State Pay, Liquor Sales, Press Box

Gov. Otter’s pay plan for state workers will raise salaries and cut benefits in order, the thinking goes, to attract younger workers who don’t care about their benefits as much. Idaho schools get more failing grades on national study. And,…

Transit, Dems and Craig Appeal

In a delicate dance with the Legislature and the Governor, a Boise Valley transit coalition is pulling in more members from across the state and calling itself Moving Idaho Forward. It’s going to be buses and trains vs. asphalt and…

Otter Speech Reax & Meth

For a minute there he looked like Al Gore, double Power Point screens, talking about hybrid vehicles for state agencies and a DEQ review of emissions. But no. State of the State at BSU felt like a college (high school?)…

Governor’s Speech at BSU, Games Begin

All the papers have “Legislature Starts Today” headlines, or something like that. The Statesman’s Legislative pullout section has useful info… I usually hang onto it through the session… the map will be helpful this year. Most of the “preview” coverage…

Legislative news in spades

The Idaho Associated Press bureau put on a show Thursday with three panels including Senate and House leadership from both parties and discussions on transportation and schools. The panel generated stories on pavement and teacher pay and set the stage…

State Agencies Take their Shows on the Road

The heads of Public Instruction and of the state Transportation Board have been taking their shows on the road in recent months and both power pointers got a chance to pitch the Idaho press corps on Thursday.

The annual Associated Press…

Idaho teachers fasted in support of Kozol

Education writer Jonathan Kozol who has been in classrooms across the country documenting the way that the No Child Left Behind Act has changed the way we teach recently ended a months long partial fast against the top down focus…

Wind, Clergy Abuse and Caucuses

Many legislators are making their way to Boise for meetings on state employee pay and the state’s economic health that begin this week. Idaho Power wants to use some of it’s green power credits to buy more green power, rather…

Wolves, Thayn and Nuke Waste

The New York Times takes a look at wolf delisting in Wyoming and the way changing demographics have tempered the debate over state management. The Times-News continues to post a barrage of legislative preview stories, including an interesting one on…