Greg Zickau, chief technology officer for the state Department of Administration, said the department is proposing to transfer nine information technology positions to Admin from other agencies as part of an IT consolidation that would save an estimated $229,000 a year. Overall, the move would…
State Department of Administrator head Mike Gwartney told lawmakers this morning that he's hoping to save the state millions through various consolidation efforts. "When I moved into this job we had 74 individual email plans," Gwartney told JFAC. "We've now taken that down to where…
Here’s a link to the fourth week of Idaho’s legislative session in pictures, as a slide show. Let your cursor hover over the bottom part of the picture frame, and the captions will appear as the slide show plays. Tonight, on Idaho Public Television’s “Idaho…
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keith Allred slammed GOP Gov. Butch Otter today for what he called his "irrational pessimism and recklessness," saying that in two weeks of travel around the state, he's heard concerns from people across the political spectrum over Otter's proposed budget cuts to…
Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on Idaho's prison budget situation: Lawmakers were warned today that the only way to cut more deeply into the state prison budget than Gov. Butch Otter already has proposed is to begin releasing prisoners. Budget cuts…
Nancy Merrill, Idaho state parks director, told the House Resources Committee today, "We are in a transition period and we have much to do." She noted that the new business plan the department has worked up - aimed at working toward weaning the department from…
Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, chairman of the Idaho Indian Affairs Council, has put out a guest opinion on the flap over proposed legislation from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe regarding cross-deputization, after a three-year dispute between the tribe and the Benewah County Sheriff. "The purpose…
Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, is back at work in the Legislature, after missing two days for surgery for peripheral artery disease in her legs. The procedure was a follow-up to more major surgery she had in October for the disease, which if left untreated would…
Questions from JFAC members for state Corrections Director Brent Reinke included whether it'd be helpful if Idaho set up some kind of early-release mechanism for prisoners now. Reinke said the department has been evaluating "what good time might look like in Idaho," referring to time…
If Idaho had to cut another $5 million from its state prisons budget, state Corrections Director Brent Reinke told JFAC this morning, it'd have to release about 250 inmates. Legally, the department can't do that on its own, he noted; it'd take direction from the…
Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com about the buzz at the Legislature today over whether criminals are going free in Benewah County because the local sheriff won't work with the local tribal police. The problem: Without a cross-deputization agreement, tribal police officers…
Benewah County Sheriff Bob Kirts is dismissing an open letter to lawmakers from the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations about law-enforcement problems in Benewah County, signed by task force vice president Christie Wood, saying, "My only comment is she's ill-informed or she's just…
The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, the North Idaho human rights group, has sent an open letter to Idaho state legislators urging support for legislation backed by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe on cross-deputization for law enforcement in Benewah County. The legislation hasn't yet…
The Idaho Senate voted 24-10 today to confirm Fish & Game Commissioner Tony McDermott, who represents the North Idaho Panhandle, for another term, but only after an extended debate in which Sen. Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton, tried to frame the vote as a referendum on wolves.…
A long and contentious dispute over how Idaho leases state endowment lands to ranchers for grazing - or to others for other uses - came to an end yesterday afternoon, when the House and Senate Resources committees approved new grazing lease rules, which take effect…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho lawmakers could make running a cockfighting operation a felony, two years after passing a similar law against dogfighting. A bill targeting this blood sport was introduced Thursday in the Senate. Anybody found…
HB 391, the “Idaho Health Freedom Act,” has been amended by unanimous vote of the House. Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, said the problem is that the bill, as written, would outlaw a requirement imposed by the state Board of Education through state regulations, and…
Rep. Brian Cronin and Sen. Kate Kelly, both Boise Democrats, brought a non-binding memorial to Congress to the House State Affairs Committee this morning calling on Congress to take action in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision permitting unlimited independent campaign expenditures by…
State Appellate Public Defender Molly Huskey told JFAC today that her office faces having to spend $140,000 for contract attorneys at $125 per hour for pending cases and hearings. "I would submit to this committee that there is a more efficient way to spend this…
Idaho State Police Director Col. Jerry Russell told JFAC today that the ISP could be catching far more drunk drivers and others if it just did more patrols. From August of 2008 through December of 2009, funding through GARVEE highway construction bond funds allowed extra…
Two bills from Idaho Democrat's "I-Jobs" package were up before the House Rev & Tax Committee this morning, but House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, pulled the first one, the "Small Business Jobs Development Act," which sought to offer a new tax credit for businesses…
Idaho's military division is having its budget hearing before JFAC, and Brigadier General Gary Sayler said the possible assignment of three F-35 Strike Fighter squadrons to Boise as their training base would effectively double the size of the Idaho Air National Guard "and guarantee an…
If Idaho really wants to save money in the Attorney General's office, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden told lawmakers, it needs to look at further consolidation of legal services - a controversial move. "My office is stretched incredibly thin," Wasden said. "If the state is truly…
"We all must face the reality of the current budget situation," Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden told legislative budget writers this morning. Holdbacks on the attorney general's budget so far have cut $2.8 million, he said. "My office is operating on a razor-thin margin. ...…
Idaho law currently makes it a misdemeanor for law enforcement officers or prosecutors who know about unlawful gambling to fail to prosecute it, and "the way gambling is defined in the code, it covers your mother-in-law's football pool," Rep. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, told the House…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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