Category: Opinion

Opinion

The morning after the election

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

The morning after the election, I took a walk. The dark computer screen across the room beckoned me to waggle the mouse and wake it …

My mom is kind of a big deal

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

There’s not enough room on this page — maybe even in this paper — to adequately praise or even describe my mom. She’s kind of …

TV moms got nothing on the real thing

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

A significant portion of my formative years were spent watching television families. As a child whose parents both worked full time to ensure my two …

Passenger seat past

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey
Reader Staff

It is a spring evening, nearing sunset, after a warm day. The smell of sun-baked lakebed and blooming skunk cabbage fills the car, carried by …

The small, good things

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

Every job has its stresses, no matter if you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the dishwasher in a small-town diner. 

Journalism is …

Setting the record straight on wolves

By Don Gay
Reader Contributor

In my opinion, the Reader opinion article on wolf trapping [“Trapping is a legal, useful tool to manage wolf populations,” March 31, 2022, by Eric …

Hot take on Earth Day

By Kelsey Maxwell
Reader Contributor

My childhood “wild place” was nowhere near extraordinary by an outdoor enthusiasts’ standard. It was a truly tiny strip of forest between my best friend’s …

Farewell Mr. Marker

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

It’s common for people to point to “that one teacher” who made a big impact on them when they were young. I’ve been lucky to …

Letters

  • Why Does Idaho Pay For Healthcare Twice…? Dear Editor, Idahoans pay federal taxes that go to other states to help fund their Medicaid expansion programs. Then we pay taxes a second time to fund a program called CHCP. According to the Idaho Press Tribune, “Last year, the Idaho Legislature approved a request for $18 million for the Catastrophic ...
  • Me Too… Dear Editor, What was so shocking about my own “me too” story is that I thought I was unique. I was a badass tomboy, hardly victim material, so I thought I was immune to rape. I was a student firefighter living in a fire station at the time. When one of the ...
  • Get a Life… Dear Editor, Local gadfly Daniel R. has mounted his paranoid, conspiracy-seeking hobbyhorse again, this time accusing local notables of being socialists/communists. Apparently afraid of libel, he even declined to fully name Mindy Cameron, Jane Fritz, Bob Wynhausen, Chris Bessler and Dylan Benefield.  I could spend a good portion of my morning extolling ...
  • Regarding Oprah Winfrey for President… Dear Editor, Ben, I am writing with regard to your “Barb” last week in the Reader.  First, let me make myself clear. I am NOT advocating Oprah run for President of the United States. However, I believe you need to think this through before making such a strong statement against her ...
  • County is Misleading about Scotchman Vote… Dear Editor, I listened to the Jan. 10 KRFY morning program, during which they hosted county commissioner Dan McDonald. The bulk of the discussion was about the Bonner County Natural Resource Plan, to which I listened with interest, but when the discussion moved to the proposed Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, I was ...
Close [x]

Want to support independent local journalism?

The Sandpoint Reader is our town's local, independent weekly newspaper. "Independent" means that the Reader is locally owned, in a partnership between Publisher Ben Olson and Keokee Co. Publishing, the media company owned by Chris Bessler that also publishes Sandpoint Magazine and Sandpoint Online. Sandpoint Reader LLC is a completely independent business unit; no big newspaper group or corporate conglomerate or billionaire owner dictates our editorial policy. And we want the news, opinion and lifestyle stories we report to be freely available to all interested readers - so unlike many other newspapers and media websites, we have NO PAYWALL on our website. The Reader relies wholly on the support of our valued advertisers, as well as readers who voluntarily contribute. Want to ensure that local, independent journalism survives in our town? You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.