Open space is Boise’s greatest asset. We should build it further | Opinion

Support Open Space Levy

As a family physician considering moving to Boise back in 2008, I was captured by the variety of parks and open spaces here. I found I could easily get outdoors along the river, in neighborhood parks and on trails in the foothills.

For years, I have discussed the value of regular exercise with my patients, but I also know the reality of how hard it is for most people to find safe and accessible places to walk, run or bike. Those barriers are lower in Boise due to the longstanding commitment of Boise residents to invest in land and infrastructure to support outdoor recreation.

I am both a medical care provider in Boise and a medical educator. Ease of access to outdoor spaces is one of our biggest selling points in this recruitment of young physicians to join our community. Please support efforts to keep the local outdoors accessible by voting ‘YES” on the 2025 Boise Clean Water and Open Space Levy on Nov. 4.

Justin Glass, Boise

Stop the GENIUS Act

The Idaho farming community depends on our local banks. Whether it’s obtaining a loan for new equipment, covering operating costs, or helping the next generation get started, community banks keep our agriculture sector moving forward.

That’s why I’m worried about a loophole in the new GENIUS Act. While the law correctly bans stablecoin issuers from paying interest, because they don’t reinvest in our communities, crypto companies are dodging the rule with “rewards” programs that act like interest. Every dollar that leaves our banks for these unregulated products is a dollar that can’t be used to support Idaho farms, ranches or small-town businesses.

Community banks are responsible for more than 80% of agricultural loans in our state. If deposits disappear, so does the financing that farmers and rural communities rely on. Fewer farm loans lead to tighter credit, less investment in equipment, and slower growth across Idaho’s heartland.

Sen. Mike Crapo has always supported Idaho agriculture and small businesses. Now, we need him to close this loophole and safeguard the banks that sustain our rural economy.

Nick Robinson, Oakley

Protect access to oxygen

Millions of Americans need supplemental oxygen to help them breathe, improve their quality of life, be more independent, leave their homes, and do the activities that matter most to them. As a COPD patient and friend of someone who relies on supplemental oxygen, I deeply understand how important it is for policymakers to safeguard access to this critical treatment.

Bipartisan leaders in Congress introduced the Supplemental Oxygen Access Reform (SOAR) Act, which will help address some of the problems in the Medicare system that disrupt patients’ ability to get the oxygen supplies and equipment they need in a timely manner. If passed, the SOAR Act will help make the process more efficient and increase the availability of different oxygen modalities to meet varying patient needs. It would also create a patient’s bill of rights to make sure patients remain front and center in any policy decisions about supplemental oxygen and strengthen our access to respiratory therapists.

This important legislation is critical for patients living with a wide range of diseases from pulmonary fibrosis to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). I am hopeful the SOAR Act will be widely supported and urge Congress to pass it this year.

Kathleen Lee Henderson, Boise

Trump is losing it

As Trump’s dementia and senility worsens, the various kooks, zealots, con-artists, and billionaires that make up his cabinet and inner circle of advisors are coming forward with ever crazier and more unconstitutional and illegal ways to defraud and intimidate the American people, ideas which Trump foolishly accepts as his own brilliant inventions.

When candidate Trump assured the nation that he didn’t know about Project 2025 and would not implement it, that was a bald-faced lie. The core agenda is to shred the Constitution, gerrymander and voter-suppress their way to permanent minority-rule government, and impose fascism under the guise of an entirely bogus and disingenuous white-nationalist Christianity. It’s an anti-minority, anti-women, anti-working families, and anti-youth agenda. Do the math: they have to fake it and have to intimidate the public into accepting the sabotage of our nation and economy, or they’ll be thrown out on their keisters.

Trump’s slim and shamefully gelded GOP majority in Congress is at grave risk of being thrown out by voters, and they know it. How else to explain going to war against the American people via armed military occupations of cities that did not and will not vote for this kind of treasonous mischief?

Chris Norden, Moscow

Give Kennedy the boot

We have been following with great concern the chaos at HHS in general and specifically the CDC caused by Secretary Robert Kennedy. We were astonished by Sen. Mike Crapo’s comment that “Under this administration, HHS has placed patients at the center of the healthcare system, empowering them with the tools and information they need to create a healthier future”.

We ask what tools and what information?

As Sen. John Barasso, R-Wyoming, told the heir to the American political dynasty, “Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”

“The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired,” the senator added.

We are at a point now that little information coming out HHS and the CDC can be trusted.

Kennedy must be removed from his position before all trust in these institutions is totally destroyed.

Mary and Steve Simpson, Boise

Release the Epstein files

I aActions by the Administration, suppressing the release of the Epstein files, offend me. Many Republicans claiming to stand for “Christian” values seem to serve gods of power, control, greed and exploitation, not Jesus.

Voices are rising, standing for human decency and the preservation of democracy. My gravest concern, today, is for the truth to be known by the American people on behalf of survivors of the Epstein sex trafficking crimes. Please advocate for the complete release of the files, redacting what is necessary to protect victims/survivors, bringing perpetrators to justice.

This is not a matter of left versus right; it is the right thing to do. May those who committed crimes not hide behind the status of wealth, power and privilege. The American people deserve the truth. We are watching, weighing our choices at the ballots. While Idaho is historically red, we are not soulless. This is a fight not just for the soul of Idaho, but for the soul of our nation. Please advocate for the full release of the Epstein files.

Amy Rasmussen, Nampa