New features at the Gem State Chronicle
PLUS update from Congressman Fulcher, budget info, water legislation, and more
Idaho Insider levels up
Apologies for no new articles since Monday. I’ve been devoting nearly all my time toward continued refinement of Idaho Insider at the Gem State Chronicle. As you might recall, Idaho Insider was born in late 2024 and was originally a simple hand-curated list of legislators with links to their websites, contact, info, social media profiles, and more.
It has been a process of continual evolution since then—moving to a system in which data is dynamically displayed, adding more information, creating one-click email links, adding district and committee information. Over the past two weeks I’ve been refining it even further, with the help of AI, which itself has come a long way in a few short years. The page now has a built-in district lookup tool, which uses a free US Census Bureau API—I won’t store or use your data in any way.
As we speak, Claude is updating individual legislator profiles with a new design and a more robust system for dynamically displaying data. For example, the snippet of text that indicates how long a legislator has been in office used to require hand-updating every two years. Now it simply pulls an election date from the database and calculates how many terms he or she has been in office. Simple, and no updating needed!
District and committee pages have also been updated to be more responsive and informative. Individual district pages now dynamically create a social preview image out of the three legislators, making it easy to share on social media. Individual legislator pages do something similar—the preview image will include the legislator’s name and thumbnail, all generated silently in the back end.
The committees page now lists every standing, interim, join, and special committee, including the 2026 task forces. Previous pages, such as the 2025 interim committees and working groups, can be accessed view a dropdown at the bottom of the page.
If you browse around the new legislator pages for awhile you might come across a new page called Research. This is a powerful portal to dig into any subject, any elected official, by any author at the Gem State Chronicle. Want to find all the times Gov. Brad Little discussed property taxes? It’s just a click away, and the results create a unique URL for sharing and bookmarking.
Of course the archive only goes back a few years, but going forward my goal is for the Chronicle to become a comprehensive repository of information about a wide range of Idaho politics.
I know that many of you subscribed to the Chronicle for my articles and analysis, and I will keep that coming. I’m very excited about Idaho Insider, and I hope you’ll find it useful. It’s only going to get better from here. My roadmap for 2026 includes updating the new legislators who will take office following the November elections, continuing to build out the executive and judicial branches, and preparing for a true iOS and Android app that will bring all this information to your fingertips quickly and efficiently.
Of course, if you want me to have the ability to continue creating neat stuff like this, then I’d appreciate your support!
Update from Congressman Fulcher
Congressman Russ Fulcher’s newsletter came out today, so check it out:
I am proud to be a primary co-sponsor of H.R. 1137, the No Kill Switches in Cars Act.
This legislation would block the federal government from requiring automakers to install draconian driver-surveillance technology in new models that can remotely disable a person’s vehicle.
The threats this poses to Americans’ privacy and liberties and the potential for government abuse are far too great. My bottom line: stop the vehicle kill switch.
Our Veterans should never be treated differently from other Americans simply because they rely on a fiduciary to help manage their VA financial benefits due to a disability.
The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, H.R. 1041, would permanently prohibit the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting Veterans to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) list unless a court order is issued.
This bill protects the Constitutional due process rights of Veterans, and I am glad to have supported its passage on the House floor.
Press releases
Video of the day
Nick Solheim of American Moment spoke to political analyst and activist Ryan Girdusky this week about what to expect from the upcoming midterm elections:
As always, thank you to sponsors Lynn Bradescu’s Boise Realty, Money Metals, and New Saint Andrews College. Thank you also to all the paid subscribers who make it possible for me to do what I do, as well as all the readers who are constantly encouraging me to keep it up. I appreciate you!
Amazing work, Brian. Looking forward to trying out Idaho Insider soon . Thank you for creating this wonderful tool for Idaho citizens.
Teensy typo: The committees page now lists every standing, interim, ***join,*** and special committee, including the 2026 task forces.
***join*** should be ***joint***
Here’s a tool we’d love: A bill analyzer / tracker that automatically summarizes in English (not legalese) each section of a bill, without losing the key points. Points could be bulleted lists for ease of reading.
Perhaps include similarity to other bills already law and others in the pipeline during the session. Whether the bill has been renamed or renumbered from earlier version. When public testimony can be given and how we can write or testify in time. (You highlighted a similar tool — https://gemstatebrief.com/legislative-tracker/committees?type=BILL&source=CROSS_CHAMBER — but it wasn’t readable due to black background and strong colors.) Other bill trackers exist (listed at https://eolson47.substack.com/i/203007296/idaho-bill-trackers-and-analysis), but they require tons of time to use effectively.