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Happy Friday, Meridian!
Welcome to issue one hundred six. Today is mostly cloudy and around 60, which is fall's way of letting you enjoy one more dry evening before a Pacific storm shows up to supervise Saturday night's candy run.
Today: Meridian police's Halloween safety tips, a crawl-space standoff off Abaco Way, a deadly I-84 crash at Ten Mile, six Meridian events from tonight's school trunk-or-treat to a paint-your-pet night, the forecast, and a trivia question about the agency that trains Idaho's cops. Know someone who should be reading this? Forward them the sign-up link →
Let's get into it.
In this issue
Trivia
🧠 Which state agency has its headquarters in Meridian and trains every police officer in Idaho: Idaho State Police, Idaho Fish and Game, or the Idaho Transportation Department?
(Answer at the bottom.)
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Six picks, every one with a Meridian street address. Tonight is a school trunk-or-treat and a Star Wars card night, then the calendar goes quiet over the weekend because Saturday's Halloween lineup (the trunk-or-treats, the Kleiner Park 5K and the rest) already ran this week. Next week has mosaics on Tuesday, a paint-your-pet class on Wednesday, and a holiday bazaar and a Magic: The Gathering pre-release on Friday. A few listings skip prices or end times, so check the event page before you go. Clocks fall back an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday.
Friday, October 30
OCT 30 · Chaparral Elementary Trunk or Treat — 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., price not listed · 📍 Chaparral Elementary School, 1155 N. Deer Creek Ln. · A one-hour trunk-or-treat in the school's lot, one day before Halloween proper and a day ahead of the Saturday rain. The listing doesn't say who is running it, so check the event page for details. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
OCT 30 · Star Wars: Unlimited TCG Organized Play — 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., price not listed · 📍 Phoenix Fire Games, 94 E. Fairview Ave. · A Friday-night organized-play session for the Star Wars trading card game at Meridian's game store. The listing has no entry fee or format details. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Tuesday, November 3
NOV 3 · Mosaic Make Night — 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., $45 to $65 depending on the project; tickets must be bought in advance and space is limited · 📍 Flawless Beauty Idaho, 2525 N. Stokesberry Pl., Suite C · A Christ-centered craft night run by Made Together Idaho: pick a mosaic sign ($65), serving tray ($55) or set of three coasters ($45) and take it home. Supplies and step-by-step guidance are included, and no experience is needed. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Wednesday, November 4
NOV 4 · Le Paint: "Paint Your Pet" — 6 to 8 p.m., ages 21 and up; ticket price not listed (the first glass of wine and small bites are included) · 📍 The Village Classroom, 2350 N. Eagle Rd. · A guided class where you paint your pet's portrait on a 12-by-12-inch piece of weathered wood, led by former Boise Art Museum instructor Lisa Benson. You email a close-up photo of your pet after you register. The listing says it sells out quickly. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Looking ahead: Friday, November 6
NOV 6 · Tis The Season Holiday Bazaar — 10 a.m. (end time not listed), price not listed · 📍 828 W. Cherry Ln. (organizer: Episcopal Church of the Holy Nativity) · Right now the listing is mostly a call for vendors to reserve booths, so it says little about what shoppers will find. Treat it as a "mark the date and check back" item. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar (end time is a placeholder)
NOV 6 · Magic: The Gathering Star Trek Friday Pre-Release — 7 p.m. to midnight, $45 entry · 📍 Phoenix Fire Games, 94 E. Fairview Ave. · A competitive sealed-deck tournament with four rounds of Swiss pairings. Prizes are packs: 5 for going 4-0, 3 for 3-1, and 1 for two wins or fewer. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
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The National Weather Service forecast for Meridian we normally lean on was last refreshed Oct. 19 (and the alternate point on Oct. 25), so we didn't use either. We also couldn't pull a live alert feed, so check weather.gov for any watches or warnings. What we do have is Idaho News 6/KBOI's same-day forecast and its live Boise strip.
Friday, October 30 — Meridian
~61°
Mostly cloudy, per the live Boise strip, with rain chances starting to climb through the day (it read 59° and fair Thursday evening). No overnight low was published in our sources, and with no fresh NWS Meridian number we can't tell you which way Meridian runs versus Boise, so plan for a few degrees either way. Sunrise is around 8:17 a.m. and sunset around 6:41 p.m. (both calculated, not from NWS).
The weekend ahead (KBOI, published Thursday morning): Saturday (Halloween) is near 59 with a few showers, as a Pacific storm moves in; the best shot at widespread rain is Saturday evening and overnight, so the trick-or-treat window is the part to worry about. Sunday keeps showers going, with highs in the 40s and 50s and wind gusts of roughly 20 to 40 mph. Monday turns drier. Mountain snow is possible mainly above 6,500 feet, with several inches on the highest Sawtooth peaks. Clocks fall back at 2 a.m. Sunday. NWS Boise →
Meridian PD's Halloween safety tips
Meridian police say drivers, not strangers, are their biggest Halloween worry, and they'll have extra officers on patrol Saturday night, Idaho News 6 (KIVI) reports. Lt. Brandon Clyde says the danger is "unanticipated movements" by both drivers and excited kids. His advice: light-colored or high-visibility costumes, glow sticks, well-lit streets, flashlights or lanterns, location tracking if kids carry phones, and a parent along for the walk. Families who feel unsafe should call law enforcement.
The Idaho Transportation Department's version adds numbers: telematics data showed distracted driving rose 8.1% during trick-or-treat hours in 2025, and children are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car on Halloween as on a normal day. Its driver tips are the short list: phones away, slow down, watch for kids between parked cars, and never drive impaired. Read more →
🗳️ Your call: the rules are simple, and the candy is persuasive. Which safety move do you actually use?
Meridian PD wants kids visible and drivers slow on Saturday night. Which safety move do you actually use?
Sources: Idaho News 6 (KIVI), published Oct. 28; Idaho News 6/KBOI on the ITD tips, published Oct. 29.
A warrant, a crawl space and tear gas on Abaco Way
If you saw a heavy police presence near South Andros and South Abaco ways Wednesday afternoon, here's the outcome: Meridian police and the Ada County Sheriff's Office ACTION Team arrested 62-year-old Steven Ostlund on a felony warrant, Idaho News 6/KBOI reports. Officers went to serve the warrant around 1:25 p.m.; the story says Ostlund refused repeated orders to leave the home and began turning on the gas inside, and with multiple firearms reported in the house, Meridian's Special Tactics Group was called around 4 p.m.
STG deployed chemical agents, and Ostlund was found in a crawl space and taken into custody. The warrant is a no-bond felony warrant from May 2018 for failure to appear in drug court, and the story lists no new charges. It doesn't say whether anyone was hurt. (An earlier KBOI post, published Wednesday evening, had put the start of the response closer to 1:52 p.m. from a PulsePoint log; we've used the later story's time.) Read more →
Source: Idaho News 6/KBOI, published Oct. 29.
A pedestrian dies on I-84 at Ten Mile
A 26-year-old Nampa man died early Thursday after he was struck while walking in the eastbound lane of I-84 near Ten Mile (milepost 42), Idaho State Police say, according to Idaho News 6/KBOI. It happened around 3 a.m. A 2017 Ford Mustang driven by a 20-year-old Nampa man hit him, and he died at the scene.
The eastbound on-ramp at the Ten Mile exit was blocked for about three hours. ISP is investigating, and the story gives no cause, no word on charges, and no word on the driver's condition. Read more →
Source: Idaho News 6/KBOI, published Oct. 29.
Meme of the Day
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Saturday's forecast has the pumpkin dressed for the rain. The candy gets the umbrella.
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🧠 Trivia answer: Idaho State Police.
According to Wikipedia, the Idaho State Police is headquartered in Meridian, and its academy trains all of the state's police officers. That puts a Meridian-based agency behind the training of cops from every corner of Idaho, and it's the same agency investigating Thursday's I-84 crash at Ten Mile. Read more →
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