Forum features chance to hear candidates' view

If you have already decided for whom you are going to cast your vote next Tuesday, please don't attend the Daily Bee's political forum Wednesday night at Sandpoint High School.

If someone has told you to vote for a certain candidate, or you have noticed more yard signs for someone running for office and are swayed by that, please don't take someone else's seat at the forum.

Wednesday's gathering is designed to give voters a chance to see candidates in action and to meet them face to face. There will be tough questions, there will be friendly questions and best of all, there will be concerned citizens directing questions to their neighbors who have taken a leap and put their name on the ballot.

If you are interested in preserving democracy and casting an intelligent and informed vote, please come out Wednesday night and learn more about our candidates. I guarantee there will be some surprises and you will learn some things you don't know about the people on next Tuesday's ballot.

There is no real PAC money used to buy votes in our local elections. It has been my view we often vote more for the person and less for the party as the elections are closer to home.

Oftentimes a mayor is elected in North Idaho because he has a snowplow on the front of his pickup and has plowed out the businesses downtown. Ask Bonners Ferry's Darrell Kirby about that.

It's what we should hope for in the national elections.

I have a pretty good feeling which presidential candidate would do well in a local forum and election here.

Never has a presidential election gone so negative with so much money so early in a campaign. Never, at least in my memory, has a president slung so much mud so early and raised so much money.

President Bush's actions so far in his advertising and attacks have shown him to be less than presidential. Let's hope he begins to take the high road and begins to honestly discuss what he has accomplished and what he plans to do if elected.

That brings us back to Wednesday's political forum.

It is just the candidates reminding their neighbors why they are running for office and answering a few questions. After the primaries, we'll all be neighbors again.

That's the way it should be — win, lose or draw. Let's leave the mudslinging to the presidential candidates.

We'll see you Wednesday night.

The premise is simple: Take the newspaper with you on vacation and take a picture of you or yours with the paper next to something unique. Send it in to the paper and your photo is published.

Twelve years later and several hundred entries behind us and the take the paper with you promotion shows no signs of slowing.

It all started innocently enough when I sent a copy of the Bonners Ferry Herald to my Dad, who was in Dubai, UAE. I really sent the paper to him to prove I was employed. I also asked him to pose with paper somewhere unique.

Since then, the North Idaho papers have been on every continent, with the exception of Antarctica. The Herald has been in Denmark and under water in the Bahamas. The Bee has been to Washington, DC, with junior high students and Hawaii on honeymoons. Last week, Priest River Times reader Frank VanValmen took the Times to the Galapagos Islands.

The promotion has had a couple of names during my career.

At the Bonners Ferry Herald, it was called "Take the Herald on vacation."

At the Daily Bee, I named it "I took the Bee with me" and at the Priest River Times we imply call it "Times on Vacation."

Whatever it has been called during the past 12 years we have been collecting pictures of people taking their hometown paper with them.

Why would anyone want to send a picture of themselves holding their local newspaper? It's really just a postcard to home.

If you haven't tried it, think about it next time you leave town.

It's a great way to have some fun and get your picture in the paper.

Bravo toJim Lippi and Rich Ballard for putting together the Ivano's Italian Open on Monday. The cover story was to raise a bunch of money for deserving seniors for scholarships. The reality was they raised a bunch of money and provided a great time for area golfers.

Never in the history of Bonner County have so many bad golfers had so much fun and raised so much money for such a great cause.

It takes a big heart to raise money for students who might not otherwise attend college. It's no wonder Jim Lippi and Ivano's are both held in such high esteem here.

Great work.

Michael Boge, the Ray Kroc of North Idaho, spent most of last Sunday flipping burgers at Priest River's best hamburger stop — the Burger Express.

The city councilman/promoter is slowly moving his burger empire toward Sandpoint. Boge owns the Zip's hamburger stands in and around Coeur d'Alene.

He purchased the Burger Express several months ago and is apparently on the short list to fill in as fry cook.

He had better get his free time better organized because his wife made it through the last hurdle with US Customs and will soon be in the United States so they can live happily ever after.

Remember to vote today for the school board trustee of your choice. The school district has attracted some outstanding candidates and the board is primed to do great things. See Page 1 to see if you can vote, where you can vote and for whom to vote.

The trustees might want to look at making these elections a bit simpler and the polling hours a bit more public friendly.

Watch for more news in the Bee on the Waterlife Discovery Center. Sandpoint's Fish Hatchery, which has been a part of the local landscape since 1909, is being brought back to life as an educational center. There will be a hatchery, nature trails, wildlife watching platforms, interpretive signs and underwater viewing opportunities.

Idaho Fish and Game's Mark Taylor told an appreciative Rotary crowd last week the project should be completed by next spring. The center also needs money, contact Taylor for more information.

If a person or group donates $5,000 or above, they are Bald Eagle status. If a person or group donates less than $25, they are Mayflys. The nicknames weren't "Taylor-made," he wanted fish names.

David Keyes is the Daily Bee publisher. His column runs Tuesdays.