News briefs: Local

Redistricting panel approves latest plan

BOISE — Seven counties will be split in the new map for Idaho’s legislative districts, including Canyon County.

These changes will pit Senator Patti Lodge against Senator Melinda Smyser in the 2012 election, but this isn’t new—they would have met in the previous plan as well.

Despite the unanimous agreement by the panel that the plan was solid, commission chairman Ron Beitelspacher admits it still  has flaws.

Three new districts have been described as “unwieldly,” one of them stretching from within 11 miles of the Oregon border clear across to Montana, crossing hundreds of miles. Beitelspacher explained that constitutional constraints from the justices, along with Idaho’s shape and unevenly distributed population, left few options.

If the plan is successfully challenged, it will still need to pass through the Idaho Supreme Court. Twin Falls County did this to the last plan because it split up too many counties. A map of the new legislative districts is available on the Idaho Press-Tribune website.

Former real estate broker held on $10,000 bail

CANYON COUNTY, IDAHO — Jerry Gunstream, former commercial real estate broker, is being held in Canyon County jail after being arrested on two counts of felony grand theft.

The investigation had been ongoing since 2009 when he admitted in letters he took more than $500,000 from eight properties he managed. He continuously claimed that he had only borrowed the money to cover expenses and always intended to pay it back.

This past December, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers ruled that Gunstream’s embezzlement was willful and malicious. He also said that it didn’t matter if Gunstream had intended to pay the money back or not.

The two counts of grand theft cover more than $400,000 according to Ada County Prosecutor’s Office.

After examining the bank account records, Idaho State Police Financial Fraud Examiner Kenneth Fingerlos found that there was a pattern of transfers of money from client accounts to Gunstream’s business account, which he used on many of his personal expenses including dinner at local restaurants, according to the Idaho Press.

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Posted by Suzanne Craig on Jan 30 2012. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.