Category: Opinion

Opinion

How real estate shapes a community

By Raphael Barta
Reader Contributor

In a prior existence, I lived in Vancouver,  British Columbia, where I was a vice president for the ski resort development company Intrawest. At the …

Our turn: Together we can do better

By Mark Sauter
Reader Contributor

Last month the Bonner County Fire Chiefs Association (BCFCA) held three public forums. The BCFCA pointed out, in multiple, evidence-based ways, how Emergency Medical Services …

Engage Sandpoint: A missed opportunity

By David Phillips
Reader Contributor

Projects fail for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes the expectations are set too high; sometimes the allocated time or resources are insufficient; sometimes the tools …

City waterfront giveaway

By Kody Van Dyk
Special to the Reader

The city of Sandpoint draft Parks Master Plan identifies disposing of city-owned green space located east of the Edgewater Best Western Hotel. …

The Baloney Detective

By Tim Bearly
Reader Contributor

Images of an Orwellian dystopia are often evoked when we hear the term “big government.” The mere uttering of the phrase can function as a …

Touched by the change

By Robin Lantrip
Reader Contributor

It started with a brisk chill in the morning air. The meadow began dressing in longer birch and fir shadows. The evening scent held a …

Working toward civil discourse

By Brenda Hammond
Reader Contributor

The Bonner County Human Rights Task Force recently sent a questionnaire to all the candidates for city office, asking their positions on a number of …

Letters

  • Class Act… Editor’s Note: This letter was sent to Barack and Michelle Obama by a Sagle resident, who also wished for it to be a letter to the editor in the Reader: Dear President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, I’m 81 years old and live in Sagle, Idaho, with my husband. I just ...
  • Torture is Never Okay… Dear Editor, Last Monday, on network TV news, I heard the president of the United States condoning TORTURE. I have never been so heartsick for my country. My God, I can’t find the right words for the response demanded by this situation. Certain images keep coming up—that’s all I can put out ...
  • Celebrities… Dear Editor, Just a short reply to Mr. Birnbaum’s “Irony” letter from Jan. 26. Mr. Birnbaum, I will agree with you that President Trump is a celebrity, although I consider him more of a blue collar billionaire. Where I disagree with you in my opinion is that President Trump won the election not because ...
  • You Are Not Alone… Dear Editor and Mindy Cameron, I was deeply moved by Mindy Cameron’s article in the Opinion section of the Jan. 26 Reader. Even though I was in Idaho during the disappointing and shocking inauguration, my feelings and response leading up to Jan. 21 were very similar to Mindy’s. I remember going ...
  • Wilderness Will Not Ban Guns… Dear Editor, In answer to the young man who asked about carrying firearms in wilderness, yes, you did miss something. The Code of Federal Regulations is a lot like a textbook. If you only read one phrase out of context, you may misunderstand the entire chapter. Title 36 has a lot ...
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.