Idaho
How Come Nobody Else Warned Idaho is Broke?
Of all my on-air guests, Dorothy Moon probably takes the most fire, and from all directions.
A couple of months ago, Idaho’s Republican Party Chairwoman told me the state could be staring at an upcoming billion-dollar budget shortfall. I posted Dorothy Moon’s comments online, and didn’t see much reaction. A few days later, I mentioned it on-air to Idaho House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel. Expecting her never to brush aside a possible route of attack on the majority Republicans, I waited for a pithy answer. She warned of a deficit, but seemed to downplay the one billion dollar figure.
I’ve been on vacation for a couple of weeks. While I was away, this story appeared in the Idaho Capital Sun. While one billion may not happen, it could, according to people reviewing the figures. For those who claim some Republicans are squishes, it looks like they’ve found a method for greatly reducing government. Because 2026 is a major election year, nobody in the GOP is going to raise your taxes to balance the books!
I’m not writing this to forecast where the cuts will take place. Old media will be sharing sob stories for the next several months to paint Republicans as Simon Legree. Democrats will be portrayed as an outnumbered army of saints. Rinse and repeat.
What I do want to mention is that Dorothy Moon was prescient. The 2024 Idaho Republican Party Presidential Caucus is long in the rearview mirror, but remember that was her effort. Granted, it included many dedicated volunteers (one locally even named Grant) and was a Herculean task, but Dorothy was the CEO of that effort. Take a moment to consider the scope and her budget predictions, and you’ll find she has the skills that corporate America needs.
Under Fire from All Directions
The media and its fellow travelers despise her because she’s not a socialist. When I see stories reminding readers about her involvement in the John Birch Society, the goal is to paint her as a dangerous extremist. You’re led to believe that JBS was the equivalent of the Klan. Even the commies at the Southern Poverty Law Center rate Birchers as benign patriots, but in modern newsrooms, the goal is to plant seeds for the left-wing narrative.
She’s also under constant attack from the Gang of Nate. Members who believe the party should have its thumb on the scales to benefit their candidates. The same quality found in Moon’s predecessors, the gang whined about, and rightly so. If it was wrong then, why would it be right today? Dorothy called the gang out when they were insinuating that some good, newly elected Republican legislators weren’t sufficiently Christian. By the gang’s definition of Christian. “Be careful that you don’t practice your religion in front of people to draw their attention,” comes to mind. As one member of the outfit has said, people knew what they were getting when they voted. She wouldn’t be the first to misinterpret a vote for change as a mandate from heaven.
That’s the sad part, because by misreading the outcome of ’24, they may have overplayed their hand, and we’ll see a return of the establishment in ’26. If their followers are reduced to making that argument above all others, I would say there could be trouble ahead.
Don’t Overplay Your Hand
That struck me when I saw a first responder label the gang in an online post as the “hateful eight”. The opposition will come up with all manner of twists to parody their armor-wearing avatars. Defining the opposition is built on repetition, and with a touch of humor, it can be devastating. Some of the people I’ve been criticizing were once friends, but lack self-awareness. If a hundred people repeatedly fawn over you, it’s easy to get the impression you’ve hit the sweet spot, but what if the 100 are in a minority? I’ve been a broadcaster for most of the last 40 years, and the people who don’t like me generally leave me alone. Aside from a vocal few.
When I’m shopping, people who approach me are generally friendly. Come to think of it, over the past 20 years, I’ve only had one person tell me he didn’t like the content, and he was polite. I offered him some other options on the dial, and he said he would give them a listen. The thing is, the overwhelming number of people I pass in the grocery store or when leaving church don’t stop to talk.
Which gets me back to Dorothy. She has worked diligently to provide a fair platform for Republican candidates. Her reward has been vilification by the old guard because it doesn’t favor their lobbyist/government complex. Old allies froth at the mouth because she won’t tilt the machine, yet none of them can approach her organizational skills, her outreach to remote party committees, and her willingness to be publicly available.
Here’s an idea for legislators of all stripes. Solve a billion-dollar puzzle. Don’t waste our time bellyaching about someone else’s campaign in a far-away district. Be focused on doing a good job and on your own constituents. This isn’t brain surgery. It’s politics.
A similar version of this essay appeared on Substack.
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Idaho
Idaho Lottery results: See winning numbers for Pick 3, Pick 4 on April 19, 2026
The results are in for the Idaho Lottery’s draw games on Sunday, April 19, 2026.
Here’s a look at winning numbers for each game on April 19.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from April 19 drawing
Day: 9-5-1
Night: 8-0-6
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from April 19 drawing
Day: 2-7-0-3
Night: 4-3-3-3
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Idaho Cash numbers from April 19 drawing
15-28-31-38-45
Check Idaho Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from April 19 drawing
32-42-52-53-55, Bonus: 05
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Idaho Lottery drawings held ?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 3: 1:59 p.m. (Day) and 7:59 p.m. (Night) MT daily.
- Pick 4: 1:59 p.m. (Day) and 7:59 p.m. (Night) MT daily.
- Lucky For Life: 8:35 p.m. MT Monday and Thursday.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- 5 Star Draw: 8 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Idaho Cash: 8 p.m. MT daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a USA Today editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Idaho
‘Unrelenting’: Statehouse reporters recap 2026 legislative session in Idaho Falls – East Idaho News
IDAHO FALLS — Two prominent Idaho Statehouse reporters say this past legislative session was “unrelenting,” chaotic, largely driven by budget cuts, and they see the Legislature getting more powerful.
Kevin Richert and Clark Corbin recapped this past legislative session at a forum on the ISU Idaho Falls Campus on Thursday.
Richert is a senior reporter at Idaho Education News, with more than 30 years of experience covering education policy and politics. Corbin is a senior reporter at the Idaho Capital Sun who has covered every Idaho legislative session, gavel to gavel, since 2011.
The event was hosted by the City Club of Idaho Falls, which “exists to sponsor and promote civil dialogue and discourse on all matters of public interest” and strives to be “nonpartisan and nonsectarian,” according to its website.
Budget cuts
Both Richert and Corbin said this session was driven by budget cuts. Corbin said this was due to a lack of revenue stemming from past income tax and the adoption of new federal tax cuts.
“Cuts for almost every state agency and state department dominated the legislative session,” Corbin said. “We’re talking about 4% budget cuts for most state agencies and departments in the current fiscal year, and we’re talking about an additional 5% budget cuts for almost all state agencies and departments starting next year — fiscal year ’27 — and continuing permanently.”
RELATED | Gov. Little signs so-called ‘crappy bill’ to cut state budget
Richert said he thought higher education was taking the brunt of budget cuts. “It’s not a question of whether tuition fees are going to go up at the universities; it’s a question of how much,” he said.
When asked what the future would hold, Corbin said the budget cuts aren’t likely to go away, and their effects will be felt over time.
“There could always be a change of leadership in the House, but they do expect the budget crunch to continue in the next year’s legislative session,” Corbin said.
‘Radiator capping’
Richert said he has one word to describe this year’s legislative session: “unrelenting.”
One thing that made it feel that way was that some bills were recycled over and over, he said. For example, Richert said the Legislature saw five different versions of a bill that proposed cuts to the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance.
“We had multiple bills that came from the dead,” he said.
The journalists said this is partly due to a tactic called “radiator capping.” The term means to replace the entire car — the bill’s text, in political terms — while only keeping the radiator cap: the bill number. By rewriting a bill on the House or Senate floor while maintaining its number, failed bills can effectively bypass the committee process.
“Those are the changes they tried to make on immigration bills, on union bills this year,” Corbin said. “It made it extremely difficult for the public to have any idea what was going on, to have any opportunity to participate in the legislative process and share their opinions.
A more powerful, more chaotic Legislature
Richert said Idaho’s annual legislative sessions are trending longer, commonly going into the early part of April, and producing a record number of bills.
“There are rumblings that this Legislature, as a body, is wanting to expand its reach over more and have even more power over the other branches of government to the point of — are we trending towards more of a full-time professional legislature?” Richert said. “We’re a long way from there.”
“The legislative branch of government, particularly the Idaho House of Representatives, is the most powerful I’ve seen it in 16 years of covering state government,” Corbin said.
He added that this year’s legislative session was unlike any he’s experienced.
“The overall temperature in the building was bad,” Corbin said. “It was divisive. It was chaotic. People were not hiding their feelings of disgust for each other. These traditional ideas of decorum and respect very much fell by the wayside.”
Richert said Gov. Brad Little vetoed very few bills that came across his desk, and the ones he did weren’t high-profile.
RELATED | Idaho Gov. Brad Little issues 5 vetoes. Here are the bills affected
“I think the governor behaved like he was very concerned about the supermajority-controlled Legislature, and I think that that Legislature, in turn, asserted itself and took control of the agenda this year,” Corbin said.
Are legislators representing Idaho?
Corbin said some bills this year also focused on the LGBTQ+ community, such as a bathroom restriction for transgender individuals, and a bill that banned the City of Boise from waving a Pride flag.
RELATED | Idaho governor signs bill to criminalize trans people using bathrooms that align with their identity
RELATED | Boise removes LGBTQ+ pride flag as Idaho governor signs bill to fine city for its display
When asked if these were what Idahoans wanted, Corbin said it doesn’t necessarily appear so to him, based on his review of Boise State University’s annual public policy survey.
“For years and years, I’ve heard concerns about affordability of housing, access to housing, managing the growth of the state of Idaho, having quality public schools available for our young people — that also generates a workforce pipeline for some of our businesses,” Corbin said. “I’ve heard about paying for wildfires. I’ve heard about having good roads, supporting access to public lands, public recreation, those are the concerns I hear from Idahoans.”
“But the Legislature spent a significant amount of time over the last two, three, four years placing additional restrictions on LGBTQ communities, placing restrictions on what teachers can and cannot teach in their classrooms, what school boards can and cannot do,” Corbin continued. “They talked about requiring a moment of silence every day to begin the public school day, where children could pray or read the Bible.”
RELATED | Gov. Brad Little signs public school ‘moment of silence’ bill into law
Corbin said it may be his own opinion, but perhaps it is easier to “make a bunch of noise about what’s going wrong and (distract) people with social issues” rather than focus on harder issues that Idaho faces.
“I think what you saw on the policy space is a reflection of the fact that you had legislators thinking about reelection, and legislators with time on their hands — and that’s not always a good combination,” Richert said.
Accountability
When asked how people can keep legislators accountable, Corbin said it can be done by following the state Legislature through trusted news sources, going to community events and voting.
“This is a great year to practice accountability, because all 105 state legislators and all statewide elected officials are up for election this year,” he said.
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Idaho
Idaho Lottery results: See winning numbers for Powerball, Pick 3 on April 18, 2026
The results are in for the Idaho Lottery’s draw games on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Here’s a look at winning numbers for each game on April 18.
Winning Powerball numbers from April 18 drawing
24-25-39-46-61, Powerball: 01, Power Play: 5
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from April 18 drawing
Day: 9-5-1
Night: 0-2-4
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from April 18 drawing
Day: 4-6-0-4
Night: 9-9-8-2
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from April 18 drawing
18-21-22-32-42, Star Ball: 10, ASB: 03
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Idaho Cash numbers from April 18 drawing
08-19-22-31-44
Check Idaho Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from April 18 drawing
17-19-47-48-55, Bonus: 04
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Idaho Lottery drawings held ?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 3: 1:59 p.m. (Day) and 7:59 p.m. (Night) MT daily.
- Pick 4: 1:59 p.m. (Day) and 7:59 p.m. (Night) MT daily.
- Lucky For Life: 8:35 p.m. MT Monday and Thursday.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- 5 Star Draw: 8 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Idaho Cash: 8 p.m. MT daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a USA Today editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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