The Idaho Secretary of State office is reviewing a request for key points of voter data from President Donald Trump's commission investigating alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election. State Election Director Betsie Kimbrough said Friday that Secretary of State Lawerence Denney received the request from the Presidential...
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter is the only governor who’s joined 10 state attorneys general – including Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden – in signing a letter urging the Trump Administration to phase out the DACA program, which has provided deportation relief and access to work...
Quinn’s Pond is reopening for recreational use today, including swimming and paddleboarding, but the nearby ponds in the new Esther Simplot Park still have unsafe levels of E. coli and will remain closed. Also, the city of Boise announced today that dogs no longer will…
Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch had high praise today for President Trump’s choice of Bart Davis as Idaho’s next U.S. Attorney; both Crapo and Risch are attorneys. Here are their full statements: CRAPO: “With his extensive combination of leadership, legal scholarship and service,…
The White House has just announced that it is nominating Idaho state Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, as the new U.S. Attorney for Idaho. Davis is an Idaho Falls attorney who has served in the Senate for the past 19 years, including the...
This year's Idaho grape crop harvest is expected to be down significantly as a result of a bitter cold winter in the heart of Idaho wine country. Temperatures fell in Caldwell to as low as 18 below zero in January, and many vineyard growers reported diminished production, the Capital Press reports...
Fire officials say quick responses by ranchers and others in Idaho to more than 20 wildfires sparked by lightning have kept the small fires from becoming major blazes like those that scorched the region in recent decades. About 10 wildfires remained active in grass and brush in southern Idaho, with one of the largest just north...
Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador, the new chair of a House subcommittee on immigration, told Idaho reporters this afternoon that he hopes to “fix the broken immigration system” between now and the end of his current two-year term, after which he’s running for governor rather than…
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has released a statement responding to “a considerable amount of confusion” about his office’s new legal analysis of Idaho’s fireworks laws. Here’s the full statement: “There’s been a considerable amount of confusion regarding a recent legal analysis my office prepared…
U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson will try to keep open an Idaho sheep experiment station despite President Donald Trump's proposed budget calling for its elimination. The Post-Register reported that Clark County economic development officials worry closure of the station could have a major negative impact on the economy. The U.S. Sheep Experiment Station...
Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador’s legislation to limit refugee resettlement cleared the House Judiciary Committee this morning on a 15-11 party-line vote, with all Republicans present supporting it and all Democrats opposing it. The bill was reported out to the full House with just one amendment,...
Most of the popular Boise River Greenbelt is reopening today after flood-related closures that shut down all but 11 miles of the 25-mile riverfront trail system that runs through Boise, Garden City, Eagle and surrounding areas. Five sections of the trail will remain closed due…
Idaho state Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, hasn’t made a final decision, but he acknowledged today that he’s mulling a run for Idaho’s 1st District congressional seat, which will open in 2018 when current Rep. Raul Labrador runs instead for governor. “The people of the...
There’s lots of talk today about a new Idaho Attorney General’s opinion on Idaho fireworks laws, particularly because it was issued just weeks before the Fourth of July holiday. The legal opinion, written in response to a request from a state lawmaker, isn’t legally binding...
Idaho 1st District GOP Rep. Raul Labrador has been named chairman of the House Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced today. Labrador replaces Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who will shift to chair the…
The issues being discussed at today’s joint House-Senate Education Committees meeting are pretty detailed, but one major point of contention has emerged: The long-term goals for student achievement within every sub-group that had been set in Idaho’s proposed plan to comply with the federal ESSA…
The Idaho House and Senate Education committees are holding a rare joint interim meeting today at the state Capitol; you can watch live online here. Topping the agenda is the state’s plan to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which Idaho faces a…
The Idaho Democratic Party is sending field organizers up north for the first time since pulling a volunteer nearly a year ago amid intimidation accusations. Democratic leaders announced this week that the move is part of a statewide effort to locate volunteers and train activists in an overwhelming Republican-dominant state. "When we put more...
Idaho state treasurer Ron Crane's website hacked with an Islamic State message; fire season arrives in southern Idaho; giant sequoia moved; Payette cabin sites auctioned; Balukoff mulling another guv run; and more from while I was gone...
Idaho’s big political switcheroo – with former state Sen. Russ Fulcher dropping out of the governor’s race after nearly a year of campaigning, switching instead to the 1st Congressional District race, and earning current 1st Congressional District Rep. Raul Labrador’s endorsement in the bargain – is raising plenty of questions...
Tommy Ahlquist, one of the GOP candidates for governor of Idaho in 2018, launched a new TV ad on Wednesday promising to cut $100 million from the state budget in his first 100 days in office. Ahlquist’s ad says he’ll “cut $100 million dollars in wasteful government spending...
Idaho is about to fall further behind its neighbors on its minimum wage, the Idaho Business Review reports today, as four of Idaho’s six neighboring states raise their minimum wage in each of the next three years. Idaho’s minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour,…
Kari Overall, a history teacher at South Junior High in Boise, has been elected the next president of the Idaho Education Association; she succeeds Penni Cyr, who is retiring after six years in the post. Overall’s three-year term will begin Aug. 1. “The Idaho Education...
Idaho is putting up 14 Payette Lake lots for auction as part of an ongoing effort to remove the state from leasing land to cabin owners. Officials with the Idaho Department of Lands say the auction will take place Friday. Cabin owners have applied to participate in the auction...