By Christina Lords | Editor-in-Chief
“Even if you don’t have an open retail facility, a restaurant type facility — even if you don’t think of yourself as a place where you might have the public coming in — you could still be pulled in by this. … So, from where we’re standing, it’s very broad and most businesses would likely be pulled into this.’” — Pam Howland, the founder and owner of Idaho Employment Lawyers, on how businesses are affected by Idaho’s new trans bathroom ban
A men’s bathroom sign as seen on March 16, 2026, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
GOVERNMENT + POLITICS
How does Idaho’s trans bathroom ban affect businesses? Attorneys break it down.
By Kyle Pfannenstiel
In about a month, Idaho’s new law banning transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity will take effect.
Advocates are calling it the most extreme bathroom ban in the country, because it applies in private businesses and could result in up to five years in prison for repeat offenses.
As businesses prepare for the new law to take effect July 1, attorneys with the law firm Idaho Employment Lawyers discussed how to plan for the bathroom ban at a panel event Tuesday in Boise.
A sign welcomes visitors to Bureau of Land Management land near Cedar City, Utah. (File photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
ENVIRONMENT
Conservation groups speak out after Trump repeals off-road vehicle regulations on public land
By Clark Corbin
Some conservation groups in Idaho and other Western states spoke out Tuesday after President Donald Trump recently repealed executive orders that govern off-road vehicles and over-snow vehicles on public land.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speaks at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., in December. CMS this week released guidance on how states should implement new Medicaid work requirements. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
HEALTH
States face tight timeline as feds unveil new Medicaid work requirement rules
By Anna Claire Vollers
The federal government released new guidance this week on how states should roll out the Medicaid work requirements that will affect healthcare coverage for millions of Americans.
The new details come as states are staring down the January 1, 2027, deadline to put the new work requirements in place, and have requested more clarity from the feds on how they’re supposed to implement them.
By the end of the year, roughly 80,000 low-income Idahoans on Medicaid expansion will need to start proving that they are working to stay on the program.
MORE FROM US
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ICYMI
Shining a light on other Idaho politics reporting
Note: Some links may lead to stories behind a news organization's paywall
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