Samantha Wright

Tonight marks the longest night of the year.  Advocates chose this night to remember the homeless who have died in 2012.  The National Homeless Person’s Memorial happens in more than 150 cities, including Boise. 

Jayne Sorrels is the Executive Director of Interfaith Sanctuary Housing Services. “We gather together as a community and recognize and honor, remember those who have died in the last year who were homeless, formerly homeless and those who were homeless advocates.”

Sleet falls in Ann Morrison Park on a recent Sunday afternoon.  A few people mill around picnic tables, shivering.

Denie Tackett hauls boxes and bags of food from her car.

Tackett heads up Mosaic Street Ministry, a non-profit group that ministers to the homeless in Boise.  She’s been bringing food to local parks for the last five years. 

Scientists are trying to understand how road noise affects animals. So they’ve set up a road of sorts in the hills above Boise and they’re capturing birds to find answers.

Heidi Ware holds an angry bird in her hand. “This is a Cassin's Vireo and they’re pretty well-known for being pretty feisty birds in the hand, so you can see he’s biting my finger right now.”

Idaho's governor announced yesterday the state should build its own health insurance exchange rather than go with a federally- run model. Exchanges are online marketplaces that allow consumers to assess health insurance plans.  Under the Affordable Care Act, every state must have one by 2014.

Last year, we introduced you to the Idaho non-profit group Semilla Neuva, or “New Seed” in Spanish.  For almost five years, it’s been teaching sustainable agriculture practices to farmers in Guatemala.  Over the past year, the group helped more farmers than ever before, and won a prestigious award from the Huffington Post.

Idaho has until the end of the week to decide whether or not to build its own health insurance exchange.  But some northwest states are already well on their way toward creating such an online marketplace. 

Sunday we learned that former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Byron Johnson passed away after a battle with cancer.

He was a lawyer and a political mover and shaker.  But in his heart, Byron Johnson was a poet.  “I think that poetry is a vehicle that I have used to deal with feelings I have that are hard to resolve,” he once said.

After three terms in the speaker’s chair, Representative Lawerence Denney lost the top House spot in the Idaho Legislature Wednesday night.  Representative Scott Bedke of Oakley was elected Speaker of the House during a secret vote at a dinner at a Boise country club. 

Idaho Statesman reporter Dan Popkey has been following the ongoing rivalry between these two lawmakers. He says several issues led to Denney losing support from his Republican colleagues.  

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, is adding his voice to other Republicans on the chance that UN Ambassador Susan Rice could be nominated for U.S. Secretary of State. “I do not believe she would be a good choice.”

Republicans are proposing their own plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff" at the end of this month. That's when Bush-era tax cuts will expire and automatic spending cuts begin.

The GOP plan would raise the eligibility age for Medicare, lower cost-of-living hikes for Social Security benefits and add $800 billion in higher tax revenue. The White House unveiled a plan last week. 

Boise will open a homeless day shelter for young children and their parents today.  Officials say the shelter will be a warm, safe place to go when families run out of other options this winter.

This is the fourth year in a row Boise Parks and Recreation will operate a temporary day-shelter for homeless families.  Parents with children can visit the Pioneer Neighborhood Community Center seven days a week.   

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day.  In response, Southwest District Health will offer free HIV tests today in Caldwell.

The seven Idaho Health districts report more than 1,300 people in Idaho are currently living with HIV or AIDS.  Those are the people who know they have the infection.  Health officials want to reach people who haven’t been tested, and may be infected. 

Each year, the Idaho Botanical Garden strings up thousands of twinkling lights, for the annual Winter Garden Aglow.  The event begins tonight.  Last year, we caught up with a dedicated group of volunteers who were putting the final touches on the annual event.  Here’s a look back:

Today marks the 29th annual Saint Alphonsus Festival of Trees.  The tradition of decorating Christmas trees at the Boise Centre runs through Sunday.  Funds raised from the Festival will support the expansion of Saint Al’s Regional Medical Center Emergency Department.

Updated at 1:25 p.m.

Police have arrested one of two men who they believe broke into an Idaho zoo the night a monkey there died from blunt-force trauma.  But questions remain about how and why the animal was killed.

Twenty-two-year-old Michael Watkins of Weiser was arrested Monday in Washington County on felony burglary and grand theft charges.

A tip from a citizen led police to Watkins.

Updated at 5:12 p.m.

To this day North Korea operates prison camps. Shin was born inside one of them.  He lived his first 23 years behind barbed wire, without running water, heat, or adequate food.  When his family considered escape, Shin turned them in, and watched them die.  Shin’s story is the focus of a new book, called “Escape From Camp 14.”  Seattle based author Blaine Harden met Shin while he was working for The Washington Post based in Tokyo. Harden was in Boise today to talk about his book.

He's a Boise State graduate. He's also one of the key people on a little project known as Curiosity.

Dan Isla is an electrical systems engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  He helped assemble and launch NASA's Mars Rover. Now that it’s on the red planet, he helps operate the rover and put it through its paces. 

We originally talked with Isla last year, before the rover landed on Mars.  In this update, he tells Samantha Wright that was the highlight of his life, so far.

During a one-night count in 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development found more than 76,000 veterans were homeless in the U-S.  For more than 20 years, the Veterans Administration and volunteers have tried to combat this problem with special events called Stand Downs.  Held all over the country, Stand Downs offer food, clothes, medical care, and a helping hand to veterans struggling on the street.  The Boise VA holds its annual Stand Down Saturday.

More than 20 seats changed hands in the Idaho Legislature  Tuesday. Some House members made the jump to the Senate.  And plenty of new faces will be in the legislature when the session starts in January. 

Boise State political science professor Gary Moncrief says, despite the changes, the makeup of the House and the Senate will be pretty much the same.

So what percentage of people in Idaho voted?  Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa says that’s a hard number to pin down so soon after Election Day.

“It’s difficult to give a turnout figure based on registered voters because we register voters on Election Day, so that’s a moving target,” Ysursa said.  “History has shown in a Presidential year, there could be 100,000 to 112,000 who have registered on Election Day.”