Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Posted By on Tue, May 15, 2018 at 12:52 PM

Dare to dream with Disney on Ice when it stops in Spokane this fall; tickets on sale May 22
Disney on Ice packs a lot of princesses into its latest show.

Join Disney for a spectacular show on the ice, following the stories of five Disney heroines as they celebrate what's possible with the spark of courage inside us all.

Moana from the 2016 film of the same name makes her debut in the new Disney on Ice, stopping in Spokane October 18-21. Watch her as she sets out to save her island and discover her true identity while on an epic adventure with the demigod, Maui.

Belle from the film Beauty and the Beast journeys to an enchanted castle, home to intimate household objects who have come to life. While there, she fearlessly befriends them and goes on to reveal the gentleness of the house’s owner, the monstrous Beast. Frozen princess Anna embarks her on a life-changing journey to stop an eternal winter from destroying their kingdom with the love for her sister Elsa. Also on board are Rapunzel, Cinderella and other friends from the Disney Kingdom.

Tickets for Disney on Ice go on sale Tuesday, May 22 at 10 am through the Spokane Arena box office and Tickets West outlets, with prices ranging between $19 and $46. 

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Posted By on Tue, May 15, 2018 at 9:55 AM


click to enlarge Idaho ads get nasty, Seattle scales back Amazon tax, 58 killed in Gaza and morning headlines (2)
Gage Skidmore
Congressman Raúl Labrador

ON INLANDER.COM

Big Little Lies

Lt. Gov. Brad Little is calling Congressman Raúl Labrador a liberal on immigration. It’s not remotely true. We look at the evidence.

Seattle shaken
The Seattle City Council decided to scale back a proposed tax on large companies after facing significant pressure from Amazon and local businesses. The tax was approved on Monday.

Two bridges too far
BNSF wants a new bridge over Lake Pend Oreille. But that isn’t sitting well with environmental groups.

IN OTHER NEWS...

New schools, and fast

Spokane Public Schools might ask voters to decide on a bond measure that would advance the schedule for three new middle schools. (Spokesman-Review)
click to enlarge Idaho ads get nasty, Seattle scales back Amazon tax, 58 killed in Gaza and morning headlines (3)
Chris Bovey


Bike to work Week
The city has come a long way int he past decade, but Spokane has a farther to go yet if it wants to improve its "bike scene," writes Spokesman-Review reporter Nicholas Deshais. He considers improvements the city could make. (Spokesman-Review)

Deadliest day since 2014
At least 58 protesters were killed in Gaza by Israeli troops after protesting the United States’ Embassy relocation to Jerusalem. The violence is the worst the region has seen since 2014. (New York Times)

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Monday, May 14, 2018

Posted By on Mon, May 14, 2018 at 5:34 PM

Little ads calling Labrador a liberal on immigration may be the most dishonest of the Idaho governor race so far
Brad Little ad
Not only does Labrador not support welfare benefits for illegals, he helped tank a Congressional immigration deal because of his opposition.

Lt. Gov. Brad Little wants you to believe that his opponent in the governor's race, Raúl Labrador, is a "liberal on immigration."

It's a claim that's absurd on its face for anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention to the immigration debate in the last five years. And it's a tactic that has been used, unsuccessfully, against Labrador before.

Nevertheless, Little — generally considered far more moderate than the far-right Labrador — has leveraged multiple ads dedicated to arguing that Labrador is soft on illegal immigration.

The ads are ubiquitous enough to be appearing on the TV in a coffee shop in Spokane.

Sure, there have been a lot of suspect ads in this race.  There have been ads, like the one from Tommy Ahlquist saying that Labrador sponsored “zero bills that have become law," that are wrong on the specifics but get at a reasonable underlying critique. (During his eight years in Congress, Labrador only had three bills he sole-sponsored become law in some form — and he ultimately ended up voting against the final version of two of them.)

But these Little ads may be worse: They're an example of cherrypicking a few statements or votes — some over a decade old — in order to try to make the case that Labrador supports welfare and amnesty for unauthorized immigrants, despite Labrador dedicating much of his Congressional tenure to opposing those two things.

Little also makes similar accusations about his other opponent, Tommy Ahlquist. Now, it's easier to get away with making claims about a relatively unknown politician without a record. But Labrador has actually served nearly eight years in Congress. We can actually look at what he's done. And it sure as hell ain't liberal. Let's just take the last two years as an example. 

Labrador introduced the Davis-Oliver Act. It's named after Michael Davis Jr. and Danny Oliver, law enforcement officers who were killed by a criminal who'd been twice deported. It was a broad bill that sought to punish so-called "sanctuary cities," give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents the ability to carry firearms, called to hire 12,500 ICE officers, increase legal screening of the visa system and handed the states and localities the power to enforce federal immigration law on their own.

Here's the headline op-ed take from the Hill: "Davis-Oliver Act would make Trump's immigration agenda law of the land."

“Let’s call it what it is: This is President Trump’s mass deportation act,” moderate Republican Rep. David Cicilline, said according to the Spokesman-Review. “And it is based on a notion that immigrants endanger our lives.”

“This bill not only makes our communities less safe, but it really does change and will change the very character of our country,” he said. “We are better than this.”

He introduced the Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act, a spin-off from the original Davis-Oliver Act, which would allow the deportation of members of criminal gangs, like MS-13, even before they commit deportable offenses.

Finally, he's been a sponsor of the Rep. Bob Goodlatte's Securing America's Future Act, an immigration deal that's endorsed by far-right groups like Numbers USA — the group that brags it "has been at the forefront of mobilizing grassroots opposition to every amnesty proposal since 1996 — and the Center for Immigration Studies. It's a deal that would not only crack down on sanctuary cities, it would attack the practice of "chain migration" and actually reduce the amount of legal immigration.

The far-right like the plan. But the left? The pro-immigrant National Immigration Forum panned the bill.

Democrat Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham called the bill the “Mass Deportation Act,” referring to it as a "hyper-partisan" bill full of "nativist policies" that "would rip apart communities through mass deportations."

More moderate Republicans haven't liked Goodlatte's bill.  But Labrador does. Because, right now, he's not a liberal on immigration. He's not even really a moderate. He's a conservative.

So with the bulk of the recent evidence suggesting that Labrador is an immigration hardliner, how does Little make the case to that he's a liberal? He reaches back years — often over a decade.

Little's case rests on four cherry-picked claims.

1) That Labrador, as an immigration attorney, defended illegal immigrants accused of committing crimes. Set aside the fact that defending people being accused of crimes is literally in the job description for many lawyers, the most recent case cited was 15 years ago — and tells us nothing about how he actually legislated.

2) That Labrador said that Mitt Romney encouraging unauthorized immigrants to "self-deport" was a mistake. Indeed he did.

But you know who else objected to the term "self-deportation," in much more harsh terms than Labrador? Donald Trump. And these days, Labrador praises Trump's harsh rhetoric on immigration.

"Some of his rhetoric was strong because people were missing the point about what's important with immigration reform," Labrador told the Inlander last year.

3) That Labrador supported amnesty for 11 million illegals. In 2013, Labrador was part of the "House Gang of Eight," a group dedicated to striking an immigration deal.

Back then you could still make the case that Labrador was more moderate than many of his fellow Republicans on immigration. He said as much in a Washington Post interview.

But even back then, Labrador was opposed to anything he considered straight-up "amnesty." He's repeatedly cited the example of Ronald Reagan's amnesty as one of the Republican president's biggest mistakes.

And he also came out firmly against a special path to citizenship for those who violated the law knowingly. In fact, Labrador dropped out of the House Gang of Eight, effectively tanking an immigration deal. Since then, Labrador has been a staunch opponent of more moderate Republican proposals on immigration reform.

"The mistake that the Democrats make, and especially the mistakes that our Republican leadership made, is thinking that all the American people care about is giving some pathway to the 12 million people," Labrador told Frontline last year. "No, our party doesn't worry about the 12 million people. They worry about feeling less secure in their homes, less secure in the economy."

4) That Labrador “voted for welfare for illegals."

Yes, way back in 2007, Labrador argued passionately against an Idaho bill that specifically banned unauthorized immigrants from receiving welfare benefits. But Labrador has maintained that was because the federal government already restricted illegal immigrants from receiving welfare.

But since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Labrador has become much more concerned about that issue. In fact, the entire reason Labrador left the House Gang of Eight was he was so starkly opposed to unauthorized immigrants receiving government assistance for health care.

In other words: Not only does Labrador not support "welfare for illegals," he destroyed a potential immigration compromise because he's so opposed to that. 

Last year, the Inlander did a deep dive into Labrador's history on immigration. In particular, we were interested in how he had changed in the decade since his comments at a City Club of Boise discussion in 2007.

Back then, he cited the DREAM Act — a bill intended to give the children of certain illegal immigrants as one of two reforms that Congress could do that would help "millions and millions and millions of people."

Indeed, when Labrador first ran for Congress, back in 2010, you could make a case that Labrador was a moderate on immigration. (Here's Dan Popkey — back when he was a reporter instead of Labrador's press secretary — asking a very pointed question based on that premise, accusing Labrador of "pandering" on immigration.)

Labrador's opponent, Democrat Walt Minnick, even tried to hit Labrador from the right on the issue, running ads an Atlantic writer called "ugly" and "racially tinged."

Now, Little, with the reputation of being more of a moderate than Labrador on many issues, seems to be trying to use a similar playbook. But the record of the last five years shows just how weak that argument is.

Today, Labrador says he'd never support a version of the DREAM Act, even in exchange for more border security.

"I'll never trade any kind of amnesty for anything," he told the Inlander.

Labrador has strenuously objected to the suggestion that he might have changed his views. Instead, he argues that the political landscape changed. That a bill that may have made sense during the Bush administration became unworkable after Barack Obama and the Democrats' behavior made a compromise — in his mind — unworkable. Labrador says his principles and framework was always the same. And Minnick's former campaign manager, John Foster, agrees.

And if Labrador actually has changed his views on immigration, it's been in one direction: to the right.

Brian Tanner, a Twin Falls immigration attorney who'd worked with Labrador occasionally when the congressman was still practicing law, told the Inlander that he saw Labrador become much more conservative on immigration.

"At the beginning, he made that choice: 'I wanted to help immigrants.' This isn't something you step into because you want to make gallons of money," Tanner said. "He's way more hard-line now than he was. No question... He's now lockstep with Trump."

And Tanner offered one reason why that change could be:

"Attacking immigrants is politically popular," Tanner says. "It has been from the beginning of time."

In their endorsement of Brad Little, the Idaho Statesman and the Idaho Press-Tribune both endorse the lieutenant governor, noting that's he's more moderate than Labrador, a trait popular with newspaper editorial boards but not necessarily Idaho GOP voters. So, yes, it's understandable that Little wants to find a way to muddy the waters on who's more conservative.

Both newspapers also praised Little for being "honest" and "genuine." But when it comes to being honest and genuine about Labrador's immigration record?

Not so much. 

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Posted By on Mon, May 14, 2018 at 2:50 PM

click to enlarge BNSF, local leaders say second bridge over Lake Pend Oreille needed, public can weigh in next week
BNSF/Jacobs Engineering
This map, provided as part of BNSF's Sandpoint Junction Connector application to Idaho's departments of Water Resources and Lands, and the Army Corps of Engineers, shows the stretches where rail currently crosses Lake Pend Oreille, Sand Creek, and Bridge Street. At each of those three spots, the railroad is requesting to add a second track.

For years, BNSF Railway has had its sights set on a second rail bridge over Lake Pend Oreille to parallel the existing track and ease rail congestion. The company says timing and finances for the roughly $100 million project are lining up, and it has started the permitting process, which the public is being asked to weigh in on.

The second line, which would stretch nearly a mile across the lake, and over a creek and street, would prevent some of the backlog that exists now as three lines narrow to one, according to BNSF. For now, the single bridge exists to get traffic across in either direction.

"For us now, we believe the timing’s right," says Courtney Wallace, a BNSF spokeswoman. "We really want to make sure our current lines are moving efficiently and that we have additional capacity for potential future growth."

Some environmental groups, including the Idaho Conservation League, have raised concerns about that potential additional traffic and worry about pollution and negative effects of any derailment that might happen over the lake. The ICL points to multiple derailments that happened in the panhandle in 2017, and questions whether safety has been addressed.

Trains hauling everything from crude oil, to passengers, to other chemicals and commodities currently travel across the bridge that exists.

BNSF has safety plans on file with regional responders, and the company spends a vast amount of time making sure first responders and equipment are in place in case of incidents, Wallace says.

The railway also insists that building the second track won't automatically mean more traffic, but instead more efficient traffic that can prevent trains from idling on tracks from Eastern Washington to Western Montana as they wait their turn to cross the single track stretch.

"The second bridge won't mean new traffic will magically appear," Wallace says. "If you add another lane on I-90, it helps make sure the traffic is flowing better."

click to enlarge BNSF, local leaders say second bridge over Lake Pend Oreille needed, public can weigh in next week
BNSF/inVision studios renderings in application

Some people have questioned the need for the second bridge now that large coal and oil terminals proposed on the Washington coast have either been terminated or significantly delayed. But most of the new traffic will be driven by consumer needs for food and goods as the population continues to grow, Wallace says.

"We're seeing record growth in our ag division, whether that's soy beans or grain, we're seeing those numbers continue to grow," she says. "Some of the projects that have been proposed, from coal terminals to oil terminals, haven't panned out, but we still need this bridge."

Wallace joined Bonner County Commissioner Glen Bailey and Washington Farm Bureau CEO John Stuhlmiller in a call with regional media Monday morning, hosted by advocacy agency Keep Washington Competitive.

Bailey and Stuhlmiller voiced their support for the new bridge, citing better efficiency for getting agricultural products to market, and the potential to reduce the number of blocked train crossings in other parts of the system, including in nearby towns.

"The way I see it, a second bridge is first and foremost a free commerce issue," Bailey said on the call. "This will provide a second mainline track across the lake, and it will improve what has become a vital link between the communities stretching from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest."

With Washington being the most trade-dependent state in the country, Stuhlmiller said that any improvements to freight shipping options are crucial.

"We are constantly championing improvements," Stuhlmiller said. "This is just one more means of moving traffic in a little bit of a faster method to ports."

There will be two public hearings on the proposal hosted by the Idaho Department of Lands on Wednesday, May 23:

First session: 8:00 AM Pacific - Ponderay Events Center, 401 Bonner Mall Way, Suite E, Ponderay ID

Second session: 6:00 PM Pacific - Sandpoint Middle School Gymnasium, 310 S. Division, Sandpoint ID
More information on the proposal can be found at the Idaho Department of Lands website, and comments can also be submitted by May 23 to comments@idl.idaho.gov.

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Posted By on Mon, May 14, 2018 at 9:14 AM

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS:
A new respite home in Spokane will give caregivers for people with an intellectual or developmental disability the chance for a needed break.
click to enlarge Dozens dead in Gaza as US moves Israel embassy, Granite Point reopens no thanks to garbage people and other headlines (2)
The Arc of Spokane has opened a new respite home to give caretakers a break.

MUSIC/FOR FUN!: The Spokane Arena released the bucket list of musical acts people said they wanted to see. Check out who made the list, which has been used in the past to book shows.

IN OTHER NEWS

Another foot turns up on B.C. coast
It turns out the 14 feet that have washed up on beaches in British Columbia over the last several years probably aren't the calling card of a serial killer, but a sign of more buoyant shoe material and a lot of very sad individual cases involving missing people. (Seattle Times)

If they're being blunt...
In New York City, black and Hispanic people are arrested and charged with marijuana possession at significantly higher rates than white people, and while police say that's because their neighborhoods call the cops more, a New York Times analysis shows that still doesn't explain the higher arrest rates. (New York Times)

Don't be a garbage person
Granite Point is open again after people trashed the place in April, leaving hundreds of pounds of bottles and trash on the beach and parking lot, KREM reports. The Army Corps of Engineers reopened the site after WSU and U of I student volunteers helped clean up the swimming spot, but the Corps has said that an alcohol ban might be put in place if people trash it again. (KREM)

What are the odds
Sports betting is likely to become a legal option around the country after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on betting on individual sports matches. (KHQ/AP)

Dozens dead as U.S. opens embassy in Jerusalem
More than 40 people were killed and 2,200 wounded in violence in Gaza as the U.S. moved its Israel embassy to Jerusalem, which the BBC reports infuriated Palestinians who lay claim to part of the city. (BBC)

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Friday, May 11, 2018

Posted By on Fri, May 11, 2018 at 2:43 PM

click to enlarge New respite home in Spokane will give caretakers a needed break
Samantha Wohlfeil photo
A newly opened respite home in North Spokane will give caregivers the chance to take a break while their loved one stays for up to two weeks a year at the staffed home.

For families who take care of a loved one with an intellectual or developmental disability, it can be hard to find time off, whether that's for a weekend away, the chance to take care of their own health needs or for a longer break.

But the staff at the Arc of Spokane hope that a new respite home they've opened in north Spokane will help.

For up to 14 days per year, adult individuals who qualify through the Developmental Disabilities Administration can stay at the home, with staff on site and a care plan designed specifically for their needs, explains Lynnette Richardson, supported living administrator for The Arc.

"The parameters are that they are being cared for by family, a guardian or an unpaid caregiver in a home setting," Richardson says. "There’s about 6,000 constituents in Spokane County who have developmental disabilities, whose families may be serving them at home. We want to make sure families know that service is available."

For those who qualify, booking a stay at the home is like booking a stay at a hotel, only families will request the time through their DDA case manager.

"This is a labor of love," says Sima Thorpe, executive director at the Arc, as she stands in the kitchen of the cozy two-bedroom home in the Nevada Heights neighborhood Friday morning.

Thorpe and a handful of other Arc employees met at the respite home for a quick ribbon cutting and celebration under overcast skies May 11, as they marked the successful opening of a service they say was a long-time coming to Spokane.

"Spokane has had no respite facility, ever," Thorpe says. "The number one concern if you talk to any parents, they talk about respite. I'm very proud of my team and my board for making this commitment."

The respite home is one of only a handful in the state and only the second east of the Cascades. Only one guest can stay in each of the homes at a time, so it previously was much more difficult for Spokane and Eastern Washington families to book time away, Richardson says. 

click to enlarge New respite home in Spokane will give caretakers a needed break (3)
Samantha Wohlfeil photo
Though it'll definitely be most convenient for Eastern Washington families, time at the Spokane home is open to anyone who is eligible statewide. The guests who have already stayed since it opened in February have come from Western, Central and Eastern Washington.

"So we're pulling from a pretty big area," Thorpe says.

While it was hard to find a home small enough to pencil out with rent and other costs and still break even with the funding provided by DDA, Thorpe says she's glad they found a good location that was relatively close to other care facilities where Arc staff work.

"This is kind of a break-even thing for the Arc," Thorpe says. "We're really doing this because we see a need."

More information on overnight respite care in Washington can be found at informingfamilies.org.

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Posted By on Fri, May 11, 2018 at 12:30 PM


A few weeks ago, the Spokane Arena opened voting for its Bucket List, a survey of local folks' dream concerts. And now that the votes have been tabulated, here are the venue's most requested musical acts.

click to enlarge Spokane Arena releases "Bucket List": P!nk, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake are most requested artists
BrotherDarksoul
P!nk
1. P!nk
2. Bruno Mars
3. Justin Timberlake
4. Maroon 5
5. George Strait
6. Ed Sheeran
7. Pearl Jam
8. U2
9. Imagine Dragons
10. Paul McCartney

Also on the list: Taylor Swift (#12), Bruce Springsteen (#13), the Rolling Stones (#15), Beyoncé (#21 — way too low, in our humble opinions) and, uh, Avenged Sevenfold (#26).

The Arena says the Bucket List has helped them land requested artists in the past, so it's totally possible that any of these A-list names could eventually make their way to the Inland Northwest. Keep your fingers crossed.

You can see the full list here.

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Posted By on Fri, May 11, 2018 at 9:30 AM

click to enlarge Billboard bears bear child, carrousel opens tomorrow and other morning headlines
Daniel Walters photo
The Riverfront Park Looff Carrousel opens tomorrow.
ON INLANDER.COM

POLITICS:
Who is worthy of Raúl Labrador's throne?

POVERTY: Is the new anti-homeless-camping better than the old one?

PEDAGOGY: Thanks to Spokane Public Schools' new math curriculum, surely nobody will ever fight about math ever again!

IN OTHER NEWS...


Another brick in the wall
The Spokesman-Review's Chad Sokol digs into the connection between a Gonzaga trustee and Trump's wall, originally reported in the Gonzaga Bulletin.  (Spokesman-Review)

The birds and the bears
The randy activities of the bears on the Great PNW billboard the other day? It seems to have had consequences. Congratulations to Mr. and Ms. Bear on your little miracle!  (KXLY)

Civil War
Republican Rep. Heather Scott, who celebrates the Confederate flag, has a Republican primary challenger. (Spokesman-Review)

Reach out and touch Cohen
Maybe, in retrospect, AT&T acknowledges, it shouldn't have hired Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for $600,000 as a "political consultant" on their proposed merger. (New York Times)

Turns out, Trump really dislikes illegal immigration
Trump absolutely went off on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about people crossing the Mexican border. (Washington Post)

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Thursday, May 10, 2018

Posted By on Thu, May 10, 2018 at 9:38 AM


ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Spokane Public Schools is trying out a new math curriculum in line with federal Common Core standards, a departure from how Spokane students used to learn math.

DRINK LOCAL: Is wine drunk different than tequila drunk different than beer drunk? Science says probably not, but we still think it's true. Plus: the four types of drunks you will encounter.

LAUGHS: Hannibal Buress' tenure with Saturday Night Live lasted for all of one sketch, and he quit a writing gig with the show 30 Rock after six months. But the stand-up comedian has still managed to rack up quite a TV credits and film roles. He's doing stand-up in Spokane tomorrow evening at the Knitting Factory. Buress has a role in the Spokane-set movie Tag, which comes out June 15.

IN OTHER NEWS

Why do we go to the hospital?
Lots of reasons, including kite-related injuries, accidentally consuming wiper fluid, inhaling a kazoo and, obviously, shark attacks. (Spokesman-Review)

Up up and away
Uber hopes to launch flying cars in five years. (The Verge)

When an accused child molester gets to ask the questions
In most states, people accused of child-sex crimes are restricted in how or if they can represent themselves at trial in order to prevent them from cross examining their alleged victims. In Missouri, no such law exists. (Riverfront Times)

Jeans, a T-shirt and a gun
In New York City, plainclothes officers have been involved in a disproportionate number of civilian deaths, nearly one-third, since 2000. (The Intercept)

American prisoners in North Korea released
Three Americans were freed from captivity in North Korea and greeted by President Donald Trump. The president announced Thursday on Twitter that he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12. (New York Times and The Guardian)


The president will see you now
Trump's personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, reportedly banked $2 million for his advice to major corporations on how to gain access to the president. (New York Times)

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Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Posted By on Wed, May 9, 2018 at 3:58 PM

click to enlarge Silver Mountain Resort to be open this weekend
Photo courtesy of Visit Idaho
Silver Mountain Resort is to open for free skiing and boarding all this weekend.

The event is sponsored by Dave Smith Motors and will have live music on the patio, BBQ and an outside bar.

Free lift tickets must be picked up at the ticket window or bring a season pass if you have one.

Gondola uploads start at 8:15 am and go until 3:30 pm. Ski school or daycare will be unavailable. More details here.

Dave Smith Ski Free Weekend • Sat, May 12 and Sun, May 13 • Free • Silver Mountain Resort • 610 Bunker Ave., Kellogg, Idaho • silvermt.com • 866-344-2675

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Spirit of Aloha Storytellng @ Spark Central

Sat., May 17, 1 p.m.
  • or