Boise
Public Lands
Roadless Compromise in IdahoThe Bush Administration and conservation groups have reached a compromise agreement on rules governing roadless areas in the state, reports the New York Times. The deal involves the much-contested rules that Clinton Administration put in place banning road-building and other development on federal lands that don't already have roads - rules that were then reversed by the Bush Administration and have been the subject of a convoluted legal battle ever since. The Idaho compromise allows some road-building to log burned areas, and opens up some acreage for development in exchange for continued protection of most roadless areas, according to the Times.
convention Coverage: Reporter's Notebook
Obama’s Acceptance Speech - Catharsis for Desperate Dems
By now, billions of words have been written about Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance of his party’s presidential nomination at Invesco Field in Denver, and TV news people will pick apart the performance and call it show business and Republicans will express their disdain.
Of course it was show business. The Republican convention will be, too. For the past twenty years both parties have held essentially pro forma conventions designed simply to bolster the faithful and hype their candidates. They are what they are.
Whichever convention comes first gets the brunt of the criticism, but it generally dies after the second convention.
But no matter how it looked on television tonight, I am here to tell you that being here on the floor of this huge stadium to feel the wildly inspired throng of 70,000 fired-up Democrats stomp and stamp and whistle and cheer and clap themselves into a near frenzy of hope and shared inspiration was profoundly sincere.
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Convention Coverage
Obama: Twenty Generals and the Grateful Dead
From the Idaho Democratic Party blog, with permission.
Thursday morning, the chief of Senator Barack Obama's staff, Jim Messina, gave the Idaho delegation insights on the candidate and the big night ahead.
You heard it here first: twenty generals will line up for Obama tonight in a show of support for bringing the troops home and shoring up the army.
"Barack writes his speeches himself. This one's had 4,000 drafts and he was toiling on it last night.”
It's no accident Obama was in Billings when Michelle spoke Monday. "He's been there six times and we've got a good chance in Montana," he said. "Barack told us from the first we were going to compete in every state. We believe we've got 168 safe electoral votes and 32 leaning our way-Oregon, Washington, Minnesota and New Hampshire. It's a lot harder for John McCain to make the numbers work. If we win Colorado, it gets very hard for him."
A graduate of Boise High School, Messina has been running campaigns or congressional staffs since graduating from the University of Montana. He's on leave as chief of staff for Montana Senator Max Baucus.
"I got a call from Barack asking if he could talk to me. We talked; he offered me the job if I would do two things. First, be completely loyal. No leaks. Second, treat staff like family. If I kicked anyone around I'd have Barack to deal with. "Around the campaign we have this saying ‘No drama in Obama.' We have no time for intrigue.
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NEW REPORT BY RIVAL PROVIDES ALARMING DETAILS
The Anti-Conservation Mission of the NRA
It's hardly a news flash that the National Rifle Association (NRA) supports anti-conservation, if not anti-hunting, politicians. Even though I've written about it several times, I never realized how bad it was.
A just-released report by the NRA's nemesis, the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), deals out all the dreadful details, and it should be a major eye-opener for any hunter who still supports the NRA.
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convention Coverage: Reporter's Notebook
Bill Clinton’s Reach: All the Way Down to Our Bones
President Bill Clinton is speaking as I write this from Denver.
The joyful welcome you saw on television can’t possibly compare to what it feels like here. A rumbling, growling sound turns out to be the delegates shifting back and forth on their feet.
They are too exuberant to be still.
Clinton is raising the proverbial roof with his unmistakable full endorsement of Obama for President: “Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama.”
And then, the classic, perfectly-timed pause of the old Bill Clinton. “That makes two of us. Actually, that makes 18 million of us – because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.”
That may turn out to be the most uniting moment of the convention.
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Convention Coverage: Reporter's Notebook
Obama Nominated by Acclamation, Requested by HillarySenator Barack Obama is the official Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
With a roll call of the states producing 1549.5 votes for Obama and 341.5 for Hillary Clinton, it happened without controversy or protraction after Clinton moved to suspend the rules of the convention and nominate Obama by acclamation.
Motion passed.
All done.
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Convention Coverage: Reporter's Notebook
At the Convention: The Sweaty Ladies Lunch
Reporters, when housed in gaggles, are an intrepid bunch. There is very little complaining except for the odd crank (who, for some reason, always seems to be named Ed.) Used to working in uncomfortable conditions with little control over the details, reporters have learned to sit down, fire up the laptop, locate the restroom, and say hello to the person sitting next to them. Writing takes place in a hubbub, but most journalists tune it out and get lost in their stories. The younger ones use iPods to create a personal bubble of privacy.
At an event as monumental as the Democratic National Convention, there is no time for establishing relationships with other reporters or playing some of the common newsroom games. (My favorite is the daily word challenge. Sometimes, an editor will tell her newsroom that the word of the day is some damned thing like “tintinnabulate” or “selcouth”, and the challenge is to work one of them into a story.) But here, shenanigans are set aside out of necessity.
Naturally gregarious, this has been a bit disappointing for me, even though I understand. Swamped is not the word for this gig.
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Convention Coverage: Delegates
Hillary’s Delegates Free at LastSen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today told her delegates they were free to vote for Sen. Barack Obama during tonight's nominating roll call, but she did not direct them to do so. "I am here to release you as my delegates," Clinton told her supporters at the Convention Center in Denver. Many responded with shouts of "No, no." She added, to cheers, "I am not telling you what to do."
Clinton, who waged a sometimes bitter campaign with Obama through a long series of primaries and caucuses, said she marked her ballot for Obama this morning. "Many other people who sign their ballots will make a different choice," she said, adding that whatever decision delegates make, "you are to be given the respect and recognition you have earned as delegates for the Democratic Party."
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Idaho's Transportation Funding Conference
News Flash: Idaho Needs to Fix Its Roads
As a lead-in to a belated public hearing on road funding to be held in Boise later this afternoon, Idaho Governor Butch Otter and the Idaho Transportation Board held an additional conference this morning to hear perspectives from sources ranging from the federal government, the Department of Environmental Quality, and the state of Utah.
Otter, who was criticized for holding six similar meetings around the state this summer while neglecting to hold one in Boise, told New West that a seventh meeting had always been planned but that scheduling it was delayed based on the availability of speakers such as Idaho Senator Mike Crapo (R) and the new administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, now in his sixth day on the job.
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breaking news
Professor Dies in Boise Wildfire That Destroyed 10 HomesA tragic story this morning in Boise just hit the wires: Authorities have found a body in a burned Boise home after a quick-moving grass fire destroyed 10 homes in the southeast section of the city last night.
KTVB in Boise has the breaking story.
Update: The Idaho Statesman's Patrick Orr reports that the body is likely that of Mary Ellen Ryder, a Boise State University professor who had been missing since her house in Columbia Village burned -- the same house where authorities found the body.
During fire season in the West, mass evacuations can seem commonplace, overly cautious even -- especially when year after year, hundreds upon thousands of people evacuate from Western wildfires and often, nothing happens, to them or to their homes. But this is a stark reminder of just how important those evacuations plans can be and how we cannot be lulled by the routine of fires in our backyards -- a very sad reminder.
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