Catching up on the news…

It’s time to catch up on the news I missed while I was off for the past week, from an armed militia group taking over a closed-for-the-holiday wildlife refuge office building in Burns, Ore. over the weekend, to an Idaho lawmaker citing Rush Limbaugh as his go-to source on global warming, to the lowering of a giant potato from a crane in front of the Capitol to mark the new year. Here’s a roundup:

Armed militia members took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns on Saturday after participating in a peaceful rally over the prison sentences of local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond on arson charges; the two men had said they planned to report to prison today. Among those leading the occupation are brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, whose father, Cliven Bundy, was involved in a standoff with the government last year over grazing rights in Nevada. AP reporter Rebecca Boone has a full report here , and here’s a link to the Oregonian’s extensive coverage .

In advance of this year’s legislative session, the Idaho Falls Post Register queried Idaho lawmakers about climate change and global warming, and most didn’t respond. But House Resources Chairman Dell Raybould, R-Rexburg, did, telling reporter Bryan Clark, “Listen to Rush Limbaugh once in a while. See what he thinks about it. He’ll tell you that this is just a bunch of nonsense.” You can read Clark’s full story here .

To mark the new year, a giant potato was lowered from a crane in front of the Idaho state Capitol on New Year’s Eve. The potato drop was accompanied by live music and festivities reportedly attended by thousands, despite frigid weather dipping toward single digits; it was hard to count the crowd, however, from a warm living room where the brief images on the TV news didn’t show much. Concerns were raised on social media that live TV broadcasts of the potato’s descent were lacking, causing thousands of warmer Boiseans to be unsure that the new year had actually started. Having fallen asleep at 10:30, I had no opinion.