Editorials
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS WE CAN SEE
"Conservation is the application of common sense to the common problems for the common good." -- Gifford Pinchot April 22 is Earth Day, the annual effort by organizations, communities and governments to promote efforts to reduce pollution and increase conservation of our natural resources and environment. As I've often said, no federal policy contributes more to improve our environment than the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill conservation title is a prime example of the fede… Continue Reading
April 09, 2008
IN IDAHO'S BEST INTEREST
Trade issues typically get less media than hot button issues like immigration, mortgage industry challenges and energy prices. However, regulating trade between the United States and other nations is a Constitutional obligation of Congress. In 2007, the U.S. recorded $1.6 trillion in exports, representing scores of American jobs. Exports account for a larger percentage of U.S. GDP than ever before, and jobs supported by goods exports pay wages 13 to 18 percent higher than the national average. … Continue Reading
April 02, 2008
APRIL: FINANCIAL LITERACY MONTH
Since taxes come due in April, it tends to be a time that people think more often about their personal finances-savings, investments, income and expenditures. The annual focus on our finances is exacerbated this year by high fuel prices, concerns in the housing market and some resulting upward pressure on the prices of goods. Unfortunately, personal savings rates in the United States are at historic lows, declining and in the negative now for over three years. In April 2007, a personal finance s… Continue Reading
March 26, 2008
LEGACY OF THE 1ST CONGRESS
Hidden among the granite and steel canyons of the Wall Street financial district of Lower Manhattan in New York City sits a building invisible from more than a few blocks away in any direction. Comparatively diminutive in appearance, its granite columns and ornate architecture call to mind a different age-memories of the birth of our nation. In fact, this building, known as Federal Hall, housed the 1st Congress of the United States of America from March 4, 1789, to March 3, 1791. Nearly 220 year… Continue Reading
March 19, 2008
SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Amendment II, United States Constitution On March 18, the Supreme Court, for the second time in our history, began hearing arguments in a case that compels the Court to interpret the meaning of the 2 nd Amendment of the Constitution. The case challenges a Washington, D.C. law that bans handgun… Continue Reading
March 11, 2008
TV IN THE 21ST CENTURY
We've certainly come a long way from the television pioneering days of Philo T. Farnsworth, one of Idaho's finest inventors. Eighty years ago, the young inventor developed the theory that resulted in the first electric television. That unit and its contemporaries present a stark contrast to today's televisions. Early televisions had notoriously large electronic tubes and devices supporting very small screens; today's televisions are almost all screen, driven by tiny microchips. Television mechan… Continue Reading
March 05, 2008
GENERATING OPTIONS FOR ENERGY SECURITY
As Idaho digs out of an historic winter and gas prices approach record levels, energy is our minds. Our energy demands must be met with a firm, long-term commitment to research and development, conservation and promoting alternative technologies through tax incentives. At the same time, it's critical that we don't walk away from our nation's well-developed, traditional energy resources such as oil, natural gas and coal-based electricity. If we decrease domestic conventional energy production or … Continue Reading
February 27, 2008
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. -Dr. Seuss Theodore Seuss Geisel, known better by millions as "Dr. Seuss," was the son of German Americans. Geisel attended Dartmouth College where he served as editor of the humor magazine, and it was at Dartmouth where he began to use the name "Seuss" on illustrations and articles. He briefly attended Oxford University in England and then toured Europe. Upon… Continue Reading
February 20, 2008
IDAHO BEEF--A SOURCE OF PRIDE
For over a century, Idaho cattle families have been providing high-quality beef products to consumers at home and, in recent decades, markets abroad. With the exception of a few large operations in southern Idaho, most of those in the Idaho livestock industry are small, independently-owned ranch or feed lot operations. Cattle are raised in every county in the state-in Idaho, cattle outnumber people. The recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Class II recall of beef from a processing plant … Continue Reading
February 13, 2008
A TRILLION AND ONE WAYS TO FISCAL DISASTER
What's a trillion? National Public Radio's Science Friday calculated that one trillion dollars would buy 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies for every person in the United States. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher calculated that a trillion grains of Morton salt would fill an elementary school classroom. Salt and cookies, in reasonable amounts, are not bad things. The same goes for federal budget expenditures. But a $3.1 trillion dollar budget for Fiscal Year 2009 exceeds compreh… Continue Reading
February 06, 2008
THE RIGHT TO VOTE IS A POWERFUL PRIVILEGE
Last week, 22 states held political party presidential primaries. This historical event followed early primaries and caucuses in seven other states. Such events help states determine the delegates to send to the national political party conventions and the candidates those delegates support. The Internet and 24-hour news cycle have contributed to an increased awareness of our political process and issues of interest to voters. The fact that we are engaged in a war overseas has also heightened in… Continue Reading
January 31, 2008
ONE FOR THE HEART
February 1 was National Wear Red Day, a day to wear red in order to raise awareness of heart disease, and February is American Heart Month, a time when many national, state and local agencies and organizations work to educate the public about this number one killer of men and women in the United States. Heart disease is a disorder of the blood vessels of the heart that can lead to a heart attack, but it is a disease whose risk can be strongly mitigated by healthy lifestyle habits. Some facts ab… Continue Reading
January 23, 2008
TEEN DATING VIOLENCE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION
Over the past eight years, I've made the crime of teen dating violence a legislative and public awareness priority. Today, dating violence is a definition of domestic violence under federal law, which allows organizations and agencies to use federal dollars to help victims of dating violence. This year marks the third year that the Senate has unanimously agreed to my resolution declaring the first full week in February "National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week." A number of or… Continue Reading
January 16, 2008
WELCOME TO MY VIRTUAL OFFICE
According to the Census bureau in October 2003, 69 percent of Idaho households had a computer and 56 percent had Internet access. Since that time, Internet use has only increased, resulting in even greater demand for immediate, accurate information online. The explosive growth of information gathering via the Internet has made the acquisition speed and reliability of websites crucial to the consumer, requiring website sponsors to adapt or be left behind. This is as true for government as it is f… Continue Reading
January 09, 2008
DINNER WITH THE FAMILY
As we begin 2008, many people have "lose weight" on their resolution lists. For some, these extra pounds are the result of more than one family dinner of traditional "comfort food" and celebrations from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. While it's important to shed extra weight for our health, what's even more important is that we continue the practice of spending meal time with our families, the focus for many of us during the holidays. Time and again, studies show that children of families … Continue Reading
December 12, 2007
SNOWBALLING TAX TROUBLES
Procrastination is rarely a good thing. It's especially troublesome when it's the U.S. Congress and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Most people now know the history: The AMT was an income tax formula passed in the 1960s to address the problem of a small percentage of high income taxpayers who were legally avoiding paying any income taxes. Congress has had numerous opportunities to index the AMT to inflation: a major reform effort in 1993 was rebuffed by the majority; and, in the late 1990s, … Continue Reading
December 05, 2007
A WINTRY FORECAST FOR ENERGY
The early season snows that have come to parts of Idaho this year are generally a good thing, but they also bring home the hard reality of rising energy costs. We're already experiencing considerable discomfort at the gas pump; with winter's arrival, heating bills are also increasing. Congress has been working to reconcile differences between House and Senate versions of important energy legislation passed this summer. The best compromise will encourage conservation with incentives, promote cost… Continue Reading
November 28, 2007
THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT-IDAHO STYLE
"Here, then, there was a cessation from toil, from hunger, and alarm. Past ills and dangers were forgotten. The hunt, the game, the song, the story, the rough though good-humored joke, made time pass joyously away, and plenty and security reigned throughout the camp." -Description of Captain B. L. E. Bonneville's trapper's camp, Stanley Basin, December, 1832 (Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series) In 1832, … Continue Reading
November 21, 2007
HEALTH CARE: CHOICE, ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY
Not too many years ago, Idaho doctors still made house calls, spending considerable parts of their days (and nights) visiting patients and getting to know their families. That era is gone-today's health care often requires patients to visit the doctor, virtually or in person, not the other way around. What hasn't vanished is the sentiment that health care is extremely personal. We want to choose our doctors and medical professionals and we want them to know us. Almost as compelling is the issue … Continue Reading
November 14, 2007
A STORY OF HOPE
Although verifiable facts about our first Thanksgiving are few, they have proven fertile ground for myths, stories and traditions that have taken root over the past 386 years. Greater insight into our Thanksgiving tradition and our uniquely American spirit can be derived by examining events that occurred in Plymouth, Massachusetts, from the time a disparate group of entrepreneurs and religious dissenters landed that bleak December, to their famed celebration with a local Native American tribe a … Continue Reading
