Friday Blend

 

We've reached that time in January where there is a tiny but noticeable change in the morning and afternoon light. 

This morning when I went out the third time to walk around and to get the paper, I did not need a flashlight.  

On my first walk with the dogs, I could see stars in the sky, meaning that the constant fog from the past two days had dissipated. 

Now, while typing, I'm looking out my west window and seeing blue skies and a purple hue to the mountains. 

It's a welcome sight, especially knowing that we are on the down side of January. 

It's gonna get better each day, and I'm sure most folks are ready for that to happen. 

It's also a Friday with a big event this afternoon and evening featuring Sandpoint High School. 

Willie's men's varsity will tip off against the Lakeland Hawks this afternoon around 4.  That game and others are all part of the annual Battle of the Paddle spirit contest between Lakeland and Sandpoint High School. 

We won't be attending the game because it's a "sold-out" affair, but we'll do our best to watch it if we can get Hudl.com to show us the right game. 

GO, BULLDOGS from all winter sports!!

And, with all that, it seems appropriate to lead off today with Dolly Parton's brand new version of this much beloved and upbeat song.  And, there's more singing with a Sandpoint twist as you scroll down. 

May we all feel a little light from a brand new day. 

I dedicate this segment to my daughter Annie's friend Miriam and her family in Minneapolis. Also to you, Gretchen!

Heck, Maybe play it a few times every day.  We all need it.  

GO, DOLLY!

Dale Eich came by to drop off a memento yesterday.

It was a framed full-page magazine ad for International Harvester from 1952, and it featured our dad Harold Tibbs, driving a dozer. 

Dale stayed for three hours.  We moved from the deck to our living room as the information flew back and forth among the three of us,  and we loved every minute. 

After he left, I said to Bill, "That was a goldmine."

Bill agreed.

I had Dale as a student in my honors English class back in the 1970s.

I remember him as quiet and maybe even a loner. 

Well, these days I'd say Dale, a longtime logger, heavy equipment operator and avid historian,  is a fountain of information, especially when it comes to well-known, long-time  family names around our area. 

His name "Eich" is one such, and he's related in one way or another to many many more.  

He's also a collector and an art lover.  Lately, Dale and his friend Christina have become farmers with lots of animals and a multitude of good stories to go with them. 

It was nice of Dale to take the time to bring us the photo below where Harold Tibbs, who worked for the City of Sandpoint and plowed streets, touts the International TD-14A.

The following is a segment from a blog post (Oct. 18, 2015) I wrote after visiting a History Day event which Dale had helped organize. 

Dale Eich told me that school and he didn't mix.  That stunned me while visiting with him during yesterday's History Day at the Cocolalla Community Center aka one-room school house. 

"You were in my honors English class," I said. Dale graduated back in the 1970s.

"Yes," he agreed, adding, though, that he did no homework because school time was school time and all other time was his time. 

Well, one can imagine the irony of listening to that story and seeing him for the first time in decades at a school house---on a Saturday----after school hours. 

I also learned from others at the gathering that he's the head researcher for the group of community members who maintain Cocolalla Community Center and the area's history. 

Several individuals, including my friend and noted local artist Judy Pederson, have kept the history of the Cocolalla-Westmond, Careywood area about 15 miles south of Sandpoint alive and flourishing.  

Their work was on display, and their stories of the good ol' days were flowing yesterday in the well-kept school house just off HWY 95 south of Lake Cocolalla. 

Longtimer Joy Eldred, who attended the school as a child, told about going over a steep embankment with one of the family rigs while driving the Southside School Road as a child. She shared many other tales as visitors filed through the door. 

Dale Eich also told me a story which he thinks is true----about a school teacher named Walter Campbell who taught at the Hanson School up Fish Creek Valley in Bonner County School District no. 53. 

Mr. Campbell, it seems, lived at Selle north of Sandpoint.  So, when it was time to go home to see his family for the weekend, he hiked a rugged terrain behind the school (about six miles) to catch the Spokane International train which went to Selle.  

I really wish that I could have stayed longer at the Cocolalla School event because it offered a sumptuous smorgasboard of local lore, photos and displays. 

The group who puts on History Day deserves big-time kudos for all their work and dedication to preserving their community history.  

📚📕💾💿

While on the topics above, our discussion included some snippets about the little town of Meadow Creek in Boundary County.  

Dale was visibly excited when I told him that our dad's mother Iva Tibbs taught at the one-room school house there in the 1920s. 

As one who has spent time helping out at the Boundary Museum, he expressed a strong desire to some day find a photo of the town of Meadow Creek.  

So, I'm mentioning it today in case any readers with Boundary County roots would know where such a photo or photos would be located. 

We, as members of Harold Tibbs' family would love to see them too. 

Thanks. 

🎵🎶🎤🎶🎵🎤

The mother of the young man featured in the videos below spent a year in Sandpoint in the early 1990s as an exchange student from Croatia at Sandpoint High School.

We all knew her as Ana Zuvan.  I remember her as a very sweet young woman. 

Thirty some years later, Niko, Ana's son, is a finalist for The Voice Kids Croatia with the winner being determined tomorrow night. 

Here's what they say about Niko on The Voice Kids Croatia

2,209 views Jan 15, 2026

Niko Huljev Žuvan is curious, musical, and empathetic. His friends often call him Nikolas. He studies violin at the Elly Bašić Music School and has already performed at many concerts.

He loves spending time with his hedgehog, family, and friends. He enjoys playing dodgeball and swimming. Niko dreams of becoming an astronomer one day and traveling the world — maybe even to Mars. 

His favorite memory is a night spent sleeping on a boat deck with his family while watching the stars.

And, the videos below show more about him and his amazing talent.  Plus, there are a few clips showing his mother Ana. 

GOOD LUCK, NIKO.  

Your fans from Sandpoint hope you win!

📞📧📥

If you have ever gotten calls or texts with a simple "hello," designed to lure you in, here's some information about where they may have originated.

This is from today's New York Times Morning  

Deep in the densely forested borderlands of war-torn Myanmar, two of our journalists recently visited Shunda Park, an office center that opened for business in 2024 with more than 3,500 workers from nearly 30 nations. Some were there willingly, some had been kidnapped. All were dedicated to the causes of online chicanery and digital scams.

The park was largely abandoned, having been captured and closed by one of the rebel militias that has been fighting the Myanmar military for years. 

But the militia allowed Hannah Beech, a reporter who covers Asia, and Jes Aznar, a photographer, to document what Hannah called “the inner sanctum of this secretive, highly fortified industry.” 

They were able to meet some of the scammers as well — some of whom were trying to return to their home countries, and others who were looking for another gig in the grift economy.

What they saw was amazing, just one of Southeast Asia’s compounds of cyberfraud, an enterprise that took at least $10 billion out of the United States alone in 2024.

There were huge open-plan work rooms filled with computer monitors, the walls adorned with inspirational, always-be-closing sale slogans: “Keep going,” “Dream chaser,” “Making money matters the most.” 

Videoconference suites were decorated with (fake) business books and (fake) modern art meant to evoke the boardroom of a successful business concern.

Here were photographs the scammers used to help establish false identities. There were a trio of porta-potty-style boxes that scammers told Hannah were used as punishment chambers, in plain view of the rest of the room. 

Everywhere were discarded cellphones. “In some buildings, with nearly every step I took,” Hannah wrote, “I crunched on SIM cards, scattered like snow in the tropical heat.”

A Sisyphean loop

Who ran this place? A Chinese transnational crime network — in other words, a gang. The militia doesn’t have the resources to investigate, and no one else has expressed much interest either.

Whoever it was ran the business with brutal efficiency. Hannah spoke with several scammers whose bodies bore scars from beatings or tight shackles. 

They weren’t paid for their 12-hour shifts. Hannah wrote about that beautifully, tragically: “Life was a Sisyphean loop: sleep, eat, scam, eat, sleep, scam.”

One told her his job for more than a year was to send “hellos” to social media accounts. If he didn’t receive responses to at least 5 percent of his greetings, he said, he would be punished physically.

The workers came from all over the world: Namibia, Russia, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, France. Some Chinese scammers were paid, Hannah discovered, though often not what they’d been promised.

Under fire

Hannah and Jes traveled to Shunda Park during what was supposed to be a lull in the fighting between the rebel militia, known as the Karen National Liberation Army, and the Myanmar military.

Mark that word, supposed. The thud of mortar rounds and sharp cracks of gunfire provided the soundtrack for their visit. 

As they worked, shells flew over their heads and landed across the river in neighboring Thailand. The day after they left the compound, a 60-millimeter mortar hit a building where they’d been sheltering, wounding three people, including their guide.

 

Tomorrow will be a big game for the ZAGS as they meet Seattle University once again.  You may recall that the ZAGS pulled off that narrow win after an overtime with the Redhawks.

Some folks have expressed concerns about not being able to watch the game, so I thought I'd post this information today to ease the concern. 

Great win for the ZAGS last night over the WSU Cougars.