INSIDE
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PEPPERONI
VOL. 29, NO. 9 | COVER ILLUSTRATION: JEFF DREW
COMMENT NEWS COVER STORY GIFT GUIDE
5 8 12 20
CULTURE FOOD SCREEN MUSIC
36 39 42 44
EVENTS I SAW YOU GREEN ZONE ADVICE GODDESS
46 48 51 54
EDITOR’S NOTE
I
have a neighbor who runs his own deck-building business, and the guy works incredibly hard. Morning ’til night, seven days a week, I hear his saws buzzing. Occasionally we chat over the fence, and he’ll inevitably mention that he can’t find enough workers to keep up with demand. More often than not, he attributes that to “the government” handing out too much “free money.” Being an indoorsy journalist type, I can only imagine some folks don’t want to work in insane heat and smoke in the summer, or sub-zero temps in the winter. Who’s right? Who knows, but all of us can recognize the WORKER SHORTAGES happening across the country right now. Our news team shines a spotlight on four industries in this week’s cover story (page 12), exploring the employment crisis in agriculture, health care, public safety and trucking. Also this week, senior investigative reporter Daniel Walters delves into firefighter overtime pay in Spokane (page 8), Madison Pearson revisits the ongoing Tiffany show at the MAC (page 36), and Part II of our annual Gift Guide will help you check some interesting friends and family members off your list (page 20). — DAN NAILEN, editor
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