Idaho
'Hidden crisis': North Idaho needs foster parents
COEUR d’ALENE — When Tali Nichols was a 21-year-old newlywed, she didn’t plan to have children for a few years, maybe not until after she finished her degree in elementary education.
Then she and her husband, Morgan, got a call that changed their lives.
A family member had lost custody of her baby, who was just six days old. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare was looking for kinship caregivers — relatives or close family friends who could care for the baby.
“We had 24 hours to decide if we would take in a newborn baby,” Nichols recalled.
They’ve raised the boy ever since. Two and a half years after he first came into their home, they adopted him. The 8-year-old boy has been joined by two biological siblings, aged 7 and 4, as well as many foster siblings over the years.
“We’ve used this as an opportunity to show the love of God to others and what it means to be a family,” she said.
The Nichols are among just 219 foster families in the five northern counties. There are about 1,500 foster children in Idaho at any given moment. The Idaho Department of Welfare needs to recruit more foster parents like the Nichols, with a goal of doubling the rate of qualified foster families in Idaho.
In the near-decade since the Nichols began fostering, they’ve cared for 19 different children, ranging in age from newborns to older teens. Many of the children stayed with the Nichols only briefly, while relatives got licensed to provide kinship care. Others stayed for longer.
“Foster care is this hidden crisis,” said Mishaela “Shae” Mouchette, Region 1 recruitment coordinator for Fostering Idaho. “People don’t know how many children are in foster care at their child’s school or in their church. They just don’t see it.”
In North Idaho, the number of foster children is usually about equal to the number of foster homes, but most foster parents prefer to care for children under the age of 12. Only about 10% of foster parents are open to caring for teens, according to IDHW.
“People are scared of teens,” Mouchette said. “Our goal is to show people that these are just kids. All they need is some love and some stability. They’re not to be feared.”
When there are no foster homes available for teens, they must live in group homes. Mouchette said such settings can be damaging for teens who have already experienced trauma and instability.
“It’s no way to live,” she said. “It doesn’t come close to being in a foster home and having one-on-one people there to love and care for you.”
In addition to her role at Fostering Idaho, Mouchette is a foster mom. She and her husband became licensed in 2020. Their first long-term placement was a pair of siblings, a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, whom they fostered for two years and ultimately adopted. They’ve also welcomed a biological son and will soon continue fostering.
Mouchette emphasized that her family’s adoption experience is not typical and, in some ways, not ideal. The No. 1 goal of foster care is to reunite children with their biological parents or, barring that, with other biological relatives.
About 65% of Idaho children in foster care are eventually reunited with their parents, Mouchette said. Most other children are permanently placed in the care of relatives, whether through guardianship or adoption.
“It is a win every time a child is reunified with family,” she said.
Many people become foster parents for the same reason as the Nichols did: to care for a specific child, typically that of a relative or a close friend, in an emergency. Of 219 foster families in North Idaho, 92 are providing kinship care for a specific child.
“They can’t be called for an emergency placement,” Mouchette said.
That’s why it’s important to increase the number of foster parents in Idaho.
“Anybody who feels they have the capacity in their heart and their home, that’s who we’re looking for,” said Monty Prow, deputy director of youth and family services for IDHW. “We can work with you to get the rest of the way there. If a family’s heart is pulling them in this direction, the rest is detail. We can work that out.”
Mouchette said some people mistakenly think they’re unsuitable for fostering because they’re unmarried, don’t own a home or don’t fit into another preconceived idea about what foster parents should be. But it takes all kinds.
Foster parents can be single, married or divorced. They can live in apartments. They can be parents or have no parenting experience. They can be part of the LGBTQ+ community. They can come from any culture or religious faith. In fact, Mouchette said, foster parents from different backgrounds are needed because foster children come from diverse backgrounds, too.
“They need people who will accept them for who they are,” Mouchette said.
Social support and other resources are available for foster parents in Idaho. In addition to frequent group events where foster parents can meet and build community, each Region 1 foster parent has a mentor they can turn to when they need advice or support.
“That is a huge support that other states don’t have,” Mouchette said.
Respite care options are available for foster parents who need a break. Both Nichols and Mouchette have provided respite care for other foster families.
Foster parents also receive a monthly reimbursement to offset the costs of caring for children. This reimbursement is a flat amount based on the child’s age, beginning at $632 per month for children aged 5 and younger and topping out at $759 per month for children aged 13 to 17.
Nichols said she and her husband will continue to foster for the foreseeable future.
“We’ll be there as long as the kids need us,” she said. “It’s hard. You can’t go in with blinders on. You have to be aware of the struggles and be willing to embrace grief. But there is so much joy and so much healing. It’s always more than you expect at the beginning.”
To learn more about foster care for prospective families, call 211 or 800-926-2588 or visit the foster care page on the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare website.
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
BOISE, Idaho — AAA is warning Idaho gas consumers that pump prices will likely rise as the conflict in Iran disrupts oil and gas supply chains worldwide.
The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East will likely push the price for a gallon of regular gasoline past the $3 mark over the coming days.
“On one hand, the crude oil market had time to account for some financial risk in the Middle East as forces mobilized, but a supply shortage somewhere affects the global picture,” says AAA Idaho public affairs director Matthew Conde. “If tankers can’t move products through the region, there could be ripple effects.”
On Monday, March 2, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.97, reports AAA, which is 12 cents more expensive than it was a month ago but 20 cents less than this time last year.
State / Price: 1 gallon of regular gasoline
- Washington / $4.37
- Oregon / $3.92
- Nevada / $3.70
- Idaho / $2.97
- Colorado / $2.89
- Montana / $2.82
- Utah / $2.74
- Wyoming / $2.73
In terms of the most expensive fuel in the nation, Idaho currently ranks #14. However, buying a gallon of regular gas in neighboring states such as Oregon and Washington could cost a whole dollar more. In contrast, gas prices in Utah, Montana, and Wyoming are anywhere between 15 to 24 cents cheaper than fuel in the Gem State.
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