Idaho

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PRIMARY 2 26 BELLWETHER

SECEDE JOIN E WASH?

AIRLIFT ABORT WOMAN TO UTAH?

TEAM RED RAGA?

MILITIA PATRIOT FRONT

bak

SEE Vaxx

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merri ok

patriot front, proud boys 31? arrested pride; some COWS rev deleted posts w/ them?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/idaho-cops-inundated-threats/

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HNN GMAIL 4 26

How Political Violence Failed in the 1990s

Leighton Woodhouse

In 1992, the tiny, unincorporated village of Naples, Idaho became the ground zero of a national movement of far-right, anti-government activists and agitators. (Compact)

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an 2 26

When the late white supremacist Richard Butler founded the Aryan Nations back in the early 1970s, he chose Idaho for the group's headquarters. The Aryan Nations opened a compound in Hayden Lake, a suburb of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho — and starting in 1981, Butler held the annual Aryan Nations World Congress gathering on the compound. Members of other white supremacist, white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups were invited, including the Ku Klux Klan, The Order, and former KKK Grand Dragon Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance (WAR).

In a lengthy article for Mother Jones' March/April 2026 issue, reporter Michael Edison Hayden (known for his work with the Southern Poverty Law Center in the past) examines Idaho's long history of far-right extremism — from the Aryan Nations to MAGA Christian nationalists — and describes the deep red state as a "bellwether for radicalization."

"North Idaho came up a lot during my time at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the storied civil rights watchdog where I worked from 2018 through 2023," Hayden explains. "The region seemed to have an uncanny ability to attract bigots from elsewhere in the country…. By the 1970s…. neo-Nazis were arriving…. Then in 1991, an Aryan Nations associate named Randy Weaver failed to appear in court on a firearms charge. U.S. marshals began surveilling his property the following year, and when they approached his residence in the Ruby Ridge area of North Idaho, they came into conflict with the Weaver family, ultimately killing Weaver's teenage son and Weaver's wife, who was carrying the couple's baby in her arms when she was shot."

More recently, Hayden notes, "new extremists" in Idaho have been "making inroads in the local GOP power structure."

"A Republican group called the North Idaho Pachyderm Club, which is promoted on the official Kootenai County GOP website, has invited far-right activists Vincent James Foxx and Dave Reilly to speak in recent years," Hayden reports. "Reilly, who has a history of antisemitic commentary, even secured a KCRCC endorsement for his failed 2021 school board campaign. More moderate Republicans became targets….. In June 2020, armed individuals patrolled (Coeur d'Alene's) streets in an event called 'Gun d’Alene' —part of the backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement. Two years after that, dozens of masked members of Patriot Front, a neofascist collective, were caught packed in a U-Haul, preparing to storm a Pride parade."

Hayden emphasizes that extremism in Idaho can encourage extremism in other parts of the U.S.

"One theme I heard repeatedly about Coeur d’Alene was that it is a bellwether for radicalization," Hayden warns. "Meaning that if you see something like authoritarians shutting down speech at a town hall there — or maybe even a maniac ambushing firefighters — you should take it seriously, because it could be coming to your city next…. As Kate Bitz of the Western States Center said, 'If it happens in North Idaho now, no one should be surprised when it happens nationally a few years later.'"

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KFF AN 10 25

In the 1970s, persistent measles outbreaks provoked officials to strengthen child protection with enforced school mandates in every state. Today the partisan split on vaccine policy in the wake of the covid outbreak has changed the equation. This is nowhere more the case than in Florida, although legislators in Texas and Louisiana are also considering ending mandatory vaccination, and Idaho enables parents to get an exemption just by asking for it.

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YT NOT OLD SOUTH BUT INLAND nw 80’S

END OF DAYS

Echoes of Conspiracy from Ruby Ridge to Today | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

1,357 views Feb 12, 2026 #amanpourpbs

The 1992 Ruby Ridge siege was an incident that shocked the U.S. The 11-day armed standoff in the mountains of Idaho between federal agents and the Weaver family ended in three deaths. In his new book "End of Days," Chris Jennings argues that the episode — rooted in apocalyptic, racist and anti-government ideology — helped pave the way for today's conspiracy-driven politics. Jennings joins the show to discuss the legacy of the widely televised event and what it reveals about America today. Originally aired on February 12, 2026

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YMAIL 8 25 LeeAnn Hall, National Campaign for Justice

info@juststrategy.org

Donald Trump just canceled the Lava Ridge Wind Project in Idaho. This project would have generated 1 gigawatt of clean wind power, enough electricity to power more than 750,000 homes for a full year. After years of planning, environmental review, and community engagement, the project had been approved and scaled back to avoid cultural and environmental impacts.

Now, with the stroke of a pen, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has reversed that approval. He cited so-called "legal deficiencies" and announced that no new wind or solar project on federal land can proceed without his personal sign-off. This is part of a sweeping campaign to stall renewable energy development across the United States.

Trump is delivering for his Big Oil donors by gutting projects that threaten their profits. Lava Ridge was a direct investment in America’s future with homegrown clean energy, reduced dependence on foreign oil from countries like Saudi Arabia, and a major step toward slowing climate change. Trump killed it to keep his fossil fuel backers happy.

The consequences of this decision go far beyond Idaho. Every clean energy project on federal land is now at risk. Every step toward energy independence is in jeopardy. Every ton of greenhouse gas emissions we could be cutting will now remain in the atmosphere, heating our planet and fueling climate disasters.

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rww

07/16/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Peter Baker @ The New York Times: For Trump, Domestic Adversaries Are Not Just Wrong, They Are ‘Evil’

The president’s vilification of political opponents and journalists seeds the ground for threats of prosecution, imprisonment and deportation unlike any modern president has made.

Josh Kovensky @ Talking Points Memo: Fire, Brimstone, and Hegseth: Idaho Christian Nationalists Establish a DC Beachhead

They're bringing an aggressive, very MAGA brand of Christian government to the nation's capital.

Jonathan Larsen: White House Bible Study Teaches that Jews Killed Jesus

The preacher who leads Bible studies for cabinet secretaries at the White House — and in both chambers of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — said in one of his lessons this month that “Israel … executed the Messiah.”

Hemant Mehta @ Friendly Atheist: Evangelicals lose their minds after Chip and Joanna Gaines cast gay couple on reality show

"Back to the Frontier" has sparked right-wing outrage for treating two gay dads as... normal people.

Ailia Zehra @ AlterNet: Fox hosts pilloried for 'super racist' segment 'calling themselves Nazis'

Fox News commentators Greg Gutfeld and [Lisa] Kennedy [Montgomery] have sparked outrage on social media after the two casually embraced the term "Nazi" during an on-air exchange Tuesday — prompting criticism for normalizing extremist language.

Media Matters: Charlie Kirk complains of “young women that are infected with the Jezebel spirit that had no interest in getting married or having children, that wanted to be the boss of the relationship”

"It was not full of young women that are infected with the Jezebel spirit that had no interest in getting married or having children, that wanted to be the boss of the relationship. Young men seek to have some sort of relationship that is scriptural in nature. More people were Christian. Our nation is now more secular."

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02/03/2025 RWW

Kyle Mantyla

Adele M. Stan @ The New Republic: Trump’s Pick for Federal Prosecutor in D.C. Gives Hacks a Bad Name

Now it appears that [Ed] Martin is positioning himself to “investigate the investigators,” as Trump and his minions have promised, perhaps looking for words in charging documents that he can twist into a false narrative of prosecutorial malfeasance on the part of the government lawyers who charged the insurrectionists.

Vittoria Elliott @ Wired: The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover

Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

Jacob Kornbluh @ Forward: Former Trump staffer fired for attending white nationalist conference tapped for top State Dept. position

The ADL has condemned appointing Darren Beattie, who invoked the antisemitic trope that George Soros orchestrated efforts to oust President Trump

Angry White Men: Stew Peters Denies Being A ‘White Supremacist’ Before Interviewing ‘Living Legend’ David Duke

At his confirmation hearing, Kash Patel — President Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI — was grilled over his association with Holocaust denier and Nazi sympathizer Stew Peters. On a Friday livestream, Peters denied being a white supremacist, shortly before introducing former Klan leader David Duke as a “living legend.”

Brian Kaylor @ A Public Witness: Lutherans Hammer Against Misinformation by Michael Flynn & Elon Musk

We might need to update that famous saying by German Lutheran theologian Martin Niemöller. First they came for the Episcopalians … then they came for the Catholics … then they came for the Lutherans.

Mark Silk @ Religion News Service: Idaho goes after same-sex marriage

This week, the Idaho House of Representatives passed a “joint memorial” (i.e. resolution) of the Legislature calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision that in 2015 established a constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples and insisting that “the issue of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to marriage” be returned to the states. The state Senate is expected to take up the memorial shortly.

Rob Port @ The Grand Folks Herald: Port: North Dakota lawmaker suggests overthrow of 'Jew' Mexican president

"Isn't she Jewish?" an unapologetic state Rep. Nico Rios asked when reached by phone. "Why is it wrong that I state a fact?"

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A N 11 24

Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Defense, has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy.

Hegseth is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Christ Church, a controversial congregation in Moscow, Idaho, that has become a leader in the movement to get more Christianity in the public sphere.

In an appearance last year on the Christ Church-connected streaming show “Crosspolitic,” Hegseth talked about how building up fundamentalist Christian education systems is important in what he sees as a “spiritual battle” with the secular world. He sees Christian students as foot soldiers in that war and refers to Christian schools as “boot camp.”

“We’re in middle phase one right now, which is effectively a tactical retreat where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize and as you do so, you build your army underground with the opportunity later on of taking offensive operations – and obviously all of this is metaphorical and all that good stuff,” he said on the show.

Hegseth did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.

Hegseth has spoken positively about Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson’s writings

Christ Church is led by Pastor Doug Wilson, who founded the Calvinist group of churches called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. CREC has congregations in nearly all 50 states and several foreign countries. Hegseth’s church is a member of CREC, and Hegseth has spoken positively of Wilson’s writings.

Wilson and his allies have a rigid patriarchal belief system and don’t believe in the separation of church and state. They support taking away the right to vote from most women, barring non-Christians from holding office and criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community.

Recently, Wilson has increased his influence nationally as he’s built a religious, educational and media empire. His Association of Classical Christian Schools has hundreds of fundamentalist schools around the country, and his publishing outfit Canon Press churns out dozens of titles a year as well as popular streaming shows that highlight unyielding socially conservative ideals.

In the recently released podcast, “Extremely American” (created by this reporter), Wilson says one of his goals is to get like-minded people into positions of influence. In an emailed response for this story, he said he’s closer to that post-election and that he supports Hegseth’s nomination, though he downplayed any influence he has on him.

“I was grateful for Trump’s win, and believe that it is much more likely that Christians with views similar to mine will receive positions in the new administration,” he said.

Hegseth nomination could threaten cohesion, diversity of U.S. military, experts say

That’s what worries Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, who is the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Weinstein says Hegseth, if confirmed as secretary of Defense, would threaten the cohesion of a religiously and racially diverse U.S. military.

“Pete Hegseth is a poster child for literally everything that would be the opposite of what you would want to have for someone who’s controlling the technologically most lethal organization in history of this country,” he said.

Weinstein sees Hegseth’s nomination as an example of the dangers of Project 2025, a 900-page policy paper written by far-right political activists. It lays out a plan to gut the federal government and install Christian nationalist ideals.

“Christian nationalism is an absolute fatal cancer metastasizing at light speed (for) the national security of this country,” he said. “It is a Christian version of the Taliban.”

Matthew D. Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said Hegseth is “one of the most extreme far right figures ever nominated to a cabinet post, at least in modern memory.”

Taylor said he’s broadly concerned about Christian nationalists, who tend to take a dim view of democracy, potentially having a lot of sway in this administration.

“I think we should expect a profound degradation of our democratic norms of the rule of law, and I think we are edging closer to a de facto Anglo Protestant establishment, of the kind where Anglo Protestant Christianity as the de facto official religion in the United States,” he said.

Hegseth faces some headwinds in his nomination process due to multiple marital sex scandals and the recent revelation that hepaid a woman who accused him of sexual assault in exchange for her not speaking about it. He denies he assaulted her but admits he paid her. He’s also gotten criticism for tattoos that are symbols of the Crusades and wrote a book titled “American Crusade,” where he derides Muslims.

Before becoming a TV personality, Hegseth led the conservative veterans group Concerned Veterans for America, which advocated for increased privatization of veterans’ health care.

He has also said that women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles in the military, and has complained about what he terms “woke” policies in the military.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and X.

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an 6 24

One of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions expected this term was momentarily posted to the Court's website before it was promptly taken down.

Bloomberg first reported that the decision in a major abortion-related case briefly appeared on SCOTUS' website, in which it appeared as if the Court would allow for emergency abortions to be performed in Idaho despite the Gem State's ban on abortions. The author of the opinion and a breakdown of how individual justices voted on the decision remains unknown.

In the cases, Moyle v. United States and State of Idaho v. United States, justices are expected to dismiss the case brought by the plaintiff as "improvidently granted." This means that Idaho's challenging the application of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) against its own abortion ban would mean that the existing federal law supersedes state law.

Idaho was one of the first states to officially ban all abortions after SCOTUS overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in June of 2022. That summer, Idaho's GOP-controlled legislature passed the Defense of Life Act, which makes it a felony crime punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs an abortion within the state. Additionally, any abortion provider who performs the procedure would have their license suspended for six months pending review, and their license would be permanently revoked on the second offense.

While the law provides exceptions for cases in which the life of the mother would be at risk, many emergency rooms in Republican-controlled states frequently turned away pregnant patients due to not wanting to run afoul of the law. This is a violation of EMTALA, which states that any hospital that receives federal funding from Medicaid and Medicare has to provide emergency treatment to any emergency room patient.

"They are so scared of a pregnant patient, that the emergency medicine staff won’t even look," George Washington University professor Sara Rosenbaum told the Associated Press in April. "They just want these people gone."

While the brief posting of the Idaho abortion decision may not have been the final opinion, justices may have sided with the U.S. government based on the Supremacy Clause. Article VI, paragraph 2 of the Constitution explicitly instructs states that their laws may not interfere with federal law, and that when the two clash, federal law will be prioritized.

Since Idaho passed its abortion ban, the state has seen an exodus of obstetricians and gynecologists. Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) reported that the Gem State has lost roughly one in five OB-GYN professionals since its abortion ban became law.

“What we’re seeing in this report and with this exodus of providers is that now Idaho is a state that criminalizes physicians, and the chilling effect is real," Valley County Family care obstetrician and Coalition board president Caitlin Gustafson told OPB in February.

Click here to read Bloomberg's report (subscription required).

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https://www.krem.com/article/news/crime/matt-shea-denies-church-connection-to-hate-group-members

CRIME

Matt Shea denies church connection to hate group members arrested in Coeur d'Alene

Former Washington state legislator Matt Shea denies any connection to the two men arrested with the white nationalist group that planned to riot in Coeur d'Alene.

Author: Amanda Roley

Published: June 18, 2022

SPOKANE, Wash. — Last weekend, Coeur d'Alene Police arrested 31 men from the back of a U-Haul. Police said the group planned a potentially violent riot near a Pride celebration event. Two of the men arrested have ties to Spokane, and Shea.

They are Mishael and Josiah Buster.

Shea was expelled from the State Republican Caucus after an investigation found he committed acts of domestic terrorism. He later started a church called "On Fire Ministries" in Spokane and is the pastor there.

In a live stream of a December 2021 church service, Shea calls Matt and Mishael Buster on stage for announcements.

But in Shea's podcast posted on the church's Facebook page on Wednesday, he claims Matt Buster and his sons, Mishael and Josiah, are not part of his church.

"Matt Buster is not part of On Fire Ministries leadership in any capacity," Shea said. "But Matt Buster is a brother in Christ, and we do not judge him for the actions of his sons. Josiah Buster and Michelle Buster do not attend on Fire Ministries. Patriot front is in no way affiliated with on Fire Ministries."

This is a developing story.

Timeline of events: Here's what we know about the 31 men arrested in Coeur d'Alene for conspiracy to riot

Here's what we know about the men from Washington and Idaho who were arrested in Coeur d'Alene

Here are the names and photos of 31 arrested for conspiracy to riot in Coeur d'Alene

ggl 10 22

ttps://www.krem.com:{ › article › news › crime › matt-s...}:

Jun 18, 2022 — He later started a church called "On Fire Ministries" in Spokane and is the pastor there. In a live stream of a December 2021 church service, ...

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https://www.mediamatters.org/libs-tiktok/right-wing-media-spread-doctored-footage-drag-queen-concoct-fear-pride-events

A drag queen who performed at the Idaho Pride event targeted by white nationalists in June is suing a right-wing blogger who doctored footage of his performance to falsely claim he had exposed himself to children. Even though the video was swiftly debunked by local news, right-wing media — including Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik and others who initially helped drive harassment against the Pride event — pushed the edited footage, leading to abuse against the performer.

On June 11, police in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, arrested 31 members of the Patriot Front near Pride in the Park, a planned Pride event. Authorities said evidence showed the white nationalists, who had gathered at the park from across the country, were planning to riot at the event and in multiple areas around the town. Patriot Front has a history of anti-LGBTQ actions, including burning trans pride flags and vandalizing a memorial for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated it as a hate group.

The event was also targeted by a far-right biker group that announced it was holding an event nearby at the same time as Pride in the Park, with organizers saying there were “going to be going after the groomers” while alluding to possible violence.

One of the performers at the event was Eric Posey, whose drag name is Mona Liza Million. Following Pride in the Park, right-wing blogger Summer Bushnellposted footage from Posey’s performance that blurred his crotch. In her posts, Bushnell erroneously claimed Posey had exposed himself to minors and called for her audience to report the video to police. The video, which was debunked by local news two days after the event was held, led to harassment against Posey after it went viral on social media. Now Posey is suing Bushnell, claiming she defamed him in an effort to gain popularity as part of the nationwide effort to malign LGBTQ people and Pride Month events.

A key instigator in manufacturing outrage over the event was Chaya Raichik, who runs the social media account “Libs of TikTok.” Raichik not only targeted Pride in the Park after Idaho-based white nationalist Dave Reilly called for her to do so, but she also helped spread Bushnell’s video weeks after it had been debunked by both the media andauthorities. On July 31, Raichik retweeted a tweet with Bushnell’s video and calling Posey a “pedophile,” with Raichik adding, “This is what a ‘family-friendly’ drag show looks like.” Commenters reacting to Raichik’s post falsely accused Posey of being a “groomer” and “pedophile,” while others threatened extreme acts of violence against him, including multiple threats to castrate him.

Although the tweet she quoted was later removed for violating Twitter’s rule on hateful conduct, Raichik’s tweet was never deleted.

[twt vid libs]

raichik was joined in sharing the doctored video by anti-LGBTQ trolls including right-wing podcaster Liz Wheeler and Gays Against Groomers, with the latter writing, “If gay rights do get rolled back, it will only be because of things like this.”

The renewed social media pickup of the doctored video led to an article published by right-wing blog Post Millennial headlined “Drag queen accused of exposing self to children at 'family friendly' Pride event.” The article promoted conspiracy theories that antifa was involved in targeting the Idaho Pride event, and the header for the article included a still from Bushnell’s video, with the edited video embedded.

The Idaho Family Policy Center, a right-wing Christian nonprofit that partners with extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom and multiple other anti-LGBTQ organizations, posted a petition on September 8 denying law enforcement’s debunking of the video and claiming it had “reviewed the unedited footage and can confirm it portrays public exposure of the performer’s genitalia.” Included with the petition, which called for drag performances to be banned from taking place around children, was a still from Bushnell’s video. The petition remains active as of publication date.

[petition pix blur]

Far-right conspiracy theory outlet Infowars posted an article also featuring a still from the doctored video. The article suggested the targeting of the event by Patriot Front was “a federal false flag operation” and criticized the “mainstream media” for “ignoring a potential child sex crime occurring at the very same event.”

The article cited a press release from the local sheriff’s department saying police were investigating the video. The announcement came after a local outlet had already debunked the claims and released the unedited video, and despite law enforcement officials acknowledging that their investigation stemmed entirely from reports by individuals who had seen Bushnell’s doctored footage and none of whom had seen the performance in person. The stunt culminated on July 1 with the city prosecutor stating what had been demonstrated weeks earlier — Posey had not exposed himself.

Disregarding available evidence, right-wing media widely used the release to push the false narrative and disseminate the doctored footage. Stephanie Hamill, a contributing writer for Media Research Center and ambassador for Turning Point USA, tweeted Bushnell’s video while adding that the “dancer's genitals were reportedly exposed on the main stage with children viewing the ‘dance.’”[twt vid]

right-wing author Janie Johnson tweeted a link to the video to her nearly 200,000 followers, attempting to excuse the white nationalists who targeted the event and writing, “Wonder what ticked the Idaho dads? This drag demon exposed himself to children.”

The incident is nearly identical to another manufactured controversy pushed by right-wing media in which an edited photo of a drag performer reading to children at a library in 2019 was blurred and paired with the claim that they were exposing themselves to children. That smear, too, was quickly debunked, which did not prevent the ensuing harassment and an attempt from lawmakers to strip libraries of their funding.

The targeting of Posey and the broader attacks on Pride in the Park followed an escalating campaign of harassment against drag and Pride Month events that falsely accused participants of abusing children. This harassment, and the escalating rhetoric of maligning LGBTQ people as groomers, has largely been enabled by the failure of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to adequately handle the targeted harassment.

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ref no lnx

upon realizing that threatening a community gay pride event with a bunch of guns might not be the best look, officials with the far-right Idaho bikers club Panhandle Patriots are backing off somewhat, claiming that the two spokesmen who told an evangelical organizing event that they intended to “go head to head” with the annual Pride in the Park gathering in Coeur d’Alene on June 11 gave out “incorrect information.” Complaining that the media have misrepresented them, they’ve announced they’re changing the name of their event the same day from “Gun d’Alene” to “North Idaho Day of Prayer.”

But their hateful rhetoric identifying the LGBTQ community as pedophilic “groomers” is still going full roar. "We're going to be going after the groomers," the group’s founder recently told his comrades. Their vice president, Justin Allen, recently told another gathering that presenting LGBTQ-friendly material to children in a park setting was “unacceptable”: "I am not a violent man. But I am not a peaceful man, either."

Two weeks ago, two leaders of the Panhandle Patriots—Allen, their vice president, and Jeff White, their “sergeant at arms”—got up before a “gameplan” organizing session to oppose “inappropriate materials in our schools and libraries” at a northern Idaho evangelical church and told the gathering their group was planning to confront the Pride in the Park event. White told them:

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We are having an event the very same day. That very same day we actually intend to go head to head with these people. A line has to be drawn in the sand. Good people need to stand up. And she was talking about the repercussions. We say, Damn the repercussions. Stand up, take it to the head. Go to the fight.

However, a spokesperson for the Patriots who only identified herself as “Bear” told the Coeur d’Alene Press that those men had misspoken, claiming White was only a club member and not a spokesman: “We are wanting this to be an extremely peaceful event,” she said.

Earlier this week, the group issued a statement blaming the media for misrepresenting its intentions: “It is the media’s goal to instigate a conflict, take photos of that conflict, and then produce media stories labeling our group and everyone associated with us as violent, racist, and hateful while ignoring the antics of Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and LGBT extremists,” it said.

As a result, it was changing the name of the event to the “North Idaho Day of Prayer,” adding: “The event popularly known as Gun d’Alene will be moved to a later date that is yet to be determined.”

“Gun d’Alene,” in fact was billed as an anniversary of the day in 2020 that armed “Patriots” flooded the streets of Coeur d’Alene in response to hoax rumors of the impending arrival of buses full of evil black-clad “antifa” vandals who mysteriously never showed up anywhere they were rumored to be going. Dozens of people showed up on armed patrol, toting AR-15s and wearing body armor, at a downtown shopping strip mall.

Panhandle Patriots claimed that “our event has been hijacked by extremist groups. On the Left, we have seen evidence to suggest that Antifa radicals are planning on coming to disrupt our event to provoke violence. It has also come to our attention that a White Nationalist group called White Lives Matter is also planning to attend. While these two groups are planning on causing violence, the media plans on using them to condemn and tarnish our peaceful group.”

In spite of the surface shift in tone, the statement continues in typical far right fashion, urging Idahoans to turn out in numbers “to take a stand against the progressive left-wing, which is moving into Idaho, and into our schools and libraries, with intent on grooming our children and turning them into LGBT activists.” It concludes by identifying the Pride organizers as “groomers”:

As always, the Panhandle Patriots are a Christian group that stands against violence in all its forms, and will not allow our event to be hijacked by extremists on either side of the political spectrum. We implore the Christian community to come together and show these LGBT groomers that North Idaho stands firmly against their sick agenda and that God still rules in the Panhandle.

An online media site called the Idaho Tribune helped stir the extremist pot further with an article—widely distributed on far-right social media—headlined “Antifa Coming to Coeur d’Alene for June 11 LGBT Event in CDA Park to ‘Protect Gay & Trans People.’” It claimed that “Antifa members from across the country are planning on coming to Coeur d’Alene Idaho” for the event, based on a single Twitter account urging community defense.

“Antifa and LGBT groups have taken a particular interest in North Idaho as the predominantly conservative area is viewed as a challenge to the progressive liberal groups,” it claims. It also risibly claims that “antifa” is helping to campaign for conservative Republican Gov. Brad Little.

Journalist Daniel Walters of The Inlander was unable to find any person living in the region with the name of the article’s ostensible author, "Samantha Collins." The likely person behind the website is white nationalist David Reilly, who lost a 2021 campaign for the Post Falls school board and has been involved in attempts to secretly take over the Democratic Party apparatus in Kootenai County.

Among the Panhandle Patriots themselves and their supporters, the rhetoric has been similarly incendiary and eliminationist. Walters attended one of their gatherings, where one audience member claimed he’d seen "groomers—that's the only word for it" distributing condoms to little kids surreptitiously at Coeur d’Alene’s Fourth of July parade.

"We're going to be going after the groomers," the group’s founder, Michael "Viper" Birdsong—who took an active role in the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol—told his cohorts. "Violence is the last thing we'd ever want to bring. But it doesn't mean we're not incredibly good at it," he added. "Mess around with a kid and find out."

Another northern Idaho white nationalist and notorious antisemite with a huge social media following, Vincent James Foxx, has posted modified copies of the flier for Pride in the Park,with its lines drawn to resemble a warped Star of David. He also has posted the names of every sponsor on a spreadsheet with addresses and contact information.

Panhandle Patriots say they intend to start their day on June 11 at around noon in downtown Coeur d’Alene, from where they say they plan to march through the downtown area to finish up at the waterfront park where their event is scheduled on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

However, the Coeur d’Alene city clerk told the Press that while Panhandle Patriots had a permit for their event, there has been none issued for a downtown parade or march.

"I only have the parks reservations," Clerk Renata McLeod said. "I have not received any special event/street closure, nor parade request for that day yet."

The waterfront space where Panhandle Patriots intend to hold their gathering, McEuen Park, is less than three-quarters of a mile from Coeur d’Alene City Park, where Pride in the Park is planned. However, the latter event is scheduled to begin at 10 AM and at end at 3 PM, while the “North Idaho Day of Prayer” is now scheduled to kick off at 3 PM after the downtown marchers arrive.

Local residents are voicing their concern. One woman whose son is involved with North Idaho Pride Alliance, the organizers of Pride in the Park, told the Press that she contacted the city parks department to voice concern about allowing two such opposing groups to hold events on the same day.

“I said, 'This could be a big problem, and I don't think anyone realizes,'" she said. "There’s going to be a lot of vulnerable people in the park, parents with kids who want to have a fun day. People are concerned, 'Should I bring my kids? What if something happens?'"

The North Idaho Pride Alliance issued a statement urging everyone to remain peaceful in the face of the threats and provocations:

Law enforcement is aware of statements made about this summer's events. We are working to make north Idaho a more inclusive and happy place to live. We will continue to take steps to support public safety. North Idaho Pride Alliance will not be intimidated or deterred from organizing community events.

Our leadership strongly encourages the public NOT to engage with protestors they may encounter outside events or online. We ask that supportive community members and partners focus on promoting events with positivity for a successful Pride Month celebration.

Noncriminal hostile online content can be sent privately to nipridealliance@gmail.com or be reported on the Love Lives Here CDA reporting tool at https://lovelivesherecda.com/report-an-incident/. Criminal threats should be directed immediately to law enforcement.

Our highest priority is to have a fun and safe event. We have confidence that strong early interventions and keeping law enforcement aware will ensure a successful Pride month and safety for all who choose to participate.

"The threats haven't been this bad in quite some time," Joey Pugmire, vice president of the North Idaho Pride Alliance, told Walters. "I do think this could be like one of the more aggressive years for the far right."

He says the planners of Pride in the Park are well aware of the threats and are working to ensure the safety of everyone at the event.

"If people are going to try to threaten us, that's their prerogative," Pugmire says. "That's on their conscience, but we're going to try to ignore the fear-mongering as best we can."

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an 9 22

SinceDobbs, many of the nightmare scenarios about abortion access have come true. Trigger bans have gone into effect. Healthcare for miscarriages has been delayed. Common prescriptions that can cause abortion (abortifacients) aren’t being filled at pharmacies.

Despite assurances from anti-choice people, total abortion bans are not making exceptions for emergency healthcare situations or they are so confusing that they’re making doctors scared to perform abortions even when it’s necessary to save the person’s life.

While abortions should be legal and accessible no matter the reason, it’s particularly dangerous when one can’t get one in a life-or-death situation. There isn’t time to cross state lines or the pregnancy is too far along for a self-managed abortion.

The White House has issued guidance that abortions must be performed to save the life of the pregnant person or prevent serious risk, but this week a court sided with a Texas argument against saving lives – of course, celebrated by the “pro-life” movement.

While the response to Dobbs from the current administration has been mixed, a clarifying guidance from the US Department of Health and Human Services is a vital tool in saving pregnant people’s lives.

In 1986, the Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). The law required any hospital that accepts Medicare payments to provide emergency treatment to anyone regardless of their ability to pay or their legal status.

Obviously, this included emergency conditions related to pregnancy, including labor or miscarriage. The EMTALA requires hospitals to provide medical screenings as well as stabilization (or a transfer to a hospital that can provide medical care to accomplish stabilization).

In July, after Dobbs, the HHS clarified that the federal guidance under the EMTALA required performing an abortion if it’s necessary to save the pregnant person’s life or to prevent serious health risks.

HHS ensured its policy guidance had teeth.

Secretary Xavier Becerra emphasized that this federal policy preempts state law and that hospitals risk their Medicare payments if they do not comply. Such a policy from the HHS should protect emergency abortion in all 50 states despite individual state law.

The policy guidance makes it irrelevant if an abortion ban has a carve out for the life of the mother, because such abortions would be required (with the patient’s consent) under federal law as part of “stabilizing” the patient. While they didn’t issue an exhaustive list of pregnancy conditions that would warrant a federally required emergency abortion, “ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features” were explicitly stated as qualifying conditions.

Unfortunately, states are challenging the HHS policy guideline in federal court and through total abortion ban legislation. State attorneys general are arguing against saving a pregnant person’s life.

Keep in mind, in many relevant cases, the choice is between allowing the pregnant person and fetus to die, and performing an abortion to save the pregnant person (or in the case of miscarriage, the fetus is already dead and they still want to let the pregnant person die).

The remaining cases are a choice between letting the mother die in the hopes that the fetus can be saved and performing an abortion to save the life of the mother. As far as I am aware, the HHS policy guidance doesn’t touch on the maternal fetal conflictwhen a pregnant person is diagnosed with cancer and might be denied treatment because said treatment could harm the fetus.

So State attorneys general in Texas and Idaho want to let pregnant people die even though denying abortion won’t save the fetus.

Ironically, part of their argument that the federal policy guidelines should be enjoined by a judge is that abortion bans in Texas and Idaho, and every other state, have life-of-the-mother exceptions.

In the opinion written by the Texas court enjoining the HHS guideline, the judge argues that policy guidelines are unnecessary and there is no conflict between state and federal law.

This is weird given that the Texas attorney general said that the HHS policy guidelines would require Texas doctors to violate state law.

Texas also argued that the EMTALA did not guarantee access to a specific treatment (and obviously didn’t mention abortion), so the federal government cannot require abortions using that law.

However, as some legal experts argue, if abortion is the only way to stabilize a patient, requiring such a procedure clearly falls under the EMTALA. There are many cases in which an abortion would be necessary in order to save the life of a patient. Therefore, denying one is tantamount to denying stabilizing care under the EMTALA.

The Texas opinion went further. The language of the EMTALA requires stabilizing the mother as well asthe fetus, but it was passed in 1986 when Roe was still law and abortion was legal in all 50 states.

It’s ahistorical and nonsensical to suggest that the law wouldn’t protect abortion to save the life of the mother since abortions for any reason were legal at the time the law was written.

Despite that clear rational interpretation, the Texas judge used the mention of the fetus in the law to argue it should protect the mother as well as “unborn children” (his wording - the EMTALA uses “fetus”).

Therefore, not only does this opinion enjoin federal policy guidance. It also elevates the fetus to the standing of a patient under the EMTALA, which supports the argument for the fetus’s personhood. (Again, this is why we need to embrace abortion as self-defense).

The Idaho case is more encouraging.

Unlike the Texas case, this suit resulted from the DOJ challenging the restrictive Idaho law that, the DOJ argued, violated the federal policy guidelines. Idaho’s trigger ban only allowed abortions when necessary to prevent death, which is more restrictive than the federal policy guidance that requires an abortion be performed if the pregnant person faces death or serious health risk.

The Idaho judge issued a temporary injunction on Idaho’s trigger abortion ban, because, “Allowing the criminal abortion ban to take effect, without a cutout for EMTALA-required care, would inject tremendous uncertainty into precisely what care is required (and permitted) for pregnant patients.”

The Texas and Idaho cases are ongoing. There are sure to be more lawsuits brought by state attorneys general as well as by the Department of Justice. We will have to wait and see if the HHS policy guidance requiring abortions to prevent death or serious risk stands.

Do not come away from reading this assuming the conflict is only about abortions in the case of serious risk or that abortions will always be allowed to save the life of the mother. Quibbling over bodily risk or death will absolutely result in pregnant people dying.

The more restrictive exceptions require doctors to delay care until sure the pregnant person is at risk or until a fetal heartbeat stops.

They also create confusion for doctors and care providers about when an abortion can be performed under state law. That confusion will result in the delay or refusal of care even when the pregnant person presents with a complication that will cause death.

Any abortion ban will delay care and result in higher maternal mortalities, but fighting against medically necessary abortions guarantees you’re fighting to explicitly let pregnant people die.

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an 3 22

Although now-President Joe Biden enjoyed a decisive victory in the United States’ 2020 presidential election — winning 306 electoral votes and defeating then-President Donald Trump by more than 7 million in the popular vote — it certainly wasn’t because of Idaho, a deep red state that Trump won by 30%. But far-right conspiracy theorist and MyPillowCEO Mike Lindell, a tireless promoter of the Big Lie, has claimed that Trump’s margin of victory was even higher than 30% in Idaho but that votes were stolen from Trump there through widespread voter fraud. And Lindell’s false claim, journalist Allan Smith reports for NBC News, has become a divisive issue among Idaho Republicans.

“Last summer, Idaho officials received demand after demand to investigate extraordinary claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election,” journalist Allan Smith reports in an article published by NBC News’ website on March 6. “In a state where former President Donald Trump won by more than 30 points, people claimed a vast conspiracy cheated the former president out of an even greater margin of victory. Almost all the e-mails referred to theories promoted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, DeputySecretary of State Chad Houcksaid. Lindell, people claimed, had proof of major malfeasance — if only someone would look into it.”

Houck and the office of Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, according to Smith, investigated Lindell’s claims and “found them to be totally without merit.”

According to Smith, “Houck’s office decided to manually count the ballots in two of Idaho’s smallest counties — Camas and Butte — as well as manually recount the ballots in eight of the 32 precincts in Bonner County, a medium-size locale in the state. Between the three counties, it found an error rate of roughly 0.1 percent.”

But Lindell’s supporters in Idaho are not satisfied.

“Idaho’s work combating Lindell only seems to have made supporters of his fraud narrative angrier, Houck said, and has set the stage for midterm battles along fault lines Republicans are contending with nationwide,” Smith reports.

Houck told NBC News, “We’ve received two types of responses back to the office. One has been: ‘How dare you attack a patriot like Mike Lindell.’ On the flip side, (others) said: ‘Thank you for standing up to Lindell’s narratives’…. I’ve had counties that have had individuals come into county commissioner meetings and threatened the entire county commission that they were going to be unseated. And if they couldn’t do it through bureaucratic means, then they’re going to do it through physical means, to a point where I’ve had counties that have requested assistance in funding to put additional security measures into their county buildings, just to secure the election office from physical threat.”

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2 22 kos an

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/bundy-2656714639/

The Bundy family is best known for being one of the most (in)famous illegal welfare recipients in recent history. They’re also suspected to have been bankrolled by fossil fuel money, used as the “y’all”-talking foot soldiers for big business’ interests in trying to privatize public lands. In May of last year, Ammon Bundy announced his intentions to run for governor of Idaho, filing paperwork to run for the Republican primary. In June, the Idaho Republican Party issued astatement saying that Bundy was not welcome.

Since that time, Bundy has been successfully expanding his “People’s Network” of right-wing extremists, and somehow Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin—the other Republican running—isn’t far right enough. On Thursday, a new plot twist! After social media reports that Bundy had cut some kind of endorsement deal with McGeachin, Bundy went to his Twitter account and posted a big, hilarious statement saying this was all false. Oh, and he is going to run as an independent.

In a post that was pulled down and then put back up, Bundy stated that he was pulling out of the Republican primary because “the Republican establishment in Idaho is full of filth and corruption and they refuse to put forth the party platform.” Saying that the news story that he and McGeachin had made a mutual endorsement deal with one another was “lazy” and “tabloid journalism,” Bundy proceeded to describe the current GOP political establishment being in a “corrupt and wicked state.”

He then went on to slam Idaho Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Parker for “wearing a wig and masturbating in public.” He hit out at Republican Sen. Mike Crapo and former Republican Gov. Butch Otter’s arrests for DUI, and state Rep. Greg Cheney and his history of domestic violence. Bundy then pointed to investigations of state Sen. Fred Martin and whether or not he illegally entered a high school girls’ bathroom on two separate occasions.

Bundy then threw some shade at the surprise early retirement of Ada County Sheriff Steve Bartlett, alleging he traded “promotion to his deputies for sexual favors.” Bundy rounded it all off by going back to a classic Republican moment of moral hypocrisy: When then-Sen. Larry Craig was busted soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. Bundy then announced his intentions to take back the Republican Party by running as an independent candidate.

The sources of the story that Bundy is calling fake news all reportedly came from inside the Bundy campaign.....

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far-right secessionists want rural Oregon to become part of Idaho: report

Alex Henderson

December 25, 2021

The term “secessionist” is often used in connection with far-right extremists who want to leave the United States altogether. But journalist Antonia Hitchens, in an article published by The Atlantic on December 23, ta...

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/an-idaho-bill-would-jail-or-fine-anyone-who-enforces-19-vaccine-mandates/

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/14/2058164/-GOP-gives-Idaho-school-board-candidate-with-long-record-of-antisemitism-its-full-on-embrace

no lnx ,many

School board candidate’s unrepentant antisemitism seems to be a plus for Idaho Republicans

David Neiwert

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday October 14, 2021 · 5:28 PM PDT

Dave Reilly chats with a potential supporter during a Republican candidate forum in Kootenai County.

David Neiwert

Daily Kos

an Idaho plans to hit Mike Lindell with a bill for audit that discredited his baseless election conspiracy

Meaghan Ellis

October 08, 2021

When MyPillow CEO contested Idaho's 2020 election results amid false claims of voter fraud, officials conducted an audit for three of the counties that were scrutinized. Now, the state office is sending Lindell ....

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wacko? flanking gov little

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/janice-mcgeachin/

In Idaho, Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin — who is seeking the state's GOP gubernatorial nomination for 2022 — has generated considerable controversy because of her ties to extremist far-right militia members. The Guardian has obtained a copy of a video that, according to reporter Jason Wilson, shows militia extremist Eric Parker giving McGeachin's gubernatorial campaign an enthusiastic endorsement at a recent event.

In the video, Wilson reports, Parker can be seen "reminding" the 58-year-old McGeachin that she previously told him, "If I get in, you're going to have a friend in the governor's office." Parker is the leader of a militia known as the Real 3% of Idaho.

Parker became well-known in the militia movement in April 2014, when he was seen pointing a rifle at federal agents during the infamous standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada. Although he was facing federal criminal charges, Parker avoided the possibility of spending decades in federal prison by agreeing to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge. Parker came to be known as the "Bundy Ranch Sniper," which is considered a badge of honor in the far-right militia movement.

Wilson reports that in the video showing Parker endorsing McGeachin at an event in Idaho, Parker "tells the small audience that when he sought McGeachin's assistance in the case of Todd Engel — another Bundy Ranch attendee who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2019 — he showed her sealed evidence from the trial."

According to Wilson, the video shows Parker saying that McGeachin "started writing letters to the Department of Justice" on his behalf when he was incarcerated and was "rallying support" for him. And Parker says of McGeachin, "We need to do everything we can to get her where she can do the most good for us…. We got to get her in there for us."

Wilson explains, "Parker posted the speech video on his Telegram channel on 19 May, the same day that McGeachin publicly announced her candidacy for governor, where she may be up against the incumbent, fellow Republican Brad Little, who is yet to clarify his intentions."

Little was elected governor of Idaho in 2018, which was also the year in which McGeachin was elected lieutenant governor. Before her 2018 campaign, McGeachin had spent a decade serving in the Idaho House of Representatives.

Lindsay Schubiner, program director at the Western States Center, told The Guardian that it is "deeply disturbing" that a high-level figure in Idaho's state government has a "cozy relationship" with Parker. The Western States Center monitors extremist groups in the western United States, and Schubiner warned that McGeachin "has consistently sought the support and backing of extreme, anti-democratic movements in Idaho."

"No public official has any business advancing the agenda of an anti-democratic paramilitary group," Schubiner told The Guardian.

From Your Site Articles

Extremists seeking official power identify as Republicans — and ... ›

Idaho Legislators with ALEC Ties

U.S. Senate

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) previously served as Governor of Idaho, and Lieutenant Governor. Also served as State Senate Majority Leader. ^[1]

U.S. House of Representatives

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID)^[2]
Rep. Michael Simpson (R-ID 2)^[2]

State House of Representatives

Rep. Vito Barbieri (R-3A Dalton Gardens), attended 2012 ALEC annual meeting in Utah^[3] and 2014 ALEC annual meeting in Dallas^[4] at taxpayer expense
Rep. Scott C. Bedke (R-27A), ALEC Education Task Force Member^[5]
Rep. Maxine T. Bell (R-26) ^[6]
Rep. Judith Boyle (R-9), paid for ALEC membership in 2012^[7]
Rep. Brent Crane (R-13), paid for ALEC membership in 2007^[8]
Rep. Stephen Hartgen (R-23B), attended 2012 ALEC annual meeting in Utah^[9]
Rep. Eric Redman (R-02)^[10]
Rep. Jeffrey D. Thompson (R-33),^[11] Idaho state chair,^[12] ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member,^[13] attended 2012 ALEC annual meeting in Utah,^[9] and was awarded ALEC's State Chair of the Year award in 2014^[14]

State Senate

Sen. Patti Anne Lodge (R-13),^[11] former ALEC Idaho State Chairman^[15][16] and Health and Human Services Task Force Member,^[17] attended 2012 ALEC annual meeting in Utah^[9]
Sen. Dean M. Mortimer (R-32), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Alternate^[18]
Sen. Bob P. Nonini (R-3), ALEC Education Task Force Member^[19]
Sen. Jim Patrick (R-25),^[12] ALEC Communications and Technology Task Force Member^[20]
Sen. Mary Souza (R-04), registered member
Sen. Steve Vick (R-3), Idaho state chair^[12]
Sen. Chuck Winder (R-20), paid for ALEC membership in 2012^[7]

Former Representatives

Rep. JoAn E. Wood (R-35), ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force Member^[21]
Rep. Pete Nielsen (R-23), paid for ALEC membership in 2012^[7]
Rep. Frank Henderson (R-5B)^[15]
Rep. George Eskridge (R-1), paid for ALEC membership in 2012^[7]
Rep. Darrell Bolz (R-10B), ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force Member ^[22]
Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett (R-8), paid for ALEC membership in 2009^[23]
Rep. Eric Anderson (R-1), ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Member^[24]
Rep. Max Black (R-15B) ^[6]
Rep. Jim Clark (R-3)^[11], former State Chairman^[25]
Rep. Phil Hart (R-3B Athol, defeated in GOP primary in 2012)^[3]
Former Speaker of the House, Rep. Bruce Newcomb ^[1]
Rep. Ken A. Roberts (R-8), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member^[26]
Rep. John Stevenson (R-26), ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Member^[27]

Former Senators

Sen. John H. Tippets (R-31) ^[6]
Sen. Lee Heider (R-24), paid for ALEC membership in 2011^[7]
Sen. Dean L. Cameron (R-26), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member^[28]
Sen. Denton Darrington (R-27) ^[6], ALEC Civil Justice Task Force Member ^[29]
Sen. James C. Hammond (R-5), ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force Member^[30]
Sen. Grant R. Ipsen, currently sits on ID Commission on Aging ^[6]
Sen. David E. Kerrick ^[6]
Former Sen. John T. McGee (R-10), ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force Member^[31]
Sen. Jerry T. Twiggs ^[1]

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https://www.ecowatch.com/idaho-climate-change-language-2532203717.html

no linx

Idaho Lawmakers Strike Climate Change Language From New Science Standards

The Idaho House Education Committee voted 12-4 Wednesday on a motion to strip references to human-caused climate change in the state's proposed new science education standards.

The motion, proposed by Rep. Scott Syme, R-Caldwell, strikes a section* from the Idaho Content Standards that includes the language: "energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment." Several paragraphs of "Supporting Content"** that delves further into climate science were deleted as well.

Boise Republican Rep. Patrick McDonald, the committee's vice chairman, joined the panel's three Democrats that opposed the motion to scrub climate-related passages from the standards.

"I want to support these standards as written," McDonald said, referring to the work that local teachers put in developing the standards. "What I don't want to do is not support them. There has been a lot work involved in putting these things together."

Idaho is the only state in the nation where legislators have removed references to the established science of climate change and the impact of human activity on the environment from the K-12 science curricula. That decision sparked an ardent effort from teachers, parents and students across Idaho who want to revise public school education standards to include climate science.

At a two-day hearing before the Idaho House Education Committee last week, 29 people testified in favor of revisions. Roughly 1,000 public comments were also submitted in favor of the revisions.

"We're here today not just for those students in classrooms across our state but for tomorrow's nurses, farmers, lawmakers, bankers and citizens who deserve the very best science and science education—not some water-downed censored version," said Dick Jordan, a retired high school science teacher at the hearing. "We cannot ignore science even if it makes us uncomfortable."

But many Republican lawmakers contend that the science on climate change is not settled. As the New York Times pointed out, only 24 percent of Idaho Republicans agree in human-caused climate change, the lowest percentage in the country.

Rep. Julie VanOrden (R-Pingree), who chairs the Idaho House Education Committee, dismissed arguments about the topic during the hearings last week.

"We are not having a hearing on climate change," VanOrden said continually. "We're here to address the changes made in the standards, not climate change."

Rep. Syme also argued that the revised standards would force students to come to a particular conclusion rather than draw their own, ThinkProgress reported.

"When we heard all the testimony, it was clear that all the students want to do inquiry and all the teachers want to move to this inquiry based type of learning and I think that is just spectacular," he said Wednesday. "My problem with the one paragraph was that it lead to conclusions. When you have conclusions in standards, it stifles inquiry."

(Syme has even said previously that he does not care if students think the Earth is flat as long as it was the student's own conclusion.)

Of course, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists say that burning fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases that drives the rise in global temperatures.

The new science education standards do not force Idaho's teachers to omit climate science from their lesson plans. However, as the Times noted, "science educators said they were concerned for teachers in districts where climate change was considered more controversial."

The vote now goes to the Senate Education Committee, where members can undo the House panel's decision.

*Here's the section that House Ed. members removed:

ESS3-4-1 Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment. Further explanation: Examples of renewable energy resources could include wind energy, water behind dams, and sunlight; non-renewable energy resources are fossil fuels and atomic energy. Examples of environmental effects could include negative biological impacts of wind turbines, erosion due to deforestation, loss of habitat due to dams, loss of habitat due to surface mining, and air pollution from burning of fossil fuels."

**And here is some of the "Supporting Content" that the committee also voted to remove:

"ESS3.A: Natural Resources: Energy and fuels that humans use are derived from natural sources, and their use affects the environment in multiple ways. Some resources are renewable over time, and others are not. (ESS3-4-1)

ESS3.B: Natural Hazards: A variety of hazards result from natural processes (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions). Humans cannot eliminate the hazards but can take steps to reduce their impacts. (ESS3-4-2)

ETS1.B: Designing Solutions to Engineering Problems: Testing a solution involves investigating how well it performs under a range of likely conditions. (ESS3-4-2)"