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Meet the candidates - 1st District Congress

Freshman U.S. Rep. Bill Sali of Idaho�s 1st Congressional District faces a challenge in this year�s Republican primary from a 35-year-old Iraq war veteran and party activist, Matt Salisbury of Nampa. The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat Walt Minnick in November. Minnick�s primary opponent, Larry Grant, dropped out of the race last month and endorsed Minnick, leaving Minnick uncontested in the Democratic primary for the seat that represents North Idaho. Below is a look at the two choices on the Republican ticket, the incumbent and the challenger; the Idaho primary election is May 27th. ( Full post )

Meet the candidates � Idaho Senate race

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig�s retirement has prompted something of a ballot rush, with eight Republicans, two Democrats, two independents and a Libertarian vying for the chance to replace Craig in the U.S. Senate. ( Full post )

DEQ sends detailed letter to Minnick re sand

Democratic congressional candidate Walt Minnick asked Idaho�s DEQ director, Toni Hardesty, a series of questions about the contaminated Kuwaiti sand that�s bound for a hazardous waste dump 70 miles southeast of Boise, and received back a detailed three-page letter addressing each of his questions. �Like most people, when Walt heard the news, he had a few questions about the entire process, and so we submitted a private letter to Ms. Hardesty directly,� said Minnick�s campaign spokesman, John Foster. �And she gave us what I think is a very good response to those questions.� ( Full post )

Wasden: Facebook to target predators

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden today announced an agreement between Facebook and Idaho, along with 48 other states and the District of Columbia, to provide new safeguards to protect children on the popular social networking site from sexual predators and inappropriate content. �I look forward to working with Facebook on developing industry-wide practices to ensure a safe online environment for children,� Wasden said, adding that the agreement � similar to one reached earlier with MySpace � will result in �deterring and prosecuting criminals who misuse the Internet to prey upon children.� Click below to read Wasden�s full press release. ( Full post )

Crapo: Owyhee Initiative clears committee

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo�s Owyhee Initiative, a collaborative wilderness bill that both creates new wilderness and releases land from wilderness consideration, has cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Crapo reported that the bill, S. 2833, passed on a voice vote and likely will be included in a package of other land management bills that will be considered together by the full Senate as early as next month. �The Owyhee Initiative has made great progress here in the Senate, just as it has on the ground in Idaho, but we still have much to accomplish,� Crapo said. �We continue to work hard to secure the necessary funding to implement the language in the Initiative, and we must prepare to implement the agreements in the legislation once they become law.� ( Full post )

Idaho GOP disses Minnick gas sale; 350 motorists save

The Idaho Republican Party has issued a press release criticizing Democratic congressional candidate Walt Minnick�s campaign event today, at which Minnick made up the difference to allow motorists to buy gas at a Boise Chevron station for $2.26 a gallon, instead of the posted $3.59. �This was a clever way to generate publicity for his campaign, but it does nothing to bring down the price of gas,� said GOP Executive Director Sid Smith. �Republicans in Congress, including Idaho�s Congressional delegation, have been working for real, comprehensive solutions to address the root of our energy problems.� Smith said that should include increasing oil supplies through domestic drilling and more refineries; click below to read the full GOP press release. ( Full post )

LaRocco asks Otter, Risch to block waste

Democratic Senate candidate Larry LaRocco delivered letters to Gov. Butch Otter and Lt. Gov. Jim Risch yesterday asking them to stop a huge shipment of uranium- and lead-contaminated sand from Kuwait from coming to Idaho, for disposal at a hazardous waste dump 70 miles southeast of Boise. �Accepting this waste in the United States is poor public policy and environmentally unsound for Idaho,� LaRocco wrote. �Let�s not turn Idaho into the world�s dump.� He cited opposition from past Govs. Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt to bringing hazardous materials into the state. �Let�s stop this now,� LaRocco wrote. �It�s time for sound public policy to trump powerful special interests that hold sway over Idaho.� ( Full post )

Sali: Blame 'radical environmentalists' for gas prices

In response to Democratic challenger Walt Minnick�s wildly popular discount-gas campaign event today, GOP Rep. Bill Sali�s spokesman, Wayne Hoffman, said, �It sounds to me as if he (Minnick) has signed on to the same energy policy Democrats have adopted, which has resulted in the high gas prices we�re experiencing.� Minnick had criticized Sali for voting against three bills this year that Minnick said offered �real solutions� to the problem, including HR 6, which Minnick said �ended the egregious, lavish tax breaks heaped on �big oil.�� Hoffman disagreed. �If you read those bills, there are billions of dollars in new taxes contained in the legislation, taxes on energy producers. That�s not going to lower gas prices,� he said. Hoffman said, �Radical environmentalists and left-wing Democrats are directly responsible for the high gas prices we are experiencing today.� ( Full post )

Motorists line up for lower-priced gas from candidate

Cars started lining up at 8:30 this morning for what may be the most popular stunt of the campaign season: Congressional candidate Walt Minnick�s $2.26-a-gallon gas sale. From 10 to 11 a.m. Boise time, Minnick made up the difference between the sale price of $2.26 and the posted price of $3.59 at a Boise gas station. Minnick, a Democrat, timed his event to coincide with incumbent GOP Rep. Bill Sali�s $1,000-a-plate �oil and gas industry luncheon� fundraiser in Washington, D.C. at the Hunan Dynasty restaurant (the luncheon was $250 for individuals, $1,000 for PACs). �For one hour today, while I�m talking to Idahoans about the high cost of gasoline, Bill Sali will sit down to lunch at a fundraiser and ask for money from oil lobbyists,� Minnick declared. �In 18 months he�s become a true Washington insider. What Idaho needs is a new approach and some simple fairness.� ( Full post )

Idaho to get uranium plant

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig joined officials from the French company Areva today to announce that the firm has chosen eastern Idaho as the location for its next uranium enrichment plant. Craig called Areva �a world-class nuclear company,� and said, �It is a phenomenal opportunity for Idaho to play host to and partner with the potential that this company brings to the state.� Idaho lawmakers this year scrambled to enact big tax incentives designed to woo the firm, which also was considering Washington, Ohio, Texas and New Mexico for the $2 billion uranium enrichment plant, the first the company will build in the United States. The company expects to begin construction by 2011. ( Full post )

Lawyers rate justice candidates

Lawyers and judges across Idaho rated the two competing candidates for the Idaho Supreme Court on everything from integrity to legal ability, and incumbent Justice Joel Horton outscored challenger Judge John Bradbury of Lewiston in every category. This is the first time the Idaho State Bar has conducted such a survey in a Supreme Court race. It's an effort to inform voters in a race where the candidates can't take positions on any issues that might come before the court. You can read my full story here at spokesmanreview.com, and click here to see the full survey results. ( Full post )

Break-in at LaRocco campaign headquarters

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Larry LaRocco�s campaign headquarters in Boise was broken into over the weekend, but apparently nothing was stolen. The campaign reported that Boise Police are investigating the break-in, which occurred mid-day, just past noon on Saturday. �We will not know whether this was a politically motivated break-in or just a random act of senseless violence until the Boise police conclude their investigation,� said Bob Stout, campaign manager. �We would like to thank the police for their prompt and professional work.� The break-in caused $200 in damage to the office�s front door and frame. The campaign office is the only office in the building, which is festooned with LaRocco for Senate campaign signs. ( Full post )

Why Risch declined

In a letter to the organizers of the �Idaho Debates,� Lt. Gov. Jim Risch�s campaign spokesman, his son Jason, wrote, �We chose to participate in the KTVB debate rather than the League of Women Voters debate because of its format, and because of its wide circulation to Idaho voters. Your format and rules said that the �format is fluid� and that �cross talk� would be permitted. Our experience in that regard has been that the format you chose frequently deteriorates into a negative exchange between the candidates, which is unhelpful and unappreciated by the viewers.� You can read the full letter here. ( Full post )

Risch to skip public TV debate - again

Two years ago, Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch demanded that he be able to appear alone on the �Idaho Debates,� sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Idaho Press Club and Idaho Public Television, answer questions, and then leave the studio before his opponent appeared. When the debate sponsors refused, Risch skipped the traditional debate and appeared only on one sponsored by a Boise TV station with a more controlled format. Now, he�s doing the same in his run for the U.S. Senate. The crowded GOP primary race is scheduled to be featured on the Idaho Debates on May 22; it�ll go on without Risch. ( Full post )

Could this be Idaho's future?

Idaho has long been one of just a handful of states with no official governor�s residence, though the state now has the donated Simplot house atop a distinctive green hilltop in Boise, which is scheduled to become an official governor�s mansion after a major, not-yet-started remodel. But Idaho�s mansion-free status in recent decades has kept it free of what Nevada�s experiencing right now � a divorce fight in which the governor has moved out of the mansion, the First Lady still lives there, and he�s filed for divorce and to try to get the courts to order her out of the official mansion in Carson City. Really. It�s in the New York Times. ( Full post )

They lobby, too...

Incidentally, American Ecology Corp., the company bringing the contaminated sand from Kuwait to Idaho, also employs a prominent Boise lobbyist to represent the firm in the Idaho Legislature, Roy Eiguren. ( Full post )

Dump site operator gave to Idaho politicians

American Ecology Corp., operator of the hazardous waste dump 70 miles southeast of Boise that�s about to get 6,700 tons of uranium- and lead-contaminated sand from Kuwait, has been a generous donor to Idaho politicians� campaigns. Most recently, the firm�s PAC, AEC PAC, gave $2,300 to Idaho Republican Jim Risch�s U.S. Senate campaign and $500 to the re-election campaign of state House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star. Both those contributions were in November. Since 2002, AEC PAC has donated $3,000 to Sen. Larry Craig; $4,500 to Sen. Mike Crapo, $1,750 to U.S. Rep. Bill Sali; and $3,000 to U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, all Republicans. The PAC also gave $1,000 to Risch�s lieutenant governor campaign in 2006; $5,000 to Gov. Butch Otter�s gubernatorial campaign in 2005; $3,100 to Otter�s congressional campaigns from 2002 to 2004; and contributions to an array of state legislative candidates from both parties. ( Full post )

We're so entrepreneurial

A major annual study of �entrepreneurial activity rates� has Idaho tied for first place as the most entrepreneurial state in the nation. Idaho shares the top honors with the District of Columbia and Arizona, and is followed by second-ranked Tennessee and Louisiana. Ranking the lowest were West Virginia, Alabama, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The index measures the percentage of the adult population that created a new business each month, and was developed by Robert Fairlie, a professor of economics and the director of the master�s program in applied economics and finance at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Known as the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, it�s been calculated each year since 1996 and includes extensive demographic research about who tends to start new businesses and who doesn�t. You can read the full report here.
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Comments sought on wolf hunt

The Idaho Department of Fish & Game is seeking public comments through May 16th on its proposed 2008 wolf hunting season. The gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains was removed from the endangered species list in March. �Fish and Game recommendations call for a total mortality quota of 328 wolves in 2008, which includes all reported wolf kills � from natural causes, accidents, wolf predation control actions and hunter kills,� the department said in a press release. �Reaching the quota would result in an estimated end-of-year population of 550-600 wolves. When the statewide quota is reached, all hunting would stop. When quotas in individual zones are reached, hunting in those zones would stop.� ( Full post )

Toxic sand from across the world

How is it that 6,700 tons of sand contaminated with depleted uranium and lead � 80 rail cars worth � is coming all the way from Kuwait to Idaho, destined for a hazardous waste dump 70 miles southeast of Boise? The AP reports that American Ecology Corp., operator of the dump, has previously disposed of low-level radioactive waste and hazardous materials from U.S. military bases overseas at facilities in Idaho, Nevada and Texas, according to American Ecology spokesman Chad Hyslop, who is based in Boise.
�As you can imagine, the host countries of those bases don't want the waste in their country,� Hyslop told the AP. The sand is coming from Camp Doha, a U.S. Army base in Kuwait, where it was contaminated after military vehicles and munitions caught fire during the first Iraq war. Click below to read the full AP story by reporter Jessie Bonner.
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