Hundreds of Idaho state employees are being ordered to take time off without pay at the holidays this year, to help balance the state budget. Gov. Butch Otter today praised the moves by two state agencies thus far as “good management,” saying that employees may be shorted in pay, “But they’ve got a job.”

“This is a good management style, as far as I’m concerned,” Otter said. “They’re taking two days out of the year … where there’s precious little activity.” The state Department of Agriculture is ordering all its 325 employees statewide to take the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas off without pay. The state Attorney General’s office is having all its workers take a half-day without pay the day before Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas. With more state budget cuts in the works, other agencies are likely to follow suit. You can read my full story here at spokesmanreview.com.

The news from the state Endowment Fund Investment Board, which reported to the state Land Board today about the endowment’s investment earnings, was anything but sunny. The fund lost 13.8 percent in October, and as of Oct. 31, had lost 21.9 percent of its value for the fiscal year to date. “The results in November have not been good either,” investments manager Larry Johnson told the Land Board. “We’ve lost about 7.5 percent through yesterday, for the first part of November.” Yet, he said, “All of our investment managers are performing as we would expect in this type of environment – it’s a very tough environment.”

Revenues from state endowment lands, which also, like the fund, benefit public schools and other state institutions, have been “running about equal or better” so far this fiscal year, Johnson said.

In fiscal year 2008, total balances in the state’s endowment fund increased $12 million, or 1 percent, to $1.125 billion. That was before the losses in the current fiscal year, which started July 1. Distributions to beneficiaries of the fund, including public schools, rose 7.7 percent from the previous year, to $39 million. The total investment loss, before fees, was 2.1 percent for the fiscal year, compared to an average gain of 10.2 percent over the past five years. Earnings from state lands for the fiscal year were $70 million, a 1.5 percent drop from the previous record year but still strong.

Multiple murderer Joseph Duncan is appealing his death sentence to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Duncan’s terse notice of appeal, filed today by his three court-appointed standby attorneys, gives no reason for his decision to appeal the sentence, which he didn’t speak against when it was handed down after he pleaded guilty to all charges. Duncan was sentenced to death three times over for the kidnap, murder and sexual exploitation of 9-year-old Dylan Groene in 2005. He also received three life terms in federal prison for kidnapping and molesting the child and his then-8-year-old sister, Shasta, who survived.

“I’m really not surprised – I expected it would come,” U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said of the appeal, noting that nearly all death sentences are appealed. “They’ll have to point to the things they claim were in error. … I think Judge Lodge did a fine job, I think he was very careful throughout the process, and I think that in spite of the nasty stuff we were dealing with and the strange things that happened with him choosing to represent himself and all that, I think the judge handled it well.”

Said Moss, “I’m not greatly concerned about what will happen on appeal, but of course you never know. Nobody can say for sure what’s going to happen.” Like anyone given a federal death sentence, Duncan has the right to one appeal to the federal Court of Appeals. You can read my full story here, and the notice of appeal here.

Despite at least two proposals in the last couple of years for new commercial nuclear power plants in Idaho, don’t expect to see one in the next decade, a nuclear industry expert told a Boise forum today. If you look out 15 years, it “might be possible,” said Ralph Bennett, director of international and regional partnerships for the Idaho National Laboratory.

One nuke plant proposal for the Payette area was dropped early this year after developers concluded it wasn’t economically feasible. Another proposal, for a plant along the Snake River in Elmore County, has stirred up lots of controversy but made little progress; developer Don Gillispie first proposed a site in Owyhee County, then moved the project.

Bennett told the Idaho Environmental Forum today that nuclear power plants take “a lot of lead time.” There are currently more than 20 proposed across the country, nearly all of them in the southeastern United States. A handful may win final approval there and begin construction in the next few years. If those are successful, Bennett said, “the potential may arise for development in Idaho.”

But, he said, “Public acceptance in Idaho will be very dependent upon addressing water use.” There are three types of nuclear plants when it comes to water use, he said, with the heaviest water-using type suitable only for coastal areas with plentiful water. The least water-dependent type, which uses “dry cooling,” suffers in warm climates. “There actually is a nuclear plant that uses exclusively dry cooling,” Bennett said. “It’s in Siberia.” The third type, which uses 10 times as much water as the dry cooling method, makes use of evaporative cooling towers. One plant back east is experimenting with a design that uses a hybrid of dry and wet cooling, he said, which could be “interesting to watch.”

Another hurdle for a nuclear plant in Idaho is the state’s already relatively low electricity prices, Bennett said, compared to the high construction costs for a nuclear plant. That wouldn’t foreclose a plant from being built, as any Idaho plant likely would be a “merchant” plant that sells the power it generates to other states. But that also brings the need to satisfy neighbors that they won’t be unduly impacted by a plant that doesn’t actually serve them. This year’s BSU Public Policy Survey found 70 percent of Idahoans would oppose a nuclear plant in their county that provided electricity for other states, but if the plant were to serve Idahoans' energy needs, the numbers shifted to 43 percent opposed and 45 percent in favor.

Back in D.C., the two new faces in Idaho’s congressional delegation for next year are among about 60 in the freshman class of the next Congress who are in the nation’s capitol for orientation sessions, leadership elections and more. The AP reports that new Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, said people with experience “are trying to keep us from rushing into swinging doors,” as the freshmen go through sessions on such topics as how to set up an office, conforming with ethics rules and security procedures. Minnick also told the AP he’d try to “break away from the ultra partisanship” of recent sessions, to which Brett Guthrie, a newly elected Republican from Kentucky, added, “We feel that we are coming here to be a statesman.” The wire service also reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is meeting today with six Democrats who will take Senate seats formerly held by Republicans, while Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell is meeting with GOP senators-elect Jim Risch of Idaho and Mike Johanns of Nebraska.

This must be the new spirit of bipartisanship and unity that we’ve been hearing about nationally since the election: A joint news release that went out Friday afternoon was headed, “Crapo, Simpson, Bieter help retain rail jobs.” The occasion: A federal waiver was denied for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority to purchase 28 passenger rail locomotives from a Spanish firm rather than from the only qualifying domestic bidder, MotivePower Inc. of Boise. GOP Sen. Mike Crapo and GOP Congressman Mike Simpson joined with Boise Mayor Dave Bieter, a former Democratic legislator, to push the Federal Transit Authority to reject the request for a waiver from the “Buy American Act” for the federally funded purchase. If the Boise firm lost that business to the foreign company, hundreds of Idaho jobs could’ve been at risk.

In the joint press release, Bieter said, “I’m pleased that the FTA saw the wisdom of allowing U.S. companies to compete fairly. My hat is off to Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson for all their hard work to keep these jobs in Idaho.” The FTA’s deputy administrator informed the Massachusetts transit authority that it hadn’t “established sufficient grounds for a public interest waiver,” as it had neither shown that a waiver benefiting the foreign firm would introduce “significant new technology” or that it would “benefit the riding public.”

A Coeur d’Alene attorney who paid cash for a new Corvette shortly after declaring bankruptcy has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. Craig Odegaard, 49, has sold the sports car and repaid his creditors; he pleaded guilty to one count of bankruptcy fraud in July for concealing assets in his 2004 bankruptcy in what he said was a misunderstanding. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill imposed two years of supervised release after the 15-month prison term and ordered $2,600 in fines. Odegaard was a bankruptcy attorney who had filed more than 600 bankruptcy cases when he declared bankruptcy himself in 2004 – and then purchased the $48,000 Corvette.

A new national survey ranks Washington fourth in the nation for governmental integrity, openness and accountability – and Idaho 44th. The survey, conducted by the Chicago-based Better Government Association, compared open records laws, open meeting laws, whistleblower laws, campaign finance requirements and conflict-of-interest laws, to create a government “integrity index.”

Idaho scored particularly poorly for its open meeting and conflict of interest laws. As one of just four states with no requirement for state legislators to disclose their personal finances, Idaho tied for last place with a zero score in the conflict-of-interest category, while Washington was ranked first in the nation. Idaho ranked 44th for its open meeting law. Idaho state Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said, “I think we need to stop and do a little introspective, and ask ourselves what’s going on.” Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said he’s looking at improvements to Idaho’s open meeting law. You can read my full story here at spokesmanreview.com, and here’s a link to the full survey.

Idaho Congressman-elect Walt Minnick, asked about the Idaho Democratic Party anti-Bill Sali flier that included an illustration that revealed the Social Security numbers of Congressman Sali and his wife, said he’s talked to the party about the incident. “It was an unfortunate oversight – it shouldn’t have happened,” Minnick said. “I am very sorry it happened. It was inadvertent.” The flier, mailed to households throughout the 1st Congressional District, criticized incumbent Sali in part for his financial problems, including campaign debt and past tax problems; its illustrations included a photo of a state tax lien from 1988 for then-unpaid state income taxes on which the Salis’ Social Security numbers were shown. Sali’s campaign criticized the mailing as “despicable” and said it exposed the Salis to possible identity theft. The Idaho Attorney General’s consumer protection unit advised Idahoans who received the flier to shred it.

I asked new Congressman-elect Walt Minnick how long he’d like to serve in Congress if it were entirely under his control. Here’s his response:

“I, in all honesty, cannot answer that … not until I get there, find out the extent to which I’m effective and think I can accomplish some useful things for the state. … And there are tradeoffs between family and spending time in the out-of-doors, which is why I moved to Idaho, and spending most of my time in Washington, so I have to weigh those personal considerations as well as my own effectiveness. So I don’t know the answer to that question. But I do anticipate it being more than one term.”

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, a Republican, says when he served three terms in Congress, he often found common ground with the Blue Dog Caucus, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats. Now, Idaho’s newest congressman-elect, Democrat Walt Minnick, is a member of that group. Said Otter, “We could do a lot worse than have the Blue Dogs get a majority of the Democrat party.” He added, “Interestingly enough, I would tell you, and so would Mike Simpson, there were many times Mike Simpson and I voted for the Blue Dog budget and only accepted the Republican budget after the Blue Dog budget lost. Oh yeah – it was much more conservative.”

Otter said he ran into Minnick at a sportsmen’s event last spring, and advised him to join the Blue Dogs – something Minnick said he already had initiated. Several members of the caucus called Otter for advice, he said, when they were considering endorsing Minnick, which they did. “They said, ‘Well, we’re going to invite him to be a Blue Dog,’ and I said, ‘Well, I think you’ve got some good prospects there, because I think Walt’s that kind of guy,’” Otter said.

Now, as Minnick prepares to head to Congress, Otter said, “We’re going to be able to work on things together.” For his part, Minnick says he’s focusing on goals, not on partisanship. He's expecting help from national Democrats who'll want to cement their party's hold on his seat – but he's also talking to lots of Republicans. "Over my lifetime I've been a Republican, an independent and a Democrat, and I'm really not very partisan, never have been very partisan," Minnick said. You can read my full story here in today’s Spokesman-Review.

In a memo sent to all state agencies today, there’s clear warning that an additional 1.5 percent of the state budget that’s being held in reserve after September’s 1 percent holdback may well be on the chopping block very soon. “I am asking each of you to review the 1.5% holdback plan you submitted in September and to notify DFM of any modifications you believe to be necessary no later than noon on Friday, November 14,” state Division of Financial Management Administrator Wayne Hammon wrote to all state agency heads. The September holdback trimmed $27.3 million out of the state budget mid-year. The additional 1.5 percent adds up to another $40.8 million.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter today said more holdbacks in Idaho’s state budget are likely as the economy slides into recession. “We’ve cut back about 1 percent so far, we’re probably going to have to cut back more,” he said. “States all over the United States are cutting back big-time in their budgets, and not just one, two, three, four or five percent, some of them are hitting as much as 10 to 12 percent on their budgets. It’s a sign of the times. It is going to be tough.” Otter, whose comments came as he signed a proclamation to recognize Idaho non-profits and declare “Non-Profit Week,” said, “We’re going to have to count on our non-profits more and more, and do what we can in order to get through this.”

Otter noted that six weeks ago, when he ordered a 1 percent mid-year holdback, or cut, in the state budget, he also asked state agencies to reserve another 1.5 percent “just in case.” “We put everybody on notice six weeks ago,” the governor said. “We’re probably going to have an additional holdback, but I’m not prepared to tell you at this point in time what it is.”

All recreation-related fees will be waived for veterans, military personnel and their families at federal recreation facilities on public lands tomorrow in honor of Veterans Day. That includes lands under the management of the Forest Service, the BLM, the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Reclamation. “We want to thank the men and women who have served or are serving our country through military service,” said BLM Director Jim Caswell, a Vietnam veteran and former Idaho state official. “This is a small, but special way in which we can express our gratitude and our
appreciation to them.” Congress passed a law in 2004 allowing for the fee waivers.

Idaho’s unemployment rate jumped up to 5.4 percent in October, but there’s even more pain in six mostly rural Idaho counties where unemployment soared into double-digit rates for the first time since 1999. They are: Adams County, 11.4 percent; Benewah County, 10.0 percent; Boundary County, 10.8 percent; Clearwater County, 12.2 percent; Shoshone County, 11.2 percent; and Valley County, 10.2 percent. Idaho’s still below the national unemployment rate of 6.5 percent for October, but the gap is narrowing. State Labor Director Roger Madsen said, “Sometimes rural areas get hit hardest – and that’s certainly true for those six counties that hit double digits last month. But they aren’t alone this time.” The unemployment rate was up from October 2007 in every city, labor market area and all 44 counties in the state.

The state Department of Labor reported that the number of Idahoans without jobs now tops 40,000, double a year ago and the highest number in more than a quarter-century. Nearly 45 percent are in the Boise-Nampa metropolitan area.

BSU political scientist Gary Moncrief, who studies elections, had this to say when asked why GOP Congressman Bill Sali lost in Tuesday’s election: “I think it’s largely a referendum on Sali. You know that district – there’s no way a Republican should lose that district. If you look at the county returns, he was running behind Risch and McCain by anywhere between 5 and 15 percent in every county. There’s a roll-off between McCain and Risch, down to Sali, in every county that I looked at, and I looked at 10 or 15 of them. It says that this election was about Sali, rather than about Minnick.” He added, “It was never a fair fight – Sali had to run against two people, himself and Walt Minnick.” For more assessment of the race, see my full story here at spokesmanreview.com.

Democrat Walt Minnick’s defeat of GOP Congressman Bill Sali wasn’t centered in any particular region of Idaho’s sprawling 1st Congressional District. Sali beat Minnick by more than 1,000 votes in only two counties, Canyon County, the state’s second-largest in population, and Idaho County in north-central Idaho. Minnick beat Sali by more than 1,000 votes in five counties, stretching from one end of the district to the other: Ada, Bonner, Latah, Nez Perce and Shoshone. Two of those counties are in the North Idaho Panhandle, but Sali edged Minnick in the Panhandle’s largest and most vote-rich county, Kootenai, where he had a 744-vote margin. Boundary County favored Sali by a 389-vote margin, while Benewah County went for Minnick by a 139-vote margin.

Sali’s biggest county margin of victory came in conservative Canyon County, where he pulled 6,055 more votes (55 percent, to Minnick’s 45 percent). Minnick’s was in next-door Ada County, where he had 4,927 more votes. But he also had a 4,233-vote edge over Sali in Latah County; a 2,301-vote edge in Nez Perce County; a 1,617-vote lead in Bonner County; and a 1,511-vote lead in Shoshone County. Those margins combined are more than double Sali’s big Canyon County edge. His next biggest margin was in Idaho County, at 1,288 votes.

Sali actually carried more counties than Minnick – he had more votes in 12 counties, while Minnick had more votes in seven counties. But in five counties, there were fewer than 150 votes dividing the two candidates – and four of those were counties where Sali held the edge.

Idaho GOP Sen. Mike Crapo sent out the following statement:

“President-elect Obama has brought a lot of energy into the political process, and his election is historic,” Crapo said. “As we face the significant challenges in our financial markets and economic outlook, I look forward to working with him and the new Congress. Idaho’s congressional delegation has changed as well, and I welcome Jim Risch and Walt Minnick to Congress. Senator-elect Risch and I have a long association that dates back to the Idaho State Senate, and we will work well together in representing Idaho in the U.S. Senate. I have also spoken privately with Congressman Sali, offered my gratitude for his service to Idaho and our continued friendship. And earlier today, I visited with Congressman-elect Minnick by phone and have assured him of my strong commitment to welcome him to the Delegation as we address the issues confronting Idaho and the nation. I have long practiced an open door, bipartisan approach and that will continue as Walt becomes a member of the Idaho congressional delegation."

With all the votes counted, Walt Minnick has defeated Bill Sali in the 1st District congressional race. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Minnick had 175,567 votes, 51 percent, and Sali had 171,324 votes, 49 percent. That’s a margin of 4,242 votes. It’s well outside the automatic recount level; if Sali wants a recount, he’d have to pay for it at $100 per precinct, with more than 400 precincts.

Though only two precincts remain uncounted, GOP Congressman Bill Sali isn’t ready to concede defeat. “Well, I’d certainly rather be here talking about the stunning victory last night,” Sali said at a GOP press conference today. “Unfortunately, it’s a little close right now. There’s still a couple of precincts out there.” He said, “We’re going to wait and see how things turn out, make sure every ballot gets counted.”

Ben Ysursa, Idaho secretary of state, said counting of the last few precincts from Bonner County was going very slowly today. But, he said, “The trend in Bonner County favored Minnick over Sali, so I don’t think you’re going to have any further tightening of the race.”

Idaho Congressman-elect Walt Minnick said he already talked by phone this morning with 2nd District Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson. “I congratulated him on his victory and being able to get to bed a whole lot earlier than I was,” Minnick said. “He congratulated me on mine, and we expressed a mutual determination to work together.” Minnick, the first Democrat in Idaho’s congressional delegation in 14 years, said he plans to work closely with the Republicans who make up the other three-quarters of the delegation. “I stand for solving problems, and doing so in a bipartisan way that will help solve the gridlock in Washington,” Minnick said.

While change swept the nation in Tuesday’s election, it didn’t happen in the election for the Idaho Legislature. Only one sitting Idaho legislator was defeated on Tuesday (Democrat Jerry Shively of Idaho Falls, who lost narrowly), and every seat in the 105-member Legislature was up for election. Of the 13 seats that changed hands, for reasons ranging from death to primary defeats, 12 were filled with legislators of the same party as the previous occupant. Some incumbents, in both parties, faced tough challenges, but when the votes were counted, all but one of them prevailed.

In the cold light of morning, with 99 percent of the vote counted, Democrat Walt Minnick leads GOP Congressman Bill Sali by 3,619 votes. With 952 of 956 precincts reporting, Minnick had 173,316 votes – 51 percent – to Sali’s 169,697, or 49 percent.

In the race for Larry Craig’s U.S. Senate seat, Republican Jim Risch had 58 percent, or 369,044 votes, to Democrat Larry LaRocco’s 34 percent, or 218,148 votes. Independent Rex Rammell tallied 5 percent, with 34,396 votes; Libertarian Kent Marmon pulled 2 percent, at 9,874 votes; and Pro-Life got 1 percent, 8,597 votes.

And here’s how Idaho voted for president: John McCain, 62 percent; Barack Obama, 36 percent. The three others on the ticket each got 1 percent.

It’s after 1 in the morning in Boise, and there’s still no final word on how high voter turnout went in Idaho, but Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said, “It was big – it was big everywhere. We had areas that were getting low on ballots.” Yet, he said, voting went “pretty smoothly, from what I heard about wait times,” thanks in part to heavy early and absentee voting in Idaho. Final results are still nowhere in sight, which is particularly important in tight races like the one for Idaho’s 1st District congressional seat. Ysursa said, “I’m going to go home for a bit, then come back. This is totally what we anticipated as far as late results.” He’s hoping for final results by 9 a.m. “The turnout may go beyond our wildest expectations,” he said. “To me, the process works. I think it’s good for our democracy and our system to see this kind of voter interest.”

Larry LaRocco has taken the stage and conceded the U.S. Senate race to Republican Jim Risch. “We’re too far behind right now, I’m a realist,” he told supporters at the Idaho Democratic Party election night party at the Hilton Garden Inn in Boise. “We just can’t catch up tonight.” LaRocco noted that he worked shifts at more than 35 jobs around the state as part of his campaign, to reach out to Idahoans at their workplaces. “I think it was a great journey to be there with the working families every day,” he said. “We dignified their work, we honored their work.”

With 48 percent of the vote counted, Risch led with 57 percent to 34 percent for LaRocco; independent Rex Rammell had 6 percent; and Libertarian Kent Marmon and independent Pro-Life trailed with 1 percent apiece.