Idaho briefs January 20, 2011

Senior ski group gives to juniors

The Lookout Prime Timers, a 55-and-older ski group, recently donated $200 to the Lookout Junior Ski racers to help their program for the 2010-11 season.

Lookout Prime Timers, founded in 2008, has about 40 members.

House GOP to Otter: Budget may be too optimistic

BOISE (AP) - Majority Republicans in Idaho's House met behind closed doors to air their concerns that Gov. Butch Otter's proposed 2012 budget may be too optimistic.

House Majority Caucus Leader Ken Roberts and Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke told reporters after Wednesday's meeting that Otter's budget team relies on favorable tax revenue predictions to balance his proposed fiscal year 2012 spending plan.

Through November, collections were running $33 million ahead of oft-reduced projections, something Otter took into account when setting his spending plan.

But then, tax revenue reported in December missed the mark by $10.7 million.

That's what's got fiscal hawks in the House GOP worried more sour revenue news is coming.

The consequence? Roberts says Otter's proposal to cut $25 million worth of state-funded Medicaid benefits may not go deep enough.

He says, "It's still a sobering year."

Prison violence video promptslawmaker concern

BOISE (AP) - A year after the brutal beating of an inmate at an Idaho prison was captured on surveillance video, the state Department of Correction is assuring lawmakers "things have improved."

While director Brent Reinke touted his agency's successes during a hearing Wednesday, he was briefly interrupted and asked what had been done to prevent a repeat of the inmate-on-inmate attack last January.

Reinke told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee he couldn't talk about the attack because of pending litigation, but assured them his agency has boosted oversight of Idaho's only privately run prison.

Federal authorities confirmed in November, after The Associated Press published the video of the attack on former inmate Hanni Elabed, they were investigating inmate-on-inmate violence at the Idaho Correctional Center.

History agency wants to openold state records

BOISE (AP) - It's been more than a century since Harry Orchards planted the bomb that killed former Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg outside his house in Caldwell on Dec. 30, 1905.

But historians requesting a copy of Orchard's prison record from the Idaho State Historical Society might be disappointed in what they get.

That's because state archives staff by law must redact the names of victims and witnesses - though these details are readily available from other sources.