A Pocatello man has been sentenced to 45 days in jail, $21,450 in fines and restitution and 10 years probation for poaching, plus he’s lost his hunting and fishing privileges for life. Russell D. Mee, 53, was sentenced for illegal killing and wasting of deer,…
Rex Rammell, independent candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Larry Craig, has released further results from a poll he commissioned in late August in the race, in part to dispute a national Rasmussen Reports automated poll on Sept. 9 that showed Republican…
Deputy Idaho Secretary of State Tim Hurst confirmed this morning that 1st District state Senate candidate Lew Langness isn’t on the ballot, having withdrawn in a June 18 letter to the Secretary of State. “We made a mistake and didn’t take him off the database,…
Wayne Hoffman, campaign spokesman for 1st District Rep. Bill Sali, confirms that the footage used in Sali’s new campaign ad – the incumbent’s first television spot of the campaign season, though his Democratic challenger, Walt Minnick, has been blanketing the airwaves for seven weeks –…
Lew Langness of Bonners Ferry was a little surprised to get queries about his stands on issues and why he’s running for the state Senate against Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, because, Langness said, “I’m not really a candidate.” Lew’s wife, Linda, the Boundary County Democratic…
I’ve gotten a few questions from people wondering why any Idaho candidate who’s a Republican would be interested in cross-party support, since the R’s hold such an overwhelming advantage in the state (“Candidates tout cross-party support”). Here’s why: There’s no political party with which a…
Gov. Butch Otter says he's "hoping for the best" - that a mid-year budget cut won't be necessary after all. But, he said, he wants to be prepared for cuts if they're necessary. State agencies have until next Wednesday at 10 a.m. to get him…
With Gov. Butch Otter poised to order his first mid-year cut in the already-approved state budget, here’s a look at the most recent such holdbacks ordered by Idaho governors: 2003: Gov. Dirk Kempthorne ordered a 3.5 percent holdback on all state agencies except public schools…
Both candidates for North Idaho’s seat in Congress are now saying party labels don’t really matter, after Democrat Walt Minnick released a list of 60 “Republicans for Minnick” and GOP incumbent Bill Sali named a Democratic county commissioner as one of his campaign co-chairmen. “We…
There was good news and bad news on the financial front for the state Land Board this morning. On the positive side, the state made $8 million on timber harvests on state endowment lands in August, one of the highest August levels in the last…
Idaho’s top state officials, meeting as the state Land Board, have voted unanimously to auction off the state office building that now houses the Idaho Public Utilities Commission’s offices, along with two other tenants. The office building, called Central Washington Place, is at 602 N.…
Gov. Butch Otter’s office issued this statement this afternoon on two controversial personnel rule changes his administration imposed on Aug. 24:“The changes detailed in the temporary rule represent responsible stewardship of limited taxpayer resources and are consistent with best management practices in any large organization…
Two different polls were released yesterday in Idaho’s U.S. Senate race, the hot race for the open seat created by the retirement of Sen. Larry Craig. But the results were so different as to suggest they were for different races.Independent candidate Rex Rammell released results…
Idaho state employees who become seriously ill and go on disability now will be laid off after 12 weeks, rather than the previous six months, the Otter Administration has decided. The unilateral change in rules for state workers, one of several implemented by Gov. Butch…
Here’s a link to the video of today’s arguments in Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport men’s room sex sting, and here's a link to my full story in today's Spokesman-Review. In…
Attorneys for Idaho Sen. Larry Craig have just finished urging a three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let Craig withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct charges in a 2007 airport men’s room sex sting. “He looked in the crack. … He…
Independent U.S. Senate candidate Rex Rammell is none too happy after being accused – unsuccessfully – of submitting invalid signatures in his bid to qualify for the ballot. “If you’re gonna accuse somebody of fraud and perjury, you better be able to back it up,”…
The Idaho U.S. Senate candidate who legally changed his name to Pro-Life says he’s not a single-issue candidate. “That’s the real falsehood, that I’m a one-issue candidate – I’m not,” he told me in an interview. “I’ll take on any issue. I try to determine…
Final sentencing for Joseph Duncan in federal court in Boise on the seven remaining non-capital federal charges against him has been moved back to Nov. 3, from the previously scheduled Oct. 15 date. The court announced the change “in order to facilitate the completion of…
It’s time for me to take a week off; I’ll return to work on Sept. 8th. I plan to do some windsurfing and mountain biking, spend time with family, clean my house and get some rest. I still hope to speak with jurors, perhaps after…
Joseph Duncan’s 10th grade biology teacher in Tacoma, Wash. has been writing to him, providing him with a religious article and telling him that he feels “very sorry for not only his victims but him as well.” “I told him that a lady who I…
S-R reporter Rich Roesler found few of Joseph Duncan’s relatives willing to comment yesterday as a federal jury in Idaho sentenced him to death, but a woman in Tacoma who was involved with Duncan’s father – the two share a son – and first met…
Joseph Duncan still must appear again before Judge Lodge in Boise for sentencing on the other seven charges to which he’s pleaded guilty. Today, he was sentenced to death for each of the three capital crimes. For the other offenses, for kidnapping and molesting Dylan…
S-R reporter Meghann Cuniff saw the emotional scene in the elevator lobby of the federal courthouse, where tearful jurors shook the hand of Steven Groene, father of the victim, while he thanked the jurors. “You made the right decision – don’t ever think you didn’t,”…
U.S. Attorney Tom Moss, speaking outside the federal courthouse in Boise, said, "The jury speaks the mind of the community. I think by this verdict today they have given voice to the victims and the people who were injured by the circumstances in this case."Moss…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
