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Joe Vandal

City-Wide Webcam Network Needed for Security

by Joe Vandal October 22, 2007

I got so mad about our not-yet-completed Equal Access Playground recently being vandalized. This is the playground with special features that enable handicapped kids to play more easily than they would at typical playgrounds. The folks involved with it spent many months raising money and driving the project forward. Some hooligans took just a short [...]

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Celebrating Two Years Online in Idaho Falls

by Joe Vandal October 18, 2007

It has been two years today that IdahoFallz.com has been active online.
It has been a wild ride, and mostly enjoyable. Despite some folks’ misgivings about anonymous online chat, I think the majority of discussions have been honest without going too far overboard. It turned out that many people value a forum where they can [...]

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Idaho Falls enters new era with new Police Chief Steve Roos

by Joe Vandal October 17, 2007

Yesterday Idaho Falls experienced a sudden law enforcement change, both in leadership and climate. Police Chief Kent Livsey, IFPD chief for 12 years, resigned effective the same day. Mayor Jared Fuhriman immediately appointed Captain Steve Roos to the IFPD chief position, and city council confirmation is expected at the next meeting.
I debated publishing anything [...]

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Is there signficance to restaurant health inspection reports?

by Joe Vandal October 15, 2007

What do you think of restaurant health inspections? What do you think of the Post Register publishing the inspection results? Do the published inspection results cause you to change your eating locations?
These inspections apparently only occur at restaurants once every six months. On one hand, that can cause the report to provide an extremely [...]

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Idaho Falls FAQs

by Joe Vandal October 11, 2007

We often get questions about Idaho Falls in our live chatbox, questions from residents and people looking to move or visit. One proud accomplishment for IdahoFallz.com is the numerous times a visitor says they found the best and most honest information about our area from this site.

This discussion thread will be wide-ranging for frequently [...]

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Idahoans to U.S. Senate: Please Expel Our Senator Craig

by Joe Vandal October 7, 2007

Senator Larry Craig has shamed himself and Idahoans yet again by reneging on his promise to resign. Most Idahoans no longer want Larry Craig as our senator. We are not allowed a recall petition or recall election as we are with other elected officials. We do not feel he represents us anymore, and we do [...]

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Idaho Falls Technology Users Group Proposed

by Joe Vandal October 6, 2007

I was recently listening to Leo Laporte’s podcast of his weekly radio show “The Tech Guy”. One caller was a lady dipping her toes into computers. She enrolled in a Microsoft Office class, and wanted advice buying her first computer. Leo immediately observed her “newby-ness”, and suggested she should first spend some time with a [...]

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Idaho Falls Development Chatter 07Q4

by Joe Vandal October 5, 2007

This is the first in what I hope is an active quarterly series about commercial, residential, and industrial developments. We have hosted previous attempts to discuss real estate and business developments, but they always focused on a particular development or issue. This became awkward when we tried discussing other developments, and trying to develop discussion [...]

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What is important in 2007 Idaho Falls city council elections?

by Joe Vandal October 4, 2007

Past political seasons have generated good and bad energy on IdahoFallz.com. Some enjoy the discussions and some tune out until it is over. Since this election is only about three local city council seats, hopefully we can engage in healthy and productive discussions this time.
I plan to contact and interview the Idaho Falls city [...]

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We Thought You Could Read, Mike Simpson

by Joe Vandal October 1, 2007

Another example of problems with blind party loyalty: Representative Simpson claiming he did not know a major bill he voted for implemented a $25 fee to moms trying to get a few child support bucks.
Granted I have done no research if this bill had wide bipartisan support, but I see it was passed in 2005 [...]

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Brainstorming Solutions to Idaho’s Prison Problem

by Joe Vandal September 28, 2007

Idaho is facing a major prison problem, and which appears it will reach a crisis point. I fear that Idaho’s prison population is now or will soon grow faster than our resident population does. This will lead to an inevitable disaster as a dwindling population of hard working Idaho residents are forced to pay higher [...]

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Go To Work Senator Craig

by Joe Vandal September 14, 2007

It’s bad enough Idahoans are suffering for Senator Larry Craig’s restroom circus. Regardless of whether you believe Craig is guilty or railroaded, I think everyone can agree that if Craig is collecting our senatorial paychecks, he should be doing our senatorial work.
In Craig’s latest act of self-interest, he has refused to go to work! The [...]

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Scott Stevens Still Fighting to Prove WeatherWars Theories

by Joe Vandal September 13, 2007

I have an embarrassing admission to make. I interviewed Scott (Weather-Wars) Stevens about a year ago, but lost my notes. I recently found those interview notes in some other papers, so here it is.
We probably all remember the strange circumstances when former KPVI meteorologist Scott Stevens suddenly got famous for his “weather control” theories. [...]

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Open for User Access Again

by Joe Vandal September 11, 2007

My long online nightmare is over, IdahoFallz.com users can once again access the backend system for writing article drafts and modifying their profile information.
A security hole was identified many months ago that forced me to demote all users to where they could not even create article drafts. It involved a core problem with the [...]

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Larry Craig Apologists Point to Deeper GOP Problems

by Joe Vandal September 9, 2007

In the wake of the Senator Larry Craig scandal, I think it is appropriate to engage a meta-discussion about issues that go beyond the arrest, the cover-up, and the resignation fiasco. What has this episode uncovered about blind party loyalty, and is it acceptable to excuse misdeeds for political alliances?

Marty Trillhaase’s Post Register editorial today [...]

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Should Idaho Ban Text Messaging While Driving?

by Joe Vandal September 4, 2007

Should Idaho ban text messaging while driving?
It seems there are more and more reported stories of accidents resulting from young people text messaging while driving. Washington state banned texting while driving (TWD) last May, and six other states are reportedly considering a similar ban. I recently read a study saying 91% of Americans believe text [...]

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Weight Loss Struggles: Motivation and Methods

by Joe Vandal August 31, 2007

I grew up very skinny, bulked up some from military training, bulked up a good bit more in the first six months of marriage (and good cooking), but in the last year I actually developed a little pot belly.
It took awhile for me to admit I was starting to get fat. I had always [...]

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Misconduct Charges Part 2: Idaho Falls Media Fail to Report

by Joe Vandal August 30, 2007

This is the second follow-up part to Misconduct Charges Part 1: Police, Prosecutors, and a Judge Accused.
I know our local Idaho Falls media are human and not perfect, and I think they generally try to do the best job they humanly can. I think they get beat up a lot for invalid reasons, but [...]

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Misconduct Charges Part 1: Police, Prosecutors, and a Judge Accused

by Joe Vandal August 29, 2007

This article is about recent incidents and current lawsuits that our local media outlets have failed to report. This first part informs you about the lawsuits, the second part raisees questions about why our local media have chosen not to report these lawsuits.
At least six local residents are suing numerous local government entities for gross [...]

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Idaho Falls Police Union Pros and Cons

by Joe Vandal August 19, 2007

Today’s Post Register ran a front page article about our local Idaho Falls police officers’ efforts to unionize themselves. This should present an interesting series of developments in the next several months, so I thought a discussion forum would be good on the topic.
Why should our police unionize? Why should they not?
The officer apparently spearheading [...]

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Central Clearinghouse Needed To Sell Dead Identities

by Joe Vandal August 18, 2007

American businesses have a serious problem knowing when to let go of a dead contact. Businesses waste too much money each year marketing to people who are not only dead, but have been dead for several years. I read one story of a parent who lost their child at five years old, then began receiving [...]

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Conversation with Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman

by Joe Vandal August 8, 2007

I had a chance to speak with Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman this morning. I have met with him a couple times previously, but did not want to make a big deal about it, and definitely do not want to imply he endorses IdahoFallz.com or anything like that. Usually a mayor would not have any [...]

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Pros and Cons of a New Idaho Falls Law Enforcement Building

by Joe Vandal August 5, 2007

This article was taken from a comment made by user Curious. Author attribution will be corrected after a backend code problem is fixed. You can submit your own articles for publication via our EZ Article Submission Form.
This week’s poll question asks about supporting a new law enforcement building, so let’s look at the pros and [...]

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Seen any good movies lately?

by Joe Vandal August 3, 2007

I had thought before of starting a movie discussion thread, and have had some recent requests for it so here we go.

In case you have not used these sources before, I find the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) and Wikipedia are great resources for learning about movies. IMDB is great for quickly finding the movie [...]

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SiteMeter-SpecificClick Cookie Discovery Prompts Cancellations and Cleanups

by Joe Vandal August 2, 2007

While creating another unrelated website, I considered if I wanted to use the SiteMeter service for tracking visits and visitor statistics. I had not considered the question for a long time, and so I Googled “sitemeter sucks”, a strategy I use to find criticism of a product or service.
Apparently SiteMeter is now serving third-party [...]

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