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 …

Letters

  • Rambo and the 2nd Amendment… Dear Editor: J. Koons responded to S. Hogue who responded to Mr. White regarding the Second Amendment. Mr. Koons stated a desire to make downtown Sandpoint “firearm-free” then condemned Idaho Legislature, implying they are insane for supporting our Second Amendment right to bear arms, as well as attempting to degrade gun ...
  • PFLAG Sandpoint… Dear Editor; On Sept 8 I picked up a copy of the Reader. I came home with the express purpose of reading the feature; as I had previously spoken to Jim Healey; I am the president of PFLAG Sandpoint. After speaking to Jim about the need for getting the word out ...
  • Firearm Free Sandpoint… Dear Editor, In response to Chris White’s liberal diatribe (according to Samuel Hogue), my take, if you live in such an insecure world that you have to arm yourself to feel safe, I suggest that you move somewhere else. Try Sweden, England, Germany or any number of countries (Canada? Maybe Antarctica) ...
  • State Not Funding Schools… Now that the $55M LPOSD levy has failed, one question remains: Why is the state not funding our school facilities? In years past, school funding was primarily a property tax-based system. Due to the small population of Idaho, the funding base was unable to meet the needs of school districts. In 1988, ...
  • GPS Inconsistencies… Dear Editor, Brenden Bobby gets it right when he says “GPS stands for Global Positioning System,” (“Mad About Science,” September 1, 2016), but after that his article is riddled with serious errors: The satellites are not geosynchronous; they do not “stay put;” they don’t have to be within line-of-sight of each ...
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.