BOISE, Idaho — A new bill aims to bring changes to Idaho’s partnership with the University of Washington and expand more education options for medical students. House Bill 368 also addresses the doctor shortage in Idaho.

“We do have a physician shortage in the state of Idaho, and I love that the legislature is recognizing that and they’re motivated to make changes,” says Boise-based Doctor Joie Florence.

The bill would require the State Board of Education to create a plan to address the shortage. Specifically, it would remove 10 seats reserved for Idaho medical students at the University of Washington by 2027 while adding up to 30 new seats at the University of Utah.

“We know WWAMI produces good doctors, that’s not the issue. The issue is if we’re gonna invest more, how do we make that investment? How do we diversify our interests and how do we prioritize dollars being in Idaho,” says bill sponsor Representative Dustin Manwaring (R).

Manwaring says that though the bill would pull seats away from the existing WWAMI partnership, overall it means growth for Idaho.

“We’re going to net at least 20 new undergraduate medical education seats that the state would invest in in Idaho. So we’re not contracting, we’re expanding the opportunities, we’re expanding the program partners,” says Manwaring.

“I got to train here in Idaho, in my home state,” says Dr. Joie Florence, who attended medical school at Idaho WWAMI.

“I was part of a class of 30 so I watched the expansion take place… now we’re at 40. I’m very concerned at moving backward,” added Florence.

Now, she helps teach Idaho WWAMI medical students and feels the program is in a unique position to train new Idaho doctors.

“The University of Washington partnered with Idaho WWAMI has this excellent infrastructure, this network of doctors, all through the state of Idaho, and throughout the whole WWAMI region… University of Utah doesn’t have that yet,” Florence explained.

Representative Chris Matthias (D) — who voted no on Wednesday morning — argued the bill, as it is currently written, likely won’t address Idaho’s shortage.

“It is not going to lead to more physicians, removing medical education seats prematurely, before we know whether the University of Utah is ready to bring on all these students and make sure they have clinical sites in Idaho to train them,” says Matthias.

“Now is not the time to potentially disrupt our pipeline of physicians to Idaho,” says Florence.

House Bill 368 is now on its way to the house floor for consideration.

CNN
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Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger plan to argue at trial that the knife sheath recovered from the crime scene could have been planted by the real killer of four University of Idaho students, according to prosecutors in a new court filing.

Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at an off-campus home in Moscow in November 2022. Not guilty pleas have been entered on his behalf and his trial is set to begin in August. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

In the state’s filing released Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors summarize a defense filing that appears to be sealed.

“Instead of challenging the conclusion that the DNA on the knife sheath belonged to Defendant, the defense’s expert disclosures reveal that the defense plans to argue the DNA on the knife sheath does not prove Defendant was ever at the crime scene and the knife sheath itself could have been planted by the real perpetrator.”

The prosecutors’ filing quotes a defense expert disclosure that prosecutors say reveals Kohberger’s lawyers intend to call an expert in forensic biology and DNA who will testify that “[t]here is good support that Mr. Kohberger’s DNA was found on Item 1.1, a swab from the knife sheath.”

No further information from the defense expert disclosure is provided in the prosecution’s filing dated March 10 and any response from Kohberger’s lawyers has not been made public.

The DNA recovered on the button of the knife sheath, which ultimately led investigators to Kohberger, is a key piece of evidence in the case and has been the subject of multiple motions ahead of trial.

The Idaho state lab first located a single source of male DNA left on the button snap of the knife sheath found on the bed next to Mogen’s body at the crime scene.

Authorities used investigative genetic genealogy – or IGG – a field of forensic science combining DNA analysis with genealogical research, to connect that sample to Kohberger’s family, prosecutors have said.

Investigators then went to Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania and pulled items from the family’s trash to test against the knife sheath sample. A DNA profile obtained from the trash was identified as “as not being excluded as the biological father of Suspect knife Profile,” according to court documents.

A cheek swab from Kohberger confirmed he was a “statistical match” to the knife sheath sample, court documents show.

Kohberger’s defense team has repeatedly questioned the use, legality and accuracy of the DNA testing done in each step of the process.

The new glimpse into Kohberger’s potential defense strategy comes in a filing from Idaho state prosecutors saying they are willing to agree with the defense position to exclude trial evidence related to IGG.

Prosecutors say they only plan to refer to the IGG material as a generic tip without revealing the source or the substance of the tip, the filing says. They’ll ask an investigator on the stand to testify that law enforcement received a tip and that based on the information and other evidence, authorities eventually identified Kohberger as a suspect.

When the highly controversial Idaho school voucher measure, House Bill 93, landed on Gov. Brad Little’s desk, his office asked for comment from Idahoans about what he should do: sign the bill, or veto it?

The bill had been passed by both chambers of the Legislature, but not overwhelmingly: 42-28 in the House, and 20-15 in the Senate, meaning the Republican caucuses were split on it. A veto likely would not have been overridden. That means a veto would not have been performative or a statement of concern; it would be decisive.

It turns out that a veto is what most Idahoans wanted. We’ve known that for some time. In the Boise State University Idaho Public Policy Survey released in January, 53.3% said they opposed vouchers compared to 38% who supported them. The proposal was defined in the survey as “use of tax dollars to help pay for a private or religious education if a parent chooses not to send their child to a local public school,” which if anything may have been a favorable description.

But we don’t have to rely only on that to gauge Idaho’s attitude toward the subject. Actual opposition in Idaho may have been larger, to judge from the response to Little’s invitation. A lot of Idahoans did respond, as 37,457 phone calls and emails poured into the governor’s office. And 86% of them opposed the voucher bill.

Little, without making any direct reference to this, then signed the bill into law. In fact, the statement he released about his signing made no direct reference to the content (other than the cost) or the meaning of the bill at all, or the overwhelming wave of opposition to it.

This legislative session is packed full of bills most Idahoans, if informed of them, likely would oppose. But no significant roadblock or blowback has surfaced yet.

Most Idaho legislators no longer appear to see themselves as representatives of the people. In many cases, they seem empowered to do whatever they want to do: carry out their personal preferences. That’s constrained mainly by the will of a few interests — the state Republican Party organization, the Idaho Freedom Foundation and a few others — which have an outsized impact on Republican primary elections. Voters, whether aware of what their legislators are doing or not, have been imposing no political penalties for failing to represent them.