HCR 3, the resolution urging the State Board of Education to include cursive writing when it enacts the Common Core standards for what Idaho students should learn in school, has cleared the Senate Education Committee; it earlier passed the House. Those national standards don’t include…
Kootenai Medical Center says its workers are being violently assaulted more and more frequently - to the point that it wants to make any attack on a health care worker in Idaho a felony. “We’ve seen an increasing number of individuals who come in through…
It’s snowing again, and Bogus Basin has extended its season pass sale through Thursday at the $229 price. The week-long sale that had been scheduled to end last night at midnight saw a dramatic change once snow hit the mountain late last week, general manager…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Sheepherders who abandon their animals on the open range could soon be guilty of a misdemeanor, according to a livestock-industry proposal that seeks to enlist the state to help enforce conditions of employment.…
The Senate has voted 30-4 in favor of SB 1061 declaring that the state asserts primacy over the management of its fish and wildlife and that it’s against state policy for any threatened or endangered species to be introduced or reintroduced into the state without…
After its vote on the two anti-marijuana resolutions, the Senate went at ease and members milled around for some time; then the Senate reconvened and immediately went at ease again for a majority party caucus. GOP Caucus Chairman Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, said the topic was…
A bipartisan group of JFAC members tried to add in $110,400 to the Commission for Libraries budget for next year to fund a quarter of its requested increase to expand Internet access services in libraries across the state, but the move fell short on a…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho law enforcement officers who help the federal government confiscate newly-banned firearms or ammunition would be guilty of a crime. That's according to a measure introduced Monday in the House State Affairs Committee…
Here’s how Idaho senators voted on SJM 101, the memorial to Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice calling for the federal government to enforce federal drug laws in all states – including those that have voted to legalize or decriminalize marijuana. The measure was…
The second anti-marijuana resolution, calling on the feds to crack down and enforce federal drug laws in states that have moved to decriminalize marijuana, has been defeated in the Senate on a 13-21 vote; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com. “This is…
The Senate has voted 29-5 in favor of SCR 112, the resolution stating that it’s the policy of the Legislature that Idaho should never legalize marijuana, for any purpose. “If you legalize marijuana, then will the next argument be that our jails are full of…
In the Senate debate on SCR 112, the anti-marijuana resolution: Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise, said this is an issue with a generational divide, and his generation backs loosening laws against marijuana. “Is this the right fight to pick?” he asked. Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, questioned…
The Senate has begun debate on SCR 112, the resolution from Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, to declare that it’s the policy of the Legislature that Idaho should never legalize marijuana for any purpose. “What’s happened as all of you are aware, the state of Washington…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show that inflation is eroding gross product gains in rural Idaho. The Idaho Department of Labor released the numbers Monday for the total value of…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is starting into some segments of the Health & Welfare budget this morning, the complex agency that is the state’s largest department. As part of that, the Indirect Support Services division was up for budget-setting; it includes the Medicaid Readiness project…
Idaho Statesman reporter Dan Popkey reports this morning that the state Department of Administration's push to amend Idaho's public records law to exempt security surveillance video from disclosure has its roots in a Jan. 27, 2012 public records request from Bryan Carter of Meridian, the…
Five years ago, Gov. Butch Otter urged lawmakers to stop approving special liquor licenses and instead reform Idaho's system that requires anyone seeking to sell liquor by the drink outside city limits, or outside a strict population formula inside cities, to come to the Legislature…
On tonight’s “Idaho Reports” program on Idaho Public Television, I join Jim Weatherby, Melissa Davlin and host Greg Hahn to discuss the week’s developments in the Legislature, including Thursday’s marathon Senate debate on the health insurance exchange legislation. Plus, Aaron Kunz talks with Dan Chadwick…
The Senate has voted 18-16 in favor of SB 1103, a $200,000 supplemental appropriation for staff in the audits and collections program and the revenue operations division of the state Tax Commission, barely passing the bill and sending it to the House. Several senators said…
Sen. Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, has asked the Senate to return SB 1053, the bill to stagger Idaho food stamp distributions over 10 days rather than doing them all on the 1st of the month, to the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, “for looking at…
The draft bill released last week by Idaho Gov. Butch Otter to phase out the state’s personal property tax on business equipment would have a “devastating” impact on the state’s public schools, according to a new analysis by Mike Ferguson, the former longtime chief state…
With legislation already pending to make a decade-old extra-heavy trucks pilot project permanent, new legislation was introduced today to expand the use of 129,000-pound semi-trucks statewide, at the discretion of local highway districts. They’d make the call based on road and bridge structural integrity standards…
The hearing that had been set for Monday on a trailer bill proposed by 16 House GOP freshmen to require more legislative oversight in the state insurance exchange legislation has been put on hold, reports Melissa Davlin of the Times-News. House Health & Welfare Chairman…
As lawmakers set the budget for the Department of Fish & Game this morning, they were faced with an extensive budget that includes no state general tax funds, but has an array of projects funded from licenses, fees and federal funds, from hatchery operations to…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is continuing to set very tight budgets for state agencies this morning. At the Industrial Commission, which receives no state general tax funds, the budget set for next year shows a 1.3 percent increase. The state Department of Insurance, which also…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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