School For Pregnant Teens Cheaper Than Welfare?

We’re going to take a big step and post the following information which comes from Andy Hedden-Nicely, a one time Democrat politico for the U.S. senate, and one time founder of the Boise WEEKLY. As with any one-sided post from outside the GUARDIAN fold, we will gladly accept opposing views of approximately the same [...]

Bruneau Dunes Could Be Abuzz with ATVs

During the Vietnam War an Army officer explained a village had to be burned “in order to save it.”

Idaho Parks Director Nancy Merrill finds herself in that same situation today as she considers allowing dune buggies to chew up the tallest free standing sand dune on the continent to possibly make a few bucks to [...]

Attorney General Asked To Investigate Caldwell Urban Renewal

Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak announced Today he will petition the office of Idaho Attorney General to investigate information revealed yesterday by the Boise and Caldwell GUARDIAN news blogs.
“Based on the information presented and the check register of the agency, the case certainly merits further investigation,” said Bujak. He explained the case will start [...]

Audit Of Caldwell Urban Renewal Imperative

Caldwell GUARDIAN editor Paul Alldredge has been working tirelessly to shed light on the excesses and deceptive activities of urban renewal agencies in Canyon County. In his latest effort he obtained the check register of the Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency which reveals a pattern of abuse and deception. This report will draw [...]

Update On Desire Named Street Car

The DAILY PAPER has joined the long list of opponents to Team Dave’s “Desire Named Street Car” with a HUGE EDITORIAL in Sunday’s edition. They didn’t go soa as advocating a massive increase in the bus system, but it is clear (to us) the Statesman has come over to the GUARDIAN side.
Reporter Cynthia Sewell [...]

City Has Poor Record On Land Speculation

The Daily Paper ran a lengthy story Saturday detailing plans by Team Dave to sell a bunch of “surplus property” to finance other projects intended to stimulate the economy through GROWTH.
The City can’t be trusted to follow through. Since the inception of the GUARDIAN we have watched the city buy land with grandiose plans [...]

Governments Fight Each Other With PR Efforts

The last minute “panic attack” to to get the Air Force to locate not one, but two bases of F-35 fighter jets in Idaho brings to mind some the other ill fated government-funded Public Relations efforts we have seen over the years.
If the F-35 follows in the footsteps of most of the other projects [...]

Sweet Offer From G-BAD Boys

The Center on the Grove, operated by the Greater Boise Auditorium District (G-BAD) sent a bunch of decorated cakes to newsrooms throughout the Valley today in an effort to garner good news reports about the convention center’s 20th anniversary.
At least they haven’t claimed their so-called birthday party is a “public out reach” or an [...]

Politicos Prefer Secrets Over Public Scrutiny

Dan Popkey reports in the DAILY PAPER that Idaho Democratic legislators are taking the lead from their Republican opponents and holding secret caucus meetings for the first time in 9 years.
They justify it, saying if the opposition knows what is planned, they could lose their chance to win on important issues.
Unfortunately [...]

TJ Withdraws Support Of Street Car Vote

Basing his judgement on the unsuccessful petition drive efforts of the candidate he defeated in November, City Councilor TJ Thomson has withdrawn his support for a public vote on the funding for a street car in downtown Boise.
In a statement to the GUARDIAN, TJ said, “The fact that David Litster was not able to acquire [...]

“Non-Partisan” Think Tank Issues Pork Report

An outfit called the Idaho Freedom Foundation is gaining traction billing itself as a “think tank” and offering the public a variety of “reports” and op-ed pieces.
While they call themselves non-partisan, it is fair to say there probably aren’t too many liberal Democrats within the ranks. Wayne Hoffman, an able journalist and former [...]

GUARDIAN Top 2009 Stories By Month

As the legacy media does its annual TOP TEN stories to fill space between the holidays, the GUARDIAN has done the same thing based on what we have posted in the past year.
In rereading some of the posts and comments, it appears we have an inordinate number of comments on police and fire stories. [...]

GUARDIAN Christmas Wish List

For those who believe in Santa Clause, we have a Christmas wish list which has plenty of room for additional items.

A toy train for Dave Bieter so he will stop trying to force a trolley and AMTRAK upon the kind, decent inhabitants of the City of Trees.
A toy ambulance for the Boise FD so they [...]

Ada County Property Tax Update

Monday, December 21 is the deadline for paying first installment of property taxes and Ada County Treasurer Cecil
Ingram tells the GUARDIAN collections are “just about the same as last year to date,” despite an ailing economy.

Of course, many tax bills are part of mortgage payments and the bankers wait until the last possible day to [...]

City Allows “Other Side” Into Open House

Early visitors to the City’s street car open house had a chance to get information from at least one opponent of the proposed $60 million project.

Jim Monihan, known to GUARDIAN readers as “Cyclops,” had made repreated requests of Team Dave’s press agent, Adam Park, to have space at the Street Car Open House being [...]

TJ Favors Vote Of People On Trolley

Boise City Councilor-elect TJ Thomson told the GUARDIAN Monday he favors a vote of the citizens on Team Dave’s proposal to spend $60,000,000 on a downtown street car.
When asked if he favored a vote, Thomson flat out said, “Yes, I support a public vote on the Street Car.”
With regard to the petition drive by [...]

More On “Desire Named Street Car” (sorry)

EDITOR NOTE–We hate to keep beating this Trolley Horse, but the politicos and press just won’t let it die.
Team Dave Just won’t quit
Pushing this streetcar bit
There is no way they can
Cover this crazy plan
They’ll just put a LID on it!
–Poet Paul
Both the DAILY PAPER and the BOISE WEEKLY have published stories about the Desire [...]

Legislator Wants Tax On Tax

A state rep from Moscow is floating a 5% “surcharge on Idaho taxes” to keep certain state services afloat. You can post here as we know they read the GUARDIAN at the state level too.
For starters, we explained to a staffer a couple weeks ago that those of us who are making [...]

STATESMAN Readers Bash Bieter Trolley

Mayor Dave Bieter continued his pitch for a trolley in the narrow streets of Downtown Boise with an op-ed piece in the Daily Paper Wednesday.
Out of 10 comments posted so far, there was one flat out supporter, one “sorta for it” and eight who flat out were against it. Count the GUARDIAN in the [...]

AMBUS Every Minute For Cost Of AMTRAK

For the cost of a daily AMTRAK train or two, the GUARDIAN can provide bus service that would run a bus EVERY MINUTE 24/7.
That’s right. We got out the ol’ electronic calculator and punched in the numbers for the cost of the GUARDIAN’s fantasy AMBUS plan versus the cost of AMTRAK.
Here’s [...]