I have another Weekend Countdown for you, this time with the weekend’s events!
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Six people were arrested while working last week in Nampa, and many of their families were unable to contact their loved ones in the aftermath. ICE said it was a targeted operation.
On Tuesday, ICE also arrested a construction worker who fled immigration officials on foot in Eagle before being arrested. Multiple arrests were reported the same day at a roadside construction site in Emmett.
City of Boise applies for federal health and substance abuse grant
The City of Boise wants to integrate a new system for how its residents facing homelessness, addiction, and severe mental health issues access care and get moved between resource providers. To do so it hopes to be awarded a $5 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
It’s not immediately clear how the “comprehensive, street-based network” would operate, but the proposal seems to follow Mayor Lauren McLean’s established approach of balancing “people first” resources and public safety. The city said it expects to hear back on its application this fall.
1 thing giving me hope … in Missouri
It’s hard to think of good reasons to oppose forms of democracy like ballot initiatives. You might hate the ideas on the ballot initiative, sure, and there’s a solid case for making sure that not just anyone can come up with a proposal and put it on the ballot. But trying to cut back on ballot initiatives when they’ve been popular recently sounds pretty indefensibly anti-democratic.
issourians think so, anyway.
In both Idaho and Missouri, ballot initiatives remain viable despite rollback efforts. (Brittney Butler / Unsplash)
This week, Missouri voters weighed a constitutional amendment that would have made getting a ballot initiative cleared for voters extremely difficult. And every single county voted against it.
Idaho lawmakers have tried similar moves recently, in at least three bills:
In 2021, Gov. Brad Little signed a Republican-sponsored bill to require signatures from 6% of registered voters in all 35 legislative districts to authorize an initiative to appear on the ballot. The Idaho Supreme Court tossed it out.
Last year, Nampa Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug proposed a bill that would have required 60% of voters to approve of a ballot initiative for it to pass, rather than 50%.
Weeks later, Rep. Skaug replaced that bill with one that would have given the governor veto power over ballot initiatives. The bill didn’t make it out of committee.
With a major abortion ballot initiative coming up here in Idaho and another that would make English our state’s official language, I’m grateful our ballot initiative process has remained reasonably achievable. For democracy to work, its voters need to trust the process. And a win for democracy in Missouri is a win for democracy everywhere.
That’ll do it for this week. Thanks for reading, friends, and have a great weekend!
