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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Trump administration is supporting Idaho's new law banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports. It's the first law of its kind in the nation and the U.S. Department of Justice backed it in a court filing Friday. Department lawyers say a federal court considering a challenge to the ban should conclude the law complies with the U.S. Constitution. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Voice group filed a lawsuit in April saying the law is discriminatory and an invasion of privacy. They also say the ban set to start July 1 violates a landmark 1972 U.S. law banning sex discrimination in education.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — State officials say a lawsuit seeking more time to collect signatures for an education funding ballot initiative should be thrown out. The Idaho attorney general's office in a filing submitted to U.S. District Court on Thursday says the Reclaim Idaho group's own decisions and delays in taking action caused it to miss the May 1 deadline to gather the required signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot. Reclaim Idaho in the lawsuit filed earlier this month contends that emergency orders from Republican Gov. Brad Little during the coronavirus pandemic unconstitutionally limited the group's signature collecting ability. A hearing on the case is scheduled for next Tuesday.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — State officials say new unemployment claims dropped 8% last week to 3,631 when compared to the week before that. The Idaho Department of Labor also said Thursday that the number of people requesting a benefit payment with a continued claim dropped 23% to 36,764. That's the largest drop in six consecutive weeks of declines. The agency says it paid out a record $86 million in claims last week. Idaho's economy started shedding jobs in March when the coronavirus entered the state and Gov. Brad Little issued a stay-at-home order. Restrictions have been lifted gradually over the last six weeks as Little seeks to reopen the state during the pandemic.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A California company wants to build and operate a compact fast nuclear reactor in Idaho. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday that it has accepted a license application submitted by Oklo Inc. to build a 1.5-megawatt reactor at the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear site in eastern Idaho that includes the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department in recent years has been eyeing fast reactors that backers say have the potential to use spent nuclear fuel produced at conventional nuclear power plants. Spent fuel is a problem in the U.S. with no long-term storage solution. But critics say fast reactor developers are over-promising with unproven and unsafe designs.
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