Idaho’s state endowment fund has been showing strong returns, so state officials had no qualms this week about designating the endowment fund’s board to also oversee a new, $50 million permanent endowment, this one to permanently cover all costs of operating a water treatment plant…
Conservation groups and salmon advocates have challenged the Obama administration's latest plan for making Columbia Basin dams safe for salmon, the AP reports. The challenge was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service, which oversees…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal judge has denied a request by the Idaho Dairymen's Association to join Idaho in defending the recently passed law criminalizing surreptitious recording at agriculture facilities. The Times-News reports (http://bit.ly/1lDTAxw) that U.S.…
Attorney Christ Troupis has completed his legal analysis, and has concluded – counter to the opinion of attorney Jason Risch – that former GOP Chairman Barry Peterson and other party officers remain in office now, after the failed state party convention last weekend ended without…
Idaho 1st District Congressman Raul Labrador made his pitch to fellow House Republicans today in his bid for House majority leader. “Remember, we regained control of the House in 2010 because Americans believed that Washington was not listening,” Labrador said. “If you vote for the…
The rain that’s falling this morning in Boise – and the unseasonable June snow in the mountains – is actually very, very good news for Idaho’s upcoming fire season, according to a briefing the state Land Board received yesterday. “You shorten the window that’s available…
Boise State University is refusing to disclose details of the multimillion-dollar naming rights deal in which Bronco Stadium is being renamed Albertsons Stadium – even to the State Board of Education, the Idaho Statesman reports. The $12.5 million, 15-year deal was the subject of a…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision Tuesday ordering a Boise hospital to pay more than $52 million for violating a contract it had with an MRI company. The decision is…
Idaho has joined 48 states and the federal government in a settlement with SunTrust Mortgage over home loan and foreclosure abuses; under the settlement, the company will make direct payments to 220 Idaho borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2013. Click…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the latest on the spectacular blowup in the state’s majority Republican Party that led to a failed state party convention over the weekend, and now is generating plenty of recriminations and finger-pointing. It ranges from…
Barry Peterson says he disagrees with the legal opinion offered to the Idaho GOP by attorney Jason Risch, and believes he’s still the party chairman – and he’s requested another legal opinion from attorney Christ Troupis on the matter. “I’m adopting the position that was…
Days after Idaho Republicans walked away angry and defeated from the conclusion of the GOP convention, some are saying the event may have damaged the GOP's efforts to win elections and attract voters, reports Kimberlee Kruesi of the Associated Press. Idaho's Republican convention ended Saturday…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter says he was contacted in his hotel room in Moscow after midnight Thursday night about a deal to resolve the split over the GOP party chairmanship at the tumultuous state party convention that concluded Saturday. “The agreement that they’d cooked up…
Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador today sent a letter to House Republicans, urging them to support his bid for Majority Leader after Eric Cantor’s defeat in the Virginia GOP primary, instead of the leading candidate, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy. “Promoting, by acclamation, a member of the…
Controversial legislation that passed last year gives state funding through a formula to charter schools for their building and facility needs; the first payments have now gone out, reports Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News, and they exceeded estimates at $2.03 million, compared to the…
State Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, is praising the tumultuous GOP state convention in Moscow over the weekend as a “victory for taxpayers.” Meanwhile, as GOP leaders and activists from the various factions struggle with the fallout of a convention that failed to elect a…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Rebecca Boone, a newsperson for The Associated Press in Boise, has been promoted to supervisory correspondent for Idaho. The appointment was announced Monday by Traci Carl, AP's West regional manager overseeing news for…
Idaho Republican Party Chairman Barry Peterson said this morning that it’s still unclear what will happen next after the weekend’s failed GOP state convention, in which no new chairman, platform, rules changes or resolutions were voted on. “Things are in the mix, trying to sort…
Despite Idaho’s vaunted distaste for the federal government, it’s one of just four states where getting a permit for dumping pollutants into waterways requires dealing with the federal Environmental Protection Agency instead of the state. That’s changing under a law that quietly cleared the Idaho…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on how Idaho’s state Republican Party convention degenerated into a fiasco today after attempts to disqualify a slew of the delegates attending appeared to be succeeding – and the convention ended up adjourning without electing a…
Idaho’s just-concluded state GOP convention was seen as something of a test of leadership for 1st District Congressman Raul Labrador, who chaired the convention and just a day earlier had announced his run for U.S. House majority leader. But Labrador failed to bring the deeply…
Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador, chairman of the state GOP convention that failed spectacularly today to unite the party and instead broke up in total discord, told Melissa Davlin of Idaho Reports, “For three weeks I’ve tried to broker a deal to prevent what happened today.“…
Incredibly, Idaho's state Republican Party convention has just adjourned without taking any action on a platform, a new chairman, or anything else, after two and a half days of meetings, tense debates over rules, and divided but successful votes to disqualify a fifth of the…
After hours of lots of dissension and contention, the Idaho Republican Party convention has broken down, after divided votes to refuse to seat the delegations from three counties, Ada, Bannock and Power. Now, there’s a push to adjourn the convention – without doing the business…
Groans, cheers, parliamentary maneuvers and delays are about all that’s come out of the Idaho GOP state convention so far this morning, where it took an hour and a half just to go through the opening roll call. Various procedural disputes are hanging up the…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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