Abandoned Bodies, Hookers In Meridian, Naked Man

Without the legislature in town and in the midst of the TV ratings “sweeps week,” the news is just a bit tawdry–but still fun. The DAILY paper reports the arrest of a man in the North End wearing a birthday suit and it wasn’t even his birthday. KIVI exposes hookers in Meridian, KBOI-TV tells us [...]

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 PD Gets Iconic Makeover For Man & Machine

Like a scene from the television show “Extreme Makeover,” Boise PD had a media event Friday to rollout new patrol cars and shoulder patches. With yelps of a siren and LED lights flashing, the first new “BLACK VELVET” patrol car rolled up sporting a silver “swoosh” on the door that looks like it had creative [...]

PERSI Scam Not Mentioned In CDA Press

The COEUR d’ALENE PRESS ran a Saturday story that looks to us like it was planted by someone within the Idaho state government aimed at getting government worker retirement raised–or to draw attention away from the political abuse of the system. The GUARDIAN doesn’t know where this story came from, but it is a self [...]

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 [...]

Canyon Government Workers Earn Top $$$

The Idaho Press-Tribune ran a salary roundup of top paid government workers which shows that Canyon County is a great place to work if you like to benefit from taxpayer largess…not so good if you are one of those taxpayers. While the story shows half a dozen Nampa coppers earned (received?) well in excess of [...]

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 [...]

Landfill Energy Project May Be Just Garbage

After getting some negative comments as well as talking with an engineer, the GUARDIAN’s red flag began to wave over the electric generation project with Dynamis and Lloyd Mahaffey at the Ada Landfill. Last week the DAILY PAPER ran a big page one story which clearly said the firm operates a trash-to-electricity project at Barrow, [...]

Tom Luna: Was He Duper or Dupee?

The GUARDIAN listened to Idaho School Super Tom Luna’s speech Friday at the City Club of Boise and came away somewhat sympathetic to his education reform plan. That was before we read a damning piece by John Miller of the AP This pro is one of the best journalists in the state and he certainly [...]

Different DIFFERENT Slants On Urban Renewal

At least four bills aimed at getting more citizen approval for debt, election of commissioners or creation of Urban Renewal Districts are headed for the floor of the Idaho House. Politicos bent on keeping the public from having any authority over their tax spending as mandated by the Idaho Constitution are rallying to oppose the [...]

Frequent Flyer Grounded In Boise, Banned From Future Flights

A frequent flyer with more than 40,000 hours in the air over the past 31 years arrived in Boise Wednesday, never to fly again. Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson was among the officers on hand to take the elderly flyer into custody at Gowen Field. Pilots were instructed to use a secure runway just south [...]

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 [...]

Ada County Explains Scope of Magistrate Court Litigation

Here is the latest round of dueling press releases between Boise and Ada County over the issue of magistrate court space. This one is from Ada County. On December 21, 2010, Ada County filed suit against Boise, Meridian and Garden City seeking relief from the undo financial burden their actions have brought to all Ada [...]

Garden City Seeks Bridge Funds From Public

Garden City has taken its thinly disguised campaign to keep bicycles off the Greenbelt to the DAILY PAPER and Idaho Parks in an effort to find nearly $1 million to build a pedestrian-bike bridge across the Boise River to silence the call to allow bikes on the north side of the river. The Idaho Statesman [...]

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 [...]

Tuesday’s Daily Paper A Pleasant Surprise

We honestly doubt the GUARDIAN can take any credit, but Tuesday’s STATESMAN was chock full of local news of substance! They even offered up an editorial opinion. –The Simplot family JUMP project got unanimous approval from the City P&Z commission and in the process the design review committee was publicly spanked for “overstepping the bounds [...]

AP Braves Authorities, Court In Defense of Truth

Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone works in the Boise bureau covering among other things, the courts. She released a WIRE STORY today of prison violence that is worthy of Pulitzer consideration. With the resources of the AP and a lot of good old fashioned journalism, the news organization has done itself proud with a frightening [...]

David (Frazier) vs Goliath (politicians,media, money)

As we hit the home stretch in the mid-term election campaign, the GUARDIAN position on preserving the right of citizens to vote as detailed by the constitution and the supreme court seems in jeopardy. Local governments, hospitals, and politicians of all stripes have dumped tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours into their effort [...]