Risch asks league for solo interview

Gov. Jim Risch wants his election opponent, former Congressman Larry LaRocco, separated from him when the two debate on public TV.

Risch, who took over as governor when then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was named U.S. secretary of the interior, is seeking another term as lieutenant governor. As such, he’s scheduled to debate Democratic opponent LaRocco on live TV on Nov. 1 as part of the “Idaho Debates,” sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Idaho, the Idaho Press Club and Idaho Public Television.

But in an Aug. 17 letter to debate organizers, Risch’s campaign said “the governor suggests” a change in the debate format: He wants the two candidates interviewed separately for 30 minutes apiece, with the other nowhere in sight.

Debate organizers declined the request. In an Aug. 21 response, the league’s debates coordinator, Elinor Chehey, wrote, “We see no reason to conduct the lieutenant governor debate under rules different from those we use for other debates.”

LaRocco said, “He’s afraid of something – I don’t know what it is.” Risch did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.

SHOSHONE, Idaho

Mom pleads guilty in boy’s starving

An Idaho woman accused of taping her 8-year-old son to a bed and starving him until he weighed just 50 pounds pleaded guilty in 5th District Court to felony charges of injury to a child, part of a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed not to pursue additional charges.

Kyanne Nadalia Pamparau, 29, of Richfield, could receive a maximum 10 years in prison.

She was originally charged in January 2005 in the case that one doctor said resulted in her son resembling a concentration-camp survivor when he was finally found by authorities.

Pamparau said she doesn’t remember doing anything to her son.

Pamparau’s competency may be one subject of the sentencing hearing, set for Oct. 16.