Corrections Corporation of America will pay Idaho $1 million for understaffing the state's largest prison in violation of its contract, the AP reports, according to a settlement agreement announced late Tuesday. The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA acknowledged last year that its employees falsified staffing records given…
Long before their arrests, activists seeking to add discrimination protections for gays and lesbians to Idaho's Human Rights Act added lawyers, the AP reports: The 44 people facing misdemeanor trespass charges after Monday's demonstration inside the Capitol's Senate chambers have been promised pro-bono help. As…
A key part of Idaho’s safe boating law was found unconstitutional last year, so the three lawmakers representing the state’s northernmost tip are proposing a new version to allow unsafe boaters to again be successfully prosecuted in the state. “The issues at hand were at…
Five House members and one senator have joined forces to introduce legislation designed to let the state go back to land exchanges as a way to get out of owning lakefront cottage sites, after two proposed exchanges were called off this year due to questions…
Six weeks before a contract deadline, more than 80 of 176 Idaho high schools and junior high schools are still waiting for new WiFi hookups, reports Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News; you can read his full report here. Richert covered a presentation from state…
Idaho doesn’t charge its state income tax on military retirement pay for those age 65 or older, but it does tax pension benefits for military retirees who are younger than 65. Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d’Alene, says 13 other states exempt that retirement pay from…
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee has been locked in lengthy debate this morning over a bill proposed by the state Tax Commission to require paid tax preparers to file returns electronically, something the IRS already requires for federal returns. Committee members have been skeptical;…
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden says the state needs to fully fund the attorneys it needs in his office, and stop hiring expensive outside counsel. “The minute a state agency starts hiring outside counsel, the meter starts running at $125 an hour, and as high…
Big Ed Beckley, who paid nearly $1 million for a state land lease for the landing site for his re-try of daredevil Evel Knievel’s famous unsuccessful jump across the Snake River Canyon, was unexpectedly denied a lease for the jump site last night by the…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
