Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador is working to ease rules for geothermal energy exploration with an amendment that passed the U.S. House the week of Feb. 13. Labrador says his proposal would establish a streamlined police for geothermal development, providing increased ...
Read More »Monsanto takes on utilities in disclosure fight
Monsanto Co. is picking a fight with Idaho’s utilities, arguing they should be forced to disclose more information about costs of future power plants or transmission lines so customers will be better armed to oppose unnecessary rate hikes. The St. ...
Read More »Nearly 1,300 Idaho teachers left profession in 2011, up from 700 in the previous year
Nearly 1,300 Idaho teachers left the profession in 2011, up from about 700 the year before. More than half of the educators who abandoned teaching last year left for “personal reasons,” according to data from the state Department of Education. ...
Read More »EPA proposes big cuts in Silver Valley cleanup
The massive cleanup of a century’s worth of mining pollution in Idaho’s Silver Valley would be cut nearly in half under a proposal Feb. 15 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA released a plan that calls for cutting the cost ...
Read More »Idaho likely to spurn federal cash for health insurance exchange
Opposition from House conservatives has ended Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s plans to use a $20.3 million federal grant for a state-run Idaho insurance exchange required by the federal health care overhaul. Instead, discussions between legislators, Otter and the insurance industry have ...
Read More »Mustang advocates say panel is hostile to cause
Wild horse protection advocates are accusing the federal Bureau of Land Management of stacking a public advisory board with friends of cattle ranchers at the expense of mustangs, and warning that the panel is increasingly sympathetic to the idea of ...
Read More »Idaho, Wash. forests receive restoration money
Two national forests in Idaho and Washington state could receive more than $90 million over the next 10 years as part of a forest restoration plan intended to boost timber production and create jobs while making forests healthier and less ...
Read More »Idaho Health and Welfare Dept. looks for ways to use land surrounding Nampa state hospital
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials are looking for ways to use a 620-acre campus that was once home to more than 1,000 people institutionalized at the Idaho State School and Hospital. Now only about 50 people with developmental ...
Read More »Geddes leaves Tax Commission to return to Monsanto
Idaho State Tax Commission Chairman Bob Geddes resigned his state post this week and will return to Monsanto, his former employer. Geddes is the former Senate president pro tem who was chosen by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in January 2011 ...
Read More »Northern Idaho scouts board votes to swap campsite property, foundation board yet to vote
The executive board of a Boy Scouts organization facing a lawsuit over the proposed sale of a historic northern Idaho campsite has decided to move forward with the deal. The Coeur d’Alene Press reports that the Inland Northwest Council of ...
Read More »