We can just hear the little boy in the red striped shirt and ballcap: “Daddy! Daddy! That looks just like where we put Grandma and Grandpa’s urns! Are they here?”
Welcome to the McEuen Park Columbarium .
Email Panhandle Parks Foundation Executive Director Kim Stearns and let her know what you think of the proposed donor wall.
Spokane schools employees violate campaign laws.
Wow! Good thing nothing like this could ever happen in School District 271. Nope. Not here. Never. Uh-uh.
In fact, the violations could easily happen here. What would never happen here would be a state investigation, ’cause what happens in Coeur d’Alene stays in Coeur d’Alene.
Mary Souza’s NewsletterDear Newsletter Readers,
**Before we get to Memorial Field, there’s hot news from NIC!**
The air in this town is sizzling with messages and phone calls right now because of the possible change in the athletic conference for the NIC teams. The idea is to change all the teams, except wrestling, from the national competition of the SWAC (Scenic West Athletic Conf) to the regional NWAACC (Northwest Athletic Assoc. of Community Colleges) to save about $600,000 per year. There are strong arguments on both sides of the issue and, personally, I have no opinion either way on the decision. (more…)
As we reported in our February 17th post entitled An Unusual Dissent, Idaho Supreme Court Justice Daniel Eismann’s very alarming allegation in the lead paragraph of his dissent in Judy Nield v. Pocatello Health Services was initially reported by the Idaho Statesman in its news story headlined Idaho Supreme Court Justice Daniel T. Eismann at odds with three of his colleagues. That story was apparently put on the Associated Press wire, and a couple of Idaho newspapers picked it up and ran knockoff articles. As far as we can tell, that has been the extent of the news coverage.
We wonder why so few Idaho news media have shown any real interest in pursuing this news story or even commenting editorially. We would think that when a respected and credible Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court alleges in an opinion that three of his five fellow Justices, “… determine[d] the desired result [in Nield] and then twist[ed] the law and/or the facts to justify it,” that would get the attention of even the most lackluster of Idaho’s news media.
About the only editorial comment we’ve seen was in Reader’s Opinion piece by David Adler in today’s Idaho Statesman. Adler is the Cecil D. Andrus professor of public affairs at Boise State University, where he serves as director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy. The title of his opinion piece was Recent condemnation of judges is remarkable. (more…)
This morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press article online written by Jeff Selle and headlined Four Corners moves forward stated thus:
Councilman Adams was absent from the meeting because of illness, so a 5-1 vote was impossible. OpenCdA was told that there was only one vote, not two.
Perhaps reporter Selle is seeing double?
This morning’s Idaho Statesman article by AP reporter Rebecca Boone is headlined Gov. Butch Otter orders probe of Idaho prison ran by Corrections Corporation of America.
OpenCdA’s post on February 8 asked the question When Is a Criminal Investigation Not One? That post reported that Idaho Attorney General Wasden had asked the Governor to order a formal investigation and had been told that the Idaho State Police had already determined that CCA had not committed any criminal violation of Idaho law. But the ISP had not conducted a formal investigation to arrive at that conclusion.
Today’s article in the Idaho Statesman reports that Otter has done an about face (it’s an election year, after all) and has directed the ISP Director to open a formal criminal investigation. OpenCdA thinks that the Governor should have ordered the formal investigation at the outset.
Otter’s order reported today puts the ISP between the dog and the fire hydrant. If the formal ISP investigation reveals probable cause to believe criminal conduct occurred, it will be fair to ask why the evidence wasn’t uncovered in its earlier non-investigation. It will also reinforce the opinion that the formal investigation should have been the first one. On the other hand, if the formal investigation returns the same results as the earlier non-investigation, people will now reasonably question if the ISP was merely covering for the Governor and to protect its own reputation.
Either way, Governor Otter’s 180-degree turn appears destined to make the Idaho State Police Director the fall guy in this matter.
It isn’t unusual for an appeals court justice to depart from one or more of his fellow justices on any particular decision. Often the dissenting justice simply votes differently from them. Sometimes, to explain his dissent he will write a dissenting opinion that appears for publication with the decision.
It is quite unusual, however, for a dissenting justice of the Idaho Supreme Court to introduce his 34-page written dissent with the words, “Courts decide cases in one of two ways: (a) they apply the law to the facts and thereby arrive at the result or (b) they determine the desired result and then twist the law and/or the facts to justify it.”
According to Idaho Supreme Court Justice Daniel Eismann, three of his fellow justices took the (b) road in deciding how to rule in Judy Nield v. Pocatello Health Services, released February 14, 2014.
The Idaho Statesman newspaper first reported this on Feburary 16, 2014, in a story headlined Idaho Supreme Court Justice Daniel T. Eismann at odds with three of his colleagues.
Justice Eismann’s dissent begins on page 24 of the decision in Judy Nield v. Pocatello Health Services. (more…)
Sunday’s Coeur d’Alene Press article headlined Pipe dreams & nightmares contains a factual error. In his second paragraph, staff writer Keith Cousins states, “Kootenai County residents will be able to take a short drive over the state line to legally purchase and consume the substance at any of a handful of stores.” [emphasis added]
According to the Washington State Liquor Control Board’s FAQs on I-502 under the major heading Retail Stores:
Coeur d’Alene’s new mayor Steve Widmyer is at it again — appointing not necessarily qualified or suitable pals to City committees and commissions.
The agenda and packet for the February 18, 2014, Coeur d’Alene City Council meeting both show that Widmyer intends to anoint Nancy White to the City Arts Commission.
Attentive readers will recall that during the 2010 election contest lawsuit challenging the 2009 Coeur d’Alene City election, it was determined that Nancy E. White had registered and voted illegally in the City election in violation of Idaho Code §18-2322. She was charged, found guilty, and received a 90-day unsupervised probation with judgment withheld. For the details go to ISTARS and enter case number CR-2010-0021693 (or look up by name White, Nancy Elaine).
OpenCdA acknowledges that citizens can make honest mistakes, however we also recognize that sometimes because of a person’s occupation or profession, the person’s “mistake” drifts over the line from honest to willful.
Nancy Elaine White was a real estate agent at the time she violated Idaho Code §18-2322. OpenCdA believes that as a real estate agent, she would have a more keen awareness of city-county boundary lines. As a real estate agent, she might reasonably be asked by a prospective buyer, “Is this house I’m considering buying inside the city limits of Coeur d’Alene or will my legal residence address be in the County (or a contiguous city)?” That expectation of additional awareness, helpful if not essential in her real estate job, would strongly suggest that her own illegal registration was willful rather than ignorantly accidental. There is a significant difference between willfully doing something wrong and accidentally doing something wrong.
OpenCdA wonders if White was the best nominee Widmyer could come up with, or might there have been other more qualified and more suitable applicants? Regardless, expect Nancy White to be approved to the City of Coeur d’Alene Arts Commission by a majority of the newly-minted Sequential Headnodders on Tuesday night.
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