Photo by Laurie Rogers.
HELL HASN'T ICED OVER YET
Kayaking Idaho's dangerous waters in winter conditions
The Payette River hasn't iced over all the way yet, and until it does, kayakers will keep paddling its white waters. Jeff Landers is one of them. This dedication doesn't come without an added danger, though.
LIBRARIES BECOMING COMMUNITY CENTERS
Striving to stay relevant, Boise libraries shift focus
BOISE WEEKLY, Dec. 31, 2013
Jessica Murri
On a recent Saturday, Duale Mohamoud and Mehereteab Giday sat across the table from each other in a bright conference room at the Library at Hillcrest, nestled in a strip mall beside Albertson's, Honk's $1.00 and Rent-A-Center on the corner of Overland and Orchard.
Mohamoud, 24, wore a white and red button-down and spoke cheerfully about coming to Boise from Kenya in 2006. Giday, on the other hand, is 50. He looked down at a yellow folder and scribbled faint lines, staying quiet. He wore a black hoodie and coughed every few minutes.
Mohamoud wasn't deterred by his quiet company. He's come to the Hillcrest library every Saturday from 3-4 p.m. for two years, helping refugees and New Americans practice English.
OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS
Southern Idaho gets its own eyeful of mega-loads
BOISE WEEKLY, Dec. 11, 2013
photo courtesy: Stormy Staats
After a lawsuit blocked rocket-sized mega-loads from traveling through North-Central Idaho's Wild and Scenic River corridor on U.S. Highway 12, and after a difficult passage on Highway 95 through Lewiston and Moscow, Oregon-based Omega Morgan has a new plan to get the oversized equipment to Alberta, Canada's tar sands oil project. But the new route nearly triples the number of miles through Idaho--it goes south, and then east, in order to go north.
IEA: Idaho Legislature has 'misplaced priorities' for education
BOISE WEEKLY BLOG, Dec. 10, 2013
Jessica Murri
Karen Gillette bundled up and held an orange sign that read “Our Schools! Our Solutions!” next to more than 50 other teachers, parents and school administrators on the steps of the state capitol the afternoon of Dec. 9. She didn’t care that it was 14 degrees outside. She came to the Idaho Education Association’s Day of Action rally to support her colleagues, her school district and public education in her state.
Renovation of Boise's Owyhee Plaza nears completion
IDAHO STATEMAN'S BUSINESS INSIDER, Nov. 19, 2013
photo courtesy: Clay Carley
When the Owyhee Plaza Hotel was built in 1910 on the corner of 12th and Main streets, it had a large, elegant rooftop terrace. The rooftop garden was closed in 1940, but General Manager Clay Carley says he is bringing the terrace back to life.
This time, it will feature a large, glass-walled indoor area and deck available for rent. Picture wedding parties and corporate affairs. The hosts may even throw in a public bar.
WHERE THERE'S FIRE, IT'S DIRE: SURVIVING FIRE SEASON
BOISE WEEKLY, Oct. 23, 2013
Photo courtesy the U.S. Forest Service.
Jim Santa watched the smoke settle around Ketchum on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 13, from the storefront of Sturtevants Mountain Outfitters. Santa is the guide coordinator for the business–the type of guy who's holding a trout in most of his pictures. If he's not wearing waders, he's on a mountain bike or pair of cross-country skis. He describes his college degree as a "major in steelhead fishing and a minor in accounting."
AVALANCHE OF SKI MOVIES
Into the Mind, by Sherpas Cinema, claims the Egyptian on Friday, Oct. 11
BOISE WEEKLY, Oct. 9, 2013
Every year--sometime around mid-September--I get to the point where I start looking longingly at the outline of Bogus Basin. Show me even the slightest dusting of snow and I'm warming up the iron to wax my skis. If there is one thing to get us through this purgatory-like season while we wait for the snow, it's the annual parade of ski movies.
St. Luke's surgery center nears opening in Meridian
IDAHO STATESMAN'S BUSINESS INSIDER, Oct. 8, 2013
photo by: Kyle Green
The 17 operating rooms in St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center are at full capacity. The 10 at Meridian St. Luke’s are about 80 percent capacity and climbing, according to Linda Petersen, manager of surgical services.
To keep up with demand, St. Luke’s is building a new outpatient surgery center in front of its Meridian hospital.
“Outpatient surgeries have quadrupled over the last decade due to advances in medical technology, better patient outcomes, better patient recoveries, etc., so the demand for surgery has really, really, really grown exponentially,” Petersen says.
Post-Fire Damage Study:
It's going to be a whole lot of work to fix
BOISE WEEKLY, Sept. 18, 2013
Sharon LaBrecque of the Planning and Natural Resource Office for the Sawtooth National Forest doesn't even know how many hours she's worked in the past few weeks. Since the Burned Area Response Team landed to assess the Beaver Creek Fire near Sun Valley, it's been from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. every day.
"I'm very tired," LaBrecque said.
FLYBOARDING
New sport uses water to send riders flying
BOISE WEEKLY, Sept. 4, 2013
On an August Saturday at Lucky Peak Reservoir, a person hovered high above the water in a scene that looked straight out of the movies.
"It feels like you're flying," said Aly Clark after she landed on the water. "I feel like Tinker Bell, but everyone else says they feel like Iron Man."
The sport is called Flyboarding, and flight is achieved when water shoots from two big jets on the bottom of a board to which a rider's feet are strapped.
Jessica Murri
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW RE-CAP
BW chats up attendees and appraisers at a Boise taping of the TV show
BOISE WEEKLY, July 10, 2013
In 1962, Hank traveled to Cameroon on a religious mission, where he met the seven-foot-tall king of the Maasai tribe and snapped his picture with a Polaroid camera. The king was apparently so impressed by the square image that emerged from the camera, he gifted the missionary a hand-carved spear, a basket and two large woven wood mats. As a child, Hank's family friend, Bob, sat rapturously in church, listening to tales of Hank's travels.
Now, Bob and his wife, Jan, are in possession of Hank's Maasai trophies, which they piled into a red Radio Flyer wagon and hauled to Expo Idaho June 29 for a taping of PBS's hit TV program Antiques Roadshow. (The show asks that reporters not use last names of attendees to protect their potentially valuable antiques.)
Jessica Murri
PAYETTE RIVER GAMES
First-time event fills Cascade with river-themed events
BOISE WEEKLY, July 10, 2013
Jessica Murri
Taci Davis threw a tennis ball into a calm swimming hole in Cascade with a crowd of 70 people behind her. It cleared the bright red buoys and the referee started a stopwatch. Josie, her 30-pound gray-speckled border collie, splashed through the water and brought the ball back in 17.12 seconds. Competing against 26 other dogs for this event in the inaugural Payette River Games on June 22, Josie won her owner the $100 grand prize.
Josie probably would have enjoyed the moment as the proudest of her life if she had any idea what was going on. When asked how she got into the sport of river fetching, her owner translated for us.
"I started when I was 6 weeks old," Josie said.
Hiking through the scorched secesh with Idaho Conservation League
Summer hiking series connects community with landscape
BOISE WEEKLY, July 4, 2012
Jessica Murri
Mike Medberry unfolded a map from the '70s and spread it on the table at Moxie Java in McCall on June 16. The early morning sun flooded into the coffeeshop and over the map as Medberry traced two fingers along the trail he'd be hiking that day. The worn map would be taken out several more times on the nine-mile hike through the Secesh National Forest to Loon Lake, an hour outside McCall.
North Fork Championship pits kayakers against Payette River
Speed is key on the Class V rapids in international competition
BOISE WEEKLY, June 6, 2012
"You drop into that rapid and then after that, it's the most chaotic, powerful, insane, awesome rapid," said paddler James Byrd. "It's a sense of speed and power that I've never felt before in a kayak."
It's a feeling kayakers from all over the world will experience Friday, June 8, and Saturday, June 9, during the first North Fork Championship, a competition that will include an on-river race on the Payette and film screening at the Egyptian Theatre Thursday, June 7.
Jessica Murri