Members of AMVETS Idaho Post 1 and the North Bannock Fire Department Raise the American Flag at Perkins Family Restaurant and Bakery
Members of AMVETS Idaho Post 1 and the North Bannock Fire Department continued their patriotic partnership yesterday as they switched out the giant, 20 ft. by 30 ft. American flag displayed at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 1600 Pocatello Creek Road.
AMVETS commented on their social media, “AMVETS would like to give a big shout out and THANK YOU to the men and women of the North Bannock Fire Department. These folks have stepped in and helped our Honor Guard on several occasions and we got to assist on their Christmas drive. Thank you all for the job you do and may our local heroes always be safe. Its a privilege for our Honor Guard to do events with the North Bannock Fire Department!!!
KPVI News 6 was on hand to document the event. Their news report video can be seen, here:
If you’ve been disheartened at the erosion of liberty, increase in censorship, and the excessive and troubling mandates implemented by politicians and bureaucrats in recent months but wondered what, if anything, you could do about it, this event is for you.
The Pocatello-Chubbuck Observer announces the Liberty Dinner Series in Pocatello.
The Liberty Dinner Series is a monthly event, scheduled every third Friday or Saturday (depending on venue availability), beginning in March. The series gives attendees the opportunity to connect with others who share your concerns, enjoy a meal, and hear from a speaker engaged in the fight to preserve and/or restore freedoms for Idahoans. Topics planned include Freedom of Speech and Censorship, the Second Amendment, the Right to Life, Freedom of Assembly, Social Justice Indoctrination, and more. Proceeds from the events will go toward event expenses and organizations making a positive impact for American values.
The Series kicks off on Saturday, March 20, at 6:00 p.m. at the Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building, 300 S. Johnson Avenue in Pocatello. The speakers scheduled for the March event are the founders of RECONNECT Southeast Idaho, Chantelle Holman, Michele Holyoak, and Ashley Smith. They will be discussing how one person can make a difference by detailing how they came together to start their grassroots organization that recently hosted over 200 local residents to view the movie and hear from the star of the film, NONESSENTIAL: A Documentary.
The cost to attend the March event is $25 per person. Sponsorships are also available. The evening features an opportunity to meet and network with other like-minded folks over a spaghetti dinner while hearing the inspiring story of RECONNECT Southeast Idaho. Part of the proceeds for the March event will go toward support of the Idaho Post 1 AMVETS Americanism Contest.
Future events will feature:
April: Idaho Representative Ron Nate on Tax Relief
May: Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Anna K. Miller on Social Justice Indoctrination
TBD: Idaho Representative and Air Force Academy graduate Priscilla Giddings
For more information, to purchase a ticket, or to learn about sponsorship opportunities, contact the publisher of the Pocatello-Chubbuck Observer, John Crowder, at 925-628-4033 or via email at jcrowder27@hotmail.com.
2020–2021 City Council: Linda Leeuwrik, Rick Cheatum, Roger Bray, Claudia Ortega (back row); Heidi Adamson, Brian Blad, Chris Stevens (front row) (Photo Credit: City of Pocatello)
The Pocatello City Council is set to once again revisit the mask ordinance at their Thursday, March 4, City Council meeting.
Agenda Item number 14, one of the last items to be addressed at the meeting, reads:
AGENDA ITEM NO. 14: COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING ORDINANCE NO. 3061 – FACE COVERINGS: This time has been set aside for Council to revisit Ordinance No. 3061, an ordinance establishing standards for face coverings for individuals when they are in public places, as approved by the Council November 19, 2020, effective November 21, 2020.
Members of the community have been protesting the mask ordinance at City Council meetings, expressing their displeasure on social media, and increasingly coming together to discuss this and other actions taken by government on the pretext of the pandemic to restrict the freedoms of Idahoans. Over 200 residents turned out on Saturday, February 20, to attend one of two showings of the film, NON-ESSENTIAL: A DOCUMENTARY, and to hear the films star, Eric Moutsos, discuss his fight to regain freedoms restricted in Utah. The event was put on by the local, grassroots organization, RECONNECT Southeast Idaho. (Send an email to: reconnectsoutheastidaho@gmail.com to learn more.) See article, here:
Other items on the City Council Meeting agenda include the approval of various grant applications and the Pocatello Police Department’s trade and purchase of firearms.
(City of Pocatello Press Release, February 25, 2021)
More than 30 Pocatello businesses and organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic received a little help thanks to the City of Pocatello’s Small Business Grants Program.
Through the program, businesses and organizations were eligible for awards up to $10,000 on a first-come, first-served basis for qualified expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 34 businesses and organizations received a grant. Fourteen businesses received the full $10,000 and the smallest amount awarded was $500.
“Small businesses are a vital part of Pocatello,” said Mayor Brian Blad. “The City Council felt that one of the best things to do with some of our funding was to assist small businesses that contribute so much to our community.”
In 2020, the City set aside $250,000 for local business and organization grants from the City’s allocation received from Governor Brad Little’s Coronavirus Financial Advisory Committee.
The program was initially announced in November 2020. In early January 2021, the State of Idaho allowed the City to extend the deadline for applications to January 13.
In this video, the North Bannock Fire Commissioner’s answer questions regarding the Permanent Levy Override being presented for vote on May 18th, 2021. Visit http://www.northbannockfire.us for more information.
Lawmakers Cannot Avoid Responsibility to Defund Leftist Extremism at Idaho’s Public Colleges and Universities
By: Idaho Freedom Foundation President Wayne Hoffman
Wayne Hoffman, President, Idaho Freedom Foundation
Idaho lawmakers have only one job each and every year: deciding how much money to take out of the economy to run whatever government program they decide to fund. Media distractions to the contrary, this is the job, and lawmakers aren’t very good at it. They’re focused on evading responsibility so they upset no one – or at least, none of their donors. So when public money is spent against Idahoans’ interests, lawmakers can claim plausible deniability and say they’re not responsible.
Case in point: Idahoans are deeply concerned that they’re the ones funding the instrument of our country’s demise. We are the ones on the hook because we’re paying taxes and fees to indoctrinate young minds at Idaho’s public colleges and universities. But chairmen of the House and Senate education committees didn’t bring up the issue when they met recently with the Legislature’s budget panel, JFAC.
The chairmen didn’t mention it to JFAC even though the problem of Marxist and socialist training at Boise State University and the University of Idaho is well-documented and has been talked about in all three committees.
You’d think that Rep. Lance Clow of Twin Falls and Sen. Steve Thayn of Emmett would have offered a recommendation to stop public dollars from being used to segregate students by race, gender, or sexual orientation. Or stop the use of public dollars to harass a pro-police coffee shop on BSU’s campus into closing. Or put a halt to Idaho’s colleges and universities supporting the openly-Marxist group Black Lives Matter. Or stop taxpayer support of the extreme leftists at National Public Radio via radio stations at Boise State and Idaho State University. But they did not even bring it up.
Only Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, a legislative budget writer, asked about it. And only he and Rep. Priscilla Giddings have expressed any interest at all in this topic. Giddings has a bill to split the university budgets so that each school gets voted on by their individual merits.
Clow sounded ambivalent when asked about the idea of defunding social justice training at BSU or the possibility of having separate votes on the budgets for each of Idaho’s four four-year schools.
That’s because Clow never bothered to ask his committee to weigh in and offer a formal recommendation, leaving the budget panel without a direction he knew the committee would support. Rather than shackle the social justice programs, Thayn said he’d rather the schools offer a class on how socialism has failed. But neither provided a clear direction, leaving legislative budget writers to conclude that they shouldn’t trouble themselves with such matters.
What’s happening here, ladies and gentlemen, is an effort to hide the ball. The legislators on JFAC, who write budgets, will contend that all they do is decide how to spend money; the policies that lead up to the money being spent is someone else’s problem. The education committee members will claim that all they do is set policy; JFAC is the one that decides budget questions. As long as no one talks about it, the media won’t write about it and their constituents will be none the wiser that it was within their power to stop it.
With neither the budget committee nor the education committees responsible for exercising oversight, and the schools continue to operate as they have been, churning out the next generation of anti-Americans right here in Idaho. In the words of 1980s musician Howard Jones: ”No one, no one ever is to blame.”
But Idahoans don’t have to accept these acts of willful complacency. Idaho can become the first state in the nation to defund the leftist indoctrination on college campuses. If we do that, the lessons learned in Idaho can be used as a roadmap for other states to follow suit to quite literally save our country from itself. All the Legislature has to do is act decisively.
The public is going to have to speak up to get lawmakers to act. I hope you’ll take a moment to call your legislators. Sign the petition at FixIdahoColleges.com. It’s time to tell your state legislators they have the power to stop the indoctrination of Idaho’s young adults, and this is the year to get it done.
(Office of Senator Jim Risch Video Release, February 24, 2021)
(U.S. Senator James Risch, Official Photo)
WASHINGTON – It took President Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Interior, Rep. Deb Haaland, four times to answer U.S. Senator Jim Risch’s question: “Do you support the President’s action to shut down the Keystone Pipeline?”
Once she finally confirmed that she supports shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline and the thousands of American jobs it provides, it took Rep. Haaland an additional two times to answer why she supports shutting down the pipeline.
“One of the reasons I’m pressing you on this is I’m having real trouble reconciling [the move to shut down the Keystone Pipeline] with the fact that we can’t get the Administration to shut down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline,” Risch told Haaland.
Senator Risch continued, “How do you square shutting down jobs in the energy sector in the United States but yet permitting – and indeed encouraging – jobs in the energy sector in Russia? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Senator Risch serves as the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has been instrumental in the bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate to halt construction of the Russian Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. If completed, the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline would increase Europe’s energy dependence on Russia and endanger U.S. national security interests.
Zoo Idaho will be holding Science Talks via Zoom every Thursday in March from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.
According to the Zoo Idaho website, by attending Science Talks you can, “Learn about topics ranging from fish biology to fire science and everything in between. This is your chance to talk with the experts and investigate what makes Idaho unique!”
(City of Pocatello Press Release, February 24, 2021)
After consulting with Southeastern Idaho Public Health, organizers have decided to cancel the 2021 Portneuf Valley Environmental Fair.
Due to the size of the event and the difficulty in ensuring proper social distancing, the decision was made to forgo the event. In years past, the Portneuf Valley Environmental Fair has drawn roughly 5,000 people to Caldwell Park.
Vendors or sponsors with questions are asked to contact Jenna Dohman, Environmental Technician, at 208-234-6519.
City officials encourage all residents to take precautions to protect themselves from COVID-19. Additional information on ways to help prevent the spread of the disease can be found at siphidaho.org/coronavirus.php, coronavirus.idaho.gov, and cdc.gov.
The Pocatello Police Department (PPD) is restarting their “Parents Night Out” program tonight, February 24, from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. The event is being held at Pocatello High School at The Palace (Gym). The entrance is off Clark Street. Tonight’s meeting, presented by Children’s Mental Health, will focus on learning how to have a conversation with your child about suicide, and where to go from there. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, attendance is limited to 50 people. However, the event will be streamed via Facebook Live on the Pocatello Police Department’s Facebook page.
PPD plans to continue to hold meetings once per month with the “intention of educating parents on current, relevant situations involving their children.” The venue may change, but meetings are currently planned to take place at Pocatello High School.
On their Facebook page, the PPD commented, “The PPD looks forward to working with School District 25 and the parents in our community to help build stronger, more effective relationships with our children.”
