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Durant leads Warriors to NBA title B1

West’s swollen rivers pose dangers A3 SCATTERED RAIN 66 • 44 FORECAST, A8

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TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2017

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magicvalley.com

Twin Falls schools budget sees boost

Fresh questions for Jeff Sessions

JULIE WOOTTON

And he’ll answer them in public

jwootton@magicvalley.com

TWIN FALLS — It’s one of the biggest decisions a school board makes all year: setting a budget. Twin Falls school trustees voted 4-0 Monday night to approve a $59.6 million general fund budget for 2017-18. Trustee Liyah Babayan was absent for the agenda item. The budget for the Twin Falls School District, which has hundreds of employees and about 9,300 students, outlines likely revenue, as well as expenses in key areas such as teacher salaries and benefits, supplies and materials, and purchased services. “Significant events” impacting the budget include “probable reductions in all federal programs and completion of the major construction phase for the district,” according to a letter from fiscal affairs director Bob Seaman to school trustees. “We’re tight in the general fund,” Seaman said Monday night. Board chairman Bernie Jansen said the Twin Falls School District isn’t alone in talking about funding for federal programs. “A lot of people are going to be talking about budget cuts in the next several months,” he said. There weren’t any public comments during Monday night’s two budget hearings, one about the current year’s amended budget and one about next fiscal year’s budget. Please see SCHOOLS, Page A3

 More Online: See a Twin

Falls school board meeting packet at Magicvalley.com.

Expect nighttime I-84 detours near Declo

TIMES-NEWS

DECLO — A series of night closures will detour traffic on I-84 near the Declo interchange. Detours of I-84 will begin at about 10 p.m. Thursday and last about six hours. Two additional nighttime detours are tentatively scheduled for June 22 and 29. Drivers should check 511.idaho. gov for updated dates and times of subsequent closures and detour information. The detours are because of a series of concrete pours on the eastbound Snake River bridge at milepost 216. During nighttime closures, traffic will be detoured between the Heyburn Interchange, exit 211, and the Declo Interchange, exit 216. Westbound traffic will be detoured off I-84 at exit 216, south to Declo on Idaho 77, west to Burley on Idaho 81, and return to I-84 through Heyburn. Eastbound traffic will leave I-84 at exit 211, detour north on Idaho 24 to Rupert, then go east and south on Idaho 25 to I-84. The $17.88-million project replaces the two I-84 bridges crossing the Snake River. Bridge construction started in 2015. The westbound bridge completed and opened to traffic in 2016. All work is expected to be complete by the end of August.

ERIC TUCKER AND DEB RIECHMANN

Associated Press

$1.50

Volume 112, Issue 228

Please see BUDGET, Page A3

Please see SESSIONS, Page A6

PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS FILE

Records keeper Paula Stewart works within her tight office space May 19 at the Twin Falls County Criminal Justice Facility in Twin Falls. Stewart works in a mobile unit that was installed as a ‘temporary solution’ more than a decade ago.

Budget time County officials work on tougher DUI program NATHAN BROWN

nbrown@magicvalley.com

TWIN FALLS — The new fiscal years starts Oct. 1, and city and county officials in Twin Falls and throughout the state are busy planning budgets. On Monday Twin Falls County commissioners began meeting with the county’s department heads to discuss 2018 budget requests, and will continue to hold such meetings for the rest of the week. That evening, the City Council discussed its budget, about a month ahead of when City Manager Travis Rothweiler plans to present then with his draft proposal. Much of

that discussion was focused on employee hiring and pay and whether to use any of the city’s “foregone balance,” or money that the city was legally allowed to collect in property taxes in previous years but didn’t. Monday morning, county commissioners met with representatives of the sheriff’s department and the county’s Treatment and Recovery Clinic. One new program that came up is a proposed “24/7 Sobriety Program.” This was first tried in South Dakota in 2005 and has been implemented in a few other states since then. Idaho’s Legislature authorized it here in 2014. It allows a judge to order a person who is charged with or has been convicted of a drug or alcohol-related crime to submit either to a breathalyzer test twice a day or drug tests multi-

Golf course, winery collaborate in new Filer restaurant HEATHER KENNISON

If you go…

hkennison@magicvalley.com

FILER — The owner of Pebble Ponds Golf Course has opened a venue for drinking locally made wines. After Blu left in December to move to Twin Falls, Chad Brown searched for another restaurant to take its place. “We didn’t really find anybody that was the right fit,” he said. So he approached Holesinsky Winery to discuss the possibility of a collaboration between the

Rail Nine will host a grand opening and wine release party 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at Pebble Ponds Golf Course, 4035 N. 2300 E. businesses. As a result, the Rail Nine restaurant opened about two months ago — with a grand opening planned for Saturday.

If you do one thing: Snake River Canyon Kennel Club of Idaho will hold its annual All Breed Dog Show and Obedience Trials from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Twin Falls County Fairgrounds in Filer. Free for spectators. M 1

ple times a week, and it can be required as part of a sentence or used as an alternative to other drunken driving penalties such as license suspension or an ignition interlock. People who fail the breathalyzer would be thrown into jail for a short period, and authorities could issue a warrant for someone who doesn’t show up for their test. The state Attorney General’s office, which runs the program, wants to launch it in Twin Falls County likely later this year, Commissioner Terry Kramer said. “If it’s run to fruition, I think it would be very, very useful,” Commissioner Don Hall said, adding that the frequent testing and immediate consequences for a violation would help people to stay sober.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions, facing fresh questions about his Russian contacts during the election campaign and his role in the firing of James Comey, will be interrogated in a public hearing by former Senate colleagues on Tuesday. The appearance before the Senate intelligence committee comes one week after former FBI Director Comey cryptically told lawmakers the bureau had expected Sessions to recuse himself weeks before he did from an investigation into contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russia during the 2016 election. Sessions, a close campaign adviser to Donald Trump and the first senator to endorse him, stepped aside from the investigation in early March after acknowledging he had spoken twice in the months before the election with the Russian ambassador to the United States. He said under oath at his January confirmation hearing that he had not met with Russians during the campaign. Since then, lawmakers have raised questions about a possible third meeting at a Washington hotel, though the Justice Department has said that did not happen. Sessions on Saturday said he would appear before the intelligence committee, which has been doing its own investigation into Russian contacts with the Trump campaign. There had been some question as to whether the hearing would be open to the public, but the Justice Department said Monday he requested it be so because he “believes it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him.” The committee shortly after said the hearing would be open. The hearing will bring sharp questioning for Sessions and likely some uncomfortable moments from the Trump administration. Sessions is likely to be asked about his conversations with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and whether there were more encounters that should have been made public. And he can expect questions about his involvement in Comey’s May 9 firing, the circumstances surrounding his decision to recuse himself from the FBI’s investigation, and whether any of his actions — such as interviewing candidates for the FBI director position or meeting with Trump about Comey — violated his recusal pledge.

A Lee Enterprises Newspaper

Copyright 2017

Please see RESTAURANT, Page A6

OBITUARIES COMICS OPINION

A6 B10 A7

COURTESY PHOTO

The restaurant at Pebble Ponds Golf Course.

JUMBLE CROSSWORD SUDOKU

B9 B7 B6

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