Idaho
$30 million water infrastructure bill advances in Idaho Legislature – East Idaho News

BOISE — Eastern Idaho irrigators are one step closer to seeing a legislation providing ongoing funding for aquifer recharge and water storage projects become law.
On Friday morning, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) voted 15-5 to approve a motion to fund Gov. Brad Little’s $30 million 2025 budget request for ongoing funding for water projects.
“It’s a historic move,” JFAC Co-Chairwoman Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, said. “There is a trickle-down effect for any recharge and storage that we do here. It benefits not only us but everyone downstream.”
Since 2019, the Legislature has appropriated nearly $600 million toward water projects statewide, but only $24 million has been invested in southeast Idaho for aquifer recharge and storage, she said.
According to the motion, the funding can be used for:
- Aquifer recharge, groundwater management, and other projects aimed at sustaining aquifer health and long-term water availability;
- Development and rehabilitation of water storage and conveyance systems, including reservoirs, diversion structures, pipelines and canals;
- Water supply and delivery improvements that enhance efficiency and conservation;
- Emergency water infrastructure repairs and upgrades to ensure the resilience of vital water systems.
In a statement Friday, Little thanked the Idaho Legislature for taking action on this legislation.
“Idaho farmers worked hard last year to arrive at a new water deal that protects Idaho agriculture and secures Idaho’s water sovereignty,” Little said. “The success of the new deal hinges on the infrastructure projects this funding will help cover.
He said the legislation is necessary for the state to maintain control of its own water resources.
“I appreciate the Idaho Legislature for keeping this important issue at the forefront so Idaho does not turn out like other states in the Colorado Basin that ceded control of their water to the courts, the federal government, or other states,” he said in the statement.
Sen. Burtenshaw’s bill stalled in House
A previous piece of legislation to provide $30 million in ongoing funds for water infrastructure — S.B. 1128 sponsored by Senator Van Burtenshaw, R-Terreton — flew through the Senate on a 26-10-1 vote on March 3.
It’s been tied up in the House Resources and Conservation Committee ever since.
Lawmakers were debating whether the $30 million should be allocated every single year and be distributed across the state or just in eastern Idaho.
“The purpose of it is to help with recharge. It’s to help with projects to increase the amount of water that we’re putting into the aquifer,” said Rep. Ben Fuhriman, R-Shelley. “We have hundreds of thousands of acre-feet that are flowing down the river every single year because we have no infrastructure to capture it.”
Fuhriman said the state needs to construct additional infrastructure, such as aquifer recharge sites and recharge wells, to efficiently transfer water into the aquifer.
“We don’t (currently) have enough room in the reservoirs, and we don’t have the ability to transfer into the aquifer, and so it just flows down the river,” he explained.
Rep. Jerald Raymond, R-Menan, said additional water infrastructure is necessary for groundwater appropriators and the Surface Water Coalition to meet the terms of the stipulated mitigation plan approved last fall.
RELATED | Locals feeling optimistic about new long-term water mitigation plan after decade-long dispute
Multiple irrigation groups sent letters and were worried that the bill had stalled in the House, and the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee took up the matter on Friday.
“It passed committee, so we will create the bill with that appropriation in it and send it to the House and the Senate for them to make the final decision,” Horman said.
Horman said she a strong supporter of aquifer recharge. She met with Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke and Rep. Van Burtenshaw last week to reach a compromise on one aspect of the legislation.
“What I was fighting for was an earmark, which was that in year one of this ongoing appropriation, the money would be earmarked for the success of the 2024 settlement agreement,” she said. “We agreed to a compromise where they would agree to support earmarking, and I would agree to support ongoing funding.”
The measure includes a provision that in the coming year, half of the funds will be allocated to District 3 and half to District 4 — earmarking the funds for eastern Idaho and the Magic Valley.
“We have sent a lot of money to other parts of the state and I supported every dime of that money, but this (time) the need was in southern Idaho,” Horman said.
Raymond said there was a small difference between JFAC’s motion — an “appropriation with intent” — and Burtenshaw’s original bill — “a policy bill with a request for funding.”
He’s grateful the measure is moving forward.
“Water is a shared resource … with every citizen of the state, so it does have an obligation to plan and fund these projects,” Raymond said.
He anticipates the House and Senate will support the measure before adjourning in the coming weeks.
“Every year we have what we call a going home bill. We can’t come home till it’s passed,” Raymond said. “This is that bill this year.”
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Idaho
Idaho Falls man arrested after allegedly hitting man in the head with baseball bat in fight over guns – East Idaho News

IDAHO FALLS – A 27-year-old Idaho Falls man was arrested Sunday night after he allegedly hit another man in the head after being refused access to his guns.
Augustus Wyatt Gokey was charged with one felony count of aggravated assault causing great bodily harm. If he is found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison.
According to court documents, on Sunday around 10:30 p.m., an Idaho Falls Police officer responded to a report of a man being hit in the head with a baseball bat.
The document states that due to the nature of the call, the officer activated the patrol car’s emergency lights and sirens to get to the home as quickly as possible.
The officer reported that at the property, a man was seen through the window with a “large laceration to the left side of his forehead.”
The document states that the wounded man signaled the officer into the home. Once inside, the officer yelled, “Police!” and another man came out of the kitchen.
The man was later identified as Gokey. The officer reported that Gokey was “immediately agitated and appeared to be under the influence of something due to his large pupil size and profuse sweating.”
The officer asked Gokey if he had any weapons on him, and he responded he did not. The officer patted him down and found no weapons. He was later placed in handcuffs.
The officer spoke with the man who was hit, who was “bleeding pretty badly,” and when the officer asked if he needed any medical attention, he denied it.
Another officer arrived and began treating the wounded man, and the first officer spoke with Gokey.
Gokey told the officer that he’d been going through a lot, which involved “an ex-girlfriend having a child and that there were 30 men after him that he was afraid of.”
The officer asked who these men were, but Gokey told him he’d never tell.
When the officer asked him what happened at the home, Gokey said he was there to pick up a shotgun that he had stored at a safe, as he did not feel safe at his home.
Gokey told the officer the other man told him he could not have the gun and that the other man allegedly attacked him and pushed him away from the safe.
The officer asked how the other man got hurt, and Gokey said when he pushed the man off him, he fell and hit his head on a rowing machine in the basement near the safe.
When questioned about the baseball bat, Gokey said he brought it for protection and denied ever hitting the other man with it.
The officer said that during the interview with Gokey that he appeared to become irate and yell about things other things and had an odor of alcohol coming from him.
Gokey was later placed in the patrol car after he refused to calm down.
While being placed in the backseat of the patrol car, the officer asked Gokey if he had been using any drugs. Gokey replied he wasn’t and that he’d been clean for years, though he said he’d used heroin and fentanyl in the past.
The other officer who helped the wounded man told the first officer his side of the incident.
According to the man, Gokey came to the victim’s home to pick up a gun and had the baseball bat.
The victim refused to give the firearm to Gokey due to “his mental and physical state he was in, because he did not want anyone to get hurt.”
After the refusal, the man said Gokey had grabbed a grinder tool and was trying to get into the safe with it. The man told him to stop, and that’s when he said Gokey grabbed the bat.
Gokey waved the bat around in a motion, making it appear as if he was going to hit the man. The two then got into a scuffle over the bat, and at one point, he allegedly hit the victim in the forehead.
The document states there was blood on the barrel and the handle of the bat. The bat itself was taken as evidence.
Gokey is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing before 7th Judicial District Magistrate Judge Stephen Clark at 1 p.m. on March 28.
Though Gokey has been charged with these crimes, this does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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Idaho
Father of Idaho murder victim reacts to updates in Kohberger trial

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Idaho
University of Idaho Murder Suspect Took Smiling Selfie Hours After Quadruple Homicide | Oxygen Official Site

The latest of many court filings related to Bryan Kohberger’s upcoming murder trial includes photo evidence prosecutors want the jury to see.
In the state’s response to a defense motion, filed with Ada County in Idaho on March 17, 2025, Latah County prosecutors pointed to eyewitness “D.M.” — identified in the media as Dylan Mortensen — who saw the “weird-looking ski-mask”-wearing killer in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. That was the time, prosecutors claim, Kohberger allegedly stabbed University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 21, and Ethan Chapin, 20, to death in the beds of their off-campus residence in Moscow.
Court documents, signed by Senior Deputy Prosecutor Ashley Jennings, quoted from several of Mortensen’s interviews with law enforcement, during which the surviving roommate couldn’t quite describe the killer’s facial features except for his distinctive “bushy eyebrows.” Prosecutors stated their intention to introduce a selfie Kohberger took after the murders so the jury can decide whether the detail matched.
Bryan Kohberger took a selfie after the murders
Kohberger took a selfie from his phone on Nov. 13, 2022, at 10:31 a.m., mere hours after the quadruple homicide, according to prosecutors. It would have been around the same time roommates found the victims dead and placed a frantic call to 911.
The photo, obtained and reviewed by Oxygen.com, shows Kohberger with a close-lipped smile and giving a thumbs-up in a white button-down shirt. His hair is slicked back, and it appears he’s standing in front of a pink, tiled shower, wearing black audio devices in his ears.
In addition to the selfie, prosecutors also provided a copy of Kohberger’s driver’s license, issued September 2020 from his home state of Pennsylvania.
“Defendant argues that evidence of ‘bushy eyebrows’ is not relevant. That is not the case,” prosecutors stated. “D.M. is the only living person who saw the person responsible for the four homicides at 1122 Kind [sic] Road on November 13, 2022. Her description of this individual, including characteristics such as ‘bushy eyebrows,’ has the tendency to make a fact (i.e. the identity of the killer) more probable than it would be without the evidence.”
University of Idaho Murder Victims’ Ex-Roommate Reveals Final Text: “Knew Something Was Wrong”
The issue with “bushy eyebrows”
The defense, in their initial motion (which remains sealed), moved to strike the eyebrow-related testimony from the courtroom because “its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice and confusion of the issues.”
In their response, prosecutors stated: “What is clear from the defendant’s filing is that the defendant doesn’t like this piece of the state’s evidence … and therefore would like to keep this piece of evidence from the jury. However, his arguments are without merit … This description is clear. It is not confusing and therefore will not confuse a jury.”
A judge has yet to rule.
What did Mortensen report seeing?
Recently revealed texts between Mortensen and fellow roommate Bethany Funke painted a chilling scene of the moment Mortensen saw the killer in a ski-type mask around 4:20 a.m. Shortly before, Mortensen said she was awoken in her second-story bedroom by sounds she believed was victim Kaylee Goncalves “playing with her dog in an upstairs bedroom.”
Mortensen reported hearing “crying” before a male stranger’s voice said, “It’s OK, I’m going to help you,” as repeated in the recent court filing.
Four days later, when speaking to Idaho State Police (I.S.P.) Detective Victoria Gooch and Moscow Police Department Sergeant Dustin Blaker, Mortensen said she opened the door and saw the killer from about three feet away. She said the unknown male wore a “weird-looking ski mask,” black pants, a black long-sleeved top, and black boots.
“I knew the person was white,” Mortensen reported. “I don’t know how, but I just knew it. Knew it was male. I think I knew that because of the voice. The person was around my height or a few inches taller … And then I knew his build wasn’t like scrawny, and he wasn’t fat, so I figured it was like the basketball toned, lean build.”
Compared to Mortensen’s 5’ 10” height, she guessed the suspect was about six feet tall, according to the prosecution’s response. Bryan Kohberger’s license puts him at six feet even.
However, when Mortensen saw Kohberger’s mugshot following his Dec. 30, 2022, arrest in Pennsylvania, she said she didn’t recognize him.
“When I looked at his picture, nothing came back to me at all,” she told I.S.P. detectives the next day, according to the recent court document.
Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, with a trial start date slated for August 2025. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
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