Idaho Matters

(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/191657420@N03/">Tyler Bevan</a> / Flickr) The National Weather Service in Boise says the inversion plaguing the Treasure Valley will last through Wednesday … when rain and snow and colder weather will push it out. It isn’t the first inversion the Valley has suffered this winter and it won’t be the last. And since misery loves company we thought y...

(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pkorsmok/">Peter Rood</a> / Flickr) There’s been an increase in hydropower projects across the U.S., including on different tribal reservations. But some advocates say tribes like the Navajo nation aren’t being consulted enough about their development. As Chris Clements of KSJD reports, that includes a recent proposal for three new projects in no...

Sofia Blenkinsop shares her collection of 7-inch, 45 RPM vinyl singles. (Sofia Blenkinsop / Boise State Public Radio) If you received a record player or some new LPs for the holidays, you’re not alone. The Recording Industry Association of America announced earlier this year that vinyl records outsold CDs in 2022 for the first time in 35 years (since 1987), with some reports saying vinyl sales are...

(Berkley) This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on August 9, 2023. Last year, author Carley Fortune came out with her debut novel "Every Summer After." Her book climbed the New York Times Bestseller list for more than 13 weeks and was named one of the hottest reads of summer 2022. Now, she is out with her latest beach read, " Meet Me at the Lake ." Fortune joined Idaho Matters to talk mor...

(Pamela Dorman Books<br/>) This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on August 16, 2023. The New York Times Bestselling author of "The Couple Next Door" is back with her latest domestic suspense novel, " Everyone Here Is Lying ." Shari Lapena sat down with Idaho Matters to talk more about her most recent nail-biting thriller.

( Boise School District) This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on August 17, 2023. Across the nation, kids are suffering from a mental health crisis, experiencing increasing levels of anxiety and depression. And when it comes to looking at groups that are most at risk, reports found that students attending high performing schools fell into this category. This is an issue that Jennifer Wal...

(James Dawson / Boise State Public Radio) This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on December 22, 2023. Idaho Matters is looking back at the big stories from 2023 in Idaho politics, culture, education and more. Our journalist panel today: Kevin Richert, senior reporter and blogger with Idaho Ed News Clark Corbin with the Idaho Capital Sun James Dawson with Boise State Public Radio News Scot...

( Johns Hopkins University Press ) This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on April 26, 2023. The Idaho Matters Doctors Roundtable grew out of the COVID-19 pandemic that started just over three years ago in Idaho. While we still struggle with cases of COVID-19 and its variants, many are looking back over the past three years to figure out what we did right and what we did wrong, with an eye...

(Alex E. Proimos / Flickr Creative Commons) This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on November 22, 2023. As we approach the fourth anniversary of the emergency of COVID-19, as well as the Doctors Roundtable , we thought we'd take some time to look back at the last year of public health - which turned out to be a busy one. Despite the official end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, th...

(Troy Oppie<br/> / Idaho Botanical Garden) Megafires destroying entire communities. New temperature records being set - and surpassed - at a startling clip. Glaciers disappearing in real time. The toll of climate change is all around us. And it can be overwhelming for individuals to figure out how to make a difference. Boise State Public Radio has been reporting on how small steps can add up...

(James Dawson / Boise State Public Radio) Idaho Matters is looking back at the big stories from 2023 in Idaho politics, culture, education and more. Our journalist panel today: Kevin Richert, senior reporter and blogger with Idaho Ed News Clark Corbin with the Idaho Capital Sun James Dawson with Boise State Public Radio News Scott McIntosh, Opinion Editor at the Idaho Statesman Melissa Davlin, hos...

(Edmond Low / Flickr) As the state of Idaho continues to grow, so does the need for affordable housing. And though rental prices may have decreased in certain areas of the Treasure Valley this year, families are still struggling to make ends meet, leading to an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness . Which is why nonprofits like Catch are working to provide housing for those i...

(DMITRY KISLYAKOV / Flickr) When it comes to the agricultural industry there are many different risks that come with the job, one of them being pesticide exposure . In a new study from Boise State University, researchers are looking at the impact of this exposure on the states Latino farmworkers. Dr. Carly Hyland and Dr. Rebecca Som Castellano joined Idaho Matters to talk more about their research...

Elementary students with raised hands ( Boise School District) Getting kids to pay attention in class can be a challenge, as any teacher knows, with all the distractions and issues that face children in school. But how do you teach kids who don’t speak the same language? In the West Ada School District , kids speak a variety of languages, including Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, Russian, Bosnian, Vietn...

(JVegas Photography / Flickr) The city of Boise is building a new kind of park in west Boise, turning a small strip of dirt into a green space and pollinator habitat .   The skinny three acres of donated land next to Capitol High School will be turned into a pathway to connect Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve and Spaulding Ranch.  But the design goes further than just another sidewalk . It’s designed to...

(Maja Macanovic / Flickr) With Christmas just a few days away, lots of folks are traveling near and far. So do you have a plan of action if you or someone you love gets sick during your travels? Dr. David Pate , former CEO of St. Luke's Health System, recently wrote a blog post about medical considerations you need to think about while traveling, and he joined Idaho Matters to share some tips.

(District of Idaho United States Attorney’s Office) Okay, you just got a text that says your Christmas package can’t be delivered and they need more information before they can bring it to you. Or, you just got an email that says your subscription to your favorite magazine just got renewed but they need more information to get it to you. Or, you just got a pop-up from “tech support” or law enforce...

Close up of a psychologist taking notes on clipboard in therapy session for children. (Seventyfour / Adobe Stock) For over a decade, there has been a steady decline in the mental health of America's youth. And in recent years, healthcare professionals have been unable to keep up with the alarming issue.   According to the 2023 State of Mental Health in America report , over 59% of adolescents with...

College of Natural Resources prescribed burn in the University of Idaho Experimental Forest. (Joseph Pallen / University of Idaho) When a wildfire rages through a forest, what happens to the trees that live there? The conventional wisdom is that they all get burned up, along with the rest of the forest.   But it turns out that trees, like people, react differently to wildfires and can suffer the e...

Ammon Bundy speaks to the media in front of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters on Jan. 6 near Burns, Ore. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) Ammon Bundy, who is originally from Nevada, is an anti-government militant and activist who led the 2016 occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge in Oregon, and in March of 2020, Bundy created the People's Rights Network.   Bundy's crit...

This is Ike. He was born with a leg deformity and is currently being fostered by Lake Lowell Animal Rescue. (Lake Lowell Animal Rescue) Out at Lake Lowell south of Nampa, the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge is home to a wide variety of wild animals including dozens of kinds of birds and mammals. But there are other animals out there - domestic animals and pets - which have been dumped by their...

Superintendent Brian Hunicke shows how high the water goes when it floods. (Asia Fields / ProPublica) Idaho spends less on school infrastructure per student than any other state.   That fact prompted the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica to start looking at the effects this lack of investment has caused for schools, teachers and students.  Here is just a little of what they found from the officials th...

Patients admitted to the Idaho Security Medical Program spend months, on average, in cells like this one in a state prison near Boise. (Sarah A. Miller <br/> / <i>ProPublica</i>) Idaho is about to become the only state in the nation that puts patients who are labeled "dangerously mentally ill" but who have not committed any crime in prison . This is nothing new for Idaho, which h...

Nampa students stand next to the plows they helped name. (City of Nampa) In anticipation of the winter weather, Nampa's Street Division is preparing its fleet of snowplows to help keep the roads safe.   Which tends to be a bit more fun when the snowplows have names, so for the second year in a row, the city's elementary students are holding a contest to name the snowplows. Amanda Shaw, a second-gr...

Host Ashley Ahearn riding her mare, Pistol, and leading her three-year-old mustang, Boo, in the mountains of Washington. ( Ashley Ahearn) As the Mustang podcast series comes to an end, host Ashley Ahearn looks at the complicated relationship between ranchers and wild horses and meets an Indigenous woman working to save reservation horses from being sold for slaughter. This series for the Mountain...