<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman at:</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/27/2428082/armed-mans-intrusion-unnerves.html">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/27/2428082/armed-mans-intrusion-unnerves.html</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "> </span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 39px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Armed man’s Capitol intrusion unnerves Idaho lawmakers</span><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; "><br>Read more here: <a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/27/2428082/armed-mans-intrusion-unnerves.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/27/2428082/armed-mans-intrusion-unnerves.html#storylink=cpy</a></div></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The event has prompted restrictions to public access while Idaho legislators ponder permanent Capitol changes.</span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">A man with a handgun used a tour for Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts as cover to inspect legislators’ desks and reach into a waste bin on the House floor.</span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The Jan. 10 incident became public Tuesday when Department of Administration Director Teresa Luna used a clip to demonstrate the need for rules prompted by last year’s Occupy Boise encampment.</span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The Jan. 10 incident became public Tuesday when Department of Administration Director Teresa Luna used a clip to demonstrate the need for rules prompted by last year’s Occupy Boise encampment.</span></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">“Events like that should disturb all Idahoans,” said House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley. “It certainly disturbed me.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill said: “To think that somebody is bold enough to have followed these children around with a sidearm in plain sight — who is also bold enough to go through trash cans, take pictures of representatives’ desks and shuffle their papers — all of that created a great deal of concern.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">As a result, public access to the House and Senate chambers has been suspended on weekends and after 6 p.m. weekdays, though the Capitol remains open until 10 p.m. Until now, citizens have been allowed to visit the chambers whenever the Capitol was open, a point of pride.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">“This is the people’s house, and it gets them excited about their government and the freedoms we have,” said Hill, R-Rexburg. “When we start locking things up at 6 o’clock, it just saddens me.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Leadership is working with the Department of Administration to fashion long-term security improvements for a Capitol that is far more open than most statehouses.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">“We’re a security planner’s nightmare,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls. “But it is demonstrative of what we’ve tried to do in encouraging access.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">BAD MANNERS</strong></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The man attached himself to an evening tour led by freshman Rep. James Holtzclaw, R-Meridian, who had been asked by a constituent to show the Cubs and Scouts around. “I thought he was a parent,” Holtzclaw said, noting that the troop leader assumed the man was a security officer because of his gun.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The man’s identity is unknown. He left the Capitol after an unarmed guard confronted him. The man said something like, “If I’m not being arrested or detained, I don’t have to answer your questions,” Luna said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Idaho State Police are in the Capitol from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; contract security officers provide around-the-clock watches in the Capitol and larger Capitol Mall.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Shortly before the 7 p.m. tour on Jan. 10, the man attended an ACLU “Know Your Rights” training session, which covered the rules proposed for the block outside the Capitol and for buildings and grounds of the mall. He attended the same training Jan. 5, offering participants pamphlets on Idaho’s open-carry law.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The 11-minute video of the man circulated widely among lawmakers and staff before it was made public.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Senate Sergeant at Arms Sarah Jane McDonald called the video alarming. “Most of us know not to take photographs of people’s desks,” said McDonald, who is in her 11th year overseeing Senate security. “Our mothers would have clobbered us.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">SHOTGUNS IN GALLERY?</strong></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The ACLU has sued in federal court on behalf of Occupy activists to overturn the rules governing the territory outside the Capitol. The group also is opposing the rules in legislative hearings.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">“Free speech and redressing your government in protest is by its very nature meant to be disruptive,” said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU. “That’s the wonderful, wonderful thing about our democracy and the values that were put into our Constitution.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">But after seeing the clip in Tuesday’s hearing, Hopkins met with Speaker Bedke and Pro Tem Hill. “There was nothing in our training that would have indicated to any individual that that behavior was acceptable,” Hopkins said. “We were as appalled as they were.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Hill said his immediate concern was the Scouts: “We need to be reminded from time to time that we need to be cautious and have plans in place to protect all parties.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Hill has urged lawmakers to be careful about what they leave on their desks, but he is also concerned about larger security issues. “What happens when six people come and sit in the front row of the gallery with shotguns across their laps?” Hill said. “I sure as heck am not going to leave my senators in there with that.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">ACCESS THREATENED</strong></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Guns and long knives were banned in the Capitol from 1996 to 2008 by executive order. Gov. Butch Otter let the order expire, citing a 2008 law in which the Legislature said it had exclusive power to regulate guns in Idaho.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Signs were erected outside the House and Senate galleries after the 2012 Occupy protests. They list prohibitions: food, drinks, men wearing hats, signs, sitting on rails, cellphones, distracting noises. Bags are subject to search. But there is no firearm ban.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Idaho State Police Capt. Sheldon Kelley said the next steps for the Capitol could include expanding the few areas that are off-limits to the general public. “If there isn’t any pertinent reason for the public to be there, they’re going to work on controlling access in sensitive areas,” Kelley said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Senate Majority Leader Davis said lawmakers’ aim is to minimize any changes. He lamented the unidentified man’s “poor judgment that makes policymakers wonder if you have to have a rule. He is an aberration.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Meanwhile, Davis is pressing for changes in the Occupy-prompted rules for the grounds and mall, citing concerns about limiting protests to seven days, banning events between midnight and 6 a.m. and barring amplification devices without permits.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Holtzclaw spoke about the incident from his desk, which had been inspected by the unnamed man.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">“This isn’t my House, this is the people’s,” he said. “It will break my heart if a citizen can’t come up here and view this. The question is: How do we maintain that transparency and freedom while protecting the building and the people in it?”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">-------------------------------------</span></p></div><div>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></div></div></body></html>