When George Bacon, director of the state Department of Lands, made his budget presentation to lawmakers today, he was asked about the failed Tamarack Resort, which recently missed a $250,000 lease payment to the state for the state lands on which its ski runs lie.…
Click below to read a full report from AP reporter John Miller on the latest campaign finance reports in the 1st Congressional District race; they show that U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick has outraised his GOP rivals combined, and offer a look at who's supporting which…
Here's a link to my full story on the parks budget presented today by state Parks Director Nancy Merrill, which calls for a $5 million cut in state funding next year. She says Idaho's park system can move toward self-sufficiency by following a new "business…
When it came time for the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon to take up HB 420, the bill from Rep. Carlos Bilbao to make graffiti a felony, committee Chairman Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, said, "Theyre going to have to have some amendments and they can't…
Idaho's four-member congressional delegation has issued the following statement regarding the arrest of several Idahoans in Haiti on possible child abduction charges; the Idahoans, members of Baptist churches in Meridian and Twin Falls, were attempting to take children from Haiti to the Dominican Republic as…
Eddie Trout, from "Partners for Clean Water," visits the state Capitol today as part of a "Be Outside" celebration by the Idaho Children and Nature Network. There are displays, kids, a storyteller and more in the fourth floor rotunda as part of the event, and…
Sen. Gary Schroeder's resolution to overturn a Panhandle Health District rule on behalf of a Pullman, Wash. resident whose new Lake Coeur d'Alene cabin doesn't meet sewage requirements had been up for a hearing this afternoon in the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, but now…
HB 391, the "Idaho Health Freedom Act," has just been moved to general orders for amendment by unanimous consent of the House. Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, said the problem is that the bill, as written, would outlaw a requirement lawmakers enacted into state regulations…
The state Department of Lands is proposing to increase its timber harvest on state endowment lands by 35 million board-feet a year, from 212 million board-feet a year to 247. Income to the state endowment would rise by 20.2 percent, Director George Bacon told JFAC.…
Yvonne Ferrell, who headed Idaho's state parks system for 15 years and served as deputy director of Washington's state parks system for a decade before that, attended the parks budget hearing today and said she supports current Director Nancy Merrill's plan for parks. However, Ferrell…
Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, asked how Parks Director Nancy Merrill expects to make Idaho's parks system self-sustaining, when "there are no states that have really been able to create an environment of sustainability." Merrill said it's all in her new business plan for the state…
Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, asked state Parks Director Nancy Merrill how much the RV registration fund brings in each year. The answer: $3.8 million to $3.9 million. The idea is to tap about half of that fund each year for the next two to five…
Idaho's state parks department took a 17 percent cut in general funds in fiscal year 2009, and a 56 percent cut with the fy 2010 holdbacks, state Parks Director Nancy Merrill told JFAC. Now, she said, "We have proposed that we begin the process of…
Nancy Merrill, state parks director, has begun her first budget presentation to JFAC. Her department's budget request has changed significantly from the one first submitted; now, as a result of a deal announced last week by Merrill and Gov. Butch Otter, it calls for cutting…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press about the campaign finance reports filed over the weekend in the 1st District congressional race:BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick outraised Republican rivals in Idaho's 1st Congressional District during the final three months of…
This morning, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has started out by hearing a report from the joint legislative task force that was tasked, over the summer, with coming up with a new funding source for parks and the Idaho State Police to replace a slice of…
Three ceremonies for major highway construction projects on I-84 over the past summer ran up tens of thousands in bills after Gov. Butch Otter's office ordered that they be the governor's "signature events," Idaho Statesman reporter Cynthia Sewell reported Sunday; you can read her full…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
