Gov. Butch Otter’s higher education task force today adopted 12 recommendations in a series of 12 unanimous votes, Idaho EdNews reports. Among them: Rewriting and resetting the “60 percent goal,” extending it out for another five years in an effort to be more realistic and...
Idaho has hired St. Luke's Health System to help people choose which insurance plans to pick on the online insurance exchange, even though the health care giant stands to financially benefit when customers choose certain plans. Some Your Health Idaho board members raised concerns Friday...
Tourists heading to central Idaho will be in the dark if local officials get their way. The first International Dark Sky Reserve in the United States would fill a chunk of the state's sparsely populated region that contains night skies so pristine that interstellar dust clouds are visible in the Milky Way. "We know the night sky has inspired...
Idaho is extending deadlines for state taxpayers who owe payments, but are affected by Hurricane Irma. For those affected, payments that are due from Sept. 4 to Jan. 31 can be sent in by Jan. 31. The relief is for all Idaho tax types, including…
The American Association of University Women has released its annual 50-state rankings for the gender pay gap, and Idaho ranks 42nd among the states, with median annual earnings in 2016 at $45,305 for men and $34,403 for women. That’s an earnings ratio of 76 percent,…
Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 10 years in August, dropping to 2.9 percent. That’s a tenth of a percentage point lower than July, and matches the state’s record low from June of 2007. It also was the sixth consecutive…
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Bart Davis as Idaho’s next U.S. attorney, in a unanimous-consent decision that came at the close of business in the Senate today. “He has been approved,” said Lindsay Nothern, spokesman for Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo. Crapo and Idaho Sen. Jim...
Idaho officials said Thursday they have found a creative solution to provide health care to poor residents who do not have medical coverage while simultaneously limiting the state's ongoing health insurance hikes. "Health care is very broad and very complex," said former Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dick Armstrong. "You can't...
Both of Idaho’s U.S. House members are announcing legislative victories today, with 1st District Rep. Raul Labrador lauding a House vote today that passed his bill to make it easier to deport members of alien criminal gangs; and 2nd District Rep. Mike Simpson securing funding...
Idaho has sent 10 lawmakers to a planning meeting in Arizona to debate details for carrying out a growing national effort to amend the Constitution to require a balanced U.S. budget. Idaho's top legislative leaders approved sending the Republican delegates, despite the GOP-controlled statehouse's repeated failures to pass legislation calling...
At the behest of Buck Knives in Post Falls, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo has introduced legislation to lift a decades-old ban on interstate commerce in switchblade knives. Switchblades, also known as automatic knives, have a mechanism allowing one-handed operation to easily open the blade. They’ve been illegal in interstate commerce since 1958...
A legislative interim committee on truck registration fees is inviting input from stakeholders at a meeting set for Oct. 4 at the state Capitol. It will be the first meeting of the Commercial Vehicle Annual Registration Fee Committee, a panel of 10 lawmakers charged with…
If you’ve experienced slow or difficult access to this site today, here’s why: News of a school shooting at Freeman High School, south of Spokane, that killed one student and injured three others has prompted high levels of traffic on the S-R website, at times…
Ada County is now up to four confirmed human cases of West Nile Virus, and there are 10 statewide; health officials are warning Idahoans that the danger from the mosquito-borne virus is not over, and precautions should be taken to avoid mosquito bites. Late summer...
An eastern Idaho mayor has been sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation and fined about $300 for entering an unoccupied home to repossess a refrigerator with one of the city's police officers present. The Post Register reports that Ashton Mayor Teddy Stronks...
GOP gubernatorial candidate Tommy Ahlquist has launched a new TV campaign commercial repeating the claim he made in June that he’d cut $100 million from the state budget in his first 100 days if elected, but offering no new details. Instead, the new ad focuses...
Ada County home prices hit a new record high in August, according to the Boise Regional Realtors, who said the median sales price for August of 2017 was $278,000, up 9.6 percent from a year ago. However, the group noted the pace of price increases…
Here’s an oddity: Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador’s campaign for governor has sent out a fundraising pitch headed, “Breaking: Establishment strikes back,” saying, “Friend, we knew this moment was coming. In a late-breaking story, the Statesman-Review reported that the Boise insiders and lobbyists have picked their...
The city of Boise didn't collect $5 million of property tax money it was supposed to raise this year for open space and water quality protection because its budget department didn't tell Ada County to assess a levy voters passed in 2015, so a new ballot measure is planned. The city recently discovered the mistake when its budget specialists...
Lt. Gov. Brad Little's campaign says he's open to voluntarily disclosing his assets at some point along the gubernatorial campaign trail, but his staffers aren't saying what Little will hand over or when that might happen. The Associated Press asked Little and U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, both Republican candidates...
Despite a history of hard-fought campaigns and an unsuccessful but bitter recall attempt against the mayor and council just five years ago, Coeur d’Alene’s city elections are looking much different this fall: Mayor Steve Widmyer and three city council members all are running unopposed. Friday’s 5 p.m. filing deadline came and went without...
Idaho health officials are taking another crack at addressing the state’s Medicaid gap. But unlike prior efforts to simply expand Medicaid or design special programs for low-income Idahoans, the new plan would help the middle class by getting health insurance rate hikes under control, its proponents say. In its fiscal 2018 budget request...
When Congress quickly and overwhelmingly passed a Hurricane Harvey relief and government funding bill late last week, it did so with the backing of only half of Idaho’s congressional delegation...
Close to a thousand people rallied at the Idaho Capitol over the weekend in support of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has protected “dreamers” – those brought to the United States as small children by undocumented parents – from deportation, while...
Idaho’s state tax revenues for August came in 1.6 percent ahead of forecasts, and 5.2 percent higher than last August. For the fiscal year to date – just two months in – that puts general fund receipts up 8.2 percent over the same time period…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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