Comey faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each charge.

COMMENTARY | The WCA has joined forces with the Children’s Home Society and the Idaho Youth Ranch to address this crisis head-on, writes guest columnist Bea Black.

Idaho legislators serving on the state’s budget committee took their first look Tuesday at a new online budget tool they say will help them drill deeper into budgets for all state agencies and departments. #idleg #idpol

U.S. Senate candidate Todd Achilles of Boise filed a complaint alleging that U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz violated the Hatch Act by displaying what Achilles called “overtly partisan messages” appearing on the Forest Service’s websites. #idpol

COMMENTARY | Crapo, it seems clear, has been stonewalling any effort to force release of material that members of his staff reviewed more than 18 months ago, writes guest columnist Marc Johnson. #idpol

The National Park Service this week released an economic report showing that Glacier and Yellowstone generated roughly $1.5 billion in economic output in nearby communities in 2024.

Trump said he will likely announce mass layoffs of federal employees in the next four or five days and opened the door to canceling funding approved by Congress if the shutdown persists.

Premiums for plans on the individual market, where people buy insurance for themselves, are set to rise by 10%. And premiums for plans that employers commonly purchase, through the small group market, are set to rise by 11%.

Now in its third year, the effort to rid Idaho’s Snake River of invasive quagga mussels is a near 24/7 operation taking place both on the water and in nearby community college laboratories.

President Donald Trump sent mixed messages Monday about whether he would negotiate a deal with Democrats to extend the enhanced tax credits for people who get their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, one of the main issues that led to the government shutdown.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case that could reverse or solidify state laws across the country that ban a controversial counseling practice for LGBTQ+ youth.

Saying the Trump administration directly contravened her Saturday order blocking the federal government from mobilizing National Guard troops in Portland, a federal judge issued a broader order barring the federal government from relocating National Guard members to Oregon from any state.

The university is at a difficult crossroads. Enrollment is down nearly 20% over the past six years across all of the university’s campuses. State and federal cuts are adding to financial pressure, and more tuition hikes could be on the way.

The podcast is produced by The Community Library’s Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History and features archival recordings and interviews from the Trailing of the Sheep Festival.

Unless Congress extends them, the enhanced premium tax credits that let people buy cheaper health insurance on exchanges will expire at the end of this year. Without those credits, 25,000 Idahoans are likely to cancel their insurance policies — as average premiums are expected to double.

The U.S. Supreme Court again allowed the Trump administration to strip temporary protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelans, opening them up for quick deportations as the president continues with his plans for mass deportations.

Vaccine adoption rates for children are low in the states where cervical cancer rates are highest — about one-third of boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17 were vaccinated in Mississippi as of 2020.

An agreement to reopen the federal government was nowhere in sight Friday after U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans failed Friday, for the fourth time, to move on a deal and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he won’t bring his members back until the middle of the month.

The vast majority of Americans, including Republicans and those who identify as strong supporters of President Donald Trump, want Congress to renew the enhanced tax credits for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, according to a poll released Friday.

The bulk of the increase, 85%, is among Black and Hispanic men, many in Southern and Midwestern states.

Oral arguments are open to the public, and students have been invited to attend each day of hearings in eastern Idaho.

On Wednesday, a U.S Department of Agriculture spokesperson said firefighting operations on national forests will continue through the government shutdown, at least for now.

If Idaho’s only Planned Parenthood clinic closed, other health centers in Idaho would see a 23% increase in patients seeking contraceptives, according to research by the Guttmacher Institute that found that federally qualified health centers can’t easily replace PP. via @idahocapitalsun.com

The new KIDS First Coalition says it will split the cost of child care three ways using the “tri-share model,” which calls on employers, employees and local governments to fund the program.

Nearly half of USDA employees will be furloughed during the federal government shutdown, though key programs that support nutrition, forests and wildfire prevention, as well as the most pressing plant and animal diseases and agricultural commodity assessments, will continue.

The Trump administration expects several programs will be impacted by the shutdown, including new enrollees in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC.

The Ontario Planned Parenthood health center is the nearest place many Idahoans can legally access abortion care. Between 2023 and 2024, it reported a 655% increase in patient visits.

Hurwit will be based in the firm’s Boise office, focusing on commercial litigation after more than a decade of serving in the U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho office.

There are around 14,387 civilian federal workers in Idaho, with the highest number in the southwestern region of the state, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.

“Currently, the National Forests and Grasslands will remain open to visitors and wildland firefighting and disaster response will continue,” a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson who did not give their name said in a written message to the Sun. "This may change due to length of the shutdown.

COMMENTARY | Our absentee system is controlled, request-based, and full of checks that protect security and accountability, writes guest columnist Becky Funk. #idpol

From 2022 to 2024, Idaho’s child uninsured rate rose from 5.7% to 8.1% — growing Idaho’s number of uninsured children from 28,000 to 40,000 kids, according to a report released earlier this month by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.

As Idaho’s only Planned Parenthood clinic, the Meridian clinic draws people from across the state to visit for care. In the past year, some of the clinic’s roughly 5,000 patients traveled from more than a dozen rural Idaho counties, according to the organization.

The U.S. Senate failed to advance two short-term government funding bills Tuesday when Democrats and Republicans deadlocked for the second time this month, with just hours to go before a shutdown that appeared nearly certain to begin at midnight.

COMMENTARY | Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality has quietly rewritten cancer protection rules to benefit Perpetua Resources’ gold project, writes guest columnist Ian von Lindern.

The partial government shutdown that began in December 2018 and lasted through January 2019 led to a loss of about $3 billion in gross domestic product that couldn’t be recovered, according to a prior CBO analysis that was referenced in the letter.

Flags will be lowered until sunrise on Oct. 5.

A contentious new sales tax on services that Democratic state lawmakers relied on to pay for Washington’s latest budget is set to take effect Wednesday.

Three National Park Service sites in Idaho have been selected for new renovation and repair projects paid by federal funds through the Great American Outdoors Act. #idpol

Since Medicaid expansion went into effect in 2020, there have been multiple unsuccessful attempts in the Legislature to repeal it. #idleg #idpol

A government shutdown will begin Wednesday unless Republicans and Democrats in Congress reach agreement on a stopgap spending bill.

The Trump administration has again petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court regarding birthright citizenship, this time on the merits of the administration’s effort to rewrite the constitutional right afforded to children born on U.S. soil.

Oregon and the city of Portland are suing President Donald Trump to block the federal government from deploying hundreds of Oregon National Guard members in an unprecedented crackdown in Oregon’s largest city.

Because of rising costs, less federal payments and new regulations, some insurers who offer Medicare Advantage Plans are reducing benefits, trimming provider networks and leaving some areas, the Idaho Department of Insurance announced.

Most people who want to be vaccinated for COVID should still be able to, and their health insurance would probably cover it, said Idaho’s state epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn.

The nonprofit Truth in Accounting, which advocates for more transparency in public finance, released its Financial State of the States report. It concluded that 25 states were unable to cover all their financial obligations at the end of fiscal year 2024, which for most states ended June 30.

Comey, whom a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted on two charges Thursday, said he and his family “have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way.”

“Generally, when we have years like this where the budgets are tight we’ll get things done faster because we don’t fight amongst ourselves as much,” House Speaker Mike Moyle said. “There’s nothing to fight over." #idleg #idpol

COMMENTARY | The lawsuit points out that private schools are not general, uniform, thorough, free, common or open to all students, write guest columnists Rod Gramer and Jim Jones. #idleg #idpol

About 40 employers — in government and private business — plan to be at the hiring event, including Amalgamated Sugar, the West Ada School District, H&R Block and more.