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Posts published in August 2014

On the front pages

August 27, 2014
news

Here’s what public affairs news made the front page of newspapers in the Northwest today, excluding local crime, features and sports stories. (Newspaper names contracted with location)

West Ada defeats school bond proposal (Boise Statesman)
Kuna school trustee survives recall vote (Boise Statesman, Nampa Press Tribune)
Boise police unveil military equipment (Boise Statesman)
IF police want to expand the force (IF Post Register)
School levy fails in Teton County (IF Post Register)
Iona ends try to force subdivision annexation (IF Post Register)
Lapwai levy proposal rejected (Lewiston Tribune)
State won't release name of tax break applicant (Lewiston Tribune)
Viola working on new community center (Moscow News)
Demographics report shows city growth (Nampa Press Tribune)
Labrador talks at town hall (Nampa Press Tribune)
Train derailment at Blackfoot (Pocatello Journal)
Wendell again turns down school bond (TF Times News)
Police defend military surplus program (TF Times News)
Twin Falls area battling black fly invasion (TF Times News)

Group formed to support parking districts (Corvallis Gazette)
UO blasted in response to verbal set-to (Eugene Register Guard)
Car remains, still, in McKenzie River (Eugene Register Guard)
Irrigators see tight water supply (KF Herald & News)
Medford council candidates talk pot (Medford Tribune)
Watchers checking out new black wolf in area (Medford Tribune)
Med Columbia Bus Co looks for more drivers (Pendleton E Oregonian)
Biologists consider new collar for OR-7 (Pendleton E Oregonian)
Looking at how gentrification happens (Portland Oregonian)
Reviewing the Oregon v Oracle battle (Salem Statesman Journal)

Building found for Silverdale library (Bremerton Sun)
Homeless nonprofit slated for Belfair (Bremerton Sun)
How much psychiatric board happens in WA? (Kennewick Herald)
Inslee looks until Roza irrigation project (Yakima Herald Republic, Kennwick Herald)
Longview resident complaint of bad water, again (Longview News)
Final piece of Elwha River dam gone (Port Angeles News)
Weyerhaeuser sells Federal Way, moves to Seattle (Seattle Times, Tacoma News Tribune)
AG urges court not to hold legislature in contempt (Spokane Spokesman)
High Times says pot shop infringed trademark (Spokane Spokesman)
Tacoma cops have been hoovering call phone data (Tacoma News Tribune)
Port labor group okays grain shipping deal (Vancouver Columbian)
Train official assert oil shipment safety (Vancouver Columbian)
Yakima dismisses candidate for county clerk (Yakima Herald Republic)

On the front pages

August 26, 2014
news

Here’s what public affairs news made the front page of newspapers in the Northwest today, excluding local crime, features and sports stories. (Newspaper names contracted with location)

Scalia touts SRBA signing (Boise Statesman, Lewiston Tribune)
Growing student cohort in West Ada (Boise Statesman)
Lewiston increases property taxes 3.25% (Lewiston Tribune)
Moscow considers single-stream recycling (Moscow News)
Canyon has low pay in law enforcement (Nampa Press Tribune)
CWI closing in on accreditation (Nampa Press Tribune)
Caldwell may build new fire station (Nampa Press Tribune)
Pocatello reports wettest August since 1968 (Pocatello Journal)
Ahead to new water management issues (TF Times News)
Women outvoting men in Idaho (TF Times News)

Oregon State Bend campus has budget issues (Corvallis Gazette)
More detail about Eugene Whole Foods store (Eugene Register Guard)
Springfield celebrates Simpsons connection (Eugene Register Guard)
Bond, tuition rise possible at Klamath college (KF Herald & News)
Amy's kitchen manufacturer growing at White City (Medford Tribune)
Walden urges new Blue Mountain forest map (Pendleton E Oregonian)
Hermiston looks at natural gas utility (Pendleton E Oregonian)

Bremerton looks at roadway bike boxes (Bremerton Sun)
Trails at Silverton retail center work starts (Bremerton Sun)
Study on pot praises WA slow rollout (Spokane Spokesman, Tacoma News Tribune, Vancouver Columbian, Yakima Herald Republic, Kennewick Herald, Longview News)
New takes on Kennewick Man (Yakima Herald Republic, Kennewick Herald)
More harassment suits at Clatskanie PUD (Longview News)
Clallam County divided on pot regulations (Port Angeles News)
Amazon in Europe - and Luxembourg (Seattle Times)
Costs in insurance exchanges fixes (Spokane Spokesman)
Karen Stratton named to Spokane council (Spokane Spokesman)

On supporting higher education

August 25, 2014
malloy CHUCK
MALLOY
 
In Idaho

I am a University of Idaho alum who enjoys following Boise State sports. My golf clubs have “Vandal” headcovers and occasionally I’ll wear a “Bronco” shirt on the course – just to mess with people’s minds and give myself a mental edge. Of course, when I hit a series of errant shots and missed putts, the edge is gone and I become this crazy old guy with a Bronco shirt and Vandal headcovers.

The point I try to make is there is no rivalry. The football rivalry was cooking pretty well for three decades, but ended when Boise State decided to go big time. So, let’s realize that Idaho needs both schools – the land grant university in Moscow and the urban-based university in Boise – to go anywhere with higher education. Idaho also needs strong systems at Idaho State and Lewis-Clark State College to provide higher education opportunities to Idahoans.

As Mike Rush, the executive director of the State Board of Education, tells me – and he’s absolutely correct – we need more opportunities for higher education, not fewer. A strong higher education system is crucial for pulling Idaho out of the dumps in terms of wages.

Now, if Rush can only convince the politicians. Higher education should be a bellwether issue in political campaigns, but it isn’t. Candidates for state offices will talk plenty about the public schools, because Idaho has a constitutional requirement to provide a public education for children. But there is no such requirement for higher education.

“That, combined with the fact that higher education has other sources of funding, has made higher education across the nation a tempting target for balancing the budget,” Rush said.

The decrease in state support for higher education has caused sharp increases in fee and tuition costs. And while higher education is still a bargain in Idaho, compared to other states, it has priced many Idahoans out of the market – to the detriment of the economy.

“We can’t keep going in this direction,” Rush said. “If we keep withdrawing support, our higher education system simply will not be able to deliver the punch that we need to drive our economy for the next 30 years.”

Rush says numerous studies about the relationship between post-secondary education and economic prosperity are clear. “You’ve got to get more people with post-secondary experience,” he said. “That may be a four-year degree, or that may be a two-year degree. Or, maybe it’s an industry certificate that proves additional and specific skills.”

The bottom line is more years of a post-secondary education equal higher salaries. The quality of a higher education system so often is a make-it, or break-it factor for providing businesses and industries that pay higher salaries. Boise State, for example, has upgraded its computer science offerings at the request of high-tech industries. The College of Southern Idaho played an instrumental role in providing a workforce for the Chobani Yogurt Factory in Twin Falls.

Community colleges are designed to provide a relatively quick source of training while higher education focuses more on the long-term needs. “I think higher education gets it, although it can always be better,” Rush said.

Working four years as communications adviser with Idaho House Republicans, I did not sense an appreciation of the value for higher education. Some of the questions I heard asked: Why do we need three universities and, especially, a four-year school in Lewiston? Why do we need four presidents and four layers of administration? Could the state save money by closing down one or two universities? (more…)

On the front pages

August 25, 2014
news

Here’s what public affairs news made the front page of newspapers in the Northwest today, excluding local crime, features and sports stories. (Newspaper names contracted with location)

Mental health plan payments in disarray (Boise Statesman)
Plans for a Sportsplex Idaho at Meridian (Boise Statesman)
Memorial for former Girtman hospital exec (Moscow News)
Man sentenced to 7th DUI (Nampa Press Tribune)
Legislators reviewing land endowment (Nampa Press Tribune)
Preparing for re-enrollment in Obamacare (TF Times News)
Students will take Common Core test (TF Times News)

Profiling new Benton Co elections chief (Corvallis Gazette)
OU research on genetics and health (Eugene Register Guard)
Dispute over police shooting in Medford (Medford Tribune)
Plans for tiny houses for homeless people (Portland Oregonian)
Salem downtown parking free but scarce (Salem Statesman Journal)

Port Orchard pot shop starting slow (Bremerton Sun)
Small tracts can be forest for tax purposes (Bremerton Sun)
Snohomish has lowest voter turnout in state (Everett Herald)
Some schools tagged as failing (Everett Herald)
Medical pot grown on Olymic peninsula (Port Angeles News)
To save a river-bank chalet, using mules (Port Angeles News)
Amazon confronts Europe, part 2 (Seattle Times)
Driscoll of Mars Hill takes leave (Seattle Times, Spokane Spokesman)
Spokane area farmers launch e-cooperative (Spokane Spokesman)
Tacomans consider zoned booze ban (Tacoma News Tribune)
Homeless ordered to leave Share site (Vancouver Columbian)
Some Yakima basin waters are overheated (Yakima Herald Republic)

Scars of peaceful demonstrations

August 24, 2014
rainey BARRETT
RAINEY
 
Second
Thoughts

One of the fastest places in the world to quickly learn new life skills is in the middle of a large street demonstration or riot. Pure fact from someone who’s “been there, done that.” Watching the news out of Ferguson, Missouri, brings it all back.

It’s also recreated that eerie feeling of being lost in the crowd - finding yourself unable to control your own direction of motion - scared - trying to get your bearings. And the smells. Lots and lots of unforgettable smells.

There are really just two kinds of street demonstrations. One is focused, calm, centered, deliberate. Peaceful. Several of those I experienced as a reporter at anti-war gatherings of several hundred thousand in Washington D.C., in the late ‘60's - early ‘70's. Except for twice being ridden to the ground by mounted National Park Service cops, those gatherings fit that description.

The other type was brought sharply watching events in Ferguson. Crowded - scared - charging cops - tear gas - arrests - walking wounded - strangers trying to help strangers. I got into several of those, especially around the DuPont Circle area of D.C. As in Ferguson, cops could get aggressive and out-of-hand.

All those years ago, media people in D.C. were issued I.D. badges to be worn on a chain around the neck - about the size of a postcard, orange and black with our pictures in the middle. Supposed to keep us safe and free from arrest as opposed to media experiences in Ferguson - where they also have “credentials.” Except they were actually used by cops to target the media with tear gas canisters and to get you arrested, hauled off to busses and taken to RFK Stadium for processing. At that time - and maybe even now - wearing your name tag simply meant this was your first street riot. We been-there-before guys kept them in our pockets.

One of the best descriptions of feelings in a riot situation with thousands of people, tear gas, cops, police dogs and panic is “alone in a crowd.” From the second it starts, people have a cattle-like urge to run some direction. If you came with a friend, most likely you are quickly separated. You find yourself breathing gas, feeling your skin burn, choking, eyes running and that terrible taste in your mouth before you can cover your face. You are instantly disoriented. One experience like that will NOT be forgotten. Nor the sights and sound. And that smell.

I’m sure many of the unarmed demonstrators in Ferguson would attest to these descriptions. The intervening 44 years or so between my experiences and theirs haven’t brought much change. People - mostly honest folk feeling deeply about a grievance - still take to the streets. The herd-like stampede can still start at any second for any reason. Cops are still armed - though better now and able to wound or kill more people more quickly. No amount of intervening time has made the effects of tear gas any less painful. (more…)

On the front pages

August 24, 2014
news

Here’s what public affairs news made the front page of newspapers in the Northwest today, excluding local crime, features and sports stories. (Newspaper names contracted with location)

Snake River Adjudication comes to completion (Boise Statesman, IF Post Register, Lewiston Tribune)
Many Priest lake lessees walk away (Boise Statesman)
Concerns about polling places in school election (Boise Statesman)
IF police violated high-speed chase police (IF Post Register)
School elections just ahead (Nampa Press Tribune)
Idaho behind with post-secondary grads (Nampa Press Tribune)
Canyon animal shelter holds town hall (Nampa Press Tribune)
Grizzly bears returning in Yellowstone (Pocatello Journal)
Heavy nitrate deposits in Magic Valley ground (TF Times News)
Probation and court fees hit poor harder (TF Times News)

Reviewing Lane County's miltary-based equipment (Eugene Register Guard)
Klamath Tribes review 30 years of recognition (KF Herald & News)
What should Medford do if pot initiative passes? (Medford Tribune)
A possible initiative issues: pot and teens (Portland Oregonian)
Rare Rubens painting coming to Salem (Salem Statesman Journal)

Silverdale gets new theatre (Bremerton Sun)
Oso residents getting payment for damage (Everett Herald)
State's Cowlitz water usage plans under debate (Longview News)
Drug court analysis shows successes (Port Angeles News)
Port Angeles downtown business, city at odds (Port Angeles News)
Reviewing Amazon's relationship with Europe (Seattle Times)
Gas prices in WA high despite cheap oil (Seattle Times)
State goes after Stevens County wolves (Spokane Spokesman)
What are results of police shooting inquiries? (Tacoma News Tribune)
Many McNeil Island sex offenders stay at Pierce (Tacoma News Tribune)
New HQ planned for Clark sheriff's office (Vancouver Columbian)

An adjudicated peace

August 23, 2014
idaho RANDY
STAPILUS
 
Idaho

Thirty years ago Idaho was locked in a political civil war. The stakes could not have been higher: Water, and who got to control Idaho's.

I remember the politics of that season, when what mattered was less budget and taxes, or even whether you were a Republican or Democrat. The big deal was about whether you were for or against subordination.

This now obscure debate, which had to do with the water rights held by Idaho Power Company, is still pertinent. It is so much so that it can be said to be drawing to a conclusion, for the time being at least, only this month, with the August 25 celebration of the conclusion of the Snake River Basin Adjudication. The SRBA is the massive yet surgically precise instrument by which that battle over a few specific water rights got hammered into shape, through the settling of everybody's.

For many decades, the water flowing down the Snake River has been heavily used. Much of it has been used by irrigators, and Idaho Power Company long has had hydropower rights which entail not diversion of water from the river but rather an assurance that a certain amount will flow down the river past its various dams, especially the oldest, Swan Falls, south of Boise. This could conflict with the water used by irrigators and others, but most people in Idaho thought that Idaho Power had long ago given up its first-in-time priority so that irrigators had first call on it. A 1982 Idaho Supreme Court decision on the rights at Swan Falls said that in fact Idaho Power had the senior rights. Soon after, Idaho Power sued about 7,500 farm water users, demanding they quit using water Idaho Power claimed to power its dams. The war was on.

As everyone quickly realized, there was no sensible winner-take-all answer to this. If Idaho Power prevailed absolutely (as it mostly did in the short run), massive reaches of Idaho agriculture, and large chunks of Idaho's economy, could be ruined. But Idaho Power couldn't simply give in, either; it had responsibilities to stockholders, and a need to supply the state with cheap power. A wrecked Idaho Power was not in the state's interest either.

Still, Idahoans swiftly picked sides. A majority seemed to favor “subordination” - that is, a legal determination that Idaho Power's rights would be secondary to those of many of the irrigators.
But Idaho Power had its defenders, too, and long-standing deep political clout in the state. The state's politicians in both parties were deeply split. Attorney General Jim Jones, one of the leading subordinationists, recruited Republican primary election challengers to several of the key pro-Idaho Power legislators, and knocked out a couple of them. (more…)

On the front pages

August 23, 2014
news

Here’s what public affairs news made the front page of newspapers in the Northwest today, excluding local crime, features and sports stories. (Newspaper names contracted with location)

Boise, ACHD bike lane battle continues (Boise Statesman)
Travelers with pot taking risks in Idaho (Boise Statesman)
August was rainy in eastern Idaho (IF Post Register)
Video cams in Pullman cut down crime (Lewiston Tribune)
Pullman classrooms packed full (Moscow News)
McMorris Rodgers on minimum wage debate (Moscow News)
Library square tenants expressing interest (Nampa Press Tribune)
Wheat and barley hit hard by rains (Pocatello Journal)
Pocatello's south valley connector edges ahead (Pocatello Journal)

Debate over drone at Springfield fire (Eugene Register Guard)
Medford considers gifted tract for new school (Medford Tribune)
Deer virus may be spreading (Medford Tribune)
Oregon files suit against Oracle (Portland Oregoian, Salem Statesman Journal, Pendleton E Oregonian)
Pendleton grain growers close at Hermiston (Pendleton E Oregonian)
Next state park set north of Pacific City (Salem Statesman Journal)

Bremerton chief urges no early AM malt liquor sales (Bremerton Sun)
First Kitsap pot shop set for opening (Bremerton Sun)
More oil and coal trains called 'crisis' (Everett Herald)
Ferry conditions create worries (Everett Herald, Kitsap Sun)
Yakima ordered to re-organize city elections (Yakima Herald Republic, Longview News)
State looks for places for mentally ill (Seattle Times, Tacoma News Tribune, Olympian)
Methow Valley hit hard by flash floods (Seattle Times, Vancouver Columbian)
Seattle zoo's African elephat dies (Seattle Times)
Fred Mayer may worsen Gig Harbor traffic (Tacoma News Tribune)
Oil transfer project could have $2b effect (Vancouver Columbian)
Another wildfire in Yakima valley (Yakima Herald Republic)

The other kind of military equipment

August 22, 2014

clearwatercoveh

ridenbaugh Northwest
Reading

Last week we listed the county breakdown of recipients of surplus equipment from the Department of Defense - much of which, in widespread complaint, has contributed to a militarization of police forces around the country.

Not all of that equipment, however, has such daunting or military-style uses, and a good deal of what's included in various categories - such as armored vehicles - is more everyday than the category name might suggest. Chris Goetz, sheriff at Clearwater County in Idaho, wrote in to describe how the DOD equipment his small county has received is being used there.

After reading this week's Idaho Weekly Briefing I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the article about the militarization of local law enforcement.

The recent events in Ferguson Missouri has put a spotlight on only one part of the program that allows local law enforcement to receive equipment from the federal government. I would like to start with the items specifically list on the NY Times map.

For Clearwater County, Idaho it shows that we received two armored vehicles and four assault rifles. So the first question would be why would Clearwater County need two armored vehicles?

The answer is that the two vehicles that they are talking about are not armored at all. They are two humvees (picture attached) with vinyl doors and a vinyl top which has a hard time keeping a hard rain out let alone bullets. We requested and received these vehicles for use during search and rescue operations. Flooding, landslides and wildfires are thing that we have to deal with at some level every year and these vehicles are a great asset during these events due to the ability to cross small land slides and cross flooded areas that normal vehicles can not handle.

The next question would be, why not use the National Guard during these emergencies? We have tried to use them in the past and it is extremely difficult and expensive to use the National Guard and usually not the best use of resources. Obviously when there is an event like Katrina in New Orleans the event is to large for any local agency to handle and outside resources are needed but when the event is small enough to be handled by local and neighboring agencies why not allow us to have the resources to take care of the event. Because these humvees are not armored the military decided that they no longer had a use for them but they have been a great benefit to us. (more…)