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
The Idaho House State Affairs Committee voted 10-2 along party lines with both Democratic representatives opposed to advance the measure that’s a reworked version of previous legislation that banned mask mandates at medical facilities. The new bill allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to require masks.Read More
Residents of the Northwest will have to set their clocks ahead by an hour this weekend to move onto daylight saving time. The Oregon and Washington legislatures voted nearly two years ago to stay on daylight time year-round -- joined later by Idaho and British Columbia -- but still the biannual time change ritual and associated grumbling persists.Read More
This year, state legislators have introduced 35 bills restricting transgender girls and women — that is, girls and women who were not assigned as female at birth — from playing on girls' and women's sports teams, according to LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom for All Americans. That's up from 29 bills last year and only 2 in 2019.Read More
Idaho lawmakers fearing foreign participation in the Powerball lottery killed legislation on Wednesday that would have allowed the game with huge jackpots to continue in the state after a run of more than 30 years.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
The timing of the Wisconsin hunt was bumped up following a lawsuit that raised concerns President Joe Biden’s administration would intervene to restore gray wolf protections. The group behind the suit has close links to Republican political circles including influential donors the Koch brothers and notable Trump loyalists — Kris Kobach, a former U.S. Senate candidate from Read More
Idaho House Bill 249 would require parents to sign permission slips for youth to learn about human sexuality. The bill passed the House of Representatives Friday, March 5, 2021 on a party-line vote of 56-12. It heads next to the Senate for consideration.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
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
The University of Idaho’s teacher preparation program is among the nation’s best at maintaining high admissions standards while still establishing a racially diverse student body, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank says.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 COVID-19 vaccines are here, but if it's your turn to get vaccinated, how are you supposed to sign up? The answers vary by place, so NPR created a tool to help you understand how things work in your state and connect you with local resources. And we're sharing guiding principles and advice for navigating the process below.Read More
Fishing and hunting license sales jumped in 2020 across the Pacific Northwest as more people flocked to outdoor activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Total license purchases rose even though part of last spring was crimped by stay-home orders and in some states by the suspension of non-resident permits.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
Idaho Gov. Brad Little says his state will move from Stage 2 to Stage 3 in its coronavirus reopening protocol. Little announced Tuesday that groups of up to 50 may now gather, as long as they take precautions with masks and physical distancing.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 issued a new executive order Thursday that will require vaccine providers to publicly report additional data as part of an effort to inject more transparency in the vaccine rollout.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
At the University of Idaho, for example, students who receive a vaccine will be allowed to skip mandatory midsemester coronavirus testing. “At this time, we do not plan to require vaccination, but it is highly recommended,” President C. Scott Green and Provost Torrey Lawrence said in a Friday memo to the campus community.Read More
Idaho’s teachers and school staff serving students in grades pre-K through 12th are cleared to start receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Brad Little and public health officials announced Tuesday afternoon.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
That cumulative total — at least 4,818 cases, involving students, teachers and staff — is significantly higher than the weekly totals Health and Welfare has released since October. Using those weekly reports, Idaho Education News in December pegged the number of K-12 cases at slightly more than 3,300, based on the totals from the weekly Health and Welfare reports.Read More
Shortly after Thanksgiving, the boy from a secluded valley in Idaho became one of hundreds of children in the U.S. who have been diagnosed with a rare, extreme immune response to COVID-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Cooper Wuthrich’s fever spiked as his joints and organs became inflamed, including his heart, putting his life at risk, his father said.Read More
Western state governors and state health officials are now reviewing a finalized recommendation from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for how to prioritize future vaccination phases. The initial deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to Oregon, Washington state and Idaho are spoken for — at least well into next month. High-risk health care workers, Read More
Idaho’s colleges and universities logged more than 5,400 coronavirus cases during a turbulent fall semester. All 11 public and private colleges and universities managed to maintain some form of face-to-face learning during the semester — but not without problems:Read More
Case numbers have shot up lately in rural America, which skews older and tends to have huge inequality gaps in health care. But there's still resistance in places such as Bruneau, Idaho, which has a population of 500. Here, there's also a pervasive sense in the community that kids need to be physically in classrooms for their education and well-being yet stiff opposition 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
Since early in the pandemic, rapid contact tracing has been considered one of the keys to controlling the spread of the coronavirus. But in recent weeks, an overwhelming surge in new cases has let thousands of COVID-positive people and their close contacts fall through the cracks.Read More
Nine stickers with swastikas were placed on the memorial in downtown Boise sometime between Monday evening and Tuesday morning. One of the stickers read, "We are everywhere."Read More
“I don’t know that there’s been anyone who’s a bigger advocate for changing behavior,” Gov. Brad Little said Thursday. “What I want is compliance. And we’re just having an issue (with compliance).” Read More
Idaho public health officials abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday after the Boise mayor and chief of police said intense protests outside the health department building — as well as outside some health officials’ homes — were threatening public safety.Read More
As the number of COVID-19 cases skyrockets nationwide, the extent of the public health response varies from one state — and sometimes one town — to the next. The incongruous approaches and the lack of national standards have created confusion, conflict and a muddled public health message, likely hampering efforts to stop the spread of the virus. The country’s top Read More
The number of chinook salmon returning to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and its tributaries is just a tiny fraction of historic numbers, experts said. “More is better, but it’s still abysmal numbers,” said Russ Thurow, a research fisheries scientist with the U.S. Forest Service based in the small city of Salmon. “We’re bouncing around just above extinction.”Read More
New case numbers peaked again, for the seventh consecutive week. Deaths hit another weekly peak. And on Tuesday — the same day Idaho reported single-day peaks in cases and deaths — 404 Idahoans were hospitalized with COVID-19. That too was a single-day peak.Read More
The board that governs Idaho’s Panhandle Health District has approved a mask mandate for all five counties of north Idaho. The board had approved a previous mandate for Kootenai County only on July 23, then rescinded it on Oct. 23.Read More
The governor's executive order activated 100 National Guard troopers to assist with mobile testing support, medical facility decontamination, COVID-19 screenings, logistical support and more. He also signed a public health order moving Idaho back to a modified version of Stage 2 of the state’s four-stage reopening plan, effective Saturday.Read More
Gov. Brad Little says he has been reluctant to issue a mask mandate “because the rest of the state thinks that anything that comes from Boise is a mandate from big government.”Read More
Idaho public schools are serving 4,554 fewer students than they did last school year, marking the first time since 1997 that the state has seen a decline in enrollment.Read More
Idaho is moving backward. That was the announcement Monday from Gov. Brad Little. He said the entire state will move back to its previous stage of reopening: Phase 3. Read More
State elections officials said Idahoans should not worry about the security of their ballot if they vote absentee. Idaho has used the same basic absentee voting procedures since 1972. So the process is not new to elections officials, even though they are expecting a significant increase in absentee ballots due to the pandemic.Read More
Like most colleges, the University of Idaho in Moscow is dealing with how to control rising coronavirus cases around campus. Recent cases connected to the University’s Greek system have made the school push for more testing. Unlike nearby Washington State University in Pullman, the UI has a hybrid in-person and virtual model this fall semester.Read More
Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from gun suicide, and some of hardest-hit areas spend the least on prevention. In the Idaho Panhandle, some small-town residents are stepping in where the government has failed.Read More
Nathan Apodaca, 37, of Idaho Falls, recorded a laid-back video while riding a skateboard downhill and drinking Cran-Raspberry juice. The Internet went wild and streamed Fleetwood Mac.Read More
