Logan Ramsey
Editor-in-Chief
Local: The groundbreaking for the Pocatello LDS temple will be March 16
The Mormon church will be breaking ground on the long-awaited Pocatello temple on March 16. The artist rendering of the design was made available online at the same time in a post on the church’s website. The temple will be located east of Satterfield Drive in Crestview Acres, a new subdivision currently being built. This will be the sixth Mormon temple built in Idaho. The groundbreaking will be attended by invitation only. The church also announced the date for the Guam temple groundbreaking on May 4.
Regional: Former Jerome County Sheriff Doug McFall has been sentenced for misusing public money
Doug McFall, 61, ex-Jerome County Sheriff, has been sentenced for misusing public money. An investigation revealed that the former sheriff used a $79 Costco Reward Certificate to assist in the personal purchase of a gun safe. McFall will serve three years on probation and has to serve 100 hours of community service. McFall also had to pay a $1,500 fine and $393 in restitution and court costs. The former sheriff said that he didn’t realize that the money he was spending from the Costco rebate check belonged to the county and that he believed it was from his personal Costco card.
Statewide: A company is suing Idaho State Police and Ada County for seizing its hemp
Big Sky Scientific, LLC, is suing Idaho State Police and Ada County after ISP seized 7,000 pounds of what Big Sky says is industrial hemp. Authorities who stopped the Colorado-bound truck say it was filled with marijuana, but Big Sky points out that industrial hemp is legal now under the recently passed U.S. Farm Bill. The truck’s driver, Dennis Palamarchuk, 36, was arrested and charged with a felony. Big Sky wants their product returned and an admission of wrongdoing by the ISP.
National: The Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is being called on to resign by members of his own party
Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam admitted Friday, Feb. 1 to being in a photo depicting a Ku Klux Klan member standing next to a person in blackface in his 1984 medical school yearbook but walked back his admission of guilt the next day. Democratic party leaders are accusing him of being dishonest and are urging him to resign, which Northam has said he won’t do. Party strategists are concerned that the controversy could affect them negatively in the 2020 elections. Among those calling on Northam to resign are Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Julian Castro, who have all announced 2020 presidential bids, and former Vice President Joe Biden.
International: President Donald Trump says sending troops to Venezuela is “an option.”
President Trump said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation program that he has not ruled out sending U.S. troops to Venezuela, a country embroiled in unrest after the U.S. backed Juan Guiado as interim president of Venezuela in direct defiance of Nicolas Maduro. This comes after Maduro has been accused of rigging the recent presidential election in his favor. “Well, I don’t want to say that. But certainly, it’s something that’s on the – it’s an option,” Trump said. Trump also said that Maduro requested a meeting with him several months ago but he declined it, citing the horrible “poverty, anguish, and crime” in Venezuela as his reason. Britain, France, Germany, and Spain have all said that they’ll recognize Guiado as President of Venezuela unless Maduro calls new elections by midnight on Sunday.
