Bloglander

The weather was trash, I was running late and, to be honest, I didn’t expect to see a soul at the Spokane Pride Parade on Saturday, June 9.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I'm a recent transplant to this area. Before I moved from the cozy confines of Western Washington, everyone warned me about what to expect. Well, once again, Spokane has proven the haters wrong.

Thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday afternoon, seemingly in spite of the crappy weather. Bright and bold fashion choices beamed under a gloomy sky — somewhat of a metaphor for the mood of the 26th annual parade.

Holding a sign at the parade that read “Isn’t Hate A Sin?” local artist Rose Shankman says this is just one of eight demonstrations she’s participated in since 2017.

“I have a lot of angst since 'you-know-who' got into the White House, and I have to do something as positive as I can,” she says.

The feeling was echoed by others at the parade, including National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning, who was OutSpokane’s recipient of the inaugural Stonewall Impact Award.

“I think we can agree that we are in the middle of tough times. There are people with negative opinions and feelings who are feeling emboldened ... and that’s why it is right for us to stand up and fight for what is good,” she told the crowd gathered in Riverfront Park on Saturday.

Coeur d'Alene Police reports recently released to the Inlander give more details about the inner workings of the nonprofit North Idaho Housing Coalition (NIHC) where Lori Isenberg worked as the executive director.

Isenberg is currently facing charges in Kootenai County for embezzling about half a million dollars from the nonprofit that buys and rehabilitates homes and resells or rents them to low and moderate-income buyers. Since her arrest in February, she has skipped two court appearances, and there is now a $500,000 warrant for her arrest.

Police interviews with two people in particular, NIHC President Kerri Thoreson and Treasurer Kevin Vedder, illuminate Isenberg's history with the NIHC and the level of trust the organization's board put in her.

"You look back and why did we give her so much authority or power," Vedder tells police. "Such a lack of oversight."

Before Isenberg was fired from the nonprofit, Thoreson says Isenberg was "very well compensated," to the tune of $75,000. Isenberg also hired her daughter, April Barnes, as a part-time employee. Thoreson tells police that the board approved the part-time hire, but was unaware Isenberg had hired her daughter for the position. Vedder, however, does remember Isenberg disclosing their relationship.

Both Thoreson and Vedder say they've known Isenberg for a long time, and neither would have suspected that she would steal from the organization. In fact, up until she was made aware of Isenberg's crimes, Thoreson says she would have given Isenberg a "glowing review." Isenberg has admitted to police that she stole money from NIHC.

To police, and in a follow-up conversation with the Inlander, Thoreson emphasizes that Isenberg did not have the authority to sign checks (investigators found numerous checks with forged signatures) and was not the nonprofit's accountant.

Generally, Isenberg's responsibilities, Vedder tells police, were to secure grant funding, find houses for the organization to purchase and rehab, execute the purchase and sale agreement, obtain a check from NIHC's contracted accountant and verify the work when the house was completed.

The organization had no official policies laying out responsibilities, salary or authority for Isenberg's position, Vedder tells police. "They, the board, just allowed Lori to continue doing what she was doing since they were getting 'lots of good press' and the organization was fully immersed in making affordable housing," according to the police report.

It was within the 18 months preceding her termination, when the board agreed to bring the accounting and contracting functions in-house at Isenberg's suggestion, that the alleged crimes took place, including payments to "ghost companies" Isenberg had set up in her name and her daughter's name.

Isenberg has admitted to police that she stole money from NIHC, but gave it to her daughters for "medical expenses," though Thoreson notes that those statements have not been verified.

At the same time Coeur d'Alene Police were investigating her alleged financial crimes, Isenberg's husband, Larry, ended up in Lake Coeur d'Alene while the couple were on an early morning boat ride in February. His body was found March 1, and the investigation into his death is still ongoing, according to Kootenai County Sheriff's Office Detective Dennis Stinebaugh, who would not say whether Isenberg was under investigation for her husband's death.

Moving forward, Thoreson says, NIHC is close to hiring an interim director to help "right the ship" and provide recommendations for what authority and responsibility should be given to the permanent director, as well as how the board should oversee the position.

"I don't know that there's a bright side to this story," Thoreson says. "But we definitely are taking very seriously our responsibility to the organization."

NIHC is largely funded through federal grants. Thoreson says she is unsure whether this ordeal will put future grant applications in jeopardy, though she is hopeful the nonprofit can continue to receive those funds.

"Speaking for the board, we want her to have her day in court," Thoreson says. "It's an important part of the process, and it's incredibly frustrating that she has failed to show up. I'm hoping we will have the opportunity of having her appear in court sooner rather than later."

ON INLANDER.COM

FOR FUN!: For his senior project, this Spokane student built a tiny home that he hopes will save him from paying rent in college. 

NEWS: So you've heard a bit about tariffs, Trump and possible trade wars, huh? Here's where Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Lisa Brown stand on recent tariffs and trade policy.

WHAT'S UP?: Music, baseball, pub crawl, movies and more, here's this week's curated list of things to do.

IN OTHER NEWS

North Monroe ahead of schedule
The construction on North Monroe, which includes work to narrow the number of lanes and improve pedestrian safety, has reached its halfway point well ahead of schedule. (Spokesman-Review)

Trump arguing with allies ahead of North Korea summit
As he's getting ready to meet with North Korea's leaders to discuss a nuclear deal this week, President Trump has been striking out with America's close allies in the Group of 7, including Canada, which has announced it will counter U.S. tariffs with its own. (New York Times)

Winner winner, Boise dinner
Someone won $2 million on a Powerball ticket bought in Ada County, Idaho, and because the winning ticket didn't match the actual Powerball but had the first five numbers right, lottery officials are reminding people to check their tickets closely. (Idaho Statesman)

Rainin' on the parade
It was a wet Saturday, but plenty of people still showed up for Spokane's Pride celebration, with a parade and party in the park. (KXLY) 

After a pause for some vacay and Volume, I'm back with some tips on things to do to keep yourself entertained this week. It's summer, so I know you need that now more than ever. You can always find hot tips in our event listings and Staff Picks; here are some highlights of the week ahead:

Monday, June 11

FOOD | Take full advantage of your garden and the local farmers markets with this Salad Lab Culinary Class, offering advice the on the best way to balance that healthy dinner of yours. It happens at Kitchen Engine.

Tuesday, June 12

DRINK | You might think construction season isn't the best time to do a Monroe Street Pub Crawl, but you'd be wrong. The bars need your business, and it's easier than you think to get to all of them. This one starts at The Hub at 5 pm, and will hit five spots by 8 pm.

MUSIC | Sergio Mendes brings his soulful Brazilian jazz and samba sounds to The Fox tonight. That's a fine way to celebrate the start of a steamy summer. I mean, look at this bit of coolness from his old days:


Wednesday, June 13

FILM | Opening night of this year's Riverfront Park outdoor-movies series is worthy superhero flick Wonder Woman.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and her opponent, Lisa Brown, agree on this much: The tariffs that Donald Trump is pursuing would be awful for Eastern Washington.

Tariffs, make no mistake, are taxes. Specifically, they're taxes the government charges to businesses importing goods from certain countries. If you're a business that imports a lot of those goods from out of the country, that hurts you.

And it can get worse: A country you export your goods to may level a retaliatory tariff, making it more expensive for people in those countries to buy those goods. And then there's retaliation to that, and retaliation to that, yadda, yadda, yadda, and then you've got a trade war going.

And that's bad. And it's really bad for Washington. 

"I come from Washington state," McMorris Rodgers said in March on Bloomberg TV. "It's the most-trade dependent state in the country. Forty percent of the jobs of Washington state are dependent on trade."

Similarly, here's Washington Sen. Patty Murray: “While we can and should recognize there is a problem with the overcapacity and oversupply of steel and aluminum, Trump’s trade wars will hurt growers, our state’s economy and families across the country who could see the costs of everyday goods go up.”

But statements are one thing. Action is another: Faced with a president with powerful authority to make and break trade deals, what do you do? Lobby behind the scenes? Go on TV and condemn it? Wear a T-shirt? 

Or do you try to pass legislation to constrain the president's authority? That's exactly what Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, is doing.

Trump has been claiming "national security" as the reason he's leveling tariffs on the European Union, Mexico and Canada. Corker's bipartisan bill would require congressional approval any time Trump — or a future president — wants to restrict imports for "national security" reasons.

So would Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers support that bill?

Perhaps, says McMorris Rodgers press secretary Jared Powell. But because bills can change, she's not making a commitment.

"She supports most of the provisions in that bill," Powell says. He says that McMorris Rodgers, who has spoken about a desire to return more power to the hands of the Legislature, wants Congress to have more of a say in trade negotiations.

"She wants to reverse course on these tariffs," Powell says. "That’s going to take legislative action or it will take convincing the administration to walk back on it. If they were to change their mind it would be the easiest solution."

But McMorris Rodgers' opponent, Lisa Brown, is skeptical that the congresswoman actually ever would vote for a bill that Trump wouldn't sign. She points to a statement from Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Corker's bill.

“You’d have to pass a [bill] that he would want to sign into law and that would be what it would take,” Ryan said.

Under Obama, both Ryan and McMorris Rodgers were more than happy to push forward bills — like the repealing Obamacare — that were doomed to be vetoed by the president. But they haven't shown the same panache for defying a president in their own party.

So I posed that question to Powell: Would McMorris Rodgers be willing to vote for trade legislation that the president would try to veto?

He wasn't quite sure.

"That's hard to say. She wants the tariffs to stop," Powell says. "She’s open to all options... Her goal is to protect farmers and stop these tariffs."

Powell promised to get a clear answer next week. We'll update the blog then.

Brown, like McMorris Rodgers did not give a full-throated endorsement of Corker's bill, but was generally supportive of the idea behind the legislation.

"I do believe that it would be appropriate for the Legislature to reassert more of its role in international trade," says Brown. "I think that’s especially true under this administration."

Meanwhile, neither of Washington's senators had signed on to Corker's bill yet, but they haven't been opposed either.

Patty Murray, who has weathered political backlash for having been among the more free-trade supporting Democrats, said she was open to a similar bill.

"Sen. Murray shares Sen. Corker's concerns about Trump's reckless action in recent days, and how it will affect families and businesses in Washington state and across the country," says spokeswoman Kerry Arndt. "While she isn't currently a co-sponsor of his particular piece of legislation, she is in discussion with Sen. Corker and a number of other members who are exploring the different options to rein in abuses of Section 232."

Sen. Maria Cantwell's team, meanwhile, said that she's looking at the legislation, but declined to say much more than that.

"Sen. Cantwell has concerns about the Trump administration's current approach to trade and tariffs," Cantwell spokesman Bryan Watt says. "With the legislation just being introduced, she is talking with stakeholders and evaluating the legislation."

In an interview last month, McMorris Rodgers named trade when asked which topics she most passionately disagreed with her party on.

"I do not support the across-the-board tariffs the president has floated as far as aluminum and steel are concerned," McMorris Rodgers says.

Instead, she says, any tariffs should be focused on countries that are involved in unfair trade practices involving things like intellectual property violations and exporting goods at artificially deflated prices.

"Make sure that we're focused on the bad actors and not jeopardizing the important trade relationships we've developed with allies," McMorris Rodgers says.

She notes that she's spoken out in opposition, but she also says she's lobbied key officials behind the scene as well.

"Most recently, I sat down with Larry Kudlow, who the new economic advisor, and talked to him personally," McMorris Rodgers says. "He assured me that no decisions have been made and everything is on the table. We are continually having these discussions with the administration."

McMorris Rodgers says she's talked with Trump too.

"I've talked to the president personally about the importance of these trade agreements," she says. "And what he told me was that, he prefers the bilateral trade agreement. And I said, that's fine, we just need to get them going."

But Brown is dismissive of the idea that McMorris Rodgers' lobbying efforts have borne any fruit.

"I guess I have to say thus far if she’s working behind the scenes, we’re not seeing the positive results," Brown says.

Lisa Brown got her degree in economics. She used to teach it.

"We do talk about that in Econ 101," Brown says. "Although tariffs can be a tool in trade negotiations, they often simply spark retaliatory tariffs. And then everybody is worse off. Then it can cause a real economic downtown."

In particular, Brown is concerned by Trump's choice to pursue trade policies in a "very unpredictable and unilateral way." He's left questions like, what's going to happen with U.S. tariffs? Will Trump decide to pull out of NAFTA?

Businesses across the world rely on predictability, the argument goes, and uncertainty can be paralyzing.

Similarly, she's critical that Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade without anything replace it.

If Brown wins, of course, she'd be facing at least two years of Donald Trump. Even if Democrats win the House and the Senate, he'd still be able to veto most bills. But Brown still believes she'd more effective than McMorris Rodgers in that environment. 

"I do have experience in working across the aisle on complicated multifaceted issues," Brown says.  She also points to her economics experience and says she'd be eager to serve on the House Committee on Agriculture.

She says that local farmers are particularly worried about the impact of Trump's trade policies, which threatens to sweep off the table years of hard work. 

"Those Asian markets took decades to develop," Brown says. "We are at a disadvantage now."

The Inlander also asked Idaho U.S. House candidate Russ Fulcher about how he felt about Trump's approach to trade policy. Are "trade wars good and easy to win?"

No, Fulcher said.

“Generally speaking I’m not a big tariff guy,” Fulcher says. “Because it runs into that trade war.”

Yet, he alo notes, that as a former executive at Micron, his company was a beneficiary of a tariff leveled against Japan, a country that had been subsidizing its electronics industry so much that the future of American electronic companies had been put in jeopardy.

“There was no possible way that an American company could compete fairly when governments are subsidizing competitors,” Fulcher says. “If our producers are subjected to a playing field that is not fair, then that’s something we need to take a look at. But that’s the exception, it’s not the rule." 

Four years ago, Emmett Linklater could have chosen anything for his final project at the Community School. He decided to do something big.

Well, "big" in a tiny sort of way.

Linklater will graduate this month with a tiny home he built for his required independent school project. But Linklater didn't just do it for school credit. He plans on living in it for college at Western Washington University.

"I just like the idea of having a house that I can move to where I want to go," Linklater says.

During Linklater's first two years at the Community School, a project-based high school, he mostly planned out what he wanted the tiny house to look like. It's about 210 square feet — an average size for a tiny home. The interior isn't finished yet, but eventually it will have a bathroom, kitchen and bedroom.

Linklater knew a little bit about woodworking. He had to learn how to weld for the trailer the home sits on, he says. The last couple months, he built the frame and did the exterior work with the help of some family friends. He designed it knowing that one day he would eventually live in it.

"I like living simply and living smaller," Linklater says.

Theoretically, it will save Linklater money. Linklater says his parents helped him with the costs of building the home. They did so knowing that, in college, Linklater would live in the tiny house instead of a dormitory.

"I'm lucky enough to have parents who funded it, they kind of think of it as saving money," Linklater says. "They can pay a couple thousand dollars to build a tiny house, or pay tens of thousands of dollars to room me at college for a couple years."

Linklater plans on majoring in environmental science at Western Washington University. He won't live in the tiny house immediately, because he wants some time to figure out where he's going to put it.

Linklater admits that the project took more work than it needed to for the school's requirements of the independent project. The school lets the students choose almost anything they want to for the project. They can build something, learn a skill, write a story, or do anything else they're interested in. The students just need to have a plan and follow through with it by the time they graduate.

"The idea," Linklater says, "is you get something out of it more than a grade."

And now, the high school senior has a home. 

ON INLANDER.COM...

The family that ospreys together stays together
There's definitely an osprey family living on the top of the Riverfront Park Pavilion. But do they want it covered or uncovered? 

Who smelt it dealt it
Anti-smelter groups file a lawsuit against Pend Oreille Public Utility District and the company behind a proposed Smelter near Newport.

“Pend Oreille County tax paying citizens had to file a legal complaint against their county in order to have a voice regarding life-altering decisions made by those whom they felt were trustworthy by voting them into public office,” says CANSS Chair Deborah Barker, in a news release about the suit. “Pend Oreille County sold property to the PUD, with full-knowledge that it would simply be passed-through to HiTest by the PUD for the planned smelter.”

IN OTHER NEWS...

EnVision Spokane
Spokane receives an "EnVision Center" designation from HUD, intended to connect low-income people with resources they need to get off federal aid. (Spokesman-Review)

Turn that NIMBY into a YIMBY
Shawn Vestal says that if we want more affordable housing, we have to be willing to live next to it. (Spokesman-Review)

G8 keepers
Trump wants Russia, kicked out of the Group of Eight for invading Crimea, back in the club. (New York Times)

Sorry, your new Department of Justice plan doesn't cover that condition
Trump's justice department isn't going to defend provisions of Obamacare — including protections against discriminating against preexisting conditions — from state lawsuits. (Washington Post)

Say you're an osprey. Your ideal nesting site is a high-rise waterfront property with great views of a body of water teaming with fish.

So why not build your nest on perhaps the most iconic landmark of the Spokane skyline, Riverfront Park's U.S. Pavilion?

An osprey family has done just that.

Today, a Spokesman-Review article says that Garco, the company in charge of construction of the Pavilion, previously found a goose nest on the roof of a building near the Pavilion area, but hadn't run across any osprey nests.

That didn't sound right, because we had just taken a ton of photos of an osprey family doing its osprey thing on the top of the pavilion yesterday.

So we sent some of our photos to Carrie Lowe, assistant district wildlife biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, who confirmed there did indeed appear to be an osprey nest on the top of the Pavilion.

"I would say it looks to me like there’s a pair up there. It looks like an adult is bringing food into a nest,'" Lowe says. "Whether it was always an osprey nest, it is now... the young [osprey chick] probably would have hatched in the last couple of weeks."

So what does that mean for the U.S. Pavilion upgrade, and, more importantly, what does that mean for our family of ospreys?

Nesting season lasts from March 20 through September 1. Outside of that season, if a property owner wants to get rid of an osprey nest, they can seek a permit from Washington Fish and Wildlife, Lowe says. Then they can put up a platform or spikes to deter the osprey from nesting in the area.

It happens with cell phone companies all the time, she says.

During nesting season, however, you need to get a permission from the feds — the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife — to remove the nest. It's a lot riskier to evict an osprey while it's still nesting.

"You could be impacting the animal itself at that time," Lowe says. "Threatening the survival of the animal."

While osprey are no longer considered an endangered species, they are protected by the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Lowe says.

Theoretically, depending on the construction demands, the parks department could decide to let the osprey stay as a permanent tenant of the renovated Pavilion.

"Our construction manager is checking with Garco to see if the area will need to be disturbed at some point for maintenance," city of Spokane parks department spokeswoman Fianna Dickson says. "We are also calling the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for a consult and advice."

Osprey, after all, do just fine around people.

"Given the osprey nests that I see around Spokane, they don’t seem to care that much," Lowe says. "They’re fairly adaptable for people. If that’s a location they chose for a nest, they’re comfortable there."

Lowe says that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has no record of previous nests being removed from the Pavilion, but Inlander reader David Brookbank, who tipped the Inlander off to the osprey, says it isn't the first time an osprey or two has taken up residence on the top of the Pavilion: He sent over photos he took of osprey nesting on the top of the Pavilion way back in 2011.



A least two flight capable osprey have been nesting at the top of the Pavilion right now, and they appear to be tending to at least one adorable baby osprey chick.

If you're patient, you can spot them swooping around the netting of the Pavilion.


One osprey likes to perch on the trees below the Pavilion to look for fish.


Occasionally, it will eat its catch while perched on a branch on the north side of the Spokane River.

Crows and other birds also like to hang out in the Pavilion. Sometimes they have X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter style dogfights with the ospreys in the air.

Yet the osprey might not even be the coolest animal to take up residence near Riverfront Park: While shooting these Osprey pictures, we also managed to catch a colony of beavers near a beaver dam below the Red Lion Hotel.


The trees stand no chance.

Two groups opposed to a proposed silicon smelter in Pend Oreille County have filed a lawsuit against the county, Pend Oreille Public Utility District and HiTest Sand, the company behind the proposal, alleging a parcel of public land was illegally sold to the company for the project.

The complaint, filed in Spokane Superior Court this week, claims that the Pend Oreille Public Utility District illegally bought a parcel of land from the county to sell to HiTest along with three other parcels it already owned and had declared surplus.

State law dictates how public agencies can buy land and what purposes it may be for, and the groups allege that buying the land with the sole purpose of selling it to a private company was not an allowed use.

The groups who filed the suit are Citizens Against Newport Silicon Smelter or CANSS, Responsible Growth *NE Washington (or RG*NEW), and multiple county residents who are longtime customers of the public utility district.

“Pend Oreille County tax paying citizens had to file a legal complaint against their county in order to have a voice regarding life-altering decisions made by those whom they felt were trustworthy by voting them into public office,” says CANSS Chair Deborah Barker, in a news release about the suit. “Pend Oreille County sold property to the PUD, with full-knowledge that it would simply be passed-through to HiTest by the PUD for the planned smelter.”

The groups have made it clear for months they are unhappy with the proposal, and this spring sent letters to the county agencies and HiTest, a Canadian company, demanding they unravel the land deal or know they'd face legal action. After not getting the action they wanted, the groups filed the suit.

The project would site a silicon smelter on a northeast Washington property right on the Idaho border. Extremely high-temperature furnaces powered by more than 100 megawatts of electricity would melt quartz rock to produce about 66,000 tons of silicon metal there per year. That would be sold to other companies to be further refined and used to make everything from solar panels to aluminum, chemical compounds, computer chips and more.

Questions about the more than $325 million project have come from people who live close by, as well as others who live along possible trucking or rail routes in North Idaho, many of whom point to emissions, pollution and issues with other silicon smelters as cause for concern.

HiTest promises about 150 jobs at the site, and has said it will follow all environmental regulations required to prevent things like acid rain, but the neighbors still don't want the project to move forward.

The Kalispel Tribe also has adamantly opposed the smelter and sent letters to the county and state alleging that at least some of the $300,000 in public funding provided to the "project of statewide significance" from the state Department of Commerce has been misused and should be reclaimed.

This post may be updated if the Inlander hears from the involved parties. 

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Lori Isenberg is believed to be the last person to see her husband alive. She's also facing felony charges related to embezzling half a million dollars from a North Idaho housing nonprofit. Now she's on the lam.

MUSIC: Spokane's newest record store opens quietly in a former Browne's Addition hair salon.

WEDDING SEASON: It's upon us. Here's some advice from one perennial attendant on how to deal.

MOVIES: The new film TAG is based on a true story about a group of "idiots" from Spokane. It opens June 14. Here is an oral history.

IN OTHER NEWS

Where murders go unsolved
A new data project from the Washington Post is mapping homicides in the United States and has identified states, cities, towns and blocks, where police fail to make arrests in homicides. (Washington Post)

'What's the kid supposed to do now?'
Oregon State University's Luke Heimlich is one of the top pitching pitching prospects in college baseball. He also pleaded guilty to molesting his 6-year-old niece in 2012. At the end of this year's MLB draft, Heimlich was left on the table.

Since the guilty plea, Heimlich has complied with every court order, including the requirement to register as a sex offender. Yet Major League teams appear unwilling to take a chance on the 2017 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year.

Heimlich now denies the sexual assault, saying he pleaded guilty to avoid jail time. His story forces us to reckon with "two of mankind's oldest obsessions: abominable behavior and exceptional talent," writes S.L. Price in a May cover story for Sports Illustrated. (SI, Deadspin)

Rent hike sparks policy talks
Their rent spiked from $625 to $1,100 per month after the building's previous owner, Danette Kane, was shot and killed. The residents of Westview Manor apartments and the Tenants Union of Washington are asking the city to do something about exorbitant rent increases. (Spokesman-Review)

Big takeaways from Tuesday's primaries
Tuesday night's primaries indicate that Democrats have a chance at taking control of the House after this November's elections. In California and New Jersey especially, the races will be close. (New York Times)

Benched
California voters have recalled Judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to just six months in jail (he only served three) for sexually assaulting a drunk and  unconscious woman. The recall is the first in California since 1932. (Vox, LA Times)

Thanks a lot, KD
The Golden State Warriors handled the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third straight NBA Finals game. They'll play for a sweep and the Finals championship Friday night. (Yahoo!)