Idaho
Annual fly fishing expo returns to Idaho Falls next weekend – East Idaho News
IDAHO FALLS — The 29th Annual East Idaho Fly Tying Expo will return to Idaho Falls’ Mountain America Center this month, once again looking to raise money for conservation efforts.
The event, organized and hosted by the Snake River Cutthroats — the local chapter of the nonprofit organization Trout Unlimited — will offer various activities, attractions and workshops.
“This is our annual fundraiser,” said spokesman Dave Pace. “This is where we make our money … and all the money we make on this show, we use to fund our conservation projects and our education projects throughout the year.”
This year’s two-day expo will run Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15, and is admission-free.
As with years past, there will be vendors, workshops, classes, and youth activities. This year, though, there will be even more than ever, according to Pace.
With some 20 new vendors — 64 altogether — the expo will span nearly the entire Mountain America Center arena, concourse and Blue Cross Conference Center.
“We started out just using the arena area, then last year we added a couple vendors out on the concourse,” Pace said. “This year, we’re taking up about two-thirds of the concourse with vendors.”
The event, Pace said, is perfect for anyone who has never tried fly fishing before — with beginner workshops, including those for women-only and youth-teaching-youth — or the experienced fly fishers searching for new gear. And with a casting pond inside the arena, shoppers will be able to try out the new rod before they make a purchase.
Because the event is a fundraiser, some attractions will require a fee. The workshops, which offer lessons in small groups — usually 10 students per instructor — are among them.
But one event Pace is very excited about is the International Fly Fishing Film Festival, which will include a number of short films on fly fishing. The film festival will be held Friday beginning at 7 p.m. inside the Blue Cross Conference Center (which is inside the Mountain America Center). Admission to the film festival is $15.
There will also be raffles and a live auction. But donations to the Snake River Cutthroats’ conversation work can also be made on the organization’s website — here.
For more than 30 years, the Snake River Cutthroats have been involved in the care and maintenance of fisheries across eastern Idaho. Last year, money raised at the Fly Tying Expo went, among other projects, the construction of four ATV bridges at Rainey Creek, an area the organization has been working on for quite some time, Pace said.
“More recently, we’re working closer to home,” he said. “Rainey Creek has been a project of ours for close to 15 to 20 years. … Even though it’s the biggest tributary (to the South Fork), it’s the least-used. So it’s a big potential there that we’ve been trying to get opened back up. It’s been a hassle, but we’re still working on it.”
With around 60 members from multiple organizations, they built the bridges to eliminate the use of stream-crossings, which contributed to damage and sediment brought to the area.
The organization is also involved in yearly stream, river and roadside cleanings, all of which are funded through money made at the expo.
For more information about the Snake River Cutthroats, including how you can donate your time, visit their website or Facebook page here.
For further information about the expo, visit its website or Facebook page.
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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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