Articles Tagged With: Idaho Politics
In an effort reminiscent of Idaho Representative Bill Sali’s bill to repeal gravity, the Idaho House passed yesterday a joint memorial calling on Congress to use a technological solution to fight Internet pornography.
“The purported solution incorporates both legal and technical elements,” said Derek Bambauer, fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, on a blog sponsored by the Harvard Law School. “My analysis: it’s not only a terrible idea, but it won’t work on either front.”
Idaho Governor Butch Otter's office will announce today a revised revenue projection that is $50 million less for 2008 and $70 million for 2009 than originally stated, making it unlikely that major budget items -- particularly his plan for 5% pay increases (change in employee compensation) for state employees and teachers -- will be able to be funded.
"It does not appear that a 5% CEC is possible," said Division Administrator Cathy Holland-Smith.
After an extensive discussion, the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted today to give a $350,000 supplemental in the 2008 fiscal year to fund development of the Health Data Exchange.
“We’ve got the private sector willing to put up $2 million for an excellent cause and we’re sitting here quibbling,” said Representative Fred Wood, R-Burley. “I think we’re remiss if we don’t.”
The Idaho Legislature can be pretty funny. Once a week I'll run a collection of bits that don't really fit in anywhere else.
This week: Babies! We got babies!; things you don't want to know about your representatives; 'who am I talking to again?'; and 'we got to go to the cool party and you didn't.'
Lower than expected January revenue numbers may make Governor Butch Otter's planned 5% raise for state employees and teachers difficult to maintain, but it remains the Governor's top priority in the budget, said Division of Financial Management Administrator Wayne Hammon.
Final figures won't be in for another week, but thus far it appears that individual income tax figures are $28.9 million lower than expected, corporate income tax figures are $3.5 million lower than expected, and sales tax figures are $6.8 million lower than expected, for a total drop in revenue for January (with some other smaller items) of $39.5 million, or almost 13%.
Isabel Bilbao of KTVB news is reporting that Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has "a few other names he's looking at" to replace Sen. Larry Craig - if or when he resigns.
Just a few hours ago, Otter's spokesman Jon Hanian told NewWest.Net/Boise: "Until the Senator officially resigns, the governor has no role to play." There is no official deadline for naming a replacement.
Bilbao, who has done an impressive job chasing the Craig story, says that Risch and Rep. Mike Simpson are indeed on the list, but so are attorney general Lawrence Wasden, Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney Dane Watkins, and Boise attorney David Leroy.
UPDATE: Now, Senator Craig has reportedly told Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that he won't resign if he can get his legal case overturned and cleared, according to KTVB and the Associated Press.
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will resign this morning at 10:30 at the Boise Train Depot.
Minnesota police released the audio tape Thursday of the post-arrest interview with Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig.
Click here to listen to Craig's full interview with Investigative Sgt. Dave Karsnia.
Click here to read the transcript from Idaho NBC affiliate KTVB Channel 7.
Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes police officer investigating sexual activity in a men's bathroom in the Minneapolis airport and in August, Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
In the interview after his arrest, Craig admits he may have touched his foot with Karsina's, but only, he says, because he has a wide stance and he was scooting over. He adds on the tape: "I don't ... I am not gay, I don't do these kinds of things..."
The nation's largest and top priority wildfire, the Murphy Complex Fire in Southern Idaho, has spread over another 25,000 acres of rangeland for a total of 649,131 acres -- more than 1,000 square miles. Thursday the fire was 37 percent contained, up from 30 percent Wednesday.
Eleven active wildfires are burning nearly 1,500 square miles in Idaho altogether. Visit the National Interagency Fire Center for the statistics of each.
An Idaho lawmaker is blaming the enormous fire on federal grazing restrictions, according to Twin Falls' Times-News. Rep. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, who lost a cow to the blaze, says that fewer grasses lead to less burnable material and a lower chance that fires as large as the Murphy Complex will strike.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho used the Murphy Complex Fire to make a case for logging and more active forest management -- even though the Murphy Complex is burning primarily brush, grass, and a mix of juniper. More after the jump.
