Idaho Pulse Podcasts

Idaho’s kindergarten vaccine exemption rate has climbed to 17.5% — the highest in the country and well above neighboring Utah’s 12.7%. From there: $4.6 billion in continuous appropriations that never face a legislative vote, elective continuous spending up nearly 600% in five years, a teachers’ union insurance shortfall claim, Micron’s $50 billion plant and the 2008 tax cap that could shield most of its...

This episode turns basic supply-and-demand economics loose on Idaho’s biggest fights: the abortion measure likely headed for the November ballot, price controls and the minimum wage, cheap immigrant farm labor and depressed wages, and the tax subsidies used to lure Micron to the Treasure Valley. The through-line is the seen and the unseen — how policies with obvious, well-publicized winners quietly hurt the workers,...