We got a sneak-peak Today at the newly-renovated Idaho Statehouse, and we'll have a photo essay of the highlights of our new public building in Sunday's paper. It was 30 months and $120 million in the making and was designed to make the public's business run smoother. You can decide if it does.

Anyone who watched the Patriots blow the game against the Colts last night will be interested to know that — theoretically — coach Bill Belichick had a 78.8 percent chance of winning the game by going for it on 4th and 2. What a fascinating (and flawed) argument.

I select athletes from each sport on a weekly basis and post them here Monday. Because the football playoffs are in progress, I selected two football players along with our first girls basketball player this season. We also have a cross country runner from last week's regional meet. Please e-mail me your nominations at jzentz@idahostatesman.com.

By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com

Boise State freshman tailback Matt Kaiserman and senior tight end/fullback Richie Brockel will miss the rest of the season, coach Chris Petersen said Monday.

Kaiserman has a broken leg and will have surgery, Petersen said.

Brockel has a foot injury, the extent of which doctors have not determined, Petersen said. He wasn't sure whether it would impact Brockel's preparation for the NFL Draft. Brockel is one of the nation's top fullbacks.

Last night's songs:

—John Mayer, "Half of My Heart"
—.38 Special, "Hold On Loosely" (partial)

—Aerosmith, "Get a Grip"
—Stephen Pearcy, "Toys in the Attic" (partial)

—Janet Jackson, "Make Me"
—Snow Patrol, "Crazy in Love"

—Electric Six, "Body Shot"
—Echo & the Bunnymen, "I Think I Need It Too"

"The Other Studio" airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on 94.9 FM "The River."

Bryan Fischer's old Idaho Values Alliance is silent (as a check of his old URL stomping ground demonstrates).

But Fischer, now a Mississippi-based radio talker, is doing what radio talkers do well. He is demagoguing a tragedy — the Fort Hood shooting massacre — by doing a little bit of old-fashoned religion-bashing. Fischer's prescription: Ban Muslims from the military.

U.S. District Judge James Redden wrote a letter Thursday that set the stage for his hearing Nov. 23 on the federal government’s biological opinion on the Columbia and Snake River dams.

The opinion is the federal government’s 10-year plan for operating the federal dams an the other measures it plans to take to offset the dams’ impact on 13 stocks of endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia watershed, a area larger than France. Oregon, environmentalists, fishermen, fishing businesses and the Nez Perce tribe have challenged the plan and earlier plans since 2001 in court.

The two huge white things flew by silently on the Boise River. I was taken by surprise.

What's worse was that my camera was in my fanny pack and I missed the shot.

CONCERT REVIEW, Electric Six, Nov. 16, Neurolux

Nobody blurs the difference between stupid and smart more carefully than Detroit dance-rockers the Electric Six.

Buddy Miller, who spent the weekend opening for Emmylou Harris at the Egyptian Theatre, has agreed to hang around town for an in-store performance at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, at the Record Exchange in Downtown Boise. Miller will be joined by members of his band for the gig. Questions? Call 344-8010.