The House Health & Welfare Committee has posted an amended agenda for an 8:30 a.m. meeting on Wednesday, with two agenda items: RS24759C2 Health Care Study Committee - Rep. Lynn Luker RS24760C3 Health Care Grant Program - Rep. Lynn Luker The meeting will be in…
If you’re looking for the early results from tonight’s Idaho Democratic presidential caucuses, you’re out of luck. Party spokesman Dean Ferguson said no results will be posted until all county caucuses are done – and Ada County, the largest one, started two hours late. So...
Here’s the latest on tonight’s Idaho Democratic Party presidential caucuses, including big turnouts delaying start times in Ada County: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Democratic Party leaders delayed the scheduled 7 p.m. start time for the Ada County presidential caucus to accommodate long lines of…
Democrats head to caucuses in all of Idaho's 44 counties Tuesday, and organizers expect record turnout for the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Here are some things to know about the Idaho Democratic Caucus: DO I...
The Senate has now adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, after passing a slew of bills. They included many appropriation bills and many measures that passed on unanimous votes, but there were exceptions. Among them: SB 1421, the budget bill to transfer $2 million to the…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee will meet at 8:30 on Wednesday morning with a single issue on its agenda: Funding for the Clagstone Meadows conservation easement in the Idaho Department of Lands and Idaho Department of Fish & Game budgets, where federal funds are tabbed for...
Boise attorney William "Breck" Seiniger has withdrawn from the race for the Idaho Supreme Court, the second candidate to do so; that makes what was initially a six-way race now a four-way contest. Seiniger said "a number of well-qualified candidates" have joined the race since...
From firefighter cancer coverage to suicide prevention to public defense reform: Things that were long in the works/Have seen more than just fits and jerks/For all the debate/That carried less weight/Some actual big reform lurks.
The Senate has voted 27-7 along party lines in favor of SB 1404a, the bill pushed by the group “Idaho Chooses Life” that bans donation or sale of fetal tissue in cases of abortion, either for organ donation or medical research. Opponents said that’s not…
The Idaho Senate has voted 17-16 in favor of HB 331a, the bill to ban powdered alcohol, which a manufacturer is preparing to market as a product called “Palcohol.” “Powdered alcohol is considered to be prone to abuse,” said Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum. Twenty-nine other…
The House has now adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow; majority Republicans are headed into a closed-door caucus. That means several House committee meetings that were scheduled to occur “on adjournment” this afternoon will be delayed until after the caucus ends. Before it adjourned, the House…
Legislation to repeal an unpopular $75 annual fee on hybrid vehicles that state lawmakers passed last year may be dead for this year, unless House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer belatedly decides to give the Senate-passed bill a hearing. The bill, SB 1311, passed the Senate...
The House has voted 59-5 in favor of SCR 140, the resolution to reject proposed new administrative rules on science standards for Idaho schoolkids. Rep. Julie VanOrden, R-Pingree, said the standards weren’t bad, but lawmakers felt they should take more citizen input before approving them.…
Gov. Butch Otter answered some questions from reporters today after his bill-signing ceremony for the eastern Idaho community college start-up bill. Among them: Is he happy with the 7.4 percent increase in funding that lawmakers have approved for public schools for next year? “No,” Otter…
Gov. Butch Otter held his first public bill-signing of the session today, signing into law HB 459, creating a $5 million community college start-up fund that would be available if eastern Idaho residents vote to form a new community college in their region. If they…
With just one “no” vote, the House has given final passage to anti-stalking legislation that allows someone who’s being stalked or harassed to get a protection order, even if they’re not related to the stalker. Current Idaho law only allows those orders to be issued…
The Senate has voted 23-13 in favor of HB 487, a controversial measure regarding non-compete agreements with former employees. Backers said the bill will protect employers from unfair competition, by making it easier for employers to sue former employees over non-compete contracts; opponents said it…
Bonner County commissioners are hearing public comment, which has been about evenly split for and against the Clagstone Meadows conservation easement, reports S-R reporter Scott Maben, who is covering the hearing. The commissioners said they won't take a vote today on whether or not to…
About 85 “Close the Gap” protesters filled the third-floor rotunda of the Capitol today for half an hour, holding signs with slogans including, “Close the Gap, 78,000 can’t wait” and “Save Idaho Lives.” The protesters then filed upstairs and into the House’s public gallery to…
Bonner County commissioners have voted 3-0 to rescind the letter opposing the Clagstone Meadows conservation easement, which was signed by two commissioners, Todd Sudick and Glen Bailey, and distributed to state lawmakers, in order to eliminate concerns that they may have violated the Idaho Open…
A conservation easement sought by Stimson Lumber in North Idaho has been in the works for six years, but today is the subject of a big public hearing in Sandpoint and has prompted holdups in approval of the budgets for the state Department of Lands...
With no news thus far on the fate of legislation designed to provide coverage for the 78,000 Idahoans who now fall into a coverage gap, as they earn too much to qualify for the state’s limited Medicaid program but too little to qualify for subsidized…
Rep. Shannon McMillan, R-Silverton, is refusing to say why she voted against seven of the eight bills that make up the public schools budget, the Lewiston Tribune reports. “When asked why she opposed the budgets, McMillan brusquely refused to answer,” writes Bill Spence of the…
House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill came to JFAC today to request an $8 million transfer to the Legislative Legal Defense Fund to cover a possible settlement with the vendors in the Idaho Education Network case. JFAC members had lots of...
Both the Idaho Departments of Lands and Idaho Fish & Game budgets are being reconsidered in JFAC this morning, to re-set them without the Clagstone Meadows conservation easement funding, and instead write a new budget bill for the two pieces of the easement funding alone.…
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