LaRocco, Rammell agree on exactly one thing • Otter, Idaho delegation on a mission in Vietnam • Natural gas demand will soon surpass supply in Sun Valley • Hanford workers protest Idaho waste shipment • Elementary schools given "Distinguished" title • Simpson cracks Esquire top ten list

LaRocco, Rammell agree on exactly one thing

Democrat Larry LaRocco and Independent Rex Rammell didn't agree on much during a debate on Thursday night at the College of Southern Idaho.

But there was one topic on which the two U.S. Senate candidates saw eye to eye — Jim Risch is wrong for Idaho.

"I would rather debate an honest Democrat any day than a deceitful Republican and that's what I think he is." Rammell said of Risch. "The reason he hasn't taken positions is he doesn't have very good positions."

The Times-News reports that the topics debated ranged from the financial crisis to health care to energy.

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Otter, Idaho delegation on a mission in Vietnam

Led by Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter, a trade delegation from the Gem State including officials from the state departments of agriculture and commerce, as well as nine companies based in Idaho are in Vietnam to pursue trade opportunities there.

"Idaho and Vietnam both have the opportunity to grow and develop by helping each other," said Otter.

According to the Vietnam news agency, Otter said two-way trade between Vietnam and Idaho in the past two years has increased by 67 percent.

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Natural gas demand will soon surpass supply in Sun Valley

Intermountain Gas recently reported that the line delivering natural gas to Ketchum and Sun Valley is near its maximum capacity and will not be enough to handle growth if a number of large-scale projects are built in the city.

"This is a capacity issue, not a supply issue," Intermountain Gas Co. spokesman Rick Moore said. "We've been looking at this since last spring and hope to know in the next few months what we need to put in place and how much it will cost."

According to a report filed at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, Intermountain Gas has known about this issue for months. City leaders, however, are just hearing about the problem, according to the Associated Press.

Michael Doty, a member of the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission and architect for the Residences of Thunder Spring development, told the paper the inability to provide gas service could stall proposed projects indefinitely.

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Hanford workers protest Idaho waste shipment

Workers at the Department of Energy's Hanford site on Thursday protested shipping radioactive waste to Idaho.

About 50 workers gathered outside of the Federal Building in Richland to express their displeasure at this "outsourcing."

DOE plans to send 1,000 drums of waste - most of it contaminated with plutonium - to Idaho for compaction and then shipment to a repository in New Mexico for disposal.

Hanford workers have the training and capabilities to do work, and they are worried this could signal the beginning of other jobs going elsewhere.

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Elementary schools given "Distinguished" title

Just three elementary schools out of 650 in Idaho earned the title of "Distinguished School."

Mt. Hall Elementary in Bonner's Ferry, Webster Elementary in Lewiston and Trail Wind Elementary in Boise were recognized for meeting Adequate Yearly Progress on their Idaho Student Achievement Tests in reading, math and language arts.

"They are some of the absolute finest schools in the state," Mark Browning, communications officer for Idaho Department of Education in Boise, told the Bonner's Ferry Herald.

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Simpson cracks Esquire top ten list

Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican from Blackfoot who represents the state's 2nd Congressional District, has made Esquire magazine's list of the top 10 most principled and committed members of the U.S. Congress.

"More than any other representative, Simpson lives by the philosophy that democratic representation is a matter of finding not advantageous positions but common ground; not of manning the ramparts but of parleying to prevent war," the Esquire article says.

The other nine members of Congress who made the Esquire list are: Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.; Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo.; Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Me.; Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala.; and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

The list is published in this month's edition of Esquire.