The 8th Street bridge upgrade is long overdue. This will make this bridge accessible to all. The wooden planks are well weathered and create a very uneven surface. This makes it difficult for anyone using a wheelchair, walker or cane (vision impairment).

Wow, you have lost it.

Brad Little has shown that he listens and follows directions from his donors and bureaucrats. He is a man removed from the notion of losing his house, finding food, not paying his credit card bill.

Don’t paint Janice McGeachin as “uberright” connoting unpleasant german garbage. Brad has stupidly and it goes with the brain cells sidelined her and failed to appoint her to the reopen Idaho commission. Who is worse then a man that demeans women? At least Janice has a degree in finance and not agriculture science.

I am glad that you stayed home and didn’t have to worry about anything, but many people are very distressed and out of work.

There’s always real news but it takes a lot of work to cut through the fear of the pandemic. Maybe some reviews of where to go and what to do outdoors where people have yet to overrun.

All my calculations show that Gov Little is moving twice to fast. We won’t see results of Phase 1 until we’re halfway through Phase 3. There is a 3-6 week delay due to the rate of infection and deaths. The 2k/day USA terminal rate will most certainly exceed 3k/day in June and reach 4k-10k/day in July.

That being said… there’s a very good research paper measuring “deaths of despair”. Those increased deaths are roughly the same number as viral deaths. Though I detest the “open society up or give us death!” movement due to their lack of critical thinking… there is evidence to support that direction. Not to mention economics.

I bet that as we speak, Dave Bieter is preparing an online meme that is asking the electorate if we miss him yet.

So much for that pledge to “McLean” up the mess and drain the swamp.

Katie Fite often had good thoughts, but she needs to take a deep breath.

Govt’s have capital investments that must be made to keep the city/county/state functioning.

Ease up… the F-35’s aren’t coming.

Considering how much everything is at idle from covid, the expenses of local schools and governments should be substantially less. Any chance we can ALL get a property tax refund? It is after all being based of high values and the roaring economy of last year.

Hey local leaders, Republicans and Democrats both, you all never saw a tax you didn’t like. Especially if you can call it a fee. Now more than ever is the time to lead with aggressive relief to the people paying all your bills.

And if TRUMP wants tho help us even more he should allow the tax credits for rent, credit card interest, and multiple government fees to be reinstated.

So, 60+ deaths into this:
How many deaths are acceptable for everyone promoting the “get back into business” model?

Bonnie?
How about 5,000 Idahoans dead in order to have all the businesses running, paying taxes, and overfilling the medical system? Is that an acceptable toll?
500? 1,000?

If we go over that “acceptable loss number” then what?

Where’s the beef?

I’ll give you beef, Easterner. That is an unfair question. What is your acceptable threshold of suffering and death by throttling the economy to zero for who knows how long? Answers to both are just conjecture and manipulatable statistics. Just meaningless talking points to shame and silence the opposing view.

Easterner: For you to declare who engages in calculation is not beef, it’s baloney. For you to insult as dumb just because you disagree with their conclusion is simply arrogant. You obviously have no compassion for those driven to addiction and suicide. You have no regard for the hunger of children whose parents have lost a job. Evictions and foreclosures are not your concern. All this so you and your ilk can receive maximum protection. Your selfish disregard for the benefit of the citizenry is as disgusting as the other extremes you cite.

Eastie does not see beyond the drink in front of his face, beyond the wart on his nose, beyond his covid 19 breath.

This is a public health crisis, epidemic, pandemic, not a choice for anyone.

The country does not have the tools to deal with it. Please comply and keep your stinky asses home.

okay, I’ll take a stab at it. Acceptable cost/benefit.

the US tobacco industry is about a $100Billion market
Smoking causes about 480,000 deaths in the US EVERY year. And we as a society are PERFECTLY fine with accepting that PREVENTABLE loss. The majority of Idahoans would certainly be fine with this loss (dead smokers) in exchange for an individual’s FREEDOM of smoking if you want to (or the freedom to spread covid)–ignoring the 10% of related deaths due to innocent second-hand smoke, of course. :/

The value to the US economy to maintain a tobacco industry /the # of deaths = each life must be worth less than $208,000 to the US economy.
So economy vs a life- $208,000.
It’s just math.

if we unleash the Idaho economy and let people gather as they please right now- I GUESS we will lose 2,000 – 4,000 more Idahoans, to the virus, in the next year that would not otherwise die. This is Mike Pence’s “A-hole Model” of doing things like going into the Mayo Clinic withOUT ppe.

Anyway, we as a society are obviously okay with Idahoans dying EVERY YEAR at the rate of 900 smoker deaths; 400 diabetes related deaths; and 3,000+ deaths related to heart disease—EVERY YEAR–deaths mostly preventable with a new pair of sneakers for everyone. Yet, Idaho does NOTHING collectively to prevent these deaths.

So we’ll be okay with an additional 2,000 deaths, right?
Ergo, 2,000 deaths x $208,000 = $416,000,000 value. Reasonable?

Idaho’s GDP is about 70 billion.
An estimates is Covid closures are costing about 5% per month. So 300 million per month? What if it’s 3 billion for the whole year?

What if the death rate go crazy because YOUR medical facility is not able to help all the sick? Our current 70 deaths is WHILE resources are available. Not enough respirators all at once- maybe 10 times increase in deaths. Still worth it?

Or, be slow about it and reserve the possibility of shutting things down again if the # get beyond “an acceptable loss” ?

cost/benefit. It’s just math.
What are the alternatives?
We still do not have an organized testing/monitoring system!!!

I support the Governor’s AND Mayor McClean’s effort in their considerate and safe measures to deal with this crisis. Slow and steady. Crush the curve. Not hog-wild with m5s on the Capital steps.

*
Raul Labrador (along with most of the Teabaggers)says, “Open it up”.
But he doesn’t offer what is the acceptable alternative.
“The decision to reopen Idaho must be based on a complete analysis of the costs to our society” he wrote.

Great! What’s YOUR analysis Raul, and others promoting the idea?

EDITOR NOTE–Enough said. We will come up with another topic.