A sex offender who was cited as an example of an “epidemic” of sexual exploitation of children that’s being aided by the Internet has been sentenced to life in prison plus another 60 years. Jerry L. Banks Sr., 54, of Boise was sentenced this morning…
Eastern Idaho businessman Frank VanderSloot’s thoughts on Cuban communism, Gov. Butch Otter zooming off in a black Mercedes with two Cuban police officers trailing on motorcycles, and former Idaho House Speaker Bruce Newcomb’s impressions of how hard Cuban import officials negotiate all can be found…
Here’s a bit of news industry news: The publishers of the Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa and the Bozeman, Mont. Daily Chronicle are going to switch jobs in July. Stephanie Pressly, who’s been the Press-Tribune’s publisher for the past three and a half years, will move…
Reporter Nathaniel Hoffman of the Boise Weekly reports that Idaho’s trade delegation spent Tuesday morning meeting with representatives of Cuba’s state-run import agency to find out what Idaho products they could use, and then called home to see which of those needs Idaho could meet.…
Enterprising reporter Nathaniel Hoffman of the Boise Weekly is in Cuba covering the Idaho trade mission – even though Gov. Butch Otter’s office was told it couldn’t bring any reporters along. “We were told that the Cubans were not going to allow any reporters in,”…
We already know that fewer pieces of legislation were drafted, introduced and passed by this year’s Legislature than in any recent year, even though the session was one of the longer ones. Here’s more proof that this year’s load of legislation was light: Only one…
When Gov. Butch Otter was looking ahead to this week’s trade mission to Cuba, he noted that in his past work as a Simplot Corp. exec, he’d done lots of pushing to get Idaho products into far-off markets. “Dealing with governments, getting our products across…
I’m on vacation this week, but I heard from afar that Gov. Butch Otter has signed into law HB 249a, the tribal fuel tax bill. This is the measure that some thought he’d veto, imposing a Dec. 1 deadline on his negotiations with Idaho Indian…
Frustrated lawmakers are heading home from their three-month legislative session without the one thing many had as their top priority to accomplish this year: Relief from the sales tax on groceries. Read the full story here on our overview of this year’s just-concluded legislative session.…
Boise attorneys Roy Eiguren and L. Edward Miller will keep their licenses to practice law and no longer face charges stemming from their involvement in the University Place saga, the Idaho Business Review reports. The agreement between the attorneys and the Idaho State Bar was…
The House is now debating HB 336, the compromise highway bonding bill. “We’re to the last bill – maybe – of the session,” House Majority Leader Mike Moyle told the House.
Out on the Moyle highwayYou’ll need no social engineerIt’s a slippery slope where they tax your food And the end of the session is near.There will be no smoking while bowlingBut they’ll try to keep mom at homeHere at the Idaho StatehouseMini-wings will sprout from…
The House Appropriations Committee, the House half of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, is meeting now to consider introducing the new highway bonding bill. The bill sets a maximum of $250 million for GARVEE bonding for next year, and lists the six highway projects but gives…
Both houses have taken a lunch break, and are scheduled to come back into session at 1:30. Perhaps then we’ll know if they can come together today on a highway bonding plan and end the legislative session, now in its 82nd day…
The draft that’s being considered by lawmakers to settle the standoff over GARVEE highway bonding has a different total than the two bills that died earlier. It’s $250 million. The last two proposals totaled $246 million, and the governor’s original proposal totaled $264 million. The…
With legislative leaders working on a compromise on a highway bonding plan, most rank-and-file members have been left sitting around, waiting. So, what do to? Here, Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, tries some Sudoku on the computer.
House and Senate GOP leaders just emerged from two hours of closed-door meetings saying they have a compromise proposal on highway bonding. Now, “We’ll go to caucus,” said House Speaker Lawerence Denney. The proposal is acceptable to leadership on both sides, “contingent upon whether or…
When they took down the giant murals on the fourth floor of the Capitol yesterday, it was clear they wouldn’t go down the winding stairways of the rotunda, so the murals were lowered down through the center of the rotunda with ropes. With lawmakers at…
Let me get this straight. Our libertarian, less-government governor now is interested in having Idaho license canoes? That idea was basically shouted out of the Legislature the last time it was proposed. But today, Gov. Butch Otter allowed HB 200, raising boat registration fees, to…
Talks between House and Senate leaders and the governor appear to be bearing some fruit, possibly in the form of a new version of the GARVEE highway bonding bill. “We’ve all been down in the governor’s office,” said House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley.…
After two hours of tense debate, the Senate has voted 23-12 to kill a controversial highway bonding plan that pitted the House against the Senate. The defeat, which throws into doubt the plans to wrap up this year’s legislative session today, came because the bill…
S-R reporter Parker Howell reports that advocates of changing Idaho's primary election system to avert a potential legal battle between the state and the Idaho Republican Party have come up with yet another plan. The proposal comes hot on the heels of SB 1244, introduced…
The Senate has voted 29-6 to override Gov. Butch Otter’s veto of the legislation banning smoking in Idaho bowling alleys. “For us to walk away and assume his veto is somehow better than our collective wisdom would be a great disservice to the people we…
Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, says last Friday was really time for the Legislature to go home – but they’re still going. Today, he’s come up with a new “term of art” to describe bills still on the calendar – they’re “rotting…