Idaho Gov. Butch Otter on Thursday put education improvements at the top of his list of accomplishments of this year’s just-concluded legislative session, the last one of his three terms as the state’s governor. Otter noted that the public school budget was boosted by $100…
Key education lawmakers say they rarely met with state superintendent Sherri Ybarra during the 2018 legislative session, and that Ybarra’s lack of engagement hinders her effectiveness, Idaho EdNews reports. The House co-chair of the joint budget committee said she met with Ybarra just once during the...
She can't let it go. Three weeks after her domestic violence bill failed on a 39-31 vote, Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, still wakes up at night wondering what she could have done differently. "I was devastated," Wintrow said. "I thought I had the votes." Wintrow collapsed a day after the House debate, too ill to leave home...
Asked what’s on his to-do list for his final nine months in office, third-term Gov. Butch Otter said, “I still have some very important governing to do, and I’m going to do it.” But he also shared this: “Well, believe it or not, we’re starting…
Gov. Butch Otter says the decision to carry out the death penalty is the toughest decision he’s faced as governor, and he’s already taken Lt. Gov. Brad Little out to the state’s execution chamber to acquaint him with the process and the protocols. He said…
Among the revelations at Gov. Butch Otter’s post-legislative session press conference today: Otter supported HB 581, the bipartisan bill to allow Idaho judges to vary from current mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession, which are now based solely on the amount of drugs involved, in…
The Idaho Legislature followed a new process this year at the end of its session, sparked in part by an Idaho Supreme Court decision last year that held that bills lawmakers pass are null and void unless they’re presented to the governor before lawmakers adjourn…
Among the questions that Gov. Butch Otter fielded from reporters at his press conference today was one about allowing bills to become law without his signature; he took that approach on 11 bills this year, despite pointing to problems in them ranging from constitutional and…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter pointed to education improvements at the top of his list of what he saw as the accomplishments of this year’s legislative session, along with expanding behavioral health crisis centers; consolidating the state’s information technology services under the governor’s office; expanding the…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
