Opinion

In many resort towns, the growing dominance of short-term rentals (STRs) has quietly eroded the availability of housing for residents and workers. While these vacation homes flood the market for transient stays, they squeeze out long-term leasing options and push up local rents. This is particularly harmful in communities like ours.

Voters will soon decide whether to create a new taxing district to fund an auditorium facility through a 5% lodging fee on short-term stays. This is an important decision for our county’s future, one that deserves careful consideration of both the benefits and the unintended consequences for the businesses, workers, and visitors who keep our tourism economy strong.

Yesterday I read one of the cover stories in The Star-News regarding the closing of Forest Service offices in the McCall area due to the government shutdown. The article also stated the Payette National Forest had a statement on their web page reading: “The Radical left Democrats shut down the government.” I couldn’t believe this would be true and checked the website only to find it was indeed on the website as an alert.

As we celebrate the 85th anniversary of National Newspaper Week from October 5-11, 2025, it’s crucial to acknowledge the pivotal role local journalism plays in shaping informed communities. By providing citizens with the facts they need to make informed decisions, local reporting empowers individuals to take an active part in their daily lives.

This November, Valley County voters have an incredible opportunity to strengthen our community by voting “yes” to create the Mountain Community Center District.

Valley County Planning & Zoning sent out a letter to property owners in the McCall area dated Sept. 23 regarding the rules and application of Valley County Code to all areas of unincorporated Valley County. The letter is the result of Valley County Commissioners voting to reduce the impact area of McCall City Council management of its surrounding area to be redrawn from 22,000 acres to 1,050 acres.

The best prescription for Idaho’s chronic doctor deficit is un-electing the legislators who consigned our state to the dark ages of medicine. Until the infectious reverberations of red-cell conservatism, competent doctors willingly crossed the borders into Idaho to share their skills. Now there is an exodus of those doctors over the same borders because their professional oaths and ethics have been threatened by promiscuous politics. Guv’nor Little appointed a task force to waltz around the problem of physician shortages. It lamely places the blame for our 50th rating of doctors-per-capita on the lack of medical school partners to fill the vacancies. There is no harm in researching other training facilities (beside the successful WWAMI program). . . .but can we please just stop the bleeding and focus on the obvious, gaping wound that created this state-wide emergency? Between 2020-‘23, three bitter-pill legislative bills were approved to remove medical procedures and choices from Idahoans. The precedent freedom of personal reproductive decisions was replaced with bureaucratic meddling. The