Madelyn Beck
Madelyn Beck is Boise State Public Radio's regional reporter with the Mountain West News 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 issues 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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The wind and solar industries made historic gains last year. Both reached new highs in energy production and capacity in 2020. However, COVID-19 hit the renewables workforce hard. Nearly 430,000 workers lost their jobs during the pandemic and didn’t get them back by the end of last year.
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A salmonella outbreak is killing songbirds around the West, and it continues to spread.
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A new report could help you analyze wildfire risks to homes in your state, county or community.
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There’s high drama in the oil world right now. Last year, we saw prices go negative as a glut took over the world. Annual production fell by record amounts. Last week, though, prices shot up after oil-producing countries decided they would keep production low.
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Death doulas are also called death midwives or end-of-life doulas, but whatever you call them, their numbers have blossomed in the last decade. There's a few in every state, but Colorado is a hotspot in the Mountain West.
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Vaccine appointment frustration is pretty common these days. And because of challenges with hospital systems, a lot of people are turning to pharmacies to get their COVID-19 vaccine. However, it's still a pain to track down information on every pharmacy's website.
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A recent snowstorm that blew through the Mountain West was a welcome sight for states facing extreme drought. But across the southern half of the region, it may not have been as beneficial as it looks.
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The Biden administration reopened enrollment for the Affordable Care Act this week. But enrollment details aren't the same everywhere.
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In the Mountain West and across the country, states are rolling back COVID-19 restrictions like mask mandates and allowing more people to gather. While this was largely a response to reduced infection numbers, new strains of the virus are on the move.
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Gun sales have spiked during the pandemic, and retailers are running low on ammunition all around the country.