Here's a draft of our lead editorial for Friday:

Idaho’s watchable wildlife is a great amenity. Along our state’s roads and highways, however, wildlife is a hazard.

At least 5,000 elk, deer and moose were killed in vehicle accidents in 2011 — and that’s a low-end estimate that reflects only reported accidents.

The problem is as old as the automobile, of course, but the problem only figures to worsen as the state’s population grows and encroaches into more remote and wildlife-rich areas.

On Tuesday, Boise City Council members voted themselves pay raises totaling 17.7 percent, and gave Mayor Dave Bieter 23.9 percent worth of raises.

As an editorial board, we were split on this one. I respect my colleagues’ arguments for the raises. The mayor and the council have important jobs — and if we want qualified and quality officeholders, we ought to be willing to compensate them fairly.

Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll may not have much to show for her first term in the Legislature, but she made a Washington Post blog today.

It's unlikely Rebecca Arnold and Boise City Hall's elected officials will be getting together for a cup of holiday cheer any time soon.

On Tuesday — before the council approved pay raises for Mayor Dave Bieter and themselves and raised sewer fees — Arnold fired off a pointed email to City Hall. Arnold is an Ada County Highway District commissioner, re-elected earlier this month, although she says she was writing on her own behalf.

My name is Kevin. I write a newspaper column, which means, if you read this space regularly, you know more about me than you bargained for.

You don’t know what kind of car I drive — and while I am not ashamed of my ride, I’m not going to tell you what it is.

No matter. Someone out there knows. And someone knows what you’re driving too.

Here's a draft of our Wednesday editorial. Updated, 5:17 p.m., with comments from Garden City City Council member Jeff Souza:

On Nov. 6, 2,502 Garden City residents said they wanted to have the final say over Greenbelt policies.

On Monday night — only 20 days after the election — four City Council members decided they knew better. They voted unanimously to dump this voter-approved ordinance.

Here's a draft of our Tuesday editorial:

It was an milestone six years in the making. At 1 p.m. Monday, the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline went back online.

Reopening an in-state hotline — staffed by volunteers who know about local services — is the culmination of a long effort in coalition-building and fundraising.

This last-ditch idea has made the tea party rounds since Nov. 6. If red states boycott the Electoral College results, they could stymie the re-election of Barack Obama and allow a Republican-controlled House of Representatives to elect Mitt Romney.

A North Idaho state senator gave the idea some legs recently by floating it on social media.

Here's an excerpt from a weekend column from the Spokane Spokesman-Review's Betsy Russell:

We are a nation divided — and not just about our politics.

Today we are split — torn asunder, like a metaphorical drumstick — on a day that brings so many of us together for camaraderie and calories.

I speak not of Thanksgiving itself. For one dinner, we are neither red nor blue. We have our dark meat or white meat preferences, sure, but at least here we are a people of shared purpose, recognizing that we need the other guy to help power through the platter before us.

A draft of our Wednesday editorial.

It isn’t the early morning break-in at Zoo Boise that outraged a community and drew national attention.

It’s what happened after the break-in. When authorities searched the zoo for the intruders, they heard groaning — but could not tell if they were hearing the sound of a human or an animal. Outside a primate cage, they found a 35-pound Patas monkey that had suffered blows to the head and neck. The monkey died from the beating.