Stories from Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A winter storm that blew across southern Idaho on Thursday was responsible for triggering a multi-vehicle crash on the interstate along with nearly two dozen other accidents. Freezing rain from the storm froze onto the highway and other roadways, creating black ice conditions that prompted the Idaho Transportation Department to close an 83-mile stretch of the interstate for nearly 10 hours...

Connie Yrazabal Donahue was sworn in Jan. 15 as the new trustee representing Zone 4 for the Mountain Home School District. She replaces William Murray, who resigned over the holidays to take an opportunity to serve his country at an airbase in Germany. Murray has been in the Air Force or Air National Guard most of his adult life...

With two days remaining before the first events begin, Mountain Home High School expects slightly smaller crowds when it hosts its yearly gathering of motivational speakers. To date, more than 400 students representing 14 schools across southern Idaho have already signed up for the high school's annual U-Bus-To-Us speech and debate tournament, which begins here Friday...

A winter snow storm was linked to a power outage that affected more than 3,900 customers in Mountain Home and surrounding areas early Tuesday. According to Kevin Winslow, a spokesman with Idaho Power, the outage started at 1:56 a.m. after snow caused a structural malfunction at one of its feeder stations...

Dear citizens of District 23: The repeal of the personal property tax recommended by the governor has caused a great deal of concern in our district especially with the counties, cities, educational entities and others. My goal is to find a solution that would be helpful to all concerned...

Dear editor: You printed an insightful letter on creating a dialog concerning the training and arming of school employees. I heartily agree with the need for a community wide discussion on so grave a subject. However, I believe that all submissions should only be in considered, if they are in writing...

Dear editor: Thank You for printing those letters from Mike Bradbury and the one by Peter Humm. They were both well written and I agree with them both. They were well thought out and correct. I am glad you do not limit letters to 200 words as the Idaho Statesman does. They were both well over that but they were both right and very well done. Your editorial was also good, especially the last paragraph...

Dear editor: From my childhood I recall a DC comics series called Bizarro World. It was a world of opposites. The planet was a cube rather than a sphere and was called Htrae ("Earth" spelled backward). The Superman of Bizarro World was evil with a low IQ and a twisted facial expression...

Dear editor: Blame it on the guns? I don't think so. First let's look at Hollywood. What do I see coming out of this cesspool? Decadent, derelict, demoralizing violence, perversion, all matter of gamma ray brain washing. The word subliminal comes to mind. TV has come a long way in spreading its long arm of mind control, from the nightly programmed and biased media, to the hideously revolting videos...