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Open Mind

Was this baby “abandoned”?

by Open Mind September 9, 2008

Channel six ran a story last night about an Idaho Falls mother who left her three-month-old baby with friends, apparently on the false pretense that she was going to come back. A week after she didn’t, the mother told those friends that she couldn’t take care of her baby and she wouldn’t be back.
The friends [...]

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Annual fill-in-the-blank news stories

by Open Mind September 8, 2008

As an avid news consumer, something occurred to me in the last couple of days. Fill-in-the-blank news stories seem to be very common, especially with human interest stories. For instance, every year, local television stations do their annual “time to clean up after the fair” story the second week of September. The story comes complete [...]

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McCain’s Pick: This could be the one…

by Open Mind August 29, 2008

So, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is emerging as the possible VEEP candidate for McCain. While I’m a Romney supporter, I like the Dark Horse approach.  She’s young, attractive, smart, and — perhaps very importantly in this campaign — a woman. Looking over her record, I think she’s a candidate that conservatives could get behind, courting [...]

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School district bans cell phones

by Open Mind August 27, 2008

Fremont county schools have moved forward with a cell phone ban… I wrestle with this issue, because I think parents should have the option of contacting their children and vice versa. But I also see the huge disruption caused by them and how it dilutes the quality of education in our kids’ classrooms.
Also, if the [...]

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I need to be candid…

by Open Mind August 19, 2008

Forgive me if this isn’t the right place to post these sentiments. I’m sure this issue has been discussed here before, so this may be an act of futile redundancy. But, here goes…
I enjoy a good political discussion as well as anyone. Two (or more) sides, both with valid arguments, well-debated, makes my brain do [...]

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Stephanie Eldridge, missing for a year now

by Open Mind August 19, 2008

This story has bothered me a little bit since it happened a year ago. It just seems strange to have a mother of a small baby leave her car keys, purse, her shoes, and even her baby and two other children — without sign of a struggle.
The local media has been covering this anniversary, and [...]

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Are wind turbines hazardous to your health?

by Open Mind August 14, 2008

While this story originates in Oregon — where windmills are popping up everywhere — perhaps we could bring the issue into our local debate over the turbines.
The lady in the story says that her research is showing that windmills are causing lots of problems for people, like headaches, equilibrium problems, sleep disorders, and even night [...]

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Inmate #53856

by Open Mind August 12, 2008

Sorry to have back-to-back pervert posts, but Brad Stowell is back in the news. He’s still incarcerated, so that hasn’t changed, but a hearing officer ruled that Stowell was guilty of violating probation when he had an Internet-capable laptop, but was not in violation for not being able to find a job.
These verdicts will be [...]

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Sick Pervert Caught

by Open Mind August 12, 2008

This story from Channel Six is pretty disturbing. Jeramy Luttrell was caught in July pleasuring himself in his pickup truck. He had been seen in three different locations around Idaho Falls doing this, and was finally caught.
It gets worse. Five years ago he was busted for doing the same thing and trying to get a [...]

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‘Going Green’ v. Environmental Extremism

by Open Mind August 7, 2008

So the Idaho National Lab just announced they’re taking steps to save a bunch of money by “Going Green”. One of the local news stations had a story about the postal service doing the same thing. And it seems like so many companies and organizations now are doing the same thing. I think that it’s [...]

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Gas prices in Idaho

by Open Mind July 30, 2008

I know we’ve talked about this a LOT, but here goes again.
So the gas prices nationally are dropping, but here they’re not, at least not substantially. The excuse is that we’re not using as much gas, and there’s still expensive gas sitting in the tanks. Presumably, once the tanks are topped off with less expensive [...]

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Are there more drownings this year?

by Open Mind July 28, 2008

Over the weekend, it looks like another person drowned in the Snake River near Idaho Falls. That’s two in two or three weeks. Another guy drowned on Upper Palisades Lake earlier, and of course the teenager from Pocatello that drowned in the Snake near Massacre Rocks.
I should also mention the family that got into trouble [...]

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Obama’s appearance in Europe

by Open Mind July 24, 2008

I’ve been curious about what you all think of Barack Obama’s appearance in Europe. I’m not particularly a fan of Obama, but I suppose there’s some sense of historic impact in his visit and his rhetoric.
While I find him to be an intriguing figure, a smooth, articulate, respectable person — I believe he’s somewhat of [...]

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Rammel, Risch… the saga continues.

by Open Mind July 23, 2008

There’s a story out this morning (Post Register) about the two conservative US Senate candidates in Idaho. Apparently Rex Rammell owes some money to former Congressman George Hansen, about $100K. This info, unflattering to Rammell, was leaked to the media. Rammell says it was Risch supporter Bart Davis who accessed the info without permission from [...]

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A Chain Saw Bicycle?

by Open Mind July 21, 2008

As gas prices get higher, people get creative. I was jumping around the Internet and found hordes of videos like this on YouTube. People are putting chain saw and weed wacker engines on their bicycles to get around. It sounds hilariously stupid and it makes for one noise noisy bike, but I have to admit, [...]

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City of Idaho Falls adding texting service

by Open Mind July 17, 2008

The Post Register says this morning that the city of Idaho Falls will add a text messaging service.
District 93 has had it for a couple of years now, and it’s proved to be pretty valuable whenever there’s been a school closure, cancellation, or other situation.
Now the Idaho Falls city government is going to add a [...]

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Would you be for reducing the speed limit?

by Open Mind July 9, 2008

I was reading some different blogs and news sites this morning and found this story about Senator Warner from Virginia asking the federal government to determine what speed limit would optimize fuel efficiency given current technology… possibly hinting at a national speed limit.

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Brad Stowell back in prison

by Open Mind July 8, 2008

Brad Stowell apparently violated his probation by not having a job, and getting a laptop. He’s back in prison now. My guess is that the parole board, after catching all the flack they caught, was looking for a reason to put him back in prison.
I’m glad he’s back behind bars. He has no business enjoying [...]

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Waste cleanup deal looking like a good move

by Open Mind July 2, 2008

It’s taken them long enough fighting things out in the courts, but yesterday’s announcement by the Governor about the waste cleanup at the site must be a good thing, at least for Idaho.
Watching the news and seeing Cecil Andrus along with Phil Batt and Butch Otter praising the same thing, I thought to myself, “This [...]

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Where is the best place to watch the fireworks?

by Open Mind June 30, 2008

So, I’m always torn every year trying to find a balance between having a nice view of the fireworks and getting out of there before the kids start school in August.
Last year we were just off Skyline, and we were able to get out ok — no complaints there — but I wish we would [...]

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Idaho Falls Burglaries Increasing… Is it the gas prices?

by Open Mind June 27, 2008

I’m just curious, but it seems like there’s been an awful lot of thievery going on in and around Idaho Falls lately. Maybe I’m trying to simplify things too much, but I wonder if some people possibly prone to stealing might be pushed over the edge because of the increased costs in other areas of [...]

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Brad Stowell Wearing an Ankle Bracelet

by Open Mind June 26, 2008

Since Paul Steed talked with parole and corrections people a few days ago, they’ve put an ankle bracelet on the perp. I wonder if this is an indication that realize they made a mistake letting hime go.
I know that the people from prisons and parole are coming here, rather than the other way around, to [...]

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Idaho Falls day-care ordinance gets passed

by Open Mind June 25, 2008

The Post Register this morning (you might need to have a login) is reporting that the city council passed a day-care ordinance that has been pretty controversial in the past, but there wasn’t much controversy last night.
According to the article, anyone over 12 working at a daycare would have to have a background check done. [...]

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