Fliers warning about the dire consequences of Washington Initiatives 601 and 602 that were recently placed on car windshields at Clarkston High School claim no state money was used to produce them.
That would be a lot easier to believe if the people or group producing them indicated who they are on the fliers.
The fliers look as though high school teachers and community college faculty members produced them, based on what they say. This reporter wonders if they would teach their students to make their political points by distributing anonymous fliers.
A few of their students might even work at the Clarkston Police Department.
''No 601/602,'' advised a piece of paper taped on the back of the front public entrance to the department last weekend.
But copies of other fliers paid for by The Committee for Washington's Future are available near the dispatcher's office. The committee is a group campaigning against the two tax limitation measures.
LCSC's home schoolers
Last Saturday, Jeri Tilman of Boise, vice chairwoman of the Idaho Coalition of Home Educators, posted newspaper stories about home schoolers on a wall at the University of Idaho to show their movement is becoming more popular.
One of the stories dealt with Lewis-Clark State College landing a $1.25 million federal grant to make higher education more accessible to students in north central Idaho's outlying areas through communication technology.
''They may be able to take the entire course from their houses,'' Robert Sorrels, LCSC's dean of extended programs and community development, says in the story.
But will those courses be as academically rigorous as those offered on campus?
EchoHawk's aides
A coordinator for Idaho Attorney General Larry EchoHawk's gubernatorial campaign quietly began work a few weeks ago in Boise.
Jane Jeffries, who served as a legislative assistant for former Idaho 2nd District Congressman Richard Stallings for two years, has worked on the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaigns of Ron Twilegar of Boise and Stallings and as a Boise schoolteacher.
She recently completed a four-month stint researching the record of U.S. Sen. Richard H. Bryan, D-Nevada, as a consultant for Washington, D.C.-based Squier, Knapp, Ochs Communications. Bob Squier has worked as a consultant for both Gov. Cecil D. Andrus and Stallings' campaigns.
The statement announcing her appointment was faxed out of the office of Idaho Democratic National Committeeman John Greenfield of Boise.
Tobiason's marathon
Former Nez Perce County Prosecutor Steven J. Tobiason ran his first marathon earlier this month in St. George, Utah, with his boss.
Idaho Attorney General Larry EchoHawk has been urging Tobiason to run a marathon for some time and Tobiason finally opted to try.
''I didn't stop running,'' Tobiason said this week. ''I was smart enough to let Larry win.''
He said he ran the 26-mile course in four hours and 18 minutes, two minutes behind EchoHawk, after training for the previous 12 weeks.
''I wasn't smart enough to have such a bad time,'' Tobiason said. ''I thought, 'Huh, it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be.''' He said his next marathon might be next spring in Coeur d'Alene, while his boss recently ran in his second marathon in a month.
Academic freedom down south?
The Meridian School District near Boise has been named one of the American Civil Liberties Union's 1993 Art Censors of the Year.
The district ''has censored everything from student newspapers to class speakers to a song about recycling,'' according to the ACLU.
Just two weeks ago, Idaho Rep. William T. Scali, R-Meridian, condemned an AIDS literature display at Boise State University for suggesting Cardinal John O'Connor of New York is ''a scumbag'' for opposing the use of condoms.
Idaho Board of Education member M. Karl Shurtliff of Boise has jumped to the defense of the exhibit.
''One of the costs of a free society is that from time to time some persons exercise that freedom,'' he wrote in a memo dated last Friday to Sali. ''Unfortunately, their exercise of their freedoms may be offensive to others of us. In balancing their exercise of freedom and my sense of offense, I come down on the side of freedom.''
Sen. Murray of Seattle
A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., recently said she hasn't taken a position either for or against drawdowns to save imperiled salmon runs.
More than a month ago, an aide for Murray attended a legislative tour put on by local opponents of even an experimental drawdown of Lower Granite Dam.
Patricia Akiyama, a spokeswoman for Murray, said the senator has been focusing on timber and spotted owl issues, and the salmon issue will be just as important and get a lot of time and study now.
F. Ron basher
This week, Idaho 1st Congressional District candidate Sonny Kinsey of Rathdrum became the latest Republican to take a dig at Port of Lewiston Manager F. Ron McMurray for contributing $50 to Democratic Congressman Larry LaRocco's campaign two years ago.
Boise Republican Rachel Gilbert, who lost to LaRocco last November and supports fellow Boise Republican Helen Chenoweth's bid for Congress, already has warned that Republicans won't forgive McMurray for making that contribution.
''The Republican Party should consider McMurray as the 'Benedict Arnold' of Idaho,'' Kinsey said in a prepared statement. ''This man contributed against our Republican nominee in 1992, a nominee Sonny dropped out of the independent race to support, because he did not want to split the conservative vote. However, Sonny will not stand by and see our party manipulated by the good ol' boy system who contributes to both partisan groups.''
McMurray Wednesday declined to respond to Kinsey's remarks, saying LaRocco is the opponent not fellow Republicans.
He previously has said he lost faith in LaRocco when he served on the congressman's salmon recovery committee because of the focus on writing checks to cover the mitigation costs of drawdowns. He has said he subsequently contributed to Gilbert's campaign for Congress.
But Kinsey also is the northern Idaho coordinator for the Idaho Citizens Alliance, which is promoting the anti-gay initiative. And the ICA chairman, Kelly Walton of Burley, has said he was disappointed McMurray has ruled out running for governor because he supports the initiative.
''I would have no qualms about him running for governor because he didn't support a Democrat running for governor,'' Kinsey said.
