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Happy Wednesday, Meridian!
Welcome to issue ninety-seven. Today is mostly sunny and around 76, so enjoy it, because rain shows up Thursday and Friday's high drops into the 50s.
Today: a stretch of I-84 by Ten Mile closes tonight, a Star park pond picks up an algae advisory, and Idaho wants you to check whether a drug settlement owes you money. The week ahead has a trunk-or-treat at a Ford service center, a pizza party with a touring rapper and a 49ers watch party. Know someone who should be reading this? Forward them the sign-up link →
Let's get into it.
In this issue
🧠 Trivia: Gracie Pfost left Meridian High School at 16 and later became the first woman to represent Idaho in Congress. In 1952 she unseated a sitting congressman in a very tight race. By how many votes did she win: 591, 5,910 or 59,100?
(Answer at the bottom.)
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Four picks in the next five days, plus three heads-ups, and every one has a Meridian address. Wednesday itself is quiet (everything on the calendar for today has already run in these pages), so the week really starts Friday. Several listings skip the price, so check the event page before you go.
Friday, October 23
OCT 23 · Trunk or Treat with Kendall Auto Group — car move-in 6 to 7 p.m., trunk-or-treat 7 to 9 p.m. · 📍 Kendall Ford Pro Elite Commercial Service Center, 1800 W. Seabrook St. · Costumes encouraged, decorated cars and candy. Want to enter a car? There's a sign-up link on the event page. Cost wasn't listed. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
OCT 23 · Stevie Stone Live in Idaho — 6 p.m. · 📍 The Dalton Royal, 3161 E. Ustick Rd., Suite 110 · A pizza party and meet-and-greet with the rapper; everyone who does the meet-and-greet gets a free signed CD. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. No end time listed, so the calendar link assumes two hours. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Saturday, October 24
OCT 24 · Pokemon TCG Open Play — noon to 4 p.m. · 📍 Phoenix Fire Games, 94 E. Fairview Ave. · Free open play for beginners and veterans: bring your deck, trade, battle, and get a promo pack just for showing up. The shop says weeks with a scheduled competitive event replace open play, so check the page first. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Sunday, October 25
OCT 25 · 49ers at Falcons Watch Party — 11 a.m. · 📍 Uncle Bob's Pizza, 1728 E. McMillan Rd. #100 · The Treasure Valley 49er Faithful chapter takes over the pizza place for the road game; wear red and gold, grab a seat early. Cost wasn't listed, and the calendar link assumes a three-hour block. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Heads up: save the date
OCT 30–31 · Boo-tique Trick or Treat — hours weren't posted · 📍 The Village at Meridian, 3597 E. Monarch Sky Ln. · Listed on The Village's events page for both days; check there for times.
OCT 31 · Harvest Festival & Trunk-or-Treat — 4 to 7 p.m. · 📍 3600 W. Nelis Dr. · Calvary Chapel Meridian's free community event, with games, candy, food, rides and inflatables. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
NOV 7 · 2nd Annual Toys for Tots Car Show — 10 a.m. · 📍 Fred Meyer, 1850 E. Fairview Ave. · All makes and models; admission is a new, unwrapped toy. No end time listed, so the calendar link assumes three hours. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
The goat-herding company that hedged a wage law
For US businesses with big payrolls. Western Grazers in California hedged a state wage-law change on Kalshi. If a new rule would raise your costs, you can hold a position that it passes, so the payout offsets the hit. Federally regulated, from a few dollars.
The National Weather Service forecast for Meridian we can read was last refreshed Monday midday, so we cross-checked it against Idaho News' Tuesday outlook. Neither mentions any watches or warnings.
Wednesday, October 21 — Meridian
76°
Low tonight: 49°. Sunrise is around 8:05 a.m., sunset around 6:54 p.m. (both calculated, not from NWS).
Mostly sunny with a light south-southeast breeze in the afternoon, then mostly cloudy tonight with a 40% chance of showers, mainly after midnight. Idaho News' Boise strip says 77, so Boise runs a degree hotter this time; plan for 76 to 77.
The rest of the week (NWS, with Idaho News): Thursday is near 70 with showers likely (70%) and thunderstorms possible after noon, and Thursday night brings an 80% chance and roughly a quarter to a half inch of rain. Friday is the drop: a high near 57, more than 20 degrees cooler than today, with a 40% chance of showers before noon and a gusty northwest wind (Idaho News mentions gusts of 35 to 45 mph out east of Mountain Home). Friday night's low is near 34. Saturday is mostly sunny and near 58, Sunday is near 64, and Monday is near 62. NWS Boise →
Eastbound I-84 near Ten Mile closes tonight
Eastbound I-84 between the Garrity interchange (Exit 38) and the Ten Mile interchange (Exit 42) closes tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The Idaho Transportation Department moved the work up from Thursday because of the rain and thunderstorms in the forecast. Eastbound traffic gets detoured to Franklin Road, and westbound I-84 drops to two lanes.
Crews are pouring concrete on the bridge decks of the new State Highway 16 flyover ramps above the freeway, and nighttime lane restrictions in both directions are expected to keep happening through the fall. The closed stretch is just west of the Ten Mile exit, so if your night involves driving toward Meridian from Nampa, plan the detour. The year the SH-16 interchange is expected to open is in the article →
Source: Idaho News / KBOI, published Oct. 20.
🗳️ Quick one: a freeway closes a day early and nobody asked you. What's your plan?
Eastbound I-84 near Ten Mile is closed 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. tonight. What's your plan?
Algae advisory at Star's Freedom Park pond
A quick hop up the road in Star: the West Pond at Freedom Park is under an algae watch advisory. A recent test found no toxins, but it did turn up a type of algae that can produce them, so the City of Star posted signs banning swimming and keeping dogs out of the water as a precaution.
The city expects the advisory to last about two weeks, depending on updated conditions and test results, and officials will keep monitoring and testing. Star is next door rather than in Meridian, but if your weekend dog walk usually ends at a pond, this is the one to skip for now. Read more →
Source: Idaho News / KBOI, published Oct. 20.
Do you have money coming from a generic-drug settlement?
Not a Meridian story, but it could be a Meridian paycheck. Idaho has joined more than 40 states and territories seeking court approval of a $400 million settlement with generic-drug makers Sandoz and Fougera, with smaller deals from Ascend Laboratories ($400,000) and Mayne Pharma ($650,000). All the companies also agreed to reforms aimed at fair competition.
Idahoans who bought one of the listed generic prescription drugs between May 2009 and December 2019 may qualify, and so may Idaho businesses that paid or reimbursed for them. The article doesn't give a claim deadline or a form, so check eligibility at AGGenericDrugs.com, by calling 1-866-290-0182 or by emailing [email protected]. Read more →
Source: Idaho News / KBOI, published Oct. 20.
Meme of the Day
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🧠 Trivia answer: 591 votes.
In 1952 Gracie Pfost beat incumbent Republican John Travers Wood 54,725 to 54,134 (50.3% to 49.7%), after losing to him by 783 votes two years earlier. She left Meridian High at 16, worked as a milk analyst at a Nampa dairy and held Canyon County jobs from 1929 to 1951 before going to Congress, where she served five terms (1953 to 1963). Her push for a single big federal dam in Hells Canyon earned her the nickname "Hell's Belle." She is buried at Meridian Cemetery. Read more →
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