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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#1F497D'>More fiscal irresponsibility from Idaho’s GOP & TPers . . . I could be mistaken, but hasn’t Idaho been on the losing end of every Constitutional challenge its brought in the last two or three decades??? It’s a special kind of stupid to keep wasting taxpayer money this way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Saundra Lund<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Moscow, ID<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='color:#1F497D'>We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.</span></b><span style='color:#1F497D'> <br></span><span style='color:#1F497D'>~ Immanuel Kant<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2015/dec/11/idaho-appeals-ag-gag-ruling-9th-circuit/">Idaho appeals 'ag-gag' ruling to 9th Circuit</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Betsy Z. Russell<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#777777;text-transform:uppercase;background:white'>FRIDAY, DEC. 11, 2015, 2:33 P.M.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#777777;text-transform:uppercase;background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.2pt;margin-left:.5in;line-height:20.55pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333'>The state of Idaho has filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit of the U.S. District Court decision overturning the state’s “ag-gag law,” the law passed by the state Legislature making it a crime to surreptitiously videotape agricultural operations. Idaho lawmakers approved the law in 2014 after the state’s $2.5 billion dairy industry complained that videos of cows being abused at a southern Idaho dairy filmed in 2012 unfairly hurt their business. The Los Angeles-based animal rights group Mercy For Animals released the videos, which showed workers at Bettencourt Dairy beating, stomping and otherwise abusing cows in 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.2pt;margin-left:.5in;line-height:20.55pt;background:white;box-sizing: border-box;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333'>The court invalidated the law in August, holding that it violated First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was the first federal court ruling on an “ag-gag” law; eight states have passed them. Last week, the groups that filed the lawsuit, led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, filed a motion with the court asking that the state pay more than $250,000 to cover their attorney fees and costs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.2pt;margin-left:.5in;line-height:20.55pt;background:white;box-sizing: border-box;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333'>Todd Dvorak, spokesman for Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, said the office had no comment today on the notice of appeal, which was filed late yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.2pt;margin-left:.5in;line-height:20.55pt;background:white;box-sizing: border-box;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333'>Ag groups including the Idaho Farm Bureau and Idaho Dairymen’s Association had been urging the state to appeal the ruling, according to the<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="http://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho"><span style='color:#006081'>Capital Press</span></a>, an ag newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.2pt;margin-left:.5in;line-height:20.55pt;background:white;box-sizing: border-box;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333'>In the August ruling, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill found that the law’s “primary purpose is to protect agricultural facility owners by, in effect, suppressing speech critical of animal-agriculture practices.” He ruled that evidence indicated the law was “intended to silence animal welfare activists, or other whistleblowers who seek to publish speech critical of the agricultural production industry.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>