Lawmakers in the Idaho Senate are backing the creation of a rainy day fund for colleges, similar to the reserve account set aside several years ago for the K-12 public school system.

Legislative budget writers won't approve spending the Idaho Education Network's next $3 million installment as planned this week, opting to wait until mediation begins next week in a lawsuit over the $60 million broadband system.

Idaho lawmakers are delaying a vote on a bill that would give Indian tribal police the authority to arrest non-tribal members on the reservation without permission from the local sheriff.

Urban renewal agencies face major changes that offer more oversight and prevent unbridled growth under a legislative proposal that could become law this session.

Idaho Banking Co. must reduce its concentration in commercial real estate loans and develop plans to reduce the level of problem loans.

The sweeping ruling shot down the arguments of a Sacramento atheist who has been trying in the courts for a decade to end the morning practice because he considers it government endorsement of religion.

Both political parties are taking tea party activists seriously and are wary of offending them – if they are not already actively wooing them for state races this fall. Just look at the governor’s election in Ohio. Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich openly touts his tea party credentials in his bid to defeat incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland. “I think I was in the tea party before there was a tea party,” Kasich famously told a Columbus crowd earlier this year. “This is a real movement with a real message about people’s frustrations by broken promises that leaders on both sides of the aisle would be foolish to ignore,” he went on to write in a blog posting.