Idaho’s Mike Simpson ‘champion of public broadcasting’? Hardly | Opinion

Public broadcasting

Public broadcasting plays a crucial role in providing accessible, fact-based, and diverse programming, especially in rural areas where it’s often the most reliable source of news and education. This is why Congressman Mike Simpson’s selection as the 2025 Champion of Public Broadcasting Award recipient initially seemed well-deserved, given his past support for public media.

However, his recent vote to eliminate federal funding for PBS and NPR — two cornerstones of public broadcasting — has left many questioning the integrity of this recognition. How can we honor someone as a champion of public broadcasting when their actions threaten its survival?

Public broadcasting is not a partisan issue; it serves all Americans, especially in underserved areas. For many, PBS and NPR are vital lifelines, providing trusted news, educational content, and a sense of community. By voting to cut funding, Congressman Simpson undermines the very mission of public media.

Given this, it’s time for the American Public Television Stations organization to reevaluate their decision. Public recognition should reflect actions that support the public good, and voting to defund public media is incompatible with the honor of receiving an award for championing it.

Curt Kelley, Boise

Solar

As a longtime landowner in Ada County, I write with deep concern about the recommendation by the Ada County Planning & Zoning to effectively ban solar development in our county.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just bad policy — it’s bad math.

Right now, thousands of acres of open land, designated by the government under a broadbrush “farmland of statewide importance,” a designation that covers nearly all of Ada County, contributes almost nothing to the local tax base. But with the addition of a solar project, those same acres would generate millions in new tax revenue for our county and cities, including funding for schools, emergency services, and infrastructure. It’s the difference between letting land sit idle and unlocking its full economic potential for decades to come.

I understand people have concerns about change. But banning solar outright ignores the benefits to landowners, our tax base and future generations. Solar projects bring jobs during construction, lease payments that support local families, and long-term investment in rural areas often left behind.

We don’t ban housing developments or farm operations because they change the landscape; we weigh their impacts and manage them responsibly. Solar deserves the same fair, fact-based approach. I urge residents to speak out on July 30.

Alex Karagianes, Boise

Authoritarianism

Can’t happen here? I am the nephew of a family that fled Nazi Germany.

The new national police force ICE engages in Gestapolike tactics with impunity. It is not a criminal agency so they don’t abide by the same standards as local law enforcement or the FBI. Legal residents and citizens are being grabbed off the streets by masked, unidentified agents, hustled into vans and taken to detention centers without regard to rights to counsel.

For a country that liberated concentration camps, we are now building them or shipping people off to foreign countries often without due process.

The institutions that are intended to counter an authoritarian executive have largely ceded their power and do his beck and call.The organs of the free press are being threatened, intimidated and as we witnessed with NPR defunded.

The Nazis dismantled a constitutional republic in less than four months. Here it is well on the way after six months.

MAGA is not making America great, it is making America disappear into an authoritarian state.

Pete Friedman, Boise

Farmworkers

A juicy, flavorful apricot, bing cherries and cucumbers grace my plate in a delicious bouquet of local agriculture. They are brought to my table by workers from Mexico and I appreciate their efforts. In 100 degree weather they have avoided ICE bandits and worked in hard conditions to bring me this beautiful produce. I am grateful.

American workers don’t want to or can’t do this work. These essential workers know how and are willing to work to bring food to your table. They should receive rewards equal to their efforts. We should not reward them with fear, deportation, insecurity and separation of families. The “immigration” problem is not an unsolvable problem.It needs common sense and decency, but we can fix it. And we’d better… before our plates are empty.

A shout out goes to Shay Meyers of Owyhee Produce for having the courage to bring the human side to the plight of Idaho’s agricultural workers.

Vera Noyce, Boise

Education cuts

Congress passed a budget which includes $6.8 billion in federal education grants for the coming school year. The distribution of the funds was to begin July 1, 2025. The Trump administration decided to hold back the distribution of the funds for “programmatic review.” The U.S. Senate submitted a letter to the Department of Education on July 10 demanding that $1.3 billion be released for distribution immediately for the Century Community Learning Centers program, which helps fund before school, after school, and summer school programs. The letter was signed by 32 U.S. Senators; 22 Democrats and 10 Republicans. With Idaho typically ranking “last or near last among all U.S. states in per-pupil spending on education”, you’d think that Senators Crapo and Risch would support the release of this federal funding for our students. Guess what? Nope, they were not in the list of 10 Republican Senators who signed the letter. Shame on you, senators.

Ken Neely, Boise

EV tax credit

When you have a hammer, everything is a nail that describes the elimination of the EV tax credit. We will show those left-wing tree huggers. What in fact they have done may cause the diminishment of the American auto industry. The tax credit had within it a feature that required American parts and production to qualify EV’s for the credit. This was allowing American manufacturers to scale up production and bring down costs. The proponents of the elimination of the credit forgot that there is an automobile market well beyond our borders. That world EV market is being swept by Chinese-made automobiles. Without the tax credit to allow American car manufacturers the scale of sales to bring down costs to compete outside the US with China, American car companies may see a future when their only sales are in the United States.

Kirk Hall, Boise