It’s getting hotter and hotter here, and fortunately for me, I’m headed off on vacation for the next week. I’ll be here and there, including some places that will be notably cooler than the 100-plus temps now predicted for Boise, though also some that may...
A review of teacher pay in Idaho reveals wide gaps between the highs and lows, writes Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News. Richert examines the reasons for the wide variance, and reports that the new five-year career ladder teacher pay plan may only accentuate it.…
Mosquitoes infected with West Nile virus have been found in Gem County, the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare reports; public health officials are reminding people to take precautions against mosquito bites. “Disease-carrying mosquitoes will be around now until a killing frost, so it is…
All four members of Idaho’s all-GOP congressional delegation have now issued statements on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in King v. Burwell, which upheld the tax credit subsidies for consumers who buy their health insurance on the federal insurance exchange...
Customers of Idaho’s state health insurance exchange, YourHealthIdaho.org, weren’t among those worrying about what the U.S. Supreme Court would decide today in King v. Burwell, according to a statement from the Idaho exchange’s executive director, “because of the wise decision our lawmakers made three years...
When the former Ada County Courthouse – and former state Capitol Annex – opens as the new Idaho Law and Justice Learning Center later this summer, two controversial 1930s murals depicting the lynching of a shirtless Native American man by white settlers will be covered by banners...
A discrimination case against the Idaho State Police for targeting a driver for a marijuana search because his license plates were from a state that has legalized the drug has been dismissed at the request of both sides, after it ran into numerous legal hurdles.…
A Mississippi state flag was removed from a display of all 50 states’ flags in front of Boise City Hall on Wednesday, after Boise Mayor David Bieter expressed concern that the Confederate battle flag logo that’s part of Mississippi’s official flag conflicts with Boise’s commitment to be a welcoming city for people from diverse backgrounds...
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has approved a gold mining company's plan to reopen a 4-mile road in a central Idaho wilderness and drill core samples to find out if two of its claims...
School trustees in Caldwell are remaining mum on details about the recent removal of their superintendent and his assistant, despite criticism from residents. The Idaho Press-Tribune reports that Caldwell school trustees refused to answer questions from the public regarding former Superintendent Tim Rosandick and Assistant...
It took less than 10 minutes this afternoon for the state Board of Education to unanimously approve hiring Curt Apsey as BSU’s new athletic director, on a five-year contract with a base salary of $331,500. The pay and contract terms are virtually identical to those...
Gov. Butch Otter, in his annual address to the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce today that’s billed as the “Governor’s Address to the Business Community,” had this message: “Our continued focus has got to be on education, because that’s our future, because that’s our economy.”…
State schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra is making another key hire from Mountain Home, reports Idaho EdNews, and this time it’s her former boss, Mountain Home school district Superintendent Tim McMurtrey. He’ll start as the state Department of Education’s performance officer/strategic planner on July 1, writes…
The state Board of Education has scheduled a special meeting for this afternoon at 2:30 MT, meeting by teleconference, with just one item on its agenda: Boise State University athletic director. Former Director Mark Coyle is leaving after three years to head up the athletic…
Idaho GOP Sen. Jim Risch will donate $500 to charity after campaign finance documents revealed the president of an organization classified as a white supremacist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center made a campaign contribution in that amount to Risch in 2013, reports Melissa…
Former Jefferson County Sheriff Blair Olsen, who was convicted of misusing public funds, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail, $2,500 in fines and three years probation. He was convicted by a jury in May of three felony counts of misusing public funds; his…
Western Watersheds Project has filed a federal lawsuit against Wildlife Services, saying the federal agency hasn’t responded to its Freedom of Information Act requests for documents detailing its activities in killing wildlife in Idaho. Talasi Brooks, an attorney with Advocates for the West, which is…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — All four of Idaho's four-year public universities and colleges have eliminated degree programs, dissolved academic departments or reduced staff over the past year as part of a statewide effort to cut costs and...
The Idaho Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in Coeur d’Alene Tribe vs. Lawerence Denney, the instant racing lawsuit, for Aug. 11 at 10 a.m. That’s not as quickly as the tribe had requested the case be heard – it wanted the court to rule…
Gov. Butch Otter’s pick to be the next director of the state Department of Environmental Quality was the public affairs director for Agrium, a fertilizer company that’s been involved in multiple hazardous materials incidents and is currently being monitored by the EPA, from 2011 until...
There’s more on the Idaho State Police’s non-existent investigation into Corrections Corp. of America, with the Idaho Statesman reporting that records it obtained under the Idaho Public Records Law show the Idaho Board of Correction believed ISP had conducted a criminal investigation and found no…
State employees who lobby the Legislature or government officials as part of their jobs – like, for example, the lobbyists for the state’s universities – always used to register as lobbyists and disclose their spending. But Idaho Statesman reporter Bill Dentzer writes that after an…
It’s rare that there’s good windsurfing weather up at Lucky Peak Lake when it’s cloudy, but today, Father’s Day, was one of those rare days. Here, the final windsurfer comes sailing in, as the kitesailors still find plenty of wind to play in toward the…
Idaho education officials want to flip the traditional college admission process around in order to boost the state's dismal college attendance rates, the AP reports. The State Board of Education listened to a new proposal Thursday that recommended alerting qualified high school seniors that they...
The U.S. Department of Energy is calling for public comments on a controversial proposal to ship two loads of spent commercial nuclear fuel rods to eastern Idaho for research; comments are being accepted through July 13 on its draft analysis. The fuel rods would weigh…