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Guest Columnist Senator Tammy Nichols: Idaho Is Picking a State Gun

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Observer Staff
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August 31, 2026

Idaho Is Picking a State Gun
Yes, Really!

By: ID Senator Tammy Nichols

ID Senator Tammy Nichols (Photo Credit: Tammy Nichols)

As I talk to Idahoans about the upcoming election, most have no idea this question will be on their November ballot.

When Idaho voters head to the polls on November 3, 2026, there will be plenty of serious decisions to make. Candidates, constitutional amendments, Proposition One, and then something you probably weren’t expecting:

Which gun should become the official State Gun of Idaho?

Yes, that’s really on the ballot.

Earlier this year, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 932, placing an advisory question before Idaho voters asking them to choose from six firearms. The bill passed the House 68-0 and the Senate 32-0 and was signed into law by Governor Brad Little on April 2.

The idea came in part from America’s 250th anniversary. The legislation recognizes the role firearms have played throughout American history, from the Revolutionary War and westward expansion to hunting, ranching, self-defense and recreational shooting.

That history certainly fits Idaho.

Firearms have long been part of Idaho’s culture and heritage. Hunters have depended on rifles to put food on the table. Ranchers and farmers have used them to protect livestock and property. Generations of Idahoans have grown up learning firearm safety, marksmanship and responsible gun ownership.

So, which firearm best represents Idaho?

Here Are Your Six Choices

Winchester Model 1894 (.30-30)
One of America’s classic hunting rifles. Introduced in 1894, this lever action rifle became one of the most popular hunting rifles ever made.

Winchester Model 1873 (.44-40)
Often called the “Gun that Won the West.” It became closely associated with pioneers, ranchers and America’s western expansion.

1873 Colt Single Action Army Revolver (.45 Colt)
Better known as the “Peacemaker.” Cowboys, lawmen, soldiers and civilians all carried versions of this legendary revolver.

M1 Garand (.30-06)
This one represents a very different chapter of American history. The M1 was the standard U.S. military rifle during World War II and continued serving during the Korean War.

Colt M1911 (.45 ACP)
Adopted by the U.S. military in 1911, this semi-automatic pistol served America’s armed forces for decades and remains extremely popular today.

Remington Model 700 (.30-06)
A classic bolt-action rifle introduced in 1962 that became widely used for hunting and precision shooting.

Something else to point out. This isn’t a binding vote.

The ballot question is advisory. Idaho voters are essentially telling the Legislature, “This is the gun we think should represent our state.”

After the votes are counted, the Legislature would still need to pass legislation officially naming the winning firearm as Idaho’s State Gun.

And according to the legislation’s fiscal note, adding the question is expected to have no direct impact on the state’s General Fund, with only a minimal additional ballot cost because election funding is already in place.

Which One Says “Idaho” to You?

This may not be the most consequential question on November’s ballot, but it may be one of the most interesting.

Idaho already celebrates the things that make our state unique through official symbols representing our wildlife, agriculture, landscape and heritage. Selecting a State Gun gives Idahoans another opportunity to recognize a piece of our history, and this time, the Legislature isn’t making the choice for you.

You are.

Before November 3, take a look at the six choices.

Maybe you’re a hunter and the Winchester 1894 or Remington 700 gets your vote. Maybe America’s military history makes the M1 Garand or 1911 the obvious choice. Or maybe nothing says the American West quite like the Winchester 1873 or Colt Peacemaker.

Whatever your choice, don’t get to the voting booth and wonder:

“Why am I voting on a gun?”

Now you know.

So, Idaho, what should our State Gun be?

In Liberty,

Senator Tammy Nichols
District 10

Guest Columnist Art da Rosa: Ballot Initiatives, Democracy, and HJR 4

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Observer Staff
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August 29, 2026

Ballot Initiatives, Democracy, and HJR 4

By: Art da Rosa, PE, MPA, CFM

Art da Rosa (Photo Credit: Art da Rosa)

In my class, I like to ask students a simple question: what’s the first word in the US Constitution after the Preamble? Most guess wrong. Look it up yourself — it’s “All.” The full sentence: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” Not most. Not some, subject to popular override whenever enough signatures can be gathered. All.

That’s a sound design. Concentrating lawmaking in one elected, deliberative body allows for proposal, debate, committee hearings, amendment, and revision before a change becomes permanent — exactly the process a single up-or-down ballot vote skips entirely.

One clarification worth making plainly, since it matters for everything that follows: Article I, Section 1 binds Congress specifically. It says nothing about how states must organize their own lawmaking, and Idaho breaks no federal rule by allowing citizen initiatives. But the founding generation’s actual practice was broader than that one clause. Every state government in 1788, not just the federal one, vested all lawmaking in an elected legislature. Direct democracy didn’t exist anywhere in the country. It’s a later addition to American government, not the original design, state or federal.

How HJR 4 Came About

This November, Idaho voters face House Joint Resolution 4 (HJR 4) — an amendment that would grant the Legislature exclusive authority over marijuana, narcotics, and psychoactive substances, closing the initiative process off for that entire subject permanently. Earlier this year, two competing marijuana-legalization initiatives were proposed… none received the necessary signatures to put them on this November ballot. But they could have. And what a confusion it would be. Recognizing that voters might legalize marijuana directly if left to decide for themselves, the Legislature moved first: pass the amendment, and no initiative on this subject reaches a vote again, this year or any year after.

Who Actually Uses the Initiative

In a state with genuine two-party competition, the initiative might function as an occasional pressure-relief valve, used by whichever side loses a given legislative fight. Idaho isn’t that kind of state. It has a Republican trifecta — the governorship and supermajorities in both legislative chambers — and has for years. That matters for understanding what the initiative process has actually become here: not a neutral tool available equally to all sides, but close to the only remaining tool available to whichever side cannot win a vote in the Statehouse at all.

Look at what Idaho’s highest-profile initiatives of the last decade have in common. In 2018, after years in which the Republican legislature declined to expand Medicaid, voters passed Medicaid expansion directly, by initiative. This cycle, the same pattern shows up twice more: the marijuana legalization measures and Proposition 1’s rewrite of abortion law, both organized outside the Statehouse by coalitions that could never get a hearing inside it.

None of this makes the initiative process illegal. It’s codified in Article III of the Idaho Constitution, and using it isn’t subverting anyone’s will. It does mean the tool functions, in practice, as the way the political minority bypasses a legislature that will never bring its preferred questions to a vote. That’s worth naming plainly, without pretending it’s neutral or pretending it’s illegitimate.

HJR 4’s Selective Memory

Set marijuana policy itself aside for a moment and look only at the structure of what the Legislature is doing. HJR 4 invokes the exact principle this piece opened with — that lawmaking power belongs in one elected, deliberative body — and writes it permanently into the state constitution. But it does so for exactly one subject, at exactly the moment that subject threatens to be decided against the Legislature’s wishes by initiative, while leaving every other subject, including a wholesale rewrite of the state’s approach to abortion law, fully open to the same process it’s foreclosing here.

That’s not a principled application of “all legislative power belongs to the legislature.” It’s a convenient one — invoked when it protects the majority’s current preferences, ignored everywhere the majority doesn’t feel threatened. I like the underlying principle. I don’t like watching it get reached for only when it’s politically useful. If concentrating lawmaking authority in an elected, deliberative body really is the sounder design — the founding generation’s near-universal choice — then it’s sounder for every subject a legislature might face, not just the one currently on the ballot against this Legislature’s wishes.

Conclusion

This is where the argument has to be applied consistently or not at all. The founding design, federal and state alike, concentrated lawmaking in elected bodies because that structure allows hearings, amendment, and revision before a change becomes permanent. Idaho’s initiative process is a Progressive-era addition to that design, not a restoration of it, and in a one-party state it functions almost entirely as a way for whichever side lacks power in the Statehouse to make sweeping changes in a single vote — no committee process, no chance to fix a flawed clause before it becomes binding. That’s the pattern behind Medicaid expansion, the marijuana initiatives, and Prop 1 alike.

If that pattern is worth correcting for drug policy — and HJR 4’s sponsors clearly believe it is — it’s at least as worth correcting for a rewrite of Idaho’s entire approach to abortion law, arguably more so, given how much more consequential and legally complicated that rewrite is than anything HJR 4 addresses. The honest, consistent position isn’t “initiatives are fine for the issues I don’t care about and illegitimate for the ones I do.” It’s that major, hard-to-reverse changes to Idaho law deserve the deliberative process only a legislature can provide, regardless of which side currently finds the initiative route more convenient. Idahoans who find HJR 4’s logic persuasive should find it just as persuasive applied to Proposition 1 — and vote no, not because of who is proposing the change, but because of how it’s being made.

Fish and Game Removes Young Black Bear from a South Pocatello Neighborhood

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Observer Staff
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(Idaho Fish and Game Press Release, August 31, 2026)

On the morning of Aug. 31, Idaho Fish and Game received a report of a young black bear in the backyard of a residence in a south valley neighborhood of Pocatello. David Dressel and Jon Dixon, both regional wildlife biologists with Fish and Game, responded to find a young bear climbing a fence and foraging on berries. The bear was soon captured and then released to a more suitable habitat in a remote location.

“We can’t be sure how or why this black bear found its way to this Pocatello neighborhood, though it is possible it had worked its way along the Portneuf River corridor as it foraged for food,” said Dressel.

In severe drought years like this one, there are limited available food resources like berries, nuts, roots, and other vegetation which comprise roughly 90% of an Idaho black bear’s diet. Though young bears usually remain with their mothers for at least a year before venturing out on their own, mother bears will sometimes push their young out earlier to reduce competition for food.

The decision to capture and release this bear was made based on a variety of factors. The bear was not a “problem bear” in that it was not eating trash or getting into human structures, it had not caused damage to pets or livestock, nor had it threatened or become habituated to humans. However, based on its proximity to homes and busy roadways, it was in the best interest of safety for both the bear and the public to relocate it away from town.

It is a rare occurrence to have a bear reported in Pocatello city limits, the last time being in 2018 when a wild black bear found its way into Zoo Idaho.

President Trump Announces Historic Oil Agreement to Secure American Energy Dominance, Drive Venezuela’s Economic Recovery

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Observer Staff
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(White House Office of Communications, August 31, 2026)

SECURING STABLE & LOW-COST OIL SUPPLY IN OUR HEMISPHERE: In the biggest oil deal in world history, President Donald J. Trump has secured U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela– vastly expanding our current U.S. territorial proven reserves of roughly 46 billion barrels. This deal secures our energy dominance for the next century—all at zero cost to the United States. The deal, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, gives the U.S. government powerful governance rights, economic ownership, and guaranteed low-cost off-take from a new private Venezuelan oil champion, which will be the second-largest private oil company by reserves in the world:

  • In connection with this agreement, the Venezuelan interim authorities have granted North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), a privately held oil company that is the second-largest private Venezuelan oil producer and a proven operator, 100-year concessions for 17 oil fields with proven reserves of approximately 65 billion barrels.
  • At no cost to the American taxpayer, NABEP has granted the U.S. Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital a 35% equity stake in its corporate parent, representing up to hundreds of billions in value and dividends for the United States.
  • NABEP has granted the U.S. Department of State the right to purchase, at production cost, a guaranteed 20% of the off-take from all current and future fields NABEP will operate—ensuring a stable supply of low-cost oil that can facilitate refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which Joe Biden depleted to historic lows, and to provide supply for military and other sensitive uses.
  • NABEP has also granted the U.S. Department of State the right of first refusal to purchase the remaining 80% of its production, providing a guaranteed source of energy in our hemisphere in emergency situations.
  • The U.S. government has a veto power over the appointment of any member of the board of directors, and a majority of NABEP’s board of directors must be U.S. citizens.  NABEP will have reputable U.S. auditors, lawyers, and advisors and the U.S. government’s agreement with NABEP is governed by U.S. law and is subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.
  • Millions of barrels of new Venezuelan output will be processed through U.S. refineries and pumped with American rigs and infrastructure, supporting billions in investment in the United States and thousands of jobs here at home.

DRIVING ECONOMIC RECOVERY & THE RECONSTRUCTION OF VENEZUELA’S OIL SECTOR: This groundbreaking privatization and investment in Venezuela’s energy sector is a key step in the Trump Administration’s three-part plan of stabilization, reconstruction and democratic transition. Private-sector led growth in production, output, and investment in Venezuela is a key precondition to driving continued reform and democratic transition following the incredible success of Operation Absolute Resolve:

  • NABEP has developed an ambitious plan to rapidly scale production by investing up to $100 billion in new oil infrastructure in Venezuela, helping to drive economic growth, support thousands of high-paying jobs in Venezuela, and lead to tens of billions in broader economic activity.
  • NABEP’s concessions are governed by Venezuela’s new hydrocarbons law, adopted with U.S. support, which provides for historic modernization, privatization and development of Venezuela’s lagging oil sector. Under this framework, as it scales production, NABEP will pay an expected $200 billion in royalty and tax payments over the first 25 years, representing critical revenue and fiscal support for current and future Venezuelan governments to fund reconstruction and social development.
  • After years of underinvestment and mismanagement, the majority of Venezuela’s oil fields are not producing or vastly underproducing. By investing in a proven private operator with a track record of scaling production in the country, who will be able to raise private American capital to fund capital expenditures, Venezuela has a historic opportunity to revitalize its key sector, drive oil output growth, and grow its economy.
  • The U.S. government’s robust governance and audit provisions, along with the Trump Administration’s banking reform, payment oversight and financial monitorship, will ensure tax and royalty payments are spent in the interests of the Venezuelan people.
  • The United States is sponsoring reconciliation talks between the 2015 National Assembly and the interim authorities – a process which has already resulted in significant reforms to the Venezuelan judiciary, the release of hundreds of political prisoners, and cooperative efforts to finance reconstruction following the devastating June earthquakes. The process will continue with additional meetings in September.

REASSERTING THE MONROE DOCTRINE & EXPELLING FOREIGN ADVERSARIES FROM OUR HEMISPHERE: The majority of the incremental oil fields to be operated by NABEP were previously controlled or operated by Russian and Chinese firms, or by corrupt cronies of Maduro and Chavez. These malign foreign actors looted Venezuela’s resources for the benefit of American adversaries like Cuba, Russia and China and failed to invest in Venezuela’s infrastructure or development.

  • President Trump has re-established the Monroe Doctrine, purging foreign malign influence from our backyard and ensuring American dominance in our hemisphere is never again questioned.
  • By working with both new and old partners, President Trump’s Administration is forging new robust, strategic and defensible supply chains in our hemisphere to support the revitalization of our manufacturing and energy sectors after years of globalist decline.

AG Labrador Demands Answers from Big Four Accounting Firms Over Climate Change Conflicts of Interest

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Observer Staff
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(Attorney General’s Office Press Release, August 31, 2026)

BOISE, ID — Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined a coalition of 15 state attorneys general in raising concerns over climate-related activism in a letter sent to the “Big 4” accounting firms: Deloitte; Ernst & Young; KPMG; and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The letter addresses the Big 4’s stated commitments to push for climate-related disclosures in financial reporting, contrary to their professional duties of integrity and objectivity. The firms stand to financially benefit from the additional reporting, while the increased costs of compliance are passed onto small businesses and consumers.

“Idaho small businesses depend on their accountants to fight for their best interests,” said Attorney General Labrador. “When the Big Four force their clients to pay higher fees for burdensome climate change reporting, it’s a shakedown. Idaho businesses and consumers deserve better.”

The Big 4 have committed to support a framework of climate-based disclosures as part of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. They were also founding members of the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance, whose members committed to align their products and services with the Paris climate agreement’s goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.  The Big 4’s climate activist commitments may violate professional duties of integrity and objectivity by creating conflicts of interest.

The letter addresses concerns that the Big 4’s climate activism may violate state consumer protection laws by making deceptive representations and omissions to customers about the firms’ independence when conducting audits. The Big 4 do not disclose their climate commitments, which is inconsistent with their stated commitments to independence, objectivity, transparency, ethics, and integrity. The Big 4 may have also violated state contractual provisions requiring compliance with state law, which could result in penalties and termination of the Big 4’s contracts.

Joining Attorney General Labrador in today’s letter are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia.

Reading the Field: How an Idaho Researcher Helps Wireless Systems Make the Right Call under Pressure

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Observer Staff
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(Idaho National Laboratory Press Release, August 31, 2026)

By Corinne Dionisio, INL Communications

On any given fall Saturday, college football stadiums turn into small cities with populations of up to 110,000 people. Thousands of fans congregate in relatively small spaces, all with smartphones vying for their share of the wireless spectrum.

Behind the scenes, police, firefighters, paramedics, venue security and event operators need to move time-sensitive information through that same wireless spectrum without delay. The same challenge affects pro football, concerts and other mass gatherings — networks must adjust to the spectrum congestion that crowds create.

For most fans, a congested network means texts may not immediately go through, or social media feeds may not load properly. For emergency responders, a delayed connection can disrupt coordination and situational awareness, putting operations and sometimes lives at risk.

Nick Kaminski, a distinguished wireless communications researcher for the Idaho National Laboratory’s Wireless Communications Research division, develops wireless spectrum technologies that can adapt to unexpected conditions and continue supporting mission-critical communications.

When the playbook meets reality

In football, the playbook is only the beginning. Once the ball is snapped, players must read the defense and execute the play as the plan starts to deteriorate. A wireless communications network is similar in that it may perform well under controlled or ordinary conditions, but unexpected weather events, infrastructure failures or even malicious attacks can cause performance to deteriorate.

Kaminski understands both kinds of pressures.

He played Division I football as a center at Virginia Tech while balancing coursework in electrical engineering, computer engineering and economics.

“Football season feels like having a very bad headache,” Kaminski said. “Except you have that feeling over your entire body for nine months.”

Kaminski eventually stepped away from economics but left Virginia Tech with four degrees: one in computer engineering and three — a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate — in electrical engineering. His Virginia Tech experience reinforced a lesson that now shapes his research at INL: Performance depends on preparation, adaptability and team members who understand how their roles fit together.

Kaminski was initially focused on robotics and artificial intelligence, at least until then Virginia Tech professor Charles Bostian encouraged him to try undergraduate wireless research.

“Why wireless?” Kaminski said. “I wanted to do cool AI stuff.”

Nevertheless, Bostian kept steering Kaminski toward wireless research, a doctoral program and a fellowship. It wasn’t long before the field won Kaminski over with the way it merges engineering and the physical world.

“You can design a transmitter, and you can design a receiver,” Kaminski said. “In between them is all the nonsense and chaos of the real world. How do you deal with that to make something useful?”

Years later, Bostian’s influence came full circle when Kaminski joined his former mentor as a co-author of “Cognitive Radio Engineering,” the final book of Bostian’s career

From analysis to action

After Virginia Tech and a postdoctoral appointment in Ireland, Kaminski joined the Institute for Defense Analyses. He valued the organization’s mission focus, but something was missing. He didn’t want to just study systems, he wanted to build and test them.

In late 2022 he began looking into INL at the insistence of a former colleague. At the lab, Kaminski found an unusual combination of integrated infrastructure and mission focus that could move promising technologies from theory through prototyping and realistic testing — and into the hands of the people who need them.

“No matter what you know about INL, you don’t know the whole picture,” Kaminski said. “The scope of work we do here is constantly surprising to everyone.”

Communications are invisible until they fail

Across the 890-square-mile INL Site, wireless researchers work with cellular networks from 2G through 5G, satellite communications, fixed and mobile radios and telecommunications backhaul. They can introduce controlled interference, observe how networks respond and evaluate systems under realistic distances, power levels and even varying terrain.

What makes INL unusual isn’t simply its wireless capabilities. It’s that those capabilities exist alongside full-scale test ranges including power grids, airfields for uncrewed air systems, nuclear facilities and water infrastructure, allowing researchers to study wireless communications systems the way they behave in the real world.

Communications systems are the connective tissue of modern infrastructure. A delayed or disrupted message can affect an operator restoring power after a hurricane, emergency crews coordinating a response or public safety officials relying on critical communications in a packed stadium.

Communications are critical in high-consequence environments because decisions are only as good as the information available to make them.

AI and uncertainty

Perhaps an unexpected turn in wireless is that decisions are increasingly being made by machines.

AI, one of Kaminski’s earliest research interests, is becoming a bigger part of communications systems. Kaminski studies how engineers can use AI to make good decisions when datasets are limited, conditions are changing and multiple automated systems may be acting at once.

AI-native architectures, automated network management, spectrum management and interference mitigation are high-priority efforts for wireless research across the federal government. The National Institute of Standards and Technology and INL recently partnered to help meet the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s needs in these areas. Through this and related work, INL is advancing these priorities while seeking to understand what AI-driven network decisions mean for grid operators, emergency responders, service members and public safety officials who rely on dependable network connections.

INL provides an environment that can test decisions and systems where the conditions are real, but before the stakes are. The laboratory brings together government, industry and academic partners to develop and evaluate technologies and produce credible data. Rather than competing with the wireless industry, Kaminski describes INL wireless research as a “force multiplier”.

That force-multiplier role now extends back to Virginia Tech, where Kaminski is collaborating with faculty and students on wireless spectrum research and has returned to Blacksburg to share what he has learned.

“It’s personally fulfilling to see people go from students to faculty,” Kaminski said. “I also get to reconnect with people who were faculty when I was a student at Virginia Tech. Going back has reinforced how much they care about the mission and about building things. That’s rewarding.”

Beyond the game plan

In football, game day reveals what a team is actually prepared for once the clock starts and the play breaks down. Likewise, secure and resilient wireless communications systems need more than successful test runs in an isolated environment, or AI systems that are effective within scripted and expected scenarios.

INL has integrated capabilities and a customizable ecosystem that can produce real-world wireless unpredictability at scale — before the world depends on it.

“INL is a place that builds stuff,” Kaminski said. “It has real wireless networks, does real testing and has a strong focus on supporting national security and missions that matter. This is the perfect place for wireless spectrum research.”

Learn more about INL’s wireless research here.

About Idaho National Laboratory

Battelle Energy Alliance manages INL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. INL is the nation’s center for nuclear energy research and development, and also performs research in each of DOE’s strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science and the environment. For more information, visit www.inl.gov. Follow us on social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.

Bannock County Finds West Nile Virus-Positive Mosquito Pool in Swan Lake, Horse Tests Positive in Arimo

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Observer Staff
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(Bannock County Press Release, August 31, 2026)

BANNOCK COUNTY, Idaho – Southeastern Idaho Public Health (SIPH) and Bannock County Mosquito Abatement have confirmed a West Nile Virus (WNV) positive mosquito pool near Swan Lake in Public Health District 6, located in Bannock County.  No cases of WNV in humans have been reported, however, a horse in Arimo reportedly tested positive for the virus.

Bannock County Mosquito Abatement increased its response to the area where WNV was identified, and has treated both larval and adult mosquitoes. Staff will maintain an increase in control and monitoring measures in response to the positive detection.

West Nile is a potentially serious illness that is usually spread to animals and humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. Horses and livestock infected with WNV cannot transmit the virus to humans or other animals.

Most people infected with West Nile do not show symptoms; however, more severe illness can occur. People with symptoms may experience fever, headaches, body aches, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, eye pain, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash, typically occurring 2 to 14 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. More severe infections may involve the central nervous system.

Livestock and pet owners are encouraged to consult their veterinarian about West Nile virus preventative measures, vaccinations, and symptom monitoring.

To reduce the risk of WNV, the following precautions should be taken:

When outdoors, use insect repellent containing an EPA-registered active ingredient, such as DEET or Picaridin (apply it according to the manufacturer’s instructions). Additionally, certain products containing permethrin are recommended for use on clothing, shoes, bed nets, and camping gear. Follow the directions on the package.

Use insect repellent and wear long sleeves, pants, and loose-fitting clothing at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active and feeding. If possible, consider staying indoors during these hours.

Make sure to have good screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out.

Get rid of mosquito breeding sites by draining standing water from flowerpots, buckets, and barrels. Change the water in pet dishes and replace the water in bird baths and feeding troughs at least twice a week. Drill holes in tire swings or old tires to allow water to drain out. Keep children’s wading pools empty or on their sides when not in use.

Don’t over-irrigate your lawns, gardens, or pastures.

For more information on WNV, contact SIPH’s Epidemiologists, Jeff Doerr, at 208-478-6303 or visit SIPH’s website at www.siphidaho.org or https://westnile.idaho.gov.

For information about Bannock County Mosquito Abatement, visit bannockcounty.gov/mosquito.

UPDATE: PPD Investigating Suspicious Death; One Arrested for 2nd Degree Homicide

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Observer Staff
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(Pocatello Police Department Press Release, August 31, 2026; Cover photo credit: PPD)

POCATELLO, IDAHO — The Pocatello Police Department is investigating the death of an adult male following a family dispute that turned physical in the 800 block of Park Avenue.

Officers were originally dispatched to the area at approximately 1515 hours on August 30, 2026. During the investigation, officers determined that the victim and the suspect were involved in a family dispute that escalated into a physical altercation. The victim sustained injuries during the altercation and subsequently died.

On August 30, 2026, at approximately 2200 hours, Andrew Scoffield, an adult male, was taken into custody and booked into the Bannock County Jail on a charge of Second-Degree Homicide.

The identity of the victim will not be released at this time.

Guest Columnist Brian Almon: A Closer Look at the Public School Funding Formula

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Observer Staff
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(Image Credit: Gem State Chronicle)

August 28, 2026 (Cover Image Credit: Gem State Chronicle)

A Closer Look at the Public School Funding Formula

By: Gem State Chronicle Publisher Brian Almon

Brian Almon

A debate is brewing over how Idaho should fund its public schools. Our State Constitution mandates that the Legislature “establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” The debate ahead of the 2027 legislative session is over exactly how the Legislature should accomplish that mandate.

Idaho’s public school funding formula is rather complicated, but the basic idea is fairly simple: the state counts the children who actually attend school, converts that number into “support units” based on factors such as grade level, school size, and special needs, and then uses those support units to determine how much money each district receives. While activists and policymakers often point to approximately $9,000 in Idaho tax dollars spent per public school student, the formula is more complex than a single chunk of money allocated for each student. Attendance is the starting point, and the number and type of students being served determine how many support units a school generates.

According to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield, this formula has not undergone any meaningful updates for more than thirty years. Earlier this week, she issued an op-ed calling upon the Legislature to be open to reforming the funding formula:

When I think about what schools looked like 32 years ago, I can confidently tell you it’s not the same now. To name just a few: schools used blackboards, overhead projectors, and dial-up internet, available in a computer lab (if at all!). Our state was smaller, and we were over a decade away from the population boom we’ve recently experienced.

Between 1994 and today, the Idaho classroom has changed. Your life and household looks different from 1994 too. These changes are not limited to education; it’s just life. Our students deserve to be supported by a formula that reflects the needs of the 21st century, not those of students who sat in classrooms over three decades ago. In fact, many of the students from the early 90s now have their own children in our schools! And trust me, they have opinions on how we should educate.

[…]

So, what’s next? Now that the formal work of listening is logged, what can Idahoans expect as we dig into the work of revising and rewriting?

We will be working with legislators to help shape what changes will look like. That will include financial analyses and putting together models to be shared with districts and charters, the public at large, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, and anyone else that’s interested, as we head into next legislative session this winter.

The superintendent did not make any specific policy prescriptions regarding the funding formula, but I’m sure her office is already in discussions with legislators to craft a new system.

Something else is different between the 1990s and today, and that is how many students are enrolled in our public school system. Last December, I examined how the student population of Idaho has changed over the past few decades and found that, as a percentage of the total population, public school enrollment has dropped from 21.72% in 1991 to just 15.89% in 2024. Total public school enrollment peaked at just under 319,000 in 2022 but then declined over the following two years.

image 8

What does this mean for public school funding?

This paradigm has significant implications for budgeting and public policy in Idaho. Despite continual historic and unprecedented investments in public education, K-12 enrollment is not only shrinking as a share of the population but is now declining in raw numbers. Because the funding formula is based on enrollment, this means the cost per student can only increase. It costs a certain amount to run a district office, maintain buildings, and pay teachers and support staff regardless of how many students are enrolled. Inflation has made all of this more expensive as well.

Note: In the December 2025 article, I used the term “enrollment” to refer to the funding formula. “Attendance” is a more precise term, as Chris Cargill explains in his recent op-ed.

Schools have certain fixed costs, no matter how many students are enrolled. A building made to accommodate 1,000 students still has the same basic costs for electricity, heating and air conditioning, water and sewer, and some support staff even if it is serving only 500. If each grade level loses five students, that’s not necessarily enough to lay off one teacher and consolidate classrooms, but it could decrease the amount of money received from state coffers. This is a real issue districts face, but preserving the status quo should not be the goal of our funding formula.

Earlier this year, I took a look at Boise School District’s open enrollment reports, which showed how many vacancies there were in classrooms and grade levels throughout the district. The state requires districts to publish these reports so families who want to enroll their children in a different district than the one in which they live can know where there is available space. It never made it into an article, but what I found was that many grade levels throughout Boise had up to dozens of available seats. At the time, there were more than 4,000 open spots in the district as a whole, not counting virtual or special schools. That many vacancies would suggest that some sort of consolidation might be warranted to account for decreasing enrollment. However, the Boise School Board decided to raise taxes by 18% instead.

Indeed, the contrast between Boise and neighboring West Ada School District is a reminder that money isn’t everything. Boise taxpayers spend more than $16,000 per student, compared to less than $10,000 per student in West Ada. Yet West Ada clearly outperforms Boise when it comes to several measures of student outcomes. Its graduation rate is 88.8%, compared to Boise’s 82.3%. On the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), West Ada students averaged 69.1% in English language arts and 57.6% in math, compared to 53.3% and 46.4% in Boise.

image 9 edited

If money were solely responsible for student success, then Boise would be at the top of the charts. Yet public school advocates inevitably demand more money every year, arguing that our public schools are underfunded. Late last year, a coalition of school districts, teachers’ unions, and individuals sued Idaho over the Parental Choice Tax Credit, claiming that the $50 million appropriation detracted from the Legislature’s constitutional mandate to fund public schools—despite the state already spending around $3 billion a year on public education, plus much more from local taxpayers in the form of bonds and levies.

Money isn’t everything; how we spend money is perhaps more important than the total amount. So how should we fund our public schools? Mountain States Policy Center President Chris Cargill’s recent op-ed warned that shifting to an enrollment-based formula, rather than our current system based on attendance, is the wrong idea:

Idaho’s ADA system isn’t as unforgiving as critics sometimes portray it. For funding purposes, the state can use the 28 weeks with the highest average daily attendance. There are also protections for unusual attendance disruptions. In other words, a flu outbreak, a terrible snow week or a child staying home sick for a few days doesn’t automatically blow a hole in a district’s budget.

There is another reason Idaho lawmakers should be cautious about turning enrollment into a blank check. We recently discovered that the definition of “enrolled” can be considerably more expansive than many parents realize.

During implementation of Idaho’s new Parental Choice Tax Credit, some homeschool families were surprised to discover that their children were considered enrolled in public schools because they participated in activities such as sports, cheerleading or after-school clubs.

Some families didn’t even know their children were considered enrolled until it suddenly mattered. That became an issue because Idaho’s original parental choice law generally prohibited families from receiving the credit during a semester in which their child was enrolled in a public school. Lawmakers wisely corrected the problem in 2026, clarifying that participation in nonacademic extracurricular activities does not make a student “enrolled” for purposes of the parental choice program.

Cargill concluded with this:

The purpose of Idaho’s education system is to serve students. The purpose of students is not to fund the system.

As we near the 2027 legislative session, let’s have a sober and rational discussion about how to best fund the students our public education system is meant to serve. Superintendent Critchfield is absolutely right that the 21st century has changed the way classroom education takes place. We need a nimble and agile system that gets the best bang for its buck and produces well-educated adults ready to take up the mantle of citizenship in our Republic—not one that exists to serve ossified special interests like the teachers’ union.

I believe there are some basic principles around which conservatives should be able to unite:

  • Funding must be based on real students, not accounting categories.
  • Fixed costs are real, and districts need predictability, but they don’t justify permanently insulating districts from enrollment changes.
  • Funding must be transparent enough that citizens can understand how their money is being used. Conversely, districts must be held accountable for how they use taxpayer money.
  • The funding formula should be based on what works best for students, not designed to protect existing institutions.
  • Most importantly, more money should no longer be treated as synonymous with better education.

Our students deserve the best education possible, and taxpayers deserve the best investment possible. I think it’s possible for a system to accomplish both, but it’s going to take hard work and involvement from you. If you’re not talking to your lawmakers, know that special interests and lobbyists are, and their concerns might not be the same as yours. As a reminder, you can share your thoughts on this issue directly with your elected legislators using tools like Email the Legislature at Idaho Insider.

About Brian Almon

Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and five children in Eagle.

Editor’s note:  This article originally appeared in the Gem State Chronicle.  I encourage our readers to visit their website and consider subscribing.  Find this and other informative articles at the Gem State Chronicle here: About – Gem State Chronicle

Idaho Secretary of State: From Timber to Textbooks

By
Observer Staff
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(Idaho Secretary of State, August 28, 2026)

It’s in your house and your furniture. It’s the stack of mail on your counter and the box your Amazon order arrived in. These are just some of the everyday wood products that begin as timber, a critical driver of Idaho’s economy, particularly in places like Lewiston. But the impact goes even further. Our forests also power our schools, and not just the pencils Idaho’s students use in the classroom.

As Secretary of State, I serve on the Idaho Land Board alongside Governor Brad Little, Attorney General Raúl Labrador, State Controller Brandon Woolf, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield. Together, we oversee nearly 2.5 million acres of state endowment land, much of which was granted to Idaho at statehood for a specific purpose: to generate revenue for public schools and other beneficiaries.

At our recent meeting, the Land Board approved a record $132.5 million distribution to Idaho’s schools, universities, and other beneficiaries, surpassing last year’s record of $117.3 million.

I had all of this on my mind during a recent visit to Lewiston, where I got to see two very different sides of Idaho’s forest products industry.

At the Idaho Forest Group Lewiston Mill, which dates back to the early 1920s, we watched timber fresh from Idaho forests make its way through the mill, where it was cut, sorted, and prepared for its next use. From there, we visited Clearwater Paper, an Idaho company with roots stretching back more than 100 years that has continued to reinvent itself.

Next time you pick up a carton of takeout food or see a product displayed in packaging at the grocery store, there’s a chance it came from Idaho. Seeing these operations firsthand, I was struck by their size and scale, but even more by how far the impact of our forests reaches.

Idaho’s forest products industry supports thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity. Our endowment lands take that impact one step further. Revenue generated from those lands goes back to our schools and other beneficiaries, while the lands themselves continue to provide opportunities for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation.

From the lumber in our homes to the packaging on our shelves to the funding for our schools, Idaho’s forests do a lot of work for all of us.

Phil McGrane

ABOUT SECRETARY PHIL McGRANE

Phil McGrane was elected Idaho’s twenty-eighth Secretary of State and took office on January 2, 2023. McGrane served as elected Clerk of Ada County from 2019-2022.McGrane holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a juris doctorate, and a Master of Public Administration. As a fourth-generation Idahoan, Phil has dedicated his career to making elections in the state of Idaho accessible, secure and transparent.

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