Listen to the News Experience 1 Broadcast

Radio Boise’s first News Experience broadcast aired May 2 with a half-hour program reported and produced by citizen journalists from throughout the community. You can listen to the entire broadcast here:

Radio Boise DJs Brian Allred (Global Grooves) and Daniel Felkins (Veggie Stir Fry) anchored the show.

The show starts with a report on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the latest in a string of Congressional attempts to regulate internet communications. The bill easily passed the House 248 to 168, in a surprise vote last week. Idaho Representative Mike Simpson voted no on the bill, while Congressman Raul Labrador voted for approval. Radio Boise DJ Brian Rumbaugh (Rutabaga Stew) prepared this report.

We then turn to re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which Idaho Senator Mike Crapo co-sponsored with Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy. Crapo detailed the need for the law—which gives police and courts more tools to punish domestic violence offenders—on the Senate floor. I wrote this report.

Allred and Felkins provide a run-down on the May 15 Primary Election and new voter registration rules in a report that Felkins prepared.

And in another story that I recorded, John Williams, a member of the Liberian community in Boise, discusses the recent conviction of former Liberian President Charles Taylor by The International Criminal Court in The Hague. Taylor awaits sentencing for war crimes in arming and supporting a brutal rebel movement in neighboring Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Williams, fled Liberia during the first Civil War there, before Taylor came to power, but he’s watched this rare war crimes trial with interest.

Idaho recently caught up to the other 49 states—and Puerto Rico and American Samoa. The Gem State now has its own Women’s Business Center. The new center offers resources and counseling to women entrepreneurs from start-up through their second year of business. It’s funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and is locally administered by Mountain States Group and META, which stands for Micro Enterprise Training and Assistance. In January, the Women’s Business Center opened with a standing-room-only crowd in the Mountain States building on the corner of 16th and Jefferson streets in Boise. Any woman who owns a business can seek help from the Center. Radio Boise reporters Brian Rumbaugh and Nancy Buffington, with help from Diane Ronayne, Daniel Felkins, Wendy Fox and Meredith Saint Clair.

Going through a short sale can be a viable alternative to foreclosure. But as one local family’s story illustrates, the process of dealing with big banks, mortgage insurance companies, government programs and third-party investors can turn an answer to your prayers into a nightmare. Radio Boise Board member Jack Van Valkenburgh reports this story, with interviews by Kuna-Melba News Editor Scott McIntosh, research and writing assistance from Nicholas Pace and audio production by Brian Rumbaugh.

And from Thin Air Community Radio in Spokane, Gavin Dahl, a former Radio Boise volunteer, reports on the latest comments from Judge Redden, who presided over the long running Endangered Species Act lawsuit on Northwest salmon recovery.

On May 26 we are bringing the News Experience to the Boise Bench where you can get involved. Read about it here and leave your comments below.

Posted by News Experience Curator Nathaniel Hoffman

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