(Ada County Sheriff's Office )

Voters headed to the polls between now and Tuesday, Nov. 7 will decide municipal races across the state, and many school districts and counties have bond issues on the ballot as well.

(Hannah Gardoski / Boise State Public Radio )

In Ada County, voters are being asked to approve a $49 million bond to expand the Ada County Jail, a more than $90 million project when you factor in the money already spent or set aside in county coffers, the 49 million the county wants to borrow, and the $22.6 million in interest over 20 years - less if the bond gets paid off early.

The cost to taxpayers is $3.60 per $100,000 in taxable property value each year. That means someone whose primary residence is valued at the median sales price in Ada County last month, $535,000, would pay about $15 a year for this bond.

Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford joined Idaho Matters to talk about the current situation at the jail and the bond.

(European Space Agency / Flickr)

For more than 60 years, humans have been exploring space. From launching the first satellite to the moon landing to sending a rover to Mars.

These breakthroughs have changed, not just how we see our universe, but the way we live in it. And today, that exploration continues.

So, as NASA persists in their trek to the final frontier, we thought we'd take a look at what's in store for the next 20 years in space. Retired senior engineer Paul Nelson joined Idaho Matters to answer our questions.

(Sandy Paiement / Flickr)

When it comes to climate change, the consequences are hard to miss, from increasing temperatures to changing weather patterns to rising sea levels.
 
And while we should be concerned about all these issues, there's another problem we need to be paying attention to as well, one that directly affects our health: hope. It may seem like a small thing, but it has a big impact, especially when it comes to the future of our planet.

 Dr. Howard Frumkin joined Idaho Matters to talk more about all this.

(Roger Normand / Flickr)

When The Exorcist first came to the big screen nearly 50 years ago, it was received by many with shock, upending the world of entertainment.
 
Today, the film is a classic and is still believed, by some, to be the scariest movie of all time. Which is exactly why Marlena Williams mother forbade her from seeing it. Well, Williams did go see The Exorcist, and what she found was that the movie was about so much more than just terror, which she writes about in her new book "Night Mother."

Williams sat down with our Morning Edition host, George Prentice, to talk more about her connection to the infamous film.

( Berkley)

Since it's Halloween, we thought what better way to celebrate the holiday than by reading a book about a vampire with a bit of a twist?

Jenna Levine, author of the novel "My Roommate is a Vampire," joined Idaho Matters to talk about her new book, which is already a USA Today bestseller.

The Numana Dam fish passage project will open 65 miles of habitat along the Truckee River for the endangered Cui-ui sucker, and for the recently established migration of the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout from Pyramid Lake. Access to this habitat is essential for the recovery of the species in the wild.(USFWS Pacific Southwest Region / Flickr)

Nationwide, millions of barriers - like dams - are plugging up rivers and streams. And that makes it hard for fish to move freely and lay their eggs. Now, the federal government is spending more than $200 million to reopen spawning grounds for fish. That includes an effort to recover an endangered species that's sacred to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in Nevada. The Mountain West News Bureau's Kaleb Roedel reports.

(Jennifer Fisher / Flicker)

Wildlife managers across the west have been stocking high Alpine Lakes with fish for decades, mostly so anglers have something to catch. As the Mountain West News Bureau's Will Walkey reports, new research is looking into how that history changed the Rocky Mountain environment, and the genetics of the fish themselves.

Ukrainian and U.S. flags fly in Kyiv, Ukraine.(Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters)

Last February when Russia invaded Ukraine, the conflict began reshaping our world in ways most of us couldn’t have imagined.

As thousands died in the war many more fled the fighting, becoming overnight refugees who were displaced all over the globe.

Countries far from the fighting have become involved in a tangled web of politics and the economic ramifications of the invasion are still being felt as the prices of things once made in Ukraine, like wheat and fertilizer skyrocket.

It’s not an understatement to say that the war is reshaping the structure of our world and it’s something that Ralph Bild has been studying. He was a CIA intelligence analyst for more than 25 years and he taught history and economics in the Boise school district for years and he joined Idaho Matters to talk more.

The Takatori family in Parma, ID, around 1930. ( Heidi Smith-Takatori)

Idaho has a rich cultural history, the influences of which can be found all across the state.

And as part of this Thursdays, Nov. 2, Fettucine Forum, Dr. Priscilla Wegars and Dr. Renae Campbell will be exploring that history with a look back at one the earliest groups to immigrate to Idaho, Asian Americans.

From gold mining to railways to agriculture - these pioneers were among the first to make a lasting mark on the region. Dr. Wegars and Dr. Campbell joined Idaho Matters to talk more about all of this.

Eller combs through the Boise State University Special Collections and Archives. This 1864 Peter Beemer Music Manuscript is a record of popular Idaho tunes of the time. Eller also regularly uses the Idaho State Archives and visits small museums, archives and libraries across the state to hunt down lost songs.(Arlie Sommer / Idaho Commission on the Arts )

Nuclear scientist Gary Eller moved to Nampa 17 years ago after a 30-year career at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He grew up in rural West Virginia with a strong music tradition of regional, historic music. Now, a retiree, he began playing bluegrass and oldtime with Idaho musicians. He wanted to learn historic songs from his new home, but no one was playing them.

So he used his skills as a scientist to scour archives, libraries and museums for historic Idaho songs from a time before radio and records came here. Eller has authored 19 books about the songs with recordings. His work is on the shelves of the library of congress and he was awarded the Governor’s Awards in the Arts in 2020.

Arlie Sommer brings the story of the Idaho Songs Project to this episode of the Expressive Idaho Series.