Category Archives: Idaho

US Forest Service chief reportedly pressed staff for more support for wildfire near his ranch

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Michael Boren requested more aircraft for 7-acre Cabin Creek fire, some of which were diverted from other fires

Michael Boren, the US undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment who oversees the US Forest Service, reportedly pressed agency staff last month to deploy more aircraft to a 7-acre (2.8-hectare) fire that was burning near his Idaho ranch, according to a Washington Post report on Friday.

The Cabin Creek fire in Idaho began on about 12 July as a result of an unattended campfire, and spread across several acres in Idaho’s Sawtooth national forest. By 15 July, the forest service said that the fire was 100% contained.

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Man who returned fire at In-N-Out gunman had done firearm training after 2021 mass shooting

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Police credited Jordan Salinas with limiting number of victims in attack on restaurant in Twin Falls, Idaho

A healthcare worker returning fire on a 24-year-old gunman who killed three people and wounded several others an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, has said his impulse to confront the attacker was “automatic” and “mechanical”.

That description from 35-year-old Jordan Salinas came in an interview with the Idaho Statesman that was published on Sunday, providing a detailed account of actions that police credited with limiting the number of victims in the attack a day earlier.

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Suspect in Idaho restaurant shooting died of self-inflicted gunshot wound, police say

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Twin Falls police chief believes Chad Williams, 24, was alone in Saturday attack that killed three people

Authorities say the man accused of opening fire at a fast-food restaurant in Idaho is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, as investigators say quick action by an off-duty law enforcement officer and an armed bystander helped prevent even more bloodshed.

Speaking on Sunday, Matthew Hicks, the Twin Falls police chief, said investigators are confident 24-year-old Chad Williams carried out Saturday’s attack alone.

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Shooting at In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Idaho leaves three people dead

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Police chief say shooter found dead after ‘very chaotic scene’ near busy shopping area in Twin Falls

Three people were killed and seven more were injured, some critically, in a shooting at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in southern Idaho on Saturday afternoon, a Twin Falls city spokesperson said.

Police who responded to the shooting found the body of the suspected gunman in an area near the restaurant, Twin Falls city public information officer Josh Palmer said. He did not know if the suspect was included in the fatality count.

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US schools are struggling to keep the yellow bus running amid shortages and cuts

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Districts are reducing routes and exploring new ways to get students to class as transportation costs climb

Education officials across the United States are increasingly facing a fundamental challenge: how do they ensure that school students can actually get to their classrooms?

The bright yellow school bus might be a visual icon of US education famous around the world, but in reality it is becoming harder for districts to steer.

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Death by firing squad: archaic method on the rise in US as Idaho opens new execution chamber

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Supporters of the method say it’s foolproof – but forensic experts say it can be ‘excruciating’ amid allegations it’s been intentionally botched

The tangled path of US capital punishment takes a new turn on Wednesday as Idaho becomes the first state to adopt the firing squad as its primary form of execution, embracing the brutal killing technique even as concerns grow that it can inflict excruciating pain and suffering.

The state’s department of corrections (IDOC) says it has met its deadline, set by the legislature, to have its death chamber at a maximum security prison south of Boise retrofitted and open for business by 1 July. It has spent more than $1m in the venture, including $24,000 on a rack of AR-style, .308-caliber, scoped rifles that will be wielded by volunteer marksmen.

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Six US states hold primaries as Trump urges Kentucky voters to oust Massie

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Republican critic of president faces challenge from Ed Gallrein, while Georgia and Pennsylvania hold key contests

The biggest day of primaries yet arrives Tuesday, with voters in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho, heading to the polls to select candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.

While many primaries will be resolved with little drama, some have shaped up to be among the most contentious elections of the year so far, serving as gauges of Donald Trump’s control of Republicans, and the direction Democratic voters are looking to steer their party as they seek to retake control of Congress.

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Idaho air force base locked down after midair collision, officials say

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Four crew members are safe after incident involving aircraft during weekend air show at military base in western Idaho

Four crew members are safe after two navy jets collided and crashed to the ground on Sunday at an air show at Mountain Home air force base in western Idaho, officials said.

The collision involved two US navy EA-18G Growlers from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington, said Cmdr Amelia Umayam, a spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, US Pacific Fleet.

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Idaho student murders suspect reportedly agrees to plead guilty on all counts

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Bryan Kohberger to be spared death penalty but will be given four consecutive life sentences, ABC News reports

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four Idaho college students in 2022, has agreed to plead guilty to all counts, a move that would spare him from the death penalty, ABC News reported on Monday, citing a letter sent to victims’ family members.

Kohberger, who previously pleaded not guilty on charges of murder in the fatal stabbings, will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences and waives all right to appeal, according to ABC News.

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Idaho shooting suspect identified as ‘horrified’ community reels from attack

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Suspect set a wildfire then killed two firefighters and seriously wounded another in hours-long incident

As a wildfire began to sow panic in a small northern Idaho mountain community, a group of firefighters who rushed to put out the blaze instead found themselves in an unexpected shootout.

A man shot the firefighters who were battling a blaze in northern Idaho after they asked him to move his vehicle, killing two of them and wounding a third, a sheriff said on Monday.

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Idaho murder case runs into problems but suspect set for August trial

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Leaks and a Dateline special have complicated matters but Bryan Kohberger due to face trial – and possible execution

Bryan Kohberger, the suspect accused of killing four young University of Idaho students in 2022, is set to go to trial in August in a case that could see him sentenced to death.

He is charged with the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – who were together in the same house when someone broke in at night and stabbed them to death.

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Huge hound and pocket-sized pup: meet-and-sniff with world’s tallest and smallest dogs

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Reginald, a great dane, and Pearl, a chihuahua, met after winning their respective Guinness World Records categories

A playdate between the world’s tallest and smallest living dogs went the way of most dog park encounters despite the 3ft (0.91-meter) height difference – lots of tail wagging, sniffing and scampering.

Reginald, a seven-year-old great dane from Idaho, and Pearl, a chihuahua from Florida, are both certified winners in their respective height titles by Guinness World Records. The fact that Reginald is the size of a small horse and Pearl is as small as an apple didn’t stop them from getting along famously.

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The great Mississippi tops list of most endangered rivers amid fears over Trump rollbacks

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Cuts to disaster agency and deregulation of fossil fuels, plus rise of water-guzzling datacentres, highlighted in new report

The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal climate disaster agency – and the full-throttle deregulation of fossil fuels and water-guzzling datacentres – could prove catastrophic for America’s endangered rivers, threatening the food, water and livelihoods of millions of people, according to a new report.

American Rivers’ annual most-endangered rivers list lays bare a myriad of human-made threats including floods, drought and other extreme weather events driven by the climate crisis, as well as industrial pollution and poor river management – all of which Trump’s regulatory rollbacks will almost inevitably make worse.

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Firing squad could become Idaho’s main execution method if governor signs bill

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State senate passes bill as its sponsor suggests shooting someone is more effective and humane than other methods

Firing squads could become Idaho’s primary execution method under a bill headed to the governor’s desk this week.

The Idaho senate passed the bill on Wednesday, and if signed by governor Brad Little, it will take effect next year.

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Idaho’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law partly revived by US appeals court

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State can enforce law against those who harbor or transport a minor across state lines without parental consent

Idaho can enforce a first-of-its-kind “abortion trafficking” law against those who harbor or transport a minor to get an abortion out-of-state without parental consent, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.

But the San Francisco-based 9th US circuit court of appeals in its ruling blocked a part of the law that prohibits “recruiting” a minor to get an abortion.

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Las Vegas sets record for number of days over 115F amid its ‘most extreme heatwave in history’

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City hits all-time high of 120F as officials set up emergency cooling centers at community centers across south Nevada

Las Vegas set a new record on Wednesday as it marked a fifth consecutive day over 115F (46C), amid a lingering hot spell that will continue scorching much of the US into the weekend.

The blazing hot temperatures climbed to 115F shortly after 1pm at Harry Reid international airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days above 115F set in July 2005.

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US admits dams in Pacific north-west have devastated Native Americans

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US says dams killed off salmon, inundated villages and burial grounds, and spirited wealth away from tribes

The US government, in a report published on Tuesday, acknowledged for the first time the harms that federal dams have inflicted on Native American tribes in the US Pacific north-west.

The report by the interior department details the “historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams on Columbia River Basin Tribes”, including how dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers have devastated salmon runs, inundated villages and burial grounds, and deprived tribal members of the ability to exercise traditional ways of life.

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Wyoming commuter highway collapses in landslide leaving gaping chasm

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Chasm in Teton Pass road severs link between Idaho and Jackson as governor signs order declaring an emergency

A large chunk of a twisting mountain pass road collapsed in Wyoming, authorities said Saturday, leaving a gaping chasm in the highway and severing a well-traveled commuter link between small towns in eastern Idaho and the tourist destination of Jackson.

Aerial photos and drone video of the collapse show the Teton Pass road riven with deep cracks, and a big section of the pavement disappeared altogether. Part of the guardrail dangled into the void, and orange traffic drums marked off the danger area. The road was closed at the time of the collapse.

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Chad Daybell sentenced to death for murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s children

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Idaho case marked by Daybell and girlfriend Lori Vallow Daybell’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday

Chad Daybell was sentenced to death Saturday for the murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children in Idaho in a case marked by his and his girlfriend’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday.

The sentence was handed down after an Idaho jury unanimously agreed that imposing the death penalty would be a just resolution to the triple-murder case. The sentence marks the end of a grim investigation that began with a search for two missing children in 2019. The next year, their bodies were found buried in Daybell’s eastern Idaho yard.

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Idaho jurors mull death penalty for man convicted over ‘doomsday’ killings

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Chad Daybell found guilty of murder of wife and girlfriend’s two children in 2019, linked to apparent extremist religious beliefs

Jurors in Idaho on Friday were deciding whether to deliver the death sentence to Chad Daybell, the 55-year-old man convicted of killing his wife and his then girlfriend’s two children over beliefs in the extremist religious concept of doomsday.

Deliberations began a day after jurors found Daybell guilty of murdering 49-year-old Tammy Daybell, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and seven-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow in 2019.

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