Letter From the President of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, Ronald Nate IdahoFreedom/org/26index Welcome to the 2026 Idaho Freedom Index! In its 14th year, the Idaho Freedom Index remains the most comprehensive and powerful indicator of how our legislators’ votes reflect the principles of restoring liberty, protecting rights, limiting government, reducing taxes, and honoring the Constitution. […]
Blackfoot, We Have A Problem, Part 1 and 2, explored how local officials violated both state and local codes to push forward a proposed development that current residents oppose, and how Idaho courts have previously upheld that a city can go unpunished for code violations if a citizen is supposedly not harmed by those violations. […]
“Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember—the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.” Zig Ziglar Critics of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) claim that efforts to vet candidates, make recommendations, and uphold the principles in the Republican Party Platform are destructive to the party […]
Open the newspaper or turn on the evening news and you’ll see members of the other party complaining about what Idaho’s Republican majority is doing. They insist that if they were in charge—rather than Republicans holding a supermajority in the Legislature—things would be different. But it’s worth taking the time to evaluate ideology by its […]
Dear Friends, Across the country, corrections officers are watching drones fly over prison facilities carrying drugs, weapons, and cell phones directly to inmates. They can see it happening. Under current federal law, they often cannot legally stop it. In March, I joined 20 other attorneys general in a letter to Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Senior Director […]
In Blackfoot, We Have A Problem Part 1, a general introduction was given about a development issue in Blackfoot. Details in the article focused on the potential development’s density, state statute violations, Comprehensive Plan (CP), overburdened water and sewer system, and the Blackfoot Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) not addressing any of those issues in an accountable way. […]
Can you believe the 2026 legislative session is already over? It feels like it just got started. Time flies, but a lot happened in those three months. By my count, lawmakers considered more than 800 bills, resolutions, and memorials dealing with a wide range of issues, including water, property rights, education, protecting children, occupational licensing, […]
The wisdom of the crowd is a well-documented and demonstrated phenomenon. If you ask a group of people a question, say, to guess the number of M&Ms in a jar, and then average the guesses, you will arrive at an answer startlingly close to the truth. While you may be the smartest person in the […]
The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) has released its list of recommended candidates for the May 19 Primary. The list is available at KCRCC.com. The KCRCC is made up of Precinct Committeemen who are elected every two years by the residents of each of the 74 precincts in Kootenai County. Because of this, the […]
As everyone is aware, Idaho has been experiencing growth issues from California, Oregon, Washington, and other state escapees. There has been widespread growth throughout different parts of the state, and Eastern Idaho is no exception. This has allegedly placed pressure and demands for affordable housing. The City of Blackfoot has been busy over the last few […]
Everybody has an opinion, and that is especially true around election time. Voters are bombarded with signs, texts, mailers, and social media ads designed to change their views on one candidate or another. Some of these messages are substantive—sharing an incumbent’s voting record or explaining what a challenger will do differently—but others are nothing more […]
Dear Friends, In 2021, Gregory Pheasant was arrested for riding a dirt bike without a taillight on federal land near Reno, Nevada. A federal district court dismissed the charges, ruling that Congress had violated the Constitution by letting the Bureau of Land Management decide what conduct is criminal without defining the crimes themselves. However, the […]