"For 36 hours, the middle of Idaho disappeared. Northwest met southeast. The gulf between the southern tip of Lake Coeur d'Alene and the northern fringe of American Falls Reservoir wasn't 300 miles; it was one smooth skipping rock apart. Cascade and Challis vanished. Salmon and St. Anthony got the squeeze. Our Republicans mirrored their Republicans. Their Mormons looked a lot like our Catholics. For 36 hours, Coeur d'Alene and Pocatello were more than sister cities; they were estranged siblings reunited in a fleeting but warm embrace by, of all things, a group of Idaho State University students."

For the rest of M.E. Mike Patrick's gushy story about Duane Hagadone being named ISU Idaho Business Leader of the Year, click here.

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