Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the House's 34-35 rejection today of HB 111, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's policing legislation. A disappointed Rep. Julie Ellsworth, R-Boise, said afterward, "I think there's merit to the bill - you can't just close your eyes to it." Rep. Rich Wills, R-Glenns Ferry, a retired state trooper, said he's received hundreds of calls and emails threatening him and questioning his integrity for backing the bill. "I've had threats I'd better never go into the county again," he said. "I've been called all kinds of sundry names."

Opponents raised fears ranging from the tribe taking away the guns of non-Indians who have concealed weapons permits and pass through the reservation, to provisions of tribal code being used to impose civil penalties on non-Indians - something that already can occur today on the reservation. "This doesn't change anything about that," Wills said. Instead, it addressed criminal violations - saying tribal police officers could enforce state law against non-tribal members, but they'd have to be cited under state law and into state court. "This allows them to use the state court," Wills said.