The elixir of flame
By Kelly PriceReader Contributor I once struck up a conversation with a vintage woman who was hobbling along a sidewalk with her cane. Her mind seemed sharp, her vocabulary rich and I sensed I’d...
Category: Opinion
Political poison pills
By Rep. Steve Berch, D-BoiseReader Contributor When is a seemingly benign piece of legislation deceptive? When it has a poison pill planted within it to facilitate an ulterior motive. This growing tactic is a...
Don’t give up the light: An allegory
By Ben OlsonReader Staff A long time ago, the people of Sandpoint lived in darkness. When the cold winter months set in, Sandpointians were left to navigate to and from work on streets without...
Lesser-known games to liven up the holidays
By Soncirey MitchellReader Staff Family and friends coming together for the holidays is the perfect excuse to dust off the board games and reshuffle the cards; and, for most people, that means playing a...
A quiet, brooding masterpiece
Train Dreams is a film that captures the Gothic desperation of North Idaho By Ben OlsonReader Staff Underneath the paved streets, the brick buildings, real estate offices and fast-food joints, there exists another North Idaho. It’s...
Idaho just learned what happens without guardrails — vouchers would make it worse
By Lauren NecocheaReader Contributor Good governance depends on accountability. Idaho just got a hard reminder of why. The nonpartisan Office of Performance Evaluations released a 129-page evaluation of the Idaho Home Learning Academy, a...
Legislative update: Bill-drafting season
By Rep. Mark Sauter, R-SandpointReader Contributor The 2026 Legislative session starts on Jan. 12, so it’s time for drafting bills and preparing for advocacy work in the Capitol. Last month I wrote about a...
The search for immortality
By Soncirey MitchellReader Staff Facebook is a monument to the dead and dying. There are an estimated 30 million accounts for deceased users, and an analysis by University of Oxford researchers suggests that the...
In praise of ‘performative reading’
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff The New Yorker carried an interesting piece on its website Dec. 2 titled “Now Watch Me Read,” in which Brady Brickner-Wood explores the idea of “performative reading.” That is, the...
Emily Articulated: Good news
By Emily EricksonReader Columnist I’m often asked how I decide what to write about each week — whether I pull from a long-running idea list or simply hope inspiration arrives sometime before the morning...
