The polls on the homepage, Varsity Extra page and Boise State football page are finally working again.

While it isn't a scientific poll, I know lots of readers enjoy sharing their opinion. I heard from a lot of readers who missed the poll - and I hear from people when we have a typo in the question or when we don't provide enough voting options. We appreciate your feedback.

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Update: It looks like the issue with the polls is complicated and it may not be fixed today. Our support team continues to work on the problem.

In addition, the most popular stories list is not updating. That problem should be resolved today.

Thank you for your patience with these issues.

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Looking for a way to save money on dining out? Today, you can save 30 percent off gift certificates to local restaurants. (Follow this link.)

Many of them are already sold out so you'll want to check soon. I know the two I had my eye on are already gone. That'll teach me to wait too long!

Darlene Carnopis
Online Initiatives Editor

We recently added Obituaries to our mobile offerings. Anyone with a
smart phone can now see obits from today and past days as well as search for
specific obituaries. Just go to m.idahostatesman.com. The category is
right below the Opinion category in the main list. We don't have the option
for our iPhone app yet, but plan to add it soon.

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Don't forget to enter the Superhero Summer Trivia Contest --- you could
win 104 Regal movie tickets!

Today we launched dealsaver.com/boise -- it's a great way for you to receive daily emails on local deals. You'll be able to save up to 90% on local restaurants, family fun, golf, fitness and more.

We kicked it off with Taco Del Mar - $5 for $10. Yum!

Look for a new deal every Monday-Friday. I know there are more great deals planned.

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Looking for family activities?

We've given away some cool prizes at IdahoStatesman.com so far this year: Courtside seats to an Idaho Stampede game, Idaho Steelheads tickets in the Idaho Statesman
suite, tickets to the Boise Philharmonic, Race to Robie Creek entries
and a $50 gas card.

We've got two contests going on right now - for the music fan and the
basketball fan. Entering is simple.

For a chance for tickets to the Elton John concert, just enter to win.
That's it. You can come back to enter once a day. The contest ends
Sunday.

One lucky winner will get front-row seats.

We’ve been as frustrated as you’ve been about the increase in spam in our reader comments on stories. We really appreciate when you flag spam; it makes it easier for us to delete them and to look for patterns.

We’ve blocked known spammers from commenting on our site. But that wasn’t enough. So now, we are blocking url shorteners from being used in comments. 99 percent of the shortened urls that we’ve seen are spam. So that made the decision easy.

Are you a movie fan? Or racing fan? Or do you prefer a contest where you don't have to answer a bunch of questions?

No matter - we've got a variety of contests going on right now that might be right up your alley.

* Movie awards contest: Just pick your favorites for 10 categories and a tie-breaker for the Oscar awards. The local grand prize winner will receive 2 movie tickets a week for a year - that's a prize I wish I could win! You'll find it here.

Looking for things to do over the holidays? Let IdahoStatesman.com help!

* Take a lights tour. We've created a database of holiday lights
submitted
by readers. Check it out here. We'd love
to have more - submit your address by following the same link.

* Do you ski? Use our map to find out
how much snow the ski areas in the Northwest have. Find hours, costs and
more.

Calling all Bronco and Vandal fans!!! It’s rivalry week and we want to hear from you. Post your comments below and tell us who you’re rooting for and what you think will happen in Friday’s game. Are you going to the game? Watching it on TV (ESPN2 at 7 p.m.)? Throwing a tailgater or party?