Category: Opinion

Opinion

A North Idaho pandemic: Then & Now

By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff

For everyone alive in North Idaho today, the novel coronavirus outbreak is uncharted territory.

Across the world, leadership is suspending gatherings, closing schools and encouraging …

A few thoughts…

By Sandy Compton
Reader Columnist

Darn! It’s already March. November is coming up fast, and I declared my 2020 candidacy for president back when the Trump got elected, but then …

Taking a shot — Part 1

By Marjolein Groot Nibbelink
Reader Contributor

More than 97 guns are owned per 100 people in the United States. Serbia is second, with 58 per 100, and Yemen third with …

Happy [bleep] year

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

I received a breaking news alert on my phone on Feb. 2, 2020, announcing the fact that the day’s palindromic date (02/02/2020) is the only …

I want my America back

By James Richard Johnson
Special to the Reader

I want my America back! I grew up in the Midwest in the 1950s and want back the America that stood for …

Love is a Dog From Hell

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

The headline of this article comes from a book by poet and author Charles Bukowski, who lived a bitter, drunken existence periodically punctuated by moments …

Letters

  • Reinvent the Fourth… Dear Editor, In response to the "Loud Tradition" letter written by Charlotte Wright: Thank you, Charlotte, for bringing attention to many important issues, especially those concerning our Native Americans who we should be thanking instead of neglecting. Do we have to continue to scare our animals into a panic or jeopardize our ...
  • Name-calling… In June 20th's Reader, Nick Geir stated on page 4: "A clueless Donald Trump tweeted, 'What sport is he talking about?'" then he stated, "he must have forgotten…" (about Muhammad Ali). Iíve studied verbal abuse extensively over the past few years. Name-calling (ìcluelessî) is obvious overt verbal abuse, but it is ...
  • County Meeting… Dear Editor, As you know, the Bonner County Commissioners have been making changes to land use codes at such a rapid rate it is difficult to keep up.  Regardless of how one feels about the changes, it is true that the process has not been transparent, inclusive or undergone a standard ...
  • Loud Tradition… Dear Editor, My new least favorite holiday is the Fourth of July. I am in the food service industry, so I didn't get the day off. I was sooooo tired, and ready for bed at 9 p.m., because 6:30 a.m. is when I needed to start my next day. As soon ...
  • Suburbanization… Dear Editor, What is the rush to suburbanize our rural county through a process that holds one public hearing at 2 p.m. on a weekday afternoon in the city of Sandpoint? The people of Bonner County need to think long and hard about hacking the land into ever-smaller pieces, a large percentage ...
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.