The Courier
NEWS District Tournament Games
Girls Basketball began their district tournaments last week. On top of their game, the Dietrich Blue Devil girls (#1) head into the District Championship with 17 win and 3 losses. Last night's game between Richfield (#2) and Hagerman (#3) will send one of those teams into the Championship game with Dietrich this Friday in Gooding at 7:00 p.m. Boy's tournaments will begin next week. With 16 wins and only 2 losses, the Camas Mushers (#1) are the team to watch with a likely run at the State 1AD2 Championship. In 2A basketball, the Wendell Trojans have 12 wins and 5 losses and are favored to take the district tournment.
Championing Educational Freedom: by Dorothy Moon, IDGOP Chairwoman
This week, communities throughout the nation celebrated the enormous potential of school choice. Now, more than ever, students and families hunger for alternatives to the public school system. With a plethora of educational options available today, our government should champion and empower families to discover the best fit for their children, rather than confining them to an outdated system. Defenders of the status quo invest significant resources, a lot of time, energy, and money, to resist efforts to give families more options. Teachers unions and the state education bureaucracy have joined forces with outspoken progressives who fear free thinking independent young people who grow up outside of their control. As Republicans, we believe that the family is more important than the state. We believe that parents know best how to educate their children and have an inalienable right to impart their values to the next generation. Our position on education, as outlined in Article III of the Idaho Republican Platform, underscores the belief that children are a gift from God, and stewarding and disciplining those children into being Godly and productive citizens is the paramount responsibility of fathers and mothers. The Idaho State Constitution says in Article IX, Section 1, that “The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” Notice that this doesn’t say the government must indoctrinate students, or force anti-American or anti-family curricula down our students’ throats. It merely says we must provide a public school system that serves all students. Article III, Section 3 of the Platform reinforces this goal through the mechanism of school continued on page 8... choice:
News from the Heart of Idaho Camas • Lincoln • Gooding
February 7, 2024
Vol 48 Num 6
The Idaho Presidential Caucus
Idaho's Presidential nominies this year will be chosen through a caucus process. Democrats will hold their caucus on Thursday, May 23. Registered Democrats or unaffiliated voters can participate. They will have caucus locations in every county in the state and you will be able to find your caucus locations starting March 2 on their website. They will also be providing mail-in ballots for voters who cannot participate in person. The Republicans will have 210 caucus locations in Idaho. The smallest is in Owyhee County and serves a single precinct with 18 Republicans. The largest is in Meridian and serves 20 precincts with 18,012 Republican voters. Regardless of size, some things will be the same at all caucus locations:
• All caucus locations will have a Caucus Captain who is responsible for the caucus at that location. • All caucus voters must be qualified electors that affiliated with the Republican Party before January 1st of this year. • All Caucus voters must present valid government issued photo ID and sign a Poll Book before they are issued a ballot. • Mail in voting, the kind of voting most susceptible to fraud, is not allowed. • Only official paper ballots will be used. Ballots have anticounterfeiting features. • All caucus locations will open simultaneously, Saturday March 2nd, at 12pm MST/11am PST, and voter check-in will remain open for at least 90 minutes minimum. Saturday at lunchtime was chosen so that the maximum number of working Idahoans would not have to take time off work to participate. • Caucus programs (Invocation, Pledge, Welcoming Remarks, candidate presentations, etc.) are scheduled to begin at Noon Pacific, 1:00 PM Mountain time, however the Caucus Captains can modify the program start time, but not the door opening time, to best suit the needs of the voters. • Balloting will continue until all checked-in voters have cast their ballots. • Ballot counting will be done on site immediately after balloting. Ballots will be counted by two tabulators who were approved by the assembly and... continued on page 7...