There are many talented, sincere professionals and public servants in Idaho.

Tammy Lorcher, Regional Administrator for the Idaho Youth Ranch , is one of those people.

Some friends and I run a literacy project that had donated thousands of books to deserving youth in Idaho over the last several years.

The thrift stores of the Idaho Youth Ranch are one of our recipient groups. During these years, we have consistently noticed a high level of competence, kindness, and professionalism from the Idaho Youth Ranch Staff.

Any wrongs are quickly righted.

These good experiences have happened under Tammy Lorcher's direction.

Do you have some items that have been sitting in your garage for a while? Are there some decent and new things cluttering your house?

Please consider donating these items to the Idaho Youth Ranch, an organization that believes that "one man's junk is another man's treasure."

However, some junk truly belongs at the landfill and not at their thrift stores. Please donate “gently used items” that are appropriate for resale at our thrift stores. One exception to this suggestion would be clothing, bedding, curtains and other items that can’t be sold, but can be recycled into use for rags. Their new Nagel Center distribution, sorting and recycling center has this capability—to recycle items that aren’t appropriate for resale into other useful items such as rags.

In addition to the Ranch at 1275 North 400 East, Rupert, ID semerson@youthranch.org, the Idaho Youth Ranch has five other residential homes that are in need of household goods and other items. If you would like to donate these items, please click on the home in your area to view the needs list. If you have questions, contact the home directly or call their main office in Boise at 877-817-8141.

Anchor House, Coeur d'Alene
208-667-3340

Discovery House, Nampa
208-467-1750

Emancipation Home, Boise
208-343-5370

Harbor House, Idaho Falls
208-529-6696

Hays Shelter Home, Boise
208-322-6687

TAX DEDUCTIONS

Donors are entitled to both a federal and state tax deduction for the fair market value of their contribution. Idaho taxpayers are, in addition, entitled to a tax credit for 50% of that value, up to a certain limit.

SCHEDULE A DONATION PICK-UP USING E-MAIL

You can arrange for donations to be picked up in the Boise area (Boise, Garden City, Meridian, Eagle and Kuna) by sending an email with a description of the items to be picked up. The Idaho Youth ranch will respond to your email with the specific pickup date. To maximize our efficiencies and help us save on the high cost of fuel, we encourage you to deliver small donations to the store closest to you, or to our new distribution center (Nagel Center) located at 5465 W. Irving Street in Boise near Saint Alphonsus and the I-184 Curtis Road exit. Your generous donations help at-risk youth and their families throughout Idaho.

Call for pickup at 208-345-6724 or e-mail thriftdesk.boisedist@youthranch.org

There aren't enough good things that can be said about the work of this organization.

Southern Idaho is a wonderful place. I enjoy the privilege of being able to raise my family in this beautiful mountainous region. We enjoy many towns like Pocatello, that are filled with conservative families, entrepreneurs and scores of highly educated professionals.

But sometimes when I walk with one of my daughters into the some of our civic centers, I am struck, on an emotional level, by the sign outside that says, “No Gang Attire.”

It is clear that in many ways, Southern Idaho gets hit with the same urban problems  that many big cities face.

In this vein, one of my favorite pastimes includes engaging in the dialogue  surrounding my fellow black Americans. Comedian Bill Cosby recently told  several hundred people at a conference of community associations to stand up and confront the ills facing us.   

This struck a chord with me, because Cosby spoke in my native Newark, N.J. Being a father and educator in Idaho often has me thinking about the many parallels. Cosby’s message can be applied to any group of people.

Characterizing his own words as “blunt, but not harsh,” Cosby criticized a culture in which “babies are wearing $40 sneakers while their mothers are feeding them Oodles of Noodles” and in which pimps and murderers are seen as heroes. He compared street attitudes to a patient who ignores a toothache until it requires major surgery.

Several times he exhorted the audience to “stand up and stop looking for somebody to blame,” a mantra that has angered some black leaders who have accused him of downplaying the effects of long-term discrimination.

Cosby termed some of those critics “intellectual panhandlers” who enable  destructive behaviors by staying silent or blaming them on racism.

“You’ve got these idiots who’ve got these degrees, and some of them are ordained ministers and they say, “Bill, you’re picking on the poor,’ ” he said. He then drew laughs by adding, “Well, so did Jesus, then. Jesus was always telling someone, ‘Go ye.’ Jesus was always telling people to go somewhere. And ‘don’t do this again or don’t do that again.’ ”

It is time to re-examine our priorities.

Cosby saved some of his most pointed words for radio stations that play music that he called “pro-murder and anti-women,” and said adults are equally  complicit if they fail to speak up.

“I haven’t seen the demonstrations saying, ‘I’m not allowing my children to  listen to this,’ ” he said. “It’s killing us. We’re not talking about it, and we’re not beating it down.”

Cosby should be commended for his willingness to speak out on issues without bowing to political correctness. This is a time for candor; our children need frank discussion.

In Pocatello, we have large percentages of our population who are underachieving.

What can we do about the aforementioned community problems? For starters, I can see to it that I am responsible and that my kids have a stable home, wholesome activities and a good education.

As the hymn says, "Let it begin with me ...”

The outdoor classroom for University of Idaho landscape architecture students is not nestled in the hills of Idaho's Silver Valley; rather, the sprawling residence is perched in a beautiful valley in Cremolino, a town in the Piemonte region of northern Italy.

Halfway around the globe, Casa Wallace has a special Idaho connection. Emily Wallace and Jeff Herman, married owners of the villa, both have ties to the University of Idaho. Herman, a native of Marsing, Idaho, received a degree in landscape architecture from the university in 2000. Wallace was a dance professor in the College of Education for six years, serving as director of dance for her last year at the university.

The couple moved to Italy in August 2001, and began welcoming Idaho students for special summer studies in 2003. "Professors Steven Drown and Gary Austin approached us in 2002 about hosting their Landscape Architecture Summer Abroad Program. After having such a successful first summer with them in 2003, our goal has been to develop more educational and art programs every since," said Wallace.

Steve Drown, professor and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Idaho, said there are many reasons students travel the 5,500 miles to learn about landscape architecture. "Italy is a great source for exploring the western foundations and traditions of landscape architecture. There are great examples of city form, land planning and landscape design that can be used as inspiration for contemporary design and planning," he said.

"The small nearby hill town of Cremolino has been around since about A.D. 900," said Drown. "Students can see and experience the morphology of the town over a 1,100 year period and gather value information on the significance of landscape to urban form. Hopefully, they return home with a new appreciation for the valuable traditions and forms of their own community and region.”

The summer program’s design studio will explore the relationships between ancient and contemporary urban form, with a focus on how the larger bioregional landscape influences site design. The historical villages and landscapes of northern Italy provide an excellent context for exploring the relationship between site planning, landscape ecology, and social and economic sustainability, and are used as resources for new solutions for contemporary life.

Drown said students also participate in lectures by historians from the Piedmont region to understand how the region's history shapes the land. "They will have a chance to use what they learn from history to shape the future of the area," he said.

Students will continue a project started by Idaho students in 2007 to create landscape architecture plans for a new park in AquiTerme, a nearby ancient spa city from the Roman period. The site of the riverfront park incorporates the ruins of a 1,000-year-old Roman aqueduct. "Working on a project such as this provides students the opportunity to reflect and learn from what is historical, but also participate in an international service-learning experience that makes a contribution to contemporary Italian life," said Drown.

Aaron Parson from Rexburg, who graduated from Idaho this month with bachelor's and master's degrees in landscape architecture and participated in the Italian program last summer, said that learning landscape architecture in Italy gave him an appreciation of the macro-scale. "It is highly beneficial to learn from the built landscape that is hundreds of years old,” he said. “The way architecture and landscape architecture can work together is evident in the way buildings mold into hillsides and agriculture finds its way in the center of cities."

For his project in AquiTerme, Parson symbolically reconnected the aqueducts with a channel of water, which collected in a geometric pool and dispersed into the grid of the city. "One of my principle goals of the design was to educate the public about the ancient aqueducts," he said. Something I would recommend for students in the 2008 studio would be to develop a better connection with the city's pedestrian circulation. Pedestrian paths need to connect to the site on the north side of the river as well as down by the spa area."

During the six-week program, an Italian Hill Towns and Urban Centers course will examine the foundations and morphology of urban form and the relationship between landscape and community. Students will attend lectures and take three extended field trips to Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio, visiting significant cities such as Lucca, Florence, Siena, Genoa, Milan, Cinque Terre and Rome in addition to a number of smaller hill towns noted for their place in the history of the Italian landscape.

Students also will have an immersion into Italian culture, with special emphasis on the relationship between the regional landscape, language and sense of place. Students will study the Italian language under the tutelage of an Italian language instructor.

"Not only do students learn the language, but they are required to visit local open-air markets and use the language to order produce and supplies," said Drown.

They also will receive weekly instruction from experts in the traditions of regional Italian cuisine through a series of cultural dinners with instruction from regional chefs. Drown said student teams also will prepare the evening meals throughout the experience. "It really builds the community of the students," he said. "They work together, learn together and relax together."

"Our fondest memories are of the cultural events," said Wallace. "These evenings always generate lots of laughter as we gather in the upper garden with good food and wine. Last year, one student was a gifted singer/guitarist, so we were able to enjoy some sing-alongs."

Guest faculty, alumni and professional landscape architects participate in the program, and provide studio critique and additional evening lectures. Faculty from the University of Genoa and planners from the cities of Ovada and AquiTerme assist in teaching as well.

"We love hosting student programs," said Wallace. "A wonderful energy exists each summer as they set up 'home' here for six weeks. It's inspiring to watch them hard at work in the studio, and we love to see them enjoy the pool or jog in the vineyards. They begin to experience a sense of place here together, which gives us great satisfaction in providing this opportunity."

Wallace and Herman are working with the university to offer programs in other disciplines. Students from the College of Business and Economics traveled to Casa Wallace this month for a course focusing on international business and culture. And plans are underway to hold a University of Idaho Dancers, Drummers and Dreamers workshop at the villa next year. 

Drown said the Department of Landscape Architecture has approved a study abroad requirement starting in fall 2010. "Our students really benefit from the whole experience at Casa Wallace," he said. "The hands-on immersion in the language and culture, in addition to the exposure to a historic but thriving international landscape with contemporary global problems, makes this an excellent learning opportunity."

Many traditional Idaho Republicans are getting scared. 

They are smart enough to know that anything can happen in an election, and not to take anyone's emminent victory for granted.

On February 29,  I reported here on the JHub about my meeting with Scott Syme, who not only has the right stuff to beat Jim Risch, but he is clearly the best candidate.

Since then, a strange thing has happended.

Things have gotten even better.

"The Republican race for U.S. Senate has the look of Lt. Gov. Jim Risch and the Seven Also-Rans. But there's one candidate attempting the upset with real promise," writes Dan Popkey in a recent Idaho Statesman column. "Army Reserve Col. Scott Syme helped plan reconstruction in Iraq and returned in 2005 feeling a duty to mend America's fractured politics."

"Syme, outfunded 25 to 1, ignored advice to make a more modest start - say, running for the Legislature or local office," Popkey said.

"I wouldn't have done anybody any good at those levels," said Syme, a Weiser native who sells real estate in Canyon County and still holds the shotput record at The College of Idaho. "At this point in history, I felt I had to come back and serve because we need somebody with my experience."

Popkey wrote that those words may read like the utterance of an out-of-control egotist. But Syme seems a genuinely modest man who feels compelled to contribute to a more successful foreign policy and easing partisanship. "I didn't know what I was getting into, but I just didn't really feel I had a choice," he said. "I really had to do this right now."

In my previous JHUb post:

-- I spoke about how  I had the privilege of an extended discussion with Syme at his real estate office in Caldwell.  I also was able to talk extensively about Idaho and national politics with some of his campaign staffers, including Natalie Wallace and Kathleen Pulliam-Jordan.

I reflected on how a record number of people now getting involved in the political process, as we had a chance to break bread with Syme's wife and family, I wrote.

The first thing that attracted me to this cause is the fact that Syme is running a true grassroots campaign. The people around him don't owe their lives to the government because of political positions.

I continued: 

Syme is not an insider in the Republican Party, and as is consistent with the current national wave, he is committed to bringing new ideas and true leadership to Washington. Syme is working to be an antidote to the entrenched interests that Americans are now disgusted with.

For example, "first and foremost we must secure our borders," Syme says. "Then we must provide employers with the tools to easily verify the status of employees. We must enforce the law, but at the same time streamline the process of legal immigration to welcome law-abiding immigrants."

*****

UPDATE: I ran into Syme about a week ago while standing in front of my house with my three daughters, my wife, and some neighbors. Syme was around town doing a literature drop.

That interaction reminded me of how I got the same impression of him as Popkey did.

As the columnist wrote,  Scott Syme is in fact "a genuinely modest man who feels compelled to contribute to a more successful foreign policy and easing partisanship." 

I have also had some great conversations with his wife Patty. Certain other candidates in this election are culturally tone-deaf, but she is as in-touch as one can be on diversity issues and why they are important.

It was heartwarming to chat with Patty during a recent Nampa Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

*****

This candidate is for real.

"He has an internal energy," said Scott Short, another Army colonel, who met Syme in the Reserves in 1993. "He sees it as a calling."

Syme is driven by a conviction he could contribute to the national debate on finishing the job in Iraq. "It is so important to get this right," Syme said.

In its endorsement of Risch this week, the Idaho Statesman went as far as to hedge its bets around Syme:

" The conventional wisdom holds that Risch is facing seven unknown GOP lightweights," the Statesman editorial board wrote.

"This perception gives short shrift to Scott Syme of Wilder, an impressive, eloquent Iraq War veteran. His international experience and global perspective trump Risch, who has built a resume exclusively in state politics. Syme's stated goal - focusing first on constituent service - is practical for a new senator who might well be serving in the minority caucus."

Electing Risch, one of Idaho's most powerful men for 30 years, won't shake up Washington as it needs shaking, Syme said. "Fundamental change is sending someone to Congress who has a new perspective and looks at things in a different light than people who spend their careers as politicians."

According to the Idaho Statesman, Syme got involved in GOP politics only after returning from Iraq in 2005. Canyon County Commissioner Dave Ferdinand has known Syme and his wife, Patty, for years. He helped introduce Syme around as Syme considered running for the U.S. House in western Idaho's 1st District in 2006.

"Scott's gutsy to be taking on this campaign right out of the chute," Ferdinand said. "Bless his heart, he wants to put his hat in the ring and go for it."

One of Syme's key supporters is Don Brandt, who employed Syme as a real estate broker for a decade at the Brandt Agency and admires Syme's pluck. "Beating Risch is probably an impossibility," he said, "but then, Scott feels a strong calling to do this, and there are certainly a lot of people who are not Jim Risch fans."

Is there enough of a groundswell of support for Syme to close this deal?

Popkey says that Syme's level of support is unclear.  However, if Syme can finish second, he will be a strong prospect for future races. "I think it's a great opportunity for him," Ferdinand said. "If you can campaign against Jim Risch, then any time you run for something else you certainly have learned in the trenches."

Syme dismisses the theory that he's running now so he can run again later as the predictable reaction of party insiders. "I'm not in it for that, OK? Either we'll win or we won't."

I am always reminded that a player can't win if he is not in the game. And the one who wins at the end is always someone who thought he could.

Strange things happen in politics every day. Not too long ago, wasn't Larry Craig supposed to be a shoe-in for this election?

Experts have said that an outsider has a shot if he can find a way to make the media listen. Thus, Jim Risch is not unbeatable.

Scott Syme can win.

Take a serious look at this alternative candidate. The campaign's website is www.symeforsenate.com

HuntRyan wrote:

" ... the Democrats are constantly doing with African Americans: pandering to their interests with mounds of hollow promises and lofty generalist goals with no true plan to accomplish any of them. The truly sad thing is that African American's continue to buy into it at a great disservice to themselves."

This is accurate.

It is also true, as HuntRyan said below my last post, that Black Americans should take more pages from the Republican playbook.

But there is hope on the horizon. To see an example, do a google search for "Cory Booker" the mayor of Newark New Jersey.

A couple of years ago, Booker overthrew a corrupt, old-guard Democratic regime that had exploited the poor of that large, predominately black city for decades.

Booker is a Democrat. But he draws ideas and strategies from both sides of the aisle. He is complex, in a good way, taking the best from many different perspectives and resources.

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson supported Booker's opponent, former Newark Mayor Sharpe James. James was recently convicted of financial felonies, committed while he was mayor (bilking taxpayer money), and is awaiting sentencing.

Booker is a leader who knows how to allow other strong constituencies to be a part of the mix -- a requirement at which the traditional civil rights machine has miserably failed.

Just a quick reminder of this weeks TLC (True Loyal Connections) Meeting.

Tuesday, May 6^th, at Pasta & Vino’s 138 N. Main in Old Town Pocatello.

Time:  11:45 to 1:00 pm

Dianne Smith with Shaklee will be presenting for us this week.

The sole purpose of this time is to meet with Business Owners, Managers and Leaders to network, pass referrals and have lunch.

There is nothing to join, and no cost other than your lunch and a $1.00 voluntary donation to support our group.  Bring a new friend and your lunch could be free!

Remember, everyone who attends is eligible to win a free dinner courtesy of Pasta & Vino’s.

If you have any questions please call Troy Neu at 234-2679.

Troy Neu

Old Town Embroidery

208-234-2679
208-251-9910

Even as his opponents, fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, seize on his difficulties, a major strategy shift is unlikely for the Illinois senator who takes pride in the nickname "No Drama Obama" for his steadiness, the Star Ledger reports.

"I wouldn't trade with anybody else, Democrat or Republican," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director.

"We've had a plan from the beginning. We've executed that plan. So there's no need for us to make any drastic changes. There's ups and downs to it but we've had a lot more ups than we've ever had downs."

This was an improbable race from the start.

Obama is pure upside.

and in additional thoughts ...

In this presidential race, we have a multimillionaire Republican senator who has been known to share up to eight residences with his wife.

Also running is a former First Lady of the United States.

But as the candidates go, it is the African American from Chicago who is unforgivably elitist.

.