The Idaho State Board of Education on Wednesday formally approved the removal of entrance exams as an admissions requirement for higher education institutions in the state.

More than a year after Idaho expanded Medicaid to include the so-called “working poor,” some Idahoans have their sights set on further expanding access to coverage.

STARBUCK, Wash. — Picture a fading fluorescent light tube, sputtering off and on and humming a warning that it may soon blink out and go dark.

LEWISTON — A pair of Lewiston Republican lawmakers came to the defense of the Idaho Freedom Foundation on Thursday, pushing back against the notion that the organization and its supporters represent a threat to democracy.

KELLOGG — Josh Haynes had a simple explanation for what he was doing below the surface of the Silver Mountain ski hill on an April afternoon, at the dead end of one of the countless tunnels that comprise the historic and, perhaps, future Bunker Hill Mine.

WASHINGTON — In a rare bipartisan vote following weeks of haggling and delays, on Tuesday the Senate passed a roughly $250 billion bill aimed at boosting the U.S. technology sector’s ability to compete with China, a priority shared by the Northwest’s Democratic and Republican senators alike.

Originally published June 9 on KTVB.com.

RATHDRUM — Tilly the dog has had a chaotic few days.

Pocatello native Wade Smith was walking the seventh-hole fairway at a Miami Beach golf course when he spotted an iguana and then looked up to see a hawk circling overhead.

A Republican lawmaker in North Idaho is in trouble with some county GOP leaders in his district in a sign of growing tension in conservative Idaho politics.

IDAHO FALLS — Walter James Mason, who was a defendant in a murder case filed in 1980, has died, according to a notice filed in the criminal case. He was 87.

Just so you know, grizzly bears charge park rangers too.

ARCO — The best advice Dr. Mark Bolton with Lost Rivers Medical Center in Arco offers about the summer tick season is if one attaches, use tweezers.

IDAHO FALLS — Eight counties in eastern Idaho are poised to give Eastern Idaho Public Health almost 34% more in funding than they typically would.

This article first published in the Lewiston Tribune.

MOSCOW — Idaho’s governor was on hand Wednesday to help break ground for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories’ 140,000-square-foot printed circuit board factory in Moscow, welcoming one of the few new plants of its kind to be built in the United States in the last decade.

POCATELLO — Idaho State University officials say they’ve implemented a hiring slowdown and will dip into institutional reserves to absorb a $500,000 state-imposed funding cut during the current fiscal year.

Minidoka National Historic Site switched to summer hours last weekend and opened its visitor center with guided tours.

DUBOIS, Wyoming — In 2010, Dan Starks got a patriotic idea. He wanted to participate in the Fourth of July parade in Dubois, the small northwest Wyoming town he retired to after a successful career in the medical device industry.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen released a legal opinion Thursday stating that certain educational lessons or job trainings dealing with race violate state and federal law.

Chad Daybell made his first appearance in court Wednesday on three murder charges in connection with the deaths of his late wife and his new wife's two children.

LEWISTON — Spring chinook fishing will close on Idaho’s lower Salmon River on Friday evening but will remain open on the nearby Little Salmon River and on the Snake River in Hells Canyon at least through Sunday.

Two weeks after children as young as 12 years old became eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, few in Idaho have received shots.

“The cost of living in the city of Bozeman is getting away from us,” City Manager Jeff Mihelich said.

IDAHO FALLS — Earlier this year the College of Eastern Idaho took the next step in providing students with a cybersecurity education.

This story originally appeared in the Idaho Capital Sun.

The Southern Alps stretch along the length of the South Island of New Zealand. They are filled with craggy peaks, alpine meadows, glacial lakes and river crossings.

MOSCOW — Moscow High School seniors appeared unimpressed with legislative efforts to curtail alleged social justice programming in Idaho’s K-12 system while speaking Thursday with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra.

A civil suit filed against a retired Idaho Falls gynecologist that accused him of using his own sperm to impregnate a patient receiving fertility treatments has been dismissed.

An exclusive Montana resort wants to turn sewage into snow so that its rich and famous members can ski its slopes in a winter season that’s shrinking because of climate change.

Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on May 12, 2021

BUTTE, Mont. — A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a former Missoula man convicted of having gay sex would not have to register as a sex offender.

LEWISTON — In what’s beginning to seem like a badly scripted Hollywood movie, more problems emerged Tuesday in the effort to replace former Lewiston state Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger.

A man who calls Rexburg his hometown helped deliver a baby, 40,000 feet in the air while on a flight to Hawaii, and became part of a viral TikTok video.

If you talk to Dan West about his land, you’re likely to get an earful.

RIGBY — Rigby Middle School was evacuated Thursday morning after a shooting was reported at the school.

Recently released data show that females in Idaho reported post-vaccination coronavirus infections at higher rates than females across the country.

GRANGEVILLE — After deliberating a little more than an hour Wednesday, a jury of five women and seven men found Sean L. Anderson guilty of felony aggravated assault on a peace officer and the use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a crime.

In a sign that Idaho has more COVID-19 vaccines than residents who want them, state public health officials will no longer recommend that providers ask people to prove they live or work in-state to be inoculated.