Free Republic

A militia leader is rallying people to attend a mass gathering in Idaho on Easter Sunday in defiance of the governor's orders to stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to a report in The New York Times Tuesday, Aamon Bundy says he and his allies are willing to 'physically defend' the event, which is scheduled to take place in the city of Boise and could attract upwards of 1,000 people. 'I will be there, and I will bring as many people as I can,' Bundy reportedly told a group of supporters on March 26, a day after the state's...

Inside an old factory building north of Boise, a few dozen people gathered to hear from Ammon Bundy. The meeting, which appeared to violate orders by Gov. Brad Little of Idaho to avoid group gatherings, was an assertion of what Mr. Bundy said was a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. But Mr. Bundy said he also hoped to create a network of people ready to come to the aid of those facing closure of their businesses or other interference from the government. “If it gets bad enough, and our rights are infringed upon enough, we can physically stand in defense...

Ammon Bundy said this at the public meeting he organized: "It's all of us going to the governer's house, right, literally, and saying, YOU WILL NOT DO THIS! WE ARE NOT OK WITH THIS! WE ARE GOING TO HIS HOUSE!" How is calling for potentially infected and undoubtedly armed angry people to show up at the Governor's personal residence not considered a real threat? He plans to hold another public event tonight in Emmett Idaho.

On 25 March, 2020, Governor Little signed HB 516, the Idaho bill which improved Constitutional Carry in the state. It passed the Senate 27 to 5, on 18 March, with three absent and excused. The five Senators who voted against it were: Buckner-Webb, Burgoyne, Nelson, Nye, and Ward-Engelking.The bill passed the House 56 to 14 on the 27th of February. The 14 representatives who voted against it were:  Anderson, Berch, Chew, Davis, Ellis, Gannon, Green, Mason, McCrostie, Necochea, Rubel, Smith, Toone, and Wintrow.Idaho was one of three states which had a peculiar twist to their Constitutional Carry law: It only...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A large earthquake struck north of Boise, Idaho, Tuesday evening, with people across a large area reporting shaking. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the magnitude 6.5 temblor struck just before 5 p.m. It was centered 73 miles (118 kilometers) northeast of Meridian, Idaho, near the rural mountain town of Stanley. Marcus Smith, an emergency room health unit coordinator at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center, said the hospital, about 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of the epicenter, shook but the quake didn’t interfere with the treatment of any patients. The hospital in Blaine County is on...

WIN FALLS — A small earthquake rattled southern Idaho Tuesday afternoon. People reported feeling the quake around the Magic Valley, in the Wood River Valley, the Treasure Valley, Pocatello, and in Missoula, Montana. The U.S. Geological Survey says the 6.5 magnitude quake was centered about 45 miles west of Challis at 5:52 p.m.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Monday signed into law two anti-transgender bills, making Idaho the first among states that introduced some 40 such bills this year to enact them. The Republican governor approved legislation that prohibits transgender people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates, and another that bans transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports.

The governor of Idaho has signed a bill to prohibit the killing of unborn babies in abortions as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to do so. Sponsored by state Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, Senate Bill 1385 passed along party lines in a 27-5 vote and eventually passed in the House as well 49-18. The legislation would ban abortions once Roe v. Wade is overturned. Exceptions would be allowed for rape, incest and risks to the mother’s life. All other abortions would be considered a crime. This week, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed the legislation into law. The...

Idaho Governor Brad Little has issued a statewide 21-day stay at home order. He made the announcement Wednesday at the Idaho National Guard while the state's seven health districts are currently reporting 98 confirmed cases of COVID-19. "We are all in this together," Little said. "We will get through this together."

The bill, known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, or HB 500, will now head back to the House, where lawmakers will vote on a Senate amendment, and will then be delivered to the desk of Republican Gov. Brad Little. “We are not trying to do anything except save women’s sports for girls and women,” state Sen. Mary Souza said during the closing debate. “It is in the state’s interest. ... There is a third-party group that has been working with us on this bill, and it will be responsible for any legal defense fees.”

On March 9, 2020, the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee approved House Bill H440, a measure outlawing race-based affirmative action in state agencies, state contracting, and public education. The bill is currently on Idaho’s full senate floor for amendments. Once amended and signed by Governor Brad Little into law, H440 will make the Gem State the ninth to adopt a statewide ban on affirmative action. The other eight states are: California, Washington, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma. In most cases, measures to ban racial discrimination and preferential treatment were passed by popular votes on the ballot. At...

BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Senate has approved legislation making abortion a crime should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, the ruling establishing abortion rights nationwide. The Senate voted 27-7 Thursday to approve the measure that includes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Under the measure, criminal punishment would apply to the person performing the abortion, not the woman. A reversal of Roe would mean abortion policy would revert to the states.

Joe Biden celebrated his crushing victory over Bernie Sanders in Michigan — and in Mississippi, Missouri and Idaho too — by thanking him for running and hinting it was time for him to quit. “I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion. We share a common goal and together we’ll defeat Donald Trump — we’ll defeat him together,” Biden said in Philadelphia a little bit before 11 p.m. after his planned rally in Cleveland was canned due to coronavirus fears. Biden pivoted to a general election argument by hitting President Trump over...

The Gem State’s population is expected to continue to grow due to a multitude of reasons “Look outside your window today,” said Derrell Hartwick, president and CEO of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce. “You can see what the great draws are.” And if you looked outside Friday, you saw beautiful blue skies, sunshine and plenty of green. You saw people biking, walking dogs and sitting down with coffee. And if you went one step further and stepped outside, you felt a warm 60 degrees — and it was still February. Hartwick, who recently moved to Coeur d’Alene, spoke of...

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 House as Bailey Nielsen stood at his side with the weapon slung over her right shoulder, but did not say anything. “Bailey is carrying a loaded AR-15,” Charles Nielsen told lawmakers. “People live in fear, terrified of that which they do not understand. She’s...

H.L. Mencken once suggested that legislative seats be filled at random instead of by election. Admittedly, Mencken wrote that doing so might result in the selection of idiots. But, he said, “No matter how stupid they were, they could not be more stupid than the average legislator under the present system. Certainly, they’d be measurably more honest, taking one with another.” Here are some random musings from the last several days of Idaho lawmaking that makes Mencken’s proposal seem brilliant. On education: The Senate passed a bill to require elected school board trustees undergo mandatory training, conducted by the State...

Some residents in Oregon are fed up with living under Democratic control of their state government and have launched a ballot initiative campaign to join Republican-led Idaho. The movement, known as "Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho," is hoping to expand the borders of the Gem State through the inclusion of more than a dozen bordering rural counties now in Oregon. Mike McCarter, chief petitioner of the movement says the group has gotten the "green light" in at least three Oregon counties -- Josephine, Douglas and Umatilla -- that would start the first step in the secession process, which...

A group of Oregon residents is petitioning to have two counties in their state join Idaho, citing Oregon’s Democratic leadership. Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho said Josephine and Douglas counties have accepted ballot initiatives supporting a goal of joining Idaho, the organization said in a press release earlier this month. The Josephine County ballot initiative specifically “makes it county policy to cooperate with any state effort to move the Oregon/Idaho border, if any such effort develops,” the group said. The Douglas County Initiative amends a current ordinance to “add Idaho officials to the list of officials who may...

The Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to fund 11,000 miles (17,703 kilometers) of strategic fuel breaks in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Utah in an effort to help control wildfires. The fuel breaks are intended to prop up fire mitigation efforts and help protect firefighters, communities and natural resources, The Oregonian reported Saturday. According to the BLM, wildfires are becoming bigger and more frequent across the Great Basin states. Between 2009 and 2018, more than 13.5 million acres of BLM land burned in the project area.

There is, perhaps, a glimmer of hope for people like Boise’s Kari Wardle. Kari, 40, juggles full-time employment and raising a 5-year-old boy, while caring for her terminally-ill mom. But it’s her rising property taxes that have her really rattled. “My wages don’t increase enough every year to offset these costs,” Wardle explained. “With medical expenses and my child, even with working a full time job, we are barely getting by. If property taxes increase again next year, I honestly have no idea what we will do!” Some relief, however, may be on its way, in the form of three...