In a special meeting of the Idaho Board of Land Commissioners earlier today (Tuesday January 26), the Board overturned last Friday's auction result in which the Owyhee Canyonlands Coalition (of which IWP is a member along with 31 other groups) outbid the Air Force by 500 times ($5,000. to $10. !). The auction was to determine the winner of a lease on 1000 acres of Idaho school endowment land in Owyhee County. The Board voted to issues a lease to the low-bidder, the U.S. Air Force.
The vote was 4-0!
Idaho State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Marilyn Howard, the Board's new Democratic Party member who had defeated Back-to-Basics zealot Anne Fox in November did not attend the meeting!
Newly installed Republican Governor Dirk Kempthorne did not recuse himself as requested by IWP and the Coalition and voted to overturn the auction. Readers will recall that it was then U.S. Senator Kempthorne who pushed through the Congress last year a special land withdrawal in Owyhee County which provided 12,000 acres of BLM land to the Air Force for this expanded training range. Kempthorne's bill in Congress also appropriated almost $1,000,000 for one welfare rancher, Bert Brackett, as part of the BLM withdrawal "to make him whole", as put by the Senator.
IWP suggests Kempthorne's motto might be: " A million for you if you wear a big "hat", but ten dollars for you if you learn to spell "cat"!".
IWP and the Coalition will consider legal action to overturn this handout. Wouldn't you?