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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...A blogger falsely claimed Eric Posey exposed himself to a crowd, including children
A jury has awarded more than $1.1m to an Idaho drag performer who accused a far-right blogger of defaming him when she falsely claimed that he exposed himself to a crowd, including children, during a Pride event in June 2022.
The Kootenai county district court jury unanimously found that Summer Bushnell defamed Eric Posey, a resident of Post Falls, Idaho, when she posted a doctored video of his performance that included a blurred spot that she claimed covered his “fully exposed genitals”, the Coeur D’Alene Press reported.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
Continue reading...Skylar Meade and Nicholas Umphenour arrested 130 miles away as officials look into whether they killed two people while on the run
A white supremacist prison gang member and his accomplice are in police custody after being on the run in Idaho, and investigators are looking into whether they killed two people while on the run.
On Thursday, Idaho officials said that Skylar Meade, 31, and Nicholas Umphenour, 28, were arrested in Twin Falls – about 130 miles (209km) from where they escaped.
Continue reading...Three corrections officers injured after unknown accomplice of gang member Skylar Meade stages attack after hospital trip
A white supremacist prison gang member in Idaho and an accomplice remained on the loose Wednesday after the accomplice staged a brazen overnight attack to free the inmate as he was being transported from a Boise hospital, police said.
Police identified the man suspected of shooting two corrections officers during the ambush as Nicholas Umphenour. A warrant with a $2 m bond has been issued for his arrest on two charges of aggravated battery against law enforcement and one charge of aiding and abetting an escape, police said.
Police said the search continues for Umphenour and escaped inmate Skylar Meade, who fled the hospital early Wednesday in a gray 2020 Honda Civic with Idaho plates. It’s not known where they are or where they are headed, police said.
Owner of property donated it to the University of Idaho, which said that its demolition was a key step towards finding closure
Demolition began on Thursday of the house where four University of Idaho students were killed last year, marking an emotional step for the victims’ families and a close-knit community that was shocked and devastated by the brutal stabbings.
The sounds of construction equipment pierced the early morning air as an excavator started tearing down the front part of the house. The former walls formed a large pile of crushed and smashed wood on the ground as debris was picked up and loaded into a dump truck.
Continue reading...The law was first major push since fall of Roe to explicitly block people from crossing state lines to access abortion care
A federal judge has temporarily blocked an Idaho law that prohibits adults from helping minors get an abortion.
While abortion is still prohibited in Idaho with very narrow exceptions, this week’s court order marks a victory for abortion rights advocates in the state who say the now-blocked law is unconstitutional.
Continue reading...The Center for Reproductive Rights has taken legal action on behalf of women denied care in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee
Women who say they were denied abortions in medical emergencies have taken legal action in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee, in the latest attempt to challenge abortion bans that, abortion patients and doctors say, prevent people from getting care even when their health is in danger.
The lawsuits in Idaho and Tennessee, along with a federal complaint against a hospital in Oklahoma, were filed on Tuesday by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of women in Texas earlier this year. Tuesday’s filings were first reported by the Washington Post.
Continue reading...Law allows for termination if patient’s water breaks too early or in cases of ectopic pregnancy, but critics say it is not enough
A Texas law about to take effect on Friday carves out exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.
In June, the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, quietly signed HB 3058, allowing doctors to provide abortion care when a patient’s water breaks too early for the fetus to survive, or when a patient is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy.
Continue reading...Lori Vallow Daybell was also found guilty of murdering a romantic rival and will serve three consecutive life terms
Lori Vallow Daybell, an Idaho mother convicted of murdering her two youngest children and a romantic rival, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday.
Vallow Daybell was found guilty in May of killing her children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, seven, and Tylee Ryan, 16, as well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, her fifth husband’s previous wife. Vallow Daybell will serve three life sentences one after the other, the judge said.
Continue reading...Lawsuit challenges statute that under-18s must get permission from parent or guardian before leaving state for an abortion
Abortion rights advocates sued the Idaho government on Tuesday, claiming a state law that prohibits adults from helping minors get an abortion is unconstitutional.
Idaho has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, forcing patients to seek care in neighboring states such as Oregon and Washington, where the procedure is legal. But in April, Idaho lawmakers passed legislation requiring any person under 18 to get permission from a parent or guardian before traveling out of state to get an abortion. The controversial law marks the first major push since the fall of Roe v Wade in 2022 to explicitly block people from traveling across state lines to access abortion.
Continue reading...A judge entered not guilty pleas for the accused, Bryan Kohberger, whose attorney said will ‘stand silent’ at this time
A judge entered not guilty pleas on Monday for a man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, setting the stage for a trial in which he could face the death penalty.
The 13 November 2022 killings stunned the rural community of Moscow, Idaho, and prompted many students to leave campus early, switching to remote learning for the remainder of the semester.
Continue reading...Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest, was guest of honor at Idaho Republican party fundraiser
Republicans in Idaho have been criticized for “glorifying political violence” after the party hosted Kyle Rittenhouse, the American who shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest and injured another, as a celebrity guest at a fundraiser.
The 20-year-old was the guest of honor at a Bonneville county Republican party event, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on 15 April, where an AR-15 style rifle signed by Rittenhouse was auctioned off as part of a fundraiser and people could buy tickets to “Trigger time”: a Rittenhouse-hosted shooting event at a gun range.
Continue reading...‘Abortion trafficking’ law mandates up to five years in prison for acting without parental consent even when child has been raped
The Republican governor of Idaho, Brad Little, signed a bill into law on Wednesday that makes it illegal for an adult to help a minor get an abortion without parental consent.
The law is the first of its kind in the US, creating a new crime of “abortion trafficking”, barring adults from obtaining abortion pills for a minor or “recruiting, harboring or transporting the pregnant minor” without the consent of the minor’s parent or guardian.
Continue reading...The owner of the house decided to offer it to the university, which in turn plans to break it down as ‘a healing step’
The house in which four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death last November in a case that stunned the US is fated for demolition, the school has announced.
In a statement on Friday, university officials said that the owner of the King Street house in Moscow, Idaho, where Xana Kernodle, 20; Ethan Chapin, 20; Maddie Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were killed has offered to give the house to the school.
Continue reading...Spokane county judge ordered Church at Planned Parenthood to pay $960,000 for interfering with patient care
An anti-abortion group has been ordered to pay almost $1m in fines to Planned Parenthood, over demonstrations outside a clinic in Spokane, Washington state.
According to its website, the group, Church at Planned Parenthood, was formed to stage “worship service at the gates of Hell”.
Continue reading...Bryan Kohberger is not expected to resist extradition to Idaho to face murder charges over stabbings of four students
Bryan Kohberger, the criminal psychology graduate accused of murder over the deaths of four University of Idaho students, will appear in a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday ahead of his extradition to Idaho.
Kohberger’s public defender, Jason LaBar, has said his client will not contest his extradition because he is “eager to be exonerated”. Labar has also said that his client “should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise – not tried in the court of public opinion”.
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