Despite serving a lot of beer, wine and coffee during the Treefort Music Festival in March, the Crux's owner Bob Cooper said alcohol was only 30 percent of his business that month.

In this week's issue, Boise Weekly looks at the Alcohol Beverage Control Bureau's decision to temporarily suspend Cooper's license to serve beer and wine at the all-ages venue. Cooper said that as a result, business has taken a hit.

"The profit line: it took about 30 percent of our net profit," said Cooper.

He also said that two of his full-time employees are now down to 15 hours per week.

"Obviously, it cut down on the music we're having. The music paid for itself; we would pay the artists with the profit on the beer that night. Now when we have an artist here and we're just serving coffee, there's no profit in it. So we've had less music as a result.

"I'm baffled on why the law seems to be black and white on the permitting, but they create a gray area with the subjectivity of how they're interpreting that," he said.

According to the Idaho State Police, beer and coffee don't mix at The Crux.

After three months as an all-ages venue serving beer, wine and Stumptown coffee, The Crux was forced to temporarily surrender its alcohol serving license.

"Our family didn’t want to get into the bar business," said owner Bob Cooper, who runs the shop with his wife and sons. He takes issue with ISP's classification of The Crux as a bar.

He chatted with Lt. Bob Clements, the head of Idaho's small Alcohol Beverage Control Bureau, about qualifying to serve beer and allow minors. Clements said the Crux's licensing through a restaurant endorsement doesn't wash.

"They didn’t qualify as a restaurant so they qualified as a bar tavern," said Clements. "They should have been posting their doors limiting minors."

But Cooper and Clements disagree about what should constitute a restaurant, with both referencing the Idaho State statutes.

"The black and white law says 40 percent food, 60 percent alcohol, you can have all-ages all the time," said Cooper.

Wednesday, May 16, Boise Weekly goes in-depth with Cooper and Clements, to the crux of the issue: is coffee food?

In this morning's BW, we report how the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has shut down its Facebook page, because of some unruly comments.

"We were spending way too much time looking at it. We had some employees who were trying to moderate [Facebook] in the middle of the night, which was crazy," said Mike Keckler, chief of IDFG's Bureau of Communications. "I was doing that for a while, and realized I was literally losing sleep over this."

Keckler told Citydesk the agency tried blocking some individuals from further posts, "but then we decided to pull that back. Over time, things would self-moderate. But then something would occur and the comments would take off again."

Keckler said IDFG had no plans to make its Facebook page live again anytime soon. Instead, he indicated that the agency will try to find a way to introduce two-way dialogue on its website.

Keckler said the comment involved several topics, with more than a few aimed at wolf management.

"There were some pretty caustic arguments, both pro and con, about wolves," he said. "And we had a number of people on both sides of arguments calling on us to moderate the page better. But we just didn't have the time or manpower to properly moderate it."

Friday, April 13, marks a grim anniversary in the history of crime and punishment in Idaho. It was on that date (also a Friday the 13th) in 1951, when Idaho saw its only double-execution. More importantly, the two men who were to hang by the neck were the youngest criminals ever executed in the Gem State.

In Wednesday's Boise Weekly, we examine the case of Troy Powell and Ernest Walrath, two men involved in a robbery in which a Boise grocer was murdered for $12. Less than a year after the crime, the two young men were hanged.

When more than 250,000 Idaho students return to class this week and next, most will have the prerequisite supplies of notebooks, pens and paper. But according to social service agencies, an increasing number of children will be empty-handed on the first day of school, as their parents struggle in a failing economy.

In this Wednesday's Back-to-School issue of BW, we examine the high cost of being a student and teacher in Idaho.

One final public hearing is scheduled for tomorrow night concerning redistricting in Idaho. Following tomorrow evening's session at 7 p.m. at Meridian City Hall, the Citizen Commission for Reapportionment begins the complex task of dividing Idaho's 35 legislative districts into new territories. Considering that Idaho's population since 2000 has grown by 273,729 people, the commission will need to factor city and county lines while considering neighborhood, tribe and community desires.

In tomorrow's edition of Boise Weekly, we examine the the issue of redistricting through the eyes of Idaho's Latino community, which has grown 73 percent in the last decade.

It has been about two months since the Hollywood Market in Boise's North End has been closed, and just under a week since the market's iconic owner Margaret Lawrence was laid to rest. While the makeshift memorial to honor Lawrence's passing continues to grow on the store's doorstep, more than a few people have asked the question: "Whatever happened to Margaret?" In Wednesday's BW, we share the story of how the market was closed and how her personal and business affairs were taken over.

In tomorrow's BW, we have a disturbing but timely report about the increasing number of irreverent incidents at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. Its director has witnessed everything from flag-football games to barbecues to hunting at the final resting place for more than 3,000 veterans and spouses.

Additionally, we feature a conversation with James Roberts, administrator of the Idaho State Veterans Home, which is running at near-capacity. We talk about operating on a lean budget, planning for the future and caring for veterans in their final days.

Boise Weekly's investigation into drugs found in Idaho dairy cows was featured today on the Oregon Public Broadcast Network's "Think Out Loud" program. You can listen to the broadcast here.

Ironically, the conversation included a representative from the Oregon Dairy Farmers' Association. BW has yet to hear from the Idaho Dairymen's Association on our report.