Who do you pay to fix this law?

I mean what do you expect, it's Idaho; it's not what you know, it's WHO you know. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

She's got a right to be angry. I would be too.

I don't see anything wrong with thanking the person finally pushing it further for being open-minded to bipartisanship and fresh ideas, but yes as a voter who takes the issues seriously I want to know things like that...Who is pushing the kind of things that are important to me, and who is open to crossing party lines to do what is best for the community...what I don't want is to see someone take credit for something they didn't do and then expect to have my trust or my vote.

Kevin, this is the line in the editorial that prompted my comments:

"The idea deserves bipartisan support, albeit belatedly."

I know that the editorial probably meant to imply, in your words from the following passage, that it is the GOP that has "had a troubling tendency to move slowly to address shortcomings in ethics law. In some cases, they've been downright stubborn about it." But by the Stateman's failure in this context to even mention Kate's long record of work on the issue (or her recent op-ed noting how previous bills had failed on party-line votes), readers could very well come to the conclusion from your call for bipartisan support that Democrats are the ones who've been standing in the way of ethics reform - instead of the ones pushing for it.

We appreciate the past coverage you've given to Democratic attempts to put more teeth in Idaho's ethics laws and we applaud Rep. Labrador's intentions to move in that direction.
But this is an instance where you should have acknowledged both Rep. Labrador's bill as well as our long record of fighting for this issue. Thanks for this opportunity to set the record straight.

Kevin Julie should be mad and so should Idaho Dems, that was so grossly unfair on your part that you should write a whole editorial about the lengths Dems have gone to and how the R's are come-latelys. And how editorials like yours influence people to think Rs are the good guys when they are the rfevolving door lobbyists.

Power of your column is too important for you to brush off. The Demos should be furtious with you. I am.

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To read is wonderful. To comprehend art. Falling back to whatever you believed in is NORMAL.

it's not the first time the Statesman has stuck its proverbial foot in its mouth. We've also read recently how the Republicans have rejected their own pay raise, even though the Democrats brought the issue up in December!

And by the way, the Democrats are not worrying about "who gets the credit"; on the contrary, we worry about fairness and accuracy in reporting, something with which you seem to have some trouble. Had you reported accurately in the first place, the Democrats would not have had to point out to you how inadequate your reporting was.

When you report only on the good deeds of Republicans without giving due credit to Democrats, you intentionally rob Democrats of their voice. And 2008 has demonstrated that many more Democrats live in this state and vote Democratically than there has been for some years. So do a favor for all Idahohoans, and report accurately.

You say ethics reform in our state legislature is "stalled" because of party-line voting. It is worse than this.
Last session, Senator Kate Kelly presented two ethics reform bills that were printed but never discussed within committee! Not even discussed! They never had a chance to be presented to the floor for a "party-line" vote.
As you very well know, this happens in other committees as well. There are potentially good bills that our elected officials never get to see let alone vote along their party line.
Frustrating.

MainStreetIdaho

Both the Republicans and Democrats are agreeing on things and are working together instead of against each other, at least on some things. With the current economic situation, that's important.

Kevin, the truth is you deserve the flak. By your own admission, Senator Kelly has worked for ethics reform for years and yet your editorial gives the appearance that Senator Labrador is leading on this issue. To be fair and honest you could have balanced the piece by giving Senator Kelly her deserved credit for leading on this issue.

Don't even get me started on the press coverage of the Legislator's pay raise issue!

It seems that timing is everything when it comes to the perception of bribery. All of our elected officials receive campaign contributions from political action committees, corporations, individuals, and other elected officials. I assume that if any contributor was dissatisfied with a vote cast by some one to whom they had contributed, they would not contribute to that candidate again. I know I wouldn’t.

In addition to the revised rule regarding septic systems, which has apparently provided Ms. Cloonan the opportunity to demonstrate her political integrity, the House committee on natural resources is scheduled to spend approximately an hour today considering the revised groundwater rule. Negotiations regarding the revised groundwater rule began in 2007 because, as Jack Lyman of the Idaho Mining Association, which represents the J.R. Simplot and Monsanto companies, stated, “You have to realize the nature of mining; mining creates some contamination that just cannot be cleaned up. We have to have some permanent exemptions to water quality violations to protect our industry.”

Following two rounds of negotiations and an attempt by Mr. Lyman to circumvent the process during the 2008 legislative session, the revised groundwater rule was approved by the IDEQ Board in October. Ms. Cloonan, who is not only retired from the J.R. Simplot Co., but received a $500 campaign contribution from the Simplot Co., voted in favor of the rule. The revised rule provides the exemptions that will allow the Simplot and Monsanto companies to continue to mine phosphate in Southeast Idaho and to contaminate ground and surface with the highest concentrations of selenium documented anywhere in the world.

The hazards of selenium are extremely well researched and documented. IDEQ identified selenium contamination as a potential hazard of phosphate mining in 1983. In the interim, hundreds of scientific documents have been published on the environmental and human health hazards of selenium. Coalitions of public interest organizations have fought in court for years to hold the mining companies, the Forest Service, the BLM, IDEQ and the U.S. EPA responsible for the environmental calamity that mining has created in the mountains of Southeast Idaho and Western Wyoming. And yet, Idaho’s legislature, led in part by Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes, Jr., who is also the Environmental Affairs Manager for Monsanto, is poised to rubber stamp a rule that will ensure that the problem of selenium contamination will accelerate and intensify.

According to the ‘Draft 2008 Interim Effectiveness Monitoring Report, Pole Canyon Removal Action, Smoky Canyon Mine’ prepared for the J.R. Simplot Co. in October 2008, the concentration of selenium dissolved in Lower Pole Canyon Creek, where water emanates from the toe of the overburden disposal area at Smoky Canyon Mine, was 6,230 micrograms per liter in May 2008, an increase of 5,240 micrograms per liter since May 2006. By comparison, Idaho’s drinking water standard for selenium is 50 micrograms per liter, and the surface water standard for protection of aquatic life (chronic exposure) is 5 micrograms per liter. The selenium that emanates from Smoky Canyon Mine flows via ground and surface water to Hoopes Spring, which discharges to Sage Creek, and eventually to Crow Creek, the Salt River, Palisades Reservoir and the Snake River. The concentrations of selenium in water collected at Hoopes Spring has more than doubled in nine months, from less than 20 micrograms per liter in January of 2007 to almost 40 micrograms per liter in September 2008. In about the same time, selenium in South Fork Sage Creek increased from 17 to 25 micrograms per liter. All of these concentrations already far exceed Idaho’s water quality standard for aquatic life, and selenium concentrations in these surface waters will only increase as selenium continues to seep from the overburden pile. These streams, along with numerous other streams in the phosphate mining area have appeared on Idaho’s 303(d) list of water quality impaired streams for years, but IDEQ has not even attempted to write a total maximum daily load (TMDL) for this contaminant, as required by law. And the scenario at Smoky Canyon is occurring in similar fashion at approximately 30 historic and abandoned mine sites throughout the mining area while Simplot expands Smoky Canyon and Monsanto develops more new mines.

If Ms. Cloonan’s scientific training equipped her to make sound decisions about the proposed rule regarding septic systems, it surely equipped her to recognize what the proposed groundwater rule portends for the Blackfoot, Salt and Snake river watersheds. But did her career at the J.R. Simplot Co., and her campaign contribution from the J.R. Simplot Co. override her scientific judgment and influence her decision to support the rule? Will the contributions made by the Simplot and Monsanto companies to the campaigns of numerous legislators influence their decisions to support the rule, thereby protecting the industry that not only employs the president of the Idaho Senate, but also employed Governors Otter and Kempthorne?

At exactly what point in time does a campaign contribution, a retirement benefit, or a salary constitute bribery or, as described in state statutes, “a pecuniary benefit”? Apparently, it’s all a matter of timing, and how will the so-called bribery law proposed by Mr. Labrador address this matter?

but it isn't going to happen. Who is kidding who? Millions, billions of $ at stake & our represneatives are going to stop taking the $ because the taxpayer would like representation? That would be against everything American, democratic, & you have to know, capitalistic.

There is only one business in America doing well these days,
at the expense of all others, & that is politics. As long as you can afford one you will be represented & in the money.

Isn't that how we ended up in this financial crisis? $64 million bought our representation, SEC looked the other way & trillions of $ later, we're on the edge of a depression equal to 1929. Who made the money? Don't tell me our representatives didn't make their share while trying to hide the reccession while taxpayers lost life savings in the market. People should be mad as well, but they don't have a clue or the guts to say or do anything.

If we want to fix the problem it might help to do the same as with every other crime, convict the crooks. Our prisons are full of small time, otherwise good people our crooked representatives consider a threat to society. Many are in prison because they did as our representatives wanted them to do, buy & drink alcohol! Now they're alcoholics, have a disease, need treatment, & it's costing US more

Prisons are costing US billions with no end in sight, no answers as to how we pay for more, while the real problem, biggest threat, is politics & campaign finance. Alcohol companies contribute so our representatives, promote drinking/business yet a guy with three DUIs can do life while a murder can get out in a few years? Taxpayers hand out billions in police, courts, prisons, county jail, while lawyers make bank & prisons milk the system.

There are a few bars that send more drunk drivers out the door than all the rest put together. That might be a good place to start in the DUI problem. Take the alcohol sales away form the problem bars. The Torch would be a good start. Is that a fine family resturant contributing to society? A place you can take your kids? The Boise police did a big investigation a couple years ago & all they found was a couple people mooning each other? There's more drugs & drunk drivers in these places than imaginable & all the police noticed was a full moon rising? Maybe our representatives & police need to go back for more training.

I could find a drug deal a week in the Torch & 100 drunk drivers walking out the door. Have a meth problem in Idaho? Go to the Torch & you'll find people squirming in their own skin because they're so wired.

These carreer politicians have people so confused & misguided the poor dumb fools, like a meth freak, can't decide what's what. Use mtomlin as an example. Campaign finance no doubt paid this clown to come on the blog & mislead US before the election. Where is tomlin these days? Tomlin was on here telling US we weren't in a reccession & suddenly when we're in a reccession we have been for a year. Tomlin was all about campaign finance & now the country is in a financial tailspin because our representatives took $64 million & the SEC didn't regulate!

The lies campaign finance spins costs taxpayer lives & money!
tomlin was so far off on reality it was amazing. We stopped communism in Vietnam, we weren't in a reccession, & a list perpetual. The truth is, the republican party lied through their teeth trying to win an election after they lied for eight years in busting our economy through war & mismanagment. Bush was trying to get out of office before the finacial crisis blew up in his face.

Now the democrats are in control & the republicans are doing everything possible to discredit them at America's expense. The crooks are willing to take $ from the stimulus they wouldn't support. Why not disallow any $ to states who had representatives vote against the stimulus?

If they didn't want it then, why give it to them now?

so I skip them.

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To read is wonderful. To comprehend art. Falling back to whatever you believed in is NORMAL.