Idaho Capital Sun
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Accountability reporting for the 208’s political landscape. We aim to tell untold stories and provide data, context and analysis on the issues that matter most.
Boise, Idaho
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Former Idaho Gov. Buch Otter endorsed the open primary ballot initiative on Wednesday, becoming the highest profile member of a group of more than 100 Republicans who support the initiative.
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The jury awarded all plaintiffs — which include the hospital system and three employees — $26.5 million in damages, but added $26 million in “punitive” costs.
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Students in the Boise School District have filed a federal lawsuit against Idaho school officials to keep them from enforcing a new law meant to prevent transgender students from using school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
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A group called Idahoans United for Women and Families will explore options for a possible 2026 ballot initiative that would restore and protect access to reproductive care statewide, including abortion.
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An Idaho judge issued a civil arrest warrant Tuesday for Ammon Bundy, after he repeatedly failed to appear in court or respond to a lawsuit filed by St. Luke’s Health System.
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“Overturning Roe v Wade is not their endgame; it is just the beginning,” Rep. Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, said at Saturday’s rally. “The supermajority in the Idaho Legislature is hostile to contraception.”
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The families of two transgender teens have sued Idaho officials in federal court to keep them from enforcing the state’s ban on gender care for youth — a law set to take effect in January.
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The State Board of Education ended Branden Durst’s quest to become the certified superintendent of West Bonner, declining to consider his application for an emergency provisional administrator’s certificate.
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The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Idaho has doubled this month. And they’re sicker; the number of ICU patients with COVID-19 nearly tripled.
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Voter registration data shows California Republicans – not liberals – are flocking to Idaho | Among out-of-state voters moving here, Republicans outnumber Democrats from 48 of 49 states, new data from the Secretary of State’s Office shows
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COMMENTARY | Every Republican who’s ever denied, or tried to minimize, the hideously destructive reality of the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, should be required to sit and listen to her testimony, writes guest columnist John Micek.
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👋Hello, Idaho! Welcome to the Gem State’s newest nonprofit news organization delivering accountability reporting on state politics and policy.
We're excited to start sharing stories and commentary with you! Sign up for our morning newsletter here: .
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Meet the Idaho Capital Sun. We’re a small — but mighty — team of experienced journalists interested in diving into state politics and capital city issues and more as Idaho’s newest nonprofit online journalism outlet.
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Hundreds of comments accused McGeachin of using her political power to run a “witch hunt” in the same vein as former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of widespread Communist infiltration in the 1950s.
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Huang said in her career serving three attorneys general before Attorney General Raúl Labrador, she had “never been asked by a superior to take a position adverse to my client for the office’s advantage. It was shocking.”
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North Idaho’s infamous resort town made national headlines last year after a white nationalist group planned to disrupt a local Pride event, but that didn’t keep the local LGBTQ+ community from celebrating this year.
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“Idaho students aren’t going to tolerate that,” Shiva Rajbhandari said. “Many of us can’t vote, but we are not going to be kids forever, right? We will remember which legislators cared about our voices and which ones didn’t.”
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In their research, the C of I students discovered and mapped over 50 subdivisions in Ada County containing thousands of properties with discriminatory race covenants attached to them.
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Betsy Russell, the longtime president of the Idaho Press Club who covered state government for 36 years before retiring Jan. 1, is being honored by the City Club of Boise this month.
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Verbal abuse. Threats of violence. Burnout. My experience is just a fraction of the strain and hardship nurses are currently being subjected to, writes guest columnist Dr. Ashley Carvalho.
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The surgeon removed her reproductive organs, along with lymph nodes and tissue from her abdomen, the complaint said. That tissue went to a laboratory for examination — where pathologists found no cancer.
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The Washington medical licensing commission has found cause to open an investigation into the conduct of Dr. Ryan Cole, according to a document obtained by the Idaho Capital Sun.
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Idaho’s second-largest hospital system will require its staff and virtually anyone doing business in its buildings to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by fall.
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The special interests groups who have poured millions into making ESAs a reality in states like Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Wisconsin and New Hampshire are the same donors who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during Idaho’s midterm election.
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An eastern Idaho man who created a new nonprofit organization to serve as a watchdog for political candidates and groups has filed a complaint against the Idaho Freedom Foundation with the IRS.
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Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 668 into law, which would prohibit transgender adults and minors enrolled in Medicaid or those enrolled in the state’s insurance from receiving gender-affirming medications or procedures.
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In addition to Silver Valley Pride, Sandpoint Pride is in its third year hosting the event.
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“We have to make sure with the Democrats coming at us with full force that we have our barriers up, our guns loaded and ready to keep us safe,” Rep. Dorothy Moon said after the results were announced.
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NEW: Child care centers across the Treasure Valley are scheduled to be closed Monday to call attention to $34 million in child care funding that the Idaho Legislature has not approved.
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COMMENTARY | Criminalizing medical care is having a dramatic impact on recruitment and retention of physicians who care for pregnant women in Idaho, writes guest columnist Dr. John Werdel.
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People misinterpreted one piece of Idaho's crisis standards guidance. Now, the misinformation is spreading. Prominent social media accounts have repeated it on Twitter, TikTok and Facebook.
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Von Ehlinger was arrested and taken into state custody following the guilty verdict.
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I need to be able to protect my patients’ lives, their health and future fertility without fear of becoming a felon, writes guest columnist Kylie Cooper.
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Out of the 4,000 phone calls and 2,200 emails Gov. Brad Little received about SB 1110, a bill that adds more signature gathering requirements for Idaho's ballot initiative process, only 150 were in favor of the governor signing the bill into law.
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Dr. Ryan Cole, a pathologist who is up for appointment to a public health board in Idaho’s largest metro area, said this week that he had COVID-19 three weeks ago, a timeframe when he was actively traveling and meeting in-person with people without a mask.
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Out of respect for another Idaho news organization’s concerns, we are updating our branding and our name to avoid any confusion.
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Emergency rental assistance. Homeowner assistance. Higher education emergency relief. Child abuse prevention and treatment funding. Community mental health block grants. Substance abuse treatment funds. All were left on the table this legislative session.
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Idaho lawmakers on Monday removed about $38 million from state budgets for the coming year that would have gone to child care providers and to efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect.
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A licensed pharmacist by trade, Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, served nine terms in the Idaho House of Representatives after being elected in 2006.
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A controversial Idaho pathologist and his laboratory are no longer in a group of about 2,800 health care providers, responsible for the care — and lab tests — of about 160,000 Idahoans.
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A doctor who works in two local emergency departments said some of her patients reported taking ivermectin “upon the advice or prescription of Dr. Ryan Cole” and were “quite surprised to learn that ivermectin did not prevent or cure their COVID infection.”
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COMMENTARY | Parents should govern their children at the library, not librarians or Idaho legislators, writes guest columnist Holly Cook.
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Idaho drag performers said in a series of interviews that they feel the political, verbal and even physical threats against them, their lifestyle and their art form.
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Under the bill, state employees wouldn’t be able to use their insurance plan to acquire gender-affirming medication, and transgender Idahoans wouldn’t be able to use Medicaid to obtain gender-affirming care.
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A judge in Idaho has granted a preliminary injunction barring Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador from taking legal action against medical providers who refer patients across state lines for abortion care and denied Labrador’s request to dismiss the case.
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Idaho Medicaid and potentially other health insurers paid Cole Diagnostics a premium rate for COVID-19 tests, because the lab claimed it was using fully automated, high-volume systems. It wasn’t, according to former employees and public records.
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On Oct. 7, McGeachin's office wrote, “After a diligent search, we are unable to find any invoices.” But when the office gave the first of two invoices to the Sun on Jan. 24, the invoice was dated July 20, 2021, and listed a due date of Aug. 19, 2021.
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The Bingham County Republican Central Committee’s executive committee has filed a lawsuit against the Idaho Republican Party to block Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon from stepping in to fill county leadership vacancies.
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In a survey conducted by the Idaho Library Association, 80% of respondents said they know library workers thinking of leaving their jobs in libraries because of actions of the Legislature.
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COMMENTARY | All Idahoans should be asking why the Legislature allowed the Maternal Mortality Review Committee to expire this year, writes guest columnist Loren Colson.
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COMMENTARY | Criminalization of doctors providing health care is dangerous for patients, for doctors and for our communities, writes guest columnist Dr. Amelia Huntsberger.
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"How are we going to fill this man’s beautiful shoes?" said longtime friend and Latino community leader Rebeca De León. "We have this whole team of people ready to step in and carry on his work, and still, it feels like it’s not enough.”
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COMMENTARY | We cannot be passive in the effort to eliminate hatred, bigotry and violence in our great state, writes the Idaho Leaders United Board of Directors.
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On Thursday, supporters with the group Idahoans for Open Primaries submitted the final draft of the initiative to the state for the attorney general to give it a ballot title.
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A proposed amendment to the Idaho Constitution that sought to block ranked choice voting failed in the Idaho House of Representatives on Monday and won’t appear on the ballot in November.
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Currently, Idaho voters can request an absentee ballot for any reason. This bill would add requirements to who could vote absentee.
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In the face of overwhelming public opposition, a committee of Idaho legislators voted Monday to hold a bill that sought to replace the words “embryo” and “fetus” with “preborn child” throughout Idaho law, which prevented the bill from advancing.
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COMMENTARY | Ranked choice voting would be just the right tonic to cure the extreme partisanship that has taken root in Idaho during the last decade, writes guest columnist Jim Jones.
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“It is a stain on the honor of the state that we have not added the ‘four words’ to our state constitution to protect sexual orientation and gender identity from acts of malice and hatred,” Schert said.
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If you're not already following our veteran Idaho reporters, check out the work of
@ChristinaLords
,
@clarkcorbin
,
@KelcieMMorris
and
@audreydutton
. Give them a follow!
#idleg
#idpol
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"Women in Idaho will not stand silent as the state and a minority of extremists force us to carry unwanted pregnancies by outlawing abortion services. Stay tuned,” she wrote in a statement.
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Cole’s false statements “are harmful and dangerous to individual patients, generate mistrust in the medical profession and in public health, and have a wide-spread negative impact on the health and well-being of our communities,” the commission said.
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Lawmakers from both parties expressed concerns that Labrador is not regularly providing written legal opinions to legislators.
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Organizers with Idahoans for Open Primaries announced the coalition has gathered more than 50,000 signatures as part of its effort to qualify a ballot initiative for the November 2024 general election.
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“Nobody taught us that in medical school. ‘One day we’re going to have this disease that’s going to overwhelm the hospitals, burn out all our health care workers, and it’s going to be preventable.’ … Now, there’s not much cause for optimism.”
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Idaho voters will decide whether to approve or reject Reclaim Idaho’s $300-million-plus per year education funding initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot, the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office confirmed in a press release late Friday.
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Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad will run for governor as a Democrat, and while he knows it’s an uphill battle in a state with a Republican supermajority, Rognstad says he has plenty of practice building coalitions in an ideologically diverse area of Idaho.
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On Saturday, the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights is inviting the Treasure Valley community to a reading of “Walking Steven Home,” a play by Gregory Hinton in memory of Steven Nelson, a gay man who was killed in Caldwell in a hate crime.
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U.S. Sen. Frank Church’s work resulted in major reforms and a continuing commitment to congressional oversight that didn’t exist before him, writes guest columnist Marc Johnson.
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"We we have lost teens to suicide, we have teens that are suffering from traumatic home lives and we have a lot of teens we visit at the juvenile detention center. I see a lot of these teens struggling … But I try to be that positive adult for them.”
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A survey of 400 people found that 66% of respondents did not think the Idaho Legislature should try to stop businesses from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations, and 78% agree that Idaho politicians should not tell private businesses what to do.
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A bill that would ban drag performances in all public venues will be introduced in the first days of the next session of the Idaho Legislature in January, Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti told the Idaho Capital Sun.
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The law says lobbyists must register with the Idaho Secretary of State before they start lobbying, or within 30 days of being hired, designated or contracted as a lobbyist, “whichever occurs first.”
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"People are going to suffer under this law, and it makes me mad that politicians get in the way of evidence-based medicine," he said.
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Bundy is being charged with civil and criminal contempt for allegedly violating court orders issued by a previous judge in the case that required him to remove defamatory statements from the internet and to not intimidate witnesses in the lawsuit.
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“I would rather my 6-year-old grandson start smoking cigarettes tomorrow than get a view of this stuff one time at the public library or anywhere else,” said Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa.
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The PAC has begun to run video advertisements on digital media, opposing Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin and Ammon Bundy as candidates for Idaho governor. The ads also warn of political extremism as a threat to the “rule of law” and to law enforcement.
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COMMENTARY | Instead of dishing out tax cuts, legislators should finally take the opportunity to meet their constitutional duty of financially supporting public schools, writes guest columnist Jim Jones.
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The order cites serious concerns raised about “both short-term and long-term negative effects caused by wearing masks,” but does not cite what those effects would be. Medical experts have debunked claims that masks are harmful to a person’s health.
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“The whole thing is mind-boggling to me to the point that I can only kind of laugh about it, because it’s just absurd,” Rabbi Dan Fink said.
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There is no step beyond crisis standards of care — just degrees of crisis. Hospitals may have to ration or delay certain types of medical care; or if the crisis worsens, they may have to triage patients according to their likelihood of survival.
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States that send a mail ballot to every voter really do increase turnout, scholars find
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Idaho Democrats cited data from a recent report from the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative that showed 58 obstetricians left Idaho between August 2022 to November 2023.
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He’s banned from the Idaho Capitol building, but that didn’t stop Ammon Bundy from taking the first step toward running for Idaho governor.
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McGrane said his office is required to follow Idaho law, which sets the deadline for changing party affiliation at 67 days before the primary election, the same day as the candidate filing deadline.
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COMMENTARY | Government works best when there is competition among candidates and citizen participation, write members of the Veterans for Idaho Voters group.
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Vega said she would like Idaho lawmakers to implement policies mimicking Washington and Oregon laws that provide farmworkers with hazard pay for enduring poor air quality during wildfires and offer shade and cooling spots for workers.
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Former Idaho Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger was arrested Friday in Clayton County, Georgia, on a fugitive from justice charge, according to Clayton County court records.
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A new bill introduced in the Idaho Legislature would prohibit the use of student IDs as an acceptable form of identification for voting in Idaho elections, and it would remove a voter’s ability to sign an affidavit to prove their identity to vote.
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Two different organizations representing young people in Idaho announced they have filed lawsuits challenging a new law that Gov. Brad Little recently signed that eliminates student IDs as an acceptable form of identification for voting.
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COMMENTARY | The bill sponsors claim they’re looking out for kids, but in other instances they claim parents have the absolute right to make decisions regarding their children, writes guest columnist Jim Jones.
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Members of the Republican supermajority in Salt Lake City joined Democrats in rejecting attempts to curb the state’s universal vote-by-mail system.
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Little’s office received 2,227 calls and 4,923 emails against the library materials bill, and 1,297 calls and 2,954 emails in favor of the bill.
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The Idaho Capital Sun took home 13 awards from the Best of 2022 Idaho Press Club Awards, including seven first-place finishes.
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An Idaho judge has blocked Ammon Bundy and others from moving financial assets for longer in a new lawsuit in Gem County.
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News reporters will not be allowed inside the Idaho Republican presidential caucus on March 2 or allowed to observe party officials tabulating results at party headquarters, raising concerns among some transparency advocates.
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There were 553 people hospitalized in Idaho with COVID-19 on Monday, the most ever. That included seven children.
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COMMENTARY | The Idaho Female Veterans Network is calling on the Air Force to take action against state Rep. Priscilla Giddings after she posted online the identification and photo of the legislative staffer who accused former Rep. Von Ehlinger of rape.
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Idaho Rep. Russ Fulcher did not submit projects for consideration from Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, while Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson submitted six proposed projects that total about $20.1 million from Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District.
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The Biden administration and federal agencies are prepared to remove four lower Snake River dams to save imperiled salmon species, according to a leaked proposal among parties in a federal lawsuit and the administration’s environmental council.
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