Archive for September, 2008
Council Bullys Eat GUARDIAN’S Lunch
The Councilors and Mayor looked down from their perch at the GUARDIAN editor as he tried to finish a sentence about the insider trade they made with citizen-owned commercial land on Fairview. Three minutes to the second and it was time to “sit down and shut up.” They even bragged about “making a profit” on […]
Cast Your Ballot At The Kitchen Table
This is a bit of a re-run, but it serves as a good reminder to use that application for an absentee ballot you got in the mail if you are a registered Ada County voter. Both Ada and Canyon Counties have switched to the new system and clerks fear a traffic jam at the polls […]
Daily Paper Awash In Red Ink
Don’t look for any extended coverage in the Daily Paper. They can’t afford it because their McClatchy parents are running through cash like drunken sailors. Last week the company slashed 1,150 jobs at their 50 newspapers– its second major round of reductions in three months. They reportedly lost six newsroom positions in Boise because of […]
Lingering Land Deal Questions
Boise City needs a shooting range for the coppers and the city owns bare ground in a blighted area–which they created–that needs to be developed. Obvious solution is to sell the bare ground and buy the shooting range. Not in this River City. Boise officials are scrambling to clean up the swap with some docs […]
City Land Deal Put On Hold
The land deal that was to include a three way swap to get the Boise PD a shooting range in the Foothills and a group of docs the site for a private hospital has been put on hold until at Least October 23. We got this message from the Team Dave press office: “At its […]
Boise Land Deal Probably Illegal
UPDATED 9/22/08 Looks like Boise City officials are playing fast and loose with the law. Public hearings and legal notices are required with details of proposed sales and exchanges of land to trade Citizen owned parcels at 25th and Fairview for a police shooting range.. The city followed the rules FOUR YEARS AGO! IT wasn’t […]
Mayor Hotline September 13 to 19
TALKING DIRTY ABOUT COLD STONE DOWNTOWN, WEEDS OUT OF CONTROL, BAD PHOTOGRAPHY…and city hall won’t answer the phone! 9/18/08 Melissa LaPlae Coldstone Cremery: I own a business downtown, New Leaf Boutique. Right next door to me is Coldstone Creamery and I have been dealing with this horrible mess in front of this business for a […]
Aimless Visitors On Boise Streets
Sunday the GUARDIAN bumped into some real nice tourists from Canada pouring over a highway map at a local coffee shop. Being the know-it-all GUARDIAN, we asked if the visitors needed some directions. “We went to your capitol, but it was boarded up, so we went to the Depot and it too was closed. Do […]
Will Boise Market Misery For Profit?
It looks like the squabble over who will run–and profit–from ambulance service in Boise is alive and well. Boise firefighters have been quietly adding trained paramedics to their ranks for a couple years. On the face of it, a way to save lives and generally improve the level of emergency service to citizens. Meanwhile, during […]
$30K Items Stolen From Canyon Jail Site
This is a post from our sister site, the CALDWELL GUARDIAN, by editor PAUL ALDREDGE It has been reported to THE GUARDIAN that $30,000.00 worth of steel tables have been stolen from the new Canyon jail construction site on Highway 20/26. The tables were designed and built to go in the living units of the […]
Statesman Favors Wall Street Over Local News
What a shocker to open the Daily Paper Sunday edition hoping to find something in the way of local news and getting two full pages of the Wall Street Journal instead. No doubt it is cheaper–WSJ may even be paying to get into the Daily Paper. OR the Daily fills space at a lower price […]
No Winners In Jail Death Suit
Five years of legal hassle ended last week for John and Carol Eichmann when an Ada County jury declared the county and sheriff’s department were not liable for the death of Carol Eichmann’s son, Michael McClure. The couple’s pain over losing a son who died in the Ada County Jail is still deep. McClure had […]
Lost Laser Off Copper Chopper
We once posted an item about Boise coppers getting free pizza if they won the informal monthly DUI arrest contest. What do they get get when they lose a $3,000 laser speed gun? The coppers put out a press release Wednesday explaining the police toy was missing from a copper motorcycle following the BSU football […]
Statesman Struggles To Survive
Caught in a techie society amid economic tumult, the Daily Paper is struggling to find its place in today’s society while struggling for survival. First to go was the cost of a new printing press (Nampa will print the Statesman), now they are cutting back on staff, including six in the newsroom. Instead of trying […]
Land Value Disparity In City Deal
As a follow up on the post below about Boise City’s land manipulations, the GUARDIAN will attempt to run a play-by-play as we learn more under this post. –The land at 950 Citation off Gowen Rd. is valued by the County Assesor at only $232,600, but the city is acquiring it for $415,000. We can […]
Boise Officials Skirt Bid Law
Boise coppers will resume using the infamous shooting range in the foothills, but City officials will be competing with Pinocchio in the area of facial features when Councilors approve a new land acquisition Tuesday night. After declaring land at 25th and Fairview to be “surplus property” and ordering it to be sold to the highest […]
Mayor Hotline September 6 to 12
NOISY CHOPPERS NEED COPPERS, LEAKING DITCH, DEVELOPER HASN’T WIDENED STREET, DUI COPPER GOT OFF LIGHT, WHO SELLS COPPER BROCHURE? We are learning the system and are back in town, so hopefully this week’s hotline will be easier to read. Just click “more” to get the rest of the story. Anonymous DUI: I’m calling in reference […]
Ada Commishes Vote Population Increase
All three Ada County Commishes voted late Wednesday to approve a giant subdivision of 3,113 homes covering nearly 2 square miles in the desert south of Kuna Mora Road at S. Cole. Their ill conceived actions stand to increase the population by at least 9,000 people. Consider the area is near a prison crammed full […]
ACHD Candidate Critical Of Budget
We are probably opening the proverbial Pandora’s box, but the GUARDIAN will offer reasonable space to candidates for local offices between now and election day. The comments will be posted as they come in with minimal editing. We are imposing a “reasonable length” guideline. By Sara Baker, Dist. 5 ACHD Candidate Citizens should be disheartened […]
Don’t Judge Books By The Cover
Sometimes people have more inside them than one would think from a first glance. Such was the case when we spotted this lad outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain during a recent visit for the “day job.” You are welcome to offer your own captions, but the GUARDIAN thought it was worth sharing.
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