North Idaho lawmaker breaks hip

Idaho Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, broke a hip while vacationing in Hawaii this week, but he says he’ll be up and going in time for the start of the legislative session on Jan. 6. “Oh, absolutely – I won’t miss it,” Henderson said from the hospital on the island of Kauai, where he was awaiting surgery on Thursday. “What I’ve got is a minor fracture of my right hip. … The surgeon this morning said about five days after the surgery, you’ll be able to walk.” Henderson, who celebrated his 91st birthday last Friday, said, “I was in a condo I wasn’t familiar with, walking around in the middle of the night. I tripped on a chair leg and fell.” He added, “I should’ve turned the lights on.” Henderson and his wife, Betty Ann, were vacationing on Kauai for a week and had planned to return Sunday, but now they’ve extended their stay until the middle of next week. “We’re here with friends, and they’ve got a car,” Henderson said. “This is a great place, really picturesque.” So far during the vacation, he said, the friends have enjoyed a cruise halfway around the island on which they saw whales and dolphins, and visits to several state parks; he said he’s particularly appreciated the tropical flowers and jungle greenery. “Yesterday it was 82 degrees,” he said. Henderson is a fifth-term state representative, and is also a former Kootenai County commissioner and mayor of Post Falls.