JEERS ... to Jake Ball, of Meridian.

The operator behind a political action committee aimed at defeating the Open Primaries Initiative says he was duped into signing it.

Somehow Ball missed details behind the OPI — a top-four primary in the spring and a ranked-choice election in November — that have been covered by news media for more than a year.

He also failed to see on the front of the OPI petition he signed the short ballot title — in 20-point type — citing the top-two primary and ranked choice voting features.

And this political insider — who served as a staffer for then-Congressman Raul Labrador and a campaign aide for U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo — was outside the loop when Labrador, state GOP Chairperson Dorothy Moon and much of the crew that wound up dominating the recent state GOP convention heaped more vitriol on the OPI.

In fact, Ball is part of a select group — no more than a handful of the 97,000 Idahoans who signed the OPI petitions — to claim they didn’t know what they were doing.

And you know what?

When he says he’s gullible, believe him. After all, this is the same Jake Ball who on his own authority lost $250,000 of Crapo’s Senate reelection campaign cash in a Nevada real estate deal.

How was he supposed to suspect there might have been something fishy about making an investment promising an 8% return that found its way into an outfit called Pyramid Global Resources?

Who could blame Ball for ignoring the financial news before making that transaction on Sept. 22, 2008? After all, it was only one week after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy because of collapsing real estate demand and its impact on the subprime mortgage market. The bankruptcy was one of the opening rounds in what became the Great Recession.

When the transaction became public five years later, Ball told The Associated Press’ John Miller that he had “made serious errors” he wished he could reverse.

No charges were filed.

So if Ball says he’s careless enough to be taken in by a petition, take him at his word. With apologies to The Who: He will get fooled again.

CHEERS ... to Chairperson Jill Balmer and her fellow Lewiston Parks and Recreation Commission members.

Wednesday, they unanimously voted to recommend replacing the Bert Lipps Pool, preserve a wading pool and look at construction of a splash pad.

That vote comes on a heels of an online survey conducted from July 9 through Tuesday. Of the 2,239 who participated:

Nearly two-thirds, 1,467, supported both the pool and the splash pad.

464 backed removing the pool and replacing it with a splash pad.

308 wanted the pool restored.

It’s been a year since the Normal Hill neighborhood pool closed because it was leaking 90,000 gallons every day. That deprived children who typically walked to Bert Lipps during the nine-to-10-week summer season of a safe and affordable opportunity to go swimming.

“There is a concern about safety because we are close to the river and without having a pool close by for public use, that people will go to the river,” Balmer said.

The commission put its influence behind a plan now making its way to the Lewiston City Council sometime within the next couple of months. The big challenge there, of course, will be coming up with the funds — anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000 for a splash pad and $2 million to $3 million for a new pool. The city has no shortage of capital projects competing for dollars.

But it’s worth repeating: If the city could find $4 million to subsidize United Airlines flights between the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport and Denver for the next year, it can certainly find the means to serve the children of this community for years to come.

JEERS ... to Idaho GOP lawmakers — including the entire north central Idaho delegation — who leaped before they looked by giving parents ultimate control over the health care of their children.

In so doing, they disregarded their critics, failed to ask enough questions and invoked the law of unintended consequences. Now it turns out the new law is going to make it difficult to prosecute child abusers.

As Ruth Brown of Idaho Reports noted, the measure stops victims of child abuse from getting a sexual assault exam, or rape kit exam, without parental consent. Since 93% of child abusers know their victims and 34% of those abusers are family members — according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network — that’s a real impediment, especially since time is of the essence during these investigations.

“So, what I’m going to do as a nurse, if a child comes in and says, ‘My stepdad did this to me,’ and mom says, ‘She’s a liar, she’s been nothing but a liar since she’s 8 years old, this is not true. He would never do that.’ And I will tell you that happens all too often as well,” Deb Wetherelt, Idaho State Police sexual assault nurse coordinator, told Brown.

Among those who plunged ahead with this bill were a substitute standing in for Sen. Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins, Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Viola, and Reps. Mike Kingsley and Lori McCann, both R-Lewiston, Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, and Charlie Shepherd, R-Pollock.

They can’t say they weren’t warned.

“I was begging people not to pass that bill because not all parents have the best intentions in mind,” Democratic Senate leader Melissa Wintrow, of Boise, told Brown. “You have to have an escape hatch for youth and their health.” — M.T.