Anne Frank Chestnut Topples In Amsterdam

As Boiseans clean up downed trees following the weekend windstorm, the cleanup of a single tree in Holland has gathered worldwide attention…and like most world events, there is a Boise angle. The giant chestnut tree that gave comfort to Anne Frank while she was in hiding from the Nazis was toppled by wind and heavy [...]

Meteor Shower Clean Show In Idaho Desert

Last night’s (this morning’s) Perseid meteor shower didn’t disappoint. If you want to “catch a falling star,” there is a repeat performance scheduled for tonight, but not as intense as the 50-80 per hour seen last night. This shot was made about 3 a.m. at Bonneville Point off Blacks Creek Road east of Boise. It [...]

Something For Everyone In Farmington, N.M.

A Gem Hiding In Plain Sight–Table Rock

Like a silent sentinel, Table Rock stands guard over the City of Trees and provides a scenic vista equaled only in cities like Rio and perhaps a few smaller metro areas. It provided the stone for the Statehouse as well as the Old Pen prison and the cross–like it or not–can be seen as a [...]

Ironman Event To Dominate Boise Streets

Boise is in the middle of a five year run of Ironman constest which will have a major impact on driving patterns around the city on Saturday. What a wonderful thing it is to be chosen to host this run-swim-bike contest of athletes. The economic impact and notoriety should help bring jobs and business to [...]

Payette River Water Flow Highest In Years

A drive up Highway 55 along the Payette River and its North Fork to Cascade provided a spectacular display of spring runoff. Water flows were the highest in they have been in at least 13 years. From the top of Horseshoe Bend Hill the river looks like a junior version of the Muddy Missouri as [...]

Hummers Fly To Their Own Drummer

While visiting Camp David at Frazier Peak near Cascade (our humility is AWESOME!) over the Memorial Day weekend we were bombarded with hummingbirds–looks like a banner year. While we don’t have the 30 variety of species here in Idaho that we saw this winter working the “day job” in Costa Rica, they are fun to [...]

Idaho Parks Floats Safety Program

The unofficial start of boating season in Idaho was over the Memorial Day Weekend and if boaters take advantage of a new “Life Jacket Loaner Station,” It could be a safe season. The GUARDIAN paid a visit to the Cascade boat dock near the Golf Course and was met with this interesting sign and free [...]

Guv Says “Possible Deal Only” On Hammer Flat

Guv Butch Otter made news on Thursday when he called the GUARDIAN birthday gathering broadcast live on KBOI AM 670′sNate Shelman show to tell us, “There is no deal on Hammer Flat. There is only a possible deal.” He said no Fish and Game funds would be used unless hunting is allowed on the 700 [...]

Come To A GUARDIAN Party Thursday

Guardian’s first five years have flew How long it would last no one knew All I have to say Is keep plugging away And Happy Birthday to you! –Poet Paul GUARDIAN PARTY INVITATION TO: ALL READERS, friends, politicos, and anyone wanting to see what Cyclops, Cynic, and Kappa Ta, Timm, Paul, Clancy, Dean Gunderson, and [...]

Sage Advice From Boise, Idaho

Those of us who have lived in the City of Trees know a few things about the area such as: Don’t plant your garden until the snow is off Shafer Butte. Boise is the Banana Belt of Idaho. Global Warming is a political thing. You can ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon. [...]

Repeat Customer At Garden Store Lays Around

Folks at Boise’s D&B Supply depend on repeat customers at their garden and animal supply store on Glenwood Street. One of their most loyal patrons is an old gal who comes in each spring and just lays around for a month at a time. She has been doing it for about 10 years and has [...]

May Day Is Exercise In Democracy

Once only an opportunity for the Ruskies to roll out the latest rockets in Moscow, May Day has become a worldwide day of protests and demonstrations. The Thais want elections, Albanians claim election fraud, Nepal has anti-government protests, Greeks are against spending cuts, the English protested “militant Islam, Iran saw labor demonstrations, and in Montana [...]

Cops Aren’t The Only Dog Killers

We have made repeated attempts to get a return call from the Idaho Humane Society to discuss a story about coppers killing dogs, but so far no response. There have been a couple of incidents lately and several more that come to mind from the past of coppers “being forced” to kill domestic dogs. First [...]

Searching For That Pot Of Gold

The GUARDIAN found himself stuck in a restaurant at sunset Tuesday night on the corner of University and Capitol Blvd. That was the moment a hole broke through the clouds and one of the most spectacular and intense rainbows in memory. With the plethora (for you non-library types that means a “whole bunch”) of digital [...]

Germans Engineer Stealthy Detox Approach

One of our German readers sent along a link from DER SPIEGEL about a town that offers unemployed boozers their own “Cheers-type” gathering spot. A decidedly different approach to “detox.” The short version is the city spends money on soft drinks, coffee, etc. and allows the boozers to bring their own bottles to the bar. [...]

Unrest In “Peaceful” Garden Valley

GARDEN VALLEY– A political undercurrent is shattering the tranquil facade of this scenic valley 40 miles north of Boise which has led to the recall of a school board member and an April 15 recall election of another board member. It appears to the GUARDIAN that people are at odds over a bunch of issues [...]

GUARDIAN Wins Best National Blog Sammie

Hollywood has its Oscars and activists have the “Sammies,” named after Samuel Adams, one of those fabled “Founding Fathers.” Some well intentioned reader nominated the GUARDIAN for “blogger of the year” and guess what? We won! Had it not been for the efforts of the cities to abolish the constitutional right of citizens to vote [...]

Avimor Faces Dismal Future

The Avimor planned community along Highway 55 north of Eagle has been full of hype, but little else and today things took a turn for the worse. A GUARDIAN contributor with good sources offers this: It is true that Avimor’s parent company SunCor Development is up for sale but has not yet changed hands. In [...]

Bruneau Dunes Could Be Abuzz with ATVs

During the Vietnam War an Army officer explained a village had to be burned “in order to save it.” Idaho Parks Director Nancy Merrill finds herself in that same situation today as she considers allowing dune buggies to chew up the tallest free standing sand dune on the continent to possibly make a few bucks [...]