‘Bueller? Bueller?’: Perhaps best known as the roll-calling teacher in the 1986 film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Stein entertained a big crowd at Tuesday’s Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce 129th Annual Gala. The actor, economist, comedian, columnist and one-time game show host has a summer home beside Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint. He had sharp criticism for U.S. economic and education leaders, but nothing but praise for Idaho after visiting the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.

Idaho ‘paradise’: “We parked ... virtually on the grass of the Capitol, and walked down some steps and into a tunnel and into the Capitol,” Stein said. “Not one guard, not one metal detector ...”

Idaho trust: “It’s the same way in Sandpoint,” he said. “Everybody trusts everybody, everybody respects everybody. ... You don’t do anything particularly bad because you’re all in the same wonderful club, the Idaho Club.”

Idaho the beautiful: Stein told a story about taking a friend — whose mother survived Auschwitz — around Bonner County. “This is the America we pledged allegiance to when we pledged allegiance to the flag,” Stein quoted the woman as saying. “This is America’s America.”