News Roundup: Feb 24-27

Your Semi-Weekly recap of top news stories impacting Idaho voters

Feb 28, 2023

SB1038 was a heavily debated bill proffered by conservative legislators and it ultimately did not make it past the floor of the Senate, falling 23-12. 16 Republicans and all 7 Democrats voted it down. There are additional education bills coming but this defeat signals that any change to education will need to be more gradual if it is going to pass this Senate.

Porn: Can Children Access it in Public Libraries?

Whether in the public library or public school library, independent groups from different areas of the state have been protesting to have inappropriate material kept away from children. Some library administrators have defended their decisions as ‘free speech’ or have referred concerned citizens to their challenge policies to contest any material they find offensive.

The standoff has moved the battle to the legislature where citizen groups are trying to enact laws that would require the libraries to act where they have been resistant to doing so. A bill that was put forward last legislative session was defeated (H666) but it has been mostly resubmitted as H139.

The Idaho Freedom Foundation has provided a list of books that are ‘problematic’ as well as a few articles on the matter which include exchanges between IFF and the West Ada School District.

Governor’s Presser - Education Top of Mind

Governor Little held a breakfast presser with members of the media on Friday. He opened with remarks about education bills, particularly the ‘Launch’ bill (H24) that should be heard in Senate committee this week. It narrowly passed the House as it did not have the support of a majority of Republicans.

He also spoke of the slow pace of the legislature so far but believes they are now catching up. His last comment before fielding questions was on the Fentanyl epidemic.

The Idaho Capital Sun covered the event in this article.

Update: North Idaho College Accreditation Status

The State of Idaho funds four community colleges with North Idaho College being one of them. The loss of accreditation would likely have dire consequences to future enrollment and could impact its funding.

The college has until March 13th to respond to a ‘show cause’ letter by NCWWU, the organization that provides the accreditation. The Trustees responded on 2/23 indicating they will strive to maintain the accreditation.

The Kootenai County GOP put out a statement that the threat to pull accreditation is political.

Was COVID from a Lab Leak?

According to the article, the Department of Energy, which is responsible for oversight of a network of national laboratories, made a ‘low confidence’ judgment that Covid most likely originated from a laboratory leak. This was part of an intelligence briefing from November of 2021. The FBI has concluded separately with moderate confidence that the pandemic began with a laboratory accident. The CIA has not publicly made any report and other agencies are on record stating the cause was natural transmission from an infected animal. The World Health Organization (WHO) had released a report in March of 2021 dismissing the lab leak theory and stating it most likely spread from animals to humans, however, the lead on that investigation subsequently stated that Chinese colleagues influenced the report.

Democrat Debrief

This week, the Democrats opposed restrictions to the SNAP program and are fighting against three separate ESA/voucher bills (edit: perhaps the most impactful ESA bill did not pass the Senate late Monday). Success stories were movement forward on bills that insure rental fees are reasonable and transparent and the ‘Clean Slate’ bill which would remove minor misdemeanors from a person’s record.

The Idaho Voter’s Substack

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