Flood Threat Eases, But Boise River Remains At Critical Capacity Through City

Warmer weather and potential for more rain could spell trouble along the Boise River as snow/water content in the mountains outstrips reservoir storage capacity. Steve Zerza and his readers at BOISE RIVER WILD TROUTare hashing out the numbers. Just like the weather that triggers the runoff, the picture changes daily.

GUARDIAN Turns Six, But No Party Scheduled

In a shameless attempt at self-serving friendly comments, we offer the following. It was six years ago today when the GUARDIAN posted its FIRST STORY which just happened to be about the public being locked out of the City-owned Boise Depot most of the time. Things haven’t changed much. Ironically, the Depot was purchased with [...]

Boise Bistro Bustles At Bin Laden Buzz

An audible hush fell over the dining room at Papa Joe’s eatery on Capitol Blvd. Sunday night as the TV screen normally running silently with sports action suddenly came alive with a BREAKING NEWS! message that Bin Laden was dead. A waiter quickly turned up the sound and soon an eclectic mix of college students, [...]

Media Perks Questioned At Legislature

By DAVID R. FRAZIER GUARDIAN editor I have been a beneficiary of media perks for more than 50 years. It started in the 1960′s when I carried Speed Graphic cameras and film holders for my newspaperman father at Michigan State sports events in East Lansing, Michigan. The free meals, donuts, and soft drinks at Spartan [...]

Hope Springs Eternal With Day Job

Sometimes when we get an overdose of reality with politicos and their antics, it feels good to just go out and burn some gas. Remember those days of “taking a ride in the country?” We found some sun recently and actually went out to gather more images for the PHOTOLIBRARYwhere we offer images to the [...]

Yuba City Councilor Disses Idaho

One of our California GUARDIAN readers sent us a story from the APPEAL-DEMOCRAT newspaper which proves that politicos at all levels have a propensity for eating shoe leather. During an April 13 meeting encouraging racial and cultural tolerance attended by local Sikh Indian-Americans and officials including the U.S. Attorney for the area, a Yuba City [...]

Politicos Favor Self Interest In Election Laws

The recall petition campaign against two District 18 legislators will be historic if it is successful. The last time there was a successful recall of a legislator was 1971 when Aden Hyde and Fisher Ellsworth, both of Idaho Falls got ousted in a a special election–but the rules were different. The next year–1972–the legislators got [...]

How About Testimony Under Oath At Legislature?

After 40 plus years of watching the Idaho Legislature and seeing how much influence (control) the lobbyists have over legislators and ultimately the laws they pass, we think it is time that all testimony–written or oral–given to a legislative committee should be taken under oath with the penalty of perjury for offering false information. Jurors [...]

GUARDIAN Featured In Columbia Journalism Review

A highly respected professional journal, the Columbia Journalism Review (Columbia University), has featured the Boise GUARDIAN in a recent article. Our humble attitude and softball reporting style was probably what got the attention of one of the top J-schools in the USA. Take a read at CJR. If you are a newsmedia reader or an [...]

TVCTV Favors Democratic Politicos

Local public access cable channel 11 at TVCTV hardly is hardly in the league of National Public Radio, but they have sure left themselves open to claims of liberal bias. A press release about an upcoming fundraiser telethon says,”TVCTV’s mission is to facilitate a free exchange of ideas, community dialogue and cultural and artistic expression [...]

City Should Strike Out On Foul B’ball Survey

Boise’s City Council will consider a wind up and pitch from Team Dave on Tuesday to commission yet another survey–this one on baseball–and no doubt the results will claim a home run on a bunt. This field of dreams will be built on the premise that a big stadium will be worthy of a AAA [...]

Latin Latch Locks Pretty Purse

The Day Job took us to South America in January, but we did come up with a neat little idea for local restaurateurs that is sure to please the ladies. One upscale eatery we visited in Lima, Peru had attached carabiners–those spring loaded rope clips that rockclimbers use–to the underside of the corners of each [...]

Gun Raffle To Benefit Shot Copper

A Nampa copper who got shot in the line of duty stands to benefit from the raffle of a handgun at a fund raising concert, according to KTVB. For some reason the name of the copper is being kept secret, but he is being nicknamed the “Miracle on 4th Street” in light of his surviving [...]

Channel 7 Is 800lb Gorilla In News Ratings

Michal Deeds, the media, entertainment, restaurant, music guru at the DAILY PAPER posted a tantalizing little CHART Thursday with the latest Neilsen ratings for local TV. As usual KTVB, channel 7 dominates the standings–to the extent the newsies at the other stations appear to be talking mostly to themselves. Any time slot where they share [...]

Marketing The Fear Factor In Wake Of Tragedy

Following the tragic “Safeway Massacare” in Tucson, the airwaves and internet are alive with exchanges of blame game, gun nuts, anti-gun nuts, calls for more laws, more guns to every shopper, and hate mongers vowing to disrupt funerals. And a sobering account from SLATE. We are a violent nation with people being shot all day [...]

AARP Release Aims To Intimidate Legislators, Guv.

A message to Idaho legislators from the old people lobby–AARP–could certainly provide an explanation why Idaho students, workers, and others under the age of 50 don’t fare well with legislative issues. It’s the oldtimers who vote and its the oldtimers who lean toward conservative values. The kids who hit the streets demanding the vote at [...]

Seeing Is Believing, A Matter Of Perspective

At lunch today we met with an old friend in an attempt to explain the GUARDIAN philosophy is to stimulate discussion, debate, and common sense. The photo above was in mind when we told our friend the image has a different meaning for anyone who sees it–just like many of the stories we post. To [...]

Christmas Greetings From The GUARDIAN

GUARDIAN Year In Review Ballot

We are working on our 6th year at the GUARDIAN and it is time to have you weigh in on the biggest stories of 2010. The most disappointing for us and a clear victory for government and big money was the passage of the three state constitutional amendments which take away our right to vote [...]

Daily Paper News Content Lacking

Apart from endless stories about BSU football, we have noticed a paucity of local news content in the STATESMAN of late. Not only have they cut staff–and consequently coverage–the paper has put staffers on a rotating “furlough” system that results in a week of no editorials with the pages being filled by syndicated columnists or [...]