Annual Membership Meeting held in the Panida Theater Thursday. 6 pm
Panida Theater Presents Finding Lucinda Film screening and live performance by ISmay (the artist in the film!) Friday. 7 pm
Panida Theater Presents Rocky Horror Picture Show live hosts & props provided! Saturday. 8 pm
KRFY & The Festival at Sandpoint Present Little Live Radio Hour Justin Landis LIVE Tuesday. 7 pm
300 North First Ave. Sandpoint, ID (208) 263-9191 panida.org theheartofdowntown
The week in random review
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
Historical hysterical women
It’s odd growing up as a girl and learning that seemingly everyone around you has a vested interest in your uterus. It’s not something you really think about until you get your first period; and, even after that, you forget it’s there until your next period. It’s an organ, like an appendix. Normal, healthy people don’t wake up and say, “Good morning,” to their appendix and think about what it’s doing throughout the day. That would be weird. Yet, certain politicians apparently think about uteruses all day, every day, and most of them don’t even have one. Talk about weird. Recently, I’ve found myself thinking about politicians thinking about uteruses, which has, in turn, made me think about uteruses. What does “uterus” even mean? Why is it called that? Well, the earliest extant use of the word in English comes from the 1615 publication Mikrokosmographia A Description of the Body of Man... by Helkiah Crooke. Crooke got the word from Latin, which likely got it from the Proto-Indo-European root *udero-, though that’s prehistoric. Either way, it always meant “womb” or “abdomen.” “Womb,” however, is an Old English word, the first surviving record of which comes from the Vespasian Psalter in the eighth century, where it also meant “uterus/abdomen.” What’s interesting about these simple etymologies is that these words really haven’t changed much throughout human history. Thousands of years ago, humans noticed some people could carry babies and bled once a month and said, “Cool, let’s make a word for that and move on.” Then, one day, people started thinking about uteruses — especially people without uteruses — and it all went to hell. The Greeks came up with the word husterikós — where English gets the word “hysteric” — which meant something like “suffering of the womb.” It was a general term used to describe women who had actual mental issues or who the patriarchal society just didn’t like. Symptoms included seizures, vomiting, deafness, anxiety and not wanting to get married. Hippocrates claimed that hysteria was caused by the womb floating around the body, doing things it shouldn’t. He tied this to Plato’s idea of the “wandering womb” set out in his philosophical dialogue Timaeus, which likely built on far older Egyptian beliefs. In fact, the Ancient Egyptian Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus — a collection of texts on women’s health from around 1825 B.C.E. — is the oldest known mention of the “wandering womb” theory. The Egyptians believed women should eat foul herbs to scare the uterus back into place (or perfume the vulva to lure it back), whereas Hippocrates thought that regular marital sex was the key to keeping it in one place. Augustine of Hippo (fourth century C.E.) linked hysteria to demonic possession and treated it with thoughts and prayers and exorcisms. That idea would persist into the 16th and 17th centuries, when many “hysterical” women were tried and executed for witchcraft. People started thinking about hysteria as a mental illness around the late 1600s, though up until the 1800s, the leading cure was “go have a baby about that.” Now we diagnose people with anxiety, depression, epilepsy and plenty of other actual issues instead of hysteria, though a great many U.S. politicians still subscribe to the “go-have-a-baby-about-that” cure-all.
DEAR READERS,
As I stare at this blinking cursor for the last task left to complete before sending off this edition to the printer, I usually think back over the week to stir up an idea for something to write about.
This week, I’m filled with gratitude for you, our dear readers, who give us purpose every week. This job can be difficult. Scratch that, it’s always difficult. Sure, some weeks are better than others, but Zach, Soncirey and I always feel like we leave a little bit of our souls out in the wind every time we complete this weekly effort. I know a lot of you depend on us to help you pass the time, to keep you informed on local issues and to give you something to read you might not find elsewhere. Sometimes we have dull weeks, and it’s hard to be inspirational when you just feel like wandering around the woods alone, muttering nonsense at birds and squirrels.
This is one of those weeks for me. So be it. Thanks for reading. – Ben Olson, publisher
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City of Sandpoint officially confirms and swears in legal counsel
‘Lack of clarity’ on appointment resulted in disagreement between mayor, councilors
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
The disagreement over the city of Sandpoint’s legal services contract with Lake City Law has come to an end, following the decision in executive session at the Oct. 8 meeting of the City Council to retain the Coeur d’Alenebased firm and Fonda Jovick as city attorney, and her official confirmation in a unanimous vote by councilors at their Oct. 15 regular meeting.
Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm said he would meet with Jovick following the Oct. 15 meeting to administer the oath of office and work with the City Clerk’s Office to produce an official certificate of appointment.
Lake City Law’s contract expired Sept. 30, after which Grimm opted to replace the firm and Jovick with former-City Attorney Will Harrington on an interim basis, effective at the Oct. 1 council meeting.
Aispuro, who was absent from the Oct. 15 meeting, pushed back at that decision, saying he didn’t “feel comfortable moving forward with
the meeting without our actual legal counsel,” and prompted several of his fellow councilors to walk out of the council chambers “because Mr. Harrington was not appointed in any way, shape or form.”
Without a quorum, the Oct. 1 meeting adjourned and a special meeting was set for Oct. 3, which also failed to reach a quorum.
That set the stage for the Oct. 8 meeting, which convened at the customary 5:30 p.m. start time but quickly went into executive session to address the question of whether Lake City Law and Jovick were still serving as official legal counsel.
Councilors and the mayor returned to the dais more than two and half hours later, with Grimm saying, “We had a situation where there was a lack of clarity on the official appointment of the city attorney.”
Grimm went on to “commend” the City Council and staff “who’ve put in a lot of hours in the last week trying to figure out where we are. I take responsibility for any abrupt actions that have brought this to a head so quickly.”
He added that neither he nor city staff could locate
records of an official appointment for Jovick. While her role with the city was laid out in the legal services agreement, “there was no oath or confirmation by the city other than the variable language in the resolution” adopting the agreement.
Councilors voted unanimously Oct. 8 to adopt a new resolution specifically appointing Jovick as city attorney, with her confirmation at the Oct. 15 meeting.
“That in my mind helps all of us clarify and confirm and know exactly that this appointment has occurred,” Grimm said on Oct. 8.
He had previously argued that Idaho Code stipulates the Executive Branch has authority to govern appointments and contracts, while councilors
argued that the Legislative Branch must first be given the opportunity to confirm and/ or approve those appointments and contracts.
Councilor Justin Dick thanked members of the community, city staff, Jovick and fellow councilors on Oct. 8 for working “through these sometimes differences of opinion and some clarifications. And I appreciate that we were allowed the opportunity to do this and I’m looking forward to getting through this and starting tomorrow and getting back to city business, though I don’t think we ever really stopped.”
City Hall to host open house on wastewater plant bond measure
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Ahead of the Nov. 4 election, the city of Sandpoint is hosting an open house Saturday, Oct. 18 at 10 a.m. on a $130 million bond measure to replace the wastewater treatment plant. The gathering will take place in Council Chambers at Sandpoint City Hall (1123 Lake St.).
Sandpoint Mayor Grimm said at the Oct. 15 meeting of the City Council that even if the bond passes, sewer rates will increase dramatically, later adding that if voters reject the measure, City Hall could seek a judge’s ruling that the project represents a “necessary and ordinary expenditure” and can proceed anyway.
Regardless, Grimm said, “We will continue to ring every bell in the nation that I can ring to secure federal and state funding.”
County commissioners to vote on minor land division code changes
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
The Bonner County board of commissioners will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 9 a.m. at the Bonner County Administration Building on proposed changes to the County Code governing minor land divisions. The alterations, which have been in the works since March, would replace the MLD process with short and long subdivisions of 10 or fewer parcels or 11 or more parcels, respectively.
In March, former-Planning
Director Jake Gabell approached the BOCC with concerns that the current MLD language led to “conflicting interpretations and inconsistent enforcement” that allowed developers to create de facto subdivisions without meeting the infrastructure requirements needed to support them.
“Although the MLD process was originally created to provide an efficient and cost-effective review pathway for smaller-scale land divisions, practical experience demonstrated that the reduced applicable standards sometimes
resulted in developments that lack sufficient infrastructure,” said Interim Planning Director Alex Feyen at the Sept. 16 Planning Commission meeting. “These conditions created potential issues for emergency responders, increased the risk of fire hazards in rural areas, and, in certain cases, led to drainage or stormwater management concerns.”
The BOCC instituted an emergency moratorium on MLDs in April, giving the Planning Department time to workshop new code language and preventing developers
from submitting last-minute applications before the changes went into effect.
The proposed revisions would ensure that all land divisions comply with the current requirements for subdivisions and undergo infrastructure and service capacity reviews to gauge developments’ impact on area schools, road networks, and water and sewer districts. It would also require sanitary restriction lifts and wastewater feasibility reviews from Panhandle Health District, which confirm that the parcels meet
the requirements for water and sewage hookups.
After months of public workshops spent developing the code amendments, the Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve the changes on Sept. 16, passing the final decision to the BOCC. The commissioners will vote on the changes on Oct. 16, 15 days after the moratorium’s expiration date on Oct. 1.
For more information, or to participate via Zoom, go to bonnercountyid.gov/ events/94306.
Sandpoint City Council members on the dais at City Hall. Photo by Ben Olson
A holding tank at the Sandpoint wastewater treatment plant. Photo by Soncirey Mitchell
FAA certifies planes built by local students
By Reader Staff
Two airplanes constructed by local middle- and high-school students were recently inspected by a Federal Aviation Administration representative and found to be airworthy, clearing the way for the planes to start flight testing.
Students who worked on the planes as part of the ACES plane building club were given certificates of achievement from the FAA examiner. Former-ACES student Eric Gray will serve as the test pilot in the Van’s RV12 and Zenith 750 STOL aircraft.
North Idaho High School Aerospace Program, Inc., is a Sandpoint-based nonprofit that provides hands-on STEM skills training and career pathways experiences for Bonner County students. The program is in its 13th year and has produced almost 60 graduates who have gone into aviation careers or are in training now. The program offers an academic class for credit at Sandpoint High School, discounted prices, and help
with scholarships for flight training and Saturday airplane building with the ACES Workshop, which is guided by experienced volunteer mentors.
ACES students work in rented hangars at the Sandpoint Airport and students work year-round on Saturdays from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Project costs — including $15,000 in program overhead and $80,000 for an airplane kit — are covered by tax-deductible in-kind and money donations.
According to organizers, as the two current planes are completed and
certified, work at ACES will continue with building a Jabiru J430.
The next step for the program is raising funds through donations and grants to purchase the new engine, and another kit plane.
For more information, view the three-minute video at highschoolaerospace.org and email highschoolaerospace@gmail.com.
Your Health Idaho opens enrollment for 2026 health insurance
By Reader Staff
The state’s health insurance marketplace, Your Health Idaho, announced the start of the enrollment period for coverage, beginning Oct. 15 and ending Dec. 15 with coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
Idahoans can enroll in medical and dental coverage through the exchange, choosing from 158 medical and 25 dental plans for the coming year. Your Health Idaho is also the only place where residents can apply for and receive a tax credit that lowers the cost
of their monthly premiums. According to officials, many Idahoans may also qualify for additional savings when enrolled in a Silver plan.
“Having health insurance is not only for the peace of mind that you and your family are covered if the unexpected happens, but it can also provide a financial safety net from unplanned medical bills,“ stated Your Health Idaho Executive Director Pat Kelly. “There are many changes this year, and it’s more important than ever for Idahoans to shop and compare to explore all of their health
insurance options.”
Enrollees may see higher premiums due to the expiration of the enhanced Premium Tax Credits and other recent federal policy changes, Your Health Idaho stated in a news release.
A calculator to determine affordability is available at YourHealthIdaho.org.
Idahoans are encouraged to work with a certified agent or broker, whose help is available at no cost through the marketplace. This year, enrollees can schedule an appointment with a local agent directly from the Your Health Idaho website.
Sandpoint Indivisible hosts ‘No Kings Day’ rally and forum
By Reader Staff
More than 2,500 communities around the country — including Sandpoint — will host “No Kings” demonstrations Saturday, Oct. 18, marking a day of peaceful action and mass mobilization in response to the policies of the Trump administration.
Local organizers with Sandpoint Indivisible and 1 Million Rising Sandpoint emphasized in a news release that the Oct. 18 gathering would be “a nonpartisan, peaceful day of action.”
The event “is intended to send clear messages to current and future elected officials, not to campaign for individual candidates or parties,” according to volunteer organizers, who are all local residents.
The Sandpoint “No Kings” rally will take place from 1-3 p.m. in front of the Community Hall (204 S. First Ave.). Materials will be available inside for participants to make their own signs.
Meanwhile, a community forum will take place noon-4 p.m. at the Community Hall, with music, refreshments and conversation. Attendees are invited to discuss how government policy affects local life — from public lands and health care to education and infrastructure.
Peacekeepers will ensure the day remains focused on nonviolent communication and cooperation. For more info, go to tinyurl.com/NoKingsSandpoint.
Local election forum coming up on Oct. 20
By Reader Staff
Bonner County voters have until 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24 to submit their absentee ballots for the Nov. 4 election. Before that, however, the Sandpoint Reader, KRFY Panhandle Community Radio and SandpointOnline.com will host a candidates’ forum on Monday, Oct. 20 — which coincides with the start of early in-person
voting, which ends Friday, Oct. 31 at 5 p.m. at the Bonner County Elections Office (1500 Highway 2, Suite 124, in Sandpoint).
The forum will take place 5:30-7 p.m. at the community room in the Sandpoint Center (414 Church St.), featuring the race for three open seats on the Sandpoint City Council, as well as the city of Sandpoint’s $130 million bond measure to fund its wastewater
treatment plant and Ponderay’s 1% local option sales tax.
Incumbent City Councilors Joel Aispuro and Rick Howarth, as well as Joshua Torrez (listed on the ballot as Torrez Joshua) and Joe Tate will compete for the open seats on the council, which carry a four-year term and are “at large,” meaning there are no specific districts or seats representing those districts. Rather, those who
win the most votes across all of Sandpoint’s voting precincts win the seats. After introductions, the forum will move into moderated questions from the audience.
The forum will be broadcast live on the air at 88.5 FM and streaming at krfy.org. A recording of the entire forum will also be made available later at krfy.org.
A student works on an airplane as part of the ACES club. Courtesy photo
ID Medicaid cuts could force disability providers to close
Advocates say cuts could worsen shortage of direct care workers
By Kyle Pfannenstiel Idaho Capital Sun
In August, Jacque Poulsen’s business was in the red.
That’s partly because Medicaid doesn’t pay for all the work that the program requires.
Her personal care agency, ProHealth Professional HomeCare, serves people with disabilities across southern Idaho.
As she and other disability care providers warn that new cuts could push them over the edge, Idaho officials say the state is trying to carve out their services from Medicaid provider pay cuts.
Advocates say the cuts could have hampered access to disability care providers in Idaho — piling onto the state’s shortage of direct care workers, who work in relatively low-paid, demanding jobs that often require helping people with disabilities with day-to-day tasks.
She said people wouldn’t work in the jobs for $14 an hour, when they could work for a fast food restaurant for more.
But providers say they’re still in need of pay raises.
Idaho wants to exempt some services for personal agencies from Medicaid cuts
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced 4% cuts to Medicaid provider reimbursement rates in late August. The move was in response to Gov. Brad Little’s order for mid-year budget cuts across state government to avoid a budget shortfall.
The Medicaid pay cuts are already in effect — sort of.
The state is paying providers the usual reimbursement rates. But once Idaho gets permission from the federal government, the state can claw back funds for the cuts.
Health and Welfare spokesperson Greg Stahl told the Idaho Capital Sun that the agency is asking the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to let the state exempt services for personal care and certified family homes from the cuts.
“The requests held harmless personal care services and certified family homes from rate adjustments following the required access analysis and public comment,” Stahl wrote in an email. “The department will post an information release for providers in the coming weeks with more details.”
Idaho can’t afford to lose more providers, advocate says Idaho Association of HomeCare
Agency President Lindsey Hendricks said exempting disability care providers from the cuts doesn’t solve their financial issues.
“We’re still so far behind on where we should be with reimbursement rates,” she told the Sun.
If payments stay on track, about a quarter of Idaho personal care agencies are at risk of closing within the next year, according to a survey by the organization. And if the state’s cuts to Medicaid payments extend to disability care providers, even more agencies anticipate they’d be forced to make tough decisions, like closing their doors, cutting staff pay or services.
In 2023, a report by the Idaho Office of Performance Evaluations estimated Idaho had a shortfall of 3,000 direct care workers. But by 2023, the report projected the shortfall would more than triple — to 9,500 workers.
Idaho can’t afford to lose any more providers, said Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities Executive Director Christine Pisani.
“We are well on our way of having a complete void of service providers as a result of not addressing the direct care workforce crisis in Home and Community-Based Services,” she told the Sun. “So, who’s really going to get hit hard are our seniors, people with disabilities and families. And our rural areas have already been left behind. ... So anything they do have, I think is going to be lost.”
Most of the home care providers in the Idaho Health Care Association already don’t take Medicaid — because the program’s reimbursement rate hasn’t kept up with costs, said the group’s Executive Director Robert Vande Merwe.
Exempting them from the cuts, he said, “keeps them at status quo, which is still not enough.”
“We’re urging the Legislature not to cut taxes again, unless they have a plan to stabilize the budget,” Vande Merwe said.
He thinks the governor may need to cut spending more “just to stay whole from the last year’s tax cuts,” he said. “If they cut taxes again this session, boy, there’s going to be dramatic cuts in services.”
This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.
Bits ’n’ Pieces
From east, west and beyond
According to the Times of Israel, President Donald Trump will be awarded Israel’s Presidential Medal of Honor for brokering the hostage release and ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Numerous media reported the release of 20 living hostages taken by Hamas, and Israel’s 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. The initial attack two years ago by Hamas on Israel left 1,200 people dead. Since then, Israel’s retaliation has killed an estimated 67,000. The ceasefire precedes further negotiations and hopes for ending the devastation of Palestinian territory. Next up, according to the Associated Press, will be determining who will govern Gaza, and addressing Palestinian statehood. Drone footage shows 83% of Gaza structures destroyed or damaged, and no clarity regarding who will pay for years-long reconstruction. U.N. Development estimates $70 billion will be required.
Some aid for starving Palestinians is coming through. The U.N. reported at least 600 trucks a day are needed for basic needs. A branch of the Israeli government said Hamas is not complying with the release of bodies of hostages (which could take time to locate), so they are allowing only 300 trucks daily. As well, documentation of war abuses by Gaza journalists have been removed from Instagram. One of the journalists was reportedly killed Oct. 12 by a group alleged to be collaborating with Israel.
Hamas opposes calls to disarm, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Palestinian statehood Another “ceasefire” influence could be Trump’s son-in-law, real estate developer Jared Kushner (a family friend of Netanyahu), who doubled his stake in an Israeli firm wanting to expand Israeli settlements.
Various media reported that Trump has threatened an additional 100% tariff on goods from China, to start Nov. 1. The threat was a response to China imposing new restrictions on their rare earths exports, which are vital for consumer and military products. China has 70% of the planet’s rare earths mining. Trump’s threat “tumbled” the stock market, while China said “we do not want a tariff war but we are not afraid of one.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson are claiming “No Kings Day” protesters (gathering Saturday, Oct. 18) are “antifa” terrorists. Organizations supporting the nationwide rally for the
By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Contributor
Constitution, themed “No Kings,” include the Human Rights Campaign and the ACLU. Antifa is not an organization, but it stands for “anti-fascist.” Johnson, however, said the rallies are “hate America” demonstrations.
On NBC, Vice President JD Vance said Trump is considering using the Insurrection Act, an 18th century law allowing the president to deploy the military within the country to “suppress rebellion.”
Various media reported that the Trump administration is using the government shutdown to fire federal employees. Trump then called it a mistake and reversed some of the most recent firings. At stake for ending the shutdown is Democrats’ demand that Republicans help find a way to stop health care premiums from skyrocketing. Now a handful of Republicans are in agreement.
So far, grappling with the shutdown has been stymied by Congress’ failure to reconvene. Legal analyst Joyce Vance said Republicans not resuming Congress in a timely way begs the question, “Are Republicans really that frightened of a vote to release the Epstein files?”
The last government shutdown, during Trump’s first term, spanned 34 days, The Washington Post reported. It was the longest closure in the nation’s history, and shaved $11 billion off the country’s economic output, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently said the federal government reached an agreement with Qatar for an Air Force facility in Mountain Home, Idaho. The AP reported that it would handle training for Qatari troops. Other on-site training agreements in the U.S. include with Singapore and Germany. The bipartisan response included left-wing commentator Robert Reich, who wondered if it could be related to the Trump family getting a deal to build a luxury golf course in Qatar. Trump ally Laura Loomer shared a clip of Trump from 2017 accusing Qatar of funding terrorism “at a very high level.” An Air Force spokesperson described the Idaho plan as a partnership with an allied or friendly nation that will keep U.S. troops safe, and the U.S.-Qatar facility would be “under U.S. jurisdiction.”
Blast from the past: “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” — Maya Angelou, poet and activist (1928-2014).
Idaho projected to end fiscal year with unconstitutional $56.6M budget deficit
Top
budget official: State will pass a balanced budget, but more cuts may be necessary
By Clark Corbin Idaho Capital Sun
The latest budget documents released by the state show Idaho is projected to end the current fiscal year in June with an unconstitutional state budget deficit of $56.6 million dollars.
The projected $56.6 million state budget deficit was calculated in the October Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and Revenue Monitor report, which the Idaho Legislative Services Office released Oct. 10.
The Idaho Constitution prohibits the state from running a budget deficit where expenses exceed available revenue.
However, the state’s top budget official told the Idaho Capital Sun that Gov. Brad Little will do what needs to be done to ensure the fiscal year 2026 budget balances.
Little already ordered all state agencies — other than public schools — to cut their budgets by 3% before the end of the fiscal year June 30. A short time later, Little said those cuts will continue into 2027 and be made permanent.
No decisions have been made, but state officials are discussing the possibility of additional cuts and deeper cuts, said Lori Wolff, administrator of the Idaho Division of Financial Management.
“Obviously we are watching this very closely and talking amongst the governor’s office staff about what we need to do to make sure we submit a balanced budget,” Wolff said. “We’ve already done the 3% holdbacks and are starting to examine other places where we may
need to reduce expenses.”
House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said the state budget situation is an irresponsible mess created by Republicans reducing revenue through tax cuts and passing the new education tax credit. She said the 3% budget holdbacks and the 4% Medicaid reimbursement rate cuts have already hurt low-income and sick Idahoans.
“Our budget problems have barely begun. We are in a deep, deep hole right now,” Rubel said on Oct. 10. “We’re now past the point where people can write it off as some sort of [budget] glitch. We knew there were problems, and we shouted from the mountaintops that the state couldn’t afford these massive revenue cuts. Now every passing month is confirming it is a huge problem with very real consequences.”
Through first quarter of FY’26 budget, revenue is 6.8% below forecast
Wolff said budget officials will brief Little this month and then he will prepare his gubernatorial budget request in November.
Wolff said Little and the Division of Financial Management are committed to doing what it takes to avoid a budget deficit of any kind.
“We are continuing to watch revenues and make decisions to make sure whatever we submit is a balanced budget,” Wolff said. “At the same time we don’t want to overreact. This may correct itself, and we definitely don’t want to put too much weight into one month of revenue.”
Idaho runs on a fiscal year calendar that begins
July 1 and ends June 30. The October budget and revenue report covers the first three months — or first quarter — of the current fiscal year 2026.
Through the first three months of FY’26, revenues have come in $94.1 million, or 6.8%, below the revised revenue forecast issued by the Division of Financial Management, the new budget and revenue monitor report shows.
The revenue shortfalls are occurring after the Idaho Legislature and Little reduced revenue by more than $450 million during the 2025 legislative session to pay for tax cuts and a new education tax credit that reimburses families for eligible education expenses, including tuition at private religious schools.
Idaho’s budget picture has changed since record surplus three years ago
News of a projected budget deficit is a big change for Idaho.
Idaho ended fiscal year
2022 with a record state budget surplus estimated at $2 billion.
The budget picture has even changed considerably since legislators adjourned the 2025 legislative session April 4, when they projected ending fiscal year 2026 with a positive ending balance of $439.8 million.
But in the six months since legislators adjourned the session, that $439.8 million surplus has now become a projected deficit of $56.6 million — not including the cost of adopting the tax changes from the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed into law this summer.
The nonprofit Tax Foundation estimated it could cost Idaho an additional $167 million to conform to the individual tax changes, which include no tax on workers’ tips and no tax on workers’ overtime. Rubel said Oct. 10 it could cost Idaho even more to adopt all of the tax changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Wolff emphasized that the state’s overall economy remains strong and rainy day budget reserve accounts are sitting at record levels. Wolff also pointed out that Idaho State Treasurer Julie Ellsworth announced Oct. 9 that the financial investor services firm Moody’s Ratings affirmed Idaho’s AAA credit rating.
Idaho is not the only state grappling with revenue shortfalls. The Colorado Legislature called a special legislative session this summer, in part to address shrinking revenue, Colorado Newsline reported. Meanwhile, the Washington State Standard reported that state tax revenue in Washington is down by $500 million.
This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.
The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise.
Photo by Otto Kitsinger
Bouquets:
• A Bouquet goes out to Debbie Love and the rest of the crew at the Bonner Community Food Bank, which celebrated its 45th anniversary Oct. 11 with a fundraiser gala. Also, big props go out to those who attended and gave generous donations to this vital community resource. Here’s to another 45 years!
• I’m a big fan of people who are awkward in certain social situations, like I have a tendency to be. Recently, at a function downtown where I didn’t have much small talk to offer, a wry older gentleman sat next to me and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk to you about anything, I’m just looking for a safe place to sit until this thing is over with.” I clinked glasses with him and said, “Deal.” A moment later, we were chatting and laughing together despite our combined repulsion for idle chitchat. I never got the guy’s name and never told him mine, but I appreciate his whole vibe. Some people have an innate ability of disarming instead of alarming, and I’ll always appreciate that.
Barbs:
• Last week, I counted six times that a vehicle ran a stop sign in downtown Sandpoint. I don’t mean the ol’ stop-andgo California-roll-through, either. No, I mean completely blew the stop sign without even applying the brakes. Six times. And no, it wasn’t just out-of-area vehicles doing it. At least three of the cars had 7B plates. Perhaps the fabric of reality is tearing apart, one day at a time, and we’re witnessing the complete dissolution of our social norms to the degree that people are incapable of stopping at intersections or parking within the lines. Or the majority of people are just becoming selfish jerks. Either way, what gives, Sandpoint?
‘The strength of order, the grace of compassion’…
Dear editor,
The recent HuffPost article “Vertical Morality” offers valuable insight into the moral frameworks that shape how people live and believe — regardless of faith choice.
“Vertical” morality, rooted in the Old Testament and the writings of Paul, emphasizes hierarchy, authority and divine order. This morality reminds us of the enduring importance of structure, accountability, and faithfulness to principles that give life direction and meaning.
In contrast, “horizontal” morality, drawn from the teachings of Jesus, centers on compassion, forgiveness and equality. It calls us toward empathy, inclusion and love.
These moralities are not opposites, but partners in the human experience. When vertical morality stands alone, it can harden into rigidity and exclusion; when horizontal morality stands alone, it can lose discipline and purpose. Together, they create a balanced moral vision — one that honors justice, mercy, conviction and compassion.
It’s essential that we embrace both perspectives if we hope to move beyond division and foster genuine understanding. When we combine the strength and clarity of moral order with the compassion and warmth of human connection, we create the foundation for a society that is both principled and kind — one capable of healing the deep divides within our faith communities and our public life.
Kari Saccomanno Sandpoint
does not respect the rights of all of us and thus will not uphold those rights. We need to be alert. Whether you agree with protesters, if they are peaceful, our Constitution protects them. So should we all!
Molly O’Reilly Sandpoint
‘Talk to me’...
Dear editor, The government is not working. It’s a distraction to worry about assigning blame.
I’ll be at a table Saturday, Oct. 18 behind a sign saying “Health Care.” Please stop by and bring me your personal story about Medicaid, Medicare, women and children’s health, Obamacare and local health. I will have more stories about what is happening in Idaho and what we can do about it. Everybody is welcome. Together we can figure out what to do, even when our leaders can’t.
Nothing changes in the U.S. until Americans change it: We did it in 1789. We elected Lincoln and changed laws to honor the equality of everyone. We reined in corporations (it’s time to do this again).
We got women the vote. We forced a president to resign. We fought wars and we stopped wars. We opened our schools to everyone. Our taxes made science great in our schools, colleges and universities; we built the internet. We invented solar panels (in 1883!) and brought electric cars to more and more people.
Be aware of, but not distracted by, Congress, the president, the courts. They will find solutions when we tell them what works for us. See you Saturday.
Peaceful protests are not ‘terrorism’… ‘Kiss off’…
Dear editor, Recently, we had an enthusiastic, anti-abortion peaceful protest in Sandpoint. President Trump didn’t call it “terrorism.”
Soon we will have a peaceful protest in Sandpoint (and nationwide) objecting to his high-handed actions in sending the military against U.S. citizens, disrespecting the checks and balances built into our government by refusing to spend the money Congress has voted to use, and defying court orders. That planned peaceful protest he is already calling “terrorism.”
Dictators from Russia to Venezuela call peaceful protests “terrorism” when they don’t agree with the topic. It’s a danger sign that our president
to the U.S. Constitution.
That phrase has guided us in establishing the U.S. Postal Service, an interstate system of highways, water and waste infrastructure, public health programs, and public education.
Viewing health care and education as business, rather than services that promote the general welfare, leads to profitability being a factor in determining whether these programs continue.
Jonathan Swift broached the idea in a satirical essay written 1729. In, “A Modest Proposal,” Swift suggested that poor people in Ireland could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the elite.
Maybe I’ll get popcorn and watch Soylent Green.
Mary Ollie Bonners Ferry
‘She
faces contempt’...
Dear editor,
If a battered woman (we’ll call her “Chris”) discovers that she is pregnant, what are her choices in Idaho?
She would face the humiliation of another visit to an ER clinic where she would have to tell more lies about how she got broken bones and bruises. There is truly no safe place for her: “If I go to my parent’s house, he will find me. If I go to work, he will find me. If I leave my son at day care, he will find me.”
And her pregnancy clock is ticking.
Lawmakers in Boise have made certain that Chris has no options. They passed a law that made assisting an abortion a felony. What is obvious is that the most important character here is invisible. Her trauma, her struggles — even running for her life does not matter. Her husband might kill her. But the high and mighty Boise lawmakers do not care one bit.
I am not asking you to take a position on abortion. I do ask you to include women like Chris in your deliberations. Include her with compassion instead of disdain. She is the invisible victim.
Aron Fox
Bonners Ferry
Nancy Gerth Sagle
Dear editor, I received my “kiss off” letter from Medicare Advantage.
I learned that Idaho Medicaid cuts could force disability providers to close. In D.C., the entire Office of Special Education Programs was let go. The reduction in Medicare Advantage companies provided a clue. I learned that profitability was a factor. That makes sense. Remember when we were told that government should operate like a business? Businesses operate to make a profit. Everything should not operate like a business. The Founding Fathers understood that when they incorporated the phrase “to promote the general welfare” in the preamble
Teen Center hosts fundraiser dinner
By Reader Staff
The Sandpoint Teen Center is hosting a ravioli casserole dinner fundraiser from 5:30-7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, where teens will prepare the casserole (similar to lasagna, but with ravioli for each pasta layer) during Teen Center hours after school and then will serve hot food, salad and dessert for their families and community members.
The dinner is both an educational activity for teens to practice preparing meals and learn kitchen and serving skills, as well as a fundraiser for the Teen Center. The suggested donation is $20 per person, with kids eating free.
The center is partnering with the Eat Together Idaho campaign, which promotes families eating daily meals with their teens — a practice that studies show reduces teen substance use, supports better academic outcomes for teens, and bolsters teen confidence and success.
“We are grateful for additional
dinner sponsorship support from P1FCU and ICCU,” the center stated in a news release.
The Sandpoint Teen Center has 85-192 teens currently attending every afternoon at two locations: First Lutheran Church and Portables 5 and 6 behind Sandpoint Middle School.
The fundraiser will also feature a silent auction with items from local businesses, including a brand new barbecue/smoker, local restaurant gift cards, shopping and more.
RSVP to sandpointteencenter@yahoo.com. Want to support the Sandpoint Teen Center, but can’t attend the dinner? Donate at sandpointteencenter.com or mail checks to: Sandpoint Teen Center, P.O. Box 1066, Sandpoint, ID 83864.
The Sandpoint Teen Center dinner held in spring 2025. Courtesy photo
Science: Mad about
the challenges of viking ships
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist
The Vikings were tough. Masters of the sea, conquerors of entire nations, and feared for their brutality and ruthlessness in combat. They were masters of their age in every respect; and, to accomplish all that they achieved over the course of three centuries, they had to utilize every resource at their disposal.
The North Atlantic is one of the most inhospitable environments in the world. There was very little food, no potable water and no warmth without the risk of turning a longboat into a funeral pyre. How did the Vikings not only survive, but thrive in some of the worst conditions on the planet?
Cold was the great killer of the sea. Modern shipping and fishing is far from luxurious, but modern vessels come with many comforts the Vikings critically lacked. Electric and gas heating are chief among these modern luxuries that would have been unthinkable during the Viking Age. Temperatures in the North Atlantic during this era hovered around freezing. Zero degrees Celsius is uncomfortable, but once mixed with water can very rapidly become lethal. Wind and water together pull heat from the human body extremely quickly.
Our sweat works by cooling the body through evaporation and through conduction. Water is a great conductor of heat, absorbing heat and releasing it through the air when the wind blows. In warmer conditions, the energy required to convert sweat into vapor releases the heat energy trapped by the sweat droplets. On the frigid North Atlantic,
the water from the sea and sky are too cold to evaporate; so, instead, the wind pulls the heat straight from the water and disperses it into surrounding water as well as the air.
Combating this in a historical period before electric and gas heat was extremely tricky, but not impossible.
The Vikings had an intimate understanding of the principles of conduction. Many had spent generations on the sea and had learned exactly how heat transfer worked. They solved this not by simply layering on clothing, but by building and selecting specific types of apparel for specific weather conditions. They would even mend their clothing daily to keep in the heat.
Vikings also looked to nature for protection. Animals that call Europe’s northern coasts home had everything the Vikings needed to survive the sea. Sheep’s wool coated in beeswax or oil helped wick water away and keep precious heat trapped inside garments. Thick animal furs laid over natural fibers helped further insulate the sailors — reindeer hides in particular were a Viking favorite.
Reindeer have two layers of fur with a thick layer to trap in body heat and a second guard hair layer that insulates by holding in a layer of air. Seal hides were another source of warmth for Viking sailors, particularly during rough seas or storms when water spray threatened to soak the voyagers to the bone.
Women aboard Viking vessels would aid in mending crews’ clothing daily with thick cord and bone needles. They would sew together layers to create an airtight seal at the wrist, then cover them with gloves to prevent
An artist’s interpretation of a Viking longship.
air leaking from the sleeves. Should the threat of battle loom, the sailors would cut the cord to open their sleeves and maximize their mobility. You can see this layering happen in modern ski gear and winter wear, where people will seal the clothing gap from their wrists with gloves.
Little to no heat on a Viking vessel was generated by fire. Fire was a liability on ships as the entire structure was made of wood and stuffed with flammable pitch and animal furs. Even the mast was coated in highly flammable animal fats to keep it waterproof. Instead, the bulk of heat was generated by the Vikings themselves.
Clothing was imperative for survival, but even more important were the two-person sleeping bags made of sheepskin and animal hides that Vikings utilized on sea voyages. These waterproof and nearly airtight bags were a cozy and intimate experience, allowing for communal sleeping that kept sailors up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than if they were sleeping alone. Being mostly airtight, their faces were exposed to the elements, but also kept safe from unimaginable body odor and the natural digestive results of a North Sea-based diet.
Despite being oceanworthy, Viking vessels weren’t particularly well suited for very long ocean voyages. They were meant to stick close to shores so that the ship’s cook could collect and boil water and serve food up to twice a day. Of course, for longer treks, Vikings could stockpile some food and water, but these open vessels were hardly suited to the weeks or monthslong voyages that
massive galleons could commit to during the Age of Sail centuries later.
The open design of Viking ships compared to more enclosed galleons and shipsof-the-line that came later was interesting, as it gave them tremendous visibility and the capability to rapidly board other craft while stockpiling their own materials. However, they were extremely prone to fire, more so even than multi-decked warships of later
centuries. Air is fuel for fire, and the more air available to a flame, the faster it will burn. A warship with multiple decks and bulkheads can effectively snuff out a fire with its own smoke, while an open longship could go from freezing to flaming in as little as four minutes.
It’s safe to say that Vikings didn’t roast a lot of s’mores while out at sea.
Stay curious, 7B.
Random Corner
• If you happen to lose a fingernail, it might take up to six months for the nail to completely grow back. Also, the nails on your dominant hand grow faster than the rest, as do the nails on your longer fingers.
• Fingernails, like hair, are made of a hard material called keratin, which is protein made of dead cells (which is why cutting your hair and nails doesn’t hurt).
• Painting designs and pictures on fingernails isn’t new. In fact, it was a familiar practice with the ancient Incas, many of whom had eagle designs on their fingernails.
• Cuticles serve an important purpose: they seal moisture and environmental germs out of the body. That’s why it’s important not to pick at your cuticles.
• Nail biting is known as onychophagia. About 30% of children and 15% of adults bite their nails. Dentists outline four reasons to stop: it’s unsanitary (nails harbor bacteria and germs that you end up
putting in your mouth), it wears down teeth, it can delay orthodontic treatment by weakening roots and can cost up to $4,000 in added dental bills over a lifetime.
• Nail polish originated in China as early as 3000 B.C.E. The ingredients were egg whites, gelatin, vegetable dyes and beeswax.
• If you place a piece of your fingernail in Coca-Cola, after four days it will completely dissolve.
• The first nail clippers were patented in 1875. Before that, the earliest tools for cutting nails were most likely sharp rocks, sand and knives.
• White spots on fingernails (known as leukonychia) are usually harmless. They can be caused by nail trauma, vitamin deficiencies, fungal infections, some medications and, in the case of white bands, medical conditions such as liver or kidney disease, heart failure, diabetes or iron deficiency anemia.
Courtesy image
Trump and Idaho Republicans insist on making health care unaffordable
By Lauren Necochea Reader Contributor
Since Republicans took power, they have been weakening health care in the U.S. The GOP budget bill, largely written by Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo, failed to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that help more than 117,000 Idahoans pay for coverage. Democrats are pulling the only lever they have to demand a stop to the huge price hikes. Instead of working with Democrats, Congressional Republicans shut down the government.
Now, Idaho’s middle-class families will pay the price.
On Oct. 15, open enrollment begins for Idaho’s health insurance marketplace and Medicare. Without the ACA tax credits, premiums on the exchange will double on average, and about 25,000 Idahoans are likely to lose coverage altogether.
In Council, retired teacher Bob McMichael pays $50 a month for family coverage. Without the credits, his premium would jump to $2,200. In Boise,
retiree Susan Wood pays $72 a month; without the credits, her premium would rise to $700. Medicaid is under the same strain. The Republican budget bill cut Medicaid by $1 trillion, and Idaho’s GOP leaders compounded the damage by cutting provider payments by 4% to close a state budget shortfall. About 37,000 Idahoans are expected to lose coverage. The Idaho Hospital Association warns that roughly two dozen small rural hospitals are now at risk of closing, taking emergency rooms, maternity care and local
jobs with them.
Idaho’s seniors are feeling it, too. More than 400,000 rely on Medicare, and many are getting letters showing sharp price hikes. A retired teacher in Moscow saw her prescription drug plan jump from $6 to $56 a month.
Even workers with jobbased insurance are not spared. Premiums for small business plans are expected to rise 11% next year. Employers will have to absorb the cost, pass it to workers, or cut coverage.
For a decade, Republican leaders have claimed to have a health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, but never shared it.
Now that they control the House, the Senate and the White House, we’re seeing that the plan is to gut health care at every level to fund billionaire tax breaks.
This isn’t what Americans want. Recent polls show 78% of voters want to see ACA tax credits continue, including 59% of Republicans. Even far-right Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling out her own party, recognizing that the GOP needs to end this shutdown and adopt a plan to stop skyrocketing premiums.
Democrats in Congress are working to prevent this GOP-manufactured crisis. They have proposed a
bipartisan plan to restore ACA credits, strengthen Medicaid, stabilize Medicare and keep rural hospitals open. But Idaho’s Republican senators keep voting it down.
Idaho families deserve leaders who will lower costs and protect care, not play politics with their health.
Lauren Necochea is chair of the Idaho Democratic Party and a former District 19 legislator. Necochea spent a decade leading nonprofit programs dedicated to research and advocacy in tax policy, health care and children’s issues.
Lauren Necochea. File photo
BY THE NUMBERS
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
at least 2,500
The number of “No Kings” protests scheduled to take place on Saturday, Oct. 18 across all 50 states, according to organizers. There are 20 protest locations across the state of Idaho alone, with organizers claiming, “On Oct. 18, millions of us are rising again to show the world: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people.”
53%
The share of U.S. flight delays caused by air traffic control staffing shortages, according to the Federal Aviation Administration — up sharply from the usual 5%, as the federal shutdown is soon to enter its third week. Major airports in Dallas, Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. have seen widespread disruptions as controllers work without pay and more call out sick.
Also
53%
The share of U.S. adults who believe artificial intelligence will make people less creative, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. Just 16% say AI will improve creative thinking, while half think it will also harm people’s ability to form meaningful relationships.
38%
The percentage of Americans who say Republicans are to blame for the government shutdown. By comparison, 27% said Democrats are at fault, while 31% pointed the finger at both parties equally and 4% said neither.
$56.6 million
Idaho’s projected budget deficit by the end of the current fiscal year. The Idaho Constitution prohibits the state from running a budget deficit where expenses exceed available revenue. The deficit is in high contrast to Idaho’s Fiscal Year 2022, when the state held a surplus of $2 billion.
Top left: A daddy longlegs walks along a red kuri squash. “No carving required,” wrote photographer Ron Bedford.
Top right: A funny Halloween sight captured by Cynthia Mason. For those without great eyesight, the boat’s name is “Bite Me.”
Middle left: A carved pumpkin from Halloween 2024. Photo by Ron Bedford.
Middle right: Schweitzer recorded its first snowfall of the season, with upward of seven inches dumping on the mountain summit on Oct. 11. Photo courtesy of Schweitzer.
Bottom left: Bonner Community Food Bank Executive Director Debbie Love speaks at the 45th anniversary dinner, auction and gala held on Oct. 11. Photo by Soncirey Mitchell.
Bottom right: Fall colors seen along Sand Creek. “It’s such a beautiful time of the year,” wrote photographer Tricia Florence.
COMMUNITY UCAN to host Halloween party and fundraiser
By Reader Staff
The Unique Center for Athletes of all Needs will host a Halloween party and fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 25, starting at 5:30 p.m., with a happy hour, dinner, live and silent auction, costume contest and dancing at 1007 W. Superior St., in Sandpoint.
Tickets are on sale for $85 per person or $1,200 for a table, with dinner and bar provided by 113 Main. A DJ will end the night with musical entertainment.
All proceeds will go to support the nonprofit, which empowers individuals with special needs through fitness and nutrition. UCAN provides both group classes and one-on-one sessions that are tailored to individuals’ needs, striving “to build a community amongst their athletes and families while having fun and working hard,” according to organizers.
Learn more at ucansandpoint.org.
POP to host third annual dinner fundraiser
By Reader Staff
The Pend Oreille Pedalers are ushering in autumn with their third annual progressive dinner fundraiser — an evening where cycling meets Spanish cuisine in the heart of Sandpoint.
The event features a ride to four locations to celebrate this year’s theme:
“An Evening of Spanish Flavors, Community and Cycling for a Cause.”
The ride begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25 with drinks, followed by appetizers, a main course and dessert. Tickets are $150 and go to support POP’s youth programming.
Visit pendoreillepedalers.org to purchase one of the remaining tickets.
Man’s best monster A history of werewolves
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
Werewolves have been a vehicle for cultural fears since time immemorial, and, unlike most monsters, they have no single origin. Almost every culture in the world has a werewolf myth — or myths of some other were-beast — from Asia to North America, which has made for a varied and enduring monster used throughout history to embody fears of violence, sexual violation, and the fragile line between civilization and barbarism.
Humanity has been fascinated with human-animal hybrids for thousands of years, with the oldest zoomorphic art, the Löwenmensch (or lion-man) statue, dating back to 33,00038,000 B.C.E. The first written example of a werewolf-like being comes from The Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 2100–1200 B.C.E., in which the goddess Inanna turns her former lover into a wolf, though he maintains his human mind, “so his own shepherds now chase him and his own dogs snap at his shins.”
Historic stories of werewolves were varied — sometimes sympathetic, as in Marie de France’s Bisclavret, and other times prescriptive, as in the myth of Zeus and Lycaon — however, they began to have a tangible impact on people’s lives during Europe’s Middle Ages.
According to Dr. Emily Zarka, host of PBS’s Monstrum, the rise of sheep farming in Europe in the Middle Ages exacerbated tensions between people and wolves, as the canines became a greater threat to people’s prosperity than ever before. In Of Wolves and Men, essayist and nature writer Barry Holstun Lopez wrote, “The medieval mind, more than any other mind in history, was obsessed with images of wolves ... Peasants called famine ‘the wolf.’ Avaricious landlords were ‘wolves.’ Anything that threatened a peasant’s precarious existence was ‘the wolf.’”
This characterization fed into, and was fed by, Christian
theology, which often used the image of the wolf to describe everything from false prophets to the antichrist to “heretics,” emphasizing their supposedly bloodthirsty nature. Lopez called this demonization of wolves “almost completely a projection of human anxiety,” with the wolf being, “not so much an animal we have always known as an animal we have consistently imagined.”
Regardless, as the idea of the wolf became more monstrous, accusations of lycanthropy began to grow. From the 14th to 18th centuries, many men (and some women) were tried and executed alongside supposed witches for the crime of being werewolves, which was closely linked to sorcery, as is outlined in the Malleus Maleficarum. During that time, France alone reported more than 30,000 cases of lycanthropy, according to Zarka.
These accusations generally didn’t center on the animal transformation as the key issue, but rather the charges of rape, murder and cannibalism that these men were said to have carried out while in wolf form.
The most famous werewolf trial took place in Germany, where farmer Peter Stumpp was found guilty of lycanthropy, witchcraft, cannibalism, incest and murder. Only two surviving records of the trial survive, one of which author and clergyman Montague Summers documented word-for-word in his folklore study, The Werewolf.
The text described Stumpp as a “hellhound” in league with the devil, who used a magic girdle to transform into a wolf “strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like unto brands of fire; a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth; a huge body; and mighty paws.”
Stumpp was convicted of murdering 13 children — including his own son, whose brain he’s said to have eaten — and two pregnant women, “tearing the children out of their wombs ... and after ate their hearts panting hot and raw.”
The document alleged that he carried out these gruesome
murders over a period of 25 years, during which time he also had incestuous relationships with his sister and daughter.
Stumpp was executed on Oct. 31, 1589, when his body was “laid on a wheel, and with red hot burning pincers in 10 several places to have the flesh pulled off from the bones.” After that, executioners broke his arms and legs, decapitated him and burned him at the stake with his sister and daughter. After his death, the town of Bedburg displayed the wheel used to torture him alongside the image of a wolf and Stumpp’s severed head as a warning to other werewolves.
Whether you believe in a world where werewolves exist or you think Stumpp was a human serial killer, the accusations of lycanthropy clearly connect the monster to ideas of sexual violation and deviancy. Werewolf accusations often had a sexual component, and even the graphic descriptions of the deaths of children and pregnant women relate the werewolf’s violence to procreation and the family.
(That association continues to the present day. In 1995, the media dubbed Jack Owen Spillman, a particularly gruesome serial killer and rapist from Spokane, “The Werewolf Butcher.”)
Belief in werewolves slowly waned, unlike the public fascination with the furry monster, and eventually, werewolves became staples of Gothic and horror publications like penny dreadfuls. These morbid and salacious stories played up the violence and sexual deviancy of the werewolf myth, during which time it became associated with the lower classes, according to Zarka.
Medical advancements paved the way for Lon Chaney Jr.’s classic werewolf, which took the threat of sexual violence — and just plain violence — and internalized it, making it a Jekylland-Hyde-esque battle of two personalities within one body. The 1941 classic The Wolf Man, starring Chaney as a straightlaced, well-bred man-turnedwerewolf, includes the poetic
line, “Even a man who is pure in heart / And says his prayers by night / May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms.”
Cultural historians believe that this reimagining helped audiences better understand the growing violence in 20th century Europe. Seeing that a man of good social standing was still capable of violence, even against the woman he loves, was a way for viewers to reconcile the image of polite society with the horrors of the world wars.
The Wolf Man began the American werewolf craze, depicting what horror historian David J. Skal called a “geographically indeterminate ‘Europe’” that blurs elements of “America, England and the continent as the Great War had done literally, and the new war was in the process of doing all over again.”
Whereas previous media, like the lost 1913 film The Werewolf, had depicted werewolves as a cultural other — a threat stemming from the Indigenous people of North America or East Asia — The Wolf Man set Chaney’s misadventures in a fictional version of 1940s Europe, which did not include WWII yet was heavily influenced by it. The Wolf Man and its sequels came out between America’s entrance into the war and the bombing of Hiroshima. At the same time, Adolf Hitler — previously admired by many Americans — was broadcasting
his fascination with wolves and werewolves to the world, using the pseudonym “Herr Wolf” and naming his headquarters in France and Ukraine Wolfsschlucht (Wolf’s Gulch) and Werwolf, respectively.
“Images of devolved animal-men, often possessed of the wolfish traits so prized by the Nazis, were striking facets of horror pictures during the war years,” wrote Skal in The Monster Show
Though Nazis and werewolves wouldn’t be explicitly linked on screen until 1981’s An American Werewolf in London, the monster remained an outlet for Americans to process the previously unheard of death, destruction and loss of culture caused by WWII and Time’s 1938 “Man of the Year.”
The werewolf’s popularity has yet to fade, molding itself to embody whatever new cultural anxieties arise, whether about youth culture (I Was a Teenage Werewolf), menstruation (Ginger Snaps) or motherhood (Nightbitch). The duality of the werewolf, with its diverse cultural origins and mythologies, makes it perhaps history’s most popular and relatable monster, serving as a manifestation of society’s fears for more than 4,000 (or maybe 40,000) years.
A woodcut print by Lukas Mayer depicting the execution of Peter Stumpp. Courtesy image.
Apple Fest is bigger than ever
By Reader Staff
Several new businesses have moved into town in the past year, adding to the Historic Sandpoint Shopping District’s community of merchants and to the celebrations at its annual Apple Fest, this year scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 18.
Forty retailers and restaurants will mark the occasion with sales, giveaways, games and treats, in addition to the citywide activities.
“Come downtown. All the tourists are gone; it’s our town again,” said Shopping District Downtown Manager Leilani Williams. “Let’s come and make memories together. The trees are starting to turn — it’s beautiful. The weather’s gorgeous and there’s a lot of really new, neat stuff.”
Enter for a chance to win $1,000
Dinner
and
in gift cards and two ZZ Ward concert tickets at the Knitting Factory in Spokane by visiting a participating business and picking up a “passport.” Have the passport stamped by one business in each downtown quadrant, then submit it to a restaurant by 6 p.m. to be entered in the drawing.
While browsing the deals, stop by the Cedar Street Bridge to try the slingshot game — where you shoot apples at floating targets in Sand Creek — get a pony ride or enter the apple pie contest. Bakers must submit two pies by 9 a.m. for the 11 a.m. judging.
From noon to 2 p.m., the Panida Theater also invites people to take behind-the-scenes tours of the historic building.
For a full list of locations and activities, visit sandpointdowntownshopping.com/apple-fest.
auction
fundraiser to support Pondery’s ice skating rink
By Reader Staff
Chill winds are already starting to blow in North Idaho, which means thoughts may turn to ice skating at The Pond presented by STCU in Ponderay.
Heading into the skating rink’s upcoming season, the city of Ponderay and North Idaho Ice are hosting a dinner and auction fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 18 to support the facility. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and dinner — catered by Ivano’s with a bar provided by Sweet Lou’s — is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Bonner County Fairgrounds (4203 N. Boyer Road). Tickets are $65 (plus fees) and available at eventbrite.com. Funds raised
will be put toward improving ice facilities at The Pond presented by STCU as part of a long-term effort to create a four-season skating facility at the Field of Dreams recreational complex.
According to organizers, the first season at the rink in 2024-’25 saw more than 13,000 skaters participating in community skating, hockey and 26 free field trip sessions for public, private and home school programs in Bonner and Boundary counties.
To purchase a sponsor table and other rink sponsorship opportunities, call 208-946-1919 or 208-255-8969.
For more information on North Idaho Ice, go to niicearena.com. Visit The Pond presented by STCU’’s website at skatethepond.com.
Farmers’ Market celebrates end of season with Harvest Fest
By Reader Staff
It’s the close of another season for the Sandpoint Farmers’ Market, with Harvest Fest set for Saturday, Oct. 18 at Farmin Park (located at Third Avenue and Main Street in Sandpoint).
Come rain, sleet, snow or sunshine, the market will host entertainment, food booths, activities and displays during extended hours from 9 a.m.2 p.m., marking the culmination of another successful growing season.
According to organizers, they’ll
continue a long-standing tradition of hosting a food drive for the Bonner Community Food Bank. Bring a donation and receive a raffle ticket and the chance to win a market gift basket (must be present to win).
For more info, go to sandpointfarmersmarket.com/harvest-fest or call 208-597-3355.
By Soncirey Mitchell and Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Halloween has a definitive sound; but, each week in October, we’re offering a few suggestions to freshen (or deaden) up your spooky season playlist.
I Monster
Those who’ve heard of the English electronic duo I Monster usually know “Daydream in Blue,” a remix of a ’60s love song turned catchy nightmare with I Monster’s distorted lyrical additions. Most songs off of their most famous albums, A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars and neveroddoreven, are worthy of any October playlist — especially “The Blue Wrath,” “She’s Giving Me The I” and “Who is she?” The song “Lust for a Vampyr” is in a league of its own, though, with its go-go inspired vocals and spooky synthesizer that make you want to dance while staking Edward Cullen. Listen on Spotify.
Twin Temple
Inspired by their love of ’50s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll (think Roy Orbison), husband-and-wife duo Twin Temple decided to make doo-wop music about Satanism, because they found it to be more inclusive and kinder than most organized religions. Lead singer Alexandra James has a voice like Amy Winehouse, which, when recorded live in mono, makes her sound like she sold her soul in 1955. Just listen to “Let’s Have A Satanic Orgy” and you’ll see why their music is so incredible that they were personally denounced by Alex Jones and hundreds of so-called “Christians” sent them death threats. Find them on twintemple.com.
Kiki Rockwell
“Female rage” is an ever-growing musical genre popular with Gen Z, and one artist at the forefront of the movement is Kiki Rock well. Performing, editing
and releasing the music herself from a cabin in the woods, the folk-altpop multi-instrumentalist sounds like she remembers burning at the stake in 1500s Germany — in fact, many of her songs reference the witch trials. Eldest Daughter Of An Eldest Daughter and Rituals On The Bank Of A Familiar River are chock-full of haunting, violent stories with singsong lead vocals, pounding electronic beats and chanting inspired by monasticism. Listen to her unsettling yet invigorating discography on YouTube.
Calamity and the Owl
Among the creepiest pieces of English folklore is Jenny Greenteeth, a water spirit (otherwise referred to as a “river-hag”) that dwells in the brackish ponds of the countryside and pulls people — especially kids — to their death beneath the weed-choked waters. There are loads of interpretations of Jenny’s habits and appearance, dating back to the 1800s, but some sources claim her origins stretch even farther into history, including to Grendel and his ogreish mother from Beowulf. Twin Cities, Minn.-based Americana/folk rock five-piece Calamity and the Owl has produced an atmospheric, toe-tapping homage to Jenny that’s worth a listen on YouTube.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
If there’s a grandsire of the dark, broody genre generally referred to as “horror rock,” it’s got to be Nick Cave, who is still kicking out the doleful goth-infused pop-punk hits decades after his band, the Bad Seeds, formed in Melbourne, Australia in the early 1980s. It’s not totally fair to pigeonhole Cave that way, but some of his tracks are iconic for their doomstruck vibe — specifically, “Red Right Hand,” “Stagger Lee” and “The Curse of Millhaven.” You can do your own searching around through Cave’s oeuvre, or go to Spotify, where some mensch has put together a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Halloween playlist.
Courtesy photo
Better Together Animal Alliance needs help with 200+ vulnerable cats and kittens
By Reader Staff
Better Together Animal Alliance is providing urgent support to more than 200 cats in three separate cases of overpopulation — including one location in Careywood and two in Priest River and Sagle.
According to the shelter, two of the situations involve properties where the homeowners are now deceased, resulting in domesticated cats living without food or water. Working together with community members, BTAA is supplying resources including food, vaccines, and spay-and-neuter services to improve the animals’ lives.
“We are calling on our community to help us provide compassionate care to these cats and kittens during this urgent situation,” stated BTAA Executive Director Mandy Evans. “By partnering with caregivers, we can ensure these cats don’t go hungry, provide them with spay-and-neuter services to prevent continued overpopulation, and vaccinate each animal to protect them at this vulnerable time.”
Donations of adult cat food are needed to keep the cats healthy while long-term care plans are put in place. Monetary donations are also needed to help cover the cost of vaccines, veterinary care, and spay-and-neuter surgeries.
How to Help:
• Drop off unopened bags of adult, dry cat food at BTAA (870 Kootenai Cutoff Road, in Ponderay). Or donate through Walmart, North 40, Petco or BTAA’s Chewy wishlist.
• Visit mightycause.com/story/k1h8lf or call 208-265-7297, ext. 100 to give directly toward the care of the cats.
• Help raise awareness of the cats’ needs.
• Adopt a cat to free up shelter space so that BTAA can intake vulnerable cats and find them new homes.
“Every bag of food, every dollar, every share makes a difference,” Evans stated.
For more information, email dig@ btanimalalliance.org. To arrange a donation, email paige@btanimalalliance.org.
dumb of the week
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
Planet Earth is a memory. We now inhabit the Planet of Dumb, where up is down, two plus two is five and gas prices are perpetually at $1.98 per gallon.
That’s right, it’s another Dumb of the Week where I wade through the toxic sludge of modern politics to point out the sights as we slide deeper into becoming a fascist state.
Just a week after the White House boasted that President Donald Trump “is a strong supporter of free speech,” he signed an executive order aimed at prosecuting those who “desecrate” the U.S. flag.
Never mind that Trump’s order blatantly defies the Supreme Court’s ruling in Texas v. Johnson, which established flag burning as “symbolic speech” and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
“We took the freedom of speech away,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion on antifa on Oct. 8, “because that’s been through the courts, and the courts said you have freedom of speech but what has happened is when they burn the flag it agitates and irritates crowds.”
Curious what Trump’s Constitution-loving, free-speech advocates have to say about this statement? Me too, but you’d have better luck finding a dog that could play the violin than searching for a nuanced opinion from the MAGA crowd, which usually retreats into claims that insane quotes like these are merely “taken out of context” and should be forgotten.
OK, we’ll move on then. How about when Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller completely froze during a CNN interview after saying the quiet part out loud when discussing court injunctions against Trump sending federal troops to U.S. cities.
“Under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the president has plenary authority... has-,” Miller said before suddenly going quiet and blinking in front of the camera for about 10 seconds while a CNN anchor claimed a “technical glitch” was somehow at fault before going to a commercial break.
“Plenary authority,” for those who are unaware, is a term that means complete, comprehensive, absolute power that is not subject to limitation. So, they’re still casually walking out the whole “Trump is a dictator and people want that,” schtick.
Now, let’s take a look at some of Trump’s musings about the nation of Qatar in the past. In June 2017, Trump said Qatar “has historically been a funder of financing terrorism at a very high level,” and he supported a blockade against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier this year, the Qatari royal family donated a $400 million luxury jet that Trump could use as Air Force One for the rest of his term. The plane’s ownership would then be transferred to Trump’s presidential library, meaning he would be able to continue using it after he leaves office.
Even some of Trump’s most ardent supporters were leery of this “gift,” as it might lead to a “quid pro quo” situation similar to the one that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Fast forward to last week and Defense Secretary and former Fox News Host Pete Hegseth announced he is “proud that today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force Facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho.”
The agreement will allow Qatari pilots to train alongside U.S. soldiers. It’s yet another example of how Trump is cozying up to the nation he once claimed funded terrorism, including yet another executive order stating that the U.S. would regard any attack on Qatar as a “threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
Three words: quid pro quo.
Let’s just take a quick spin down swamp lane. So far, Trump has launched TrumpRX, Trump Gold Card, Trump Mobile, Trump Coin, Trump Sneakers and Truth Social. In the pipeline is Trump Golf Resort in Qatar, Trump Plaza in Saudi Arabia and Trump Tower in the UAE. First lady Melania Trump released a crypto coin, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner just bought video game maker EA and Trump was just caught on an open mic mixing personal business dealings and politics with the president of Indonesia, where the Trump Organization is set to open even more new properties. How are your grocery bills? Enjoying that $1.98 per gallon gas? Are you happy that taxpayer money is being used to build a $200 million ballroom or to bail out Argentina with $40 billion while U.S. farmers’ livelihoods are threatened by tariffs? Do you enjoy seeing ICE agents behind face masks, ripping people out of their cars in the middle of the street? Are we great again yet?
I suppose the best way to sum up how I feel about the world today is with this quote that’s been kicking around the internet without attribution: “Sometimes I really think 2019 was the last normal year of our lives and, ever since, it feels like we’ve slipped into some alternate reality where nothing makes sense, everyone is on edge, time moves too fast yet too slow and the world we knew just doesn’t exist anymore.”
I suppose we’d better learn to love Big Brother soon, because I know how this story ends. Do you?
Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com
Line dancing lessons ($10)
6:30-8:30pm @ The Hive
Live Music w/ Matt Lome
8pm @ The Tervan
Live Music w/ Pamela Benton
5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Paint & Sip
THURSDAY, october 16
5:30-7:30pm @ Barrel 33
Sign up at barrel33sandpoint.com
Live Music w/ Frytz Mor 8pm @ Roxy’s
FriDAY, october 17
Live Music w/ Homebrew String Band
6-8pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
Live Music w/ Sheldon Packwood 8pm @ 219 Lounge
Live Music w/ Sydney Dawn 5pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz
6-8pm @ Baxters on Cedar
Barrel birthday party • 5-9pm @ Barrel 33
Live music w/ Ian Newbill from 5:308:30pm, birthday treats and more
Live Music w/ Hannah & Ezra
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Dammit Lauren!
9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge
Live Music w/ Tucker James
5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Live Music w/ Jordan Shaw
5:30-8:30pm @ Barrel 33
Live Music w/ Luke Stuivenga
6-8pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
Live Music w/ Corn Mash
7-10pm @ Eichardt’s Pub
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
8pm @ Panida Theater
50th anniversary of the cult classic film! Props, costume contest, more bawdy fun
Live Music w/ John Hastings
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin
6-8pm @ Baxters on Cedar
Sandpoint Chess Club
9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee
BCA 8-Ball Tournaments ($10) 12pm @ Roxy’s, 215 Pine St.
Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi
7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub
Outdoor Experience Group Run
6pm @ Outdoor Experience
Live acoustic guitar w/ John Firshi
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Roxy’s Karaoke
9pm-1am @ Roxy’s
Family Hour and Live Music w/ John Firshi
5-7pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co.
Taste of Tango • 6pm @ Barrel 33
Live Music w/ Copper Mountain Band 7:30pm @ The Hive
Line dancing lessons at 7:30pm ($10). Show starting at 8:30pm ($10)
Music w/ DJ Sterling
9pm-midnight @ Roxy’s
Karaoke nights (Fri/Sat/Sun)
8pm @ Tervan Tavern
BCA 8-Ball Tournaments ($10) 6pm @ Roxy’s, 215 Pine St.
SATURDAY, october 18
No Kings street rally & community forum
Noon-4pm @ In front of Community Hall
A street rally from 1-3pm and community forum from noon-4pm on First Ave. in front and inside Community Hall. Come peacefully protest
Sandpoint Apple Fest
Ongoing @ Various locations sandpointdowntownshopping.com/apple-fest for more information
The Pond Skating Rink fundraiser 4:30pm @ Bonner County Fairgrounds Dinner by Ivano’s at 6pm. Purchase tickets: 208-946-1919
October 16 - 23, 2025
Live Trivia w/ Toshi 7pm @ Connie’s Cafe and Lounge
Finding Lucinda (film and performance) 7pm @ Panida Theater
Special screening of the documentary film Finding Lucinda, followed by live performance from ISMAY, the featured artist in the film, plus a Q&A
U-pick pumpkin patch
10am-5pm @ 26 East Shingle Mill Rd.
Open Fridays/weekends in October
Lake Life Wellness Center & Yoga Studio grand opening and community open house 12-4pm @ 200 Main St., Sandpoint Free yoga class demos, chair massage, clinic and sauna tours and more
Harvest Fest 9am-2pm @ Farmin Park
The final day of Sandpoint Farmers’ Market. Live music w/ BOCA
Hear John Hastings speak about the Caribbean coral reef restoration project by SHS students. Meeting starts at 10am
Money Empowerment Workshop, Part 2 10am-noon @ The Sandpoint Center
A two-part series to help create financial clarity. To register, visit bit.ly/ moneysandpoint
Nightmare Before Christmas fundraiser • 4pm @ Luther Park, 510 Olive Ave. Proceeds benfefit One More Time Northwest. Dress up in your favorite Halloween costume or ugly sweater. $250/table (8 people) includes dinner
SunDAY, october 19
Magic with Star Alexander 5-8pm @ Jalapeño’s
Live piano w/ Peter Lucht 1-3pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
monDAY, october 20
Live Music w/ Fiddlin’ Red 1-4pm @ Barrel 33
Live Music w/ Kerry Leigh 3-5pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Candidates Forum for Sandpoint City Council, et. al
5:30pm @ Sandpoint Library
Learn more about the slate of candidates
tuesDAY, october 21
Trivia Night 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Little Live Radio Hour w/ Justin Landis • 6:45pm @ Panida Little Theater
One of Sandpoint’s most prolific (and versatile) musicians. Free. Arrive and be seated by 6:45pm. Listen at 88.5FM
wednesDAY, october 22
Live piano w/ Bob Beadling 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Argentine tango lesson at 6pm followed by guided practice at 7pm. $15, no partner needed
Terrarium seascape workshop
5:30-7pm @ Barrel 33
With Verdant Plants. $50, all supplies included. barrel33sandpoint.com
Live Trivia w/ Toshi 7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
ThursDAY, october 23
Cribbage tournament 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Line dancing lessons ($10) 6:30-8:30pm @ The Hive
Pinktober Dancethon fundraiser 6pm @ Allegro Dance Studio 90-min. fitness class with proceeds going to Community Cancer Services
Live Music w/ Carson Rhodes 8pm @ Tervan Tavern
Uncovering untold stories: FindingLucinda
Documentary explores the early career of Lucinda Williams
By Reader Staff
The Finding Lucinda tour is more than a concert — it’s a traveling artistic experience. Each date includes an acoustic performance by ISMAY (a.k.a. Avery Hellman) with Buddy Miller, Mary Gauthier, Charlie Sexton and Lucinda Williams on an inspirational road trip chronicling the search for artistic purpose.
Featuring special guests Christy Hays, Chad Okrusch and Ben Pickett, the screening is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 17 at the Panida Theater (300 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint), and will include a question-and-answer session with ISMAY, who stars in the film.
Directed by Joel Fendelman (Man on Fire), Finding Lucinda follows singer-songwriter ISMAY on a road trip across the American South, uncovering
the roots of Lucinda Williams’ artistry. Along the way, the film reveals never-before-heard recordings from Williams’ early years and includes interviews with Sexton, Miller, Gauthier, Max and Josh Baca, Ray Kennedy and Williams herself. The project has grown into a dynamic, multifaceted release including the film, a live tour, a soundtrack, and an 18-part podcast distributed by Ed Helms’ Bluegrass Situation Podcast Network.
According to Hellman, “Working on Finding Lucinda gave me the extraordinary opportunity to truly understand what gives an artist their voice. Over four years, our team dove deep
into exploring how place, upbringing, and craft made Lucinda Williams the astounding artist she is today.”
Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show is at 7 p.m., with tickets available for $27 at the door or panida.org. Learn more at findinglucindafilm.com.
The Panida Theater celebrates 50 years of RockyHorror
By Reader Staff
Fifty years ago, on Sept. 26, 1975, the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show debuted to small, unresponsive audiences and immediately flopped — but that was just the beginning. The inclusive, queer and bawdy culture that grew around this musical comedy went on to make it the longest-running theatrical release in film history (50 years) and earn Rocky Horror a place in the United States National Film Registry.
In honor of the 50-year anniversary, The Rocky Horror Picture Show will screen in all its camp glory on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m., with an accompanying costume contest, at the Panida Theater (300 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint).
Based on the 1973 stage production by Richard O’Brien, Rocky Horror is a gaudy, raunchy rock ’n’ roll musical that spoofs classic horror and science-fiction B movies. The story follows sweethearts Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon), who happen upon the mysterious estate of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) shortly after their engagement.
Frank, a seductive “transvestite” scientist, is determined to build his own boyfriend, Frankenstein style, and open the naive couple’s eyes to the world of “absolute pleasure.” Along the way, Brad and Janet encounter the house’s
strange inhabitants: a rock ’n’ roll biker (Meat Loaf), a hunchback butler (O’Brien), a Soviet maid (Patricia Quinn), a showgirl (Nell Campbell) and Rocky Horror himself (Peter Hinwood).
The film’s cult following blossomed after Fox began midnight screenings of Rocky Horror, which had audiences coming back day after day to sing along and talk back to the screen. Eventually, dressing like the characters, yelling out quips and playing raunchy games became the norm. The Panida’s showing will have lots of audience participation
(including props to throw) led by the night’s seductive hosts.
Tickets are $27. Visit panida.org for more information.
ISMAY, a.k.a. Avery Hellman, will perform at the Panida’s screening of the documentary Finding Lucinda on Oct. 17. Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist
The Sandpoint Eater A taste of Canada
After 7,000 miles, five planes, three trains and myriad meals, we 18 adventurous women are back!
This highly anticipated trip had been in the making for more than a year; and, over the course of two weeks, we embarked on a trans-Canadian journey that spanned from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic seaboard. We rode on three different trains (including the iconic VIA Rail Canadian), and in upper and lower berths, we spent five nights rocked to sleep by the rhythm on the steel rails. Between train transits, we relaxed in some of Canada’s most beautiful hotels — seven nights total — where we indulged in local flavors, fluffy pillows and long, hot showers.
We began our trip in Vancouver, British Columbia, warmly greeted by sympathetic Canadians, fresh ocean air and more food choices than one could imagine (especially at the Granville Island Market).
Our first group meal — a proper Chinese feast — was a logical welcome to the city’s rich multicultural landscape. Any worries about being strangers in a new place disappeared faster than a box of Timbits (Canada’s addictive answer to doughnut holes). The warmth of the people, paired with our delight in discovering their culinary traditions, set the tone for the entire trip’s discoveries.
Each day on the train started for me in the same treasured way: I’d wake early, slip quietly up to the dark dome car and cradle a hot coffee as I watched the world wake up through the expansive, panoramic windows. There was
something so special about this ritual — prairie sunrises, mist rising from endless lakes and the soft, familiar clatter of the tracks beneath me. It was in those moments, with caffeine in hand and scenery sliding past, that I felt the satisfying rhythm of a wellplanned journey.
Traveling with 17 other women may sound like logistical chaos, but it worked seamlessly. We often split into smaller groups to explore museums, markets or neighborhoods at our own pace; but, just as frequently, we all gathered to share libations and laughter until our sides ached. If dear Erma Bombeck was correct, and if indeed, laughter truly is the best medicine, then my ladies are well inoculated. By the time we reached Montreal, Quebec, our group had become something of a traveling sisterhood. Many of us explored the city’s famed Jean-Talon Market, nestled in Little Italy, where food stalls spilled over with vibrant produce, fresh pasta, creamy cheeses and fragrant spices. Montreal is a food lover’s par-
adise, and every bite was an adventure. I silently cheered on all my ladies who stepped out of the comfort zone and tried new and unfamiliar bites.
We sampled maple-glazed everything, and polished off decadent pastries that rivaled those in Paris. Montreal is also famous for her restaurants and boasts more than 5,000. One of my most memorable meals on the trip was at Gaspar, a French brasserie tucked into the historic heart of Old Montreal. There, in a charming space filled with golden light and laughter, a small group of us came together for a late supper. Around the table, decisions were made and French-inspired entrées were ordered: pig trotters, duck confit, pasta and pâté foie gras. I chose mussels in a cream-based sauce, and it was indeed a wise choice.
I’ve savored mussels in cream sauce in France, but never like this. The sauce was silken and rich, with an unexpected note: a subtle, comforting flavor of (Idaho?) potatoes. It wasn’t heavy like chowder or thick like stew
— it was delicate, the flavor lingering on my palate. After some discussion within the group, I decided the secret might lie in using starchy potato water, perhaps left over from boiling mashed potatoes (which bedded the trotters), to thicken and flavor the sauce.
Everyone at the table tasted it, savoring the sublime flavor. We agreed that it was one of the best dishes of the trip.
The finale of our grand adventure came in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after disembarking our last train: VIA’s Ocean. We celebrated with a traditional maritime feast at the Waterfront Warehouse, with platters of oversized, bright red lobsters. It was the perfect closure to a journey that had taken us from mountains to markets, from West Coast sushi to East Coast seafood. Throughout the trip, food was more than sustenance — it was a bridge and, often, our main topic of conversation. If we didn’t share a meal, we shared our experiences of where we went and what we ate.
Though our palates were broad and varied, we all seemed to
Mussels in cream sauce
savor every culinary choice we made. It reminded us that even though Canada is diverse and vast, there’s a shared love for good food, good company and hearty conversation.
Since returning, I’ve been experimenting with recreating that Montreal mussel dish in my own kitchen. It’s a humble homage, indeed, but I’m determined to honor that perfect balance of cream, sea and spud. I nailed it. And for those of us who are practicing the art of purging and uncluttering, isn’t that just the best kind of souvenir? Something that pleasantly lingers long after the luggage is unpacked. Now, as I sit and sip my morning caffeine (though sadly, not in a railcar), I think of that quiet vantage point I claimed each day. Watching the country unfold before me, bite by bite, mile by mile, I felt so fortunate. Food and travel, they just go hand in hand.
Until the next adventure and the next food discoveries I hope to share, try making these mussels in cream sauce. Then we can talk about just how darn good they are!
(Inspired by Gaspar Brasserie, Montreal, Canada.)
Don’t skip the potato water. Boil a few potatoes for another meal and retain the starchy liquid to make this dish simply sublime. Serve with a light crisp, white wine, and don’t forget a vessel for the discarded shells. Serves 2-4.
INGREDIENTS: DIRECTIONS:
• 2 lbs fresh mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 2 shallots, finely chopped or white part of well-rinsed leeks
• A few sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup dry white wine
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup starchy potato cooking water (from mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Chopped parsley, to garnish
• Crusty bread, for serving
In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add shallots or leeks, lemon and garlic; sauté until soft and fragrant (2-3 minutes).
Pour in wine and bring to a simmer. Add mussels, cover and steam for 5-7 minutes, or until all mussels open. Discard any that remain closed. Remove mussels with a slotted spoon and set aside, covered to stay warm.
Heat the cream and potato water (don’t add cold, it may curdle). Add to wine stock. Simmer 3-5 minutes until slightly thickened. Season to taste.
Return mussels to the pot and toss gently to coat (be gentle so you don’t break the thin shells).
Serve with chopped parsley and plenty of bread for dipping.
MUSIC
Justin Landis to play KRFY Little Live Radio Hour
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
In every music scene, there’s that one guy who is like the duct tape that holds everything together. In Sandpoint, that’s Justin Landis. Whether performing his own tunes, sitting in with others, mixing live sound or recording in his studio, Landis has irons in all the musical fires. Plus, he’s one hell of a nice guy.
Catch a special show with Landis at KRFY’s Little Live Radio Hour at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at the Panida Little Theater (300 N. First
Ave., in downtown Sandpoint).
The Little Live Radio Hour is an intimate experience that KRFY 88.5 FM hosts along with the Panida to showcase talented local musicians — offering audiences a behindthe-scenes, in-person concert experience.
Those interested in attending in person are encouraged to be settled in their seats by 6:45 p.m. to prepare for the 7 p.m. live broadcast; otherwise, listen at home at 88.5 FM or stream on KRFY.org. Regardless, the show is free to attend.
A multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, producer
and proverbial spice rack of musical talent, Landis has been a staple in the scene since people were still buying CDs. His latest venture, a recording studio called Johnny Long Station, is nestled among a forest oasis on seven acres just outside of town and provides a creative, inspirational setting for bands and artists to record their creations into something tangible and salable (visit johnnylongstation.com for more information).
Visit KRFY.org for more on the Little Live Radio Hour, and to listen to previous artistic guests.
Copper Mountain Band returns to The Hive
By Reader Staff
The Hive has become the go-to spot for high-energy country and classic rock in North Idaho. Good thing, because that’s exactly what the Montana-based Copper Mountain Band does.
The band has been touring
and playing live for nearly 20 years, bringing their brand of rockin’ country everywhere from honkeytonks to county fairs. They’ll play at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17 at The Hive (207 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint).
The show will also serve as an album release party, when
the Copper Mountain Band debuts its new record Here We Go Again and a fresh sound.
Line dancing lessons will be held prior to showtime at 7:30 p.m. for $10, and tickets to the main event will cost $10.
See more at coppermountainband.com and buy tickets at livefromthehive.com.
Moscow trio Corn Mash to play Eichardt’s Pub
By Reader Staff
Originally formed in Seattle, but now based in Moscow, Corn Mash is a trio helmed by singer-songwriter Bill LaVoie that has undergone several makeovers in more than two decades of performing.
Corn Mash will play from 7-10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Eichardt’s Pub (212 Cedar St., in downtown Sandpoint), where LaVoie will be joined by musical friends turning out a mix of mostly original rock, swing, blues, country, punk, funk and even a little bluegrass. You know,
the basic sounds of the West. Tight and loose, loud and sweet, with songs that oscillate between being cynical, glorious, angry, dirty and absurd, Corn Mash is diverse music for the brain and the booty. Listen at reverbnation.com/ cornmash.
A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint
With his acoustic guitar and harmonica, blues and Americana artist Luke Stuivenga develops a kind of Western frontier sound with a modern, radio-ready flair. His soft, folky style and steady pacing make his original music easy to listen to — the perfect accompaniment to a quiet meal with friends and family. Listen to his 2017 self-titled album, as well as the 2018 album Sandfish, on Spotify to
hear his range and get a taste of his timeless voice, then head over to Smokesmith BBQ for this free show. It’s an easy way to warm up on these cold fall days.
—
Soncirey
Mitchell
6-8 p.m., FREE. Smokesmith BBQ, 102 S. Boyer Ave., 208920-0517, smokesmithidaho.com. Listen on Spotify.
The 219 Lounge is saying “hot damn!” as middle-of-nowhere, Mont.-based trio Dammit Lauren! returns to the bar after a too-long time away. Led by Lauren Jackson’s powerful, distinctive and dynamic vocals, band members are bona fide alt-indie rockers whose quirky chords and strong rhythms are a damn good time wherever they bring their blend of rocking jams and pop hooks.
This week’s RLW by Soncirey Mitchell
READ
What better time to read Edgar Allan Poe than October after a cold and windy week? “The Tell-Tale Heart,”
“The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Masque of the Red Death” are all classics, but my personal favorite is “Ligeia,” which includes the poem “The Conqueror Worm.” Poe never could separate love, death and sex, but “Ligeia” makes it clear that his ideal woman was a corpse. Find it at the library (if you’re as morbid as me).
Don’t miss them when they swing through Sandpoint, because it’s hard to say when they’ll be back around — otherwise, you’ll have to figure out where “middle-of-nowhere, Mont.” is located.
— Zach Hagadone
9 p.m., FREE, 21+. 219 Lounge, 219 N. First Ave., 208263-5673, 219lounge.com. Listen at dammitlauren.com.
LISTEN WATCH
Music used to be weird kids with shaggy hair hanging out after school (that’s pretty much how we got The Beatles). The Lathums are bringing back that time-honored tradition with a corresponding ’60s British sound à la The Zombies’ “This Will Be Our Year.” My personal favorite songs are “All My Life” and “I’ll Never Forget The Time I Spent With You,” though they can also lean a bit more modern alt-indie with songs like “Say My Name.” Listen on Spotify.
Director Taika Waititi is known for his comedic dramas that manage to make audiences laugh and cry at the same time. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is one such (frankly underrated) masterpiece starring Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2) as a foster father-ish/son duo hiking through the New Zealand outback. Prompted by a death in the family, the two leave civilization behind, inadvertently kicking off a manhunt. Watch it on Amazon.
Justin Landis performing at the Festival at Sandpoint in 2025. Photo by Racheal Baker
Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
From Northern Idaho News, October 20, 1908
SANDPOINT WOMEN
OBJECT TO NEW VARIETY THEATRE
The ladies of Sandpoint will not permit a bawdy, vaudeville theatre to make its appearance in this city if they can help it. And they probably can. At a meeting of the Woman’s Club in the Commercial club rooms Friday afternoon it was decided to have petitions of remonstrance against the commencing of such a class of entertainment circulated among the people of the city. This petition will be drawn up by an attorney and everyone in the city of legal age will be given an opportunity to sign it. The ladies appointed a committee to take charge of the circulation of the paper. Work has already commenced on the building for the theatre across the creek in the restricted district.
The aethetic sense of the ladies has also been offended by the great display of advertising on the rocks and other prominent vantage points around the lake. They will make an attempt to have all this obliterating and the custom of using the rocks for such purposes checked. A petition will be circulated among the business men asking them to erase the signs and seek other mediums of advertising hereafter.
Alderman Coons and Martin were on hand to discuss the many civic reforms demanded by the ladies. They stated that, on account of shortage of finances, the city fathers would be unable to do anything more than cultivate the park area and purchase trees this year but that next year the park would be properly developed. Policeman, they stated, had been sent around the city notifying business men and others to keep their premises and the streets in front of their property clean.
BACK OF THE BOOK
Bloody fingers, happy soul
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
My first guitar was used more as a prop than an instrument. I convinced my parents to buy it for me when I was in sixth grade. It was a white electric guitar that was so cheap, I don’t even think it had a brand. None of that mattered, though, because all I did with it was pantomime in front of the mirror along with my favorite angsty songs from bands like Weezer, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.
The only songs I could “play” were the opening bars to “Wish You Were Here,” by Pink Floyd (every guitarist’s entry-level song) and a few lines of “My Country ’Tis of Thee” for some odd reason. Nobody ever wanted to hear me play either of those songs, and I got tired of my parents or sisters barging in and making fun of me when they caught me air guitaring in front of the mirror, so I shoved it into a back corner of my closet and forgot about it.
It wasn’t until I was in my early 20s when I picked up a guitar again. This time it was an acoustic that was so poorly made, the laminate was coming off in big strips. I bought it for something like $25 at a pawn shop in Santa Cruz, Calif., where I rented an upstairs room from a family while I worked at Pebble Beach Golf Resort. The family were Seventh-day Adventists and invited me to sup with them every evening so they could inform me about how I was bound for the fires of hell if I didn’t change my ways, among other thrilling topics.
I got so sick of being told I was going to burn in hell that I pooled together my meager resources and bought that cheap acoustic guitar in the hopes that I could beg out of the dinnertime fire and brimstone by claiming I had to practice.
It worked. Dinnertime inquisitions stopped altogether because I’d eat in my rented room alone and practice chord
shapes until my fingers bled.
Almost a year later, I was playing entire songs and singing along with them. I had mastered most of the basic chord shapes and moved onto barre chords and more complex fingerpicking and strumming patterns that were beyond my abilities when I started learning.
These were the days before YouTube, when you had to actually suffer through something if you wanted to learn it. Now there are tens of thousands of instructional videos available, on virtually any subject. It’s never been easier to learn an instrument than right now — but you still have to put in the work.
Some 20 years later, I’ve owned many guitars, along with every other instrument we can add to our collection. Those songs I “played” in front of the mirror as a 12-year-old are now songs I cover at the bar on a Saturday night, along with others released in a handful of albums by my band. We never had delusions that we’d “make it,” but I always hoped something would spirit me away from the mundane workaday existence. I’ll keep you posted on that front.
Now, we might get a few thousand listens on Spotify every month or so. We’ve played the Festival at Sandpoint and a few other noteworthy gigs. Most of our highlights are behind us, and that’s fine with me at this point.
On the other hand, there are actual AI bands like one called Velvet Sundown that have amassed millions of views on Spotify. The “band” released two albums on Spotify and even had promotional photos and backstories of the “band members.”
Velvet Sundown eventually acknowledged its inauthenticity by stating the band was, “Not quite human. Not quite machine” but living “somewhere in between.”
Umm, OK. So... fake? Got it.
One reason I continue to listen to live music is because it’s art. Real, ana-
log, non-artificial art. I’m not interested in watching someone play “Guitar Hero” while claiming it’s an instrument, or typing commands into a prompt to generate sounds from an AI website and calling it music. I’d rather listen to terrible original music than catchy AI tunes any day of the week.
Think of the way you feel when you examine an AI-generated photo for too long. There’s just something off about it. For me, I just feel empty, like I dragged a dry cloth through my soul. The same goes for AI music. It might masquerade as music and fool some people; but, if you listen closely enough, you’ll always experience the “uncanny valley” of emptiness between the bars. Even as more tech bros and billionaires try to convince us that AI is the wave of the future, it will always be fake; it will always leave you feeling empty inside.
It’s a slow progression. It might start with an artist using AI to help generate lyrics. Then they might use it to find a chord progression or a unique hook. Soon, this person who learned an instrument just like I did — bloody fingers and all — is just typing prompts and publishing the results.
One song at a time, we’re losing the fragile beauty of honest creation. We’re losing art. Someday, I believe we’ll swing back into an analog embrace, shrugging off AI as a failed experiment, but not yet.
Until then, I’ll drag these bloody fingers through the uncanny valley and leave droplets as breadcrumbs to confuse the bots along the way. Why? Because it’s all we have left as artists. If the AI tech bros want to take that from us, they’ll have to endure our stubborn resistance.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,” wrote Dylan Thomas, an actual human being. “... Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Damn right.
Laughing Matter
Solution on page 22 Solution on page 22
By Bill Borders
living or growing among rocks
“She leaned against the stone wall, feeling the saxicoline vines pushing into the small of her back.”
Better not take a dog on the Space Shuttle, because if he sticks his head out when you’re coming home his face might burn up.
CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1. Select by voting
Haughty response
Esteem
Destitution
Heart
A sleeveless dress
Play a role
Breathing tube
Black bird
Pierce
Encounter
Combines
Bristle
Jewels
Tall woody plant
Biblical garden
Earlier
Dog
Requiring
Cognizant
Anger
Murres
Windmill blade
Wall upright
Advanced
Former Italian currency
Online journal
Countertenor
Buffoon
Scuttlebutt
Craving
Tip
Solution on page 22
On one’s back
Medical needle
Schemes
Twisty turns
Durable fabric
DOWN
Kicked out
Make milk
Antlered animal
Hints
Anagram of “Rent”
Large stout nails
8. Egg-shaped
Type of umpire
Trampled
Exchanged
Evergreens
Thigh armor 16. Warning of future misfortune
Alpha’s opposite
Head scarf
Eruca sativa 26. An amusement or pastime 27. 2000 pounds
