Idaho Matters

It's been just over a year since the Boise Towne Square Mall shooting , we take a look at what we've since found out about the shooter . The race for Idaho's next lieutenant governor is underway, a former sheriff received sentencing after assaulting an LDS youth group and with the end of elections quickly approaching so is the deadline to request your absentee ballot . It’s Friday - which means it...

The Wood River Valley has a long, rich history with Peruvians. So, post-pandemic, it was not surprising to see a new stream of Peruvian families to the Sun Valley region. But something is very different this year. The region's employers need workers to fill a long list of job openings, in all corners of the service industry. And while Peruvians have indeed been anxious to meet that need, their own...

(Yasmina Galé / Flickr) With October winding down, that means one thing, we're getting closer to film award season. Over the next two months, we've got movies hitting both the big and small screen that you won't want to miss. Morning Edition host and resident movie critic, George Prentice joins Idaho Matters to give us a preview of films to watch out for, as well as what we can watch this weekend.

Bubbie holding Adam's hand and looking at photos (Getting Better Shots / Flickr) If your husband were to suddenly pass away, would you know how to get in touch with your life insurance agent? If your mom went into a coma, would you know how to find her regular doctor? There are dozens of details within our day-to-day lives that we don’t write down or share with other family members, and that can m...

(Emilie Ritter Saunders / StateImpact Idaho) Could the United States be headed towards a tripledemic, where we see the flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, like RSV, spreading at the same time? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, respiratory illnesses are appearing earlier and in more people than recent years, and there’s been an early increase in flu activity acro...

(Frankie Barnhill / Boise State Public Radio) St. Luke's Health System has created its own insurance plan, saying it wants to make health care coverage more efficient with less stress. The plan is available as part of the offerings on Idaho's health insurance exchange, known as Your Health Idaho , which is currently in the middle of its open enrollment period. St. Luke's Health Plan President, Mat...

(Thomas Hawk / Flickr) Idaho Matters is answering your questions about voting in the 2022 midterm elections. This week, listeners asked us about the advisory question on this year's ballot. Who is responsible for the Voter Advisory on the ballot? How did it get on the ballot especially when the legislature is trying to eliminate voter initiatives? The question mixes several distinctly different to...

A photo of the Old Pen Administration Building. ( Idaho State Archives collection) For 101 years, the Old Idaho Penitentiary was in operation on the outskirts of Boise. Built in 1807, the old pen was the site of 10 executions, 500 escape attempts, women prisoners and some very famous people who spent time behind its walls. Despite this history there aren’t a lot of pictures of people inside or out...

( Idaho Dance Theatre) Idaho Dance Theatre has been bringing eclectic dance experiences to the Treasure Valley for years. This season though, there is change in the air. Artistic Director, Marla Hansen and Associate Artistic Director Nathan Powell joined Idaho Matters to talk about upcoming performances and what audiences can expect to see.

(Stefano / Flickr) Hunters are always looking for the perfect place to harvest a deer or elk. And once they find it, they often go back year after year for decades. But now, many hunters complain that their hunting spots on public land are getting too crowded. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Madelyn Beck reports .

Dr. Katherine Doyon has a plan. She wants to create the building blocks for what will be a first-of-its-kind bridge between Idaho healthcare providers and refugees. Over the next two years, Doyon and a community advisory board – compiled of healthcare providers, refugees and refugee advocates – will design a guide to bridge clinicians and refugees, communicatively and culturally. She spoke with Mo...

(Glen Scarborough / Flickr) This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on January 11, 2022. What do Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and E.E. Cummings all have in common? The modernist writers all lived in Paris in the 1920s. And the person who brought them together was Sylvia Beach, an American woman who owned the bookstore Shakespeare & Company. Idaho Matters talks with...

( Ballet Idaho) This year marks a very special anniversary for Ballet Idaho . Since 1972, the company has been celebrating stories of the human spirit through dance . 50 years later they are commemorating this accomplishment with the performance of four different programs. Laura Curry, Executive Director of the company and the Artistic Director, Garret Anderson joined Idaho Matters to talk more ab...

A look at the Kroger-Albertsons merger and what it means for Idaho , Boise City Council reads complaints against former police chief Ryan Lee , a Rexburg man who was killed while fighting in Ukraine and the Idaho Legislature will consider a bill prohibiting public drag performances . It’s Friday - which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable when Idaho Matters gets you up-to-date on all the n...

(Lacey Daley / Boise State Public Radio) Councilwoman Lisa Sánchez turned more than a few heads during last week’s workshop session of the Boise City Council. Lawmakers were being briefed on affordable housing – or the lack thereof. Sánchez was disappointed – not in the analysis per se, but she said it was the latest in a long line of not being at the table in conversations regarding housing. Our...

(Gardner/Fox Associates, Inc / Flickr) Throughout the nation, dental practices are experiencing a shortage in staffing. And here in the Treasure Valley we’re seeing the same issue. Without hygienists, dental assistants and front office personnel it can be hard to meet the high demand for care that many dental offices are experiencing on the back end of the pandemic. But here several school distric...

Ned Evett (Rene Hartfield) Ned Evett is a pioneer in making music on guitars that don’t have “frets” - those little ridges that most guitarists use on the neck of the instrument. For more than 30 years he’s been creating both guitars and music that are out of the ordinary, leading to Guitar Player Magazine calling him the "the world's first fretless guitar rockstar" and USA Today says he’s the "th...

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, almost half a million people in Idaho have been officially diagnosed with coronavirus and nearly 5,200 people in the Gem State have died. Over the last week, we have seen 354 new cases of COVID -19 in Idaho and a week ago 37 people showed up in the emergency room with COVID-19 symptoms. So the coronavirus is still with us, but wha...

(cayannalove / Flickr) Long before COVID-19 appeared on planet earth, influenza was killing thousands of people every year around the globe. And the flu is still a killer, not to mention the pain and suffering it can cause, let alone the impact it has on work, productivity and the health care system. Now that the fall season has arrived in the Gem State so has the flu, and while Idaho's influenza...

This summer, Yellowstone National Park was hit by a historic flood that made international headlines. Now, construction crews are in a race to rebuild roadways before winter sets in. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Will Walkey reports on how locals and tourists are coping with the park’s damage , but rebuilding infrastructure.

The proposed Youth Behavioral Health Community Crisis Centers are designed in part to keep kids out of places like the Juvenile Corrections Center Nampa. ( Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections website.) When a teenager in Idaho is experiencing a crisis, maybe with drugs or thoughts of suicide, there is too often no place for them to go. Without a safe place to go for a few hours to get calm an...

With the midterm elections less than a month away, there’s an energized push to get the vote out, and an equally energized effort to register new voters – and in particular, young voters. The Idaho nonprofit Babe Vote is run by high school students and their goal is to register, educate and engage voters. Our Morning Edition host George Prentice sat down with high school student Amaia Clayton and...

Few things are more valuable to a farmer in the west than water, and when there’s not enough to go around, tempers can flare over water rights. In rural Nevada, a shrinking aquifer forced one ranching community to grapple with water scarcity in a real way. And it's not just water that can lead to fights in the west, fence lines and getting access to public lands is also a volatile subject. Some pe...

(John Miller / AP Images) A new grant awarded to the University of Idaho will soon help farmers grow crops that will be more resistant to climate change. The program's research will center around some of the state's most popular produce: including potatoes, chickpeas, wheat and sugar. Jodi Johnson-Maynard, Head of the U of I Department of Soil and Water Systems and Sanford Eigenbrode, a professor...

The College of Idaho ( The College of Idaho Facebook) It’s no stretch to say that we are living in a time of often extreme political polarization, where the problems of the day are drowned out by arguments and rhetoric, leaving no one talking about or trying to effectively solve those problems. The College of Idaho and a group of partners have decided to try and change that by launching the school...