Right-Hand Man Wings Gov. Batt

The political season’s first casualty is Gov. Phil Batt’s right hand, injured when crunched in an overly firm handshake.

That’s causing the governor to shake hands left-handed, like his choice for U.S. president, Bob Dole.

Dole’s right hand was hurt in World War II. In Batt’s case, it was none other than governor-wannabe Lt. Gov. Butch Otter who delivered the hazardous handshake.

Don’t shoot

State Schools Superintendent Anne Fox was taken aback when asked if the National Rifle Association-backed gun safety course she’s pushing for Idaho’s youngsters would include teaching them to shoot. Of course not, she said.

“It deals mostly if a gun is found, because that is where the biggest problem lies,” Fox said.

Just a few months ago, an old, cast-off gun was found by schoolchildren in a field behind a Boise elementary school.

The “Eddie Eagle” curriculum, which is being made available to schools for free thanks in part to fund-raising by gun clubs, advises kids who find a gun to “Stop! Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.”

Youngsters who attended a proclamation-signing at the governor’s office this week in support of the program are members of a private shooting club, Fox said.

Some Idaho school districts already are using the program, and Fox’s new curriculum guides will recommend gun safety instruction statewide.

“In K-6, you wouldn’t do target practice,” she said.

It falls mainly on the plain

Rural counties across Idaho are having problems meeting new federal landfill requirements. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne helped out some of them with an amendment to federal legislation to exempt some small, rural dumps from ground water monitoring requirements. But the exemption applies only to areas that get less than 25 inches of precipitation a year.

That leaves out North Idaho, but takes in the arid south.

“It’s for arid areas, where they’re just not going to get the penetration down into the ground,” Kempthorne said.

But he said other provisions of the law may give some flexibility to small landfills in the rainier part of the state.

The bill, signed into law by President Clinton, is called the “Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996.”

But it looks like a city

Visitors from around the country often seem surprised by Boise’s small-town feel. But in many parts of the country, a city of 125,000 (250,000 total in the county) is considered small, perhaps the size of a suburb.

Idaho’s largest city is different, in part because it’s so isolated. The nearest big cities are Salt Lake City, a six-hour drive away, and Portland, an eight-hour drive. So Boise has all the restaurants, live music, parks, museums and other cultural attractions of a much larger city. But it’s still not really all that big, compared to, for example, Spokane or Seattle.

, DataTimes MEMO: North-South Notes runs every other Saturday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call 336- 2854, fax to 335-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.