The Idaho National Guard has been plenty busy of late, what with its largest deployment in history under way. But now comes word that the Guard has discovered a new species of wildlife – never seen before – on its training site in southern Idaho.“This…
There was just one “no” vote, from Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, as the Senate State Affairs Committee voted this morning to approve the landmark Nez Perce Water Rights Agreement. The pact now heads to the full Senate. If it passes there, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has…
After months and months of intensive study and long hearings by a variety of committees and subcommittees, lawmakers set a budget for Medicaid this morning that adds $10 million above the governor’s recommendation to cover expected increases in caseloads. That comes after every other piece…
Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, chaired his first committee meeting today – two months into the legislative session. That’s because the panel that he chairs, the House Ways & Means Committee, typically isn’t called into session until the speaker of the House wants to quickly…
Former longtime Sen. Laird Noh was in the midst of his testimony on the Nez Perce water rights agreement when Senate State Affairs Chairman Don Burtenshaw, R-Terreton, cut him off – his three minutes were up.“Y’know, I’ve always wanted to do that,” Burtenshaw said to…
So far, today’s Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on the Nez Perce water rights agreement is a little more low-key than the earlier House committee hearings. Only about 100 people are in the audience at Boise City Hall, while two or three times that many…
Idaho’s Land Board members – who include the governor, the attorney general, the state superintendent of schools, the secretary of state and the state controller – are ticked at the Legislature for backing them into a corner on school endowment funding.The Land Board a year…
Sen. Joyce Broadsword’s compromise bill on when bicyclists should have to stop for red lights cleared the Senate today on a 29-3 vote, with the only surprise by that point being that anyone voted against it.From a brouhaha that had cyclists swarming committee hearings and…
Sen. Jack Noble submitted this written statement to the Senate this afternoon:“Dear Mr. President: I was present this morning with council(sic) in the Senate Committee on Ethics for the debate and adoption of the Report on my conduct. I was extended every courtesy, treated fairly,…
House Speaker Bruce Newcomb has assigned a bill to expand family-planning services to more low-income Idaho women to a House committee that some of the bill’s backers consider a black hole. The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Hayden Lake GOP Rep. Jim Clark,…
The Senate Ethics Committee has voted to censure Sen. Jack Noble, R-Kuna, for ethics violations, after a vote to expel him from the Senate failed on a 3-3 party-line vote.If the full Senate approves the committee’s recommendation, Noble will be required to stand in the…
When House Majority Leader Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, asked for unanimous consent to move up the Nez Perce water rights agreement on the House calendar, as planned, Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, threw a wrench into the process by objecting. House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, who was celebrating…
The Senate Ethics Committee adopted its extremely damning findings and conclusions about Sen. Jack Noble (see below), but agreed to allow his attorney, former Idaho Attorney General and Lt. Gov. David Leroy, to submit a written response to those before they make their final decision.…
The Senate Ethics Committee is now debating its findings and conclusions in its investigation of Sen. Jack Noble of Kuna. Its draft conclusions, which haven’t yet been adopted, are very serious:"1. The enactment of SB 1085 would have provided a potential personal monetary benefit to…
Rumors are running wild all over the Statehouse that embattled Sen. Jack Noble, R-Kuna, is about to resign. The Senate Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet in just over an hour to deliberate on whether he should be reprimanded, censured or expelled from the Senate…
Sandpoint Sen. Shawn Keough’s passionate defense of SB 1140, a measure to expand family planning services to more low-income Idaho women, helped pull off a one-vote victory today, as the bill passed the Senate on an 18-17 vote. Keough and other backers, including Senate Health…
Usually, anyone who wants to can testify at a public hearing on a local planning and zoning issue. But if it’s about a confined animal feeding operation – those big, smelly operations called CAFOs – only residents who live within a mile of the project…
As if Sen. Jack Noble’s ethical problems – the subject of the first Senate Ethics Committee investigation in 15 years – weren’t enough, more revelations keep piling up. On Saturday, the Idaho Statesman reported that the state has placed liens against Noble’s convenience store and…
Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, earned himself the “crow” in the House this week for getting his bill, HB 129, overwhelmingly killed. The mock statue of a crow is presented to any representative whose bill or motion gets fewer than 20 votes. This time, Clark’s…
During the Senate Ethics Committee meeting today, accused Sen. Jack Noble, R-Kuna, brought in a prominent lawyer, admitted he lied to the same panel two days earlier and closed out the two-hour-plus meeting with an emotional apology.Noble is under investigation for failing to disclose his…
The House Resources Committee won’t vote tonight on the Nez Perce water rights agreement after all. As Chairman Bert Stevenson opened this afternoon’s hearing on the huge agreement, he said the vote is being put off to Friday, to allow more time tonight for public…
Four new bills were introduced in the House Revenue & Taxation Committee this morning to give tax breaks to business. The first, from Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, answers complaints that his big corporate incentive package would help only the biggest businesses, which likely would be in…
There’s lots of interest among North Idaho lawmakers in a meeting coming up at 1 p.m. between representatives of BNSF Railway Co. and the state Department of Environmental Quality. DEQ officials said it’s a “compliance conference,” requested Friday by the company in response to DEQ…
The 3 p.m. meeting of the Senate Education Committee already had started when Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, finally made it back to Boise and slipped into his seat to chair the meeting.“We did have an interesting set of circumstances today,” Goedde said. “But I…
The Idaho Senate just passed a bill to create a new special license plate to honor science and technology, with proceeds to go to the state office of science and technology. But the bill didn’t pass without some protests that the state’s getting too many…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
