Hollywood-based Morgan Margolis is the new president and CEO at Knitting Factory Entertainment, which operates the Knitting Factory Concert House in Boise. Previous top dog Jared Hoffman, who lives in New York, will leave Knitting Factory at the end of the year.

OK, I'm back from a week of vacation and on the media circuit again. Last night on "The Other Studio," Tim Johnstone and I played music from newly released Christmas CDs:

-Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson, "Winter Song"
-Jack Johnson, "Someday at Christmas"

-Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
-Hall and Oates, "Jingle Bell Rock"
-Katy Perry, "White Christmas"

-Aretha Franklin, "Angels We Have Heard on High"
-Ray Charles, "Little Drummer Boy"

-The Pretenders, "Blue Christmas"
-Goldfrapp, "Winter Wonderland"

Republican Sen. Larry Craig will step down from the U.S. Senate in 10 days but he will leave at least one legacy waiting for completion in the next Congress.

Hidden deep in the nearly 150 public lands bills referred to as the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which includes Sen. Mike Crapo’s Owyhee Canyonlands bill and a Snake River Wild and Scenic Rivers bill for Wyoming, is authorization for $3 million for feasibility studies of new dam and reservoir projects on the Snake River, Boise and Payette rivers in Idaho.

Today, let's take a look behind the curtain of punditry.

This time of year, editorial writers worry both about slaying the dragons of the world and about feeding the beast of holiday season pages. More in the interest of the latter, I serve up a microwaveable sample of the worst of the English language, 2008 vintage.

My friends and colleagues on the National Conference of Editorial Writers e-mail listserv have been spending the past few days kicking around phrases that deserve to be booted from the lexicon.

I missed a few easy shots duck hunting over the weekend because of shotgun freeze-up.

It was around 24 degrees with about a 20 mph wind blowing. Any splash from waves on the Snake River or from dripping retrievers landed on the shotgun and immediately froze.

I cleaned the shotgun pretty darn good before heading out because I had the same problem the previous week.

On one occasion, a couple of ducks were coming into the decoys and the gun's safety button was frozen. I had to use a lighter to thaw it out. Of course, I missed the shot.

SAN DIEGO — TCU senior linebacker Robert Henson, an All-Mountain West first-team selection and the team’s second-leading tackler, will not play in Tuesday’s Poinsettia Bowl against Boise State because of academic issues, coach Gary Patterson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sunday.

Henson, who started all 12 regular-season games at strongside linebacker, had 73 tackles including nine for loss and two interceptions. Henson had 272 tackles in his career.

Tony McMillan says her career has gone to the dogs.

McMillan, a freelance Boise artist, makes a living drawing and painting pictures of pets, sometimes with their owners. She also draws historical scenes and landscapes. She has illustrated a book and designed logos for local governments and other organizations. She draws calendars and can draw a contemporary image — like your car — into a historical streetscape.

By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com

SAN DIEGO — Two Boise State football players did not make the trip to San Diego with the team Friday and won't play in the Poinsettia Bowl on Tuesday.

Sophomore cornerback Keith McGowen has been dismissed from the team.

Freshman wide receiver Tyler Shoemaker was left home.

Coach Chris Petersen did not give reasons for the disciplinary measures.

Boise State is still waiting for all of the players' grades to be posted and doesn't yet know if any of them will be academically ineligible.

•••

Harvest time is over, but Idaho farmers’ use of undocumented workers is back in the news.

Temporary U.S. Labor Department rule changes for work-related immigration will become permanent two days before Barack Obama takes office, the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation notes.

Meanwhile, two North Idaho legislators plan to introduce again a twice-rejected bill to penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants — and that has the Idaho Farm Bureau weighing in again.

Interior Secretary nominee Ken Salazar's first test will come with his decision whether to list or not to list the sage grouse as threatened or endangered.

The bird is the canary in the coal mine of the health of millions of acres of sagebrush steppe habitat across 11 western states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must decide by May whether to list the bird after a decision by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise in a case filed on behalf of the Western Watersheds Project.