Idaho Reports, the weekly legislative program on Idaho Public Television, will be a full hour this year, which is good news for a show that happens to be the longest-running legislative program in the West. Click here for a cool history of the show, which debuted in January of 1972 with host Gene Shumate. Over the years, the show went through various format and name changes, but it was consistently a daily report on the doings of the Idaho Legislature; it took its current name, Idaho Reports, in 1982. A big change came in 1997, when budget cuts at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting forced the show to cut back from daily to once a week - a much-bemoaned change. Before that year, Idahoans knew all they had to do was watch the show each evening during the session, and they'd be up to speed on everything going on in the Legislature. The weekly program started off with just a half hour, but it's gone up and down. Now, host Thanh Tan has confirmed that this year, it'll be a full hour.

It's been my pleasure to be among the guests and regular commentators on Idaho Reports over the years, and I'm looking forward to another good season of the show.