This is my last post here, but starting Monday, I’ll be blogging at idahopress.com/eyeonboise in my new position as Boise bureau chief and state capital reporter for the Idaho Press-Tribune and Adams Publishing Group. This blog – with its full archives going back to 2004 – will remain online, and I hope you’ll find it a valuable resource...
When six GOP candidates for Idaho’s open 1st District congressional seat faced off in the “Idaho Debates” last week, much of the fireworks – and the humor – came in the closing statements. First, Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, lit into rivals Russ Fulcher and David Leroy...
An open seat in Congress, as Rep. Raul Labrador steps down to run for governor, has drawn a whopping 10 candidates to the primary election ballot – and poses a big challenge for Idaho voters as they prepare to make their picks on May 15.…
Less than a week after she was knocked off the ballot, former Idaho state Rep. Kathy Sims was granted another chance to return to the Legislature. First District Judge Richard S. Christensen ruled Friday that Sims, the owner of Coeur d’Alene Honda who previously served…
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, has admitted to federal election officials that he used a lobbyist-owned Washington, D.C., townhouse 81 times over a four-year period at no cost, including as recently as February. The new details from Crapo's re-election and leadership committees came in a response to a Federal Election Commission inquiry...
A small amount of radioactive, weapons-grade plutonium about the size of a U.S. quarter is missing from an Idaho university that was using it for research, leading federal officials on Friday to propose an $8,500 fine. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Idaho State University can't account for about a 30th of an ounce...
On tonight’s “Idaho Reports” on Idaho Public Television, I join host Melissa Davlin to discuss the events of the week with Idaho Statesman reporter Cynthia Sewell, Idaho EdNews reporter Kevin Richert, and Idaho Reports producer Seth Ogilvie. There are also clips from the four final...
The Idaho Democratic Party is demanding an investigation into the statewide mailing of a 48-page candidate endorsement publication under the title “The Idahoan,” charging that it’s “nothing more than a campaign mailer intended to sway voters before the upcoming primary elections on May 15.” “The…
Luke Mayville was a junior at Sandpoint High School when the 9/11 attacks happened, and his English teacher, Marianne Love, encouraged the quiet, high-performing student to read his essay on the attacks in front of a school assembly just a few days later. “It was…
Voters across the state received a fat 48-page newsprint publication in the mail this week – mine was addressed to “resident” – calling itself “The Idahoan,” and purporting to be a newspaper that is published only right before an election – complete with endorsements of...
Idaho Reports producer Seth Ogilvie spotted an odd item in one of the first state campaign finance reports to be filed in advanced of next week’s Tuesday deadline: A $100 contribution to Rep. Kelley Packer, R-McCammon, who’s running for lieutenant governor, from Rep. Ilana Rubel,…
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan is not apologizing for sending a campaign email blast that critics say misled voters to think she was endorsed by the Idaho Democratic Party. Jordan, a former two-term state representative and member of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, told The Associated Press in an email Tuesday she did not intend to...
After years of gathering annually at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise to decry “fire borrowing” – the situation in which the Forest Service, each year, shifts millions from other programs when the costs to fight the West’s escalating wildfires balloons, thereby cutting prevention...
Former state Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d’Alene, is vowing to fight the Idaho Secretary of State’s decision to disqualify her from the ballot for not having been a registered voter in the Post Falls district where she’s seeking to run for a year – saying...
The Idaho Statesman reports tonight on how 12 of the 16 Democratic state lawmakers who served with former Rep. Paulette Jordan, D-Plummer, have endorsed her opponent, A.J. Balukoff, in the Democratic primary for governor, and the other four are staying neutral. Three, including House Minority…
Idaho gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan labeled her Democratic challenger A.J. Balukoff as out of touch in their second and final televised debate on Monday. The 38-year-old Jordan's attack stemmed from 71-year-old Balukoff's promise to work toward eliminating the gender wage gap in Idaho — an issue that has become a priority for the Boise...
Ada County election officials say an early voting location near the Micron campus is appropriate despite concerns raised by GOP gubernatorial candidate Tommy Ahlquist's campaign. The state's most populous county announced earlier this month officials would park a food truck-inspired voting station outside the company's...
After hundreds of hours of knocking on doors, pounding the pavement and working the crowds at events, organizers of a statewide initiative to legalize certain gambling machines say they have enough signatures to get their proposal on Idaho's November ballot, the Idaho Statesman reports. Save…
Julie and Duke Fugate turned down repeated attempts by an oil company to lease the mineral rights to their 1-acre property here, where they moved from Oregon to retire. Then last September, Julie Fugate got a packet from the Idaho Department of Lands. It said Alta Mesa Idaho — the only company producing oil and gas in the state — wanted to force...
A Facebook dust-up over the weekend drew sharp comments from a Twin Falls lawmaker, Idaho’s first lady, and the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the Times-News reports today. A post from Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, in which he criticized the Idaho Freedom Foundation and accused the…
Idaho Republican gubernatorial candidates Raul Labrador, Brad Little and Tommy Ahlquist continued to exchange jabs Monday in an otherwise familiar primary debate that covered education, health care and prison reform. Little — a three-term lieutenant governor — maintained Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter had successfully led Idaho out of...
Tommy Ahlquist, a GOP candidate for governor of Idaho, was endorsed by two prominent millennial Trump supporters today – Charlie Kirk, who was the millennial director of the Trump campaign, and Candace Owens, a conservative commentator and YouTube star who rails against the Black Lives Matter movement. “We have a disruptor in D.C. – now we need...
Former state Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d’Alene, is being removed from the ballot in her bid for a comeback in a Post Falls district, after the Idaho Secretary of State’s office determined that she had just registered in her new district in February. Under the Idaho Constitution, candidates for the Legislature must have been registered in...
Backers of the Medicaid expansion initiative announced today that they have more than enough signatures to get the measure on the November ballot in Idaho. “We are overjoyed by the outcome of this petition drive,” said Luke Mayville of Sandpoint, co-founder of “Reclaim Idaho,” the...
Republican candidates vying for Idaho's open 1st Congressional District on Sunday all promised to support President Donald Trump's agenda during their latest televised debate. Former lieutenant governor and ex-attorney general David Leroy, former state Sen. Russ Fulcher, Rep. Luke Malek, Rep. Christy Perry and first-time candidates...
