News, Politics, History, the Media and More. A Blog by Gallatin Partner, Marc Johnson.

Bob Royer is a native Oregonian who adopted the state of Washington in 1965. His blog, the Cascadia Courier, applies history to present day events and ideas.

Cecil Andrus says much has changed and much has stayed the same in the environmental and energy arenas since he was governor of Idaho–first in the 1970s, and then again in the 1990s, with four years as United States Secretary of the Interior under President Jimmy Carter in between.

Tiny town of Oakesdale hopes to reap benefits of energy project

Congressman Dicks' former political director brings campaign and outreach expertise to firm.

A bill that would have overhauled school lunches nationwide recently died in Congress, but some Eastern Washington districts aren’t waiting on a government mandate to start serving healthier foods.

Chris Carlson's recently released book shows new revelations about Idaho's only four-term governor.

The health care and transportation expert strengthens firm's government relations team and reach.

To a wind prospector, just looking at the Palouse Hills is like finding the X on a treasure map. Their shape alone is visible evidence of the region's potential, an indication the wind here is strong enough and steady enough to form dunes, to shape the landscape. It's a flashing neon sign that says "opportunity."

The abstraction known as "regulation" is often invoked as a reason businesses aren't growing or hiring fast enough, and with good reason. Anyone wondering what that means in practice should consult the epic saga of the Ruby pipeline.

Between 2 and 3 percent of the newsprint produced at Inland Empire Paper Co.’s Millwood plant is used to print The Spokesman-Review. The plant has many other customers, said Doug Krapas, Inland Empire Paper’s environmental manager. In a 24-hour period, the plant can produce enough newsprint to cover two lanes of freeway between Spokane and San Diego.

The United States can find a way to dispose of its nuclear waste, even if the current program is at an impasse, according to the blue-ribbon commission established by President Obama after he ended the government’s planning for making Yucca Mountain in Nevada the nation’s nuclear waste repository.

When Democrat Cecil Andrus, the only governor in Idaho's history to have served four terms, retired from the board of Coeur d'Alene Mines after more than ten years of service, the mining company gave him a Beretta shot gun instead of a gold watch.

Wind has emerged as the country’s fastest-growing source of new energy, according to the federal Department of Energy. Although wind only accounts for about 2 percent of total power generation in the U.S., it has been on the rise ever since 1999, and jumped 33.5 percent from 2008 to 2009.

First Wind, an independent U.S.-based wind energy company, received the Conditional Use Permit for its Palouse Wind Project.

Idaho’s economy remains far from robust and based on the findings of two new surveys of Idaho voters and business leaders there is no consensus about what needs to be done to get the state on a better economic footing.

The man who served as Idaho's governor for more terms than any other turns 80 in August. That's still not enough years for Cecil Andrus. He has more work to do. Two decades of it, he figures. And he wants his adversaries to know.

Hyperion Resources, the company planning the new refinery in South Dakota, told the Center it will use a relatively new technology called InAlk, which is made by Honeywell International Inc. subsidiary UOP. Paul Orum, a chemical safety consultant who works with public-interest groups, said the company’s decision is “a very significant development because it shows what is possible.”

Mckinsey Miller of the Gallatin Public Affairs Boise office has earned a promotion to Principal with the regional government and public affairs firm. The promotion is recognition of Miller's accomplishments as a governmental and public affairs professional, according to Marc C. Johnson, the managing partner of the firm's Boise office.

Gallatin Public Affairs announces that Aaron Toso has joined the firm as a Principal and Bruce Gryniewski has been promoted to Office Managing Partner of the firm’s Seattle office.

Millennium Bulk Terminals (MBT) successfully completed the acquisition of the former Chinook Ventures’ commodity terminal site in Longview, Wash. today. MBT’s transaction signals another positive step forward for the terminal development project, and Cowlitz County, in cleaning up and restoring the value of this property.

The Senior Advisor and Communications Director for Governor Ted Kulongoski will join the regional public affairs firm February 1

Poles are now up along 30 miles of the 214-mile international Montana Alberta Tie Line. MATL, which is partially financed by U.S. taxpayers, will transmit electricity from Montana wind farms to bigger markets such as those in California, according to developer Tonbridge Power Inc.

A Boston company wants to build a $170 million wind farm on a ridge near Oakesdale, a town of 400 people about 30 miles southwest of Spokane. First Wind Energy LLC is seeking permits for up to 50 turbines on 5,000 acres leased from local growers.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management determined there would be no harmful environmental impacts resulting from the proposed expansion of Coeur d'Alene Corp.'s Rochester mine, about 20 miles northeast of Lovelock, BLM Director Bob Abbey said Wednesday during an announcement in Reno.

Former Idaho Gov. and Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus returned to Alaska this week as he has many times since his savvy political advice led Jimmy Carter to protect much of its grandest national treasures.

When Lavey and Kerry Tymchuk helped elect Gordon Smith to the U.S. Senate in 1996, they were often viewed as the devilish and angelic voices -- think Thomas Hulce in "Animal House" -- whispering in Smith's ear. While most Delta House references are usually appropriate in American politics, Tymchuk says Lavey was not simply "the hardball politics guy.

As Oregon and America seek our independence from foreign oil, federal regulators are considering new rules that move us in the opposite direction. If approved, these new regulations would throw cold water on local efforts to create new clean-energy sources that would create thousands of jobs in rural communities.

When the Portland Timbers begin Major League Soccer play next spring, team officials hope to avoid the fan malaise plaguing the four other primary sports leagues.

The two-year battle between Pend Oreille County and Seattle City Light is finally over. When the smoke clears, this community and Seattle should renew the strong partnership they have had for more than 50 years. The impact payments the city-owned utility will pay the county for the operation of their Boundary Hydroelectric Project here is fair.

Seattle agreed on Monday to settle a dispute with Pend Oreille County that will allow the city to pursue the relicensing of its hydroelectric dam that generates about 40 percent of the city's power.

As Portland General Electric fights an early closure of the state’s only coal-fired generating plant, a local entrepreneur has stepped forward with what he and the utility hope is a solution.

Randy Simon and Emily Patchin have joined the Boise office of Gallatin Public Affairs as Associates working with the firm’s Partners and Principals to provide strategic communications, issues management, government relations, research and public affairs services.

Republican Chris Dudley has surrounded himself with some of his party's top strategists -- including the manager of John McCain's presidential race -- and has kept on a campaign path for Oregon governor that is as disciplined as one of the pro basketball teams on which he played.

On a remote, forested plateau deep inside the Salmon-Challis National Forest, a Canadian mining firm is hoping to revive domestic production of cobalt, a mineral deemed crucial to post-World War II national security but whose production has since virtually disappeared from American soil.

A longtime Oregon political player has assumed the top slot at a powerful Portland lobbying firm. Dan Lavey was promoted to president of Gallatin Public Affairs after nine years as a firm partner. Lavey, who most recently led Gallatin’s Portland office, was a top advisor to Sen. Gordon Smith.

Alaska says "goodbye" today to the guy the state legislature once voted "the Alaskan of the Century." I'm betting the ceremony in the great north - Vice President Biden is scheduled to speak - will be sad and historic and will remind all there, as well as the rest of us, that we reflect too little, and often too late, on the greatness and the humanity of people who, in one way or another, have touched our lives.

After two years of talks between Pend Oreille County commissioners and Seattle City Light officials, the parties seemed to have reached an agreeable dollar figure for the Boundary Dam impact payment.

The University of Idaho has received approval to start its third-year law program in Idaho’s capital following a favorable recommendation by the ABA Accreditation Committee.

For about 20 years Ken Hanson has farmed lentils, wheat, peas and barley on 1,300 acres of land a few miles northwest of Oakesdale. Though he considers himself a "new kid on the block" next to multigenerational family farms in the area, Hanson is already considering diversifying his crop. This time, Hanson said he hopes to harvest a product not found in the earth.

Gallatin Public Affairs announced that Dan Lavey, a leading communications and political strategist in Oregon and long-time advisor to former U.S. Senator Gordon Smith, will serve as president of the firm.

Business and government leaders from across the region participated in ceremonies Wednesday marking the beginning of construction at the Goshen North Wind Farm.

Bone Road through the dry farmlands east of Idaho Falls would be the last place you’d look as a center of economic development...

The Andrus Center for Public Policy in cooperation with the Idaho Humanities Council will welcome Jim Leach, the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), to Boise on Friday, June 11, 2010.

Lemhi County and the mining industry have been almost synonymous for the better part of a century. However, with recent findings of key mineral, cobalt in the hills near Salmon, that history looks to be continuing. Formation Capital, Inc., a company started and based in Salmon, has been working hard over the past decade to build a facility to mine the cobalt, as part of the Idaho Cobalt Project.

Former Idaho Governor and Secretary of the Interior, Cecil D. Andrus, through his policy center at Boise State University, recently hosted a major public lands conference in Idaho featuring the Chief of the Forest Service and the Director of BLM.

"It is a job where every single day of the year you can go into the office and have your hand on the levers of power and make a difference," said Marc Johnson, the Boise-based president of Gallatin Public Affairs and a former press secretary and chief of staff to former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus.

Cecil Andrus. Regardless of your political leanings if you live in Idaho - you know that name. Andrus was governor of Idaho for fourteen years; Idaho's only four term Governor. Andrus was also Secretary of the Interior in the Carter Administration.

As Idaho’s political leaders struggle to find millions of dollars in the state budget and as business leaders fight to stave off long-term damage to their market positions, many young professionals have been able to at least tread water in these tumultuous economic times. The question now for many young professionals, however, is how do we remain relevant and excel in a very different working world than the one we entered just a few years ago?

Gallatin Public Affairs President, Marc Johnson was a guest on the Takeaway, a national morning news program inviting listeners to be part of the American conversation.

In celebration of the Boise Basque Museum’s exhibition “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Basques,” a group of more than a hundred Boiseans, including yours truly, packed our suitcases and headed to New York for the weekend.

Tami Steiger still cannot forget that quick twist of panic when she heard her job was on the block. “It was bad,” she said. “It was the scariest day of my life. No one in the room said a word, I guess because everyone was just as scared as me.” That was more than a year ago, when managers gathered crews at Troy Mine to hear the news. The economy was bad, the bosses said. Production costs were rising. Metal prices were tanking.

In the first room of the exhibit, the voice of Luciana Aboitiz Garatea, 105, greets visitors and recalls her experience at Ellis Island when she arrived in 1920.

Bob Royer, a Partner in Gallatin's Seattle office, along with John Howell of Cedar River Group, provide some advice to Seattle's recently elected Mayor Mike McGinn and his staff. Both Royer and Howell served under Seattle Mayor, Charles Royer during his term from 1978 to 1990.

The Idaho Supreme Court is pushing a proposal to charge law-breakers an extra $15, which officials say is needed to shore up the state’s overburdened court system and keep the wheels of justice turning.

John Kotek, a partner at the Boise, Idaho public relations firm Gallatin Group, told FCW that project proponents must engage with the community.

Marc Johnson of Boise, a former chairman of the IHC, rejoins the board after a three-year absence. Johnson is president of Gallatin Public Affairs, a Pacific Northwest public affairs/relations management firm.

Millard said, the hospital industry decided it could absorb $155 billion cuts in Medicare reimbursement, in exchange for a reform package that would expand coverage. If more Americans were insured, the industry reasoned, the hospitals wouldn't have to write off as many unpaid emergency room visits and inpatient procedures — and would thus break even.

To build a $140-million cobalt mine in a national forest in Idaho, tiny Vancouver junior miner Formation Metals Inc. turned to the state's chief rainmaker, Cecil Andrus.

Isaac Squyres, a strategic communications expert, and John Kotek, an expert on energy policy issues, have been elected as partners and shareholders of Gallatin Public Affairs. They will serve on the firm's board of directors.

Mines dotting Idaho's rich phosphate belt came under scrutiny after livestock were poisoned by selenium starting in the 1990s. Though no horses, sheep or cattle died at Monsanto sites, EPA officials say the agreement will provide a clearer picture of health risks to people, livestock and wildlife.

As Congress grapples with “reforming” the health care system, and families and businesses struggle in this extremely difficult economic environment, it seems as logical time to examine how these two topics converge.

Cecil Andrus, Idaho’s only four-term governor and a former state senator from Lewiston and Orofino, returned “to the scene of the crime” Saturday for the inaugural Cecil D. Andrus Banquet at the Red Lion Hotel

John MacDonald of Gallatin Public Affairs provided some lessons on marketing and public relations.

Officials from Revett Minerals met with Gov. Brian Schweitzer and his top economic adviser last week to discuss Troy Mine’s success in the face of low metal prices.

Idaho Court of Appeals Judge John M. Melanson was sworn in Wednesday by Idaho Governor Butch Otter at the Idaho Supreme Court

A fishing trip reveals an even more mysterious past for one pound puppy.

Expansion is expected to add an average of 2.9 million ounces of incremental annual silver production and 30,000 ounces of further gold production through 2017

About 550 community hospital representatives, volunteers, vendors and hospital trustees are in Sun Valley this week for the 76th annual Idaho Hospital Association convention, and according to Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, the conversation is understandably dominated by health care reform.

Idaho has an opportunity right now to maintain world leadership in the manufacture of two critical commodities that will allow us to shape a sustainable future. The nation's only primary cobalt mine - the Idaho Cobalt Project - is edging toward production in Lemhi County. One of the world's truly "green" metals, cobalt is utilized in everything from high tech jet engines to hybrid automobiles, from medical devices to rechargeable batteries.

The South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment unanimously approved Hyperion's request for an air permit to operate its planned Hyperion Energy Center refinery complex in the southeastern corner of the state.

Portland-based nonprofit Sustainable Northwest today announced this year’s winners of the annual Cecil D. Andrus Awards that recognize excellence in pursuit of sustainability from across the West.

The Idaho Supreme Court has deserved credit for the innovative ways it has found to administer justice in a diverse, rural state, and it's good to see that credit has arrived.

Monsanto is nearing the end of its current phosphate ore supply and wants to obtain permits for a new mine which would be just down the road from the current operation in Caribou County. Like the company’s existing South Rasmussen Mine, the new Blackfoot Bridge mine will provide the phosphate that feeds Monsanto’s processing plant turning the raw product into elemental phosphorus.

Officials with several state agriculture groups have publicly endorsed Monsanto's proposed Blackfoot Bridge Mine.

The Hyperion Energy Center was issued its air permit today by the South Dakota Board of Minerals and the Environment, a major step toward this project becoming the first new oil refinery to be constructed in the United States since 1976.

On Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality ruled to support a joint petition filed by Monsanto and the ICL requiring large mercury use and technology available to curb mercury emissions.

Gallatin Principal John MacDonald volunteers with Big Brothers/Big Sisters in Helena, MT. Read what the Helena Independent Record said about the program.

Cecil Andrus, former secretary of the interior and former governor of Idaho, sent a letter Monday to current Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, urging the government to consider the scenic qualities of the Columbia River Gorge when it decides whether to allow a new casino.

"As a journalist, Walter was a class act. In the world of television journalism, no one even comes close."

Seattle City light should compensate Pend Oreille County for the impacts of its Boundary Dam, write the commissioners of the Northeast Washington county.

Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice Dan Eismann has been named to the National Drug Court Hall of Fame, the highest honor given by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.

Dr. Mark Snow, Clinical Director for Business Psycology Associates, says that when it comes to hostility on the road, it all goes back to simple psychology.

Dr. James Francfort heads the Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity which tests the actual performance of all electric, plug in electric, hydrogen and other new generation vehicles.

Sorrento Lactalis broke ground on a multimillion-dollar expansion of its whey drying operations in northeast Nampa

This is Pacific Seafood in Warrenton, Oregon. And here, as in many areas of the heartland, the question of food quality has taken on a much higher profile.

Pacific University officials are expected to name Lesley Hallick as the school's 17th president on Tuesday morning, signaling a further focus on developing the university's medical programs.

Former Idaho Governor and U.S. Interior Secretary has been “of counsel” to our firm since 1995. He has long advocated common sense approaches to regional issues as with this recent Oregonian Op-Ed on salmon policy.

Effective crisis communications – doing and saying the right things at the most difficult time – can be absolutely essential to reputation and credibility. Gallatin’s President offered some thought in this recent article.

Gallatin President and Boise Partner, Marc Johnson, offers a historical take on the nation's financial downturn

When Missoula city officials hired lobbyist John MacDonald to represent their interests in Helena, city spokesperson Ginny Merriam described MacDonald’s job as “more reactive than anything else.”