In my Sunday column this week, there’s the odd – GOP gubernatorial candidate Raul Labrador claiming that the health care bill the Idaho House refused to debate last year was “Medicaid expansion” and would have added thousands of "able-bodied adults" to the Medicaid rolls, when…
Context: He actually did this, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the naming of the White Clouds Wilderness after the late longtime Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus, who died last year just short of his 85th birthday: Watch out for Sen. Jim Risch When dissing ol’…
On tonight’s “Idaho Reports” on Idaho Public Television, host Melissa Davlin interviews state Insurance Director Dean Cameron and Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise; there’s a report on health care and the debate over it in Idaho; and footage from this week’s emotional House debate over returning…
Gov. Butch Otter worked for three years to persuade lawmakers to create a state scholarship program for “adult completers” – adults with at least 24 credits who have been out of school for three years but want to return to finish a post-high school degree…
Gov. Butch Otter assembled a large group of backers as he signed the school threats bill into law today. “It is signed, and it is now law, because it has an emergency clause,” he said to loud applause. The bill, HB 665, expands Idaho’s current...
Asked today about the Legislature’s decision to remain in session – and not adjourn sine die – until five days after it’s sent him the final bills of the session, Gov. Butch Otter, didn’t sound terribly pleased. “That’s their prerogative – they could’ve done that...
At a ceremonial signing this morning for HB 578, the internet sales tax bill – which Otter actually had already signed into law – the governor congratulated Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, who has proposed a bill on the topic every year for the past…
Here’s some of the reaction in Idaho today to Sen. Jim Risch’s move last night to try to strip out the renaming of the White Clouds Wilderness in Idaho for the late Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus – which delayed the Senate’s vote on the must-pass budget...
The House convened at 9 this morning, and handled some formalities before adjourning until Tuesday at 9 a.m. Speaker Scott Bedke advised all representatives who are interim committee co-chairs that both the House and Senate leadership's desire is that they hold meetings of interim committees…
The $1.3 trillion spending bill Congress approved early Friday was shaped by battles over major issues like immigration, health care and defense. But one of the last disputes involved a Republican Idaho senator's effort to prevent a wilderness area from being renamed for his state's deceased Democratic governor. In the end, Sen. James Risch lost...
After a long day of starting and stopping, the Senate has adjourned until 1 p.m. on Monday; the House earlier adjourned until 9 a.m. on Friday. Before the Senate adjourned, Sen. Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton, announced that he won’t be back next week; he’ll have a…
Gov. Butch Otter scolded lawmakers today for not reforming the state’s liquor license laws – a move he pushed for in 2009, but that has never succeeded. Otter allowed HB 605, a specific bill this year to allow a liquor license issued specifically for a…
Idaho is continuing its campaign against abortion with Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter signing legislation into law that will increase reporting requirements for abortion providers. Starting July 1, providers will be required by law to report details such as the woman's age, race, how many children she has, if any of her children have died...
Well, so much for that plan for the legislative session to adjourn for the year this week. The House Republican Caucus is adamant that it wants to remain in session for the full five days after the final bills are presented to the governor, to...
Idaho officials have started the process of opening a grizzly bear hunting season this fall that would allow the killing of one male grizzly. The Fish and Game Commission in a 7-0 vote Thursday directed the Department of Fish and Game to gather public comments on the possible hunt. The department will use those comments to draft...
The Senate has now passed its final appropriation bill, the revamped budget for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, after the House rejected an earlier version because it cut out funding for a new Idaho Reading Indicator early-reading assessment test. “Our colleagues across the rotunda...
After a lengthy debate, the Senate has voted 29-6 in favor of HP 1, a proclamation urging the state’s Constitutional Defense Council to reimburse two Idaho ranchers for $600,000 in attorney fees from their successful 2007 lawsuit over stockwater rights – despite an Idaho Attorney…
House Democrats mounted a final effort to do something for at least some of those who fall into Idaho’s health coverage gap today, when Minority Leader Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, made a motion to move HB 563, the “Plan First Idaho” bill, to the top of...
The Senate-amended version of the anti-trespassing bill, HB658aaS, has passed the House on a 51-18 vote. “We had some friendly amendments from the Senate,” Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, the bill’s lead sponsor, told the House. “I ask that you accept these amendments and the bill…
The House has voted unanimously in favor of HB 547a, the Senate-amended version of Rep. Joe Palmer’s bill to forbid local changes to building codes, which has been substantially softened. “They made some adjustments on it,” Palmer said, “basically clarifying. There was a lot of…
After six years of tries, an internet sales tax bill finally has passed the Legislature and been signed into law by Gov. Butch Otter; Otter signed the bill, HB 578 from Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, on Wednesday. Idaho retailers have long supported some move…
Gov. Butch Otter has signed into law a bipartisan civil forfeiture reform bill – though he vetoed a similar measure last year. This year’s bill, HB 447, passed both the House and Senate unanimously. The bipartisan legislation is sponsored by Reps. and Ilana Rubel, D-Boise,…
A spending bill slated for a vote in Congress includes a bipartisan plan to create a wildfire disaster fund to help combat increasingly severe wildfires that have devastated the West in recent years. The bill sets aside more than $20 billion over 10 years to allow the Forest Service and other federal agencies end a practice of raiding non-fire...
Why did they not take a vote? After six years, it’s now rote The primary’s near There’s political fear What a sad session-ending note.
The Senate Ethics Committee has “concluded its work and lacks probable cause to move forward” on an ethics complaint against Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, who yelled “abortion is murder” at a group of University of Idaho students who were pushing for birth control legislation at…
