In the 2011 Coeur d’Alene city election,  3,490 voters  elected City Councilman Steve Adams.

On March 5, 2013, Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem allowed a motion to be made and seconded that would effectively exclude Councilman Adams from deliberating with the City’s legal counsel on a matter lawfully under consideration by the Council.  City Attorney Mike Gridley (pictured) informed Council that such a motion was lawful.  Councilmen Kennedy, Goodlander, McEvers, and Edinger voted to approve that motion.    Their motion and vote to exclude Councilman Adams were conducted under color of law, but I believe without statutory authority.   I believe if their action exceeded their legal authority, it interfered with Councilman Adams’ ability to perform the duties of his office, and thereby deprived at least 3,490 citizens of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, of their right to Councilman Adams’ effective representation.    (more…)

NBC Snooze is reporting that former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has just been convicted on several federal corruption charges including racketeering, bribery, and extortion.

Here is the New York Times report just issued.

Here is the Detroit Free Press report about the verdict.

Here is the Detroit Free Press timeline of the events leading up to Kilpatrick’s conviction today.

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“And”

It’s a simple, three-letter grammatical conjunction.

And it can pack an extremely powerful punch, sometimes bringing questionable and even illegal governmental actions to a complete halt.

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Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency, the Lake City Development Corporation (LCDC), will convene a special call meeting today (Tuesday, February 26) at 4 p.m. at the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, 105 N. 1st Street, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in the Coeur d’Alene Mines Conference Room.

The agenda posted at City Hall is shown left.

Why the urgency for a  Special Call board meeting?    And why not at the Library Community Room where it could be televised?

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More than “an usher”…

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I just received an email from Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst pointing out that I made a huge error in my OpenCdA post titled Team Yurst’s Bad Idea.

He correctly pointed out that House Bill 0063 was not authored or presented by Team Yurst.  The bill was sponsored by Representative Holli Woodings and Senator Elliot Werk.  As Hurst pointed out in his email, the Secretary’s office does not even support this legislation.

I apologize to both Ysursa and Hurst (Team Yurst) for my error in attributing this very bad proposed legislation to them.

There has been renewed interest in the 113th Congress for federal gun control legislation.  To help members of Congress better understand the legal issues associated with current legislative proposals, the Congressional Research Service released a 17-page report titled Federal Assault Weapons Ban:  Legal Issues.  The report was issued February 14, 2013, and covers several topics including the Gun Control Act of 1968, the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, legal challenges to the 1994 assault weapons ban, and the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.