Say goodbye to Idaho, Hillary • Pain at the pump hits Idaho Falls • About those rising waters ... • Hecla's headache • Praising the Snake • Mexican pride a no-no at Burley high school

Say goodbye to Idaho, Hillary

Idaho Democrats are still smarting from comments Bill Clinton made while campaigning for his wife recently in Indiana.

Clinton was quoted in an Indiana paper as saying Hillary would "bag" No Child Left Behind laws if elected president.

"Every time I say this, it's a guaranteed applause line," he said. "You can drop me in the middle of Idaho where there's not a Democrat in 200 miles and an elk would applaud me on that."

So much for winning the support of uncommitted Idaho superdelegate Keith Roark.

"If Bill Clinton had done for elk in Idaho everything he did for Democrats, we'd have far fewer elk," said Idaho Democratic Party Chairman Roark on Wednesday.

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Pain at the pump hits Idaho Falls

Pocatello TV station KPVI reports that due to rising gas prices, the city of Idaho Falls says it needs to raise some service fees in order to cover its costs.

"It's many, many thousands of dollars that it's gonna hit our budget," says Idaho Falls Councilwoman Ida Hardcastle. "I just hope we don't have to raise the levy to cover it, but we possibly will have to."

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About those rising waters ...

Residents are getting ready as the Coeur d'Alene River at Cataldo gets closer to flood stage this week.

Fortunately, though, because of record winter snowfall, emergency responders have been preparing for a flood since January.

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Hecla's headache

Workers are blocking the entrance to Coeur d’Alene mining company Hecla's mine in Venezuela.

Work at the Isidora gold mine has been stopped for eight days after Venezuela denied exploration permits to two gold miners operating in the same region.

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Praising the Snake

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig didn't get his way when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill Wednesday to designate the headwaters of the Snake River as "wild and scenic."

Craig opposed the bill, saying delivery of water will "always be a question as managers determine flow based on use, especially on parts of the river to be designated as recreational."

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Mexican pride a no-no at Burley high school

As you saw on IdahoStatesman.com late yesterday afternoon, a Rupert high school teacher said he took a Mexican flag away from a student on Monday and put it in the garbage because he feared "white kids" in the class might harm the student with the flag.

Teacher Clint Straatman literally trashed 16-year-old Froylan Camelo's Mexican flag, which Camelo brought to Minico High School to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Now the ACLU is considering filing suit against the P.E. teacher.