Tag: idaho

Outraged Citizen Unleashes on City Council For Passing One of the Nation’s Toughest Hate Crime Laws

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, now has one of the nation’s toughest hate crime laws.

The Coeur d’Alene City Council unanimously approved a new hate crime ordinance, introducing a significant addition to the municipal code. 

This new chapter establishes a separate offense for individuals who commit an existing offense with a bias motive, Krem2 reported.

The Idaho Tribune described the law as “draconian,” arguing it “will basically make it illegal to think the wrong way.”

“If found guilty, you’ll be sentenced to ‘[re]education.’”

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War On Nation’s Food Supply?: Idaho Restricts Water To 500,000 Acres Of Farmland 

In late May, Idaho Department of Water Resources Director Mathew Weaver issued a curtailment order requiring 6,400 junior groundwater rights holders who pump off the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer to shut off their spigots.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued a statement following the order on May 30, “Water curtailment is never desired, but the director must follow Idaho law and the Constitution in issuing this order.” 

Brian Murdock, an East Idaho farmer, said the water curtailment affects 500,000 acres, which equates to roughly 781 square miles of farmland. 

“Well, as you said, the state of Idaho and the Idaho Department of Water Resources has issued this curtailment of 500,000 acres. And to help put that in perspective, that’s basically 781 square miles of farm ground that is being taken out of production,” Murdock told the hosts of Fox News. 

The grain and potato farmer continued, “And, of course, the worst problem is this is happening during a very plentiful water year. We have the reservoirs [that] are completely full, and when I mean full, they’re dang near breaking. The rivers are running as high as they possibly can. Just trying to keep those dams from breaking.” 

In eastern Idaho, groundwater users with junior water rights breached the 2016 agreement in 2021 and 2022. Currently, Gov. Little, the lieutenant governor, the Director of Water Resources, and representatives from groundwater and surface water user groups are discussing a new deal. The plan is to strike a new agreement before the curtailment dries up the farmland. 

Murdock told co-hosts Dagen McDowell and Sean Duffy that his family’s century-old farm faces a $3 million loss due to the state-issued order. 

“This is the largest curtailment in the history of the United States as far as farm ground,” Murdock said in a video posted on X. 

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Botched execution of serial killer in Idaho puts focus on capital punishment secrecy laws

In 2012, two Idaho prison officials chartered a private plane and flew to Washington state with thousands of dollars in cash.

They met with a pharmacist behind closed doors and bought the drug for a convicted murderer’s lethal injection.

Only a years-long public records lawsuit revealed the pharmacist’s name, the pharmacy and other details of the exchange. After prison officials said the pharmacist’s exposure had scared away other lethal drug suppliers, Idaho lawmakers barred such information from getting out again.

Idaho tried and failed Wednesday to execute Thomas Eugene Creech, a 73-year-old serial killer who had been in prison for 50 years. Neither his attorneys nor the public knew where the state obtained the drug or the exact qualifications of his executioners.

Opponents say secrecy laws are are a significant hurdle to accountability and make it hard to ensure that the procedures aren’t unconstitutionally painful, whether the deaths are carried out successfully — as Texas did Wednesday in the case of Ivan Cantu — or botched like Creech’s.

Idaho long kept the identities of execution team members and drug suppliers secret but judges were still able to force disclosure of the information if it was relevant to lawsuits or appeals. The new law prohibits state officials from disclosing the information, even if under court order.

The law also prevents professional licensing boards from taking disciplinary action against people for participating in executions.

Such secrecy is typical among states that impose capital punishment, including Texas, where lawmakers passed a similar measure in 2015 to ensure drug suppliers did not face retaliation or harassment for cooperating with executions.

“States are saying, ‘We don’t need to show you the information about … how we find or drugs or the training of the prison staff,’” said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that tracks executions. “And then, when things go wrong, they can’t be held accountable.”

Creech was convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more. He has been in custody since 1974 and was already serving a life term when he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, to death in 1981 — the crime for which he was to be executed.

When his appointed hour came at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Creech was wheeled into the execution chamber and strapped to a table. Medical personnel poked and prodded at his arms, legs, hands and feet for nearly an hour, making eight attempts, but they couldn’t find a vein they thought would hold up long enough to deliver the fatal dose. He was returned to his cell.

It is unclear whether or when the state might try again, or how. Like other states concerned about the availability of lethal injection, Idaho recently passed a law allowing for firing squads as a backup, but the state has yet to write protocols for using that method or build a facility where it could shoot people to death. It has not approved the use of nitrogen gas, a method used for the first time early this year in Alabama.

Creech’s execution team comprised volunteers who, according to Idaho execution protocols, were required to have at least three years of medical experience, such as having been a paramedic, and to have “current venous access proficiency.” They were not necessarily doctors, who famously take an oath to “do no harm” — though Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt later told lawmakers that the executioners regularly use their IV skills to save lives in their day jobs. They wore white balaclava-style coverings to conceal their faces.

Tewalt defended the state’s approach, saying the department ensures execution drugs are acquired lawfully, provides test results showing their authenticity, and ensures medical members of the execution team meet or exceed required qualifications.

“I would argue we are very transparent about any information that speaks to the integrity of the process,” said Tewalt. “What we won’t do is tell you their names.”

Tewalt also disagreed with characterizing the attempt as “botched” — stopping the execution after the failed IVs prevented the process from truly going awry, he said.

Creech, according to his attorneys, suffers from several conditions that could have made vein accessibility challenging: Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and edema. It can also be more difficult for older people to have IVs inserted, as their veins can be less stable.

“This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates in circumstances completely shielded in secrecy,” Creech’s attorneys, with the nonprofit Federal Defender Services of Idaho, said in a written statement.

Among the arguments they made in their unsuccessful last-minute petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court was that the secrecy violated Creech’s due-process rights and could constitute cruel and unusual punishment if the lethal drug, the sedative pentobarbital, was of poor quality and caused unnecessary pain or complications.

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New Idaho Bill Would Apply $420 Mandatory Minimum Fine For Marijuana Possession

Anyone convicted of possessing less than three ounces of marijuana in Idaho would receive a mandatory minimum fine of $420 if a new bill introduced in the Idaho Legislature becomes law.

House Bill 606 is Rep. Bruce Skaug’s second attempt to pass a bill creating a mandatory minimum fine for possession of less than three ounces of marijuana, after House Bill 559 was introduced on February 13.

On Tuesday, Skaug, R-Nampa, told members of the House State Affairs Committee that House Bill 606 replaces House Bill 559 and makes a technical correction. The difference is the newest bill adds language that basically says any other penalties specified in state law can also be applied, in addition to the $420 fine.

If passed into law, the new bill would amend the existing penalties in Idaho law for manufacturing, delivery or possession of controlled substances. Idaho law already specifies that anyone possessing more than three ounces of marijuana can be punished with a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to $10,000, or both. The new bill simply adds a fine of not less than $420 for possession of less than three ounces of marijuana. State law describes marijuana as “all parts of the plants of the genus cannabis, including the extract or any preparation of cannabis which contains tetrahydrocannabinol.”

The $420 fine is a known reference to slang for getting high on marijuana. During Tuesday’s short introductory hearing, Skaug also dropped several marijuana-related puns when he told committee he “smoked out” the problem in his last bill and ran the changes by his assistant, “Mary Jane.”

Other than Wyoming, Idaho’s neighboring states have legalized medical or recreational marijuana. Utah allows for the possession and use of medical marijuana for qualified patients who have a medical cannabis card. Washington, Oregon, Montana and Nevada allow recreational marijuana.

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Boise Police search Idaho Harm Reduction Project locations

The Idaho Press is reporting that the Boise Police have severed search warrants at both Idaho Harm Reduction Project locations in Boise and in Caldwell.

A spokesperson for the department told the Idaho Press report that the search warrants are part of an ongoing investigation into the distribution of drug paraphernalia.

The Idaho Harm Reduction Project “Works to serve the drug using community of Idaho, as well as the general public by creating safe communities through evidence based programming, education, needle exchange, and appropriate needle disposal,” according to their website.

The Idaho Harm Reduction Project provides harm reduction supplies like sterile injection equipment, sharps disposals, and Narcan, among other things. They also provide training on the use and administration of Narcan, a drug that can stop an Opioid overdose from killing a drug user if administered timely.

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‘The way our society is going, this is going to be normalized’: Lawmaker introduces anti-cannibalism bill after seeing prank show in which no human flesh was consumed

An Idaho lawmaker introduced a cannibalism bill Thursday she said would keep human flesh and bone out of the food supply — and it appears the legislator based her proposal on a reality show prank.

Rep. Heather Scott, a Republican, introduced a bill that would expand the state’s existing criminal cannibalism law to prohibit any person from “willfully provid[ing] the flesh or blood of a human being to another person to ingest without such person’s knowledge or consent.” Idaho’s cannibalism law already outlaws the willful ingestion of the flesh or blood of a human being.

The official statement of purpose of House Bill 522 states that the expanded law “has no fiscal impact,” because it “causes no additional expenditure of funds at the state or local level of government, nor does it cause an increase or decrease in revenue for state or local government.”

On the legislative floor, Scott said she had two reasons for introducing the bill: to prevent human composting, and to ensure that duping people into eating human material is not “normalized.”

“I know this seems a heavy topic,” Scott said as she explained her proposal, “It might seem kind of gruesome. It kinda is.”

First, Scott discussed the dangers of human composting.

“In 2019, I heard that Washington state was starting to do human composting, and that disturbed me,” she said. “So, I wanted to address this because what I didn’t want to see is bags of compost with human bone fragments.”

“I didn’t want to see that in my Home Depot stores,” Scott said.

In 2019, Washington became the first state to legalize “human composting” — an environmentally-friendly burial practice in which people can be buried without embalming, caskets, or headstones. Since then, other states have allowed “green cemeteries” as legal burial alternatives to traditional cemeteries. The practice does not involve either the bagging or the consumption of human remains, nor is composted human material used in food production; accordingly, it is unclear at best how Scott’s proposed legislation relates in any way to the practice.

Next, Scott moved on to warning that society is moving toward normalizing using human flesh as a culinary ingredient.

She said that on a flight, she “watched a video of some food show,” and that on the show, contestants were told that human flesh was a possible ingredient in the food.

“I thought — this is going to be normalized at some point,” Scott said. “The way our society is going, and the direction we’re going, this is going to be normalized.”

“There is a lot of documentation out there,” Scott insisted. “If you just google it, people showing it, and how they’re doing it.”

In reality, according to the Idaho Statesman, the video Scott saw was not footage of anyone ingesting human flesh. Rather, it was an almost decade-old episode of comedian David Spade’s prank show “Fameless,” which uses improv comedy to test “how far real people will go to be famous.” Participants on the show are led to believe they have been cast on a reality show, then subjected to outrageous conditions by improv performers. In a 2015 episode, a contestant was served a sausage by a chef who claimed the meal contained human flesh. A few moments later, the host informed the relieved contestant that she was part of a prank for Spade’s comedy show.

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Idaho Lawmakers Want To Ban Marijuana Billboards Advertising Dispensaries In Neighboring Oregon

Idaho legislators introduced a bill on Wednesday to criminalize advertising illegal services or products—like marijuana—in Idaho.

Marijuana is illegal in Idaho and in federal law. But states surrounding Idaho, like Washington, Montana, Nevada and Oregon, have legalized marijuana for recreational use in recent years.

Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, told lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee that there are advertisements for marijuana in Idaho, referencing a billboard in Idaho near the Idaho-Oregon border and newspaper advertisements shared by Rep. Heather Scott, who is from Blanchard in North Idaho near Washington.

“And then another individual sent me—actually on the internet—that you can have drugs delivered to your Idaho doorstep. So I thought this was a little outrageous,” Boyle told the committee.

Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, said she saw a billboard advertising marijuana in downtown Boise.

Co-sponsored by Boyle and Sen. Chris Trakel, R-Caldwell, the bill would create a new section in Idaho state criminal law to allow misdemeanor charges for “any person who willfully publishes any notice or advertisement, in any medium, of a product or service that is illegal under Idaho law.”

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Idaho Takes Aim at Interstate Travel for Abortion. Health Care Providers Are Suing.

Two doctors and a Planned Parenthood affiliate are suing Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador after the Gem State’s top cop stated that it’s illegal for doctors to refer residents to out-of-state abortion providers. This would represent a clear violation of numerous constitutional rights, they argue.

Labrador’s assertion is part of a larger attempt by Idaho Republicans to enforce the state’s strict abortion ban even outside of state lines. Abortion is totally banned in Idaho except in cases involving rape, incest, or a threat to the mother’s life, and minors in these circumstances can only obtain an abortion with a parent or guardian’s permission.

On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a law creating the new crime of “abortion trafficking.” The law makes it illegal to help someone under age 18 obtain an abortion “by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state” without a parent or guardian’s permission, with violations punishable by two to five years in prison.

The new law “is somewhat strangely worded,” Reason‘s Emma Camp noted recently, “as it technically does not criminalize the act of crossing state lines to help a minor obtain an abortion without parental consent, which is what would practically be required in a state where abortion is almost entirely illegal.” But the abortion trafficking law tacitly takes aim at helping minors travel out of state for abortions, stating that the fact that “the abortion provider or the abortion-inducing drug provider is located in another state” cannot be used as an affirmative defense. So it seems an Idaho resident who helped an Idaho teenager arrange an out-of-state abortion, arrange to purchase abortion pills in another state, or travel at all within the state on the way out of state could still be charged with abortion trafficking even if the abortion itself doesn’t take place in Idaho. The law also “allows the filing of lawsuits against doctors who perform such abortions, even if the doctors live outside the state,” notes The New York Times.

That the abortion trafficking statute is meant to prevent out-of-state travel is made clear in a Wednesday letter from Little. The measure seeks “to prevent unemancipated minor girls from being taken across state lines for an abortion without the knowledge or consent of her parent or guardian,” he wrote.

And the state isn’t stopping at trying to prevent girls from going out of state for abortions.

In a March 27 letter to Idaho Rep. Brent Crane (R–Nampa), Labrador wrote that Idaho’s criminal prohibitions on abortion “preclude 1) the provision of abortion bills, 2) the promotion of abortion bills, and 3) referring women across state lines to obtain abortion services or prescribing abortion pills that will be picked up across state lines.”

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Idaho High School’s ‘White Power’ Graffiti Revealed To Be Hate Hoax Scheme Carried Out By Hispanic Gang

Idaho police officials believe that a Hispanic gang spray-painted the phrase “White Power” on a local high school in a hate hoax scheme.

The Caldwell Police Department said in a statement that detectives think graffiti was not “motivated by hate” but was carried out as “an act of intimidation.”

“At this time, detectives no longer believe the incident to be motivated by hate but rather an act of intimidation between two rival Hispanic criminal street gangs from Caldwell,” the department said in a Facebook post.

Two days after a “Brown Pride” protest was held at Caldwell High School last week, the “White Power” graffiti was discovered. The “Brown Pride” protest was organized after a Hispanic student was forced to take off a sweatshirt with the words “Brown Pride” on it because it could be considered “racist,” the Idaho Statesman reported.

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Ex-FBI Agent Says Idaho Murders Suspect Bryan Kohberger Had an ‘Incel Complex’ That Drove Him to Kill

University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger may have been driven to kill by his history of social issues and a possible “incel complex,” a former FBI investigator told The Post.

“The murders may have been… an effort to assert some type of dominance,” former FBI agent and security expert Pete Yachmetz explained to The Post this week.

Kohberger, 28, was arrested late last month for the Nov. 13 stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, at an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho. Yachmetz believes the brutality of the crime and Kohberger’s history of social challenges may offer some hints to his possible motive.

“I believe a continued stabbing of a victim indicates…an uncontrollable rage and extreme anger,” Yachmetz said, noting that Kohberger has been described as “socially awkward with a long history of interpersonal problems.”

“I think he may have developed a sort of incel complex,” he surmised.

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