Idaho's state Department of Correction has selected a private prison in Colorado run by Corrections Corp. of America to take overflow Idaho inmates in the next year - and expects to have 450 Idaho inmates there by this time next year. "Idaho's inmate population is…
Idaho Republican Party officials say their platform got a good "going-over" at their state party convention in Twin Falls last weekend, with days of subcommittee and committee hearings before the new version was presented to the full convention and approved. "I think everybody got a…
Idaho's super-dominant Republican Party was widely expected to swing back toward the middle this year, after tea party activists peppered the party platform two years ago with planks urging abolishment of the Federal Reserve, eliminating direct election of U.S. senators and pushing Idahoans to stockpile…
Members of Congress from timber country came through Friday with a promised one-year extension of federal payments to rural counties dominated by federal lands, reports AP reporter Jeff Barnard in Grants Pass, Ore. The one-time distribution of $346 million to 700 rural counties in 41…
The Idaho Supreme Court ruled that leases of state-owned cabin sites, like those on Payette and Priest lakes, are subject to competitive conflict auctions when the leases come up, striking down a state law that exempted the cottage sites. You can read the court's full…
A Democratic senator contends Idaho officials violated public meetings laws with a hasty email vote this week on the $177,400 budget to cover landscaping, mowing and watering the expansive lawn below the vacant Idaho governor's mansion, the AP reports. Sen. Les Bock of Garden City…
Blue Cross of Idaho has issued a statement in response to this morning's ruling on health care reform, saying, "In Idaho, our major focus should now be on establishing a state-based health insurance exchange. As the law currently stands, states must have taken steps to…
Idaho leaders were stunned by Thursday's ruling upholding the federal health care reform law, and face big questions on how to respond. State lawmakers this year refused to set up a state insurance exchange under the law, betting instead that courts would overturn it. They…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has been gone all week on a multi-day horseback trail ride, and that's why he hasn't been available for comment on this morning's health care reform ruling all day. Just now, nearly seven hours after the decision was issued, his office…
1st District Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador is decrying the U.S. Supreme Court decision this morning upholding the health care reform law. "Our Founding Fathers would be appalled that their vision of a limited government no longer exists," Labrador declared; click below for his full statement.
North Idaho Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, who's been among the Idaho Legislature's most outspoken opponents of the health care reform law, was deeply disappointed by today's health care ruling. "The state has no power to stop the federal government from taxing, so that kind…
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden finds something to celebrate in this morning's U.S. Supreme Court ruling, though the state didn't succeed in getting the health care reform act overturned: The high court's reasoning, he said, includes "a significant win for states' rights." That's because the…
Idaho's state insurance director, Bill Deal, said he was surprised that this morning's health care ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate. "So now we know, and we can move forward, with hopefully some good direction in mind," he said. As for…
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo today called the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the health care law "very disappointing," and said, "It is not the ruling that the American people wanted." Crapo said, "This law threatens our country’s financial strength and the American way of life."…
Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, in response to this morning's health care ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act, called for the act's repeal. "The Supreme Court has now ruled that it is a tax increase, underscoring the deception by which this law passed," Risch said. "Those…
Idaho House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewistion, a retired physician and health insurance executive, said this morning's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on health care reform "means we have a lot of work to do." He said, "Whether the law was upheld or not, the issues…
Among the Idaho reaction so far to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling this morning upholding the individual mandate and the national health care reform law: Hannah Brass, Idaho legislative director at Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, issued a statement headed "Idaho Women Win with Today’s Supreme…
Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson says he's "disappointed" in this morning's U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the health care reform law, and he's vowing that the "fight isn't over," calling on Congress to repeal the law. “While the Supreme Court has ruled that Obamacare is Constitutional,…
Here's a link to the full U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued this morning on health care reform. It's 193 pages long.
Here's how the U.S. Supreme Court justices came down in the health care decision, according to the Associated Press: Chief Justice John Roberts was joined by justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in upholding the law. Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony…
Lots of confusion initially this morning as the complex U.S. Supreme Court ruling on health care reform comes out, but here's a summary from SCOTUSBlog: "The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government's power to terminate states' Medicaid…
Idaho's school spending per pupil ranks 50th in the nation for a second straight year, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census, while Washington's is 32nd, one place worst than last year's ranking of 31st. Washington education officials bemoaned the ranking as too…
The federal government falsely imprisoned former University of Idaho football player in 2003 as a material witness, a federal magistrate judge has ruled, finding that a jury should decide if the government has misused the material witness law in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist…
Idaho is among 20 states that are part of a consumer protection settlement forcing the shutdown of a California-based website that targeted military veterans to attend for-profit colleges. The states charged that the company's websites, including GIBill.com, were deceptive and misleading, giving the appearance that…
After only three companies submitted bids to supply Idaho high schools with laptop computers over the next five years, and only one of those bids met the qualifications, the state is abandoning the bidding process and instead will negotiate with providers of computers and services,…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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