Free Republic

Last fall, Matt Edwards, a conservative activist from Hayden, sent all 105 Idaho legislators a pledge. By signing the statement, lawmakers would promise to support what he termed medical freedom and privacy, election integrity and education freedom. They would also vow not to raise taxes, suppress free speech or support government lockdowns. “Only four Idaho senators signed the pledge. Since then, Edwards’ political action committee, Citizens Alliance of Idaho, with help from other deep-pocketed right-wing reformers, has spent nearly $200,000 to promote incumbent senators’ primary election opponents. The pledge is emblematic of a larger rift in the Idaho GOP over...

Includes candidates statements. Good list of Candidates.

“They are claiming irreparable harm because we have used our free speech right (to endorse candidates), as the rules allow,” Fuller said. “I am frankly dumbfounded that our own Republican Party would sue us.” The party has appointed Bryan Zollinger to represent them in the suit, and they plan to fight the complaint. “I’m not going to apologize because I don’t believe we’ve done anything wrong. I’m prepared to defend us,” Fuller said. The complaint comes after the state party has chastised the BCRCC twice in recent weeks. In a letter dated May 10, Luna criticized the BCRCC for distributing...

<p>RANDY Weaver, the survivalist known for his role in the Ruby Ridge standoff with the FBI, has died at the age of 74.</p><p>His daughter Sara confirmed the news on Facebook on Thursday.</p><p>Weaver's wife Vicki and 14-year-old son Samuel were killed by an FBI sniper during an 11-day standoff in the mountains of Idaho in 1992.</p>

The NRA has endorsed Brad Little for Governor, Scott Bedke for Lt. Governor, Lawrence Wasden for Attorney General, and Bryan Smith for Congress. Endorsements from the NRA come through the NRA-Political Victory Fund. The organization also rates each candidate in the race. For Governor, the NRA had the following ratings: Brad Little: A+ Janice McGeachin: A Ed Humphreys: AQ Cody Usabel: AQ Ashley Jackson: AQ Ben Cannady: AQ Steve Bradshaw: ? Lisa Marie: ? For the Lt. Governor’s race, here are the NRA’s ratings: Scott Bedke: A+ Priscilla Giddings: A Daniel Gasiorowski: ? In the Attorney General’s race, the NRA...

Prayers before Coeur d’Alene City Council meetings could be seeing their final Amen. The city, which recently took over scheduling pastors to give brief invocations, might end the decades-long practice. It has long been handled by Pastor Paul Van Noy of the Kootenai County Ministerial Association, a Christian organization. Mayor Jim Hammond said the city was given information by Van Noy stating it could be opening itself up to legal liabilities should it deny a person who wants to give the invocation. Hammond said that when the city recently took on scheduling of invocation pastors, it did so to give...

A former Idaho lawmaker was convicted Friday of raping a 19-year-old legislative intern after a dramatic trial in which the young woman fled the witness stand during testimony, saying "I can't do this." According to the intern, who is referred to as "Jane Doe" at her request, Aaron von Ehlinger, 39, raped her at his apartment after the two had dinner at a Boise restaurant in March 2021. Von Ehlinger was a state representative from Lewiston, but later resigned. He sat calmly as the verdict was read, as he has throughout the trial. Von Ehlinger talked quietly with his attorney,...

Your eyes are not deceiving you - the Bonner County Primary ballot looks like an all-Republican contest. From county to Congress, all candidates sport the “R” label, with the exception of one diehard Democrat. Give the man credit for honesty; at least he’s not hiding in the RINO ranks. Before 2011, when the Idaho GOP closed its Primary to all but Republican voters, rampant Democrat cross-over voting for the most liberal Republican on the ballot influenced election outcomes. Since then, a lot of shape-shifting has created a sudden dearth of Democrats. They began a new life as RINOs, both as...

Lori Vallow Daybell has been restored to competency and will face a jury trial on murder charges. District Judge Steven Boyce issued a written order Monday morning saying Daybell is fit to proceed and ordered that she be released from a Department of Health and Welfare facility where she has been undergoing treatment in northern Idaho since last summer... Daybell and her husband Chad Daybell are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder in relation to the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan — two of Lori’s kids — and Chad’s first...

John Hinderaker presents in Powerline a recent New York Post poll concluding, “A government that can’t keep its citizens reasonably safe is a failed regime…the poll, released Wednesday by Fontas Advisors/Core Decision Analytics, presented voters with this statement: ‘My family would have a better future if we left New York City permanently.’ The poll found 59% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, while 41% somewhat or strongly disagreed…a 12 percentage-point jump from voters who were asked the same question a year ago. Why do a clear majority of New Yorkers say they would be better off somewhere...

A federal judge this week denied a temporary restraining order sought by environmental groups that would block grazing in six eastern Oregon pastures. The Capital Press reports U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said the plaintiffs haven’t shown that turning cattle out on the pastures will cause irreparable harm to sage grouse or to rangeland research. He said continued grazing isn’t likely to irreparably harm the ability of environmental plaintiffs to enjoy undisturbed sagebrush grassland, since the pastures have long been grazed and are rested on a rotating basis. The case was filed against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management by...

More state legislative incumbents are facing primary challenges in Idaho this year than at any point since at least 2014. Seventy-five incumbents are seeking re-election this year, 61.3% of whom (46) are running in contested primaries. From 2014 to 2020, the percentage of incumbents in contested primaries hovered at around half that rate, ranging from 32 to 34%. Of those 46 incumbents in contested primaries, 45 are Republicans, and one – Rep. James Ruchti – is a Democrat. snip Looking beyond incumbents in contested primaries, the total number of primaries also increased this year to its highest level compared to...

A woman who said the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee tried to recruit her as part of an alleged plan to infiltrate and dismantle the local Democratic Party is now speaking publicly. The Press published in early March a recorded phone call between Kootenai County resident John Grimm and a person he identified as KCRCC Youth Chair Dan Bell. In the call, Bell described a plan by the KCRCC to take control of the local Democratic Party by having its own candidates run for Democratic precinct captain positions. Penelope Harries-Morris, a paralegal, told The Press in early March that Greg...

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has vetoed legislation that would make it illegal for most businesses to require the coronavirus vaccine. ... Last year, Montana became the first state in the nation to ban most businesses from requiring vaccines as a condition of employment. That law, like the one proposed in Idaho, cited “discrimination” as the reason. ... Idaho's bill, dubbed the “Coronavirus Pause Act,” would have subjected public and private employers to a misdemeanor charge punishable by a $1,000 fine if they require vaccines as a condition of employment or service. It includes exemptions for situations involving federal law, existing...

The Republican governor of Indiana has vetoed a bill that would have prohibited biological males who identify as female to participate in female sporting competitions, expressing multiple concerns about the proposed legislation.Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed House Enrolled Act 1041 on Monday, explaining his reasoning in a letter to Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Todd Huston, also a Republican. Holcomb expressed concern with the bill’s “wide-open nature of the grievance provisions,” believing they made it “unclear about how consistency and fairness will be maintained for parents and students across different counties and school districts.”The governor worries about the potential for the...

Rineke Lewis, a registered nurse in Boise, Idaho, said she expects to be fired after her exemption to the mandatory vaccination rule had been revoked and her religious exemption request denied. Though Democrat politicians are rapidly throwing out increasingly unpopular COVID jab mandates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, many ordinary Americans, including frontline healthcare workers, still face termination for refusing to get the experimental drugs. Last week, one Idaho nurse’s heartfelt Instagram message went viral when she explained that she faced imminent termination for refusing the shot, and asked followers whether they had any “leads” on other nursing positions...

The continued 'megadrought' in the West has brought a critical reservoir down to extraordinarily low levels, further endangering the region's water supply. "[The critical elevation] provides 35 feet of buffer before we reach our minimum power pool elevation where Glen Canyon Dam can no longer generate hydropower, " said Heather Patno, a hydrologic engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Levels are expected to be below the target elevation for a few weeks before rebounding in April due to snowmelt from mountains along the Colorado River Basin. Hydropower generation is not expected to be affected this spring, but it is...

Far-right activist Ammon Bundy, who’s running for governor in Idaho, has been arrested after refusing to leave a hospital in connection with a child-welfare case, police said Saturday. Bundy was arrested at about 1:15 a.m. on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing at St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center in Meridian, west of Boise, the Idaho Statesman reported. Bundy is well-known for participating in armed standoffs with law enforcement, notably at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016, which left one man dead, and on federal land near his family’s ranch in Nevada in 2014.

BOISE, Idaho — A House committee on Friday introduced sweeping tax legislation that would raise Idaho’s sales tax to the highest in the nation while eliminating most property taxes on owner-occupied homes. The House Revenue and Taxation Committee approved a possible hearing on the bill that also uses some of the increased sales tax money to raise the grocery sales tax credit from $100 to $175. The move will bump Idaho’s sales tax from 6% to 7.85%, the highest in the nation, according to the nonprofit Tax Foundation group that analyzes tax policy. California currently has the highest sales tax...

'This is a victory for girls’ sports in Iowa.'. Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill Thursday banning biological males from women’s sports. “This is a victory for girls’ sports in Iowa. No amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females. It’s simply a reality of human biology,” Reynolds said in a statement Thursday. “Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity and it’s absolutely unfair.” The move makes Iowa the 11th state in the nation to ban biological males from women’s sports. HF 2416 protects...