AP Idaho

By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press A federal report finds that in the run up to the 2020 presidential election U.S. states and territories had spent less than a third of the $805 million Congress had provided to shore up security for state and local election systems. A state-by-state snapshot released last month by the U.S.

PASCO, Wash. (AP) — The regular meeting of the Franklin, Washington, County commissioners disintegrated into a rally against the state’s mask mandate, with one commissioner walking out in protest. The mandate reinstated Monday to curb the surging number of COVID-19 cases and deaths requires people to wear masks inside public buildings. The Tri-City Herald reports

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho’s hospitals are bursting at the seams as coronavirus numbers continue to skyrocket across the state. Now, state leaders are calling on residents to serve as volunteers to help keep medical facilities across the state operating. Idaho Public Health Administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch says hospitals need help

PAHRUMP, Nev. (AP) — A prosecutor says an Arizona man arrested after a head-on crash that killed three members of an Idaho family on a rural Nevada highway will face felony driving under the influence charges. Nye County District Attorney Chris Arabia said Tuesday that Tyler Kennedy is due to face a judge is due

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has authorized the killing of two more wolves, several weeks after the state fatally shot two young wolves from the same pack. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the Lookout Mountain pack was suspected of injuring or killing five cows over two weeks in July, and the

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service is trying to bring back Idaho’s state tree to its former prominence. Western white pine were wiped out in the early to mid-1900s by a fungus that arrived from Europe in 1910. But efforts starting in 1950 to grow white pine trees resistant to the blister rust

By SARA CLINE Associated Press/Report for America PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — People in Oregon, regardless of vaccination status, will once again be required to wear masks in most public outdoor settings beginning Friday. That includes large outdoor events where physical distancing is not possible. Health officials say part of the reason is that they’re seeing

SEATTLE (AP) — More than 70% of people 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. King County Executive Dow Constantine on Tuesday announced the milestone. He said more than 1.6 million residents in the county which includes Seattle have received at least one dose. Authorities urged people who haven’t

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The former manager of a construction business owned by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon has pleaded guilty for his role in fraud that cost the tribes over $50,000. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Thomas Valentino Adams pleaded guilty to theft of funds from a tribal organization and agreed to pay

YERINGTON, Nev. (AP) — Ku Stevens says the significance of his “Remembrance Run” didn’t sink in until the end of the 50-mile trek from Carson City to Yerington. The high school senior says he got goosebumps finishing up the run honoring the memories of ancestors who were removed from their families and sent to the

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Police in Portland, Oregon, say they’re looking for a second shooter, after bullets were fired downtown during weekend demonstrations. Opposing rallies by a far-right group and left-wing anti-fascists drew hundreds of people to the Rose City on Sunday. They ended up sparking clashes that resulted in violence and property destruction. Late

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Supreme Court has rejected a new law designed to make it harder for voters to get initiatives on the ballot, saying the legislation was so restrictive it violates a fundamental state constitutional right. The ruling issued Monday was a win for Reclaim Idaho, which

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — One of two U.S. District judges for Idaho announced seven months ago that he’d take senior status in August, but there’s still no official nominee to replace him. The Idaho Press reports U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill planned to continue to hear a full caseload when he took senior status

By ANDREW SELSKY and SARA CLINE Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon was once the poster child for limiting the spread of the coronavirus, after its Democratic governor imposed some of the nation’s strictest safety measures, including mask mandates, limits on gatherings and an order closing restaurants. But now the state is being hammered

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Two new laws aimed at expanding voter access in Oregon are under fire from a conservative group that argues the changes will make state elections less secure. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports people affiliated with the group Oregonians for Fair Elections have filed referendum petitions that, if successful, would ask voters to

YERINGTON, Nev. (AP) — Ku Stevens says the significance of his “Remembrance Run” didn’t sink in until the end of the 50-mile trek from Carson City to Yerington. The high school senior says he got goosebumps finishing up the run honoring the memories of ancestors who were removed from their families and sent to the

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Hilary Knight tied former U.S. star Cammi Granato’s record for goals in women’s world hockey championship play with 44 in the Americans’ 3-0 victory over Finland on Sunday night. Making her U.S.-record 11th appearance in the event, the 32-year-old Knight scored from the slot to cap the scoring with 6:58 left.

By JEREMY WEBER Daily Inter Lake LIBBY, Mont. (AP) — An organization based in northwestern Montana is continuing a 160-year tradition of prospecting for gold near Libby. The Northwest Montana Gold Prospectors spend one weekend a month in the summer and two weekends in September at their claim about 23 miles south of Libby. They

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Opposing rallies that drew hundreds of people in Portland, Oregon, are sparking clashes Sunday. The two groups had gathered in different parts of the city after a far-right group changed the location of its event. KOIN-TV reports the right-wing rally drew about 100 people in a parking lot of a former

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s announcement of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for state workers comes at a time when the state ferry system is experiencing a severe staffing shortage. KUOW reports that in an Aug. 13 notice, Washington State Ferries Chief of Staff Nicole McIntosh said there was “an unprecedented 91 relief requests yesterday.”

By SARA CLINE Associated Press/Report for America PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Demonstrations are expected between opposing groups in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Sunday. City leaders on Friday denounced violence and urged demonstrators to “choose to act peacefully.” Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell says that all available personnel will be reporting for duty and that officers

A major state employees union is criticizing Gov. Jay Inslee’s implementation of a broad COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Inslee last week ordered state employees and health care workers to get vaccinated by Oct. 18 or face termination. On Wednesday, he expanded the requirement to include K-12 and higher education employees. The Seattle Times reports Inslee said

By MATTHEW BROWN and JOHN FLESHER Associated Press FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is sticking by former President Donald Trump’s decision to lift protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S. But a top federal wildlife official on Friday told The Associated Press there is growing concern over aggressive hunting and

FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) — Biden sticks with Trump decision to lift US wolf protections, but officials have worries over states’ aggressive hunting.

BLAINE, Wash. (AP) — Authorities say they have found the first Asian giant hornet nest of 2021 in a rural area in Washington state. The nest was found about a quarter-mile from where a resident reported seeing one of the hornets earlier this month. The Washington State Department of Agriculture says it narrowed the search

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — County officials in Idaho have agreed to pay $350,000 to four former jail nurses to settle a lawsuit alleging they were discriminated against because they are women. Tracy Johnson, Toni Krieter, Rene Whitneck and Linda Ellis were four of the five nurses working at the Canyon

SEATTLE (AP) — Authorities say there are more people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Washington state than at any time during the pandemic. Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association. said as of Thursday morning there were 1,240 people with coronavirus in state hospitals. The previous highest number was about 1,100 in December. Sauer

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho students lost some academic ground during the coronavirus pandemic, with standardized testing scores dropping in math and language arts compared to 2019. The Idaho Department of Education released the Idaho Standardized Achievement Test scores on Tuesday. Students showed the biggest decline in math skills, with

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s largest school district will require all employees to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the Portland Public Schools announced Wednesday workers must submit proof of vaccination by the end of the month. Classes start Sept. 1. The district negotiated the requirement with its labor unions, officials said in a statement.

FORD, Wash. (AP) — Officials say strong winds on Monday led to fire growth in central and eastern Washington that prompted new mandatory evacuations and burned homes. The Spokesman-Review reports a fire northwest of Spokane near the town of Ford caused residents to scramble to leave their homes on Monday. Officials say 20 buildings including

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Missouri family alleges in a federal lawsuit that Yellowstone National Park rangers and Wyoming sheriff’s deputies seeking a murder suspect held them at gunpoint without adequate cause for an hour. Brett and Genalyn Hemry, of Independence, Missouri, seek unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein is calling on federal land managers to conduct an investigation to determine how many of the wild horses captured on public lands in the West end up at slaughterhouses. The California Democrat is urging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to reevaluate the

By TERENCE CHEA, ETHAN SWOPE and JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric says it has begun shutting off power to about 51,000 customers in 18 Northern California counties to prevent wildfires. The utility announced Tuesday evening that it has begun enacting the shutoffs as a precaution to prevent

MOOSE, Wyo. (AP) — Grand Teton National Park just had its busiest month on record. July is almost always the busiest month for tourism in the park in northwestern Wyoming. In July 2021, almost 830,000 people visited Grand Teton. Park officials said Monday that was up from 796,000 in July 2018, the second-busiest month in

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Authorities in eastern Idaho say a man was electrocuted after jumping on a power transformer in Idaho Falls. The Idaho Falls Fire Department said in a prepared statement the man died instantly from the electrocution. Police and firefighters were sent to Idaho Falls Power shortly before midnight for a report

QUINCY, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters battling flames in Northern California forests are girding for new bouts of windy weather, and a utility has warned thousands of customers it might cut their electricity to prevent new fires from igniting if gusts damage power lines. Conditions that suppressed the huge Dixie Fire overnight gave way Monday afternoon

By EUGENE GARCIA and CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press QUINCY, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of Northern California homes remain threatened by the nation’s largest wildfire and officials warn the danger of new blazes erupting across the West is high because of unstable weather. Thunderstorms haven’t produced much rain, but whipped up winds and generated lightning strikes

By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An investment firm whose land-swap proposal in the McCall area was rejected by state land managers has sent a letter to Republican Gov. Brad Little and other state officials seeking to reverse the decision. The letter sent Saturday by Trident Investments contests the Idaho Department of

SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill approved by the Senate this week includes funding for Western water projects that farmers, water providers and environmentalists say are badly needed across the parched region. The Senate voted this week in favor of the legislation that seeks to rebuild America’s roads

By EUGENE GARCIA and DAISY NGUYEN Associated Press QUINCY, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters battling the Dixie Fire face “another critical day” as thunderstorms pushed flames closer to two towns in the forestlands of Northern California. The unstable weather whipped up winds and produced lightning, threatening thousands of homes not far from where the fire destroyed

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has tossed most of the civil claims brought in a wrongful death suit by the family of an Arizona rancher who served as spokesperson for the armed takeover of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Robert “LaVoy” Finicium was fatally shot by Oregon state

By MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz has fired the two police officers who authorities say violated the law while attending events in Washington D.C. during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Diaz on Friday said he fired married officers Caitlin and Alexander Everett. He said they were present at the

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon governor deploying up to 1,500 National Guard troops to support hospitals as COVID cases soar.

GEORGE, Wash. (AP) — Health officials say over 160 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed so far in people who attended the Watershed Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington. The Seattle Times reports more than 20,000 people attended the three-day outdoor country music festival in late July at the Gorge in George.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney has issued an order forming the six-member commission that will redraw Idaho’s 35 legislative districts. The Republican secretary of state issued the order on Thursday to form the Commission for Reapportionment that will redraw districts based on Census data that was released earlier Thursday. The

LAKEVIEW, Ore. (AP) — Two new wildfires started by lightning Thursday afternoon are growing rapidly in southeastern Oregon not too far from the site of the Bootleg Fire, which until recently was the nation’s largest blaze. The Patton Meadow fire about 14 miles west of Lakeview, near the California border, exploded to 11 square miles

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Washington State University has announced students will soon no longer be able to cite a “personal or philosophical” exemption to the school’s requirement that all who attend get a COVID-19 vaccine. In a statement Thursday WSU said those exemptions would be nixed once the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — Conservationists are accusing federal land managers of illegally withholding information about plans to build fuel breaks to slow wildfires across six western states. The Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in federal court in Reno this week under the Freedom of Information Act. It says the

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press Patients left on beds in hospital hallways, their monitoring machines beeping away as too few doctors and nurses attend to an overload of emergencies. People diagnosed with cancer or heart disease desperately needing treatments, but being turned away.  Hospital staffers and public health managers in southern Oregon say it’s never

By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Gov. Brad Little is directing $30 million to expand COVID-19 testing in K-12 schools. The Republican governor made the announcement Thursday at Nampa High School in southwestern Idaho as coronavirus cases spike because of the delta variant just as students prepare to return to class

By DAVID A. LIEB and ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press The once-a-decade battle over redistricting is set to be a showdown over the suburbs, as new census data showed rapid growth around some of the nation’s largest cities and shrinking population in many rural counties. From Texas to Florida, some of the biggest gains reported Thursday

NEWBERG, Ore. (AP) — The school board in Newberg, Oregon, has voted to ban on pride flags, flags reading Black Lives Matter and any broadly “political” signs, clothing, and other items. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the school board voted Tuesday, four to three, to enact the ban. The board’s three-member policy committee is set to

SEATTLE (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is trying to keep a proposed Seattle charter amendment about homelessness off the November ballot. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in King County Superior Court, the ACLU and other homelessness activists said the “Compassion Seattle”  measure is beyond the scope of local initiative power and

By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An investment firm says state officials erroneously over-appraised the value of state land in and around McCall in rejecting the company’s land-swap application. Trident Investments in a statement Wednesday says it’s disappointed in the appraisal it says any professional appraiser can see isn’t accurate. The Idaho

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — Local health leaders are looking into a COVID-19 outbreak linked to an outdoor music festival in eastern Oregon. KATU-TV reports Umatilla County Public Health Director Joseph Fiumara says officials have tied 66 COVID-19 cases to the Pendleton Whiskey Music Fest on July 10. The public health director says outbreaks linked to

By SARA CLINE Associated Press/Report for America PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday announced a statewide indoor mask requirement because of the spike in coronavirus hospitalizations and cases, warning that the state’s health care system could be overwhelmed. Beginning Friday, everyone who is 5 years or older in Oregon — regardless of

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press ROCKFORD, Wash. (AP) — A drought in eastern Washington state that is the worst since 1977 has devastated what is normally the fourth largest U.S. wheat crop. The soft white winter wheat grown in the region is prized in Asian countries because it is excellent for making pastries, cakes,

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A Boise man who was arrested on a trespassing charge after entering private businesses and refusing to wear a mask has notified local law enforcement agencies that he intends to sue, claiming he was assaulted and falsely imprisoned by the arresting officers. The Idaho Press reports Peter Alan Hearn filed the

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho’s largest independent primary medical care system is reporting coronavirus numbers that mirror the surge last fall, and a Boise-area hospital is again putting some elective surgeries on hold. Dr. David Peterman, the CEO of Primary Health Group, says the numbers don’t bode well. Primary Health’s

By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A grizzly bear that fatally mauled a Montana man near Yellowstone National Park this spring was likely defending a moose carcass. Investigators theorized the bear may have continued to aggressively guard the cache, including by charging at rescuers and investigators, because of a recent fight

By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Wildlife officials say an emergency trap-and-truck operation of Idaho-bound endangered sockeye salmon because of high water temperatures in the Snake and Salmon rivers netted enough fish at an eastern Washington dam to sustain an elaborate hatchery program. Idaho Fish and Game officials said Tuesday they captured

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho is facing unprecedented drought despite getting normal snow levels last winter, and water managers warn the state could be entering a dry spell that may last for years. The Idaho Press reports that a Idaho Department of Water Resources hydrologist recently wrote in a water analysis that the state could