IDAHO EDUCATION NEWS
East Idaho investigative reporter Devin Bodkin left Idaho Education News after seven years to become a communication director at the Idaho National Laboratory. Idaho Education News replaced Bodkin with Darren Svan, a former Wyoming news editor who has been teaching English on the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Louisiana State University. Svan started his Idaho investigative reporting job the first week of December.
THE IDAHO PRESS
Betsy Russell will retire Jan. 1 after a news career spanning four decades, including the past five years as the Boise bureau chief and state capitol reporter for the Idaho Press and Adams Publishing. Prior to joining the Press, she worked for 27 years for The Spokesman-Review, and for five years before that for the Idaho Statesman, along with earlier work for several California newspapers. The Idaho Press will host a retirement party for her in January; details are to come.
Idaho Press news editor Laura Guido will cover the upcoming legislative session and take over the Eye on Boise blog from Russell. Guido has been news editor for the Idaho Press since September of 2021; she previously worked as a reporter and editor for the Woodinville Weekly, the Whidbey News-Times, and the Columbia Basin Herald, and covered the Washington Legislature. Guido will be promoted to assistant managing editor/Boise bureau chief.
Moving in to fill Guido’s role as Idaho Press news editor will be Madison Guernsey. A graduate of the University of Oregon, Guernsey has been with the Idaho Press since May 2021 as the newspaper’s digital editor. Prior to that he spent five years as sports editor at the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello.
Emily White joined the Idaho Press in August as a general assignment reporter, based in Nampa. She graduated from Utah State University in May with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English.
LEWISTON TRIBUNE
Longtime Lewiston Tribune political and Statehouse reporter William L. “Bill” Spence is retiring at the end of the year.
IDAHO STATESMAN
Mia Maldonado joined the Idaho Statesman as a breaking news reporter. She previously interned at the Idaho Capital Sun. Growth and development reporter Paul Schwedelson left the Idaho Statesman to cover real estate for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
KTVB-TV Boise
After 8 years, sports reporter Will Hall left KTVB and is now covering sports with our sister station, KARE, in Minneapolis.
Brady Frederick joined KTVB as a sports reporter in July of 2022. Prior to moving to Boise, Brady spent two years as the sports director for KLEW-TV in Lewiston.
Reporter Tristan Lewis left the news industry for a position on the communications team at College of Western Idaho.
Jude Binkley graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State and joined the KTVB team as a general assignment reporter.
After graduating from UC Davis, Katey Patrick joined the team as the assignment editor.
Digital producer Ryan Hatten left Idaho for a new opportunity in Chicago.
Tracy Bringhurst came from the Boise Weekly where she was head staff writer and social media manager. She’s just joined our team as a digital media producer.
Newscast editor James Hollinger left KTVB. Madisun Grindell was promoted from production assistant to newscast editor.
Bridger Cowan was promoted from Wake Up Idaho newscast editor to marketing producer.
Chief photographer Zoran Tesic is leaving Idaho for the same position at a station in Nebraska.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Longtime Associated Press newsman Keith Ridler has retired after nearly two decades covering breaking news, the environment and politics in the Boise bureau. Ridler joined the company in 2005, and he quickly earned a reputation for his swift and steady coverage of some of the West’s biggest news issues, including wolves, wildfires and nuclear waste. When a group of armed extremists took over a federal wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon in January of 2016, AP sent Ridler to the scene, where he camped out in his truck to be close to the action. Ridler turned his attention to the Idaho Statehouse in 2018, where his deep understanding of Idaho’s land use issues informed his coverage of elections and legislative maneuvering.
Here’s his tweet announcing his retirement: “After 17 years with the Associated Press, the last four covering #idpol, I’m calling it a career today. I’m grateful I got to work at the AP, and grateful now for the expanded opportunity to travel with loved ones, fly fish, bike, hike and write some long-form stories.”
BOISE WEEKLY
Kate Jacobson, Boise State political science and journalism student and reporter for the Arbiter, will intern at Boise Weekly for the spring semester, covering the Idaho Legislature as well as news, arts and entertainment. Tracy Bringhurst, formerly head staff writer at Boise Weekly, has taken a position as digital editor at KTVB.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Scott Graf will join the State Department of Education as Communications Director. Scott has spent the last six years as the Public Information Officer and Director of Constituent Affairs at the Idaho Attorney General’s Office. Before his service in Idaho state government, he spent more than 15 years in news radio.
