Some potato news. Idaho surely helps feed this hungry world.
I will have to find a chart that lists all of the food crops grown in Idaho...I know that we are a top producer in the nation for many different types of Idaho grown food products: multiple fruit crops, lentils, mint, milk, kobe beef, lamb, and even sturgeon caviar...and many other products. Our ever growing wine region is really gaining the attention of the rest of the world and some of our wines beat out long standing French wines in taste tests.
The Treasure Valley for instance is an enviable breadbasket of locally grown produce and food. We should all be proud.


http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive...Idaho-Potatoes


http://www.freshplaza.com/2008/logos...o_potatoes.gif
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=29431




Fitness guru Denise Austin stepped out of the gym and into Idaho’s spectacular scenery to film a new national TV commercial for the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC). Shot on a potato farm in Eastern Idaho, the new ad launching this fall features breathtaking views of the natural environment that makes Idaho® Potatoes the best in the world.

With a backdrop of rolling potato fields, snow-capped mountains and clear, flowing rivers, Denise Austin shows that only genuine Idaho Potatoes come “from the best earth on Earth.” The IPC’s new TV ad touts Idaho’s rich environment as the secret to the state’s high-quality spuds. Idaho’s rich volcanic soil, pure water, clean air and ideal climate contribute to its plentiful potato industry accounting for roughly one-third of the U.S. fall potato crop. In fact, the Idaho Potato harvest, which runs from August through October, produces approximately 11 billion pounds of potatoes or enough spuds to fill nearly 500 NFL-size football fields (360’ L x 160’ W x 10’ H)!

A little something from the IBR.
http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive...way-for-Amtrak

Question is would or could it be a high speed line?

And would the Train Depot become all depot again and not a place to host events?

It would be better if it was a centralized hub for all our mass transit connections, but I don't believe that will come to fruition.

Here's an article I found a link for about Sandpoint, Idaho native Sarah Palin.

http://www.sandpointonline.com/cgi-s...1.257755622345

His daughter, Sarah Palin, grew up in Alaska, and returned to Idaho to attend the University of Idaho in Moscow, graduating in 1987 with a degree in journalism. Palin also attended North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene for the 1983-84 school year.

Idaho population tops 1.5 million for first time
- Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 12/22/08
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsup...ry/612239.html


"Idaho grew by 1.85 percent between mid-2007 and mid-2008, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Idaho had the sixth-highest growth rate in the country.

But the number of people coming to Idaho dropped to 14,000 from more than 20,000, where it has been for the past four years. The sagging economy is blamed for the decline.

Idaho's population is 1,523,816, according to the Census Bureau estimate."

Bruce Willis has some plans for Soldier Mountain. Check out this link:
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005124729

I wonder if Demi Moore still has her little Victorian house in Hailey that is full of dolls.

full of dolls? sounds a tad creepy

Word is that Arnold and Maria are hiding out at their home in Ketchum because California is going to hell.
ahhhh, Sun Valley and Ketchum, sounds like a nice place to hide to me.

I don't remember where I saw it, but there is a 9-12 story developement proposed for sun valley....

Anyone know any information on this?

A quick Google found this info to answer your question. This project has been approved. Sawtooth or IdahoMountainBoy, any more info? I believe you two know the goings ons in Sun Valley area.

http://www.warmspringsranchresort.com/

:previous: This project has caused some controversy because that area at the base of Baldy is drop dead beautiful and some people do onto want to see it developed into a resort. The developers have promised to be eco friendly and sensitive to the surroundings, so this can turn out to be a positive for Ketchum along with the other projects under way nearby.


Here's a link.
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?...=02&var_Day=18


"This is truly a historic moment for our town."

Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall was not using hyperbole when he prefaced a unanimous vote by the City Council to approve the Warm Springs Ranch Resort applications for a planned-unit development and annexation into the city.

At a special meeting on Thursday, the second in as many nights, the council wrapped up an approximately two-year planning process, including over a dozen public hearings, on the proposed five-star, 78-acre resort.

With the council's approval, Park City-based developer DDRM Greatplace can move forward with its plans to construct a 538,151-square-foot luxury hotel along with a nine-hole golf course, spa, event house, villas, estate lots and workforce housing for 93 employees. The hotel, as currently designed, will include nine floors, one of which will be completely underground, and have a maximum height of 93 feet, well above the 44-foot zoning restriction.

Moscow! We never really hear about construction from Moscow a town of amazing historic architecture.

http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive...ruction-Review



Beautiful Moscow pulled from the web.
http://community.palouse.net/rotary/town.jpg

Wow, I read the MTE every week and don't know how I missed that story. Soldier has potential to be a world class ski mountain. It has more vertical than Baldy and is easier to get to. I've never cat skied there but I hear the spring corn is...and i know this word is overused, but...epic.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/life/story/680555.html
Ketchum, Sandpoint, Coeur d'Alene named among top U.S. vacation spots



IMO it does not take a new travel book to point this out. It is obvious.

Speaking of Sandpoint, here is a link to a development up there and the site has a great pano video of Dover Bay and areas of Lake Pend Oreille and of course Sandpoint and you can see Schweitzer Ski Resort, in my opinion the most beautiful ski resort in the West . A good friend of mine has a home there and I am so jealous.

If Lake Coeur d' Alene is one of the worlds five most beautiful lakes than Lake Pend Oreille has to be one of the two most beautiful.

http://www.doverbayidaho.com/



http://www.doverbayidaho.com/DB_vid/bd_vid1.html


http://www.doverbayidaho.com/flyby.html

Finally, the remote Owyhee Canyonlands south of Boise are going to be protected as Wilderness. I might be gloating :rolleyes: but this area is one of the most if not the most spectacular collections of deep canyonlands and wild and scenic rivers on this continent, and also on planet Earth. Thankfully this area does not have cheesy national park status because it is worthy of Wilderness protection. This area also qualifies as a World Heritiage Site because of the scenery, canyons, mahogany forests, in- tact desert ecosystem, some of the oldest evidence of human occupation in North America, and the largest known numbers of California Bighorn Sheep in North America.
315 more miles of Idaho rivers designated Wild & Scenic in addition to the hundreds of miles we already have, pretty awesome.


not my pic but from the Statesman
http://www.idahostatesman.com/eyepie...ry/709925.html

http://media.idahostatesman.com/smed...filiate.36.jpg

The House approved a sweeping lands bill that includes Owyhees Canyonland wilderness and Wild Rivers protection that have been more than seven years in the making. It now only needs the signature of President Barack Obama to become law.

The bill passed 285-140.

The Owyhees bill would set aside 517,000 acres as wilderness, and designate 315 miles of wild and scenic rivers in Owyhee County. The bill also would authorize a cultural site protection plan prepared by the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes to pay for tribal rangers to patrol and protect one of the largest unprotected acreages of cultural and religious sites in the lower 48 states in Owyhee County.

I just finished reading the article in todays paper about this.It is too bad these canyons are so hard to get to, but that is part of the mystery about them.
...but I remember once reading about a wilderness proposal near Sun Valley for the Ernest Hemingway Boulder Mountain Wilderness or something like that, there is already so much wilderness in this state. Idaho really is the Wilderness State and silently the most beautiful state. We have the big lakes, the largest expanses of forest in the West, the most mountain ranges contained within one state in the Lower 48 states, the deepest canyons, the tallest sand dunes, and the most miles of rivers and the best whitewater in the lower 48, the largest roadless forested areas left in the 48..... What else can we brag about?:bowtie:

Idaho Smart Growth awards:

http://www.idahosmartgrowth.org/