of the local health district to remain open and operate safely.

After a successful first round, the BCEDC was given a new and charitable matching grant incentive through the Margaret F. Galbraith Fund hosted by the Innovia Founda-

tion. These new funds allowed for potential contributions to be matched, essentially doubling a donation’s value. Immediately, the BCEDC reached out to local businesses and partners to help meet this new opportunity with local support. Members of the BCEDC ERR Fund raised generous matching donations from local businesses including Kochava, Percussionaire, Ting, North Idaho Title and Washington Trust Bank.

Local leaders at the city of Sandpoint and Bonner County extended the ongoing partnership with the BCEDC to make available remaining Idaho Coronavirus Relief Funds. Gov. Brad Little provided flexibility for local governments to utilize their allocation of the CRF to create a small business support grant to aid businesses affected by COVID-19 in their communities. This will further the number of funds available to those eligible in the community.

“The BCEDC is honored to continue to play a critical role in creating opportunities, leveraging relationships, and delivering direct support for local businesses across Bonner County. Working alongside our partners, these dollars will support our economic recovery to ensure the vibrancy of our communities through the winter,” Marcoccio stated in a news release.

The first round of BCEDC funding raised $25,000 from partners including Bonner County, the city of Sandpoint and the Innovia Foundation’s COVID-19 Community Response Fund. Those micro-grants went to local businesses most affected by COVID-19.

To apply for the Economic Response and Recovery Fund visit bonnercountyedc. com/errfund. For more information and to contribute to the fund, contact Andrea Marcoccio at andream@bonnercountyedc.com.

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FOOD & DRINK

’Tis the season for fall beer

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff

I have not always been a beer person. Maybe that’s because the parties of my youth played host only to Coors Light, or because in college I took a liking to tequila over any inferior carbonated beverage.

Whatever the reason, I remained a Leinenkugel-here-and-there type of person until March 2020, at the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Housebound and craving a change, I told my fiancé to surprise me by buying any beer he thought I’d like on his way home. He brought me a six-pack of Georgetown’s Lucille IPA, and my taste buds found their true calling: drink fancy beer, eat pretzels, repeat.

This love of brews seems to have hit its stride in the fall months, as I’ve delved into the world of fall beer. It’s a wondrous world, full of bready hops and hints of nutmeg, and I am enjoying every minute of it.

I’ve decided to write about some of my findings, and to give them scores.

My rating system goes from zero to five — five being a frosty pint of MickDuff’s La Cerveza with a lime while dining on Lake Pend Oreille in the summer, and zero being a warm porter you found at the bottom of a musty cooler that was last unpacked two years ago.

All of these beers were purchased from small businesses in the Hope/ Clark Fork area, and all of them were sipped from glass bottles after long, tiring days of writing stories for this rag.

I might write for a living, but I have a layman’s knowledge of beer, so be kind.

Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Wheat

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Score: 2.9 Blue Moon’s signature fall release felt like the right place to start on my autumn beer journey. My experience with the Harvest Pumpkin Wheat seems to mirror that of most of the internet’s beer reviewing connoisseurs: “Meh.” I wouldn’t ever turn one down — the pumpkin flavors are pleasant and the / October 29, 2020

light ale goes down smooth. But would it be my first choice now that I’ve tried some other seasonal releases? Probably not. While others left my palate warm and happy, this beer felt unremarkable after a few sips.

Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest Score: 3.7 Though my natural tendency is to gravitate toward pumpkin-flavored things this time of year — yes, I am what the kids call “basic” — I decided I better branch out and try a fall release that celebrates the season without any large, orange gourds playing a part. Sierra Nevada’s 2020 Oktoberfest release — done in a lager/marzen style — is on the hoppy side, but with just enough sweetness to carry the flavor into a pleasant, not-too-bitter finish.

Elysian Night Owl Score: 4.8 This beer nears perfection in my

book. Sweet without being decadent, Elysian Brewery’s Night Owl uses — from what I have learned online — 150 pounds of pumpkin in each batch, and the flavor remains a comforting undertone throughout the experience.

Each sip first delivers hints of perfectly blended fall spices — nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger and allspice — then ends on a smooth, warm finish. The balance between overpowering fall creation and hearty, bitter beer is outstanding. I will be buying this again.

The above is a small sampling of what’s out there, and in a perfect world, I will one day try every single glorious fall brew that’s on the market.

While the three beers I’ve been fortunate enough to sip over the past couple of weeks were purchased in grocery stores, I’m sure the breweries in and around Sandpoint have plenty of seasonal releases to share. Support them when you can, and drink one (or two) for me.

STAGE & SCREEN

Eat the rich… before they eat you Netflix series La Revolution is a gory, class-conscious treat

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff There comes a time — many, many times, in fact — when poor people have had enough of rich peoples’ bullshit. The United States’ insurgency notwithstanding, as it was a power-grab by slave-owning rich men who didn’t want to pay taxes (things never change), the French and Russian revolutions come to mind, as well as many more examples, from places that rich, especially white conservatives don’t like to think about because they’re full of brown people doing things that rich, white conservatives don’t like, like living with political agency. Excellent examples include the decolonization of Africa and southeast Asia in the 1960s, notably Algeria and Vietnam, respectively.

The work of Frantz Fanon concerning the former will tell you just how pissed off poor people can get.

Yet, my favorites are the Araucanians, who resisted everyone from pious Spanish miner-evangelist-rapists to U.S.-supported Chilean fascists for damn near 400 years.

Hitherto a peaceful farming people, the Araucanians turned on the Spanish with singular, swift ferocity — chiseling their teeth into terrifying spikes and carving the bones of their livestock, enemies and dead into flutes, which they whistled in the night of the jungle to terrify the theocratic thieves who took it upon themselves to despoil this hemisphere in search of “god, gold and glory” — literally extracting the lives and souls of South Americans to fund an addle-brained Christian empire.

Enough of that, though. We’re in a head-chopping mood in this country, and it’s Halloween season, so why not lean into it, shall we? Over two days I binged the entire first season of Netflix original La Revolution — a French-language, English-subtitled series set on the eve of a fictionalized French Revolution. I suggest you do, too.

I don’t want to give too much away.

That said, spoilers, however minor, will be inevitable so if you were enticed enough by my angry mini-history of class warfare and brief recommendation above to watch La Revolution, then stop

La Revolution is available to stream on Netflix. Courtesy image. reading. If you need more hectoring, read on.

We begin the series in a rural French county a few weeks before the actual French Revolution began in early May 1789. This county looks an awful lot like the present-day United States, with a perverse overclass whose decadence and cruelty are outsized due to their tiny numbers. Like Sandpoint, no one can afford to buy a house unless they barged up here with a suitcase full of California

money and the kind of attitude that leads a person to buy a “utility terrain vehicle” — that is, a military-grade golf cart for assholes. Meanwhile, back in the 1780s, everyone else barfs and defecates in the squalid streets, trying to hack out an existence benighted by systemic inequality.

The ruling family is on the ropes, however, as its patriarch is long overdue from an extended audience with the king at Versailles. In his place, his brother has taken up governorship of the county.

The countess — daughter of the rightful leader and niece of the caretaker potentate — chafes at the courtly conventions and general meanness of her uncle and the system he represents (she learns later on just how depraved that system is).

As with any dynastic political firm, there are a lot of creepy things in the closet. People aren’t who they seem to be, there are strange diseases afoot and relationships are often cover for deeper truths. In an effort to ensure the longevity of the ruling family — and its class — the nefarious 1% has figured out a way to live forever. Of course, in a case of art mirroring life, the rich can only sustain themselves by extracting from the poor.

In this case, that’s taken literally. Spoiler: They eat the poor.

There’s a ton of other great stuff in this show. For one thing, it’s gorgeous.

I’m so pleased that it’s set in a rural environment rather than Paris. The trees and rivers, dells and ominous glens of this make believe French countryside is as beguiling as the demon haunted upstate of Sleepy Hollow. It’s also gory and nasty, which is perfect given that the real French Revolution was frankly hideous. Be prepared for blood spurts, bone breaks, face biting and gunshots to the head (one criticism: everyone is a damn sharpshooter in this show). Costumes have a steam-punky edge and the police are justifiably fascistic and gross.

Downsides: The dialogue is pretty pedestrian, but being in French with English subtitles, that probably passes for going to a college class for most Americans. You have to read, and that’s hard to do when you’re filling your comfy pants with farts while “watching” a show and scrolling through your phone at the same time.

Some critics have also dumped on the show because it doesn’t “accurately” portray the French Revolution. To that, I say if you’re watching Netflix to learn up on your history, then I have an Ancient Aliens hypothesis to sell you.

Bottom line is that the show is nutty, bloody, beautiful and vindictive as hell.

It’s not historically accurate, but it somehow manages to capture the spirit of the times — both back then and now: Eat the rich before they eat you.

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SPORTS & OUTDOORS

Preparing your body for ski season

A few tips to help weather the first powder days on Schweitzer

By Ben Olson Reader Staff For some, a late October snowfall brings sour faces and groans.

For the rest of us who don’t walk around with an “I smell poop” face 24/7, it elicits a tingling sensation that reminds us that ski season is just around the corner, and it’s time to start preparing our bodies for the winter in earnest.

The first day up on the mountain is always a breathtaking experience; the soft acceptance of powder under your board or skis, the happy glow of fellow ski bums who begin their quest for 100 days on the mountain and a general glad feeling that we have yet another outdoor activity to occupy our time here in North Idaho.

But how many times have you ripped it up on your first day back on the mountain and paid for it the next few days? I’m talking about the wobbly thighs, the aching joints, the exhaustion from digging yourself out of the trees after taking the wrong line down the North Bowl.

This year, I plan to actually prepare my body for the ski season instead of just launching myself down the mountain and suffering the consequences. In that spirit, I talked to a local skier and health professional to ask their best advice to start the season prepared and ready for anything. What

follows is a quick list to help kick your body into gear for the season.

All signs point to a good winter, so let’s begin.

Work it out Skiing involves a lot of muscle groups, as well as cardio endurance and core strength, so it’s easy to get exhausted early in the season. This can lead to an increased risk of injury if you don’t prepare.

Heather Lien, a physical therapist at Total Physical Therapy in Sandpoint, said the best remedy to prepare for a long ski season is to always stay strong.

“I just always try to stay strong anyways, so any activity I do doesn’t hurt,” Lien said. “It’s good to keep all around strength to make sure the first day doesn’t crush you.”

For those of us who aren’t so proactive, now is the time to institute a cardio program that includes three to five days of cardio such as running, to get your heart rate up and work out your entire body. While many workouts range from 20 to 45 minutes, it might be beneficial to extend one workout a week to more than an hour to condition your lungs and legs for the long days of skiing ahead.

Stretch, dummy As with any workout, you don’t want to go into it cold. De-

velop a stretching routine before — and after — your ski days to help prepare your joints for the bumpy days on the hill.

“For the joints themselves, there’s definitely impact with skiing,” Lien said. “Get your joints lubricated. You don’t want to do it cold — just getting on your clothes and walking over to the lift and jumping on, expecting your body to do these advanced maneuvers.”

Strong like bull Some muscles are used more than others while skiing or snowboarding, which are the ones you should concentrate on more when it comes to pre-season strength workouts. This includes your quadriceps, which are probably the most used muscle in skiings.

Your quads hold you in position as you ski and also provide protec-

tion for your knees — always a vulnerable part of our bodies.

Incorporate squats and lunges to help prep your quads.

Hamstrings and glutes are also important to strengthen, because when skiing downhill, a skier typically holds their body in a flexed position. Strong hamstrings and glutes help stabilize your body, so work them out with deadlifts, step-ups and hamstring rolls.

Calves, abs and back muscles are also vital to keep conditioned, as they help you stay upright so you don’t fall over. For calves, incorporate standing calf raises. For abs and back workout, crunches, wood chops, back extensions and planking help to strengthen your body.

Wash your gear This may sound like an overly simple piece of advice, but if you

The preseason ski lift.

Courtesy photo. are like me, you might have just tossed all your ski gear in the winter bin after the final day of the previous ski season and cracked it the morning of opening day without a good wash to take away the funk.

Lien said it’s important to clean your gear before and after the season to avoid those sour looks from your friends on opening day.

“Wash your gear,” Lien said.

“Don’t wear the same shirt twice in a row, and wool is better at combating odors. Also, make sure you take a shower! If you ever want to know if your gear stinks, just have somebody else smell it and they’ll tell you.”

Schweitzer eyes Nov. 27 opening, looks forward to hefty snow season

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff With an early snowfall in mid-October, the 2020-’21 winter season is shaping up to deliver healthy accumulation — at least in the heights. According to the venerable Farmers’ Almanac, it’s going to be a season of the “great divide,” meaning certain regions of the country will experience extreme cold and wintery weather, while others are dry and mild.

The “chilly fringe” will be the southeastern area of the country, with colder-than-normal temps.

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Northwest, we’re the “crazy in-between,” where the Pacific coastal plain, from northern California through Oregon and Washington, “rainy and wet weather will be the rule for the winter ahead,” the Almanac states. North Idaho, according to the experts, will be on the cusp between the bitter cold and blustery snow blasts forecast in the Midwest and the wet conditions anticipated for the West Coast.

According to Schweitzer Mountain Resort Spokesperson Dig Chrismer, the mountain is anticipating an opening day of Friday, Nov. 27.

“The long-term forecast is calling for a ‘La Nina’ weather event this winter, which could mean

significant snowfall in our part of the world. The last time we had a strong La Nina was in 2010-’11 when we ended the season with 171 inches of snow still on the summit,” she told the Reader in an email.

Chrismer said the resort did some logging and glading on approximately 200 acres off of the Stella run, “so our fans should notice significant improvements on that side of the mountain,” she wrote.

“We are eager to get back in the North Bowl and enjoy skiing the runs off Cedar Park Express and the Coburn Triple,” Chrismer added, stating that mountain leadership, including President and CEO Tom Chasse, has worked

hard to adapt to COVID-19 safety protocols.

“First off, we will require face masks or face coverings indoors this winter,” Chrismer stated. “We will also be limiting the number of people in our food and beverage outlets to provide for social distancing, and we will not be offering ‘day-of’ lift ticket purchases at the ticket window.”

Season pass sales end Saturday, Oct. 31, after which time Schweitzer officials will use historical data to calculate an approximate number of visitors for any given day of the season, then offer limited date-specific lift tickets for sale.

According to Chrismer, “Those tickets will be on sale starting Nov. 9 and once a day is sold out,

it’s sold out.”

“Our goal with this approach is to accommodate all of our season-passholders and Schweitzer lodging guests as a priority,” Chrismer told the Reader. “We are all eager to get back out on the mountain for some much-needed outdoor recreation this winter.

To do that, we ask that everyone continues to play their part in limiting the spread of COVID-19 by adhering to recommendations from the health district as well as being kind, compassionate and patient as we navigate these truly unique times together.”

Follow mountain updates, including snow conditions, at schweitzer.com.

MUSIC

This week’s RLW by Lyndsie Kiebert

An unexpected love

READ

Nashville recording artist Brittany Jean to bring uplifting music to the Panida Oct. 31

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff Brittany Jean has always been involved in music one way or another, be it sitting at a piano at age 6, starting voice lessons at age 12 or performing in various choirs during her teen years. But the 28-year-old didn’t find her true passion for song until high school, when she took a music composition class and began recording her works with GarageBand, a digital audio recording program.

“I fell in love with that more than anything else — just the whole process of putting your own words into song and finding stories that mean something to me,” she said.

People were impressed by her homemade creations, which led Brittany Jean’s family to seek out a professional recording studio. That journey led the Chicago teen to Hilltop Recording Studio in Nashville, Tenn., where she’s now recorded four studio albums and is currently working on two more: a collection of originals, and a Christmas album.

Though her music spans genres, it can be best described as folk singer-songwriter — appropriate for a person whose first concert attendance (at a very early age) was John Denver. She said her other influences include Gordon Lightfoot, Alison Krauss, Judy Collins and Emmylou Harris, among many others.

“I really love what’s considered, today, older music,” she said. “But that’s the great thing about music — it doesn’t really age like people do.”

Just like her taste, Brittany Jean’s style is timeless. Her clear and seemingly effortless vocals are that of a storyteller’s, which is fitting, seeing

Sandpoint High graduate Allie Brosh is back after a lengthy hiatus with a new book: Solutions and Other Problems. She first saw international acclaim with her 2013 graphic memoir Hyperbole and a Half, which used hilariously simple art to address hard topics like depression.

Solutions is similarly funny and poignant, and absolutely worth the wait.

LISTEN

Nashville recording artist Brittany Jean will play a concert at the Panida Theater Saturday, Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. Photo courtesy from the artist. as stories sit at the core of her and neither did I at the time,” songwriting philosophy. she said. “So when it comes “You never really know to inspiration … it’s kind of a what’s going to jump out at mystery to me, too.” you. Sometimes it’s a converBrittany Jean’s most recent sation where somebody tells release, All the Love, is a colme their stories, or maybe lection of love songs — but not about their life or something in the way one might assume. that happened to them,” she “There are so many differsaid. “One of my favorite ent kinds of love. The one that things is hearing someone gets shouted through a megaelse’s story and finding a way phone, at least if you turn on to celebrate it and bring beauty the radio, is one — that’s one to the forefront where maybe kind,” she said. “There’s noththat person didn’t see it.” ing wrong with that, but I think One such instance was when there is a much broader scope.”

Brittany Jean met a soldier at Her song “These Are the Mount RushDark Days” is more, and the from the perBrittany Jean two struck up spective of a Saturday, Oct. 31; doors a conversation. parent to a child at 6 p.m., show at 7 p.m.; That meeting — a type of $15 for adults, $10 for eventually love she has not those 18 and under. inspired a song, yet experienced Panida Theater, 300 N. which she then First Ave., 208-263-9191, herself, but shared with him. that she’s seen panida.org. Listen at “He didn’t among her sibbjeanmusic.com. know that that lings that have was coming, children. “The

Wild Atlantic Way” is an uplifting and cheery song about love that is not necessarily romantic, but a playful “enjoying someone’s company so much that it doesn’t matter where you are” type of love.

“There is a love story in every one of my songs,” she said.

“It might not be what people expect, but it’s there.”

Another type of love might be the kind one has for their local art venues — a love that Brittany Jean hopes to celebrate when she plays the Panida Theater on Saturday, Oct. 31.

“I’m excited about performing, but I’m also looking forward to bringing people to the Panida,” she said. “I’m excited to bring a little bit of — not just me, but collectively — bringing a little bit of life to a place that could probably really use it.”

I recommended Angie McMahon when she shared her first single in 2018, and have since become a dedicated fan of the Australian singer-songwriter. She just dropped a piano version of her debut LP “Salt” named, appropriately, “Piano Salt.” Her deep vocals are on full display on the seven-track release, which sees its high point on her heartbreaking cover of Lana Del Ray’s “Born To Die.” Holy cow.

WATCH

I picked up Deadwood thinking it would be similar to Hell On Wheels — a television series that’s seen many rewatches in our home. This recommendation is more on behalf of my fiance than me, but I’ll admit, Deadwood is well done. It tells the story of a lawless mining town in the developing Dakotas, and the weird and wild characters who call it home. The show is a touch too brutal for me, but the subtle humor and stellar acting make it watchable.

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BACK OF THE BOOK

...on COVID-19, masks and manliness From Northern Idaho News, Oct. 25, 1927

SCHOOL TEACHERS SPEND NIGHT ON THE LAKE Principal J. M. Booth, R.A. Warman and C. J. Foster, of the high school faculty, spent Saturday night on Lake Pend d’Oreille completely lost and unable to find their way home. Saturday the trio went fishing to the head of the lake and late in the afternoon started on their way home. Darkness descended and they lost their sense of direction.

After attempting to find their way home they became reconciled to spending the night on the lake and made the best of their situation.

Early in the morning they made their way to Clarksfork and telephoned to their families of their plight.

Just how many fish the trio caught has not been made public, but the three stand a good chance of getting a compass for a Christmas present.

Superintendent Robinson is thinking of putting on a series of lectures on finding direction in the dark for the benefit of some of the faculty at the high school 26 /

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By Sandy Compton Reader Columnist

cares nothing for anybody or anything else except for his own agenda and his own image.

As we approach As a man, he fails the our national Election tests of protecting family Day, polls report that and caring for himself, Joe Biden leads Donmade obvious by his insisald Trump by 35 points tence at leaving the hospital among women, but only before his disease had run by two points among its course. His disdain for men. The good news is and ridicule of those who that the polls have Trump wear a mask in public to losing, and the gap is Sandy Compton. help stop the spread of the getting wider every day. pandemic — at the advice of others who As a man, though, it sickens me that a know much better than Donald Trump about large minority of male voters in the United medical matters — is reprehensible.

States of America — supposedly the home I see many people — particularly male of the brave, land of the free, defender of — following his example. I also note that democracy and truth — will consider castthe COVID-19 count in local counties is ing a vote for president for a man who has climbing. More than 600 new cases were called United States soldiers suckers and reported in the Idaho panhandle between losers, who has ordered children locked in Oct. 18 and Oct. 24 — 138 on the 23rd cells away from their parents for no crime alone. Montana reported more than 1,000 beyond being an innocent pawn in the imnew cases in that same time period. Nationmigration controversy, who has lied about ally, there were more than 74,000 new casso many things that we have lost count, es, and 1,000-plus deaths. In the panhandle who demonstrates no respect for those of a and in all of Montana, 100% of intensive different race or gender than his own, and has not the grace to listen to another’s opin- care units are full. Now is not the time to fool around with a known killer. ion without butting in or ridicule. I have Wearing a mask might not seem manly, seen him compared to Abraham Lincoln but if you or someone you know — or don’t by some supporters, and that is an insult to — becomes sick — or dead — because you Lincoln’s legacy as an emancipator. I think didn’t wear one? That seems to me to be Trump would lock up anyone who disthe result of a childish fear — that of not agrees with him, given the chance. looking “cool.” And that from any adult Just the fact that his careless and meghuman, male or female, president or not, is alomaniacal need for attention recently led directly to many of his staff and other, more very uncool.

Thankfully, Trump’s actions and innocent, visitors to presidential and political events — not to mention he and his wife attitudes about the pandemic have helped expose his incompetence and lack of — to contract the coronavirus should be leadership more fully and convinced many enough to expose him for his true self. He

STR8TS Solution

of his base to reconsider. If we ever have COVID-19 to thank for anything, it will not be the 210,000-plus American dead so far or the incredible financial, spiritual and physical costs. It will be that it ushered our worst president ever out of office.

If you are not wearing a mask in public spaces, reconsider. If you are not respecting others’ social distancing efforts, reconsider. Those who think they can’t catch COVID-19, believe a mask is an impingement on their personal freedom or think the disease is a hoax that will disappear on Nov. 4 are fooling themselves and endangering themselves and others. Trump is wrong about COVID-19 — as he is about many things — and the numbers are climbing again — all over our country.

If you haven’t voted, do so. If you are a man considering voting for Trump, you might ask yourself if that’s the manly thing to do.

Crossword Solution

Sudoku Solution

One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake.

Solution on page 26

Solution on page 26

wherewithal

Woorf tdhe Week

By Bill Borders

/HWAIR-with-awl/

[noun] 1. that with which to do something; means or supplies for the purpose or need, especially money.

“I don’t have the wherewithal to deal with this nonsense anymore!”

Corrections: No corrections to note this week. To institute your own corrections, go vote. –BO

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Laughing Matter

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Not short 5. Large Asian country 10. Rodents 14. Chocolate cookie 15. Pile 16. If not 17. Frown upon 19. A type of map 20. Snagged 21. Lariat 22. Ales 23. Trap 25. Prevaricating 27. Behave 28. Air travel 31. Beach 34. Journeys 35. French for “Friend” 36. Cautious 37. Small songbirds 38. Trim 39. “Eureka!”

40. Fetch 41. Pieces of insulation 42. Vista 44. Soak 45. Complain 46. Abrasion 50. A very proper person 52. Steeple 54. Court 55. Be worthy of 56. Applied mathematics 58. Food thickener 59. Install (2 words)

Solution on page 26 60. Balm ingredient 61. Bronzes 62. Blow up 63. Happy

DOWN 1. Hostel 2. Heavenly hunter 3. Homes for birds 4. A state of SW India 5. Bestow 6. Like the Vikings 7. Twosomes 8. Regarding 9. Citrus drink 10. Feel remorse for

11. Loyal 12. Russian emperor 13. Collections 18. Location 22. Partiality 24. Not 26. Puppy sounds 28. Stadium 29. Leave out 30. Bites 31. Exchange 32. Laugh 33. Large long-armed ape 34. A three-month period 37. Envelop

38. Epic 40. French cheese 41. Drills 43. Commands 44. A written version of a play 46. A stomach exercise 47. Weave diagonal lines into 48. Hot chocolate 49. Fleeced 50. Buttocks 51. Indian music 53. A Maori club 56. South southeast 57. Children’s game

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