On tonight’s “Idaho Reports” program on Idaho Public Television, I join Jim Weatherby, Dan Popkey, Melissa Davlin and host Greg Hahn to discuss the week’s developments in the Legislature and Idaho politics. Plus, Greg interviews two physician-lawmakers, Sen. Dan Schmidt and Rep. Fred Wood, on…
Here are some reactions from JFAC members to today’s announcement that public hearings on the state budget scheduled for Feb. 1 and Feb. 8 have been canceled, and the joint committee won’t take public testimony this year on the state budget: Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton…
This photo is from the big public hearing that the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee held on Jan. 28, 2011 on the Health & Welfare budget, which drew nearly a thousand people who spilled out of a packed Capitol Auditorium into five separate overflow rooms. Today, JFAC…
There are more than 100,000 unfilled jobs in the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, and thousands more in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, according to a Canadian official who visited the Idaho Legislature this week as part of a delegation from the Pacific Northwest Economic Region…
Randy Budge, chairman of the Idaho Fish & Game Commission, told the Senate Resources Committee this afternoon that a key to the future of hunting in Idaho is involving youngsters. "Our generation is getting a little grayer," Budge said; he's speaking, here, and is joined…
These Senate pages, at the suggestion of a legislative staffer, are enjoying the best view in the Statehouse - the view straight up from the middle of the rotunda. Amid the ornate concentric circles of the Capitol's center, the young legislative aides were counting the…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A collection of firefighters from around the state is getting ready to perform during President Obama's inauguration day parade in the nation's capital next week. A pipes and drums band made up of…
Plenty of Idaho lawmakers want to introduce legislation dealing with guns or school safety - mostly to promote gun rights in the wake of President Obama's proposed restrictions. So House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, has asked Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, to corral the various proposals;…
The Senate Resources Committee is holding its confirmation hearing for Fish & Game Commissioner Will Naillon of Challis this afternoon. The first question from Chairman Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth: Noting that Naillon is a member of the Boone and Crockett Club, he asked how many…
House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, said issues surrounding the defeat of Propositions 1, 2 and 3 prompted him to press for canceling big public hearings on the state budget this year by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, hearings that in the past two years have drawn…
There was a surprise announcement at the end of this morning’s JFAC meeting: Both public hearings that had been scheduled for this year on the state budget have been canceled, largely at the urging of House leadership. JFAC Co-Chair Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, told the committee,…
Hispanics are Idaho’s largest minority group, at 11.9 percent of the population in 2011, and that population is growing fast. From 2000 to 2010, Idaho’s Hispanic population increased by 73 percent, or more than 74,000, Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs Director Margie Gonzalez told JFAC…
Idaho’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation now has 400 people on a waiting list for extended employment services for the disabled, with the average wait time about a year and a half. These are people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. “They can get work and work…
Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell in December to 6.6 percent, the lowest rate in nearly four years and two-tenths of a percentage down from November, the Idaho Department of Labor reports. This time, the improved numbers weren’t just due to people giving up on…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
