A Boise lawmaker wants Idaho to be a player in the market for unmanned aerial drones, reports Bill Spence of the Lewiston Tribune; Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, introduced two measures Thursday dealing with drones: One to encourage the state Department of Commerce to work with…
Lawmakers have agreed to take another crack at changing how often food stamps are released to needy Idahoans each month, the AP reports. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee agreed Thursday to debate a bill that would release benefits on as many as 10 different…
The House Judiciary Committee has approved HR 2, the resolution to change the House’s ethics rule, Rule 76, to add a standing ethics committee and make other revisions. “We shared this with the minority and we had some very helpful, constructive things that we incorporated…
Opponents of childhood immunizations packed a Senate Health & Welfare Committee hearing yesterday on proposed changes to Idaho’s immunization registry, and after much testimony both for and against, the committee put off a vote on the first bill it was to take up and didn’t…
Believe it or not, an ag group in Turkey has applied to the Turkish Patent Institute to trademark the word “IDAHO” for its agricultural, plant and animal products – and the Idaho Potato Commission doesn’t take too kindly to that idea. Neither did the Senate…
Here’s the final comment from Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, at this morning’s House Rev & Tax Committee meeting on Gov. Butch Otter’s legislation to revise and expand his “Hire One More Employee,” or HOME, tax credit; the famously outspoken lawmaker acidly objected to introducing the…
Members of the House Revenue & Taxation Committee grilled Gov. Butch Otter’s communications director and senior special assistant Mark Warbis for half an hour this morning, before agreeing, on a divided voice vote, to introduce Otter’s bill to revise and expand the HOME, or Hire…
Little bit of an odd one in the list of supplemental appropriations being voted on by JFAC this morning: Pool toys and a disinfection system for the new kiddie pool at Lava Hot Springs. It’s not state tax money; it’s dedicated funds that come from…
This morning, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is taking its first votes to spend money in the state budget: For deficiency warrants and certain supplemental appropriations, the largest of which is the bill for the wildfire season, $6 million. Because those bills are paid after the…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
