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Mama's Purse

Author: A.J. Irving
Illustrator: RickThomson
Publisher: AJ’s Children’s Books LLC, 2012
$14.39 Hardcover

By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com
© 2013 Idaho Statesman

The Boise State football team added a commitment this weekend from the defensive MVP of the Texas state championship game.

Cornerback Cameron Hartsfield (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) of Allen (Texas) High committed Saturday on a visit to Boise State. He previously committed to Nevada.

Boise State contacted Hartsfield two weeks ago, he said.

“I was still open to all my options and Boise State came in late,” he said. “I just wanted to check them out. I ended up loving it there.”

I hit the Polecat Trails at about 9:30 a.m. and rode snowy, icy trails that felt like cobble. It was slick AND bumpy. Lots of crusty snow, too. Not much fun, and it seemed like a minute after the sun hit, it all started getting slushy. I got off the trail on Cartwright Road and finished my ride on pavement, which was a lot better. Pick your trails carefully, plan to be off them early, and if you're mountain biking, you may want to wait a few more days until more snow and ice melts.

After their highly publicized dustup over whether Rep. Raul Labrador was disloyal and compromised his effectiveness by refusing to vote for the leader of his party and Rep. Mike Simpson's pal, Speaker John Boehner, Idaho's only House members have met face-to-face.

"I have talked to him," Labrador told me Thursday night after his town meeting on immigration at Meridian City Hall.

Did you mend fences? I asked.

Crews prepare a foundation in Meridian's Spurwing subdivision in a thick fog that formed over West Chinden Boulevard Friday Feb. 1, 2013.

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By Brian Murphy
bmurphy@idahostatesman.com

Former Boise State linebacker Byron Hout will be back on the Broncos' sidelines this fall as a defensive graduate assistant. Hout, a two-year starter, will coach linebackers.

Hout replaces Andrew Browning, who took a coaching position at UTEP under former Boise State offensive line coach Sean Kugler.

Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo said after his Jan. 4 guilty plea to DUI that losing his driving privileges would force him to seek alternative transportation.

I spoke with Crapo on his cell phone yesterday, as he was making the three-quarter-mile walk from the Dirksen Senate Office Building to his row house in Southwest Washington, where he occupies the basement apartment.

Sandra Mitchell doesn’t care whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists wolverine as a threatened species even though it could force snowmobilers and skiers out of some of the powdery back country they love.

Mitchell, the executive director of the Idaho Snowmobile Association, has been working with noted wolverine researcher Jeff Copeland on a study that is revealing where these elusive predators live and how recreation impacts of their numbers. She and her members know the study could force them to move to places that don’t disturb the shy females as they den in the winter.

When you aren’t getting in line a week early for tickets to that Rodney Atkins concert in April.

1. GO COUNTRY ... SEATTLE STYLE?
Texas/Idaho band Reckless Kelly headlines the Morrison Center tonight for a special sit-down experience. Later in the evening — 10 p.m. — up-and-coming Seattle-area group Aces Up will try to bring the house down at Reef. (It’s $5 unless you have a Reckless Kelly ticket stub. Then it's free.) Read more about Aces Up in my Scene column.)