Legislators talk salamanders, mental health

COEUR d’ALENE — The second week of the Idaho legislative session got under way Monday with committees teeing up some controversial issues they’ll begin to whack this week.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 10-6 on Monday against 14-year-old Ilah Hickman’s plan to establish the Idaho giant salamander as the state’s official amphibian.

An Idaho attorney general’s opinion advised lawmakers that approving the salamander as a state symbol wouldn’t do anything in the way of encouraging federal protections. But lawmakers remained wary.

“My whole concern is potential federal overreach,” said Rep. Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls. “In North Idaho we have the water litigation going. I just am in fear that something could be impacted if it became an endangered species.”

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