Idaho lawmakers who agreed under pressure this week to pay $6.6 million to a broadband contractor say they were dismayed and alarmed to learn that the state last year extended the contract through 2019 – without informing lawmakers. The contract extension with Nashville, Tenn.-based Education…
More than 100 “Add the Words” protesters, covering their mouths with their hands and carrying photocopied pictures of Ryan Zicha, a young gay Pocatello man who committed suicide in 2011 after being bullied at school, filed solemnly in two rows through the lower level of…
Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, wants the state to cut off a five- to 15-year sole-source contract with Education Networks of America to set up WiFi networks in every Idaho high school, and instead send the $2.25 million a year in funding out…
The Senate debated long and hard before passing SB 1352 today, to establish three behavioral health community crisis centers next year around the state. Supporters said the initiative, which Gov. Butch Otter highlighted in his State of the State message to lawmakers this year, will…
After much debate, the House has voted 61-8 in favor of HB 462, legislation from the Idaho Ski Areas Association that sponsor Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, said would update a ski area liability statute that hasn’t been updated since 1979 – including snowboarders, terrain…
The Senate has voted 30-4 in favor of legislation to let the Idaho Transportation Department increase the top speed limit on some rural stretches of interstate to 80 mph. The bill, SB 1284a, also would let top speeds rise on some sections of state highway…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho state officials would no longer be allowed to carry a concealed firearm without a permit under a bill that cleared the House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday. The law came under scrutiny…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee split 9-9 this morning, killing a motion to boost funding for professional-technical education equally, by 15 percent, for all high school programs. Instead, the committee then voted 16-2 for a competing motion to give a much bigger boost to ag science…
Legislative budget writers this morning unanimously approved a boost in the budget for the Agriculture Research & Extension Service, which Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, said is “a restoration of funds that we took away.” The 8.2 percent funding increase includes adding back 4.5 positions,…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
