Rep. Bob Schaefer, R-Nampa, contends that back when he worked on North Idaho field-burning issues, he discovered that there was nothing to residents' complaints about smoke from field-burning.

"We found out from that when people complained about the smoke in the Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint area, that it actually came from slash burning in Oregon," Schaefer told the House of Representatives. "That's when they had the worst problems, and it actually had nothing to do with the grass burning."

That might sound pretty likely from Schaefer's southern Idaho district, which is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Oregon border. But Oregon's a long way from North Idaho, which of course, borders Washington.

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