News

County board selects new county administrator

Following a special county board meeting held on June 16 to interview the final four candidates for the county administrator job, commissioners mulled over input received from the public about the candidates and from the Mat (Management Advisory Team) Leadership Team. They met again on June 18 to discuss and rank their favorites for the administrator job, and the vote wasn’t close: The commissioners voted 5-0 to select Kristen Trebil Halbersma.

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Congress removes language from a bill that could have significantly affected the BWCAW

On Tuesday, June 10, Congress struck Section 80131 from the draft budget bill. This section would have granted leased public land to Antofagasta, a London-based Chilean mining company, and would have given the courts the limited ability to review permits, meaning that the courts would have had little power to assess the environmental impact of the proposed mining operation.

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Levi Axtell found incompetent to stand trial

After a comprehensive two-day competency hearing, which included the insights of two psychologists, a former Sawtooth Clinic doctor, and a local doctor, the intricate state of Levi Axtell’s mental health during the March 8, 2023 murder of Lawrence Scully, 77, was revealed. The culmination of this hearing was Judge Hanke’s ruling that Levi is not currently competent to stand trial.

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