A vial of testosterone enanthate, a drug used in gender-affirming hormone therapy. (Credit: James Ronin / Pixabay) watch Listen (Runtime 3:49) Read Julia Keleher had spent about a decade helping […]Read More
A marijuana harvester examines a bud that is going through a trimming machine near Corvallis, Ore. Idahoans frequently cross into Washington and Oregon to buy cannabis. (Credit: AP Photo / […]Read More
Employees at Cornerstone Cottage alerted state officials to the dangers, only to be fired themselves Cornerstone Cottage opened in 2016 in Post Falls, Idaho, a booming bedroom community 25 miles […]Read More
Idaho’s direct care workforce isn’t being paid enough to sustain the needs of people with disabilities and seniors, according to a February report by the Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations.Read More
In the months following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, many people — including patients, health care providers, and abortion rights organizers — faced extreme changes in their lives and livelihood. These are some of the changes that took place in our region since then.Read More
Community care providers that serve people with disabilities across Idaho started receiving funds they had originally expected in July late last month.Read More
Becca Ewing sits in her jogger Wednesday Oct. 19 at East City Park in Moscow. Photo by Rachel Sun Listen (Runtime 4:01) Read Every day, when Lorie Ewing wakes up, […]Read More
A Idaho bill would provide incentives to attract and retain teachers in rural schools (AP Photo/Craig Lassig) Listen NWPB’s Lauren Paterson reports on a bill to retain teachers in rural […]Read More
Idaho’s Legislature is considering giving local governments more control over issuing liquor licenses Read Listen: Doug Nadvornick reports on a proposal to give more local control for issuing liquor licenses […]Read More
The longest ever Idaho legislative session has been filled with unusual events and ended in uncharted ground shortly before midnight Wednesday. The Idaho Senate voted to officially adjourn while the House voted to recess up to Dec. 31.Read More
The 2021 Idaho Legislature took its ugliest turn on its 108th day, when the House Ethics Committee weighed a sexual assault complaint against first-year Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger.Read More
Idaho Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger resigned from the Legislature Thursday. It came several hours after the House Ethics Committee recommended suspension and possible expulsion of the Republican lawmaker from Lewiston amid an investigation into a rape accusation from a 19-year-old staffer.Read More
The investigation into Lewiston Republican Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger’s conduct began in March, when the intern told a supervisor that the 38-year-old lawmaker raped her at his apartment after the two had dinner at a restaurant. The Boise Police Department has a criminal investigation underway, and the Legislature’s Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Read More
Voters will get the chance to decide whether lawmakers in the part-time Idaho Legislature will be able to call special sessions, a power currently limited to governors.Read More
The Boise Police Department is investigating a rape allegation made against an Idaho lawmaker. A police spokeswoman confirmed Monday that the department has an open investigation into the allegations made by a legislative staffer against Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger, a Republican from Lewiston.Read More
Days after the demise of a higher education budget, University of Idaho President C. Scott Green is looking for backup from alumni and business leaders.Read More
Legislation making it more difficult to get initiatives or referendums on ballots is heading to the governor, who has hinted of a possible veto. The House voted 51-18 on Wednesday to approve the measure backers said is needed because the current process favors urban voters. It passed the Senate 26-9 last month. Those numbers are enough to overcome a veto.Read More
Lawmakers convened for the first time in 18 days — after calling a sudden and historic recess in an attempt to slow a Statehouse coronavirus outbreak. The first sessions were brief: The House reconvened at about 12:05 p.m., and stayed on the floor for about 25 minutes. The Senate went into session at about 12:25 p.m., and was in session for just 10 minutes.Read More
An Idaho House panel on Tuesday approved legislation intended to give lawmakers veto power over federal government actions and federal court decisions. The House State Affairs Committee on a voice vote sent the bill to the full House for possible amendments after the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Sage Dixon, said it needed several changes.Read More
No one seems to know what will happen starting April 6, when legislators return to the Statehouse after an 18-day pandemic recess. Fitting, isn’t it? Shouldn’t an unprecedented session culminate in an unpredictable finish?Read More
On Friday morning, the Idaho Legislature recessed until April 6, following a week in which at least six House members tested positive for coronavirus. “We need to emphasize that none of the things will be left undone, it just presses pause,” House Speaker Scott Bedke said Friday morning, minutes after the House voted to go on recess.Read More
The increasing number of lawmakers out sick with the coronavirus has legislative leaders in the conservative state worried they may not be able to finish business in a timely fashion.Read More
Lawrence Wasden, who was elected Idaho’s top lawyer in 2003, has called some legislation from conservative lawmakers unconstitutional. The state has paid over $3 million in legal fees since 1995 — some of it after ignoring his advice and losing court challenges.Read More
An Idaho House panel approved legislation Monday making it more difficult to get initiatives or referendums on ballots in what is widely seen as a rural vs. urban issue.Read More
A decision by Idaho lawmakers to reject a $6 million federal grant to improve early childhood education — and comments from one lawmaker who said mothers belong at home — raised the ire of women across the state.Read More
Wednesday’s budget surgery was the latest chapter in a simmering public feud between Boise State and conservative lawmakers, who say the state’s largest university has persisted in using taxpayer dollars to pursue a social justice agenda.Read More
An Idaho House panel took up legislation Tuesday to prohibit mask mandates by government entities that have been put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The House State Affairs Committee cleared the way for a potential hearing on the bill put forward by a dozen conservative Republican lawmakers.Read More
An Idaho Senate panel of lawmakers on Monday approved a new version of a constitutional amendment allowing the part-time Idaho Legislature to call itself into s3ession. But several Republicans in the super-majority joined Democrats in opposing the measure amid concerns the Legislature could become a fulltime operation.Read More
Lawmakers are angry that Republican Gov. Brad Little took some of those actions to slow the coronavirus. Those actions included a temporary lockdown starting in March when the virus overwhelmed some hospitals with patients and threatened to do so at others. Hospital workers were also getting sick and said they were in danger of running out of protective equipment.Read More
Legislation to make permanent changes in Idaho’s absentee ballot counting procedure passed the Senate on Thursday and is headed to the House. The state Senate voted 35-0 to approve the bill intended to speed absentee vote counting. It was used in the last general election and spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.Read More
The legislation stems from lawmaker dissatisfaction with a temporary lockdown and other restrictions that Republican Gov. Brad Little put in place last March to reduce coronavirus infections and deaths. The Republican-dominated Legislature had adjourned for the year by then and was powerless to do anything.Read More
Lawmakers in the Idaho state House on Thursday initiated a third attempt to pass legislation to trim the governor’s powers during an emergency such as a pandemic.Read More
As legal weed becomes a reality in every corner of the U.S., Idaho is putting up a fight. State lawmakers on Friday moved forward with a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar the legalization of marijuana in Idaho in an attempt to keep the growing nationwide acceptance of the drug from seeping across its borders.Read More
Gov. Brad Little vigorously defended the statewide emergency order Friday, accusing members of the Legislature of pushing misinformation about the coronavirus and endangering Idahoans’ lives.Read More
With at least 11 pieces of legislation already in the pipeline — all addressing some aspect of Little’s coronavirus response, and the Legislature’s role during an emergency — this issue is a long way from settled. And it could be a fascinating, defining debate of the 2021 session. Separation of powers, once the stuff of a “Schoolhouse Rock” segment, is all a bit more real Read More
Idaho Gov. Brad Little called for reversing budget holdbacks, increasing teacher pay, cutting taxes and fighting the coronavirus virus pandemic during a historic, remote State of the State address Monday. In conjunction with the 30-minute speech, Little unveiled a budget proposal that would increase K-12 general fund spending beyond $2 billion for the first time in Idaho Read More
Two Idaho state lawmakers, both Democrats, have filed suit against Republican state House Speaker Scott Bedke, saying he has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by forging ahead with the legislative session — scheduled to begin Monday — without providing them an option to participate remotely in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.Read More
The Idaho Legislature will begin an unsettling and potentially unsafe 2021 session in four days. The state’s 105 part-time lawmakers will meet in the midst of a surging pandemic that has killed more than 1,500 Idahoans, and in the aftermath of rioting at the U.S. Capitol that left four people dead.Read More
Citing the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Brad Little said last week legislators should seriously consider delaying the session or going remote, while House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said legislators should postpone the session until a vaccine is available, Idaho Education News first reported Thursday.Read More
After three unusual days in a special session, the Idaho House and Senate passed a civil liability immunity bill designed to protect school officials from lawsuits amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.Read More
The incident follows another on Monday when angry protesters forced their way into the Idaho House gallery that had limited seating because of the coronavirus pandemic, the window of a glass door getting shattered as protesters jostled with police. Protesters were ultimately let in when Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke stepped in, seeking to avoid violence.Read More
Large crowds of protesters and onlookers descended on the Statehouse Monday as legislators convened for a rare special session. The House and Senate met in person to address three issues that Gov. Brad Little outlined when he called the special session, which is officially referred to as an extraordinary session.Read More
The Education Working Group requested the Legislature take up the issue of school closure authority when Gov. Brad Little convenes an extraordinary session of the Legislature the week of Aug. 24. Currently, health districts do have the authority to issue quarantine orders or close schools.Read More
A state legislator in North Idaho is using her official government newsletter to urge constituents to defy Gov. Brad Little’s order to stay home in face of the coronavirus pandemic. Rep. Heather Scott, a Republican who represents the Blanchard area, sent the newsletter Thursday morning. It was titled, in part, “the virus that tried to kill the Constitution.”Read More
By the numbers, Little’s decision will cut state spending by $40 million, from a state general budget of close to $4 billion. State agencies will have to move quickly, imposing the spending cuts over the final three months of a budget year that ends June 30.Read More
On Feb. 12, the Idaho House Education Committee gave its initial approval to a bill designed to keep transgender students from competing in girls’ sports. That means the bill could come back at a later date for a full hearing.Read More
"What time is it here?" is a question few people feel the need to ask when crossing state lines in the Northwest. But a committee vote Wednesday in the Idaho Legislature raises the possibility that border cities in the Inland Northwest may observe time differently than their close neighbors as soon as next year.Read More
The University of Idaho will have to cut employees and cut programs in order to erase tens of millions of dollars in budget shortfalls, President C. Scott Green said Monday. Green didn't go into details about where the cuts might come — but he said he is committed to getting the university’s budget back in line by 2022.Read More
A power struggle between the Republican-dominated Idaho House and Senate turned out to have big ramifications for a relatively unknown state employee who has toiled for three decades in an agency most people didn’t know existed.Read More
A panel of lawmakers is examining property tax options amid complaints that taxes are going up with rising property values, while also hearing on Monday concerns from cities and counties that they’re operating on tight budgets.Read More
