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Posts published in “Day: February 15, 2009”

Stimulus, health, etc., and Wyden

February 15, 2009
Ron Wyden

Ron Wyden at McMinnville/Randy Stapilus

We've attended a number of the town hall meetings over the years by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, and today's in McMinnville (number 498; his 500th is Tuesday in Fossil) seemed the most focused of those, on the part of the audience. It may even have been a fair representation, since somewhere over 100 people showed up, more than the norm.

Held in the city's utilitarian new police building, this was a policy session, pretty wonkish, and pretty non-ideological. Economic and stimulus questions dominated, health came in a strong second, with a smattering of remaining questions (during the 90 minutes or so) covering energy, transportation, immigration and secrecy/security issues.

That health care, as policy, was as prominent as it was should be an indicator, because it's not been on recent media radar. Wyden, naturally, was happy to address it, since he's just reintroduced the Healthy Americans Act he's been working on for some years. He sounded optimistic that major developments in health policy will make their way through this year, and said that President Barack Obama has in mind a major passage before the year is out. His own bill, he suggested, seems poised for Senate passage not with a narrow majority, but with as many as 70 to 75 votes.

(He also answered a question no one asked: He will not leave the Senate to take a job as secretary of Health & Human Services. After all the headlines about that possibility, the people in the audience were less concerned about that possibility than about, well, health care.) (more…)

Paperless Mondays at Idaho Falls

February 15, 2009

Beginning in March, the Post Register daily newspaper will not publish any more on Mondays. The reason is cost-saving: Evidently, to judge from Publisher Roger Plothow's piece today on the change (behind a pay wall), it was that or lay off employees. And since the paper will be continuing to update its website on Mondays, that seems the rational choice.

He points out that the Post-Register was a six-day paper - no Saturday publication - until 1996. Might be interesting to know (Plothow doesn't say) why the ax fell on the Monday, rather than the Saturday, edition. At a guess: The ad picture penciled out better than way.

Cross-border polygamy

February 15, 2009
Boundary County area

Boundary County area

The Spokane Spokesman-Review has out today a solid piece - and evidently just one of several to come - on polygamy in the Bonners Ferry, Idaho/Creston, British Columbia area, bringing a lot more detail and clarity to a long-running development that has been in the shadows for years.

The polygamous community - a Mormon splinter faction, not part of the main church - in the area is not new, and neither is public knowledge of it; the great 2003 book Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer made reference to it. But details were few and scattered, and only in the last year or so has the scene there started to come fully into focus.

One semi-surprise: The community is not wholly on the northern side of the international line, as had seemed to be the case. The Spokesman reports that "The move into North Idaho by FLDS [Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints] members began in 2003 after a leadership split in the Canadian community. By conservative estimates, there are at least a half-dozen polygamous families – about 100 men, women and children – living in Boundary County, even though polygamy is banned by the Idaho Constitution. One ex-member says the number in Boundary County could approach 300."

For some years, Canadian officials had done little about prosecuting the group. But recent media reports about it - notably from Daphne Bramham, a columnist at the Vancouver Sun - seem to have prompted action in the cases of child abuse and the practice of marrying off very young girls. (There does seem to be some question of whether polygamy as such might be constitutionally protected in Canada.)

Idaho long has had, of course, strict anti-polygamy laws. As the news reports about developments in Boundary County start to circulate, will that lead to more crackdowns on the southern side of the international line?