VA. company got 70% of IVA funds

A Times-News investigation showed that lots of charter, virtual school money is going to out-of-state corporations, which have an increasing influence on the Idaho State Department of Education…

Obama’s hopeful, changeling vocab

Says John Rember, who knows of what he speaks: Barack Obama really does offer hope. It’s because of the way he uses the language. Obama uses English the same way George Orwell used English, as a tool to expose possibility rather than obscure it…

What ever happened to Rodolfo?

I was the first foreign journalist to talk with Rodolfo Montiel Flores who, in March of 1998, was engaged in intense confrontations with loggers in his home area of Petatlán in Mexico’s Guerrero State. Flores was jailed and then became an environmental icon for his work. I’d like to hear from him again…

Secret out-of-state corporate tax breaks revealed

An Idaho tax commission auditor revealed a long-standing practice of secret tax settlements with out of state corporations that cost millions. Auditor Stan Howland, near retirment: “This allows these companies to avoid paying millions of dollars of income tax that are properly due the state of Idaho, and to do so in complete secrecy…”

Results of PaleoMedia.org races to watch

Initial analysis of last night’s primary shows some mixed results. Hot races in the unsettled territory between West Boise and Oregon, or at least from Boise to Caldwell, ended up all over the map. Moyle drew out his rural base in north Boise Valley but Boise businessman Chuck Winder also landed the Senate seat there. In Meridian proper, McKague held on, but west of there, in Wilder country, former bureaucrat Takasugi managed to defeat the red-baiting rhetoric of Otter appointee Bowers.

Eight Idaho counties to use new voting system

Eight Idaho counties will use new balloting systems on Tuesday, including Idaho’s most populous county.

Elections offices in Ada, Blaine, Cassia, Latah, Lemhi, Madison and Teton counties are using brand new bubble (think SAT) or “arrow” ballots and optical scan vote counters in Tuesday’s Primary Election…

Farm Bill gives me nada for my corn

A couple of years ago I called Idaho potato magnate J. R. Simplot to ask him about farm subsidies. There was an Associated Press story coming across the wire that listed billionaire-farmer Simplot as one of the largest recipients of government farm subsidies in the country, and since Simplot is a major player in southwest Idaho, my editor wanted his side of the story.

Ridenbaugh Press has 10 hotter races

Randy Stapilus at Ridenbaugh Press has winnowed out our earlier list of 10 key primary races across the state. Since we picked our primaries last month some of the field has changed.

Takasugi: lawmakers shouldn’t just throw labels around

Curtis Bowers, the District 10 state representative that claimed in an Idaho Press Tribune column earlier this year to have infiltrated a 1992 Communist Party meeting in Berkley, recently told a small Canyon County crowd that he is against three things: liberalism, statism and post-modernism.

At the same forum Bowers’ opponent Pat Takasugi, accused the incumbent, in a video message, of being bogged down in philosophical issues.

Guns, Confederate flags at Idaho high school

Following an alleged racial incident in which a white teacher confiscated and trashed a Mexican flag, a Rupert high school is embroiled in immigration politics.