Bloglander

Why in the world would the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a national civil rights organization, put a small, relatively unknown Idaho church on its "Hatewatch" list?

That's the question asked by two recent Idaho Statesman articles and an Idaho Statesman video. The newspaper suggests that, perhaps, the Lordship Church in Coeur d'Alene was being unfairly maligned.

"According to the SPLC, most of Idaho’s hate groups proclaim racist or anti-Semitic views," the Statesman proclaims. "Lordship Church is different."

But that isn't exactly true. 

First, a quick primer: Lordship is a proud member of the Idaho Redoubt movement.

"The American Redoubt is a stronghold, it's the last bastion for God, country, liberty, Constitution, Second Amendment and homeschooling," Pastor Warren Mark Campbell told CBC News in 2016.

He not only pastors Lordship, he started a military surplus store nearby called Redoubt Surplus and Tactical. He literally wrote a theme song for the American Redoubt, celebrating a "place where God, guns and freedom reigns."

Lordship considers itself a "free church," a church that declines to seek the sort of nonprofit status that can limit making political endorsements from the pulpit.

The SPLC, the organization, which helped take down the Aryan Nation's complex in Kootenai County, wrote up a lengthy narrative about Campbell's previous church in 2012, accusing the church of "paramilitary activities and forging alliances with an array of figures revered on the radical right."

But the Statesman quotes Campbell as saying the SPLC's account was inaccurate, driven by an anti-Christian agenda.

In recent years, there has been a lot of articulate, reasonable objections to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch list, which can lump far-right groups, like the Family Research Council and the Center for Immigration Studies, with the KKK and actual terrorist organizations.

The Statesman quotes Campbell extensively, who notes that ethnic minorities attend his church, and argues that neither he nor anyone in his congregation is racist or a white extremist.

It also cites Puerto Rican Lordship Church member Ed Reillo, who lamented that his church had been lumped in with “all these crazy right-wing extremists” and said he'd never seen hate preached from the pulpit.

But we don't have to decide whether we trust the Southern Poverty Law Center account or Campbell's account. We can see for ourselves. Lordship Church has uploaded more than 100 Campbell sermons online.

And when the Inlander began poring through the sermons, we found a lot more than just the sort of anti-gay or anti-Muslim rhetoric that the Statesman briefly describes.

Campbell has repeatedly preached that the Bible condones forms of slavery. That the South were the heroes of the Civil War and the North were the villains. That whites are victims and blacks are whiners. That the death toll of the Holocaust was exaggerated.

So does that qualify the Lordship Church to be considered a hate group?

What follows is just a sampling of the things that Campbell preaches:

ATTACKING "SODOMITES"

It's hardly unusual for a far-right Christian church to preach against same-sex relationships from the pulpit. What is unusual is the glee that Campbell takes in discussing it.

He describes the pro-gay children's book Heather has Two Mommies, for example, as “vomit into the mouths and the eyes of the American people.”

And Campbell doesn't just say "gay." Or "homosexual." He says "sodomites." In one sermon, he waxes rhapsodic about the King James Version of the Bible's use of the term.

“When you’re preaching on the streets, and you’re surrounded by thousands of homosexual sodomites, and there’s only about 10 or 15 of us, and when you use the word sodomite, it has an effect,” Campbell says. “It doesn’t have nearly the sting, the power” — he slaps his hand to punctuate the words — "of 'You sodomites, repent before the Lord, judgment is at hand!'”

Campbell doesn't just use this sort of rhetoric in church. He, for example, stood out in front of Target with a megaphone to condemn the store's transgender bathroom policy. 

In sermon after sermon, he regales his congregation with tales of standing on the street condemning homosexuals. He revels in the furious reaction.

“They come out with seething anger," Campbell says in a sermon praising God's providence in allowing then-Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to win the Republican primary. "If they thought you could get away with it, they’d bite you.”

While protesting with a group in California, he claims, he says that a gay man spit in one of their faces. 

“Of course, the person probably had AIDS. So the spit would get in the guy’s eye and give him some AIDS, see!” Campbell says. "The anger, the malice that can come out — Satan working through demonic forces — is just unbelievable."

(FYI: No, you can't get AIDS from being spit on.)

He condemns other Christians for not joining him and his allies to, say, protest a gay pride cruise at Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“There was three of us there against several hundred Sodomites,” Campbell says, in one of his personal favorite sermons. “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. We could shut that thing down. We could shut down the homosexual-sodomite parade in Spokane, if the Christians would just simply turn out and stop that nonsense.”

In one sermon, he said he agreed with the Spokane Street Preachers that standing on the street and preaching against homosexuality was the most loving thing a person could do — he, after all, was trying to save them from hell and God's wrath.

But in another? He downright celebrated the accusation of being a hate group. Discussing preaching against "sodomites at the parade," he says a woman came up to him and said, “You guys are nothing but haters. Stop the hate!"

"And I said, 'Hate is a good thing!'" Campbell says. "She didn't know what to do with that!...  It's a scriptural thing. The Lord says his soul hates these things."

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers' bill aimed at protecting four Lower Snake River dams passed through the House yesterday.

COVER: Your guide to international markets in the Inland Northwest.

CULTURE: OK, not really. But  at 15, Emilie Miller is dealing with way more than driver's ed and freshman year of high school. In the past month she's traveled to Oregon, Montana and Texas to show off her fiddle skills. She'll also compete in the Northwest Regional Fiddle Contest this weekend.

IN OTHER NEWS

No room
Public housing tenants in Seattle are evicted for owing $100, sometimes less. (The Stranger)

Ugh
The Rachel Dolezal documentary about life after the former NAACP president, who had been masquerading as black and was outed as white, airs on Netflix tomorrow. Director Laura Brownson filmed Dolezal for two years and interviewed her children. (Spokesman-Review)

Third time's a charm
The Supreme Court appears willing to approve President Donald Trump's third attempt to ban travel from seven Muslim majority countries. (New York Times)

Also, Kanye and Trump are bros, and you shouldn't be surprised. (The Atlantic)

'Foggy and hazy'
A flight attendant, who says she was drugged and raped by a pilot for SkyWest Airlines, is suing the airline. The woman, Mary Morgan, reported the assault to Canadian police and to the airline, where both she and Capt. Robert Rowe are still employed. (Seattle Times)

He would attack again, doctors said
Due to a change in the way Oregon thinks about those found criminally insane, a killer and rapist was released from the state's psychiatric hospital. A little more than a year later, he would be arrested again for a new murder. And this isn't the only example. Other dangerous people who have been released from state custody have been rearrested for violent crimes. (Malheur Enterprise/ProPublica)

No drugs, no stealing, no violence against women
Former freshman defensive back Zaire Webb is suing Washington State University football coach Mike Leach and the university after he was kicked off the team. Webb was dismissed for allegedly shoplifting from Walmart. Those charges were dropped, yet he was not allowed to rejoin the team and his financial aid was yanked.

The lawsuit alleges that Leach's policy of cutting any players who commit one of the three deadly sins (drugs, stealing, violence against women) is not applied equally. (Spokesman-Review)

On Wednesday afternoon, Eastern Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers celebrated the passage of her bill that would protect four Lower Snake River dams.

In a joint call with fellow Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse, whose neighboring district covers much of the Columbia River from Grand Coulee Dam south, McMorris Rodgers thanked her fellow representatives in the House for their support. The bill, H.R. 3144, passed 225 to 189.

"It’s really recognizing the role that the dams play in the Pacific Northwest and that dams and fish can coexist," McMorris Rodgers said. "It's a story we really need to tell not just to the Northwest but to the entire country."

If passed through the Senate and signed by the president, the bill would stop additional water spill over eight dams that was started in early April. The additional spill was required after a federal judge and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that it was necessary to protect juvenile salmon and help them move out to sea.

The legislation also would put in place a 2014 plan put together by federal agencies, regional tribes and others to protect salmon and steelhead trout while operating the dams. The courts rejected that plan and the federal government was ordered to go back and study other ways to protect the species, including looking at the potential to breach the four Lower Snake River dams.

But the new legislation would instead put that 2014 plan in place through 2022, when it would be up for review again and require an act of Congress before agencies could study breaching the dams.

McMorris Rodgers said putting the 2014 plan in place would still protect fish while ending a lengthy court process.

"We’ve been in court now for 20 years," McMorris Rodgers said. "Some have said that this is a bill that would ensure that salmon go extinct. It’s actually just the opposite: This is a bill that will provide us certainty to move beyond studying and move into implementation."

Newhouse also wanted to underscore that the 2014 plan was the product of "painstaking negotiation" all the way back to the Bush administration. He warned that Bonneville Power Administration had estimated the additional spill could cost utility payers an extra $40 million per year and that the agency was now concerned about the potential for blackouts during the summer.

"I urge my colleagues in the U.S. Senate to come forward and support saving our salmon and saving our dams," Newhouse said.

Environmental groups have criticized the legislation for thwarting the court process and say that salmon and steelhead runs would benefit from breaching the four dams in question in the court ruling.

Save Our Wild Salmon and other environmental groups also recently funded a poll of Washington voters that found that most people were willing to pay between $1 and $7 more per month on their electric bills to remove four dams on the lower Snake River to help restore wild salmon and improve water quality.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Trump’s pick to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, Dr. Robby Jackson, has an allegedly shakey background. His confirmation hearing, scheduled for today, has been postponed.

CULTURE: Local couple Michael Rideout and Kayla Cartelli upcycle discarded fire hoses into can holders, flags and other items. They both work full-time jobs in addition to spending 40 hours a week working for their business, American Fire Co.

NEWS: National Perscription Drug Take Back Day is Saturday. From 10 am to 2 pm, you can take any expired, unused or unwanted prescription medication to disposal sites throughout Eastern Washington.

IN OTHER NEWS

Judge thwarts Trump
A federal judge in Spokane issued an injunction that prevents the Trump administration from cutting funds to Planned Parenthood that would go to a teen pregnancy program in the Western states, the Spokesman-Review reports. “The court determines that the public interest weighs in favor of (Planned Parenthood), as it would prevent harm to the community … and prevent loss of data regarding the effectiveness of teen pregnancy prevention,” Judge Thomas Rice wrote in his decision. (Spokesman-Review)

Judge thwarts Trump AGAIN
And another one. This time, a federal judge in D.C. ruled against the president’s legal rationale for ending DACA, which provides individuals who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children relief from deportation. The judge gave the Trump administration 90 days to come up with a better rationale for ending the program. (Vox)

Getting handsy
What is with President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron? Despite their disagreements, the two leaders seem to be in love. (The New York Times)

California gun deaths decline
California gun deaths declined between 2000 and 2015, according to a recent study on gun violence. The decline is likely due to the decline in gang violence in the state, especially in Los Angeles, the study says. (Associated Press)

Do you have drugs? Like old drugs that you don't want anymore? The DEA wants 'em.

This Saturday, April 28, is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. From 10 am to 2 pm, you can take any expired, unused or unwanted prescription medication to disposal sites throughout Eastern Washington, no questions asked. But they only want your pills and patches. No liquids, needles or sharps.

Disposal sites are: Kennewick Police Department, Pasco Police Department, Pullman Police Department, Richland Police Department, the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office and the Walla Walla Police Department, West Richland Police Department and Yakima Police Department.

The Spokane Valley Police Department (12710 E. Sprague) is a year-round disposal site, open 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.

During drug-take-back efforts last fall, Americans handed over 456 tons (912,00 pounds) of prescription drugs, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Washington state accounted for 15,473 pounds of that total haul. All told, 14 previous Drug Take Back Days have yielded 9 million pounds of pills, according to the news release.

Can't make it this weekend? That's cool. The Food & Drug Administration has some handy tips for how to safely dispose of certain meds. While some pills could be flushed down the toilet, others probably should not.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Stinkbugs are invading Washington state, and they're coming for your crops.

MUSIC: The Spokane Arena wants to hear what band or artist you'd most like to see on the arena stage (besides Garth Brooks, of course).

IN OTHER NEWS

What's in a name?
It took months and months of deliberating over the name of the bridge being constructed downtown to connect the University District to East Sprague. It's been called the University District Gateway Bridge in the meantime, but city leaders have finally settled on a name: the University District Gateway Bridge. Creative! (Spokesman-Review)

Road to prison
The second man involved in the murder of William "Bo" Kirk during a road rage incident pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder and robbery. Justin Booth can now be sentenced up to life in prison. David E. Hutto, the other defendant, was sentenced to life in prison last year. (Spokesman-Review)

Hart family's abuse allegations
Two mothers and their four adopted children — referred to as the "Hart family" —  have been confirmed dead after an SUV they were in crashed from a 150-foot cliff in Northern California. Now, the Oregon Department of Human Services has revealed that it investigated allegations of abuse in the Hart family but found "insufficient" evidence of abuse or neglect. (Seattle Times)

10 killed in Toronto
At least 10 people died when the driver of a white van plowed through pedestrians on the street in Toronto. The driver asked officers to "shoot me in the head," but he was subdued without shots fired. Authorities have said the act was intentional, but they haven't called it terrorism. (New York Times)

Vaping in class?
Teenagers have taken to using an e-cigarette that looks like a computer flash drive and can be easily hidden in school. The Food and Drug Administration has launched an effort to crack down on the brand who makes it. (Associated Press)

We open on Karen Bernhard, a horticulture and entomology specialist with Pennsylvania State University, investigating a curious infestation in Allentown. For five years, homeowners had been complaining of bugs in their houses. The residents had seen stink bugs before, but not like this. Not this many. These weren't the usual stink bugs.

So Bernhard calls in the experts: She sends the bug to a Cornell, where a curator mans one of the largest insect collections in the world: And he finds a match. It was the same bug found in Harima, Japan, in May 1916: A brown marmorated stink bug.

Before that moment, there had never been a brown marmorated stink bug officially identified detected on our shores.

But it wouldn't be the last.


Today, there are so many stink bugs reports flooding in that Michael Bush, an entomology and pest management researcher at the Washington State University Extension - Yakima County,  can't keep track of them all.

"I kind of got overwhelmed," Bush says. "I’m sitting here, trying to wade through about 300 reports I’ve gotten since last month. That's probably two-thirds of what we’ve gotten in the last six years."

Some of that may be simply a result of increased media attention to the stink bug problem. But it's also evidence of just how far the pesky pest has spread.

"The closest find of brown marmorated stink bug a few years ago was in Portland, in Oregon," Bush says. "The first one found in Washington state was in [bordering] Clark County."

Stink bugs can fly, yes. But even more importantly, they can hitch a ride.

"These stink bugs are amazing hitch-hikers," Bush says. "They are attracted by warmth. They will get into cars and SUVs and RVs, there are some thoughts that that's one of the ways they have spread."

The cold months send even isolated stink bugs scurrying toward warmer areas, where they're likely to meet other stink bugs. Then they create a lot of stink bug babies.

By 2014, the WSU Master Gardeners had put out a poster: "Wanted: Dead or Alive," encouraging those who encountered the brown marmorated stink bug to send information to Bush.

On Feb. 20, 2015, the first brown marmorated stink bug was spotted in Spokane. By that July, a WSU entomologist found an egg mass writhing with 28 newly hatched brown marmorated stink bug nymphs.

"In 2017 we found nearly 30 individual brown marmorated stink bugs in Manito Park and in Riverfront Park,"  Bush says. Stink bugs, he says, love deciduous trees. So they love parks. 

So why are stink bugs a problem? First, there's the obvious.

"These things really earn their name. They stink," Bush says. "When they invade households, people find them creeping in around in their house. When they try to remove them, they stink. They stink in protest."

Injure them? Hurt them? Squish them? They still stink.

The exact nature of the odor is in the nose of the beholder, Bush says.

"I think it smells bad, some people don’t," Bush says. "Some people say it smells like rotten cilantro. Others say it smells like dead grass."

And while Washington's agriculture hasn't been impacted yet, the impact in other states has been concerning. The stink bugs come equipped with big long proboscises they stick into plants to suck up the juices of produce plants like tomatoes, apples, apricots or hazelnuts. In the process, Bush says, the stink bugs also vomit up a little bit of bug juice.

"When they do that, they do cause some deformation if it’s early in the season," Bush says.

The produce can rot inside. They can contaminate the plant, altering the flavor. They can also leave a thin layer of white film underneath the skin of the fruit

"People cut it open, and there’s this little white layer between the skin and the rest of the tomato," Bush says. "People tend not to like that when they see it."

Researchers across the country, including several from WSU, have been funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to research the problem, trying to figure out exactly how to stop the spread of the stink bugs.

So they're looking at pheromone-based traps. But one even cooler idea they're looking at? Basically, a miniature Kaiju battle, introducing another bug that can battle the stink bug. The samurai wasp, an exotic parasitic wasp out of Asia, lays eggs inside the stink bug eggs, which then devours the stink bug progeny from the inside.

Savage.

The battle is already happening. A samurai wasp has already been detected in Walla Walla, Washington.

And if you see any brown marmorated stink bugs? Don't send the bugs to Bush. He's already overwhelmed. Instead, email [email protected]. They have graduate students tasked with dealing with this sort of thing.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: It's not clear if alternative class styles, such as those taught online, are helpful to students, according to a Washington state audit.

NEWS: Students across the nation walked out on Friday, April 20, in protest of gun violence, and some, including in Spokane Valley, were met with counter protests. 
WHAT'S UP: Is the future in driverless cars? Gonzaga professor Rhonda Kae Young will talk about her research into the automated auto future tomorrow.

ARTS & CULTURE: Growing up, Hannah Camacho's dad was a traveling preacher, which meant she and her four siblings learned how to make fast friends. Now, Camacho is exploring her interests in art, animation and illustration with her podcast Basic Brainheart, where you'll hear her interview writers, directors and other creatives who've brought us some of the largest movies in Hollywood all from her Liberty Lake home.

IN OTHER NEWS

Car found in Spokane River
Spokane police found a car that went into the Spokane River over the weekend, but it wasn't clear if there was anyone inside and conditions have made it too hard for a dive team to try to get to the vehicle. (KXLY)

Shogun destroyed in fire
Early Sunday morning a fire destroyed Shogun, a Japanese restaurant off Third, east of downtown, that served sushi and offered guests the option of having meals prepared at their table. (Spokesman Review)

Waffle House shooting in Nashville kills four, gunman on run
A man who shot up a Waffle House in Nashville on Sunday, killing four people and wounding others, is still on the run. The shooting could have been worse had one man not tackled the gunman and taken the gun from him before he ran off. (New York Times, CNN)

Deadly airbags still on roads
Tens of thousands of vehicles equipped with airbags that could explode and spray shrapnel in a crash are still on the roads. The Washington Post explores why the recall process has taken so long and stories of those who were needlessly killed. (Washington Post)

ROADS?! Where we're going we don't need roads!

Wait... No. We need roads, but maybe not drivers. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Gonzaga civil engineering professor Rhonda Kae Young will discuss this idea at length next Tuesday in her presentation titled “Transportation Engineering: From Neighborhood Greenways to Driverless Interstates.”

Finally, the future is here! Total Recall’s Johnny Cab will finally be realized.

If this is a terrifying prospect to you, you’re not alone. In fact, a Gallup poll shows that a majority (54 percent) of Americans say they are unlikely to use self-driving cars, 59 percent would be uncomfortable riding in self-driving cars and 62 percent would be uncomfortable on the road with self-driving trucks. (However, Gallup’s number decreases the younger and more educated the survey participants are.)

There are some obvious hurdles to overcome. Professor Young recognizes this too.

"It's the big jump,” Young told the Inlander last in February 2017 in our cover story on this very subject. “We've always been forward-thinking, but we recognize now the pace and the jump that we're seeing. It's like the automobile and horse-drawn carriage kind of leap."

For Young, this is the future: A network of vehicles traveling and communicating with each other, using sophisticated maps, radar and sensors to avoid accidents.

More than 7.2 million vehicle crashes were reported to the police in 2016, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Commission. Among those were 37,461 fatalities and more than 3 million injuries. And while the technology could improve human safety in the long run, it could also have major implications on commerce.

Young will discuss her research into this topic at the event. She is currently leading Gonzaga’s team in a seven-university partnership with a $14 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Per Gonzaga:

Under her leadership, students explore the benefits of “connected” vehicles that monitor roadways and share information via short-range frequency. The future of connected vehicles (driverless or human-controlled) can alleviate traffic congestion, generate safety messages, signal poor road and weather conditions and enhance trip planning.



Additionally, Young works with the city of Spokane and Gonzaga civil engineering students to plan the community’s first “greenway” on Cincinnati Street. A “greenway” is a street with limited access that is designed for biking, pedestrians and public transportation.

The Washington state Auditor's Office has released a final report on student outcomes in so-called "Alternative Learning Experience" courses — courses, often online, involving some level of instruction away from traditional public school.

The grade? Incomplete.

Citing a lack of available data from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Auditor's Office could not evaluate student success in ALE programs as mandated by the state Legislature in 2013.

"We identified data challenges that meant we were unable to measure student outcomes in a quantitative way," says Kathleen Cooper, spokeswoman for the state Auditor's Office.

In Washington state, more than 30,000 K-12 students attend ALE programs either part time or full time. The programs are funded by the state. Last year, the Inlander reported how for-profit companies came to dominate the landscape of online education in Washington, while delivering poor student outcomes. Those online schools are considered ALE programs.

School districts can attract students to their ALE programs even if the students are from another part of the state, boosting that district's enrollment numbers and sometimes allowing them to balance their budget.

But are those ALE programs effective?

That's a question OSPI and the Auditor's Office can't answer with evidence. It's partly because they're so different, from not only traditional schools, but from each other. An ALE program can be a simple credit-recovery course, or it can be a full-time online school. That makes it harder to separate ALE students from traditional students, since they can be both.

And that means auditors couldn't effectively measure ALE graduation rates or other individual outcomes.

Instead, lacking reliable data, the auditors visited eight ALE programs, held focus groups and surveyed students. Representatives from ALE programs themselves, of course, told the auditors that the programs provided "flexibility" and new approaches to students seeking an alternative to traditional school.

"Our qualitative analysis shows the professionals who work within these programs believe they do help increase individual student success," Cooper says.

This isn't the first time the Auditor's Office pointed out issues with data for ALE programs. Its first report after the 2013 mandate was supposed to assess 2013-14 ALE students. But then, too, it found problems with the data system managed by OSPI called the Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS): Of the districts with ALE programs, 65 percent claimed more ALE funding than the actual number of students.

The ALE staff told the state auditors that it was a misunderstanding of reporting requirements. The auditors have recommended that OSPI ensures its CEDARS data is complete and accurate.

Nathan Olson, spokesman for OSPI, says the agency has been working with auditors on this.

"We know there are issues with data, and data collection needs to be improved," Olson says.

The report from the Auditor's Office, he says, showed that collection and reporting of accurate data is the "key stumbling block" to evaluating student success in ALE programs. OSPI says it is taking steps to address the issue, including improved communication on requirements and potentially asking the Legislature for changes to state ALE course definitions.

But OSPI, Olson says, is confident that ALE programs are effective, even without the data.

"I think we acknowledge data would help us get even more information, but we are finding they are effective," Olson says. "More students are taking the courses and they are passing the courses."