Tag Archives: Idaho

The Idaho State Journal reports: Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin on Tuesday touted a proposal she’s crafted to funnel millions of the state’s CARES Act funds to a Nevada company for technology including “walk-through disinfectant cubes” to be installed at the state Capitol. McGeachin, who held a statewide virtual press conference with pastors and business owners around the state to …

Hemant Mehta reports at The Friendly Atheist: In a batshit crazy video, a slew of Idaho Republicans denounce all the state and local emergency orders meant to protect people during the COVID crisis. They’re angry that churches can’t gather indoors and in-person, that restaurants can’t be jam-packed, and that some cities are requiring people to wear masks in certain essential …

The Associated Press reports: Moments after hearing an Idaho hospital was overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients and looking at sending people as far away as Seattle for care, members of a regional health department board voted Thursday to repeal a local mask mandate. The hospital in Coeur d’Alene reached 99% capacity a day earlier, even after doubling up patients in rooms …

The Spokesman-Review reports: A Coeur d’Alene pastor who opened his large church in early May for in-person services that allowed and even encouraged unmasked congregants to gather has been recovering from COVID-19 at the Kootenai Health intensive care unit. Paul Van Noy, the senior pastor at Candlelight Christian Fellowship, has spent the past two weeks in the ICU while his …

The Associated Press reports: Angry, maskless spectators forced themselves into the Idaho House special session on the coronavirus pandemic Monday, shattering a glass door, rushing into the gallery that had limited seating because of the virus and forcing lawmakers to ask for calm in a crowd that included a man carrying an assault-style weapon. “This is our house,” said Allen …

Via press release from the Justice Department: The Department of Justice today filed a statement of interest in Idaho federal court defending Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act against a challenge under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. “Allowing biological males to compete in all-female sports is fundamentally unfair to female athletes” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “Under the Constitution, …

“When you have government telling you that your business is essential or non-essential, yours is non-essential and someone else’s is essential, we have a problem there. “I mean, that’s no different than Nazi Germany where you had government telling people either you were an essential worker or a non-essential worker, and non-essential workers got put on a train. “You can’t …

Courthouse News reports: Idaho Governor Brad Little Monday evening signed into law two bills that place new restrictions on transgender individuals in the state. The first of the two bills the Republican governor signed targets a transgender person’s ability to request a birth certificate change. Under the new law, transgender individuals will no longer be able to change their listed …

The Associated Press reports: Joe Biden has won Idaho’s Democratic presidential primary. The state has 20 pledged delegates at stake. Democrats in Idaho are using a primary for the first time. They used a caucus in 2016 to pick Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nominee. Officials have said switching to a Democratic primary this year from …

The Associated Press reports: An 11-year-old girl toting a loaded AR-15 assault weapon appeared Monday at a legislative hearing with her grandfather, who is supporting a proposal that would allow visitors to Idaho who can legally possess firearms to carry a concealed handgun within city limits. Charles Nielsen addressed the committee that voted to send the legislation to the full …

The Idaho Statesman reports: A former candidate for Idaho governor says he is under investigation in the cold-case killing of a 12-year-old girl in Colorado 35 years ago. Authorities last week searched the Twin Falls home of 68-year-old Steve Pankey, serving him a warrant that said investigators had probable cause to believe he kidnapped and killed Jonelle Matthews in 1984. …

The Idaho Statesman reports: Former Idaho GOP chairman and lobbyist Jonathan Parker now has three pending criminal charges. The latest charge, misdemeanor unlawful entry, stems from Parker allegedly entering a woman’s Meridian home without her consent. Parker pleaded not guilty to that charge on July 3, marking his third court appearance on three separate charges over the course of about …

The Idaho Statesman reports: Boise Police on Thursday arrested Jonathan Parker — a lobbyist and former Idaho Republican Party chairman — and booked him into the Ada County Jail on a felony first-degree stalking charge. According to the criminal complaint, on or between May 16 and May 30, Parker “did knowingly and maliciously engage” in conduct that “seriously alarmed, annoyed …

The Spokesman-Review reports: The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee unanimously passed a resolution Thursday urging the federal government to reinstate travel privileges for a leader of an Austrian nationalist movement who planned to marry his fiancée, an alt-right YouTube pundit, in Idaho this summer. Martin Sellner, a leader of Generation Identity who campaigns against Islam and mass immigration, said last …

The Idaho Statesman reports: The Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, a longtime priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise who pleaded guilty to five felony crimes, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole and will be required to register as a sex offender. Faucher, 73, was accused of amassing thousands of child porn images and videos on …

Do not scroll down if the photos will upset you. The Idaho Statesman reports: Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Blake Fischer shared photos of his guided hunting trip in Africa with friends and colleagues when he returned last month, expecting they’d appreciate his success. Instead, several former Fish and Game commissioners are pushing for his resignation — with a photo …

Boise’s NBC affiliate reports: A Charlottesville, Virginia man is hoping to get some revenge on a Sandpoint man who he says has been making racist robocalls across the country. But, the payback may not be what you expect. Justin Beights says the idea was spurred after the “Unite The Right” rally that happened in his hometown of Charlottesville. Then came …

The Idaho Inlander reports: A Hayden, Idaho, man has been arrested and charged with a hate crime stemming from an incident at a McDonald’s in Coeur d’Alene on July 12. Richard Sovenski, 52, was booked into Kootenai County jail Tuesday on one count of misdemeanor battery and one count of felony malicious harassment, Idaho’s hate crime statute, according to Coeur …

The Idaho Statesman reports: The house where a retired Boise priest lived for 15 years — until he was accused in February of sharing child pornography online and of drug possession — has been cleaned out, freshened up and blessed by an exorcist, according to the priest preparing the property for sale. “We bless houses all the time,” said Father …

The Idaho Statesman reports: Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little won Tuesday’s Republican primary to replace Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, who is retiring after three terms. Little, 64 and Otter’s handpicked successor, defeated a handful of challengers, most prominently Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Boise businessman Tommy Ahlquist. Labrador is the fourth Republican member of Congress to gamble on statewide office …