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Guest Columnist Idaho Senator Brian Lenney: Nobody in Idaho Voted for This

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August 4, 2026

Nobody in Idaho Voted for This

By: Idaho Senator Brian Lenney

Last month the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare handed out $3.1 million of your money. No legislator voted on it and most of us didn’t know it was happening. We found out by email, after it was decided.

The way it happened bothers me more than the award does.

Let’s start with where the money came from, because almost nobody in Idaho knows. In July 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill. Buried in the final hours of negotiating it was something called the Rural Health Transformation Program. It wasn’t in the earlier drafts. It was created, and then doubled from $25 billion to $50 billion, to get one senator from Alaska to vote yes (we call this a bribe). Senator Lisa Murkowski doesn’t hide this. Her own office calls her one of the lead advocates for doubling that fund, and Alaska takes $272 million a year out of it. Idaho, with nearly twice Alaska’s population, gets $186 million.

I voted no on all of it.

On taking the money, and later on the committee that was supposed to watch it. Rural Idaho needs help, and I’d vote for real help tomorrow. But money that exists because it was the price of somebody else’s vote on a federal bill doesn’t belong to the state that spends it. It answers to Washington. It always was going to.

Now here’s the part that surprises people…

This money never went through the Legislature the way you’d assume. It goes from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services straight to a single state agency: the Department of Health and Welfare, run by Director Juliet Charron (who started in the job two months before the application went out the door). Her department wrote Idaho’s application in November 2025 and sent it to Washington. The feds approved it on December 29, 2025. By the time the Legislature convened in January, the plan was already written, already submitted, and already blessed by CMS.

So… we just showed up to a decision that had already been made.

We spent most of the 2026 session fighting about who would watch this money. Two oversight bills died. On the last day of session we passed a third and created something called the Rural Health Transformation Committee that was sold to Idahoans as “legislative oversight.”

But here’s what that committee actually does:

  1. It receives a monthly summary of upcoming awards
  2. Members get three business days to send questions to the co-chairs – that’s it
  3. No vote on any award, no approval, no power to stop anything.

I voted against creating it because I didn’t think it would have teeth, and it doesn’t.

Instead, we built a committee whose job is to be “notified.”

In June, Health and Welfare started posting the first funding opportunities. Two of them were maternal health, which matters in a state where rural women drive hours to deliver a baby. One was called OB Readiness. The other was the Idaho Perinatal Quality Collaborative. Applications closed July 10, and both are going to Comagine Health, a woke consulting nonprofit in Portland, Oregon (about $3.1 million total).

Oh, and they believe men can get pregnant.

But Comagine wasn’t a stranger who saw a posting and applied. They were already running Idaho’s perinatal program, working alongside the same Health and Welfare office that ran this contract. So the office that already worked with Comagine decided what the contract would require, ran the “competition,” and gave it to Comagine.

If a school district did that with a superintendent’s brother-in-law, you’d hear about it on the news. But because it’s a state agency and the paperwork is boring… nobody says a word.

I don’t yet know who sat on the scoring panel. I don’t know what conflict of interest disclosures they signed, or whether anyone asked for them (those are documents, and documents can be requested).

Then there’s the question of who they picked. Comagine’s own Idaho perinatal materials describe their work as improving outcomes for “pregnant people.” Yes, we’re about to pay a Portland consulting firm $3.1 million to improve maternal care in rural Idaho, and that firm won’t say “mothers.” Their public resource library also includes health equity plan templates and a gender-affirming care guide for hospital staff. It was all sitting on their website, in public, months before anybody at Health and Welfare made this choice.

So somebody at IDHW looked at this organization and decided it was the right fit for Idaho mothers. I’d like to know who, and I’d like to know what standard they applied.

And as far I can tell, nobody asked whether a contractor’s published positions line up with the values of the state writing the check (they don’t).

But maybe there’s a boring answer. Maybe Comagine simply put in a stronger application and the department can produce the scoresheets to prove it. If so, produce them. That’d be a fine outcome and I’d say so publicly.

What I want isn’t complicated.

First, the documents: the scoring rubric, the individual evaluator scoresheets, the names and divisions of everyone who scored these applications, their conflict of interest disclosures, and every prior agreement between Health and Welfare and Comagine going back five years. If this was clean, the file will show it.

Second, contract terms with teeth. Whatever Idaho signs with an out-of-state contractor ought to bind that contractor to Idaho law and give the state approval over materials distributed to Idaho hospitals. If the current agreements don’t do that, we have a real problem, and it’s a fixable one.

Third, an oversight committee that oversees something: A committee that gets a summary and three days to comment is not a check on anything. Next session that statute should be rewritten so awards of this size require a vote before the money moves, not an email after it’s gone.

About $744 million of this money hasn’t been spent yet. Every dollar flows through one department, and every award is signed inside it. The Legislature appropriates, and then we read summaries.

Juliet Charron runs that department, and she answers to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that I sit on. The contract starts in ten days.

Show us the scoresheets.

America Built Nuclear Power in Idaho First. Now It’s Doing It Again.

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Observer Staff
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DOME Reactor Test Bed

(Idaho National Laboratory Press Release, August 5, 2026; Cover photo credit: INL)

By Donna Kemp Spangler, INL Communications

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — American researchers and engineers first split the atom for usable electricity in Idaho. They built the reactor prototype of the nation’s first nuclear submarine there. They raised more than 50 one-of-a-kind reactors on an 890-square-mile stretch of Idaho desert.

Idaho was the cradle for the first atomic age. Now, decades later, it is again the birthplace of accelerated nuclear innovation that ushers in the next nuclear golden age.

As the nation prepared to mark its 250th birthday in July, four U.S. reactors went critical, reaching the moment a reactor’s chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. All four came online under a new U.S. Department of Energy authorization program. Three of those reactors were built at the Idaho National Laboratory, marking the most consequential stretch of milestones the site has seen in a generation.

“What we’ve seen happen at this laboratory over the past two months is the culmination of everything INL was built for,” said INL Director John Wagner. “Three criticalities on our site in a single summer isn’t just a number — it’s a signal that American nuclear innovation has its momentum back.”

In 2025, a White House directive aimed at overhauling federal reactor testing made INL and the region the epicenter of a national sprint to reboot the American nuclear industry before Independence Day 2026. On June 4, an advanced microreactor built by a startup called Antares Nuclear became the first to achieve criticality under DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program. The criticality experiment took place at INL’s Reactor and Critical Experiment facility at the Materials and Fuels Complex. Three more reactors followed by July 4 — two of them sited at INL and one built and tested at a company-built facility in Utah.

A laboratory built on firsts

To understand what is happening in Idaho today, it helps to understand what happened there before.

What is now INL was founded in 1949 as the National Reactor Testing Station, a Cold War project to develop civilian and defense nuclear power technologies on a remote and sparsely populated stretch of eastern Idaho desert. In 1951, it produced one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century: the first use of nuclear fission to generate usable electricity at Experimental Breeder Reactor-I. The site later hosted the U.S. Navy’s first prototype nuclear propulsion plant, which eventually powered the nation’s fleet of nuclear submarines, and 52 reactors — most of them first-of-a-kind designs.

“The history of nuclear energy for peaceful application has principally been written in Idaho,” said John Grossenbacher, then-director of Idaho National Laboratory, in a speech to the Idaho Falls City Club in 2010.

The nuclear industry’s last great wave of commercial construction crested in the 1970s. By the early 2000s, INL’s mission had shifted toward fuel research, safety analysis and the long-term stewardship of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. It was vital, mostly unseen work, but it kept the laboratory at the center of the nuclear enterprise, even as the procession of new reactors achieving first criticality slowed to a stop.

The Antares Mark-0 was the 53rd reactor built at the INL site since 1951. After a 50-year gap, nuclear innovation and demonstration had resumed — and resumed fast.

“These recent reactor criticalities are proof that INL is back in the business it was built for. The next step is to expand testing from initial criticality to full-power operation, and ultimately to support the path toward commercial deployment,” said Jess Gehin, INL’s associate laboratory director for Nuclear Science and Technology.

The mandate

The mechanism behind the sprint was Executive Order 14301, which President Donald Trump signed in May 2025. It directed DOE to overhaul how the federal government tests advanced reactors.

DOE used its authority to approve first-of-a-kind reactors for noncommercial demonstration purposes, separate from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s commercial licensing process. DOE updated its existing process to streamline authorization while maintaining a focus on safety. The resulting accelerated pathway — the Reactor Pilot Program — had a concrete goal attached: get at least three advanced reactors to criticality by July 4, 2026.

The program accepted 11 projects from 10 companies. Many of the companies worked with the National Reactor Innovation Center, a DOE program housed at INL — including all four that reached criticality by July 4. Building upon the Reactor Pilot Program’s success and heavy interest from industry, DOE and NRIC in the spring of 2026 created the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad to keep the momentum going, said Brad Tomer, director of NRIC.

INL was the natural home for many of the companies that applied. The laboratory already possessed the physical infrastructure, safety expertise, regulatory relationships and institutional memory that would have cost startups years and hundreds of millions of dollars to build from scratch.

By spring, that optimism turned into momentum. “It actually feels like we’re finally tipping,” said Rian Bahran, then deputy assistant secretary of Energy for Nuclear Reactors, of the industry’s progress. “After years of being at a tipping point for advanced nuclear technology deployment, the industry is now genuinely moving.”

Bob Boston, manager of DOE’s Idaho Operations Office and a four-decade veteran of the nuclear industry, told Forbes magazine in March that steering the reactor pilots through federal review had been the busiest period of his career. “DOE Idaho is committed to enabling safe, disciplined progress from design to demonstration,” he said.

Antares Nuclear: First through the door

The first reactor to clear the new pathway did it June 4, a month before the deadline.

Antares Nuclear, based in Torrance, California, with a facility in Idaho Falls, completed a zero-power, fueled criticality demonstration of its Mark-0 microreactor at INL’s Reactor and Critical Experiment facility. It was the first privately developed non-light-water reactor to reach criticality in the United States in more than four decades — and the first reactor of any kind to go critical under the Reactor Pilot Program.

The company had gone from concept to criticality in under 12 months, a schedule made possible in part by existing infrastructure. The Mark-0 ran on tristructural isotropic, or TRISO, fuel fabricated by BWX Technologies to the same specification matured through the Department of War’s Project Pele program. The demonstration returned verification and validation data to that effort. The U.S. Army was integrated throughout as a future end user, an arrangement that ties the test directly to the service’s own microreactor deployment timeline.

Valar Atomics: Built outside the lab

On June 18, Valar Atomics, based in El Segundo, California, announced that its Ward 250 reactor had reached self-sustaining criticality and completed zero-power testing at its site near Orangeville, Utah — the first DOE-authorized reactor built outside a national laboratory. Ward 250 reached these milestones as a complete, fully integrated system configured for power operations. It subsequently generated thermal power June 21 and produced electricity July 1.

Ward 250 had already made an unusual journey. It was airlifted unfueled between U.S. Air Force bases aboard a military C-17, before being fueled and tested on-site. Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor called the milestone the culmination of roughly nine months of work, noting that the previously empty site now held a critical reactor built and operated by the Valar team.

Even so, INL wasn’t entirely absent. Behind the scenes, NRIC staff provided logistical support, including the receipt, storage and shipment of fission chambers and temporary storage and shipment of nuclear fuel. NRIC also shared reference documentation with Valar. Valar built and ran its reactor on its own site — and INL was there to help.

The path to criticality still ran through federal review. Before the test could be authorized, the Ward 250 required a joint test group to sign off on each key step of the reactor startup — the same regulatory gauntlet that every company in the program had to clear.

Deployable Energy: A reactor in the back of a truck

The third reactor to reach criticality returned the action to Idaho. Deployable Energy, based in Houston, completed a zero-power, fueled criticality demonstration with its Unity reactor at INL just before the end of June, and the July 4 deadline. This machine was compact enough that its test rig traveled from Houston to Idaho in the back of a Ford F-150, a detail the company offered as a deliberate contrast to nuclear power’s traditional image of massive, immovable infrastructure.

Unity’s success came under the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad. Deployable had been selected for the program in April 2026 and received approval of its safety analysis in just 106 days.

“Achieving criticality in roughly 150 days is a remarkable accomplishment,” Wagner said in a statement, “and Idaho National Laboratory is proud to have provided the facilities and expertise that helped make this milestone possible.”

Deployable co-founder and CEO Bobby Gallagher struck a similar note, calling the original three-reactor target audacious. “The administration’s goal really set the stage for success,” he said, “industry partners stepping up, DOE moving at speed, national labs acting as true enablers — not bottlenecks.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who visited the Unity reactor in person days before its test, called the moment proof that “America’s nuclear renaissance is underway.” With Unity’s criticality, the administration’s three-reactor target had been met, just ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Aalo Atomics: A fourth, for good measure

Then came the fourth reactor. Early on July 4, Aalo Atomics, an Austin, Texas-based startup, completed a zero-power, fueled criticality demonstration with its Critical Test Reactor on the Aalo-X Campus at INL — the fourth DOE-authorized reactor, and the third built at the Idaho site, to clear the threshold before the president’s deadline.

Aalo’s commercial design is a 10-megawatt-electric, thermal spectrum reactor. The company is targeting AI data centers as its primary commercial customer, betting that computing infrastructure’s around-the-clock power appetite will be nuclear energy’s next major market.

Aalo broke ground on its full‑power Aalo‑X demonstration reactor in August 2025 — the first groundbreaking in the pilot program — and later began construction of CTR on Nov. 10, 2025. For Aalo-X, the company adopted an unconventional construction method, replacing traditional blasting with precision vertical drilling through the site’s volcanic basalt.

“The hardest problem in nuclear power was never the physics — our country simply forgot how to build,” said Yasir Arafat, Aalo’s co-founder and chief technology officer, who spent years as a reactor engineer at Westinghouse and INL before co-founding the company. “We are proud to play a major role in America’s nuclear renaissance, going from breaking ground on the CTR to a sustained chain reaction in just eight months.”

What comes next

None of the four reactors are operating at full power. Each still faces the hard engineering climb from zero-power criticality to sustained, full-power operation — the difference, roughly, between an engine turning over and a car actually driving down the highway. Wagner himself was careful to draw that line after the first test in June. “What Antares achieved is specifically zero-power criticality — the chain reaction was sustained at essentially no measurable energy output,” he said. “This is not electricity generation. It is not full-power operation.”

Still, for a laboratory whose reactor-building era seemingly ended with the last wave of commercial nuclear construction in the 1970s, the return of three criticalities on its site in a single summer marks a sharp reversal. NRIC has prepared for what comes next. It’s called DOME — short for Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments — and it’s built inside the old containment dome of the decommissioned Experimental Breeder Reactor-II. The retrofitted facility is designed to give the next wave of companies a ready-made place to test their reactors, rather than build their own testing facilities from scratch.

The history of nuclear energy for peaceful application, as Grossenbacher once said, has principally been written in Idaho. This summer, a new chapter was added — and it was written fast.

Marshall Public Library Collecting School Supplies for Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 Students

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Observer Staff
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(City of Pocatello Press Release, August 5, 2026)

As families prepare for the upcoming school year, Marshall Public Library (MPL) is inviting the community to help local students start the year with the supplies they need to succeed.

Throughout August and continuing through the second week of September, MPL will collect new school supplies and personal care items for the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 supply pantry. Donations will help provide essential classroom materials and hygiene products to students and families in need.

Requested donations include:

Toiletry Items

  • Shampoo
  • Soap
  • Shaving gel
  • Lotion
  • Deodorant
  • Towels
  • Washcloths
  • Combs
  • Feminine hygiene products
  • Toothbrushes
  • Toothpaste
  • Disposable razors

School Supplies

  • Pencils
  • Notebooks
  • Paper
  • Folders
  • Pens
  • Crayons
  • Watercolor sets
  • Highlighters
  • Markers
  • Colored pencils
  • Rulers

Donations of new, unopened items may be dropped off at the first-floor checkout desk at MPL, 113 S. Garfield Ave.

“Some students need a little extra help to have a successful school year, and our community always donates generously to give them that help each year,” said Amy Azzouzat, Public Services Supervisor.

For more information, contact Amy Azzouzat, Public Services Supervisor, at 208-232-1263, ext. 106.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is the policy of the City of Pocatello to offer its public programs, services, and meetings in a manner that is readily accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities.  If you are disabled and require an accommodation, please contact Skyler Beebe with two (2) business days’ advance notice at sbeebe@pocatello.gov; 208.234.6248; or 5815 South 5th Avenue, Pocatello, Idaho.  Advance notification within this guideline will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility.

Senator Crapo: Updates from Washington D.C.

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Observer Staff
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(U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, August 5, 2026)

Shaping the Future of Nuclear Energy Innovation

Idaho has unmatched expertise and innovation in small modular nuclear reactors.  I recently joined fellow Idahoans Senator Risch and Representative Simpson in celebrating the Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Corridor (INEC) Tech Hub securing a $31 million award from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.  The INEC Tech Hub aims to accelerate commercialization of next-generation nuclear reactors while enhancing U.S. energy security.

These projects are estimated to generate $190 million in regional economic activity over five years, establishing Idaho as a global leader in advanced small modular reactors.  This is a significant investment in Idaho’s future and further establishes our state as a national leader in advanced nuclear energy.

Read more on my website HERE.

Promoting Breast Cancer Education

Early cancer detection is one of the best tools available to improve health outcomes and save lives.  Idahoans deserve access to accurate information about these tools.

I am leading a bipartisan effort to reauthorize the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young (EARLY) Act through 2031.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced the legislation unanimously.  This law supports education campaigns to raise awareness about breast cancer risks, early detection and risk-reducing lifestyle choices.  Informing young women of the importance of early screening and preventive care is critical for improving health outcomes and saving lives.

The legislation now awaits consideration by the full U.S. Senate.

Read more on my website HERE.

Powering Domestic Manufacturing

Every day, Idahoans work hard to support themselves and their loved ones.  The Working Families Tax Cuts are supporting their efforts by bringing more jobs and opportunities back to America.

The law made pro-growth tax policy permanent, giving Idaho manufacturers the certainty they need to make long-term investments, improve product quality and create good-paying jobs.  In Idaho alone, the Working Families Tax Cuts are estimated to have protected 33,000 jobs, saved $6 billion in GDP and $3 billion in wages.

Click HERE to learn about how the Working Families Tax Cuts immediate expensing provisions are helping Western Trailers in Boise, Idaho, invest in new equipment, facilities and jobs, and build on a more than 50-year commitment to manufacturing in Idaho.

Grizzly Management Takes One Step Forward

The recovery of the grizzly bear in the West is a conservation success story made possible by decades of work from state, tribal, federal and local conservation partners.  Following these efforts, a federal proposal will consider shifting grizzly bear management to the states.  U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced greater flexibility in grizzly management in areas where the species has met, or exceeded, federal recovery benchmarks.  Movement toward state management comes after years of cooperative efforts between state, tribal, federal and local partners.

This announcement also brings us closer to Idaho wildlife agencies overseeing grizzly populations in a way that protects both the species and Idaho communities.

You can read more about this announcement on my website HERE.

Idahoans’ Road to Affordable Housing

Homeownership is a critical part of the American Dream.  Idahoans deserve access to affordable housing opportunities.

We celebrated recent enactment of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.  This legislation takes meaningful action to address affordability challenges in housing by streamlining the regulatory process, modernizing outdated programs and encouraging development of new housing.  I am proud to have led or co-sponsored several provisions included in the final law.  Idahoans’ contributions to my 2025 Housing Survey will continue to guide my efforts to strengthen affordable housing options for Idahoans.

You can learn more about provisions in the housing bill I led or co-sponsored HERE.

City of Pocatello Announces Library Board of Trustees Vacancy

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Observer Staff
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(City of Pocatello, August 5, 2026)

The Library Board of Trustees has a vacancy open for immediate appointment.

According to Idaho State law, this volunteer board is an independent public body with sole responsibility for the operation of the Marshall Public Library.

Meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month at 4:00 p.m. at the Library, 113 South Garfield Avenue.

Interested persons living inside the city limits can obtain an application by contacting the Mayor’s Office at 911 North 7th Avenue, visiting the Advisory Committees link at pocatello.gov or by calling 208-234-6163.

Applications must be received by August 18, 2026.

For a full list of volunteer advisory boards with vacancies, visit pocatello.gov/254/Advisory-Committees.

AG Labrador Urges Congress to Pass the STOP FRAUD in Medicaid Act

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Observer Staff
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(Attorney General’s Office Press Release, August 5, 2026)

BOISE, ID — Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and 15 other state attorneys general in a letter to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Finance urging swift passage of H.R. 5364 and S. 4176, both known as the “STOP FRAUD in Medicaid Act.”

“Every year, criminals steal billions from a program meant to protect our most vulnerable citizens by lying their way onto Medicaid rolls,” said Attorney General Labrador. “Federal law currently ties investigators’ hands unless the fraud comes from a provider, letting recipient fraud go unchecked. The STOP FRAUD in Medicaid Act gives Idaho and other states the authority to run down beneficiary fraud with the same force we already use against dishonest providers, and I will keep fighting to protect this program for the Idahoans who truly need it.”

Currently, federal restrictions on State Medicaid Fraud Control Units limit the states to investigating and prosecuting Medicaid provider fraud. The STOP FRAUD in Medicaid Act would expand the ability of states to investigate and prosecute Medicaid beneficiary, or recipient, fraud as well, giving Idaho’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit new tools to go after fraud that currently falls outside its reach.

The Medicaid program is a vital lifeline for millions of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. To protect these individuals and the program’s integrity, the letter argues that federal funding restrictions should be lifted to allow State Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs) to investigate and prosecute Medicaid recipient fraud.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that in fiscal year 2025, MFCUs recovered $4.64 for every dollar spent by states and the federal government. For fiscal year 2025, almost $2 billion was recovered from criminal and civil cases combined. These MFCU convictions led to OIG exclusions of 900 individuals and entities from federal health care programs.

These recoveries and convictions have been made even though federal funding is currently restricted from being used by MFCUs to investigate and prosecute Medicaid recipient fraud in the first place. Passage of the STOP FRAUD in Medicaid Act would allow states to ensure taxpayer dollars are stewarded wisely and not stolen.

The following states joined South Carolina in this letter: Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Read the letter here.

Read more about my fight on medicaid fraud here.

Returned Big Game Tags Offer More Hunting Opportunity and Are on Sale Aug. 6

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Observer Staff
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(Idaho Fish and Game Press Release, August 3, 2026)

Idaho Fish and Game will sell primarily returned nonresident, general season big game tags starting at 10 a.m. MDT on Aug. 6. Tags can be purchased on a first-come, first-served basis online at GoOutdoorsIdaho.com, at Fish and Game offices during normal business hours, at license vendor locations, or by calling (800) 554-8685.

A list of available tags will be listed at 10 a.m. MDT on Aug. 5 on the Returned Sold-Out Tags webpage.

Nonresident sales

If a nonresident does not have a deer or elk tag, then the nonresident may be able to purchase a first tag and possibly a second tag during this sale. The current nonresident limits for uncapped elk zones and all deer units still apply to returned tags purchased by nonresidents. Adult nonresident fees are $351.75 for deer tags and $651.75 for elk tags.

Resident sales as second tags

Residents can purchase a tag from the nonresident quota as a second tag. Nonresident limits for uncapped elk zones and deer units do not apply to nonresident tags purchased by residents, so available deer tags can be used statewide and available elk tags can be purchased for any uncapped elk zone. Residents eligible for the Price Lock discount pay $301.75 for a deer tag, or $416.75 for an elk tag. Residents not eligible for the Price Lock discount pay the same deer and elk tag fees as nonresidents.

Capped Elk Zone Tags: A resident or nonresident can purchase nonresident tags returned from a capped elk zone as long as the cap is not sold out. Only residents can purchase a returned resident capped elk zone tag.

  • Elk zones not eligible for any second tags: Elk City.
  • Deer units not eligible for any second tags: 10, 10A, 12, 16A, 17, 19, and 20.

For more information go to the Nonresident License and Tag webpage or email Licenses@idfg.idaho.gov.

The next scheduled return tag sale will be Sep. 17.

Guest Columnist Art da Rosa: Prop 1 Is Wrong for Idaho

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Observer Staff
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August 5, 2026

Prop 1 Is Wrong for Idaho

By: Art da Rosa, PE, MPA, CFM

Art da Rosa (Photo Credit: Art da Rosa)

Years ago, when I was still a freshman in college, I participated in my first protest. I was 18, and a freshman at BYU-Hawaii. The LDS Church, along with BYU-Hawaii, organized a protest against abortion.

I was quite young then. What I learned, however, was impactful, and the same playbook is being used today in Idaho under Prop 1.

Supporters of Prop 1 try to sell abortion as reproductive freedom and women’s rights. Underneath the fanciful words is a dark game plan that has been forced on America for quite some time: the destruction of families.

Before I begin, I want to credit James Davison Hunter’s book Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, and Angelo Codevilla’s The Character of Nations.

ABORTION IS ABOUT FAMILY

The greatness of America owes a great deal to our support of the institution of the family. A man and a woman get married and form a family. Different roles, but the same goal: to raise a strong family. This collective goal made America strong and worth living for.

Along the way, a culture war was waged. The historical role of men was vilified and diminished. The concept of responsibility and accountability was eroded. With that, sex lost much of its meaning as an act that affirms the relationship between a married couple.

The first front of this culture war was the dissolution of marriage as a binding institution. Today, children raised by their same two married parents from birth to adulthood make up less than half of American kids — look at divorce rates, out-of-wedlock birth rates, welfare policy incentives, and family court practices.

Marriage once carried real legal and social weight — a status that came with responsibilities, not just rights. Otherwise, why would anyone bother? Starting in the late 1960s, states began replacing that with no-fault divorce, which let either spouse dissolve a marriage without showing cause. The stated intent was compassion for genuinely broken marriages. The effect, over decades, was to strip marriage of much of its binding force. With that, the frequency of absent fathers exploded.

In the absence of the proper male figure, government inserted itself to fill the void. Unwed mothers were incentivized to remain single through a range of social programs. And children began to be raised under a different set of rules.

Operating under a growing presumption that natural families are prone to abuse, traditional discipline was recast as something dangerous, subject to government second-guessing rather than left to parents and grandparents. Public education outcomes have declined over the same decades — correlation, not proof, but worth noticing.

The famous Hillary Clinton quote, “it takes a village to raise a child,” means that the government decides what is proper to raise a child… and our lives. In practice, the village that shows up is rarely a village at all — it’s a caseworker, a curriculum committee, or a family court judge. What began as language about community support has too often functioned as license for government to substitute its own judgment for a parent’s.

Angelo Codevilla put this plainly: the government, he wrote, has established “a secular priesthood of judges, social workers, psychologists, intellectuals, and artists, all of whom teach a contrary gospel” to the traditional family model — underwritten at public expense.

With all of this, the destruction of family is almost complete. Almost.

ABORTION, THE FINAL PIECE OF A CULTURE WAR

The Culture War’s final piece in destroying the family is to allow abortion – to give the absolute right to abortion.

Idaho isn’t voting on a health policy footnote. It’s stepping onto a battlefield that’s been forming for more than thirty years. In 1991, the sociologist James Davison Hunter gave this fight its name — the culture war — and found that America’s real divide no longer runs between denominations but through a single question every faith and every family eventually has to answer: does moral truth come from somewhere fixed and outside us, or does it get rewritten every generation to fit the times? Abortion sits at the exact center of that question because it can’t be answered halfway. Either an unborn child carries a claim on us that no statute can dissolve, or that claim is negotiable, revisable, subject to a majority vote in a legislature or at a ballot box. Prop 1 doesn’t just pick a side in that argument. It writes one side’s answer into Idaho law and forecloses the other.

This is why the fight over Prop 1 will feel outsized to the actual policy language, and why it should. Angelo Codevilla saw this pattern before — he compared the modern American reckoning over abortion to the reckoning over slavery in the 1850s, when the country discovered that some questions can’t be split down the middle because both sides recognize, correctly, that the resolution defines what kind of country this becomes.

Pat Buchanan called it a war “for the soul of America” the year after Hunter named it, and whatever you think of the messenger, he wasn’t wrong about the stakes as people felt them. Idahoans voting on Prop 1 aren’t just deciding how many weeks of pregnancy the law will protect. They’re deciding, in the plainest terms the ballot will ever offer them, which of two Americas they still believe they’re building.

IDAHO LAWS ALREADY COVER THE NARRATIVE UNDER PROP 1

A primary argument advanced by supporters of Proposition 1 is that sweeping legal change is needed to protect women facing traumatic or life-threatening circumstances. Idaho’s current law already covers more of this ground than the campaign lets on.

Life of the Mother: Idaho Code § 18-622, the Defense of Life Act, permits abortion when a physician determines, in good-faith medical judgment, that it is necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.

Rape and Incest: Current law permits abortion in the first trimester in reported cases of rape or incest.

Non-Abortion Medical Care: Treatment of ectopic or molar pregnancies, miscarriage management, and standard contraception (including birth control pills and IUDs) are explicitly not defined as abortion under Idaho law and remain fully legal.

Proposition 1 does not exist to fill a void for medical emergencies; those protections are already on the books. Instead, Prop 1 uses extreme scenarios to install a broad, statutory mandate that strips away statutory protections for the unborn.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REALITY

While political campaigns present abortion as an empowering outcome, the data on why women choose it, and how they feel afterward, paint a more complicated picture than “freedom” suggests.

Start with why. When researchers ask women their reasons for choosing abortion, the answers that come back most often aren’t about self-actualization — they’re about circumstances: not being financially prepared, feeling it isn’t the right time, an unstable relationship, or already caring for children who need what’s left of them. That is not a decision made from strength with every option open. It is a decision made inside real constraints — and a law that responds to those constraints only by widening access to abortion, rather than addressing the constraints themselves, has chosen the cheaper form of compassion.

Then there’s what comes after. Even the study most favorable to abortion access, and most frequently cited by abortion-rights advocates — the ANSIRH Turnaway Study — found that in the week after an abortion, regret was reported by 33–41% of women, sadness by 61–68%, and guilt by 55–62%. Those abortion friendly studies do indicate a decline over time, but regret is real and unavoidable.

Some researchers argue the picture is worse. A widely cited 2011 meta-analysis reported a far higher rate of long-term psychiatric harm after abortion.

Far from providing straightforward liberation, abortion often leaves a longer emotional toll than the “freedom” framing admits — and a law that treats the decision as a purely private matter between an individual and a provider has nothing to offer the women for whom that toll doesn’t go away.

If you are interested, here is the exact wording on Proposition 1: https://archive.sos.idaho.gov/elections/initiatives/2026/RFPA.pdf

CONCLUSION

This November, I will vote NO on Proposition 1. Abortion is harmful. I also want to stand up and voice my support for the sanctity of Family. Prop 1 is not a neutral medical policy, it represents the latest and most consequential move in a decades-long culture war aimed at dismantling the family, bypassing parental authority, and replacing the sanctity of life with state-enforced individual autonomy. Conservative and pro-life Idahoans can clearly see Proposition 1 for what it is—and defend both the family and the unborn by voting NO in November.

The Simpson Standard: Legislative Update; Internship Opportunities Available

By
Observer Staff
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(U.S. Representative Mike Simpson, August 3, 2025)

It’s great to be back in Idaho’s Second District and have the opportunity to share all the legislative updates with Idahoans, including the busy week Congress had to finish off July’s work period.

In Idaho, we understand the importance of ending our reliance on foreign adversaries for critical minerals. As a longtime supporter of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Perpetua Resources’ efforts in domestic antimony production, I was thrilled to attend the ribbon cutting for the launch of INL’s mineral processing demonstration. 

Speaking of our great state, I’m excited to highlight another community funding project that I recently advanced funding for in our communities! Learn more about funding for the USDA-ARS University of Idaho Aberdeen Research and Extension Center Potato Breeding Facilities Project below.

There will be more to come on these projects – stay tuned! Also, interested in an internship? My office is accepting Fall 2026 applications! Click here for more information.

Rebuilding America’s Critical Mineral Supply Chain Right Here at Home

We’ve worked to rebuild America’s critical mineral supply chains because our national security depends on them.

This week’s ribbon cutting is a significant milestone in that effort. By bringing together Perpetua Resources, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the U.S. Army, this project demonstrates how Idaho is helping strengthen our nation’s defense, expand domestic manufacturing capabilities, and reduce our reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals. I’m proud to have supported this partnership from the beginning and look forward to seeing the important role it will play for our country.

Advancing Funding for University of Idaho’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center Potato Breeding Facilities Project

Potatoes are one of Idaho’s most important crops, and our state leads the nation in production. The University of Idaho has conducted phenomenal research on various crops and provided valuable information to producers about these key agricultural products.

As the University continues to expand its research to meet industry needs, it is crucial that funding keeps pace with the research efforts. I am proud to support this project, and as we continue to support the potato industry, we should strive for the goal that ten out of ten Americans associate potatoes with Idaho, rather than just nine out of ten! Read more about this project and community support here.

Hosting a Forest Service Roundtable

In case you missed it: to wrap up the week in DC, I hosted a Forest Service roundtable with Associate Chief Chris French.

This roundtable gave subcommittee members an opportunity to ask questions and receive important information regarding the agency. In Idaho, we know how important the Forest Service is. The appropriations subcommittee I chair, the Interior and Environment subcommittee, funds critical agencies like the Forest Service.

Interested in an Internship?

Internship Opportunities in Washington, D.C. and Idaho:

A Capitol Hill internship provides unsurpassed opportunities to gain experience through the application of academic skills in a highly professional work environment. Interns become members of my staff, with a wide range of responsibilities, for the duration of their stay.

The work can be challenging and is usually quite fast-paced. At the same time, I encourage my interns to take full advantage of the unique cultural and historical aspects of our nation’s capital. Find more information here.

Pocatello PD Thanks Community for Successful National Night Out Event

By
Observer Staff
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(Pocatello Police Department, August 4, 2026)

Thank you to everyone who attended National Night Out [on Tuesday]! We are grateful for the incredible turnout and the opportunity to spend the evening with our community.

A special thank you to our live performers, food vendors, public safety partners, local businesses, community organizations, volunteers, and everyone who helped make this event such a success. Your support and participation are what make National Night Out so meaningful.

We loved seeing neighbors connect, families enjoy the activities, and our community come together in such a positive way. Thank you for helping make Pocatello a safer, stronger, and more connected community.

We look forward to seeing you again next year! ???

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The Pocatello Chubbuck Observer seeks to be a fair and objective portal, where readers can find the local, regional and national news, recent facts and entertainment.
Contact us: jcrowder@pocatellochubbuckobserver

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