A Pulitzer in a 231-seat room, through Oct. 24.
The Rundowntoday in 40 seconds
- 0116th Taste of Downtown opens Friday; 40-plus kitchens, $14-or-less specials.
- 02Sunny through Monday, then cooler with rain chances late next week.
- 03Pulitzer-winning “English” runs through Oct. 24 at BCT; three shows this weekend.
- 04Two tribal casinos pitched along I-84; federal review runs 18–36 months.
- 05Scarecrow Stroll runs daily through Nov. 2; $48 for a family of four.
Today's Edition
More than 40 downtown kitchens put specials at $14 or less on the table starting Friday, and The Table has the ten-day map for Taste of Downtown — how to work it, and the one dish to ask for by name.
The Forecast has the numbers that make all of it easy: sun straight through Monday before the pattern turns. Over in Local Hustle, two tribal casino proposals are moving along I-84 southeast of Boise, and a Meridian developer is already drawing plans beside one of them.
More than 40 downtown kitchens, $14 or less, starting Friday.
— The Editor
The morning cover — one frame for the whole edition
THE TABLE
Ten days, 40-plus downtown kitchens, $14 or less
Taste of Downtown opens Friday for its 16th year — here's how to work it.
Taste of Downtown opens Friday, Oct. 16, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 25, its 16th year. More than 40 downtown spots are setting specials at $14 or less, plus prix fixe menus and social hours, alongside what the kitchen already serves. Ask for the Taste menu when you order; it runs alongside the regular one.
Every place sets its own hours, menu and age rules, which is where a loose Saturday goes sideways. The full list lives at downtownboise.org/taste; organizers recommend a reservation, and saying you're there for Taste when you make it. At Diablo & Sons, chef Frank Villa's birria enchiladas come finished with cilantro and pickled yellow onions, per CBS2. Dave Krick, who owns Diablo & Sons, Bittercreek and Red Feather, told CBS2 that “Taste of downtown is a way to highlight all of the great restaurants and bars that we have in downtown Boise.”
New this year: an Eventzee digital passport. You scan QR codes at participating spots to collect badges across the ten days. Diners can also nominate an Idaho 501(c)(3) nonprofit, at no cost, for one of two unrestricted $500 grants from the Idaho Community Foundation, the presenting sponsor.
What to order: • If you're undecided: pull a spot off the downtownboise.org/taste list and ask for the Taste menu — it sits right beside the regular one. • If you want the full experience: work the Eventzee passport, scanning QR codes across a few stops over the ten days to stack up badges. • If you already know what you want: the Diablo & Sons birria enchiladas, on Thomas Cattle Company beef.
Bring a group that likes to split and compare, any night across the ten days. Reservations make the weekend go easier.
📍 downtown Boise · 🕒 Fri Oct. 16–Sun Oct. 25, each spot sets its own hours · 💰 specials $14 or less, prix fixe per person before tax and gratuity · ★ ask for it by name: the birria enchiladas at Diablo & Sons. — Nina's Table: ten days to eat your way across downtown, specials at $14 or less.
Ask for the Taste menu — the special sits right next to the regular one.
Source · CBS2 (KBOI); Idaho Business Review
THE FORECAST
69° / 42°
75 Friday, 76 Saturday, and the rain waits for next week
MOOD OF THE SKY: BORROWED.
Friday's sunset lands at 6:59 p.m. — the first one before 7 this fall, and the same morning the sun rises at 8. That's the clock turning while the thermometer refuses to. A ridge of high pressure parks over the valley and hands us the weekend free of charge. Today is sunny, 69, light south-southeast breeze, clear down to 42 overnight. Friday runs 75, Saturday 76, both of them 10 to 15 degrees above normal. NWS Boise said it plainly in the morning discussion: warm and dry conditions through the weekend with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal Friday and Saturday.
Late Saturday a weak, dry cold front slides through. It pushes a northwest breeze mostly over the upper Treasure Valley, east of town, so Boise proper barely registers it. Sunday eases to 72, still above normal. Monday holds mild at 74 on a southerly breeze. Mornings stay cool, lows in the 40s, and on these clear nights the coldest pockets get frost and patchy fog while the rest of us wake up fine.
The borrowed part has a due date. A Pacific low from the Gulf of Alaska moves inland next week, dropping us to 65 Tuesday and 64 Wednesday, with the first real rain chances late Tuesday through Thursday: 12 percent Tuesday night, 13 percent Wednesday, and next Thursday the likeliest day for valley-wide rain. How much actually falls is still uncertain. The sky has opinions, and this one hasn't finished making up its mind.
Sunday: 72 and still.
TODAY
69° / 42°
BORROWED
TONIGHT
42°
Clear
TOMORROW
75°F
Sunny
Source · NWS Boise
ARTS & CULTURE
ARTS & CULTURE
A Pulitzer winner, three chances left this weekend
“English” runs through Oct. 24 at Boise Contemporary Theater — and the doors close at curtain.
No late seating, no published run time — arrive early or listen through the lobby.
The black box on Fulton Street was a seed warehouse before it was 231 seats, and right now those seats hold Sanaz Toossi's “English,” winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opens BCT's 26|27 MainStage season. It closes Saturday, Oct. 24. Three performances are left this weekend: Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
BCT's own synopsis sets the scene: “It's 2008, and four Iranians assemble triweekly in a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class in Karaj, Iran.” Their teacher, Marjan, is an anglophile. They translate pop songs, wrestle with English prepositions and learn to joke in a second language, and some cling to Farsi while others lean into the new one. Vaneh Assadourian directs and coaches dialect. Pantea Ommi plays Marjan, with Fady Demian, Ariana Mahallati, Shila Ommi and Maliha Sayed rounding out the five.
No late seating. BCT hasn't published the run time or whether there's an intermission, so if you're late you listen through lobby speakers until a break comes — assuming one does. Get there early. The lobby bar pours only into reusable cups these days: a BCT cup runs $10 with the first drink free, and bringing any reusable cup back shaves $1 off each refill. Children under 6 are not admitted.
Want to talk about it after? The Saturday matinee carries a post-show conversation, so that's the one to pick. Boise Contemporary Theater sits at 854 W. Fulton St.; the construction out front is finished now, but street parking is still tight, so budget a minute for a paid lot. Miss this weekend and it keeps running Wednesday through Saturday next week, closing Oct. 24.
Source · Boise Contemporary Theater
LOCAL HUSTLE
Two casino proposals on I-84,
and a clock that runs years
557 acres at Simco Road, 157 near Mountain Home, and a federal review measured in years.
Two tribal casino-resort proposals are moving through federal review along I-84 southeast of Boise, and a Meridian developer is already drawing plans next to one of them. The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley reservation, working with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, want 557 acres at the Simco Road exit for the Sho-Pai Casino Resort — under 20 minutes by car from Boise, with a planned casino floor, hotels, dining and a spa. Chairman Brian Mason's tribes filed their fee-to-trust application with the U.S. Department of the Interior in September 2025, BoiseDev reported.
The other proposal carries the bigger numbers. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall bought 157 acres off I-84 near Mountain Home in 2020 and submitted their application to Interior in 2023. Their concept, per BoiseDev, runs $311 million: a 500,000-square-foot casino with 2,000 electronic gaming machines, a 250-room hotel, six restaurants, an event center, two movie theaters, an arcade and a horse track with a grandstand. “There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work happening to meet the application requirements,” Alonzo Coby, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes' planning director, told BoiseDev.
The Order of Approvals Neither has reached public review. Interior must first take the land into trust. Then, as Emily Callihan, communications director for Gov. Brad Little, told BoiseDev, “the governor must concur with the secretary's decision in order for the tribal land to become eligible for gaming purposes.” A gaming compact between tribe and state, approved by the Interior Secretary, follows that. Natalie Podgorski, spokesperson for the Sho-Pai project, told BoiseDev that “fee-to-trust applications for gaming historically can take 18 to 36 months, sometimes even longer, for review and approval.”
Already Drawing Around It Meridian developer Ahlquist, partnering with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, is planning Peregrine, a commercial and industrial project off I-84 and Simco Road that would connect to the Sho-Pai site — about 18 minutes from Micron, with a large truck-stop-type user, a car dealership and hotels. Around the same exit, Palm Estates is selling lots for 83 one-acre homes, some already under construction.
For I-84 commuters east of Boise, nothing changes on the drive this weekend. For Mountain Home residents, and for anyone eyeing Palm Estates or other Simco Road lots, the date to watch is the Sho-Pai environmental assessment's public-comment period, which BoiseDev reports is expected to open “in coming months.”
557 acres near Boise, a $311 million concept near Mountain Home — and not one shovel yet.
Source · BoiseDev
boise.term — zsh — 120×40
$ boise --today --topic=family budget
> 30 scarecrows, a kid's ballot, and $48 for a family of four
Somebody's handmade scarecrow is going to win its maker a free garden membership this fall, and your kids get a vote. Thirty of them line the paths at the Idaho Botanical Garden through Nov. 2, built by local artists, schools, families and businesses, and there's no separate ticket — it's included with regular admission. For two adults and two kids ages 4 to 12, that's $48: adults $15, seniors and students $13, ages 4 to 12 $9, and free for 3 and under. The garden is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., last admission 4 p.m.
The voting is the kids' job. Scan the QR code on the signs, or mark a paper map and drop it at the kiosk. The scarecrow with the most votes wins its maker a garden membership, announced after the Stroll wraps. Maps download from the garden's site or you grab one at the kiosk.
The Two Traps That 4 p.m. last entry is the first one. A slow lunch, and the gate turns you away with two kids who wanted scarecrows. The second is parking: the garden's own site right now says both that its lot is closed and that it's open, so plan on parking at the Table Rock Trailhead behind the Warden's House. The address tells you the history — 2355 Old Penitentiary Road, roughly 15 acres sitting on what was once the Idaho Penitentiary.
The $10 Version For a qualifying family of four, EBT and ARC cardholders pay $5 per adult and youth get in free, which brings the whole visit to $10. Active military take $1 off each admission, and groups of 10 or more get $1 off per ticket. One housekeeping note: pets stay home, though trained service animals on a leash or harness are welcome.
About 75 percent of the grounds are accessible, most paths gentle crushed-rock slopes that take a stroller, and all-terrain wheelchairs are free to borrow. For a parent with bored kids and $48, it's a dry-weekend walk with a reason to keep moving: find all 30, cast a vote, out before the 4 p.m. cutoff. Taking the kids this weekend? Reply and tell us which scarecrow won your house's vote.
/* Thirty scarecrows, a QR-code ballot, and a whole garden for $48. */
Source · Idaho Botanical Garden
📋 The Ledgerwhat we're watching — and when it moves, you'll read it here
- ●BSU Pac-12 transition — at Washington State, Oct. 24 (watching since 6/23) · Δ 10/13: 2026-10-13: won at Fresno State 38-31; Milk Can back in Boise
- ●Adler Industrial and 31 acres of state endowment land near Micron — State Land Board, Oct. 20; then the lease auction (watching since 9/1) · Δ 10/13: 2026-10-13: lease terms public; Land Board vote set for Oct. 20
- ●Nampa FY2027 transit funding and the November police levy — Nov. 3 Nampa police levy vote (watching since 8/21) · Δ 10/9: 2026-10-09: NOT COVERED (held for a Tuesday). City page: permanent $5M/yr override for Nampa PD only; 24 positions over four years (16 patrol officers years 1-2, 8 corporals years 3-4), recruiting/retention and a training facility; $28.93 per $100,000 taxable value per year 'based on current conditions'; open house was Oct. 8. Election Nov. 3, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
- ●Wilder Flock cameras — the Community Privacy and Data Sovereignty Act goes to the ballot — The November 2027 ballot, and why the date is fourteen months out rather than this November; the signature… (watching since 9/11) · Δ 10/9: 2026-10-09: neighboring Caldwell went the other way, approving an expansion to 65 Axon plate readers on Oct. 5. Gemini claimed Wilder 'banned' ALPRs; it has not (ballot Nov 2027).
- ●Caldwell ALPRs - the Axon switch, 65 cameras, and the 2027 Legislature — Rep. Bruce Skaug's possible ALPR bill in the 2027 session; Caldwell's new police chief; when the 20 added c… (watching since 10/9) · Δ 10/9: 2026-10-09: council approved a 10-year, $6.7M Axon package 4-1 on Oct. 5 (Register no, Stadick absent, Mayor Phillips opposed); ALPRs move from Flock to Axon and grow from 45 to 65; ~$95,000 of the package is ALPRs; no public comment taken; contract has an out if state/federal law bars ALPRs (KTVB, BoiseDev, KIVI).