A leftover city elections endorsement from Friday: Conservation Voters for Idaho has endorsed Boise City Council incumbents Vern Bisterfeldt and Maryanne Jordan and newcomer TJ Thomson.

No surprises here. A fairly predictable endorsement of the current city administration on environmental and public transportation issues.

UPDATED, 11:13 a.m., to reflect news on the state's budget holdbacks.

If you want to get into the University of Illinois, it might help to know a now-defrocked governor or a convicted political player.

The school has reportedly passed over ordinary aspiring students in favor of politically connected applicants — among the names surfacing in this story are scandal frequent-fliers Rod Blagojevich and Tony Rezko. The story has persisted since May, and on Wednesday, the ongoing mess cost President B. Joseph White his job; he will resign effective Dec. 31.

TJ Thomson picked up one more high-profile endorsement this morning: Boise's police union is backing the City Council candidate.

In an otherwise quiet campaign, Thomson has already received endorsements from Mayor Dave Bieter, four current City Council members and a long list of prominent Democrats.

An odd but potentially productive legislative coalition wants to ban texting while driving.

Boise Democratic state Sen. Les Bock is taking another run at the texting ban; a similar bill stalled earlier this year. He has some key allies: Senate Transportation Committee Chairman John McGee, R-Caldwell; and House Transportation Chairwoman JoAn Wood, R-Rigby.

Idahoans are looking for work and struggling to find health insurance. Our homes are losing some of their value. And we're less well educated than most other states.

But at least our state government isn't sugar-coating the facts. Instead, government is actually performing a service by helping to inform the debate over health care reform and balancing the state budget.

These are worth a read. They come from two colleagues and former co-workers I respect: Corey Taule, opinion editor at the Post Register in Idaho Falls, and Marty Trillhaase, editorial page editor at the Lewiston Tribune.

Normally, I might insert these in our Saturday WestViews lineup, but we're going to focus this week on editorials about Idaho's budget crisis, including another of Trillhaase's edits. (That roundup is going to be worth your while, too.)

So, here goes, pasted here because Post Register and Lewiston Tribune online content sits behind paywalls:

For those of us who missed it on the calendar, Wednesday was Czar Day for the Idaho congressional delegation.

The Obama administration's salmon recovery plan has kept Snake River dam breaching on the table — but has moved it to about the farthest corner imaginable.

You'd think that this plan would be enough to satisfy the most ardent breaching opponents and dam status quo apologists. Apparently not.

Consider the overwrought reaction

Rep. Walt Minnick makes a good point about Rep. Joe "You Lie" Wilson, and has a good explanation for voting to reprimand the South Carolina Republican.

Through spokesman John Foster, Minnick commended Wilson for apologizing to President Obama for his outburst last week. However, Minnick said Wilson owed his House colleagues an apology "for the serious breach of decorum and House rules."

Does Wilson owe fellow House members an apology? Yeah, I think so.

Idaho's two House members disagreed on a resolution rebuking Rep. Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who shouted "You lie!" during President Obama's address last week on health care reform.

Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick voted yes. Said Minnick spokesman John Foster: "Walt commends Rep. Wilson for apologizing to the president, but agreed that Wilson needed to apologize to his colleagues for the serious breach of decorum and House rules."