THE TABLE: Tokens can be shared. Bring the crew, split the strip.
The Rundowntoday in 40 seconds
- 01A data center four times Meta's Kuna building wants public land south of Boise.
- 02Friday wind gusts 35 to 40 possible, then a calm 71 Saturday.
- 03Grapes came in two weeks early; wind arrives right on Friday's pour.
- 04Two nights of burlesque at the Egyptian, and the posted price isn't checkout.
- 05Free Foothills Family Day Saturday — arrive early, the lot is the catch.
Today's Edition
Today is the hottest day on the forecast, and the valley knows it. The grapes came in early. The kids are restless. And Friday afternoon a cold front arrives to move the furniture around before it lets the weekend settle.
The Forecast carries the one hazard worth planning around — wind from mid-morning to about nine, then a calm Saturday that reads like a gift. From there the weekend organizes itself: The Table has a Nampa pour that ends the same hour the wind does, Arts & Culture has two nights of glamour with a checkout price worth knowing, and Family Budget has a free Foothills morning built for the calm day. Local Hustle keeps one eye on the public land south of town, where a very large idea is still just an application.
Plan around the wind, and the rest of the weekend is yours.
The wind gets a window Friday. Everything worth doing lines up on either side of it.
— The Editor
The morning cover — one frame for the whole edition
LOCAL HUSTLE
Four times Meta's Kuna building, on public land south of Boise
Rhea Data wants 4 million square feet near Blacks Creek. The first formal step hasn't happened yet.
Four million square feet. That's the number on the application Rhea Data, a subsidiary of power developer Arevia Power, filed with the Bureau of Land Management for a data center campus on federal land near Blacks Creek Reservoir, off I-84 at the Ada-Elmore county line. Picture the Meta building that switched on in Kuna this month — 650 acres, announced back in 2022 as more than 960,000 square feet. BoiseDev's Don Day, reporting the proposal September 21, puts the Rhea proposal at more than four times that. So when we say big, we mean the biggest number most of us have seen attached to that stretch of sagebrush.
It's earlier than the size makes it sound. The Spokesman-Review reports BLM received the application in August 2025, got more information in spring 2026, and expects to publish a notice of intent before the end of 2026. No public comment window is scheduled yet. "We still have a long ways to go, that's the takeaway," BLM Four Rivers Field Manager Jarod Blades told the Spokesman-Review. That same paper describes a roughly 3,200-acre campus plus about 550 acres for transmission and electrical work. On a map, that's a small city we haven't built yet.
Unsettled, all of it. Reported plans include possible on-site natural gas generation, an Idaho Power grid connection, and a link to Arevia's proposed 400-megawatt Snake River solar project near Twin Falls, though BLM declined to confirm specifics to BoiseDev. Water demand and cooling design are undetermined — BLM has asked the developer for that information. Arevia was founded in 2015, is backed by KKR, and built the Gemini solar project in Nevada.
The pushback is already here. Speaking generally while the proposal is pending, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said September 23 that public lands should stay in public hands: "Sell offs of public lands to build mega data centers is shortsighted," she told Idaho News. Lisa Young of the Sierra Club Idaho Chapter told Boise State Public Radio, "I honestly don't know how we would be able to keep up with that in terms of energy demand, water demand, in the region, which is already so tight." The Golden Eagle Audubon Society flagged the 150-plus bird species recorded at the restored reservoir. Nothing here happens fast. The thing to watch is that notice of intent before year's end, and the comment window it finally cracks open for the rest of us.
Four million square feet on the table, and not one public comment window open yet.
Source · BoiseDev / Spokesman-Review
THE FORECAST
92° / 65°
Summer's last hot day, then a Friday full of wind
MOOD OF THE SKY: BRASH. Ninety-two today, and summer is standing in the doorway refusing to put its coat on — about 15 degrees above normal, sunny, a south-southeast wind at 7 to 15 with gusts to 24. Out in the high desert that heat and that wind add up to elevated fire weather. If your Thursday runs toward Table Rock or the Owyhee gap, mind the dry grass. Tonight stays soft, a low around 65.
Friday earns its keep. A cold front slides through southwest Idaho in the afternoon, and the strongest wind runs roughly 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with gusts of 35 to 40 mph possible across the region. The high still climbs to 80, but wind is what rearranges your day. Bring the patio umbrellas in before you leave the house, and tie down anything in the truck bed. Evening plans? Pack a layer. Friday night drops to about 49.
Saturday is the calm one — mostly sunny, a high near 71, wind just 3 to 6. Put the Foothills on that day. On the trails, stay on trail through July's Claremont Fire burn, about 6,800 acres of ground trying to grow back, and remember Cottonwood Creek's weekday closure lifts on weekends. Sunday clouds up to 73 with a 15 to 30 percent shot at showers over the higher terrain.
The weekend's anchor is Saturday and its calm 71. Dress Friday for the wind.
TODAY
92° / 65°
BRASH
TONIGHT
65°F
Partly Cloudy
TOMORROW
80°F
Partly Sunny
Source · NWS Boise
THE TABLE
THE TABLE
Nampa pours its third wine and cider night, wind and all
Free to walk in, tokens to taste, 6 to 9 Friday at Lloyd Square — the grapes came in early this year.
The wind clocks out the same minute the wine does — 9 p.m., jacket on.
It's harvest season in the Snake River Valley, and Friday downtown Nampa pours the region's wine and cider. Lloyd Square in downtown Nampa fills with local pours from 6 to 9 p.m., and walking in costs nothing. This is the 3rd annual Nampa Wine (& Cider) Festival, run by Downtown Nampa. Food trucks, live music, the kind of slow evening you walk around and catch up in. Tasting is where the money goes: you buy tokens, tokens can be shared, so a group spreads one strip across the table. There's a commemorative cup for sale. Sawtooth Winery, whose tasting room sits on Lowell Road in Caldwell, lists itself among the pours.
Those grapes had a strange year. BoiseDev's Kara Jackson reported September 23 that harvest in the Snake River Valley usually runs early September into October, but a warm dry winter and early March warmth pushed bud break two to three weeks ahead and started picking about two weeks early. Sophia Martin, who manages Emerald Slope Vineyard, told BoiseDev what that looks like in the rows. "I would say it's happening about two weeks earlier than usual, and again, each vineyard is going to be affected in a different way," she said. Many winemakers, she added, make the final picking call by taste.
Friday's cold front brings gusts of up to 35 to 40 mph across the region until about 9 p.m., the hour the festival ends. Sunset lands around 7:37, so the last stretch runs after dark and the Friday night low drops to about 49. Bring the jacket you'd bring to a night game.
What to order: • If you're undecided: a starter strip of tokens, shared across the group — free admission means you only pay for what you sip. • If you want the full experience: buy the commemorative cup and work through the cider pours. • If you already know what you want: post up at the Sawtooth table and stay put; a windy night rewards a fixed base.
Bring: a group of friends and a layer. This is 21-and-over to taste, all ages to wander, and it plays as a catch-up night more than a big-crowd one.
📍 Lloyd Square, downtown Nampa 🕒 Friday, 6 to 9 p.m. 💰 Free admission; tasting by token, cup extra ★ Best value: a shared token strip across your table
The vines Sophia Martin now tends were planted the year she was born, and this is her seventh harvest — the vineyard and the manager have been keeping the same birthday all along.
— Nina's Table: An early harvest in a glass, a cold wind at your back — go, and bring the layer.
Source · Downtown Nampa / BoiseDev
ARTS & CULTURE
Two nights of the tease
at the Egyptian, doors at six
The Gem State Burlesque Festival runs Friday and Saturday, 18 and over — and the posted price isn't the checkout price.
You've walked past the Egyptian's marquee a hundred times, and this weekend it holds two nights of what the festival's own listing calls "a two-night celebration of the art of the tease." The Gem State Burlesque Festival takes 700 W. Main St. Friday and Saturday, doors at 6 p.m., show at 7 both nights. It's 18 and over — bring ID, not the kids.
What Each Night Is
Friday is the Opening Night Showcase: a lineup of performers from near and far plus sets from all the headliners. Saturday is the competition, where performers vie for the title "The Diamond of Gem State Burlesque," alongside prominent local Idaho acts and more headliner sets. Both nights bring New York's Samson Night and Jezebel Express, and Los Angeles MC Tito Bonito holds the room.
The Real Price
Single-night seats on the Leap page run $29 base for GA Balcony, $39 for GA Floor, $49 for VIP, with service fees from $4.52 to $7.12 on top — so that $29 balcony seat is $33.52 before a 6 percent sales tax lands on the order. Going both nights? The balcony weekend pass is $54.22, versus $67.04 for two single balcony nights bought separately. The pass saves $12.82 before tax. If you know you're in for both, buy the pass.
Going Saturday? Old Boise Oktoberfest runs 2 to 10 p.m. at 6th and Grove, $10 adults and $5 for kids 12 and under — an easy pre-show hour before the doors open.
It's at the Egyptian, 700 W. Main St., doors six and curtain seven, both nights, about $35 to walk into the balcony after fees and tax. Bring the friend who screenshots the good line and leave the ones who'll ask what age limit means. Going both nights? Reply with one word: pass or single.
The $29 seat is $33.52 before tax. Going both nights, the pass saves $12.82.
Source · Egyptian Theatre / Leap
boise.term — zsh — 120×40
$ boise --today --topic=family budget
> A free Foothills morning on the weekend's calm day
Saturday shakes out mostly sunny and calm, 71 with barely any wind, sitting right after Friday's blustery front like the day was made for getting two restless kids up into the Foothills. Boise Parks and Recreation is running a free Foothills Family Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Jim Hall Foothills Learning Center, 3188 Sunset Peak Rd., marking Public Lands Day and 25 years of the Foothills levy. The city promises "free, family-friendly fun with nature crafts, a look back at Boise's open space history, and refreshments."
Get there early, because what costs you here isn't money. Space at the center is limited, and once it's gone it's gone. Overflow parking sits at the Grove Trailhead off Sunset Peak Road, and the city would rather you walk or bike in on the Owl's Roost Trail. ADA parking with an accessible pathway is available, so that part's covered.
One slot on the schedule rewards a little planning: a Foothills Levy 25th anniversary guided tour steps off at 9:30 a.m., before the main event even opens, and those spots are limited and first come, first served. Crafts, exhibits and activities kick in at 10. A second tour runs at 11:30. The "Best in Nest" bird costume contest results land at 1 p.m. Pre-registration through the city page is encouraged, not required.
One thing for the walk after: parts of the Foothills are still recovering from July's Claremont Fire. Stay on the trails so July's fire scar can grow back, and don't sweat Cottonwood Creek's weekday closure — it doesn't apply Saturday. Four hours of free programming, 10 to 2, on the calm day, with one early tour to catch. Park at Grove or walk in on Owl's Roost, and beat the 9:30 crowd.
/* Admission is zero, but the 9:30 tour fills first and the lot fills faster. */
Source · City of Boise
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