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Posts published in July 2018

Idaho Weekly Briefing – July 16

July 15, 2018

This is a summary of a few items in the Idaho Weekly Briefing for July 9. Interested in subscribing? Send us a note at stapilus@ridenbaugh.com.

The summer quiet continues. A few wildfires flare up from time to time, but they’re small; the state revenue and budget picture wound up on track; and wild animal stories proliferate.

Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter and State Controller Brandon Woolf on July 13 said that continuing strong economic growth enabled the State of Idaho to end fiscal 2018 with $100.7 million more tax revenue than anticipated despite June collections that were $19.3 million less than forecast.

Senator Mike Crapo, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired the hearing for Ryan Nelson, an attorney from Idaho Falls and sixth-generation Idahoan, who has been nominated by President Trump to serve as a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In comments about Nelson, to his Senate colleagues, Crapo highlighted Nelson’s legal experience.

Lieutenant Governor Brad Little traveled to Washington D.C. on July 12 to testify before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on the subject of grazing on federal lands.

The city of Twin Falls is seeking volunteers to fill seven at-large openings on a citizen advisory committee that will explore the feasibility of remodeling or building four fire stations in our community. Residents living within the city limits are encouraged to apply for the ad hoc committee.

Search warrants served on several businesses in the Coeur d'Alene area suspected of trafficking in unlawful alcohol beverages.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has approved the sale of Falls Water Company to NW Natural Water Company, LLC. Falls Water serves approximately 5,500 customers in Bonneville County.

IMAGE The Eli M. Oboler Library at Idaho State University is displaying an exhibit of photography by ISU biology Professor Chuck Peterson titled “Snakes of Idaho” that will be on display through Sept. 28 in the library’s first floor art exhibit area. Peterson's research interests include the ecology and conservation biology of amphibians and reptiles. Much of his work has focused on reptile populations on Idaho's Snake River Plain and on amphibian populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Peterson received the Outstanding Herpetologist award from the Idaho Herpetological Society in 1997. This image is of a groundsnake. (photo/Idaho State University, by Peterson)

Cars, but not trucks

July 14, 2018

frazier

Ada County Highway District Commishes voted Wednesday 3-2 in favor of placing an open ended fee hike proposal on the November ballot which exempts vehicles over 8,000 lbs. from ANY local fees while placing the entire burden on automobile owners.

Commishes Jim Hansen and Kent Goldthorp opposed the measure while Sara Baker, Rebecca Arnold and Paul Woods voted in favor despite hearing repeated testimony from citizens seeking either a two year “sunset” limit or simply not passing the unequal fee hike at all.

The measure seeks to raise Ada County’s maximum vehicle registration fee from $40 to $70.

Ada County State Rep. John Gannon appeared to present his draft legislation and seek some sort of agreement to keep from placing the financial burden on the hood of auto owners and not share it with vehicles in excess of 8,000 lbs. In a letter to the commissioners, Gannon had suggested fees on commercial trucks be 10% of the state fee or capped at $70.

There were several pleas among folks seeking to distribute any fee hikes among safe routes, bicycles, and public transit. Most citizens acknowledged the issue of crowded streets is the product of state and local government-encouraged growth and not the fault of ACHD.

Look for a major battle in coming months between advocates and opponents of growth over this one.

Uneven distributions

July 13, 2018

stapiluslogo1

The latest data dump on population estimates running up through 2017 from the U.S. Census office offers, as usual, some numbers worth considering.

Two items in the latest round of Idaho statistics - you can see them at lmi.idaho.gov/census - seem especially worth pondering.

One of them is a chart showing the growth in Idaho population by raw numbers from 1969 through 2017 - broken out by county.

The differences are dramatic. Ada County had just over 100,000 people in 1969, and more than 450,000 now, a quadrupling of residents, which means the blue line on the chart zooms upward at better than a 45 degree angle. The growth in Ada in that time has been spectacular. The Census also reports the change in how much each county accounts for a percentage of the state’s population overall. Ada’s went from 15.6 percent in 1969 to 26.6 percent in 2017.

Below that on the county chart, a salmon line representing Canyon County rose about half as fast, from around 60,000 people to more than 220,000 - more than tripling. Kootenai County, which had about 35,000 people in 1969 - fewer than Twin Falls County - now has more than four times as many as it did back then. (For all the significant growth over the years in Twin Falls, that county now has about half as many people as Kootenai.) And Bonneville County has, in the last half-century, doubled its population.

But if you then look at the rest of Idaho’s counties, 38 or 39 of them, you see them all bunched together in something close to a straight line - almost no population change at all in 50 years. All that massive growth you’ve heard about in Idaho has happened in the space of only a few hundred square miles, a tiny sliver of the state.

We can parse this growth, in greater and lesser amounts, in lots of other ways too. One of them is by age.

While Idaho’s population has been growing overall different age groups have been growing at different paces. The state Department of Labor summarizes a piece of this:

“The number of Idaho’s seniors – people age 65 and older – grew nearly 8 percent from mid-2016 to mid-2017, the highest percentage of all age groups. Overall the state experienced a significant population increase of nearly 37,000 or 2.2 percent across all age groups for the same time period, according to estimates recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. While the 2017 data shows Idaho’s senior group represented 33 percent of the total change in population, or one out of three people, all age groups experienced growth. The 19-and-younger age group and the 40- to 64-year-old groups grew by 1.5 percent each, while the 20- to 39-year-old age group grew 2.3 percent.”

But the impact of elder growth is not evenly divided among the counties. The report noted that, “Twenty-nine of Idaho’s counties had a median age above the state’s median age.”

And: “Adams County had the highest median age in the state at 55. Boise, Clearwater, Custer, Idaho and Lemhi counties, also has a median age older than 50. Madison County, home to BYU-Idaho, had the lowest median age in the state at 23, and Latah County, home to the University of Idaho, had the state’s second lowest median age at 29.” Put another way, the older-population counties are mostly the most rural.

So what’s the future for rural counties in Idaho? What’s the future for most counties in Idaho?

It may be time to start thinking not just about the future of the state, but about the future of its components.

Medicaid expansion’s uncounted benefit

July 12, 2018

schmidt

When I served on the Governor’s first workgroup that studied and recommended Medicaid Expansion for the State of Idaho, I sat on the panel next to a former director of the Idaho Department of Corrections. I had previous experience working as a physician in the Idaho prisons and we had discussed this in the past.

After one long day of presentations from experts with graphs, tables, numbers and projections as we were getting up from our chairs to go he bent over and whispered to me, “I hate that Obamacare, but this Medicaid expansion would sure be a benefit for my guys.”

I nodded, but after he left I wondered if he meant by “my guys” the recently incarcerated and released, or the guards who work at the prison. Knowing the low pay for prison staff, he may have meant both.

The next day when the summary was being provided about the costs and benefits of Medicaid expansion, I asked the expert if they had figured in any savings from criminal justice costs. They said, no, such calculations would just be too hard to do. I argue they would be substantial. You can’t count what you don’t see.

People in custody (county jail or state prison) are not eligible for Medicaid health insurance to pay for their health care. That cost comes right out of the Idaho general fund. Right now, the charge for folks in prison is over $16/day, almost $6000 per prisoner per year; a total of $48M dollars a year we can’t spend on schools or roads.

My short time working as a doctor in the Idaho prison taught me a lot. I was expecting to see lots of healthy young men with a history of behavioral and substance issues. I was surprised how many middle aged and older inmates there were with chronic disease. Over 65% of the inmates were on chronic medications; many were on psychiatric meds. Imagine what happens to these folks when they are released to the community with no access to health care and a $6000/year health care habit. We are being stupid about how we treat people. Idaho pays 100% of their health care costs in prison, then because they are not eligible for health insurance in Idaho, we pay 0% when they are released. If we expanded Medicaid eligibility we would pay 10% of the costs. Seems a good investment to me.

Right now, the legislatures Justice Reinvestment Oversight Committee (JROC) is hearing testimony from “experts” as to why we need to spend $500M to build a new prison here in Idaho. That’s what the Board of Corrections has recommended. Prosecutors are saying, “It’s not our fault our prison population is exploding. We are just enforcing the laws you legislators write.”

The easiest, cheapest recommendation the JROC could make to the legislature and the governor, easier than sentencing reform, cheaper than building a new prison, would be to say what the former director said to me: “We hate that Obamacare, but expanding Medicaid would sure be a good thing for our people.”

Preconceived bias

July 11, 2018

carlson

This past weekend saw a classic example of an otherwise fine reporter filing an Associated Press story about the prospects of former State Representative Paulette Jordan (D-Plummer) to upset Lt. Governor Brad Little (R-Emmett) in this fall’s gubernatorial race.

Rather than state the obvious, that she has a snow-balls chance in hell (Little wins 65% to 35%) the reporter seems to want to throw out a lifeline of a shred of hope that it happens.

Wishing to appear balnaced and objective and to mask their bias the reporter set up a “straw dog” as the model of the typical Idaho governor---you know, one who rides a horse well or at least looks like a cowboy; a fiscal conservative who has signed the pledge not to support any new taxes, and of course a white male.

The reporter added one other wrinkle, pointing out that they should be a Mormon. Then the reporter veered of the tracks big-time by saying in effect this was the mold formed by former four-term Idaho Governor which Rep. Jordan was trying to break.

This line of malarky is a classic false syllogism which reveals the reporter’s bias and a desperate effort to create credulity for a candidate who has none.

There are several facts one sould keep in mind here. First, Andrus did indeed set the standard by which one should measure whether a gubernatorial candidate can do the job of solving problems.

There is nothing in Rep. Jordan’s record that indicates she is a problem-solver. She claims to be a leader, not a politician, but she has not lead any organization or board of directors. And not one of her legislative colleagues has endorsed her candidacy.

The reporter also took identity politics a step further by stating that Cecil D. Andrus was LDS. Wrong. He was a Lutheran. The reporter must feel that if Jordan pulls of an upset, people will appreciate it even more if they know Jordan knocked off a Mormon.

Of Idaho’s thirty-five governors only one Mormon has been elected—John V. Evans in 1978. One other, Arnold Williams, inherited the office in 1946 but was defeated later that year.

All reporters and columnists have pre-conceived biases and often write with their conclusion in mind to which they seek supporting testimony. A goood reporter will acknowledge bias but will strive for objectivity. At the end of the day though they still are subjectively writing.

So, you ask, what are some of your faithful scribe’s biases? I have a bias against:

*politicians who do not write personal thank you notes to those that help them in some way;

*politicians who while running for office claim not to be a politician but rather a leader;

*politicians who lie like Rep. Jordan did when she mislead the press claiming some support for her candidacy from legislative colleagues;

*politicians who campaign only on the internet, twittter and face-book and are afraid to walk into a town’s coffee shop and make a cold call. Instead their public events are known party gatherings;

*politicians who do not do their homework and cannot discuss an issue beyond a one-page briefer;

*politicians who support the expansion of gambling in Idaho;

*politicians who accept contributions from PACS and are ok with so-called dark money;

*politicians who do not understand federal/state relations and blindly accept unconstitutional “solutions;”

*politicians who view the office they seek as a stepping stone to even higher office;

*politicians who run for reasons of ego and hubris, rather than seeing politics as a noble calling;

*politicians who play the identity politics game, and by doing so trivialize the process and demean themselves.

*politicians who cannot even organize and run their own campaign. Why should the voter think they can administer the state?

A disheartening frenzy

July 10, 2018

jones

It is sad that every vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court sets off a political feeding frenzy in Washington and throughout the country. It is as if a new appointee is intended to be a super legislator, rather than an impartial arbiter of disputes between and among citizens and the government. The whole process is infused with political overtones. Nowadays, it happens regardless of which party is in power. It does not have to be that way.

In 1967, the State of Idaho enacted legislation to insulate judicial appointments from politics and cronyism. It has worked well and resulted in a corps of professional judges, who decide all sorts of legal disputes, both civil and criminal, in an even-handed manner. When there is a district or appellate court opening, a seven-member Judicial Council gathers information on judicial candidates, publicly interviews the candidates, considers input from the legal community and public, and then sends a slate of 2-4 candidates to the Governor for appointment. Magistrate judges are impartially selected by local magistrate commissions.

I believe a similar process could be implemented on the federal level without transgressing provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Article 2, section 2 of the Constitution gives the President the power “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate” to appoint Judges of the Supreme Court. It seems like the Senate could exercise its advice and consent by setting up a non-partisan process to vet and recommend a slate of highly qualified candidates to the President for appointment.

Almost any system for appointment of Justices to the Supreme Court would be preferable to the usual slugfest that the current process has become. Presidents are tempted to appoint people whose political views align with theirs on specific hot-button issues, disregarding the fact that the Court is expected to deal with a much wider range of issues. The tendency is to appoint younger people, without an identifiable track record, who can serve into their dotage, disregarding the fact that this excludes a large number of older experienced lawyers with exemplary legal careers.

And speaking of dotage, there ought to be some limit on the length of service of Supreme Court and other federal judges. Article 3, section 2 of the Constitution says that federal judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behavior,” which is assumed to be for life. However, I think the constitutional framers would be surprised to see so many old folks hanging on to judicial offices.

I have never been a big fan of age limitations on public office but I am starting to think they may have some merit. I served 12 years on the Idaho Supreme Court and figured it was time to hang it up and let someone else have a crack at it. About 9 years ago, a group of distinguished legal scholars proposed that a President should be able to make one Supreme Court pick after each federal election. The longest-serving Justice on the Court would automatically go on senior status and only sit on cases where there were less than 9 Justices participating. The idea has some merit. The longer a Justice sits in the ivory tower of the Court, the greater the likelihood of losing touch with the real world.

There are a number of things that could be done to insulate the court system from our present corrosive political climate. The public increasingly views the Supreme Court as a mere extension of our dysfunctional political system and that is dangerous to our democracy. It is time for Congress to take a comprehensive look at ways to reestablish the impartiality and standing of our high court.

There are words for that

July 9, 2018

rainey

Someone somewhere has come up with two words that perfectly describe what I’ve been feeling for several months.

“OUTRAGE FATIGUE.”

At no time, in my many years, have I felt such a continuing, angry mood both personally and nationally. Seems like everybody is mad about something or at someone. Or many somethings and many someones.

You can feel it every day no matter where you go or what your activity. It’s sort of a visceral undercurrent. And it doesn’t take much “scratching” to suddenly bring it to the surface. Lots of folks are feeling it.

It’s not a far right or far left situation. It’s very personal, no matter your political persuasion. Even if you have no political persuasion at all. You can hear it in the tone of voices. You can sense it when someone gets mad for no apparent reason. Recently, a clerk in a store responded angrily when I made a mistake in self-checkout, then quickly apologized for her words, saying such an outburst was not like her.

At a local bank, a teller made a mistake when entering my deposit. She immediately popped off with a couple of not-for-children words. She, too, apologized, saying she has just “felt so angry recently.” Me, too.

What our wannabee dictator-in-training has done and lied about over the last couple of years is much of the basic fuel for our current national psyche. Now, with a terrible demagoguery dealing with helpless immigrant families, I think many of us have been pushed over the edge. We’re mad, frustrated, wanting to help but feeling helpless, utterly embarrassed and ashamed all at once.

This is not our national tradition. In the most basic terms, this is not who we are - not how we behave - not what we believe - not how we’ve historically treated others. Our angry, seemingly cruel and out-of-control actions and feelings are not what millions fought and died to protect.

The nation is changing, top to bottom and inside out, in the most fundamental ways. While change is a constant, there were rock-solid underpinnings which kept us on the right moral pathway. Our institutions were respected and trusted. Our government was, most of the time, responsive to our needs. Our politics covered the entire spectrum of beliefs but always seemed to return to the center because, when conducting those activities, that was known to be the best way to accomplish legislative goals.

Now, we’re bombarded with visceral attacks on those foundations, often by people in that same government. Our national needs are not being met as the new breed of politician attempts to slash and burn necessary survival programs like food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Our out-of-control military budget is higher than the next six nations combined. But, millions in uniform still need food stamps and local food banks to subsist.

Our daily atmosphere is contaminated with hate, anger, lies and damned lies. We’re blanketed with this foul, verbal bombardment while other news - very important national and international news - is disregarded. What we need to know to be an informed citizenry is overshadowed by dozens of political investigations, court filings and guilty pleas from the most corrupt administration of modern times. Maybe all time. Our Congress, and many cabinet agencies, have become political eunuchs unable to perform even the most basic constitutional acts.

The palpable anger and frustration are real. They’re befouling our national culture - our politics - our basic institutions - our place in a fast-moving world. We’re even breaking our fundamental international commitments to countries we’ve collaborated with - and shared a mutual trust with - for hundreds of years.

Some folks are pleading for an end to all this and for a sudden outbreak of comity and togetherness. Others say we’ve already gone too far for national kum-ba-yah.

There’s been way too much of the former for so long that, in actuality, there’s no realistic chance for the latter.

Until we can speak at the polls, our onset of outrage fatigue is likely to get worse.

Idaho Weekly Briefing – July 9

July 8, 2018

This is a summary of a few items in the Idaho Weekly Briefing for July 9. Interested in subscribing? Send us a note at stapilus@ridenbaugh.com.

Following a weekend highlighted by biennual political party conventions at far ends of southern Idaho, Idaho politics – and much else – quieted considerably in the week following. A good deal of attention was paid, however, to a a Boise tragedy in which a man stabbed a number of refugees from Africa at a child’s birthday party. Six children and three adults were injured.

After working for months to put healthcare on the ballot, volunteers on July 6 caravaned into Boise from the far corners of the state, converging on the State Capitol to rally and deliver boxes of signatures to state officials from all 44 counties. The signatures come from more than 70,000 Idaho voters.

The City of Twin Falls and Twin Falls Urban Renewal Agency will open the new Downtown Commons with a ribbon cutting and art unveiling at 4 p.m. on Friday, July 6. The community event will celebrate the opening of Twin Falls’ newest public area and the completion of the Downtown Redesign Project.

Micron Technology on July 5 announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court, Fujian Province, China today notified two Chinese subsidiaries of Micron that it has granted a preliminary injunction against those entities in patent infringement cases filed by United Microelectronics Corporation and Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co.

Members of the 428th Fighter Squadron came together and said their goodbyes to their former commander, Lt. Col. Donald Sandberg, and welcomed their new commander, Lt. Col. Andrew Gilbert, during a change of command ceremony June 29, at Mountain Home Air Force Base.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forests is closing campsites #30 - 34 of the Three Pines Campground located on Kalispell Island within the Priest Lake Ranger District to protect an active bald eagle nest located within the site. The nest was recently discovered during a bald eagle survey. This is the first year an active nest site has been confirmed since 2014.

IMAGE Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan campaigning in Idaho Falls last week. (photo/Jordan for Governor, Facebook)

The right questions

July 8, 2018

richardson

No one should be impressed that the president has vowed not to ask prospective Supreme Court nominees their positions on Roe v. Wade.

First, his vows -- marital and otherwise -- are worthless.

Second, he doesn't need to ask the question because the Federalist Society has vetted the candidates. Only those who received the Federalist Society's stamp of approval made Trump's short list, and a candidate wouldn't be on the short list if they hadn't answered the question in the "right" -- make that the "far-right" -- way.

We can also be sure that the Federalist Society knows where their approved candidates stand on issues pertaining to voting rights, dark money in politics, environmental regulation, consumer protection, workers' rights, and every other topic important to the Koch Brothers. No one on the president's short list is about to vote to overrule Citizens United.

Undoubtedly, the folks Trump is interviewing are cut from the same ideological cloth as Thomas and Alito and, most recently, Gorsuch. They are predictable votes for repeal of the 20th Century, at least everything from the New Deal forward.

That being the case, journalists might want to focus on whether the president is asking some questions which the Federalist Society may have overlooked in its pre-election vetting. Such questions would include:

"Must a president respond to a subpoena?"

"Can a president be indicted?""

"Can a president pardon himself?"

"If a president pardons his alleged co-conspirators is that obstruction of justice?"

"If I appoint you to the Court and a case raising any one of these issues comes before you, will you recuse yourself -- or will you have my back?" This one is likely to be asked in a less direct manner – perhaps with a subtle nod and a knowing wink. But however the question is asked, it comes down to the president’s insistence on loyalty, not to the United States Constitution, but to Donald J. Trump.

I'm betting the president, as always focused on his own welfare, is especially eager to know where the finalists stand on these questions. I want to know if asking these questions is part of his interview process, either formally or informally. And if it is, we — the American people — need to know the candidates’ answers.