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Mandy Manning, Spokane local and 2018’s National Teacher of the Year will be receiving another award this weekend. The Spokane Pride Parade and Rainbow Festival as well as the organization OutSpokane, have decided to give their inaugural Stonewall Impact Award to Manning where she will also be a guest of honor. Manning is being recognized after her meeting with President Trump earlier this year. During the meeting, she not only handed the president 45 letters from her refugee students but wore pins that expressed her support of the LGBTQ+ community. The Stonewall Award will be presented to Manning at the Rainbow Festival at Riverfront Park Lilac Bowl at 1:15 on Saturday, June 9th. She is expected to give a quick speech on equality for all. While the award is the first of its kind, it will be given out in the future from now on when the nonprofit OutSpokane believes it necessary.

Last Thursday morning, Rick Clark was honored as a part of Delta Dental of Washington’s “smile Power tour” that honors individuals and organizations that are giving back to their communities. According to the spokesman-Review, Clark formerly experienced homelessness and has since become a community organizer and a student at Gonzaga. Clark was celebrated on his birthday when he showed up for a volunteer shift at Second Harvest. Later there was a communitywide celebration with an entrance fee to be donated to Hope House, where his wife now works and his sister once stayed. Clark began his outreach in 2015, after stopping and talking with a man experiencing homelessness who just had his backpack stolen. He took to facebook to ask for help and had 25 backpacks by the next day. This inspired Clark to start the “giving backpacks” program, which fills backpacks with toiletries and other supplies and gives them to those in need. Delta Dental also gifted Clark backpacks and supplies to support his program. Clark says he has no doubts that this is the meaning of his life, helping others and giving back to the community. He credits this community with his successes and claims that he is just the middleman between people in need and people wanting to help.

Grizzly bear habitat will be impacted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection if a northern Idaho road is repaired and travel restrictions are lifted for law enforcement in the area according to the Spokesman-review.
Border Protection agents are requesting a repair to 6 miles of Bog Creek Road for the purpose of quote, “preventing illegal activities before perpetrators can reach areas where they can blend in with legitimate activities to elude apprehension” unquote according to a statement from agents.
Included with the repair is a closure of 26 miles of Forest Service road to civilians but not agents in the Selkirk Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone. Another intent of the plan is for a road at the end of Bog Creek Road to allow access when needed for vehicles without limitation.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies has stated they are against the repair of Bog Creek Road since grizzly bears are killed by vehicles and the federal government has a quote, “bad track record of closing roads” unquote. Other protected animals in the area include caribou, Canada lynx, and bull trout. The Selkirk grizzly bear recovery zone is one of the six recovery zones helping reestablish the bear population.

Agents are citing erosion and boulders on the road as a need for repairs, and are also requesting the installation of six new culverts and replacing six of the 67 corrugated metal pipe culverts along the roadway.

Public meetings on the plan are scheduled for June 19 in Priest Lake at the Priest Lake Ranger District, June 20 in Sandpoint at the Sandpoint Ranger District, and June 21 in Bonners Ferry. Public comments on the plan are being taken through July 16 at www.federalregister.gov

Non-native, invasive mussels were found on a boat during a checkpoint near the Washington-Idaho border near Spokane according to a press release from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Zebra mussels threaten native fish and other wildlife since they consume the food supply, smother native species, and clog water intakes at power plants and other facilities. The mussels have spread to 20 states in the U.S. since the 1980s are being introduced by ships from the Caspian Sea to the Great Lakes.

The pontoon boat had transported from Michigan to Alaska and the other inspection points had not identified them. The mussels were dead and the boat had not been in the water since last fall according to the press release. The boat wahigh-risked to a high risk inspection before it was released.

The inspection station is only two months in service and made possible by registration fees from residents and by state legislation approved last year authorizing collection of new fees from nonresident watercraft owners and commercial watercraft transporters.

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