10 most embarrassing Idaho news stories of 2025: red-faced in a deep-red state
Idaho is amazing. But, geez, it gets cringey around here.
Each year, I take a fond, masochistic gaze back at the most humiliating news stories of the prior 12 months. And every time, the list ends up dominated by Gem State politics.
This makes sense. Most Idaho politicians are atrocious. (But most embarrassing? We vote for them! Dependably disappointing Jim Risch, Idaho’s oldest-ever senator, is now eighty-freaking-two! And running yet again! He’d be 89 years old at the end of his next term!)
Most of this top 10 involves far-right nutballs. After all, this is a deep-red state. If we lived in Oregon, I could make fun of Portland protesters in blue bunny suits. But we don’t. So I can’t.
Consequently, it’s time to take one for the team, conservative hyper-extremists. (I will, however, agree that the Boise woman in the inflatable frog suit at last spring’s “No Kings” protest looked preposterous in her attempt to be as “weird” as Portland.)
Bounty on the Boise mayor
If you’ve lived in the Treasure Valley for a minute, you’ve probably heard of bat-shat-crazy Old State Saloon in Eagle — specifically its insecure, attention bore of an owner. (I shall refer to him as Temu Bundy, an Ammon Bundy-inspired nickname borrowed from a subreddit discussion.)
In Temu Bundy’s latest moronic marketing move, he offered at least $10,000 to anyone providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of Boise Mayor Lauren McLean. After all, she’s sorta woke. “I want to wake up and expose evil, and I want to do it for the glory of God,” Temu Bundy told the Idaho Statesman.
Luci Willits, the only conservative Boise City Council member, called the bounty “ridiculous.” I’d take that a step further. It’s malevolent.
Hetero Awesome Fest: a gay ol’ time
Ready for a dim-witted doubleheader? Temu Bundy also was the very stable genius behind Hetero Awesome Fest, a two-day disaster held in June at Boise’s Cecil D. Andrus Park. Purportedly an alternative to LGBTQ+ Pride Month, it was a colossal bust. Nobody showed up. OK, a few bigoted buffoons did — dozens, reportedly.
The highlight? A heroic, guitar-toting double agent with specious intentions. Local musician Daniel Hamrick was formally introduced on stage, then quickly donned a jacket with a Pride heart patch and sang a ditty about a trans boy. Hilariously, he made it through most of the song before Temu Bundy slithered across the park and yanked the mic away. Now that must have been embarrassing.
Resolution for ‘natural definition of marriage’
Sticking with the homophobic theme, let’s not forget House Joint Memorial 1, which lawmakers easily passed in January. This complete waste of time — sponsored by reliably dreadful Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard — asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 decision to allow same-sex marriages nationwide. Specifically, it aimed to “restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.”
Come on, Idaho! Do we really want to outlaw “Sister Wives” on TLC?
Street brawl at Charlie Kirk vigil
A candlelight vigil was held outside the Idaho Capitol after the September killing of political activist and influencer Charlie Kirk. So naturally, Idahoans found a way to embarrass themselves.
The chaos started when a numbskull looking for trouble showed up yelling profane unpleasantries about Kirk. That triggered a violent brawl, plenty of lady shrieks, imposing American flag waving, “USA! USA!” chants — and humiliation for humanity in general. (Watch this video if you want to feel ill. Brain-cell warning: That’s a FoxNews.com link.)
Why, Idaho? Whyyyy? What could that “protester” ever expect to gain by rudely disrupting the event? But also, how is it that a crowd of mourners supposedly championing nonviolent responses to free speech can’t comprehend when they become violent about it themselves?
‘Reefer Madness,’ Idaho style
Because Idaho’s lawmakers love seeing potential tax dollars flood into Oregon, ours will be the last state to legalize cannabis. But do they also have to waste time enacting useless legislation?
Gov. Brad Little signed a bill in February that mandated a $300 minimum fine for low-level marijuana possession. Sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, it made the mandatory minimum financial punishment worse for a joint than for, say, attempted strangulation, the Statesman reported. Guess how many Idahoans that unusually stiff minimum fine will prevent from day-tripping over to Ontario to buy legal weed? ZERO. Cannabis is everywhere in the Treasure Valley. The law is flat-out stoopid.
Town hall chaos in North Idaho
In February, a Post Falls woman was forcibly removed from a Coeur d’Alene town hall organized by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. She’d been heckling legislators and refused to leave. Unidentified plainclothes dudes then dragged her out of the high school auditorium while other Idahoans watched — some in amusement, others not so much. Naturally, there’s viral video.
The jaw-dropping mess was not a good look for the Kootenai County sheriff. And a December trial in the aftermath wound up with a mixed verdict for the owner of a local security company, Lear Asset Management. I probably wouldn’t hire those bros for my next block party.
Idaho: the firing squad state
It was pretty embarrassing — or horrifying — in 2024 when Idaho botched the lethal-injection execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech (like, eight times). So our ingenious answer is to make Idaho the only state with firing squad as its preferred execution method?
That’s what happened after Gov. Little signed it into law in 2025. Firing squad might be effective in the end, but it feels … barbaric. An autopsy of the most recent execution by firing squad, in South Carolina, showed that the shooters missed the convicted killer’s heart. A pathologist’s analysis said the inmate experienced “excruciating conscious pain and suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds after he was shot,” according to NPR.
This is Idaho. Unless the convict is holding a road sign, our firing squad might miss the entire body.
Zip-tied kids in Wilder
It doesn’t matter how you feel about undocumented immigrants. Zip-tying children is wrong. Using an investigation into an alleged illegal horse-betting scheme as cover, hundreds of law enforcement officers stormed Canyon County’s La Catedral Arena, which is popular among Latino residents.
“At the event,” the Idaho Statesman reported, “which saw hundreds of people in attendance, law enforcement restrained individuals and set up tents to question them about their immigration status. By the end, ICE said its agents arrested over 100 ‘illegal aliens.’ In the days after the raid, the Idaho Statesman spoke with three families of those detained at La Catedral who said their 13- and 14-year-olds were zip-tied. The ACLU and immigration attorneys also shared photos of children who had marks on their wrists where they had been restrained.”
Truly sick stuff, Idaho.
‘Everyone is welcome’ in Idaho? Nope
In national-news humiliation, a Meridian middle school teacher inadvertently triggered a firestorm by refusing to remove two signs that had been in her classroom for four years. You know the ubiquitous one: “Everyone is welcome here,” featuring hands of different skin tones.
That inclusive message was simply too much for the West Ada School District, which told the Statesman it was concerned the signs might “inadvertently create division or controversy.” By the time it was all over, Idaho’s House Bill 41 had gone into effect, outlawing flags or banners depicting a political viewpoint from schools. And Idaho’s attorney general had weighed in, claiming the “welcome” sign was somehow political. (Gimme a break.) In the end, the teacher accepted a job with the Boise School District, which still allows the innocuous sign.
‘A political game of capture the flag’
Signs. Flags. And more Heather Scott! In another bucket of nonsense she sponsored, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 96, which limits the kinds of unofficial flags that state and local governments can display. Utah passed a similar measure.
As a runaround, local leaders in Boise and Salt Lake City adopted new official city flags to run up the pole. “In Boise, the City Council designated the rainbow Pride flag and a flag promoting organ donation as official city flags,” The New York Times noted in some of the national coverage drawn by this vapid debacle.
One of my favorite headlines? “In Boise, Idaho, a political game of capture the flag.” Boise 1, Idaho Legislature 0.
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 12:59 PM.