Press Town Hall Forums begin Monday
DEVIN WEEKS | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 8 months AGO
Schroeder
Devin Weeks is a third-generation North Idaho resident. She holds an associate degree in journalism from North Idaho College and a bachelor's in communication arts from Lewis-Clark State College Coeur d'Alene. Devin embarked on her journalism career at the Coeur d'Alene Press in 2013. She worked weekends for several years, covering a wide variety of events and issues throughout Kootenai County. Devin now mainly covers K-12 education and the city of Post Falls. She enjoys delivering daily chuckles through the Ghastly Groaner and loves highlighting local people in the Fast Five segment that runs in CoeurVoice. Devin lives in Post Falls with her husband and their three eccentric and very needy cats. | October 2, 2020 1:06 AM
Four days of Coeur d'Alene Press 2020 Election Town Hall Forums begin at 5 p.m. Monday.
Candidates in four races will answer reader-submitted questions that have been collected for the past two weeks. The candidates have not been provided with the questions in advance. The questions are timely, relevant to each political race and will relate to candidates’ stated platforms.
The forums are being held to give community members detailed information about where each candidate stands, before they cast their votes. In Kootenai County, more than 37,000 absentee ballots are starting to be mailed out today. Election Day is Nov. 3.
“We want to provide as much face time with members of the electorate as possible so they decide smartly when they choose who will represent them,” Press publisher Clint Schroeder said Thursday.
The question order will be determined at 4:30 p.m. the day of each forum. A coin toss will decide first position on each question and a consistent order to follow the leader on each question. Each candidate will be given a chance to answer one question in the first position.
These question-and-answer forums are not debates. Candidates will not be given time for rebuttals. They will be expected to answer questions directly and speak with facts about themselves and their own platforms, not their opponents.
“Time is being strictly managed,” Schroeder reminds the candidates. “Use it wisely.”
Forums will end at 7 p.m. Each will be streamed live on Facebook as well as recorded and available in the “Meet the Candidates” section of www.cdapress.com the following day.
The schedule for The Coeur d'Alene Press 2020 Election Town Hall Forums is as follows:
Monday
Town Hall Forum No. 1
Idaho State House of Representatives, 5 p.m. — four candidates, three races
Doug Okuniewicz, Idaho State House District 2, Seat B
Chris Matthews, Idaho State House District 3, Seat A
Ron Mendive, Idaho State House District 3, Seat A
Teresa Borrenpohl, Idaho State House District 3, Seat B
Tuesday
Town Hall Forum No. 2
Idaho State Senate District 4, 5 p.m. — two candidates, one race
Mary Souza
Shari Williams
North Idaho College Trustees, 5:50 p.m. — two candidates, two races
Joe Dunlap, NIC Trustee Zone 4
Paul Strum, NIC Trustee, Zone 5
Wednesday
Town Hall Forum No. 3
Kootenai County Sheriff, 5 p.m. — three candidates, one race
Bob Norris
Justin Nagel
Mike Bauer
Thursday
Town Hall Forum No. 4
U.S. Congress District 1, 5 p.m. — three candidates, one race
Joe Evans
Rudy Soto
Russ Fulcher
U.S. Senate Idaho, 6:08 p.m. — two candidates, one race
Paulette Jordan
Natalie Fleming
ARTICLES BY DEVIN WEEKS
At long last, first-time homeowners move into Post Falls' Britton neighborhood
At long last, first-time homeowners move into Britton neighborhood
Puffy white clouds rolled across the deep blue sky as that new home smell wafted on the breeze. The sun shined on the celebration unfolding on Britton Road in Post Falls. And just as happens on a lucky wedding day, the skies opened long enough to sprinkle rain and blessings on the first-time homeowners who received the keys to their brand-new homes. "We are standing in the middle of a first-in-the-nation solution to restore the American Dream of homeownership for our hard-working families whose wages have not and will not catch up to our escalating market rate prices for real estate," Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance Executive Director Maggie Lyons said Thursday.
Panhandle Health's Ekizian leads charge for Medical Reserve Corps volunteers
Panhandle Health's Ekizian leads charge for Medical Reserve Corps volunteers
Although she didn't grow up in a family of doctors or first responders, Jennifer Ekizian found her calling in the realm of public health. This was after she set off to become a nurse but ended up obtaining an emergency medical technician license and a master’s degree in public safety and leadership with an emphasis on fire and working in law enforcement and fire dispatch. “However, I ended up doing my internship with the Office of Emergency Management," she said Wednesday in her Panhandle Health District office in Hayden. "That was my first exposure to emergency preparedness.” While continuing her emergency response training and experience, she spent years working in real estate, which was never a truly fulfilling career for her. “I just got to a point in my life when I wanted to help people," she said.
FAST FIVE Abbie Waters: Teaching Project SEARCH interns how to navigate life
Meet Abbie Waters, who was born and raised in Coeur d'Alene and continues to raise her own young family in the area. A University of Idaho Vandal grad, Abbie is a special education teacher with the Coeur d'Alene School District and has been working with individuals with disabilities for almost a decade. Currently, her role within the district is co-instructor for the Project SEARCH program at Kootenai Health. She has worked with the program since 2017. The 15th class will celebrate graduation Tuesday, June 3.