The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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Farm numbers across the United States are dwindling and the mountain states are no exception. Our country lost 7 percent of farms from 2017 to 2022, and all of the mountain states were above the national average. As a farmer in the region, I understand the stress of this profession, and if our country continues on its current trajectory our region's agricultural future looks bleak – more consolidation and less food security. From 2017 to 2022, Idaho, Montana, Washington, a...
If someone were to borrow a cup of sugar to make a cake and doesn't return a similar amount, is the lender entitled to the cake? The lender would be viewed as excessively greedy to acquire so much in recompense. A fairer outcome would be for the borrower to offer a slice deemed equivalent to the value of the sugar. Yet, prior to the Supreme Court ruling in Tyler v. Hennepin County in May 2023, governments were allowed to "take the cake" from many citizens through home equity...
As the summer heat intensifies, peak fire season is migrating north, but the critical practice of prescribed burning continues to avoid the western states. Oregon (4), Idaho (5), Montana (9) and Washington (10) suffered more acres burned than most of the United States in 2022, all ranking in the top ten states of acreage burned in 2020 to 2022 (rank refers to 2022). Utah (21) and Wyoming (22) trailed slightly behind. Despite the ongoing fire danger and consequences,...
Thanks to the perseverance of a Northern Idaho couple, the Clean Water Act, is less polluted by bureaucratic expansion. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled (5-4) in favor of Michael and Chantell Sackett in their 15-year case versus the Environment Protection Agency. The Court's decision brings clarity to the long-disputed definition of adjacent waters, determining that a continuous surface connection must exist for adjacent wetlands to be included within the authority of the...
