Madelyn Beck
Madelyn Beck is Boise State Public Radio's regional reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau. She's from Montana but has reported everywhere from North Dakota to Alaska to Washington, D.C. Her last few positions included covering energy resources in Wyoming and reporting on agriculture/rural life issues in Illinois.
Pre-journalism jobs include (but are not limited to): ranch hand for Icelandic horses, hotel laundress, large caliber brass shell sorter/inventory, salmon processor in Alaska and waitress for a murder mystery dinner theater.
-
Fatal drug overdoses are skyrocketing, driven by synthetic opioids like fentanyl. And that potentially deadly drug has made it to the Mountain West – the last part of the U.S. to face the brunt of the opioid crisis.
-
A federal judge in Nevada has ruled that a law that further penalizes those who re-enter the U.S. after deportation is unconstitutional. Section 1326 says if you were denied entry to the U.S. or were deported at some point, that law makes entering the U.S. a felony. The Nevada judge says it violates the U.S. Constitution because of its racist, anti-Mexican origins. The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing this decision.
-
As of this week, the National Park Service is requiring masks in crowded parks again. The new mask mandate will require everyone, regardless of vaccine status, to wear masks in National Park facilities and in crowded outside areas. That means you’ll need a mask wherever you can’t adequately distance outside.
-
The U.S. Census Bureau released more data from the 2020 U.S. Census today, including diversity numbers. There were large increases to many non-white races and ethnicities, which they attribute to simply asking better questions. However, some are still concerned that a proposed citizenship question and pandemic-related challenges still led to an undercount of certain populations.
-
People often love the night sky in our region. There’s less light pollution and you can see more stars. That is, until wildfire season. The smoke from those fires filters starlight and sometimes blots it out completely. That could mean fewer stargazing tourists venture into our region to take in a nighttime view of the galaxy.
-
It’s obvious that gun owners and non-gun owners often disagree on gun policy, but recent Pew Research surveys show they share some opinions, too.
-
States around the Mountain West are seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases, and it’s started to affect some tribes, too. The Navajo Nation’s increase in cases is modest compared to surges in states like Arizona, though.
-
The Trump administration moved BLM headquarters away from Washington, D.C. Now the Biden administration has to decide whether to move it back.
-
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending up to $200 million to help loggers and timber haulers recover from the pandemic.
-
The U.S. Energy and Employment Jobs report came out Tuesday, showing an overall decline in energy jobs around the nation.