Well, it was nice — and challenging — to get back in the saddle at HBO Central today. It took awhile to get going. But I finally started to achieve some sort of rhythm this afternoon, thanks to Blogmeister Ryan moving the blog rolls to the new site. With a big assist from Blogmistress Gina. Also, it feels much more like Huckleberries with the posts now back in the middle instead of on the right side. We’re getting their, Merry Hucksters. A coupla more tweaks — and this thing will be better than the old site. By far. Now, I’ll move this Wild Card up to the top of the blog and repost it …

A group of protesters stand outside the Grove Hotel in downtown Boise while U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne addresses members of the public at a luncheon today. (AP Photo/Idaho Press-Tribune, Charlie Litchfield)

So, it is heretofore resolved therein:

*I’m gonna write a screenplay and sell it for mid-high six figures in 2009.
*I’m gonna find a love that makes the angels cry with envy.
*I’m gonna lose 30 pounds of stupid dead pizza fat and gain 10 pounds of ripped, hard spiritual muscle.
*I’m gonna take at least one multi-day canoe camping trip this summer and again face my fears by camping deep in Grizzly bear country but I might not stay up all night by a campfire shining my Petzl constantly into the dark silhouetted woods.
*I’m gonna exercise something somehow on some kinda schedule sometimes.
*I’m gonna invent a new urban/suburban/exurban slang word for the kids to say to replace “bling” maybe something like “scrap” (Shiny CRAP). “Yo, dog, dat scrap is fly, yo”/TUBOB. More here.

Question: What have you resolved to do?

Chatterbox: Can anyone out there confirm there is no school tomorrow in Coeur d’Alene? At least for Lake City High School? Sonny-boy texted us with that news as he’s on his way to Wallace for a basketball game. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

DFO: An e-mail was circulated throughout the Coeur d’Alene School District this afternoon, informing staffers that schools will be closed Tuesday. This will allow school officials to assess the possible threat posed by snow load on school buildings. Shinie notes that Lakeland School District already has announced that schools will be closed tomorrow, too. Also closed will be North Idaho Christian.

“This sign warns against thin ice on the fishing pond at Falls Park in Post Falls,” posts Councilwoman KerriT/OnLocation North Idaho. “It’s also a good reminder that until there are sustained temperatures much colder than we’ve had here in North Idaho, caution is wise when ice fishing or skating on the lakes.”

*Investigators: No foul play in Kootenai County inmate’s death/KXLY

*Idahoans will appear on ‘Bachelor,’ ‘Biggest Loser’ this week/Idaho Statesman

*Kempthorne touts Interior reforms in last speech/AP

*Idaho hunter bags record elk in Utah/AP

*Snow shovel shipments arriving in Spokane/SR

Continue reading Headlines @ Closin’ Time — 1/5/09 »

5:12 p.m. Apartment resident on Heartland/Hayden reports that she hears cracking on her roof. But the apartment manager hasn’t done anything to clear off the roof.

5:04 p.m. Dog is alive and needs to be put down after being hit on Highway 41, M/P 14 (cross of Hamilton)

4:01 p.m. Driver reports that a 5YO on his bus is having a seizure @ Hanley & Atlas.

3:58 p.m. R/P on Roundup Circle/Hayden reports that a neighbor is shoveling snow onto roadway.

3:48 p.m. A woman is pushing an older model sedan, with a handicap sticker, @ Highway 95 & Interstate 90.

Continue reading Scanner Traffic — 1/5/09 »

Seems Kempthorne spent about $235,000 in taxpayer funds renovating the bathroom a few months ago, which included installing a new shower, a refrigerator and a freezer and buying monogrammed towels, department officials told our colleague Derek Kravitz. Washington Post. More here.

Question: Anyone out there willing to defend this expense?

He’s not telling. Among the many questions Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne received from the audience at the Boise City Club/Idaho Environmental Forum today was what nickname President George W. Bush had for Kempthorne as a member of his cabinet. After much laughter, including plenty from the secretary, he seemed to hesitate a moment, and then said, “Some things stay in the Cabinet”/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise.

*Kempthorne: And she said ‘Sweetheart’

*Prison riot wrecks unit

Question: What do you think was President Bush’s nickname for Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne? What job do you think Kempthorne will seek next?

Pecky Cox/As The Lake Churns spotted a sight that brought a grin to her face while she was out & about at Priest Lake. She has just returned from a vacation at warmer climes. So she might be sporting a tan yet.

Pecky Cox picks up where she left off in 2008, with another terrific winter scene, of snow circles on Priest Lake.

For the last two weeks or so, Huckleberries on line has been without it’s mentor, Dave Oliveria, while he lounges on vacation. As we approach the last day or so of life without DFO, many opinions have surfaced as to how we, the commentators did. I, too, have some opinions on that. First, most people that comment on line are opinionated. You may not have noticed. For the most part, nay, always, the discourse has been very courteous. Sure, feathers get a little ruffled, but only a little and things calm right down. While I’m not a liberal, nor am I terribly right wing, I have for a while recognized that sometimes we conservatives lack a well nurtured sense of humor/S&S Herb, Bay Views. More here.

Final ‘08 HBO Numbers: 2,565,365 PVs, 1,430,535 UVs

*What will never be the Bush legacy/Arch Druid

*I’ve been to the edge and back/Atmospheric Ruminations

*Things to do with this snow/Community Comment

Question: Who has a better sense of humor — liberals or conservatives?

Continue reading S&S Herb: Conservatives Should Laugh More »

Item: Washington drivers ignore cell-phone/AP

More Info: Then cellphone use started creeping back up, said Sgt. Freddy Williams of the State Patrol, who has carried on his own informal off-duty study of driving-and-talking. He can’t think of another law that’s been flouted quite like this one. “I’ve seen people walk out of their house and before they put their car in gear, they’re talking on the cellphone,” he said.

Question: How often do you talk on your cell phone while driving?

Nearly nine out of ten Oregon residents would send their children to private, charter, or virtual schools, or educate their children in a home school setting if they had the decision-making authority, according to the results of a public opinion survey released today by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the Cascade Public Policy Institute, and several other state and national organizations. Eighty-seven percent of residents polled would opt for schools other than regular public schools, according to the survey/Cascade Policy Institute. More here.

Question: Do you prefer alternative schools (charter, virtual, parochial, home) to public schools?

Maggie Hurst, 8, tries to get out of the 35-degree water of Lake Coeur d’Alene during the Polar Bear Plunge held New Year’s Day at Sanders Beach in Coeur d’Alene. Hurst dove in by herself in order to receive 50 points from her second-grade teacher at Sorensen Magnet School. (AP Photo/Coeur d’Alene Press, Jerome A. Pollos)

David Horsey ‘toon here

*2 arrested for allegedly shooting @ Spokane snowplow driver/SR

*100 layoffs, 4-day work weeks likely in new Otter budget/KCBI

*White House confirms review of Idaho soldier case/AP

*Some Powerball tickets have printing error/KTVB

*4 lost Minnesota snowboarders rescued/Daily Inter Lake

*Idaho aerials skier cited for public urination/AP

*Avalanche threat @ Snoqualmie closes I90/Seattle PI

Orbusmax Special: 9 of 10 Oregonians would opt out of public schools here.

Idaho’s highest-paid state employee isn’t the governor, a university president or a key scientist - it’s Boise State University head football coach Chris Petersen.    Petersen heads the list of a record 310 Idaho state employees who now out-earn Gov. Butch Otter. The list has swelled from 284 last year, in part because Otter opted to turn down his scheduled 3 percent pay raise this year and stick with last year’s salary of $108,727. Petersen’s $806,998 salary, which comes from both state and private sources, is now more than eight times the governor’s salary/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.

Question: Should a sports coach, now matter how successful, earn 8 times as much as a state’s governor?

Huckleberries hears … that the CDA Press has laid off 3 people in the newsroom, including veteran reporters Tom Greene and Linda Ball. Huckleberries also hears that the newly unemployed were given less than a week’s notice and no severance pay. They did receive pay for accrued vacation. Also, the Hagadone companies have levied a 5 percent pay cut across-the-board to rank-and-file employees and a 10 percent pay cut for managers. Stay tuned.

In this Nov. 4 file photo, Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken shakes hands with supporters after speaking at the Democratic election night party in St. Paul, Minn. Franken will be declared the winner of a recount by 225 votes with incumbent Republican Norm Coleman today. Story here. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

Question: Are the Democrats about to steal the U.S. Senate election in Minnesota?

Julia Piercey serves as the Director of Education and Training for Boise’s Planned Parenthood affiliate. What ought to be a concern to all Idaho parents is that Ms. Piercey served in the same role with a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Ohio, and was named as a defendant in civil suit alleging that the Planned Parenthood staff under Ms. Piercey’s direction and supervision broke state law by refusing to report the sexual abuse of 16-year-old Denise Fairbanks at the hands of her own father. Although the suit was dismissed earlier this year, it will be refiled this month/Bryan Fischer, IVA. More here.

Question: Has the Idaho Values Alliance raised an issue here that should concern Idaho parents?

I bought some of this on a 10 for $10 sale at Fred Meyer’s. I bought 5 cans. I probably should have bought even more. It is a canned chili that while vile and chemical laden and infested with chunks of what are likely huge field rats swept up into the bean trucks by the automatic beanpicking machines, it is edible. And even more, as the global economy continues it’s inexorable death spiral into a complete and catastrophic collapse, this will be the new currency. We will measure trade in Chunkeros and in Cheerios and in Cherry Cola. Our highways and biways and urbs and suburbs and exurbs and, yes, even our rural environs will be littered with the burned husks of BMWs and Chevys and Hondas and all the other vehicle brands that come to mind, stripped of their fuel, metals, and rubbers. In this post-economic apocalyptic nightmare, all we will care about are the basics: food, shelter, sex, and alcohol/TUBOB. More here.

Question: Are we headed for the acopalypse, as TUBOB predicts? Or will Obama right the ship and point us toward utopia?

Sparky: (I) almost rammed a half a dozen people just for fun. The last driver was lucky I had my child in the car. I ask you what idiot drives with a full cup of coffee in his hand? The dumb (expletive) hit a pothole and dropped his coffee cup in lap. He attempts to blot and move without removing the cup from his hand, breaking, or watching where he was going which was head on into us. When I honked my horn to remind him that he was driving, he looked up, twisted his truck into his lane and through down his coffee cup just so he could flip me off. It took all my control not to take his rusty old piece of crap out of commission and the fact my daughter said “(expletive)!”

Question: What is the worst example of idiot driving that you’ve seen since the berms began squeezing traffic into 1 1/2 lanes on the side streets?