I think our entire government is texting and driving — in office. I wish the outcome would cost them personally instead of the less-for-more outcome We The People pay for.

The increased Idaho speed limits are Ludicrous Speed, and faster than most of the typical Idaho vehicles can safely drive:

Hope this makes you laugh boss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk7VWcuVOf0

It is long overdue for St. Luke’s to give up their tax exempt status. That is $600,000 that could be going to the schools and city services such as police and fire departments. I am ok if they don’t pay taxes on the actual hospital but all the administrative buildings, other office buildings and doctors offices they need to pony up the taxes.

Downtown–Where are all the trees? I thought this was the city of trees?

Single Car Accidents–I think some of these, besides technology distractions, can also be attributed to impaired drivers. More and more people are driving under the influence of medications.

I bet if you average the number of bus riders (in a 15 min period) during the day you would be lucky to get 5.

One complaint to date would be that I have witnessed some drivers that get away with very high speeds on major arteries like Vista Ave. The other day, a small rollerskate of a car flew southbound at an easy 80mph! It was so fast that I could not grab the tag numbers. There seems to be an impunity with this. I used to see more police presence on Vista.

RE: “SINGLE CAR ACCIDENTS”: It would be better to call ’em single-car CRASHES. An “accident” implies a certain degree of happenstance; almost all crashes involve mistakes made by one or more of the involved parties… and almost all crashes could be avoided.

As tragic as a “single car crash” is, it is also almost always the fault of the vehicle operator. And if they were fiddling with a handheld device, the argument could be made that it’s Darwin’s Law of Natural Selection in action. The smart survive, the stupid, not so much.

What is TRULY tragic is when a distracted or impaired vehicle operator causes a multiple-vehicle crash. Such an event victimizes people whose only mistake was to be in the path of destruction. Unfortunately, it happens all the time, and it seems as though society is comfortable with that collateral damage.

Being a political activist has changed radically. We used to try to gently steer decisions for the greater good of the people. Now, the whole country, and really the entire world, is failing spectacularly, and corruption is so pervasive as to make one want to just throw up your hands in defeat. Guessing we are facing economic collapse and WW3 soon. Keep yourself healthy and sane, as good people will soon be needed to clean up the mess created by our criminal government, corrupt corporate media, and the insanely greedy Elite puppeteers hiding behind the curtain.

Removing the myth of the non-profit healthcare provider is long overdue.
Healthcare is indeed extremely profitable for those corporations which constantly profess to have our good health as their first priority. Healthcare for profit simply has to GO!
In practice healthcare provisioning is most definitely a for-profit corporate structure whose allegiance is not to those patients they serve. Instead the answer as of late has been that they owe a duty of return on investment to their shareholders first. Shareholder hegemony without apology, by definition substantially contributes to the increased costs we are all asked to pay.
As a practical matter there are no real checks or balances which can or could have prevented the massive increases in healthcare costs the US has experienced in the last few years.
When asked how much healthcare services should cost, an industry insider replied: “How much is too much when the sky is the limit!?”
Health Insurance companies are only now admitting that they suffered losses in the last few years which now must be made up for with double digit increases in the costs of premiums across the board for next year.
The good news is there is a promising business model which is being tested in New York state which shows real promise as an alternative to the current “non-profit/cost shifting/variable pricing/spend until your breakeven” business model currently in use in our national healthcare system.
This new model simply asks the hospitals to determine their bottom line breakeven costs of operation. The state then guarantees that amount with wiggle room for increases and the hospital agrees to provide service without the need for insurance! You can imagine the howls of discontent from the for-profit insurance companies! The overall funding is taxed at the local state level to both cover and control costs…what a concept. Rich or poor you can be seen by a doctor.
I am told that hospital administrators are supportive of the model as it simplifies and reduces their overhead costs by eliminated the need for billing, collections etc.
The current system is already engaged in a quasi-breakeven business model called Medicare which gave us CPT codes, ICD 9 and ICD 10 billings structures.
I am not against paying doctors more money, but I really take issue with the current compensation packages for St. Als and Lukes top brass (a cool million each with bennies!)
Any system that charges those patients who can least afford to pay, the very highest amounts demanded is a mean-spirited broken system which disrespects the fact that illness is a human condition which is totally unrelated to any person’s capacity to pay.
Healthcare will eventually affect us all. We are all suffering from a death sentence from the day we are born. In simplest terms “good health” is just the slowest way to die.
IMO, everyone who might potentially ever be sick or get ill should read Steven Brill’s book “America’s Bitter Pill”.
It is a real eyeopener.

erico49, I see bicyclists texting and fiddling with their handhelds while riding one-handed or zero-handed, all the time!

One very significant distinction between them and motorists, however… as a rule, those cyclists are only putting themselves in mortal danger. Distracted motorists kill and maim innocent bystanders routinely!

3 of the 5 examples show taxpayers are getting screwed.

I did not realize until yesterday that because the fed and city money was used to build the bus garage we – the tax payers – basically paid for Tommy Alquists’ building foundation. Gave it to him for free. 🙁

Hey westernguy! You neglected to mention Mark Rivers’ religious affiliation. I’m sure it was just an oversight. (Since obviously it’s pertinent, or you wouldn’t have mentioned Alquist’s [sic].)

Will someone still in possession of their gonads please ask Mayor Bieter some hard questions about his public-side socialist tendencies. And his private-side strongly favoring of a handful of Boise businessmen who seem to benefit a great deal from his decisions.

EDITOR NOTE–Speed, you just asked, but don’t expect any answers.

I watched a biker today riding and texting. Then he hit a curb and fell over himself. Got up on 2 feet and continued texting. I told him about our discussion here of bikers texting.

With rejection of the CWI bond, how about removing hospital tax exemption and dedicate resultant tax monies to building CWI?