Idaho
After destructive wildfire season, Idaho leaders say the state is actively preparing for the future • Idaho Capital Sun
As wildfires spread across homes in Southern California, Idaho Gov. Brad Little said the state of Idaho is working to prevent similar devastation from happening in Idaho.
At a press conference on Friday morning in Boise, Little and state agency leaders shared progress on how the state is implementing recommendations from the governor’s office’s inaugural Wildfire Report created in August, including financing and improving fire mitigation technology, helping utilities protect their infrastructure and supporting legislation to help protect Idaho homes and insurance rates.
“The devastating southern California fires are heartbreaking, and we continue to pray for the many families impacted,” Little said. “However, the extent of the damage is, unfortunately, not altogether surprising. The decisions of California’s elected leaders have made many places in the Golden State unsafe to live. The opposite is happening in Idaho. We are strategically and proactively reducing fire risk and ensuring Idahoans’ property is covered.”
Idaho agencies take steps to improve fire suppression technology, energy infrastructure
For the 2026 fiscal year, Little is recommending $100 million for fire management in Idaho — $60 million of which would replenish the Fire Suppression Deficiency Fund depleted during the 2024 fire season and $40 million which would cover the five-year average of fire suppression expenditures. The governor’s budget also includes funds to support wildland firefighter bonuses to help recruit workers.
Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller said Idaho’s population — which hit 2 million people last year — is growing. That means the department is seeing more human caused fires than before, and there are more fires in the wild and urban interface, he said.
Miller said the department is working to establish enhanced fire detection camera tools, satellite protection services and enhancing the state’s aviation management program.
Richard Stover, the administrator of the Idaho’s Governor’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources, said his office is also investing in protecting utility infrastructure through its Idaho Energy Resiliency Grant Program.
This year, the grant has funded 23 projects across Idaho, costing $22 million, to help mostly small rural municipal cooperative utilities protect their power lines and transmission poles from wildfire, he said.
As for out of state partnerships, Idaho Office of Emergency Management Director Brad Richy said he is proud of Idaho’s ability to help other states during natural disasters.
“The greatest thing about Idaho is the neighbors helping neighbors,” Richy said, noting that the office has sent 104 Idaho firefighters to suppress the fires in California.
Idaho Department of Insurance director proposes bill to ease wildfire risk, insurance rates
On Wednesday, Idaho Department of Insurance Director Dean Cameron introduced a bill to help homeowners mitigate wildfire risk and stabilize the insurance market in Idaho.
This year, nearly one million acres burned from wildfires in Idaho. Additionally, 140 structures were burned by fire — 41 of which were residences — Cameron told the House Business Committee on Wednesday.
‘No agency can do this alone’: Idaho officials address goals to mitigate wildfires
At the press conference, Cameron said his office regularly receives calls from individuals whose homeowners insurance is going up or their insurance is dropping their coverage.
There are 91 insurance companies in Idaho that sell homeowners insurance. In 2023, 22 of those companies asked to discontinue or not renew their policies in Idaho, Cameron said.
“Now we’re getting calls given the California fires about how to harden their homes, how to prevent the loss of property,” he said.
The purpose of House Bill 17, called the “Idaho Wildfire Risk Mitigation and Stabilization Pool Act,” is to assist homeowners against wildfire, keep insurance rates down and attract insurance companies to Idaho.
The bill would create a financial pool from existing resources to provide grants to homeowners to create fire mitigation upgrades on their property. These upgrades may include roof replacements, mesh screen installations and shrubbery reduction, Cameron told the committee on Wednesday. It would have no impact on the general fund. Additionally, the bill would create a 12-member board consisting of state officials, insurance, forest products, and fire industry experts who would develop strategies to stabilize the insurance market.
Cameron said some southern states have implemented a similar pool of funds for hurricanes, which effectively led to a drop in insurance rates in those states.
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Idaho
Gov. Little signs bill ending license plate registration stickers in Idaho
Gov. Brad Little has signed House Bill 533, which would remove the need for license plate stickers on Idaho vehicles.
The legislation, introduced earlier this session by Rep. Jon Weber (R) of Boise, eliminates the requirement for registration stickers on Idaho license plates. Weber stated during the bills intorduction that officers can verify the status of license plates without the stickers, potentially saving the state around $300,000.
During the bill’s introduction, some lawmakers argued that it could increase the workload for law enforcement.
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The new law is set to take effect in July.
Idaho
Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances
For the second year in a row, House lawmakers will consider urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
The nonbinding resolution, which carries no legal weight, says the decision in Obergefel v. Hodges violates the longstanding religious definition of marriage between one man and one woman.
“The current definition of marriage that allows for same-sex marriages is a defilement of the word marriage,” said Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R-Post Falls), who sponsors the measure.
The resolution further states that the Obergefel decision “arbitrarily and unjustly” rejects the historical definition of marriage.
Idaho voters passed a constitution amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, which was invalidated by the Obergefel ruling.
Wisniewski said regulating marriages should be a power left to the states.
Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) agrees.
“If you want to get things … closer to the people with respect to some of these more complex social issues, I think the best place for those things to happen is in the states,” Crane said.
Doing so is a risk, he said.
“You may have states that choose to acknowledge [polyamorous relationships]. You may have states that choose to have relationships between adults and younger children,” Crane said.
Cities in neighboring Oregon and Washington, for example, are considering giving those in polyamorous relationships legal recognition.
But he said that risk is worth it to allow other states that choose to only recognize traditional marriages.
Four lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee opposed the resolution.
Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) said she’s tried to balance her own religious beliefs with those of others while considering the measure.
“I do feel like that it is important for us to work together, to find ways to compromise and to live together in peace and mutual respect,” Bingham said.
The resolution now goes to the House floor for consideration.
House lawmakers last year passed a similar measure, but it never received a hearing in a Senate committee.
Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio
Idaho
University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders
A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.
A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”
“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.
“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”
Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.
The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.
Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.
Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”
The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.
Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.
In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.
During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.
However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.
She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.
It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.
The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
With Post wires
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