Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Patrick Takasugi guaranteed North Idaho will have another few weeks or so of turbulence this fall.

No, the Idaho Department of Agriculture director didn’t emerge from his office and see his shadow.

Rather, he decreed that farmers of bluegrass and some other crops have no better alternative than to burn their fields to spark new growth.

That means smoky skies again this fall.

And more complaints from environmental activists who claim, correctly, that inhaling field-burning smoke can be hazardous to your health.

But there is a silver lining for those who suffer respiratory problems.

According to the Associated Press, Takasugi predicted a tightening insurance market and poor conditions for Kentucky bluegrass will reduce the number of acres burned in North Idaho this year.

Additionally, development is taking its toll, gobbling about 1,000 acres a year on the Rathdrum Prairie. It won’t be long before field burning – and the open stretches of the prairie – are no more.

Meanwhile, combatants in this annual battle should go to their separate corners and wait for the first match to be struck.

Learning a lesson of history. Another African nation is on the cusp of genocide, and the United States is trying to respond. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in Sudan, in an attempt to pressure the government to stop the slaughters in the Dafur region.

Government-backed Arab militias have killed an estimated 30,000 civilians and have driven 1 million from their homes after a rebel uprising. An estimated 2 million people are said to be starving as the Sudanese government blocks the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Former President Clinton has said that the biggest mistake of his presidency was not intervening soon enough to head off the mass slaughters in Rwanda.

Let’s hope this international effort can forestall atrocities of that magnitude.