Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)

Picking eight winners out of a field of 16 will be a cakewalk compared to last week, when I had to utilize my entire collected knowledge of NCAA basketball to fill out my original brackets for the March Madness tournament. Actually, it didn’t take that long because my entire collected knowledge of NCAA basketball would fit into the dot over the letter “j” in the word “idjit,” with enough room left over to store everything I know about electricity and plumbing.

Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)

Thousands killed in Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Hundreds of bodies wash up on shore as water recedes. Hundreds more trapped in earthquake rubble and tsunami debris, entire cities destroyed, a nation in shock. Yeah, but HOW’S THE STOCK MARKET?

From the Idaho Panhandle

An animal usually associated with the distant University of Michigan and a superhero movie has seemingly suddenly assumed popularity in the inland Northwest: Wolverines are medium-size mustelids that are furry and reputedly feisty, definitely not seekers of the limelight, but they appear to have captured it anyway.

These animals are not considered endangered, but conservation groups have petitioned for their listing three times, and the wolverine is now considered a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Several studies are underway that may help determine whether such a listing is justified.

The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness spurred some of the local interest when they helped Idaho Fish and Game set up a monitoring site as part of a larger study of wolverines in the West Cabinets. 

From the Idaho Panhandle

The glittering literati of the panhandle assembled last Friday night for their annual spelling showdown, which drew a passel of new and highly capable teams this year. The new talent proved to be the downfall of the two-time past winners from Keokee Publishing, last year competing as the Swine Fluezies and this year as Spelled Milk.

The ultimate winner was the Sophisticated Sesquipedalians, an elegantly outfitted trio sponsored by D.A. Davidson & Co. 

New West Column

Deep snow in Yellowstone National Park is once again forcing bison to seek out winter range at lower elevation.  In their search for exposed forage, bison naturally wander to snow-free lands outside of the park. Unfortunately for the bison, once they leave the park, they are killed by the Montana Dept. of Livestock ostensibly in the name of controlling brucellosis. 

Brucellosis cnotrol is being used to hide another objective of the livestock industry--to prevent the restoration of bison on public lands--which would be a threat to public lands grazing across the West. 

New West Feature

Owners of secondhand bookshops, used CD stores and antique shops in Utah say a board of pawn shop owners and law enforcement officials has been trying to use the state legislature to drive them out of business, and they’re sick of it.

“They want to make it so that any dealer of secondhand goods would have to obey the same draconian laws as pawn shops,” says Ken Sanders, owner of Ken Sander’s Rare Books, a prominent used bookstore in downtown Salt Lake City. “That would put me and a lot of other people out of business.”

From the Panhandle: North Idaho Blog

Spokane’s weekly newspaper the Northwest Inlander reported toward the end of last year that neighboring Bonner County, Idaho, had had 740 more nuisance bear complaints for 2010 than any other county in Idaho. According to Sandpoint’s local paper, the Bonner County Bee, the county had a total for the year of 770 calls, while the three counties to the south—Kootenai, Shoshone, and Benewah—had just 27 combined.

We in the panhandle seem to be a perennial problem population with respect to large wild animals. Moose have been wandering into Sandpoint for the past three winters, and bears seem to visit rural dwellers frequently, with the rare foray into town. Fish & Game and law enforcement continuously try to educate the populace about how best to interact with these animals, and they have consistently decried homeowners’ efforts to feed the wild visitors. 

From the Idaho Panhandle

Sandpoint’s soggy winter carnival got a significant boost this year from the addition of skijoring to the annual festivities. Posters advertising the event were everywhere around town, and as the Pineapple Express approached along with the first day of competition, boosters reminded a skeptical public that the grandstand seats at the fairgrounds were all under a roof, so that watchers could be out of the rain even if competitors were not.

In skijoring, a horse and rider race around a U-shaped course while towing a skier; skiers have to negotiate gates and jumps while going as fast as the horse can tow them. In addition to the riding and skiing skills it requires, the event revives the archaic skill of holding a moving rope while skiing—one that many ancient skiers will remember from their experiences with rope tows.

A significant victory on road ownership for a southern Utah county could establish a precedent that could alter the way wilderness is designated in the West.

The recognition of Kane County’s title to the historic “Skutumpah Road” in a district court case by Judge Clark Waddoups, and subsequent recognition of its title to four more routes, has given representatives of Kane County hope they may finally get a fair hearing on the issue of road ownership, even from employees of the federal government which is fighting them on the issue.

From the Idaho Panhandle

A recent article in the local paper helped us Sandpointers be more appreciative of some ethereal public art that appears every year as Christmas approaches and disappears as the days begin to lengthen again thereafter. We can perhaps be forgiven for having taken it for granted, as it’s been a hallmark of our winter downtown for a decade.

Every Christmas season, wintry paintings appear on the storefront windows of many businesses in the blocks at the heart of town. Every window is different, but they’re all variations on the same theme. Nothing overtly Christmas-y, like Santa or elves or Jesus, they’re more stylized—snowflakes, stars, swirls, and branch-like things that look like sheaves of wheat with snow on them, along with the occasional tree. The palette is simple and unified: they’re all white.