Idaho GOP Sen. Jim Risch will donate $500 to charity after campaign finance documents revealed the president of an organization classified as a white supremacist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center made a campaign contribution in that amount to Risch in 2013, reports Melissa…
Former Jefferson County Sheriff Blair Olsen, who was convicted of misusing public funds, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail, $2,500 in fines and three years probation. He was convicted by a jury in May of three felony counts of misusing public funds; his…
Western Watersheds Project has filed a federal lawsuit against Wildlife Services, saying the federal agency hasn’t responded to its Freedom of Information Act requests for documents detailing its activities in killing wildlife in Idaho. Talasi Brooks, an attorney with Advocates for the West, which is…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — All four of Idaho's four-year public universities and colleges have eliminated degree programs, dissolved academic departments or reduced staff over the past year as part of a statewide effort to cut costs and...
The Idaho Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in Coeur d’Alene Tribe vs. Lawerence Denney, the instant racing lawsuit, for Aug. 11 at 10 a.m. That’s not as quickly as the tribe had requested the case be heard – it wanted the court to rule…
Gov. Butch Otter’s pick to be the next director of the state Department of Environmental Quality was the public affairs director for Agrium, a fertilizer company that’s been involved in multiple hazardous materials incidents and is currently being monitored by the EPA, from 2011 until...
There’s more on the Idaho State Police’s non-existent investigation into Corrections Corp. of America, with the Idaho Statesman reporting that records it obtained under the Idaho Public Records Law show the Idaho Board of Correction believed ISP had conducted a criminal investigation and found no…
State employees who lobby the Legislature or government officials as part of their jobs – like, for example, the lobbyists for the state’s universities – always used to register as lobbyists and disclose their spending. But Idaho Statesman reporter Bill Dentzer writes that after an…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
