Recently there have been several opinion articles critical of the St. Anthony Police Department. Since most attacks seem to be of a personal nature, I'll start with some background and then address what's been levied.

I was born on an Indian reservation in Montana, lived in eastern Washington (Pasco), the California East Bay Area, France, Utah, Alabama, upstate New York, southern Arizona, Korea, Texas, and Los Angeles County where my wife’s parents lived at the time we moved there. We finally came to a place that feels like home, here in St. Anthony, where most everyone seems friendly and generally happy. My great-great-grandparents helped settle this area. My mother was born in Idaho. My parents live about three hours from St. Anthony where my Dad was born. I have lived and worked in smaller towns than this one. I have a master's degree in public administration, am a retired US Army Miltary Police (MP) Lt. Col., and have worked under Federal, New York, California, and Arizona laws. I have an Advanced Idaho...

I think rebuilding the Teton Dam should be weighed equally with other water-storage options.
Still, I wasn't around for the flood, so I was wondering what any of those who lived through the disaster think about the idea of rebuilding the dam.

I just heard something that is very disturbing. Apparently the St. Anthony Police Department is not willing to do it's job. The Fremont County Prosecutor complained that the city officers would not do the work needed to prosecute felony cases that occur in the city. So, the Fremont County Sheriff is now handling felony cases that occur in the city. So, why do we need a police department? And why do we pay these officers over $20 an hour to write tickets and sit in the office? This is crazy. It is time that something was done!! The citizens need to let the Mayor and Council know that they will not stand for this. I certainly hope the new mayor will take care of this disaster we call a police department. The whole department needs to go. If the Sheriff's office is going to handle felonies, they might as well take care of it all.

Note: Published as Our View on 6A of the Saturday, Dec. 6, Standard Journal.
On Monday, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter announced that the state will lose another 3 percent off its budget in 2009.
This followed a similar announcement in September, when state agencies learned of a 1 percent hold back of funds, which would take place in 2009.
Among institutions hardest hit by the loss of funding were education, health care and the prison system.
While the public schools had “rainy day” funds to draw from, juvenile corrections, which has significant impact on the economy in Fremont County, is already feeling the pinch.
The Five-County Juvenile Detention and Rehabilitation Center in St. Anthony had already taken steps to try and soften the blow with a hiring freeze, before the governor had announced the budget setback. But with the loss of more and more funds from the state, the five counties that send juveniles to the center will have to contribute more money to the center, further depleting local coffers.
It has also...

I read in the Standard Journal about the hiring of prosecutors to help J. Lookabaugh prosecute cases in our county. This is in direct opposition of what she said at the meeting of Republican candidates in Ashton previous to the election. She said SHE would prosecute all cases rather than dismissing them as the previous prosecutor was doing. She emphasized SHE would do the prosecuting not someone else. Again, it does not matter whether politicians are local, county, state, or national, all they think about is spending taxpayers money and deceiving the electorate so that they can be elected. I guess it worked as she was elected over the incumbent. It would certainly be nice to be able to believe what a politician tells us. Keep up the good work, J. Lookabaugh, as you just lost my vote in any election in the future.

I have a couple of questions about the St. Anthony Police Department. Was the current Chief of Police hired to be an administrative chief? I have heard that he thinks so, but that is not what was advertised. Why have we lost all of the senior officers in the department? A couple retired (did they really want to or were they forced out?) and two others resigned after being harassed. Why aren't the officers out in the school zones in the morning and afternoon? I see we have a fancy radar cart; does that take the place of the officers? What do they do in the office for hours on end? I thought they were paid to serve and protect. Is that how we save gas, by having them in the office? I have many more questions and comments, but I will see if this raises any concern from anyone else. :-)

I SUGGEST SCOTT KAMACHI START RUNNING FOR MAYOR NOW. HE HAS THE BUSINESS SENSE FOR THE JOB AND HE PROVED IT WHEN HE WAS ON THE COUNCIL BEFORE. BRYAN HAS PROVED HIMSELF AS BUDGET MINDED AND THAT HE WAS REASONABLE AND PRUDENT WHEN HE WAS THE POLICE CHIEF. HE WOULD MAKE A GOOD MAYOR ALSO. HOWEVER IF HE WILL CONTINUE ON THE COUNCIL AND SCOTT AS MAYOR WITH A COUPLE NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS THAT KNOW HOW TO SAY NO THIS CITY COULD TURN AROUND IT'S SPENDING AND IT'S IMAGE. FIRST THING TO CHANGE THE IMAGE WOULD BE TO GET A NEW POLICE CHIEF THAT KNOWS THE PEOPLE AND HAS A GOOD HEAD ON HIS SHOULDERS. THAT WOULD BE AN EASY PICK, APPOINT LUKE DAVIS AS POLICE CHIEF IF HE WOULD ACCEPT. HE IS JUST THE MAN FOR THE JOB. A LEVEL HEADED COMMON SENSE INDIVIDUAL. HE GREW UP HERE, HE KNOWS THE COMMUNITTY AND IT'S PEOPLE. HE HAS THE GOOD SENSE AND GUTS TO CLEAN HOUSE WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, AND TO BRING BACK THE WELL KNOWN AND KNOWLEDEABLE IMAGE IT HAD STATEWIDE PRIOR TO THE FORMER CHIEF'S RETIREMENT. GARTH PROVED HE WASN'T MAYOR...

Former Mayor Bill Beck is on the aggenda for the next Council meeting to discuss the City Budget. This raises a question or two, Has Bill become more stupid since he resigned as Mayor, and now he believes that he can talk to them on their level. Or Has the Council become smarter since he resigned so that they will be able to understand what he will be discussing at his level. Either way this should be an interesting meeting. Especially since his (Beck's)former right hand man is now the Mayor. His former right hand man (Rose) basically went along with whatever Bill wanted which in many ways put the City in the economical problem it is in today.

Looking at the news this morning I see Fremont School Board is at it again. They are still not satisfied with the space they have. In spite of spending millions of dollars on new schools at North and South Fremont (which by the way should have been combined) they want more. I have been actively involved with educators over the last 30 years and have learned from this experience that educators have a huge scence of entitlment. You can never give them enough space and it can never be big enough to satisfy there huge appitites. Of course they don't pay for it someone else does so hey no problem lets just go build some more class rooms and huge offices. Just for the record they are saying that $800,000 will do the job, not hardly. It will be more like 1.5M to do what is planned and thats if the economy is steady.

Webmaster's note: This Our View editorial appeared in 6A of Saturday, Nov. 29's paper.

There’s something strange afoot in Fremont County.
As an editorial board, we wonder why residents are so dissatisfied with their leaders, many of whom they voted for. We aren’t just referring to recall petitions circulating through St. Anthony or Mayor Bill Beck’s sudden resignation.
Look through older copies of the newspaper. The Parker mayor was recalled. This was the second attempt to get Beck out of office. In the past year, it’s been tough to be an incumbent in the county and St. Anthony.
We came up with a few possibilities. Keep in mind that we are not trying to stereotype the people of Fremont County, say that local officials are infallible or condemn anyone who gets involved in the government process. We are trying to understand the logic behind the actions.

VOTERS ARE NOT AS INFORMED AS THEY SHOULD BE
Why else oust nearly everyone who steps into power? Obviously the person voters saw before the election and after differed....

The following is adapted biographical article I wrote about about one Oliver Parson, featured in January 10th's edition of the Standard Journal.
Following its publication I was informed by the Parson family of a number of research errors in the article, in the spirit of journalistic accuracy I printed a correction notice for those published errors in the following newspaper.
I have since received further complaints about the article, and while I stand by my research, writing and verification techniques, I thought it fair to give the family a chance to correct the story.
The following is an adaption of my article by Leon Parson.

- NATHAN SUNDERLAND

The Parson Legacy

Oliver Parson celebrated his 92 birthday last Saturday, surrounded by several generations of his family. Held at the home of his daugther Anita McPherson, Parson signed a painting purchased over 40 years ago by Roger McPheeters, but was unsigned until last week.
Parts of the McPherson home resemble an art gallery. A variety of stylistic art pieces...

We have a new man stepping into the Mayors office. I have high hopes that under his guidance our city counsel will take a long look at some of the programs our city has in place. We are spending somewhere around a half M. dollars a year on the police force. There are other areas of duplication of services that should be looked as well. I would like to wish them good hunting.

The Standard Journal does a biographical article once a week about someone who is or has been an important part of our communities.

This discussion post is for people to offer suggestions about who they would like to see an article about.

The only criteria is that the suggested individual lives or a least lived for a significant portion of their lives in Madison, Fremont or their surrounding counties.

I would like to know why it is ok to publish something about one officers family and not another. Recently there was a article in the paper about Bryan Fullmer's son and there has been one the paper about Donald Powell's son in the past about drinking, but when it was brought up about the chief of police's son being arrest for murder in California it wasn't ok to run that article because it wouldn't be right. Why is not ok to let everyone know about the chief son when its ok to let them know about other officers children? I guess I don't see the difference.

I can't believe that tragically there has been another crosswalk fatality in Rexburg and at the same crosswalk where a life was taken last year. Only this time there are two victims, one fatality and one critically injured. My heart goes out to the family of these two women and I hope for the best for the one who survived last nights horrific accident.

From what I've read it seems obvious that in this case the driver should have been paying closer attention to what was going on. But I see another issue here that should be dealt with. The City of Rexburg has been real good about dealing with this crosswalk when they have had lots of media coverage and can run a hyped up "sting operation." But once the hype is over it's still a deadly situation that needs a permanent solution.

UV Talks is the community news portal for the upper valley. Upload pictures and videos, start discussions, and blogs about your community, your family, and friends. Post comments and additional information about news stories that have ran (or should run) In the paper or on TV. Its your choice. It's UV Talks

I agree that crosswalks are dangerous, but I think both drivers and pedestrians are discourteous. In the video that Matthew Flitton posted, with the intersection at the front of the Snow building (I'm guessing), when should pedestrians not enter a crosswalk? Some of the pedestrians came much later, forcing cars to wait for several different groups of pedestrians, spread several feet apart. One group seemed to enter the crosswalk as one was just leaving.

I also am amazed at four way stops, when cars are trying to work out who should be going next, that pedestrians don't try to figure out the flow of traffic and accommodate it.

My biggest question is, what is the etiquette for when a driver is already in the intersection and a pedestrian enters the crosswalk? For example, I am driving on 1st south, heading west, and come to the intersection of 1st south and 1st east. I don't have a stop sign, but the cross traffic does. A pedestrian enters the crosswalk from the north-west corner, opposite me, after I have...

Note: The following is a letter to President George W. Bush on behalf of Sgt. Evan Vela, the Idaho soldier convicted of murder. For details on how you can help Vela, visit www.freeevanvela.com.

Dear President Bush,

The Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., military prison holds a man in his 20s convicted of murder ­— Army Sgt. Evan Vela of southeastern Idaho. The conviction was wrong, and we are asking you to pardon him.
Mr. Bush, Vela is not a war criminal. He is a political prisoner. Here’s why.
Vela did kill Iraqi civilian Genei Nasir al-Janabi. We do not deny this. But we invite to you take a look at the circumstances surrounding the incident. It was not a random act of violence or rage.
Vela was part of a five-man sniper team in Iskandariya in May 2007. The team stumbled onto al-Janabi and his son.
Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley, Vela’s commanding officer, ordered him to shoot al-Janabi, and Vela followed the order.
Your first reaction to this may have been, “What was Vela thinking? How could anyone, soldier or not, shoot a civilian...

Please leave longer access time to the past articles at the bottom of the page. At least two weeks so people that are busy may see them and comment on them.
thank you.

Isn't it nice the St. Anthony Police Chief now has an Assistant to do his menial chores for him. The Assistant is paid $400.00 per week? How in the world did Bryan Fulmer ever do his job with way less pay and no chore assistant. Oh that is right Bryan served the taxpayer not the other way around. What is the Police Department Budget now?

How many times have you been sitting there, watching a movie, when you suddenly realize what's coming. Your stomach starts to churn. You whisper to yourself, "No, they wouldn't say it. It would turn the movie into cheese."
You whisper a prayer that the writer showed restraint. But no. It comes. The character says something that no one else would ever say. If they did say it, their friends would slap them.
It has ruined movies. Don't believe me? Go watch the '90's film "Batman and Robin." It ruined the franchise. On that note, here's my list of the Top 10 worst movie lines ever:
10. "That's OK, I don't shop here." Sylvester Stallone in Cobra, in response to a man who threatened to blow up a grocery store.
9. "Don't leave me. (CRASH! BOOM!) You didn't leave me!" "I had nowhere else to go." Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reaves in Speed during the final scene on the subway train.
8. "This isn't a hockey game, it's a circus." One of those tweeners on Mighty Ducks 2.
7. "Take two of these and call me in the morning." Arnold...