There’s a large crowd for this morning’s joint Health & Welfare public hearing. “We’re here to listen today,” said Senate Health & Welfare Chairman Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls. “We have a great many people that have signed the list today. … We welcome each of you.”

Heider said the hearing is scheduled for just two hours, from 8-10 a.m. “We won’t get to everyone, as you may well guess, but we’ll take a random sampling and try to get as many people to be able to speak as we can,” he said.