RANGE

Normal people can’t afford to live in North Idaho anymore.

As of 2019 — the most recent data we have — the median household income in Bonner County was $50,256, almost 25% below the national average of $65,712. That year, median housing sale prices fluctuated between $307,000 and $340,000. Not cheap, but payments would be well under the 30% of income that finance nerds say is ideal for people to pay their bills and survive.

Barely two years later, the median sale price is $675,000.

Unless wages have doubled — and we know they haven’t! — a normal Bonner County home would need to spend well over 50% of their income for a normal house.

This isn’t the first cycle of displacement in North Idaho history. It’s been happening since the first fur trappers arrived, and really took off during the period of the Homestead Act and Indian removal.

And while markets change, it’s the same old exploitation. That’s the topic of our third and, for now, final episode on what the hell is happening in Idaho.

We speak to Sociologist Ryanne Pilgeram about timber, labor militancy and the switch that flipped 25 years ago, turning North Idaho from reliably pro-labor Democrat to run-of-the-mill Republican and then the slide toward deeper and deeper conservatism that lands us squarely in the present day.

If you like the conversation, you’ll love Ryanne’s book Pushed Out, a fascinating sociology of the small former mill town of Dover, Idaho.

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The conclusion of our two-part chat with Sandpoint Reader Editor and Co-founder Zach Hagadone. If you haven’t already, listen to the first episode before proceeding. It’s pure gold.

This hour we drill deep into Idaho’s 1st Legislative District — a microcosm of many of the larger political dynamics playing out statewide — to understand in miniature many of the dynamics that have led to such unprecedented dysfunction statewide.

With that established, we zoom back out and talk about the state races that won’t just define this election cycle, but will probably end up shaping the state of play in Idaho for years. YEARS!

Another barn burner. Don’t miss it.

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In early April, we brought you the strange story of the blood feud between North Idaho College’s administration and its board of trustees. NIC is a public junior college and its board had always been elected by the people of Kootenai County, but to hear locals talk about it, those races were never partisan. That changed last year and the resulting saga was by turns silly, absurd, chilling and at times, even a little scary.

If you would have asked me then, I would have probably said that would be the weirdest local news story of the year. Boy was I wrong.

Since then, most of Idaho seems to be caught in one preposterous political news cycle after another. Here’s a taste of the stories that have come since:

The Kootenai County library board race ended in veiled accusations of Satanism

A state representative repeatedly doxxed a teenage rape victim. (Anti-extremism groups called for her resignation; she responded by announcing a run for Lieutenant Governor)

Current Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin created an anti-indoctrination taskforce to “to protect our young people from the scourge of critical race theory, socialism, communism, and Marxism."

A group of legislators led by McGeachin later held the state budget hostage until the legislature agreed to ban teaching Critical Race Theory in public schools, including colleges — despite failing to define just what Critical Race Theory is.

Five rural Oregon counties voted to secede from the Beaver state and join Idaho.

Ammon Bundy, the amateur rancher and professional stand-off-haver, announces a run for Governor … despite being banned from the Idaho Statehouse.

That’s just scratching the surface, honestly.

And while it’s not immediately obvious the through-line connecting these stories, our guest this week, Zach Hagadone of the Sandpoint Reader, argues they’re isolated skirmishes in a multi-way civil war for the soul of the Idaho Republican Party.

It’s a big topic, with both regional and national implications — as many as 24 states have followed or are considering following Idaho’s lead on Critical Race Theory as well — so this is going to be another one of our patented two-part deep dives.

Buckle up, it’s a wild ride.

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Back for his second turn in the hot seat, filmmaker Benji Wade and I discuss the new documentary WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (streaming on Hulu).

Unlike our last film episode, we actually recommend watching this one — and we use the occasion of a better than average film about one of recent history’s most spectacular failures to ask some pretty important questions, like:

Why do so few startups become sustainable?

Is the misery left by all that wasted time, energy and money worth the few that go on to become Facebook (and destabilize society in the process)?

Does anyone consider the ethics and real-world misery of this modality of business, or does profit justify all?

For people who like conversations about non-traditional work, freelancing, independent contracting, the gig economy and burnout.

And whether we like it or not, it’s something we need to think about. Independent contracting and telework will become more common as companies cut costs by moving wokers offsite in the post-COVID era.

Like last time, Benji threw out some other topically related films to also check out:

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened

Roger and Me (on offshoring)

The Big One (on corporate downsizing)

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Business disaster porn)

The Century of the Self (Freudian psychology, advertising & control)

Power of Nightmares (neo-conservatism)

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (life in the digital age)

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This week on the show we welcome Rosie Zhou, a lead organizer with Sunrise Spokane — a student and young-adult-led organization focused on ensuring we get to 100% carbon independence within the less-than-seven-year window set out in the 2018 special report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

What makes young organizers like Rosie and her friends really special and worth paying attention to isn’t just the fervor and clarity of their demands for decisive action, but the inclusivity, holism and intersectionality of the tactics they’re bringing to the climate fight.

Their environmentalism is absolutely still about starving polar bears and rising sea levels. It’s also about a clean industrial revolution that can lift us out of our economic torpor — viewed through a lens that recognizes the disproportionate impacts that inaction will have on the poor, people of color, and basically everyone in the global south.

It’s a really powerful, compelling message, and these young people are just getting started. Enjoy.

Connect

sunrisespokane.orgon Instagramon Twitter on Facebook

Explore

The Science of the Climate Clock

The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Goofs

Let the Sunshine In

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Listen now | Rae-Lynn Barden on VOA's commitment to meeting people where they're at

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If you or a loved one are experiencing domestic or sexual violence and would like help, the StrongHearts Helpline offers assistance from within an indigenous cultural context.

This week we speak with Yakama tribal member Jenny Slagle about some brutal, vital topics:

The disproportionality with which our indigenous neighbors go missing, experience sexual violence, and end up murdered

The structural poverty, ongoing genocide, and racist disregard that has allowed systemic failures to go unremarked-upon for decades.

The deeply personal impacts for families whose loved ones go missing.

It’s a heavy topic, but essential.

LOCAL ORGS & EVENTS

The Native American Alliance for Policy & Action | Spokane-based

MMIW Day of Action event | Riverfront Park on May 5

MMIW Training | Virtual event on May 5

National resources

MMIW Toolkit

StrongHearts Helpline

National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center

KEY INFO

NCAI Violence against American Indian and Alaska Native Women findings (2018)

Over 80% of Native women have experienced violence. 

Nearly 60% have experienced sexual assault. 

96% of those sexual assaults come at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator

MMIW Resource Guide created by the Lakota People’s Law Project. A great primer on the problem.

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Hey y’all. A couple weeks ago the DC-based Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story from right in our backyard about a coordinated effort by Kootenai County Republicans to run for the ostensibly non-partisan North Idaho College Board of Trustees on explicitly conservative talking points. They leveraged the full power of the local Republican Central Committee, ended up winning a super majority on the board, then quickly came into conflict with the college’s administration, faculty and staff.

The report’s author, Emma Pettit, joins us to get the details.

It’s a fascinating window on our region and a great conversation, though one important question remains unanswered: whether this is a new tactic in the conservative war on higher education or if it’s just Kootenai County being Kootenai County.

As a bit of a coda, this week Emma wrote a quasi-follow up piece about Idaho Freedom Action’s campaign to “Fix Idaho Colleges” by robocalling about Marxism and how students are conditioned to “apologize for being white.”

FURTHER READING

A County Turns Against Its College | Emma Pettit | Chronicle of Higher Education

“I Don’t Work for You, Greg” | Fallout from Emma’s story | Cd’A Press

NIC Pres: ‘These are more than serious distractions’| Spokesman-Review

PREVIOUS REPORTING

NIC trustee Wood calls for chair to resign | Cd’A Press

NIC trustees reject removal of board chair in split vote | Spokesman-Review

CITED

Here’s What Happens When Republicans Have No One to Fight | Buzzfeed

GOOFS

It’s a whole new ballgame on campus

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This week we talk with State Rep. Marcus Riccelli about all the work our state legislature has been doing this session. Including:

Public Health Reform

Universal Health Care

Capital Gains Tax

This one isn’t through the house yet and has an opportunity to get better, see below.

Just Cause Evictions

And last but not least … wait for it …

his controversial take on the downtown stadium.

What started as a spirited disagreement about our land-use priorities in the core became a interesting discussion of public debate, the civic commons, and clawing back our ability to engage even when we disagree as an antidote to the polarization crippling our world. Not gonna want to miss this one. And while you’re at it:

TAKE ACTION

Capital Gains passed the senate without a rule that would make it take effect immediately. This gravely hurts the law’s ability to last beyond the next election cycle.

So Email your reps — including Riccelli — and let them know you want the wealthiest people in Washington to start paying their fair share now.

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This week on the pod we talk with reporter Daisy Zavala, who wrote our heartbreaking farmworker profile “Essential, but Unprotected” (there’s also a Spanish-language version).

This is still a hell of an interview regardless of whether you’ve read the story or not — much of the interview is discussing the pitfalls of being a young professional journalist of color — but if you carve out 20 minutes and read the story first, you’ll understand why the conversation is so urgent.

First, it’s just vitally important to understand the hardship of farmwork on a good day, and the frequent danger of it.

Second, journalism is at an inflection point — simmering for years and brought to a boil by the strife caused by the pandemic and this summer’s unrest — about the voices we have traditionally welcomed and those we have traditionally excluded, or forced to “conform to established standards,” which is a euphemism, in this context, for “always center whiteness.”

It’s a great conversation.

Pitch In

Familias Unidas por la Justicia | Washington-based independent farmworker union.

Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network | Coalition fighting to establish and maintain rights for immigrants and refugees.

Washington Covid-19 Immigrant Relief Fund | An immigrant-led relief initiative.

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