With a “difficult” fire season looming, firefighters are facing budget cuts that will result in 500 fewer firefighters for the Forest Service alone and 50 fewer engines available, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said this morning in a visit to the National Interagency Fire…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A conservative Idaho think tank's leader upset at his $155 speeding ticket is calling for the Legislature to hold hearings on the state's laws governing driving too fast. Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho…
At least some of the four eggs in the peregrine falcon nesting box atop a downtown Boise skyscraper have hatched, and tiny, fuzzy chicks are now being brooded, or kept warm, by their mother on this Mother’s Day. You can watch live here. There’s some…
Here's the latest on the Crapo campaign's $250,000 loss from a bad loan by former campaign manager Jake Ball: Ball has now resigned from his current position on the staff of 1st District Rep. Raul Labrador, though he says it's unrelated to the loan issue.…
Stephen Ryan, a Washington, D.C. attorney hired by Sen. Mike Crapo’s campaign to look into the loss of $250,000 in campaign funds through a bad loan, said this afternoon that then-campaign manager Jake Ball loaned the money to Gavin McCaleb, whom he’d known for 16…
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo’s campaign is filing amended campaign finance reports for 2008 and 2009 to reflect an “investment loss” of $250,000 in the form of a bad loan to an Idaho company. “The loan was never repaid,” Crapo’s campaign said in a statement today,…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho's prisons chief says steps have been taken to bolster security at the agency's headquarters in Boise after the fatal shooting in March of Colorado's prisons director. Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent…
The Idaho Hunger Relief Task Force and an array of other non-profit, anti-hunger and religious organizations are sponsoring a showing of the film “A Place at the Table” at the Egyptian Theater tonight, followed by a panel discussion and opportunities for attendees to get involved…
Time is running out for Idahoans displaced by foreclosure to apply for assistance, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and Community Action Partnership Association of Idaho Executive Director Christina Zamora said today. Wasden said Idaho's legal settlement last year with the five largest mortgage servicers covered…
Both Gov. Butch Otter and Idaho’s congressional delegation fired off letters to the Coast Guard yesterday pushing for approval of the jet boat race on the St. Joe River in North Idaho that had been scheduled for May 17-19 – until the Coast Guard launched…
StateImpact Idaho’s current series on low-wage work in Idaho, entitled “Bottom Rung,” has an eye-opening look today on how Idaho’s labor picture is changing, and it’s not an encouraging one. “The structural problem is that the nature of the economy is changing,” retired University of…
Idaho workers’ average hourly wages were 84 percent of the national average in 2012, the Idaho Department of Labor reports, down from 85.2 percent of average in 2011. That ranked the state 45th in the nation, down from 44th in 2011. For all occupations, a…
Controversial legislation to let extra-heavy trucks – up to 129,000 pounds – run by permit on state and local routes throughout Idaho is now law, but it’s unlikely any new routes will be designated for the heavier trucks in North Idaho before the spring of…
The chicks in the four eggs in the peregrine falcon nesting box atop a downtown Boise building are preparing to break out of their shells, the Peregrine Fund reports this morning. When I looked at the Falconcam, an adult falcon was looking down expectantly at…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — The Nampa School District is facing a $1.2 million hit after a financial analyst discovered the money went to general operations rather than repayment of bonds. District Finance Officer Michelle Yankovich told the…
A bankruptcy judge has ordered a tax-protesting former Idaho state representative to submit to intense new scrutiny of his finances, something federal lawyers say is necessary to prevent him from hiding assets from creditors including the U.S. government, the AP reports. Phil Hart now must…
Idaho’s general fund tax revenue in April – the biggest revenue month of the year – came in 13.2 percent ahead of forecasts, with collections surging $56.4 million above the expected level, the largest margin by far of any month this fiscal year. That puts…
While criminal defendants in Idaho have a right to make a statement before being sentenced, it’s a procedural right, not a constitutional right, the Idaho Court of Appeals has ruled. Declining to overturn the sentencing of a North Idaho man on a statutory rape charge,…
Idaho home prices showed the fourth-biggest gain in the nation in a national survey comparing home prices in March to those a year earlier; Idaho home prices were 14.5 percent higher. Nevada saw the largest gain at 22.2 percent; California was next at 17.2 percent,…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A 22-year-old southwestern Idaho man was among five soldiers killed over the weekend in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. Specialist Thomas Paige Murach of Meridian died Saturday in Maiwand in southern Afghanistan,…
The Marketplace Fairness Act, the bill allowing states to require merchants to collect and remit sales taxes for online purchases by their residents, has passed the Senate on an overwhelming 69-27 vote, with bipartisan backing. It's expected to face a tougher time in the House;…
When Idaho Gov. Butch Otter decided to go after gun and ammo manufacturers elsewhere in a bid to convince them to move their businesses to Idaho, he didn’t do it in a small way. The governor penned a two-page letter that went out to 79…
The Idaho Department of Fish & Game today issued a “salvage order” for Little Camas Reservoir in Elmore County, lifting all bag, possession and size limits. That’s because the reservoir is headed for a draining by early summer for irrigation, and Fish & Game “would…
By the way, after I posted the AP story a few posts down about the BLM’s decision to close off climbing access at the popular Castle Rocks in eastern Idaho, a reader asked for a link to where people could offer public comments. That turned…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has pardoned two first-time offenders who were convicted of selling drugs to undercover officers, years after they served their time, paid all restitution and fines, met and exceeded the terms of their parole and lived for years in society as employed,…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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