From id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov Tue May 9 14:35:37 2023 From: id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov (Gov. Brad Little) Date: Tue, 9 May 2023 20:35:37 +0000 Subject: Gov. Little marks Fentanyl Awareness Day, readies for Texas border mission Message-ID: [Graphical user interface, text Description automatically generated] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 9, 2023 Gov. Little marks Fentanyl Awareness Day, readies for Texas border mission Boise, Idaho - Governor Brad Little highlighted National Fentanyl Awareness Day at Kuna High School today to share information with our youth about the dangers of this increasingly accessible deadly drug. He was joined by Tarina Taylor, the mother of Zachary Taylor, a 26-year-old Lewiston resident who lost his life to accidental fentanyl poisoning in 2021. In addition, Governor Little is preparing to travel to the Texas-Mexico border in two weeks and deploy a team of Idaho State Police (ISP) personnel to assist the State of Texas on a month-long mission for drug and fentanyl interdiction efforts at the border. Tarina Taylor shared how her only child, Zachary, purchased a pill he thought was OxyContin from an unknown source on Facebook. The pill contained enough fentanyl to kill six people. Tarina is committed to sharing her family's story with the hope other families do not go through the same tragedy. During his address to the Kuna High School students, Governor Little noted the dangers of fentanyl and what the State of Idaho is doing to address the crisis. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Six out of 10 pills with fentanyl contain a lethal dose. In one year, the rate of fentanyl-related deaths in Idaho doubled. Additional fentanyl facts and ways to act to protect our loved ones is available at https://www.fentanyltakesall.org/facts. Governor Little also laid out the actions the State of Idaho is taking to turn the tide in the fentanyl crisis: * Idaho launched a campaign, Fentanyl Takes All, to help educate and inform Idahoans, especially our youth and their parents, about the dangers of fentanyl. * Idaho added more roadside testing equipment to help ISP get fentanyl off our streets more quickly. * Idaho will add a new statewide drug interdiction team at ISP to intercept fentanyl coming into our state. * Idaho is improving information sharing between law enforcement, first responders, health care, tribes, coroners and others to tackle the problem strategically. * Idaho is increasing resources for mental health and behavioral health to help prevent tragedy. * Governor Little is working with border states to help reduce the supply of drugs coming into America across the open border from the drug cartels. "Take this problem seriously and learn more about it. Most importantly, take care of each other. Look out for yourselves and your friends," Governor Little told the students. Governor Little's upcoming Texas border trip and ISP mission follow through on a commitment he made during his State of the State and Budget Address in January. With Title 42 set to end this week and an expected spike in illegal border crossings and even more fentanyl coming across the open border, governors are working together to increase state-driven border security efforts. Additional details on the Governor's trip and the ISP mission will be provided in the coming weeks. # # # Please DO NOT REPLY to this message. For press inquiries only, contact the Governor's press office at (208) 854-3015 or e-mail Madison.Hardy at gov.idaho.gov. To unsubscribe from these announcements, send an e-mail to news at gov.idaho.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 98275 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov Wed May 10 11:35:42 2023 From: id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov (Gov. Brad Little) Date: Wed, 10 May 2023 17:35:42 +0000 Subject: Idaho sues feds on grizzly delisting Message-ID: [Graphical user interface, text Description automatically generated] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 10, 2023 Idaho sues feds on grizzly delisting Boise, Idaho - The State of Idaho sent notice of its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) today over the Biden Administration's failure to remove grizzly bears from the endangered species list. "Idaho's entire congressional delegation and the State of Idaho are lockstep in efforts to delist grizzly bears. Idaho has continually demonstrated leadership in species management, and we have never hesitated to push back on the federal government's overreaching actions that greatly impact a variety of activities on the ground in our state," Governor Brad Little said. "Politicians in Washington continue to use outdated endangered species protections to encroach on state sovereignty. In their desire to stop Idahoans from hunting or managing our own destiny, they pretend Idaho cannot handle the management of species. Our state intends to conserve our grizzly populations while balancing the need for limiting dangerous human-bear interactions. This issue, like most, belongs in the hands of the state, not the federal government," Attorney General Ra?l Labrador said. Over one year ago, Idaho petitioned for delisting the "lower-48" grizzly bear because it does not qualify as a "species" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Under the ESA, the USFWS was required to make a 90-day finding by June 7, 2022, but failed to do so. In February of 2023, Governor Little sent a letter to USFWS demanding the agency uphold the law and make a required finding on the State of Idaho's petition to remove grizzly bears from the endangered species list. The agency responded with a decision, and the State of Idaho has been working on its appeal of the decision. The appeal was filed today. "The State of Idaho has been and continues to be 100-percent committed to the conservation of grizzly bears, as the actions of local communities, landowners, recreationists and state government have demonstrated. This action is in response to a flawed ESA listing almost 50 years ago that has now become a barrier to the delisting of recovered populations," Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Jim Fredericks said. "What is needed is a commonsense approach to delisting healthy populations of grizzly bears where they exist and continue working with rural communities to reduce human-bear interactions as bear populations increase elsewhere. Unfortunately, the State of Idaho must turn to the judiciary to request relief from the tangled web of ESA case law to work to achieve a commonsense solution," Governor's Office of Species Conservation Administrator Mike Edmondson said. The State of Idaho's notice states, in part, "Idaho does not send this notice lightly. We prefer to invest the resources of federal and state conservation agencies on actual conservation, rather than on lawsuits. However, the current listed entity does not meet the ESA definition of 'species,' and we have robust grizzly bear populations that continue to cause conflict in our rural communities and injure Idaho's sovereign interests in managing our resident wildlife and conservation resources." The State of Idaho's 60-day notice of intent to sue the federal government is available here: https://gov.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230510_60-day-notice-grizzly.pdf # # # Please DO NOT REPLY to this message. For press inquiries only, contact the Governor's press office at (208) 854-3015 or e-mail Madison.Hardy at gov.idaho.gov. To unsubscribe from these announcements, send an e-mail to news at gov.idaho.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 98275 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov Fri May 19 14:02:14 2023 From: id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov (Gov. Brad Little) Date: Fri, 19 May 2023 20:02:14 +0000 Subject: Gov. Little details Idaho State Police deployment to support Texas in fight against fentanyl Message-ID: [Graphical user interface, text Description automatically generated] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 19, 2023 Gov. Little details Idaho State Police deployment to support Texas in fight against fentanyl Boise, Idaho - Governor Brad Little announced today the details of the Idaho State Police (ISP) deployment he directed to support the State of Texas' efforts to secure the border and improve Idaho's ability to interdict illicit drugs to protect Idahoans. "As we've done before, Idaho is responding to the call for help from our neighbors along the border. We used a targeted approach to understand Texas' needs and wanted to make sure our troopers will bring back what they learn to better protect Idahoans," Governor Little said. "The focus of the mission is two-fold - the ISP troopers will serve as a force multiplier for the State of Texas when there is an increased need for law enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border, and our troopers will receive on-the-job training and experience up-to-the-minute enforcement techniques that can be brought back and immediately applied in Idaho." In addition, Governor Little will travel to Weslaco, Texas, just miles from the Texas-Mexico border, next week to receive a briefing from Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials and fly over hot spots for illegal border crossings. The head of ISP, Col. Ked Wills, will join Governor Little for the briefing and tour. The ISP deployment follows through on a commitment Governor Little made during his State of the State and Budget Address in January. Law enforcement reporting shows the supply of illicit fentanyl from Mexico in our region has become much more prevalent. The majority of officers surveyed reported that investigations involving fentanyl were directly tied to sources in Mexico. Approximately 96-percent of drug trafficking organizations investigated identified Mexico as the source country for drugs trafficked into the region. >From 2020 to 2021, the rate of fentanyl-related overdose deaths doubled in Idaho. ISP deployment helps both Texas and Idaho Idaho worked with the State of Texas to determine their needs related to border security before identifying a plan that also serves to support Idaho law enforcement. Two groups of six ISP troopers will deploy for two weeks each to assist and train with Texas DPS. Both groups will enhance their knowledge through varied experiences, such as cross-border smuggling, human trafficking, and drug interdiction. * The first group, the Domestic Highway Enforcement Team, will focus on drug concealment and interdiction techniques. * A second group of SWAT troopers will focus on human tracking and searching skills. The SWAT troopers will assist Operation Lone Star's Elite Brush Teams, who serve as a defense against transnational criminal behavior. They use a variety of sensors, tracking systems, and other techniques to identify dangerous individuals and their intended destination. The ISP troopers will learn from them the latest techniques to implement when responding to critical incidents in Idaho. The hands-on field training benefits include learning most current techniques used by criminals, which constantly change. They will learn the latest drug smuggling tactics and how to identify them. They will enhance their tracking techniques to benefit local incidents in Idaho and build connections and networks within law enforcement for future investigations. The troopers will return home to train local Idaho law enforcement on what they learned. The selected troopers are experts and trainers themselves. They help teach hundreds of other state and local law enforcement officers in Idaho about illegal drug trends and updated enforcement techniques. Governor Little's past actions in support of border security, fight against fentanyl Governor Little joined 23 other governors earlier this week in supporting Texas Governor Greg Abbott's plea to the nation's governors to support the state secure the border. In September of 2021, the governors plead the President to listen to them about the need to control the border. The letter followed another request sent by the Governors earlier that year, which also went unanswered. Following the 15-day period with no response from the Biden administration, the governors released 10 policy solutions the administration could enact immediately to protect America, restore security, and put us on a path to end the crisis at the southern border. The administration never responded, and the border crisis has only become more deadly and dangerous for both Americans and migrants in the time that has passed. Governor Little sent a team of specialized state troopers to Arizona in 2021 to assist with drug interdiction, and he joined half the nations' governors in creating the American Governors' Border Strike Force. He also joined a lawsuit challenging Biden's Title 42 border decision. Governor Little also hosted a roundtable with Idaho law enforcement in 2021 to discuss Idaho's growing drug threat and the connection to the U.S.-Mexico border, and he created Operation Esto Perpetua in March of 2022 to protect our children from drugs. In 2022, Governor Little recommended and the Legislature approved $250,000 to carry out objectives of the initiative, and he directed another $1 million that summer to fight the deadly impacts of fentanyl. Governor Little launched a campaign, Fentanyl Takes All, to help educate and inform Idahoans, especially our youth and their parents, about the dangers of fentanyl. Governor Little also requested and the Legislature approved adding more roadside testing equipment to help ISP get fentanyl off our streets more quickly. Idaho will add a new statewide drug interdiction team at ISP to intercept fentanyl coming into our state, and Idaho is improving information sharing between law enforcement, first responders, health care, tribes, coroners and others to tackle the problem strategically. Idaho is also increasing resources for mental health and behavioral health to help prevent tragedy. # # # Please DO NOT REPLY to this message. For press inquiries only, contact the Governor's press office at (208) 854-3015 or e-mail Madison.Hardy at gov.idaho.gov. To unsubscribe from these announcements, send an e-mail to news at gov.idaho.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 98275 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov Thu May 25 17:41:23 2023 From: id_gov_news at gov.idaho.gov (Gov. Brad Little) Date: Thu, 25 May 2023 23:41:23 +0000 Subject: Parent Advisory Council members chosen for Empowering Parents grant program Message-ID: [Graphical user interface, text Description automatically generated] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 25, 2023 Parent Advisory Council members chosen for Empowering Parents grant program Boise, Idaho - Governor Brad Little, Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, and House Speaker Mike Moyle announced the members of the new Parent Advisory Council today. The purpose of the Parent Advisory Council is to advise the State Board of Education on ways to "implement, administer, and improve" the Empowering Parents grant program. The council was established in Idaho Code 33-1032. It will include seven members - three members appointed by the Governor, two members appointed by the Senate Pro Tem, and two members appointed by the Speaker of the House. The council includes regional representation from across the state. The Empowering Parents grants help families cover expenses such as computers and software, instructional materials, and tutoring. Public, private, and homeschool families are eligible. To date, tens of thousands of students have benefited from the grants. The Governor's appointees are: * Laura Milton of Idaho Falls * Barbara Schriber of Sandpoint * Jason Sevy of Marsing The Senate Pro Tem's appointees are: * Holly Cook of Boise * Courtney Abenroth of Rupert The Speaker's appointees are: * Joni Shepherd of Riggins * Amy Henry of Nampa "Recognizing the parents' role as the primary decision makers in their children's education, we created the Empowering Parents grant program to help families take charge of learning tools outside the classroom. I appreciate my appointees for filling an important role on the Parent Advisory Council, which will advise the State Board of Education on ways to strengthen the Empowering Parents grant program," Governor Little said. "Empowering Parents has been an outstanding program that has helped both parents and students in Idaho. Holly and Courtney are both exceptional parents and Idahoans, and I thank them for stepping up with their depth of experience and knowledge in our education system," Pro Tem Winder said. "The Parent Advisory Council is a key part of the Empowering Parents program, something that has already benefited tens of thousands Idaho families and students. This panel will help ensure the continued success of the program and connection with families in Idaho," Speaker Moyle said. Superintendent Debbie Critchfield will serve as the nonvoting chair of the Parent Advisory Council. "Input from parents is essential and this is one more way we can tap into parents to help shape Idaho education," Superintendent Critchfield said. "I'm excited to work with the council and hear directly from parents on how we can take advantage of all that Empowering Parents offers our state." Any parent living in Idaho who has a school-aged child (K-12) in Idaho could apply for membership on the council. Preference was given to parents who have applied for Empowering Parent program funds or who, for the initial appointment of the panel, have indicated their intent to apply for program funds, according to Idaho law. The council's first meeting will take place June 1. Meeting information will be available at https://townhall.idaho.gov/PublicMeeting?MeetingID=2465. Superintendent Critchfield and the council members will spend the summer traveling the state to meet with and hear from Idaho families about the Empowering Parents grant program. Then, the council will work up a report with their recommendations for the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education will hear the report in the fall. Additional details on the council are available at https://empoweringparents.idaho.gov/parent-advisory-council. Governor Little also noted Idaho families already benefit from abundant school choice options, and the Empowering Parents grants fit into that. Specifically, Governor Little pointed out that: * Idaho is third in the nation for education freedom - measures that include spending, school choice, transparency, and regulations * With nine different school types available to Idaho families - including traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online academies, homeschooling, and others - there are hundreds of schooling options available to Idaho families * Idaho strengthened its role this session as one of only a handful of states with the fewest restrictions on allowing parents to send their child to any public school they wish * Idaho is a top 10 state for the number of students enrolled in public charter schools * Idaho led the country in standing up the Empowering Parents grant program to provide access to approved educational resources outside the classroom. Public, private, and homeschool families are all eligible to receive grants. "The Empowering Parents grants are effective, popular, and worthy of continued investment, and with the help of the Parent Advisory Council, we will continue to strengthen the program," Governor Little said. # # # Please DO NOT REPLY to this message. For press inquiries only, contact the Governor's press office at (208) 854-3015 or e-mail Madison.Hardy at gov.idaho.gov. To unsubscribe from these announcements, send an e-mail to news at gov.idaho.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 98275 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: