2023 One year ago today
A new coalition in Idaho filed a ballot initiative to make primary elections open and nonpartisan. Idahoans for Open Primaries includes organizations such as the Idaho Task Force of Veterans for Political Innovation, North Idaho Women, Represent US Idaho, the Hope Coalition and Reclaim Idaho, according to a press release. The group’s members are critical of the closed Republican primary, which requires voters to join the party to participate in the election. The coalition hopes to put the initiative on the November 2024 ballot. … Deputy Scott Mikolajczyk sat in his patrol vehicle at the Latah County Courthouse and said what he says every day to the dispatcher when he is about to sign off from work: “Latah 325.” Only this day was different. After 28 years with the Latah County Sheriff’s Office, this was Mikolajczyk’s final day in uniform.
2019 Five years ago today
Edmund O. Schweitzer III will be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. The former Washington State University doctoral student and founder and president of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories is being recognized for the invention of his digital protective relay used to make electrical power systems safer and more reliable. The new class includes 19 people. The induction ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C. … The Washington Legislature passed its 2019-21 transportation budget that includes more than $11 million to build passing lanes on one of the primary routes from Pullman to western Washington. The transportation budget allocates $11.15 million to construct climbing lanes on State Route 26, including between Dusty and Colfax.
2014 10 years ago today
Latah County Commissioners decided to wait a week before ending its “nonindigent program” while details are worked out for the Gritman Foundation, a private nonprofit organization, to take it over. The nonindigent program provides law enforcement with vouchers for one-time lodging or a partial tank of gasoline to give to people stranded at night or on weekends after social service agencies close. The county policy allows both residents and nonresidents to use them only once during a two-year period — unless there are “extenuating circumstances.” … The Moscow School Board and the Moscow Education Association met Wednesday night for their second round of contract negotiations this year. The board proposed reducing the number of permanent employees absent from any school building at any given time from 10% to 5%, because of what it said was difficulty in obtaining substitutes. It also proposed requiring teachers to work six years, instead of four, before being allowed to take a leave of absence, and requiring such a leave be beneficial to the students and the community as well.
