January « 2012 « OpenCdA

January 31, 2012

Legislators finally say “Enough”!

Filed under: General — mary @ 10:05 am

In a hope-inspiring move, the House State Affairs Committee has unanimously passed a bill that keeps their own from gaming the system and raking in a huge retirement at our expense.

Here’s how it works right now: Starting back in 1990, they passed a bill that made a “special” rule for themselves. They can boost their retirement way up by taking a high-paying state job right at the end of their career, and they’ll get the PERSI retirement at the high level, as if they had been working that job the whole time. Ridiculous! How did this ever get passed? I guess WE, the People, were not watching.

Anyway, now there’s a bill to correct that “special” rule and make their retirement payment based on exactly what they actually earned…what a concept!

Here’s the link to Betsy Russel’s article on this topic.

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Dangerous Legislation, Part 3

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Coeur d'Alene Election, Voter Fraud — Bill @ 9:37 am

Rep. Susan Chew

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Representative Susan Chew is sponsoring House Bill 428. This bill “Amends existing law to provide that an elector may elect to have an absentee ballot sent to his or her residence on a permanent basis by signing a form supplied to the county clerk and to provide that if such election is made the elector shall receive an absentee ballot for all elections conducted by the county clerk and shall be ineligible to vote at the polls in such election.”

This is another very dangerous piece of legislation which will essentially make it very difficult for Idaho’s county clerks to enforce residency requirements for municipal elections. (more…)

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January 30, 2012

Judge for Life

Filed under: Probable Cause — Bill @ 4:36 pm

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The Idaho House of Representatives has passed House Joint Memorial 4 and sent it on to the Senate. This memorial, if passed, would ask the federal government to appoint a third Federal District Judge for the District of Idaho. Federal District Court Judges are appointed for life but can be removed if impeached and convicted by the US Congress.

Idaho currently has two Federal District Judges. Here are their brief biographies: (more…)

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January 29, 2012

Dangerous Legislation, Part 2

Filed under: Probable Cause — Bill @ 4:20 pm

SoS Ysursa (left) and Rep. Rusche (right)

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Yesterday’s post referred readers to House Bill 415 introduced in the Idaho Legislature by Rep. and Minority Leader John Rusche. Rusche proposes adding a new chapter to Idaho Code, Title 34 pertaining to elections. The stated intent of the proposed legislation is to get people to vote by mail. But the conveniences offered by voting by mail, at least as Rusche proposes it, will make Idaho’s elections far more vulnerable to election fraud. (more…)

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January 28, 2012

Dangerous Legislation

Filed under: Probable Cause — Bill @ 9:42 am

SoS Ysursa (left) and Rep. Rusche (right)

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Legislation introduced by Representative and Minority Leader John Rusche jeopardizes the integrity of Idaho’s elections. Rusche’s bill, House Bill 415, provides an option for county commissioners to adopt a vote-by-mail election system in their county that would apply to all primary, general, and special elections. One of the obvious dangers in Rusche’s legislation is that it would allow county clerks to open sealed ballots five days before election day. (more…)

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January 26, 2012

City Policy: Make It Up As You Go Along?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Mike Kennedy, News Reporting, Sandi Bloem — Bill @ 8:26 am

In my January 22nd OpenCdA post titled Policy Question, I asked, “What is the City’s written policy regarding reading citizen letters into the minutes of City Council meetings?” The question was predicated on the City’s selectively and arbitrarily reading some letters into the minutes of the City Council meetings while rejecting others.

Today’s Coeur d’Alene Press article titled The letters of the law by Tom Hasslinger almost answers the question. Almost, but not quite. (more…)

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January 24, 2012

Ron’s Funny Feeling

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 4:03 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter
A big, new precedent was set last week by CdA Mayor Sandi Bloem. If you can’t get to the city council meetings, don’t worry, you can just email, fax or send a letter stating your opinion and it will be read out loud by city staff at the meeting and recorded in the official minutes. Or so it seems after last week’s meeting. (more…)

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January 23, 2012

Voters Wanted: Dead or Alive

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Voter Fraud — Bill @ 9:02 am

The South Carolina Attorney General sent data to the US Attorney for South Carolina suggesting potential voter fraud in South Carolina. Specifically, data reviewed by the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles suggests that 953 dead people voted in recent elections.

Here is the letter from South Carolina’s Attorney General to the US Attorney for the District of South Carolina.

And that’s why Idaho was right in passing legislation requiring positive photo identification for voters.

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January 22, 2012

The Right Decision

Filed under: Probable Cause — Bill @ 7:47 pm

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My respect for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords went through the roof today when she announced she would soon be resigning from Congress and focusing on restoring her health. She’s 41 and was nearly killed by a gunman in Tucson, AZ, during one of her constituent events. (more…)

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Policy Question

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene Election, Mike Kennedy, Sandi Bloem — Bill @ 4:59 pm

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Here’s a policy question for the City of Coeur d’Alene: What is the City’s written policy regarding reading citizen letters into the minutes of City Council meetings? (more…)

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