20,000 residents of Idaho’s 1st Congressional District can expect a call Tuesday evening to join a phone-in town hall meeting on gas prices with U.S. Rep. Bill Sali.

The meeting’s scheduled start depends on the Congressional voting schedule, and residents will be able ask questions.

Joining Sali will be Douglas MacIntyre from the Department of Energy, and Fred Lawrence from the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

The Idaho Republican Party has a new chairman.

Executive director of the Idaho Water Users Association and Eagle city councilman Norm Semanko was selected by GOP members Saturday at their state convention in Sandpoint. By a 227-169 vote, Semanko beat two-term incumbent Kirk Sullivan, who earlier in the day had been endorsed by Governor Butch Otter.

Dissatisfaction with Sullivan gained momentum in the last two weeks, when Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna and U.S. Rep. Bill Sali and backed Semanko. Sullivan was opposed to closing Idaho’s GOP primary election, as most Republicans had called for to lessen the chances of Democrats, Independents and others influencing the election of more moderate candidates.

Meanwhile, a separate 199-192 vote among delegates in Sandpoint supported retaining the state’s open primary - that vote is a reversal from two years ago, when delegates at the 2006 convention in Idaho Falls overwhelmingly voted to close the GOP primary election.

Asked whether the Republican Party would proceed with its federal lawsuit over the primary against Secretary of State Ben Ysursa, Semanko said he first planned to bring the sides together. The party’s central committee meets again in October.

(AP)

U.S. Rep. Bill Sali has introduced legislation that will curtail the use of a training slogan once used by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In a nod to the slogan, “Always Think Forfeiture,” the Idaho Republican has titled his legislation the “Always Think Freedom Act.” The measure would prevent the ATF from purchasing, using or distributing any hand tool or tool kits on which any reminder about “forfeiture” appears.

The dispute began when Sali claimed credit for ATF’s decision to stop engraving “Always Think Forfeiture” on Leatherman pocket tools handed out to trainees. But the bureau had already decided in March to stop using the phrase after other members of Congress inquired about it.

An ATF official wrote an e-mail saying the agency had stopped giving out the tools “as a result of concerns brought to ATF’s attention by his constituents. Sali sent a press release announcing what he thought he had made happen.

The agency apologized for the confusion.

(Idaho Statesman)