Close to 2,000 people gathered on the Capitol steps for today’s “Enough is Enough” rally against gun violence – most of them high school and junior high students. “If you leave here knowing anything, I want it to be that your voice will not be...
Hundreds of chanting students are gathered on the state Capitol steps, chanting, “Your guns or our lives,” and holding signs with slogans including “Love our kids, not our guns.” It’s part of a student walkout and rally entitled “Enough is Enough,” occurring in concert with...
Amid much confusion, the House Education Committee voted along party lines this morning to introduce a concurrent resolution repeating its earlier call for deleting portions of proposed school science standards, even though the Senate Education Committee already has voted to approve the standards – which…
The Senate Education Committee will not hold a hearing on a controversial private school scholarship bill, Idaho Education News reports, effectively killing the proposal for the year, the bill’s sponsor and the leaders of three education groups said Tuesday. Rep. John Vander Woude told Idaho…
U.S. officials are considering extending the use of an eastern Idaho nuclear waste treatment facility beyond its scheduled closure this year so it can repackage radioactive waste brought in from Hanford and elsewhere before it's sent to a permanent disposal site in New Mexico, the AP reports. The U.S. DOE Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Plant...
A group of Idaho lawmakers are hoping to tweak a proposal banning local cities and counties from adopting residential building code provisions that are more stringent than those already approved by the state. The Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee on Tuesday agreed to send HB 547 to be amended...
None of the proposals put forth this session to change the way Idaho handles reapportionment – redrawing of legislative and congressional district lines after the once-a-decade census – are going anywhere this year, legislative leaders from both parties said today in remarks to the Idaho…
House Speaker Scott Bedke warned that addressing the state's reading test will likely be the final legislative battle of the session before lawmakers can go home for the year. Bedke told reporters on Tuesday lawmakers are still working behind the scenes on redesigning or replacing the so-called Idaho Reading Indicator, an early reading test...
The House today suspended its rules and took up HB 675, and passed it unanimously. That’s the bill that just emerged from the Rev & Tax Committee a day earlier to increase the new child tax credit that was created in HB 463, the income...
The House has voted 57-12 in favor of SB 1313, the “stand your ground” bill. Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, the bill’s House sponsor, said, “This is so you can protect yourself, others, your property , your occupied vehicle. If you are threatened by someone, this...
The House has voted 50-18 in favor of SB 1280, Coeur d’Alene Sen. Mary Souza’s bill to move Idaho school board elections from May to November. Among those voting against the bill were House Education Chair Julie VanOrden, R-Pingree; and House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley.…
Idaho’s dry bean industry is considering dropping its proposal to ban soybeans from being grown in some parts of the state after lawmakers weren’t receptive, the Capital Press reports; instead, the Idaho Bean Commission is considering shifting its focus to exploring ways to ensure people...
A proposal that would increase reporting requirements for abortion providers is advancing at the GOP-dominated Idaho Statehouse. The bill outlines a list of abortion complications that must be reported by providers, hospitals and clinics to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. This includes complications like infection, blood clots and...
Idaho's unemployment rate in January for the fifth consecutive month remained at 3 percent. The agency says five of Idaho's major industry sectors recorded job gains of 4 percent or more compared to January 2017. Construction jobs topped that list with an increase of 8.7 percent...
The higher education budget passed the Senate on Monday with just two “no” votes, the Lewiston Tribune reports – both from northern Idaho senators who decried the “left wing” ideology of Idaho universities. One, Sen. Dan Forman, voted against funding the biggest employer in his…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on today’s double-killing in the House of legislation to create a “pet-friendly” special license plate, though several lawmakers said they'd received hundreds of emails in support of the proposed plate...
After several parliamentary hiccups, the House agreed, on a 33-30 vote, to reconsider Rep. Hy Kloc’s “pet-friendly” special license plate bill. Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, who originally voted against the bill – which died on a tied vote – said, “I felt like there...
On a party-line vote, with all minority Democrats voting no, the House has passed SB 1243, requiring the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare to provide information to women seeking abortions about reversing a medication-induced abortion part-way through. Rep. Gayann DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, urged House members…
Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, just served notice of reconsideration of the tied vote by which the House killed Rep. Hy Kloc’s “pet-friendly” license plate bill, saying she was doing so “out of respect for that good gentleman that has been gone so long.” Kloc is…
The Idaho House has unexpectedly killed legislation to create a “pet-friendly” special license plate, a proposal that the ailing Rep. Hy Kloc, D-Boise, had worked on for several years and which was successfully amended earlier this session. HB 540a died on a tied 31-31 vote.…
After a stormy debate, the House has passed legislation to ease some of Idaho’s mandatory minimum drug sentences in cases where a judge finds imposing them would be a “manifest injustice” and there’s no danger to society. The bipartisan legislation, HB 581, passed on a...
It took two full hours of contentious debate, but the House has passed Rep. Judy Boyle’s bill to crack down on trespassing, voting 45-22 in favor of the measure, HB 658. Boyle, R-Midvale, told the House, “The law-abiding citizen does not need to worry if...
The Senate has voted 28-7 in favor of HB 465, the bill to restore non-emergency dental coverage to close to 30,000 Idaho Medicaid patients who haven’t had it since a 2011 budget cut – leading to much higher charges to Idaho’s Medicaid program for serious…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter today signed HB 463, the $200 million-plus income tax cut bill, into law, praising lawmakers for passing the bill and indicating he’s also looking favorably toward a follow-up bill to add another $25 million in cuts by expanding a child tax…
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee has voted unanimously in favor of Rep. Mike Moyle’s bill to increase the new child tax credit that was created by the earlier tax-cut bill, HB 463, to relieve the burden on large Idaho families who otherwise would see…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
