Idaho Matters

FILE - Jennifer Adkins and her husband, John, from Caldwell, Idaho talk to the media outside the Ada County Courthouse, Dec. 14, 2023, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, File) (Kyle Green/AP / FR171837 AP) A case involving Idaho's abortion laws has made national and international news , Idaho has seen four officer-involved shootings in two weeks, traffic tickets are down in Boise and fatal cra...

Taylor’s office doubles as the county morgue. The property is flanked by rental houses. Next to the building is a trailer-sized garage where Taylor parks the Chevrolet Suburban that he and his employees use to transport bodies. (Natalie Behring / <a href="https://www.propublica.org/" target="_blank" link-data="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000176-cd8c...

McArthur Lake Cultural Discovery project. ( Idaho Transportation Department) It was a standard road project in Northern Idaho. Take US Highway 95 near McArthur Lake and straighten out the curves to make it safer, and also add a small bridge so animals could travel under the roadway instead of over the busy highway. But when crews began digging on the project, they ran into something unexpected, hu...

(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29853806@N08/">Talo Pinto</a> / Flickr) Here in Boise there is no shortage of art—from traffic boxes to sculptures to murals, there is a splash of color on almost every corner of the community, and that’s not by mistake. The Boise City Department of Arts & History has made it their mission to add value to our public spaces, and part of that i...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arrives before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Macomb Community College. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP) With Robert F. Kennedy Junior on the short list for the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services , big changes could be coming to our our country’s health care system. Dr. David Pate , former C...

(Boise State Public Radio) It was six years ago when Idaho voters approved Medicaid expansion , which opened up health insurance to many who could not afford it. Since then, advocates of expansion say the 100,000 or so people who are currently part of the program have benefited greatly from Medicaid, and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says Idaho hospitals have saved $42 million in char...

(Jeff T. Green / Getty Images) Idaho rivers were once home to one of the country’s largest salmon runs. Today, however, those same salmon are headed towards extinction. For more than fifty years this decline has had far-reaching effects on the state's ecosystem and cultural identity, which is why many groups are fighting to bring these fish back to our waterways. Mitch Cutter, a salmon and energy...

Hundreds of volunteers from Utah and Idaho gathered recently to help the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation heal the site of the Bear River Massacre. The Mountain West News Bureau, Clarissa Casper of the Salt Lake Tribune and Utah Public Radio has the story.

( Creative Commons CC0) How many people voted in Idaho on Election Day? How many people registered Nov. 5? Were there any issues at the voting booth? Because it’s a presidential election year, there’s been a lot of focus on not just who gets elected but also on how our election system works at both a national and local level. To answer the questions that have come up this election season, we asked...

Drone photo of the river channel restoration site. ( Boise State University) Along the Boise River, between the Barber Dam and the Highway 21 bridge, sits 700 acres of land that supports more than 300 native species. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hoping to restore some of the land at Barber Pool for fish, wildlife, water quality and people, and Boise State University is sponsoring a project...

If you start at Hawaii and travel 1,000 miles south, you’ll run into a cluster of tiny islands known as islets that make up the Palmyra Atoll . There’s just around 600 acres of land above the sea, but below it there are 15,000 acres of some of the most diverse coral reef systems on the planet. Palmyra was decimated during World War II by deforestation and rats , which ate pretty much everything —...

The Colorado River is shrinking, and leaders from the states that use it are on the hook to come up with a new plan for managing its water. They have to submit that plan to the federal government by 2026, when the current rules for sharing water expire. KUNC’s Alex Hager reports those state leaders do not think President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House will change their strategy.

The Idaho state flag hangs in the State Capitol in Boise, Idaho. (Kyle Green / AP) Idaho voters broke records this election, hundreds of students in eastern Idaho were turned away at the polls , legislators can now expect to see raises and state officials are preparing to head back to the capitol . It’s Friday, which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable when Idaho Matters gets you up to dat...

The Capitol is framed by American flags at the Washington Monument. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP) After Tuesday’s election results, Boises Mayor Lauren McLean sent out a statement about the privilege we have in Idaho to vote in a “safe, free, and secure” election. She said it was a tough election but that Boiseans should "move forward with the knowledge that we have each other." The mayor sat down wi...

A traffic camera points down at a road. (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/davedugdale/">Dave Dugdale</a> / Flickr) In today's world, cameras have become commonplace. They’re used in our stores, on our roadways, even in our parks. And while this kind of monitoring may unsettle some, others say that it's an important part of our public safety. Retired detective Mike Miraglia will b...

A volcanic feature on Mars, left, and a spatter cone in Iceland. ( Ian T.W. Flynn) You may remember the small volcanic eruption in Iceland three years ago when lava began burping its way out of a fissure. It created a few new craters while hot molten rock flowed around the rugged landscape. Those craters caught the eye of Ian T.W. Flynn, who noticed they looked a little like a crater on the surfac...

Put a picture of the Grand Canyon next to one of Mars, and it’s easy to see some similarities. Red rock formations dominate both landscapes. But just how closely related are the places carved by the Colorado River and the surface of the red planet? KUNC’s Rae Solomon talked to scientists trying to figure that out.

(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/102849594@N07/">Kenny Simpson</a> / Flickr) Spooky season may be over, but that doesn't mean we're done with scary movies! Morning Edition host George Prentice joined Idaho Matters to give us some recommendations on What to Watch. And we take a look at how the world of entertainment is coping with election results.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally, July 31, 2024. (Alex Brandon / AP) Donald J. Trump has been named President-elect. Idaho Matters takes a look at what this win will mean for our state, as well as what voters had to say in local elections. Our panel today: Kevin Richert, senior reporter and blogger with...

FILE - "I voted" stickers are seen in the Polk County Election Office during early voting, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File) (Charlie Neibergall/AP / AP) More than 380,000 people in Idaho cast their votes before election day; that’s more than all the votes cast in the primary election last May. So what are officials expecting in regard to turnout? H...

(Kevin Morris / Flickr Creative Commons) Think back to the last time you were in a hospital. How much plastic did you see? Doctors and nurses use a lot of plastic syringes, which are only used once and come in a plastic sleeve that is thrown away, and that’s just one example. Hospitals produce 14,000 tons of trash every day, and up to a quarter of that is plastic—the same plastics that release har...

(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/armydre2008/">frankieleon</a> / Flicr) In 1804, a young Shoshone woman joined the Lewis and Clark expedition across the U.S. and stepped into history. Over the years, many myths and legends have grown up around Sacajawea, and many of her real-life experiences have been overlooked. Randy'L Teton is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of Fort H...

The text of Idaho's criminal abortion statute (Murphy Woodhouse / Boise State Public Radio ) In Idaho, women who become pregnant following a sexual assault are legally allowed to get an abortion under the law’s few exceptions. But, they first have to report their assault to a law enforcement agency and produce a police report to medical providers. Those who do report to law enforcement and request...

(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/122646118@N03/">James Edmondson</a> / Flickr) For years now, Treasure Valley cities have been among some of the fastest-growing urban areas in the country. And Idaho's not alone; since the late 1700s, there have been identifiable growth spurts in America's population that have sometimes lasted for decades. However, have you ever wondered why popu...

(Emilie Ritter Saunders / Boise State Public Radio) Election Day is just one day away, and while we have seen unprecedented early voting in Idaho to date, officials are expecting even bigger numbers on Tuesday. We wanted to get a preview of tomorrow’s election, so we turned to Boise State political science professor Jaclyn Kettler. She sat down with our Morning Edition host, George Prentice , to b...