Madelyn Beck
Reporter, Mountain West °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ BureauMadelyn Beck is Boise State Public Radio's regional reporter with the Mountain West °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ Bureau. She's from Montana but has reported everywhere from North Dakota to Alaska to Washington, D.C. Her last few positions included covering energy resources in Wyoming and reporting on agriculture/rural life in Illinois.
Pre-journalism jobs include (but are not limited to): ranch hand for Icelandic horses, hotel laundress, large caliber brass shell sorter/inventory, salmon processor in Alaska and waitress for a murder mystery dinner theater.
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Several states are fighting to limit abortion access. But limited access will increase already high costs of traveling to seek abortions for many in the Mountain West. -
It’s called Bisticeratops froeseorum, part of a growing, diverse group of horned dinosaurs that lived in the Four Corners region. The paleontologists who identified it say knowing about these diverse dinosaur species and how they lived – or died – in the ensuing mass-extinction is an important lesson to modern-day humans. -
A Colorado state senator has changed parties from Republican to Democrat over false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Kevin Priola’s changing affiliation is just one of the many instances the "big lie" keeps cropping up in the Mountain West. -
A federal program is giving about $30,000 to individual rural communities to help them develop outdoor recreation economies. -
President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law this week. The massive piece of legislation funds programs ranging from electric vehicles, to advanced nuclear energy research. Specific to the Mountain West, it includes billions of dollars for forest lands and agriculture to fight climate change. -
People have always feared the unknown. And that fear transforms some animals into monsters in our minds — like sharks in the ocean, or rattlesnakes in the West. -
A Pew Research Center analysis found that one in six journalists are now part of a union, and more than twice that want to join one. However, it also found that smaller publications, like those in the rural Mountain West, are less likely to unionize. Of those with fewer than 10 people, only 4% have a union. -
A federal program helps send nurses and social workers into the homes of thousands of lower-income or at-risk parents in the Mountain West to help before, during and after a birth. However, its funding is set to lapse at the end of next month. Advocates are asking for reauthorization, pointing to its proven track record of improving prenatal health and readiness for school. -
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg talked at the Western Governors Association meeting in Idaho this week. He says transportation innovation is especially important in our large, spread-out states. That includes continued efforts to build electric vehicle charging corridors. -
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new $1 billion grant program this week to help communities facing wildfire risks. Grants for wildfire protection planning or outreach can be up to $250,000. Affiliated infrastructure and resilience projects can get grants of up to $10 million.
