Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, whose question to a doctor during a hearing this morning on an anti-abortion bill about whether a woman could swallow a pill containing a tiny camera for a remote gynecological exam – the answer was no – went viral and...
AP reporter Kimberlee Kruesi has a full story out now on today’s hearing on HB 154, the bill to ban doctors from prescribing abortion-inducing medication through telemedicine, at which Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, received a brief lesson on female anatomy after asking if a…
Ednetics, a Post Falls-based tech firm, has sent an email out to Idaho school districts pitching its broadband service, now that districts need to find new broadband providers, and offering to save districts money over the cost of the previous Idaho Education Network. “As an…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho lawmaker received a brief lesson on female anatomy after asking if a woman can swallow a small camera for doctors to conduct a remote gynecological exam. The question Monday from Republican…
“Add the Words” protesters have returned to the Idaho Capitol, holding silent vigils in the rotunda outside the House and Senate chambers each morning until the morning floor session adjourns; the vigils started late last week. The protesters, who stand silently with their hands over...
A rite of spring in the Idaho Capitol is the annual Idaho Watercolor Society art show, with Idaho artists’ watercolor paintings on display in the fourth floor rotunda of the state Capitol. The show started today and runs through March 7. Most of the works…
Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, returned to the Senate today, and thanked senators and others for their cards and prayers while she was ill, undergoing seven surgeries since Christmas. “The cards are over 2 feet tall, and the prayer lists – I don’t think there’s…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A legislative panel is backing a bill that would let Idaho's Education Department contract with private companies for education programs, and then only pay once the programs are shown to work. The House…
After a tense three-hour hearing, the House State Affairs Committee has approved controversial anti-abortion legislation on a straight party-line vote, 13-4, with only the committee’s four Democrats objecting. David Ripley of Idaho Chooses Life, author of HB 154, said, “This is a mechanism for women…
The House was scheduled to convene at 11 today, but 20 minutes later, the House State Affairs Committee still is in the midst of testimony on HB 154, the bill from David Ripley of Idaho Chooses Life to add new restrictions on medication-induced abortions in…
The Senate has voted unanimously, 33-0, in favor of HB 168, the stopgap funding bill for school broadband services in the wake of the Idaho Education Network debacle. The bill, which previously passed the House with just one “no” vote, now goes to Gov. Butch…
A divided legislative budget committee has voted 12-8 this morning to approve the final payment to renovate the old Ada County Courthouse across from the Capitol into the Idaho Law & Justice Learning Center, which will house the state law library, University of Idaho law…
In a complicated series of motions in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning, the Idaho Department of Correction, while coming in for several supplemental appropriations to add funding for the current year, ended up with less money that it had before. That’s because the increased…
Two supplemental appropriations regarding the Your Health Idaho exchange cleared JFAC this morning on identical 15-5 votes, with Sens. Sheryl Nuxoll, Dean Mortimer and Steven Thayn and Reps. Jason Monks and Van Burtenshaw objecting. The measures provide spending authority for money coming from the 1.5…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is handling supplemental appropriations, budget requests for adjustments in the current budget year, this morning, as it prepares to begin setting agency budgets for next year tomorrow. Among the supplemental requests was one from the Idaho Military Division for inauguration expenses.…
Total highway spending in Idaho has dropped nearly 20 percent in recent years, the AP reports, with an 8 percent decline in federal funds a major factor. The state received $321 million in federal road funding in 2010. By 2013, that number had fallen to…
As the demise of the Idaho Education Network amid legal and financial problems dominates legislative discussion – the Senate is set to approve a stopgap funding bill this morning, already approved by the House, to grant emergency funding for broadband service to local school districts…
Over the weekend, the Idaho Statesman took a look at Idaho’s justice reinvestment project, which is aimed at transforming the state’s criminal justice system to reserve prison cell space for the most dangerous offenders, while working to reduce the state’s “revolving door” of recidivism, in…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
