It's Worth Mentioning

EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode  originally aired on  November 30, 2025. A recent report indicates that Idaho downwinders stricken with cancer can now get federal compensation. Last week, the Idaho Statesman reported that Idaho is now included in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The act is a federal law that “provides partial restitution” to people who developed certain illnesses after being e...

Two local organizations are celebrating 100 years of operation. This week on “It’s Worth Mentioning,” Rett Nelson speaks with Tim Haderlie, owner of Haderlie Farms in Iona — a 3,000-acre spread that grows wheat, barley and alfalfa. The farm, established in 1915, was recently recognized as an “Idaho Century Farm” by the Idaho State Historical Society. This award recognizes farms throughout Idaho th...

Days after a ceasefire was reached between Iran, Israel, and the U.S., the future of the conflict remains uncertain. The center of the conflict is the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes during peacetime. The ability of ships to pass through the Strait has a significant impact on gas prices. This week on “It’s Worth Mentioning,” Rett Nelson speaks with AAA Idaho Public Af...

Andrew Crawford and Rivka Sears can hardly believe they're now among the top pizza-makers in the world. The two employees of Righteous Slice in Rexburg just returned from the International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas. Crawford took third place in the Traditional American Division out of 100 competitors. Sears took the top spot in the Best Neapolitan Pizza category out of 80 participants. On this...

The collapse of the Teton Dam spilled 80 billion gallons of water into eastern Idaho, killing 11 people and 13,000 head of livestock. Many people were made homeless by the disaster and tens of thousands of acres of land were destroyed or heavily damaged. Although there were concerns about the dam’s design from the beginning, construction moved forward anyway with devastating results. Fifty years l...

When Rebecca Brown Mitchell arrived in Eagle Rock (what is now Idaho Falls) with her teenage daughter, Bessie, they had nothing but the clothes on their back and a few belongings. It was June 5, 1882, and the 48-year-old Illinois woman who would one day become the world’s first female chaplain of a legislative body had come out West in hopes of being a missionary. She also played a pivotal role in...

Jeff and Cindy Siddoway are among this year's inductees into the Eastern Idaho Agriculture Hall of Fame. The Terreton couple are fourth-generation sheep ranchers and will be among six recipients who are recognized in a banquet at the Shoshone-Bannock Event Center on March 20 . On this episode of "It's Worth Mentioning," Cindy speaks with host Rett Nelson about this induction. Like the ranch, the i...

It’s a new chapter for Josh and Georgia Foster. The Ririe couple managed Loft 745, a wedding venue off County Line Road in Rigby, for seven years. In December, the property was sold, and the decades-old building was demolished to make room for a long-term commercial project. The Fosters partnered with Trellis Development in Rexburg for the project. RELATED LINK: https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/...

Trent Shippen gets teary-eyed as he looks back on his basketball career and all the people he’s associated with through the years. The 60-year-old Rigby man is a sports advisor at Brigham Young University-Idaho, but was once part of a national tournament while a student at Ricks College in the 1980s. He later went on to play for Colorado State University, and eventually coached at BYU in Provo, Ut...

Despite losing a bid for Idaho governor with less than one percentage point and failing twice to represent Idaho in Congress, David Leroy says he doesn’t have any “political work left undone.” The 78-year-old Boise man is a longtime Idaho attorney with an extensive political career in the state. It began in the 1970s as Ada County prosecutor, followed by a term as Idaho Attorney General. He was el...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode was originally published on Nov. 9, 2025. We are reposting it ahead of President’s Day. Monica Church is just over a year into her first term as a state legislator. The Boise Democrat is the granddaughter of two former beloved politicians from Idaho. Frank Church, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1957-1981 and is the namesake for the Frank Church Wilderness Area, is h...

From "The Andy Williams Show" as a kid to sold-out concerts worldwide, Jay Osmond has performed alongside his brothers for more than 50 years. He and his wife, Karina, recently moved to Idaho Falls and are the hosts of a new radio show on Arrow 107.1. On this episode of "It's Worth Mentioning," Rett Nelson speaks with the couple about the radio program, their ties to the area and why they love eas...

Richard Stallings, a Pocatello man who represented eastern Idaho in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985-1993, passed away in October at the age of 85. Cary Jones of Blackfoot served as his assistant on energy, environment, and natural resources during his years in office. On this season two premiere episode of “It’s Worth Mentioning,” Rett Nelson speaks with Jones about his memories servin...

Note: This episode originally published on Sept. 28, 2025. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and we're commemorating the occasion with a look at black history in eastern Idaho. This week on "It's Worth Mentioning," Rett Nelson speaks with Delphia Bradley. She moved to Idaho Falls in 2023 to escape harassment and racism. After operating a meal delivery service, Bradley now has a traveling art ex...

Note: This episode was originally published on Oct. 19, 2025. Thomas Sutton’s main goal weeks into his inauguration as mayor of Idaho Falls was to ensure Idaho Falls became the headquarters for the Atomic Energy Commission, the agency that managed the predecessor to Idaho National Laboratory. A great deal of schmoozing and lobbying by Sutton and others paved the way for the city’s future growth an...

Note: This episode was originally published on Oct. 12, 2025. Two cabins in Jackson, Wyoming are what’s left of a set for a Hollywood western filmed in the area during the 1950s. One of them is five miles north of Jackson in Kelly and the other is under the ownership of History Jackson Hole, a museum in town. This week on “It’s Worth Mentioning,” Rett Nelson speaks with local researcher Samantha F...

Editor’s note: This is part two of a previous conversation. Part one was published on Dec. 14 and is available here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/it-s-been-25-years-since-release-of-film-that-made-richard-dutcher-the-father-of-mormon-cinema--68984469 Richard Dutcher was introduced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 8. In 2000, the release of his film, “God’s Army,” creat...

As Christmas approaches, many await the arrival of Santa. The man who's responsible for millions of Christmas mysteries every year has been around for more than 200 years in America, but his origins date back much farther around the world. This week on "It's Worth Mentioning," Rett Nelson speaks with Gerry Bowler, author of "Santa Claus: A Biography." They discuss Santa's origin story, including h...

On March 10, 2000, a small, independent film premiered in theaters across Utah. "God’s Army" told the story of a rookie missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrestling with his own conversion. Aside from numerous films produced during the silent era and a Hollywood production called "Brigham Young," released in 1940, it was the first commercially produced film about Latter...

Gold had been discovered in the Sawtooth Mountains. It was 1879, thirty years after the California Gold Rush, and dozens of people from the southern United States, had come to central Idaho seeking their fortune. Samuel Holman was an attorney who filed one of the first gold claims in the area. He laid out the plots for a community to establish a mine. Soon after, the townsite of Custer -- named fo...

A desert site about 65 miles north of Las Vegas had been selected for nuclear weapons testing. It was 1953 and 11 atomic bomb detonations took place here between March and June as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole. The largest of these detonations, a warhead known as Harry, yielded 32 kilotonnes of radioactive energy — more than double the amount produced from the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshim...

Jim Bridger was an early mountaineer and explorer of the Pacific Northwest. He explored areas that now include Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Throughout his life, he had friendly associations with many groups, including members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He settled the Salt Lake Valley before they arrived and expressed concerns to Brigham Young about their ability to pl...

Stewart Petersen has no regrets living out of the spotlight. The 64-year-old Cokeville, Wyoming man was cast as Billy Coleman in the 1974 film, “Where the Red Fern Grows.” He was only 13 at the time and went on to appear in half a dozen family-friendly films over the next six years. He left the film industry for good at that point. In an interview with Rett Nelson on “It’s Worth Mentioning,” the f...

Monica Church is nearly a year into her first term as a state legislator. The Boise Democrat is the granddaughter of two former beloved politicians from Idaho. Frank Church, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1957-1981 and is the namesake for the Frank Church Wilderness Area, is her grandfather on her mother’s side. Her paternal grandfather is Cecil Andrus, the state’s only four-term governor who...

Daylight Saving Time has officially ended … again. Although most of us probably appreciated the extra hour of sleep, this twice-yearly ritual of adjusting the time leaves many people asking, “Why do we do this?” There have been numerous efforts over the years to eliminate the practice. Earlier this year, Congress introduced the  Sunshine Protection Act . It aims to make daylight saving time — the...