An Idaho seventh grader went toe-to-toe with the Senate’s majority leader on Friday – and won, reports Clark Corbin of Idaho Education News. Seventh-grader Ilah Hickman, who successfully got her bill introduced last year to make the Idaho Giant Salamander the official state amphibian but then didn’t get a hearing, returned to the Statehouse today, and this time, is starting her bill on the Senate side. In this photo by Corbin, she’s shown with Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise.

When Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, quizzed Ilah on whether other amphibians are indigenous to Idaho and asked her to name them, Corbin reports that Ilah noted there were others, such as the spadefoot toad. But the giant salamander has Idaho in its name, she noted, and is almost uniquely native to Idaho. “I am not going to win,” Davis conceded, before moving to introduce the bill. The whole committee backed introduction of the bill, except for Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. You can read Corbin's full report here.