<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>Courtesy of today's (January 30, 2015) Lewiston Tribune.</div><div><br></div><div>-------------------------------------</div><div><iframe src="http://stats-newyork1.bloxcms.com/lmtribune.com/?title=Talk%2C%20talk%2C%20talk%20-%20The%20Lewiston%20Tribune%3A%20Opinion&referrer=http%3A//lmtribune.com/opinion/talk-talk-talk/article_7a6dc357-f266-5bca-81e8-64c4fa82a862.html&domain=lmtribune.com&uri=/opinion/talk-talk-talk/article_7a6dc357-f266-5bca-81e8-64c4fa82a862.html%3Fmode%3Dprint" width="0" height="0" frameborder="0" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 0px; height: 0px; float: none !important;"></iframe><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 34px; font-size: 30px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); line-height: 38px; font-family: TiresiasInfofontRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Talk, talk, talk</span></h1><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 700; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Marty Trillhaase </span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>JEERS</b> ... to the House State Affairs Committee's Republican majority. Led by Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, they voted en masse to ignore the pleas of Idaho's marginalized gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By a party-line 13-4 vote, the committee refused to outlaw discrimination on the job, in housing and in public accommodations on the basis of "sexual orientation and gender identity."</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What's galling is that these same lawmakers acknowledged the problem exists after hearing three days of testimony from people who have suffered from discrimination.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"... As chairman of this committee and as an Idahoan and as a legislator, I'm calling on the people of this state to stop the cruelty," Loertscher said. " It has no place in our society."</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If it has "no place in our society," why did Loertscher vote to permit it?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A former member of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d'Alene, knows the state has a far better system of resolving discrimination complaints than the ordinances enacted by cities such as her own - which impose criminal penalties.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"... Mediation and compassion can be effective for both sides," Sims said. "But I'm sure that eventually we'll continue to listen and we'll continue to work and the Human Rights Commission will deal with this."</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then there's Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's no question in my mind that persecution, violence and abuse against the community, or any community, it needs to stop," Barbieri said.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If "it needs to stop," then why vote to keep discrimination legal?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>CHEERS</b> ... to former state legislator and lobbyist extraordinaire Bill Roden of Boise. When Roden speaks, people listen.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This week, people listened as Roden stood up for the rights of those sidelined by Idaho society - and urged the House State Affairs Committee to add the words.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Roden knows what he's talking about.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As a co-author of Idaho's first civil rights law in 1961, Roden dispelled the notion that protecting the rights of people based on sexual orientation and gender identity would undermine the religious liberties of others.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Roden appealed to the conscience of a state that embraced tolerance in the past - it was the fourth state to give women the vote and the first to elect a Jewish governor.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And then, like former Gov. Phil Batt two years ago, Roden made it personal.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He shared that a member of his family - his son - is gay.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>JEERS</b> ... to Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra. For weeks, her supporters have promised that her long-awaited presentation before the Legislature's budget panel would dispel doubts raised by a gaffe-prone campaign and a wobbly transition.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ybarra's appearance Thursday was about 17 minutes long, which left people dumbfounded and underwhelmed:</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><ul style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><li style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none outside none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Her budget seeks 6.4 percent more money, or about $14 million less than Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter requested.</span></li><li style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none outside none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She offered little to resolve the ambiguity over how much money to spend on a new teacher career ladder, tiered licensing program.</span></li></ul></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I am asking for $25 million towards the career ladder - stay tuned for the details," she said.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><ul style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><li style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none outside none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Although she's right about steering more money and discretion to individual school districts, Ybarra's advocacy was less than robust.</span></li><li style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none outside none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She had so little to say that lawmakers, who scheduled two hours for the session, adjourned 90 minutes early.</span></li></ul></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Do you get the feeling Ybarra is simply going through the motions? Or is she clueless?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>CHEERS</b> ... to the cities of Clarkston and Lewiston. Getting past a 5-year-old dispute over Clarkston's ambulance service, the communities are working toward restoring a mutual-aid pact for fire and emergency medical services.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Much of the credit goes to Lewiston Fire Chief Travis Myklebust and Clarkston Fire Chief Steve Cooper.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Artificial political boundaries aside, this is one community. Residents in one end of the valley depend on their neighbors at the other end.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mutual aid puts all of their interests first.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Clarkston's city council unanimously approved the measure Monday.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>JEERS</b> ... to Idaho House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Palmer, R-Meridian. To bail out Idaho's underfunded highway and bridge network, he would raid Idaho's underfunded public education system.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Five years after he failed to win legislative support for new fuel taxes and registration fees, Gov. Otter presides over a transportation system that falls $262 million behind each year.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But in the absence of a plan from Otter, Palmer wants to draw millions of dollars generated by sales taxes paid on automotive products.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That's not new money. If spent on transportation, those dollars will be drained from the general fund, which supports public schools, higher education and other government programs.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's a bad deal for Idaho motorists who are overcharged 26 percent while long-haul truckers are paying 27 percent less than their fair share.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">People who live here will continue to pay sales taxes on the automotive products they purchase in Idaho.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Long-haul truckers just passing through aren't likely to stop in Idaho to stock up on tires, batteries and other equipment.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Otter all but promised to veto this kind of scheme. So why is Palmer wasting his time - and yours - promoting it?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>JEERS</b> ... to Idaho Republican Party Chairman Steve Yates. Last week, he all but told President Barack Obama to go home during the presidential visit to Boise.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now he's followed it up with a fundraising letter accusing Obama of coming to Idaho "without meeting with our elected leaders or hearing what the people of Idaho had to say."</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Did he fail to notice that Idaho's all-Republican congressional delegation chose to remain in Washington, D.C., last week?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Did he somehow miss Lt. Gov. Brad Little - filling in for a post-operative Otter - welcoming the president to the state?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Did Yates not see the olive branch Obama extended to members of his party?</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yates apparently does not appreciate Idahoans' fine sense of hospitality - even toward a president they did not support. But Yates is a carpetbagger from Maryland. What would you expect? - M.T.</span></p></div></div><div>-------------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></body></html>