Idaho Matters

(Gary O. Grimm / Flickr) If you’ve ever floated the Boise River, had a picnic at Barber Park or walked part of the Boise Greenbelt you’ve been to an Ada County park. A da County Parks and Waterways manages a wide variety of spots, including 11 miles of the Greenbelt and the launching point for 125,000 people who float the Boise River each year. The department is putting together a new long-term pl...

(Jason Finn / Getty Images) The market for eco-friendly products is growing. And that’s keeping companies that make insulation out of materials like wool and hemp busy. As Americans are increasing their focus on health and the environment there’s a growing market for sustainable home-building materials – like insulation. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel looked into companies in our reg...

Contemporary reprints of original Green Books from 1940 (front) and 1954. Black Americans used the Green Book in the mid-1900s to find safe places to travel. Now an organization in our region is highlighting many of these locations. Emma Vandeneinde of the Mountain West News Bureau joins one woman as she shares her family’s history with the book.

Downtown Boise ( Kelsey Thomson) The next few months promise to be busier than usual at Boise City Hall. The city will be hiring a new director of the Office of Police Accountability and Boise will need to fill two empty seats on the City Council. Boise Mayor Lauren McLean visited with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about the process of selecting new members of the council, the city’...

A painting of the Idaho Capitol. ( Idaho State Historical Society) In 1905, Idaho lawmakers asked an architectural firm to draw the plans for the state’s new Capitol building. The company drew the floor plans, sketches, drawings and specifications for the central part of what became the Idaho Statehouse. Now, over 100 of those original drawings and paintings, still held by Hummel Architects, are b...

A picture from the book "Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace." ( Anna Don) This Thursday, Dr. Tamara Venit-Shelton will be looking back at Chinese medicine and the influence it had on the United States over the last 200 years. Discussing her most recent book, " Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace ," she’ll...

(Kevin Nicholson (TubaPresident) / Flickr) As we inch closer to warmer weather, many of us are looking forward to more sunshine. But for one particular group here in Idaho, this summer is going to be all about the brass. This July, the Boise State Trombone Choir has been invited to perform at the 2023 International Trombone Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Sarah Paradis and choir member Logan...

A former Boise city police chief is looking at running for mayor, there are two vacant seats on the Boise City Council , criminal charges have been filed against the former Jefferson County prosecutor , an update on the proposed Albertsons-Kroger merger and the latest news on the house where four U of I students were killed last year. It’s Friday, which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable...

One of the proposed maps for folding counties in Oregon into Idaho. ( GreaterIdaho.org) The Idaho Legislature is considering a bill that would ask the Oregon legislature to have discussions about moving the Idaho-Oregon state line . It’s part of the Greater Idaho movement, which wants to move several Oregon counties into Idaho . A few years ago, the idea was just that, an idea. But since then, 11...

Pancho the spider monkey was so traumatized by the black market animal trade that he wouldn't let his new handlers remove the orange rope around his neck when he arrived at his new sanctuary. ( Sarah Otterstrom / Zoo Boise) In El Salvador, baby Spider Monkeys are stolen from their mothers by unscrupulous wildlife traders and sold on the black market as pets. When those monkeys are lucky enough to...

( Rob Grabow) This Friday, a new film will be opening in select theaters across the country. It's called " The Year of the Dog ” and it follows the story of a man struggling with sobriety as he works to honor his mother’s dying wish. Along the way he meets a stray husky and makes an unlikely connection, discovering that he may not be as alone as he once thought. Filmmaker Rob Grabow joined Idaho M...

(Alexander Spatari / Getty Images) So you think you’re a book nerd? Time to put your money where your mouth is. It’s time once again for the Boise Public Library's "Ultimate Book Nerd Book Club Challenge." The challenge is to read 50 books within the year, based on 50 different challenge categories. Maggie Dumont and Eliza Ruby are librarians in the Boise Public Library System who oversee the club...

(AP Images) The Idaho Legislature is considering a bill to make it a misdemeanor to give a shot of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine . What does that mean for Idaho's doctors and nurses? Plus, levels of COVID-19 are up and down in Boise's wastewater , should we be concerned? Dr. David Pate, former CEO of St. Luke's Health System and current member of the Idaho Coronavirus Task Force, joined Idaho Matters...

Jane Chu will be the keynote at the 15th annual Idaho Conference on Refugees ( Idaho Office for Refugees, Jane Chu) Jane Chu is a New York-based illustrator and artist. She spent time as chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts and now she travels around the country to share stories of refugees and immigrants. She’ll be in Boise on Feb. 23 as the keynote speaker at the 15th Annual Idaho...

Utah Wild & Seattle Tempest (Photo by Jim Max / Jim Max) Last February , we told you about a new sports team that competes across the Mountain West and includes players from Idaho and other states. We wanted to check in with Utah Wild, a professional ultimate frisbee team, which has made it its mission to provide playing opportunities for women and nonbinary people in the Mountain West. Erica...

( Penguin Press) The secret inner workings of public companies, in particular media empires, usually stay secret. However, that wasn’t the case in 2016 when the fate of Paramount Global, the company that included Paramount, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and Showtime hung in the balance. A new book, " Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy " delves into what really ha...

(Pat Knight / Flickr) Bring Amtrak service back to Southern Idaho and link it to Salt Lake City, that’s the hope of the city of Boise and they’re looking for some public input on the idea. Bre Brush is the chief adviser on transportation in the mayor's office at Boise City Hall and she sat down with our Morning Edition host George Prentice .

A beautiful view of Payette Lake. ( tribalclimatecamp.org) Too often we spend our days surrounded by loud, angry, mechanical sounds like car noises, whooshing air conditioners, buzzing lights and computers. One woman wants to change that. She wants to give everyone a chance to escape, however briefly, into nature and mindfulness. CMarie Fuhrman is a writer, in fact she’s the current Idaho Writer i...

Police crime scene tape. Thursday's shooting in Aberdeen, Md. left four people dead, including the suspected shooter, Snochia Moseley. Across the country, people are fascinated by true crime stories, drawn to the mystery, investigation and real-life drama of victims and perpetrators of crime. Audiences are invested in every little detail and so are the forensic artists that are helping to solve th...

( ‎ Dutton) Author Cheryl Head is known for her page turning novels and her newest book, " Time’s Undoing ", is her most personal yet. She joined Idaho Matters to talk more about how her outrage over the murder of George Floyd in 2020 compelled her to write her latest novel.

(James Dawson / Boise State Public Radio) The Idaho House has voted to criminalize health care for trans youth , there’s a petition to dissolve the Meridian Library District , grizzly bears may lose federal protection , Micron is making more cuts , a bill supporting the education savings account has moved forward and we take a look at some alarming warming trends in the Mountain West. It’s Friday,...

(Katy Urban / Rapid City Area Schools ) There’s a controversy brewing in the Idaho Legislature, this time about public schools and the phrase “in God We Trust." Our Morning Edition host George Prentice found out more about the controversy and a little history behind it.

(James Dawson / Boise State Public Radio News) A proposal working its way through the Idaho legislature would change the way a citizen initiative gets on the ballot . Right now anyone wanting to get their initiative to a vote of the people must get a required number of voter signatures from 18 legislative districts in Idaho. The new proposal would change that, requiring a minimum number of signatu...

(Leo Gaggl / Flickr) Skiing and horses are two things the Mountain West has no shortage of, so why not combine them? Well, there’s already a sport for that called skijoring \ and competitions are held across our region. A horse and rider pull a skier by a rope, similar to water skiing, but on snow. KUER’s Ciara Hulet reports for the Mountain West News Bureau on a recent competition in Heber City,...

This weekend, the annual Wood River Extreme Skijoring races kick off in Bellevue. Skiers, cowboys and horses come together at the event and have a blast in the Wood River Valley. Josh Glick, Vice President of Wood River Extreme Skijoring and Hollis Lloyd, one of the skiers, joined Idaho Matters to talk more.