06/01/07 Caswell is in, Butler is out

An Idahoan has been named by President Bush to head up the Bureau of Land Management. 61 year old Jim Caswell is the one and only director of the six year old Idaho Office of Species Conservation. A former Forest Service supervisor of the Targhee and Clearwater national forests Caswell will head a federal agency that is responsible for managing one eighth of the land in the United States and twelve million of those acres are in Idaho. Caswell will be reunited with his old boss Governor and now Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. The search is on for a new judge to hear a water curtailment case. Fifth District Court Judge John Butler was supposed to hear the case this week but stepped down because of a conflict of interest. That means that another judge will be assigned to hear the case that involves more than 700 southern Idaho groundwater pumpers who were warned that they'd have to shut down their pumps or come up with water which two trout farms are entitled. A temporary restraining order barring the Idaho Department of Water Resources from carrying out its threat remains in effect until a new hearing, whenever that may be. Groundwater pumpers meet with IDWR officials tomorrow to finalize details of a second potential curtailment which was averted in the American Falls area through a mitigation agreement. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott