Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and his Chief Deputy Tim Hurst seem intent on producing “election reform” laws that are unnecessary, laws that are a solution in search of a problem.

In this session of the Idaho Legislature, Team Yurst has proposed House Bill 0063,  short-titled “The Early Voting Opportunity Act.”

This Act, if passed, would require every county clerk in any county with more than 25,000 persons to have at least 2 and sometimes 3 absent electors’ polling places open at least 5 days per week for 9 hours per day between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. commencing 21 days before the election.  The Fiscal Note accompanying the proposed legislation states, “The cost to run an early voting center for 15 days prior to an election (including labor, rental, and materials) is estimated to be between $5,000 and $7,500.”

For several reasons, the Team Yurst proposal would be bad law.  It should be rejected by the Legislature.  (more…)

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I agree with newbie Idaho State Representative Luke Malek’s desire to update Idaho’s urban renewal laws and to rein in abuses by some of the state’s renegade urban renewal agencies.   The state’s poorly conceived urban renewal laws were hawked by predatory snake oil salesmen to enrich their cronies and were happily and uncritically approved by inattentive legislators.  The laws are in dire need of revision if not repeal.

But Malek’s proposed amendment contained in House Bill 0137 only exacerbates one problem while appearing to correct another.

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In an article headlined State lacks doctors to meet demands of national healthcare law,  the Los Angeles Times is reporting that, “As the state [California] moves to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Californians under President Obama’s healthcare law, it faces a major obstacle: There aren’t enough doctors to treat a crush of newly insured patients.”

So if California sees this as a problem, how is Idaho going to fare any better?  StateImpact, a reporting project of local public media and National Public Radio, prepared a background brief titled Understanding Idaho’s Doctor Shortage.   According to that brief, “Since at least 2007, Idaho has ranked near the bottom when it comes to the number of doctors working in the state.  The latest available data from the Association of American Medical Colleges ranks Idaho 49th among states.”

California is considering expanding those occupations authorized to diagnose, treat and manage some illnesses.  Maybe Idaho could do the same.  We could use tourism industry professionals to perform those whatchamacallitectomies.

The Federal Aviation Administration is considering establishing six test facilities for unmanned aerial systems in the United States.

The Transportation Committee of the Idaho Senate has drafted and introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 103 in this term of the Idaho Legislature.  If adopted, the Resolution would “encourage the Idaho Department of Commerce in collaboration with the University of Idaho, Boise State University, Idaho State University, the College of Western Idaho and other stakeholders to coordinate comments and identify a lead entity to prepare a proposal on behalf of the state, for Idaho to be selected as one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s six unmanned aircraft system test sites.”  The Committee estimates the one-time cost to complete this proposal would be $25,000.

What do you think?  Money well spent?  Money wasted?  Good idea?  Bad idea?  Why?

This headline from today’s Los Angeles Times could apply to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, as well as Bell, California:

Bell witness:  Rizzo tried to confuse “unsophisticated” council

Rizzo was the allegedly corrupt city administrator in Bell, California.  According to the testimony in Court, he was upset whenever anyone sought to incorporate ethical conduct into his city administration.

And this might explain why the present Coeur d’Alene Mayor, City Administrator, Executive Director of the Lake City Development Corporation (our urban renewal agency), and their cronies are trying so hard to get rid of Coeur d’Alene Councilmembers Dan Gookin and Steve Adams  and the newly elected and appointed Trustees of both the Coeur d’Alene School District 271 and North Idaho College.  Ethical, lawful behavior is not beneficial to the way business is done here.

The sentencing for former City of Coeur d’Alene Finance Department employee Sheryl Carroll has been rescheduled to March 4, 2013, at 4 p.m. in the federal court in Coeur d’Alene.

Carroll’s original sentencing date, February 5, 2013, was changed at the request of the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho.  The change was requested by AUSA Traci Whelen.