Rod Beck, lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to close Idaho’s GOP primary election to anyone other than registered Republicans, is upbeat today, even though a federal judge tossed out his lawsuit yesterday. “Do we give up? Heavens no,” Beck said. “This is just a…
Seventy-one dissident Republicans who sued to try to keep anyone but registered Republicans from voting in Idaho’s GOP primary have lost their case. A federal judge today tossed out the lawsuit, ruling that the dissidents lacked standing to sue. “It is for the Idaho Republican…
The competition was hot, but after what was described as a “rigorous six-month process,” Ron Bush and Candy Dale have been named to the two federal magistrate judge positions that will open in Idaho in 2008. Chief United States District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said,…
Sure, Idaho’s voters haven’t picked a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson, who barely eked out a 51 percent majority here in 1964, and the last D to win Idaho before that was Harry S. Truman in 1948. But it’s not that anyone expects red-state…
As we head into Thanksgiving, a traditional time of family gathering, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has stepped forward on a key family issue – domestic violence. “This time of year brings out the best in people,” the governor said. “Unfortunately, sometimes it also brings out…
Karen Ballard is Idaho’s new top tourism official, replacing Carl Wilgus, who held that post for the past 20 years. Ballard is a 15-year employee of Idaho’s state tourism division, who also worked earlier for Elkhorn Resort in Sun Valley and has worked as a…
Jason Risch, spokesman for dad Jim Risch’s campaign for the U.S. Senate, responded back this morning to an earlier request for the amount the Risch campaign paid to eastern Idaho businessman Frank VanderSloot for use of VanderSloot’s Learjet for Risch’s fly-around announcing his candidacy. The…
Walking into the Mitt Romney campaign fundraiser this morning, it was a bit startling to see what appeared to be six-packs of Mitt Romney-logo beer stacked up and for sale at the check-in desk, given the widespread attention to Romney’s membership in the LDS Church,…
It’s $500 a plate this morning for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s breakfast fundraiser at the Hillcrest Country Club. The GOP presidential candidate, whose campaign says he’s made two previous official campaign visits to Idaho, one last March to Boise and one to Idaho Falls,…
Asked whose plane Walt Minnick and Cecil Andrus used to fly around the state for Minnick’s congressional campaign announcements this week, Minnick’s campaign reported that it was a chartered five-seater from SP Aircraft, a Boise air charter company that does a lot of back-country charters,…
New state rules for docks and marinas on state-owned lakes are headed to the 2008 Legislature for approval, but there’s still plenty of controversy over a provision that would allow privatization of up to 50 percent of a commercial marina. The state Lands Departments says…
Idaho 1st District Congressman Bill Sali is touting his success in getting $500,000 in funding for a Highway 95 widening project included in a bill that he then voted against. “U.S. 95 has an unmistakable and irreplaceable role to play as part of Idaho’s economy,”…
Gov. Butch Otter was a little coy as he began his keynote speech to the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho today, saying, “You’re here today to hear about the future and what to expect in the 2008 Legislature. Well, I don’t want to disappoint you, but…
Erica Bolstad of McClatchy Newspapers in D.C. gleaned what appears to be a hint that something is coming soon from the Senate Ethics Committee on Sen. Larry Craig, in her story today on the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force pushing the committee to either…
It’s interesting timing, that human rights and interfaith groups are launching a “welcome the stranger” ad campaign just as big immigration raids are hitting in the Magic Valley. The groups say the immigration debate, the tone of talk radio and other factors are making Idaho…
Joseph Duncan may be the most-hated man in Idaho. The confessed murderer is awaiting a federal trial here for allegedly kidnapping then-8-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, and torturing and murdering Dylan after holding the children captive and molesting them for weeks. Duncan…
It looks like the already contested primary election for Idaho's 1st District congressional seat – now held by Republican Bill Sali – is getting even moreso. Sali is facing Iraq vet Matt Salisbury on the GOP side, and former Micron exec Larry Grant, whom Sali…
One way to promote compliance with the state’s open meetings and public records laws is simply to educate people about them, from public officials to reporters to citizens, so that everyone knows what’s required and what they’re supposed to do. That’s the idea behind a…
About 100 people are crowded into a meeting room at the state LBJ building this afternoon for a public hearing on lease rents and terms for state-owned cottage sites on Payette and Priest lakes. Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said, “We kind of expected the…
There was a slow, steady stream of people dropping by to cast their ballots when I went to vote in today’s city elections, no lines, no fuss. When the ballots were counted in Boise, Mayor Dave Bieter had won a second term, defeating former police…
The latest plan for finding more places to shoehorn inmates into in-state prison beds – and avoid sending hundreds more out of state – involves converting a huge warehouse at the privately run, state-owned Idaho Correctional Center into bed space for 304 prisoners. But it…
All the way from China (where he’s on a trade mission this week), Gov. Butch Otter today announced that Jason Kreizenbeck, currently director of government affairs for Micron Technology, will be his new chief of staff – succeeding Jeff Malmen at the end of November.…
I guess it didn’t occur to me that the University of Idaho was in the business of delivering junk mail, but the university announced today that it’ll stop doing that on Jan. 1. “The university processes and distributes a large volume of bulk mail, almost…
As the state Legislature’s first of two planned legislative sessions outside the state capitol building approaches, there are a few details that could make things difficult. Among them: The Capitol Annex, the former Ada County courthouse where lawmakers will convene for the next two years…
The American Civil Liberties Union was granted permission today by the Minnesota Court of Appeals to file a “friend of the court” brief in Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s appeal there, just as it did in Craig’s failed attempt at the District Court level to withdraw…
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