A Pentagon representative issued an e-mail response Tuesday to the controversy surrounding the denial of a military flyover for this year's God and Country Family Festival.

Regarding the final paragraph, I did not call the phone number because it was well after the listed office hours when I sent my request. My story — which you can read here — should have noted this.

The full...read more

It's been about three months since I smoked my last cigarette and bought my first round of nicotine patches.

The patch was an interesting experience. I hadn't really done much research before making the purchase. I had struggled to go without a smoke for about a day and a half, and at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night in downtown Boise I broke down and decided I was either going to buy a pack of...read more

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates' proposed overhaul of the Pentagon budget includes pulling funds for the hovering MKV-L, or "multiple kill vehicle."

While the intriguingly named apparatus might sound scary, according to a December 2008 Pentagon press release: "The MKV-L mission is to destroy medium through intercontinental-range ballistic missiles equipped with multiple warheads...read more

After a few months of trying to stop smoking without help, two weeks ago I broke down and bought a box of store brand nicotine patches.

I had been able to cut back substantially. The problem was that I was smoking a lot when I was busy and barely at all weekends and nights. I felt like I was constantly swinging back and forth between withdrawal and overdose.

Since I slapped the first patch onto...read more

My coworkers sometimes make fun of the stockpile of canned fish I keep in or on my desk.

It makes an easy, reasonably healthy meal or snack that I can pop open and eat without having to leave the office if I'm waiting on a phone call or writing on deadline.

For a while, I was eating a can of albacore almost every day. I recently learned albacore generally contains about three times as much...read more

Caldwell's downtown holiday light display will be gone by the end of the week. Head over there and check it out if you haven't already. City workers decorated the area surrounding Indian Creek and the Caldwell Train Depot with more than 180,000 colorful LED bulbs. For those who can't make it out, the city posted a high-definition video of the a display here.