Deadly Highway 20 Crash: Police pinpoint fault as NTSB launches independent investigation

KIFI on May 6, 2025

Seth Ratliff

ISLAND PARK, Idaho (KIFI) — The Idaho State Police has determined the driver at fault in last Thursday’s deadly crash on U.S. Highway 20 near Henry’s Lake.

The collision involved a Dodge Ram pickup and a Mercedes passenger van, both of which caught fire after the crash.

“Based on current evidence, investigating troopers have determined that the Dodge Ram pickup crossed the center line and struck the eastbound Mercedes passenger van,” writes ISP. “This finding will be documented in the official Idaho Vehicle Crash Report (IVCR).”

The reason the pickup crossed the center line is still under investigation. ISP reports that crash reconstruction is ongoing, and troopers are working to determine all factors contributing to the crash.

Thursday’s crash took the lives of seven people, including the driver of the Dodge Ram, as well as six passengers of a tour group by Ctour Holiday.

Tuesday morning, May 6, Ctour Holiday sent Local News 8 the following statement responding to the crash.

“CTour Holiday is saddened by the loss of life and injuries suffered in this terrible accident. CTour Holiday is continuing to work with the families as well as the investigating authorities regarding this accident.”-

Ctour Holiday LLC

ISP troopers are actively collaborating with Ctour Holiday LLC, as well as with the home countries of both the surviving and deceased tourists, as the investigation into the crash continues.

National Transportation Safety Board to lead independent investigation

In addition to ISP, the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an independent investigation. This is due to the commercial vehicle’s involvement and the magnitude of the crash.

According to ISP, National Transportation Safety Board Personnel have visited the scene and are reviewing evidence. While information is being shared between the two agencies, ISP says each will conduct its investigation separately.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those lost in this tragedy,” said ISP Sgt. Blake Higley. “We are incredibly grateful to the passersby who stopped to help and to the first responders whose quick actions and teamwork aided those in critical need. This was a challenging and emotional scene for everyone involved.”

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Rural Metro and BLM battle river brush fire

KYMA on May 6, 2025

Dillon Fuhrman

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – Rural Metro Fire and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) were on hand to battle a river brush fire Tuesday afternoon.

According to Rural Metro, the fire happened in the area of Water Street near Joe Henry Park, and Rural Metro received the call at around noon.

Upon arrival, Rural Metro said they found a brush actively burning along the river, and it was a 1,000 foot by 50 foot river brush.

Rural Metro says they sent out one fire truck and two water tenders to help battle fire.

BLM, according to Rural Metro, also arrived on scene and took over to put out the fire using an active backburn.

No injuries were reported and no structures were damaged, Rural Metro says.

BLM is currently on scene to check for any hotspots, according to Rural Metro.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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Updates on two prescribed burns conducted northeast of La Pine, south of Sisters

KTVZ on May 6, 2025

Barney Lerten

La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) — Firefighters on the Deschutes National Forest conducted prescribed burning operations south of Sisters and northeast of La Pine Wednesday.

Ignitions were complete on Odin North Unit 3 northeast of La Pine by the afternoon, for a total of 199 acres, more than 100 acres less than the sought-after total. Firefighters will not continue with ignitions in Odin North Unit 7 this afternoon. Crews have transitioned to mop-up and patrol operations.

Residents in Newberry Estates and La Pine are encouraged to keep doors and windows closed to minimize smoke impacts. Smoke impacts are most likely overnight and in the early morning hours.

Meanwhile, Sisters Ranger District fighters have ceased ignitions on SAFR 34 located 3 miles south of Sisters at roughly 7 acres due to unfavorable conditions. Firefighters have transitioned to mopping up and securing the prescribed burn perimeter.

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Earlier info:

The Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District plans to ignite up to 310 acres on the Odin North Prescribed Burn Units 3 and 7, located four miles northeast of La Pine, south of Paulina Lake Road and east of Newberry Estates. Ignitions are planned for Wednesday and will continue on Thursday, if conditions remain favorable. No road or trail closures are anticipated. 

Ignitions are slated to begin at 10 a.m. Smoke will be visible from Highway 97, La Pine and Sunriver. Residents in Newberry Estates and La Pine are encouraged to keep doors and windows closed to minimize smoke impacts. Smoke impacts are most likely overnight and in the early morning hours. 

On Wednesday, the Sisters Ranger District plans to conduct 30 acres of prescribed burning on the SAFR Unit 34 Prescribed Burn three miles south of Sisters and east of Forest Service Road 16 near the PRT – Whychus Horse Ford Tie Trail. While no road or trail closures are anticipated, the public is asked to avoid recreating in the vicinity of the prescribed burn. 

Ignitions are planned for 9 a.m. Residents in Sisters and the surrounding area are encouraged to keep doors and windows closed to minimize smoke impacts. Smoke impacts are most likely overnight and in the early morning hours. 

Firefighters implement understory prescribed burning to reduce wildfire risk to communities. Prescribed burning reintroduces and maintains fire within our fire-dependent ecosystem by removing concentrations of vegetation and restoring forest health while increasing public and firefighter safety. 

Fire management officials work with Oregon Department of Forestry smoke specialists to plan prescribed burns. Prescribed burns are conducted when the weather is most likely to move smoke up and away from our communities. While prescribed fire managers take significant preventive measures, it’s likely that communities may experience some smoke during or immediately after a prescribed burn.  

What does this mean for you? 

During prescribed burns, smoke may settle in low-lying areas overnight and in the early morning hours.  

All residents are encouraged to close doors and windows at night to avoid smoke impacts. 

If available, use a portable air cleaner. Air cleaners work best running with doors and windows closed. You can also create a DIY air cleaner. 

If you have a central air system, use it to filter air. Use high-efficiency filters if possible. 

When driving in smoky areas, drivers should slow down, turn on headlights and turn air to recirculating. 

If you have heart or lung disease, asthma, or other chronic conditions, pay attention to how you feel and if symptoms of heart or lung disease worsen, consider contacting your health care professional. 

Go to centraloregonfire.org to learn more about smoke safety and prescribed burning in Central Oregon and visit When Smoke is in the Air for more smoke preparedness resources. 

For more information on prescribed burning in Central Oregon, visit centraloregonfire.org/ and for information specific to the Deschutes National Forest visit fs.usda.gov/r06/desch

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Pikes Peak Library District to hold meet-and-greet, publishing tips from local authors

KRDO on May 6, 2025

Celeste Springer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) says it will hold a “Mountain of Authors” event where members of the community can meet local authors and learn more about the writing and publishing process.

According to PPLD, the event will feature author Pete McBride for a keynote address, and other authors will be available for book signings. Publishing agent Michael Covington will also be in attendance, PPLD said.

The event is free and open to the public. It kicks off at noon on Saturday, May 17 at Library 21c, which is located at 1175 Chapel Hills Dr.

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SJPD, FOP honors teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week

News-Press NOW on May 6, 2025

Jenna Wilson

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Teachers in the St. Joseph School District were able to get some sweet treats for Teacher Appreciation Week Tuesday morning.

The St. Joseph Police Department and Lodge 3 of the Fraternal Order of Police raised over $1,000 to show their support for educators in the St. Joseph School District. 

“Many of us at the department have parents who are teachers in the district,” said Sgt. Kylee Van Meter of the St. Joseph Police Department. “They’ve always been so supportive of us, and we wanted to do something small to give back and show that we appreciate them and recognize what they do every day.”

Sgt. Jeremy Peters credited Van Meter for coming up with the idea to honor SJSD teachers noting, their hard work made it possible to raise the funds in just three days.

“All of this is being funded completely by donations from our coworkers and our police union,” Peters said. “Our team is amazing when it comes to working together on these kinds of events and it feels good to remind our teachers that they’re doing a great job for our community and kids.”

Local elementary students say this is just a small token of appreciation for what their teachers truly deserve, crediting them for their crucial role in learning and development.     

“Our teachers do a lot for us, said Liam Peters, a student at Skaith Elementary. “When I first started school in kindergarten, I didn’t know much. But now that I’m in third grade, I know a lot more- and that’s thanks to my teachers.”

“It makes me really happy to see our teachers awarded because they teach us and keep us safe,” said Olivia Peters. 

While it’s a rule students are expected to follow year-round, Liam Peters said that his goal this week, along with his classmates, is to stay silent in the classroom when the teacher asks.

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MU School of Medicine ends childhood immunization program following federal cuts

KMIZ on May 6, 2025

Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

MU School of Medicine had to cut its childhood immunization program after a mass grant termination in March after grants allocated for the Department of Health and Senior Services during the COVID-19 pandemic were pulled back by the federal government.

The immunization program was formed in May 2024 in collaboration with Washington University Pediatric and Adolescent Research Consortium and the Missouri Immunization Coalition. An MU Health Care spokesperson said the program was ended three weeks ago.

This comes as a number of measles cases have been reported in the state. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services confirmed on Tuesday that a measles case was reported in New Madrid County, an area in Missouri’s bootheel. St. Louis’ health department notified the public on Monday about a potential measles exposure at the St. Louis Aquarium on April 30.

The program was led by University of Missouri Professor Jane McElroy, with the goal of giving pediatric providers resources for child vaccinations. This included daily check-ins with clinicians, training on how to inform patients about vaccines and infographics that could be given to parents with vaccine information. A main focus of the program was more underserved and rural areas in the state.

“There was excellent feedback from our clinicians. They really liked being heard at their level because we worked directly with them,” practice facilitator Laura Canaday said. “It was really great resources to be able to share those with clinicians all over the state to really help their knowledge as well as educating their patients.”

Canaday said that the program worked with 16 clinicians, made up of pediatricians, family medicine doctors and nurse practitioners and their practices. Canaday adds that thousands of children were helped.

Of the over $117 million given to Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services, only around $62 million was given before the funding was cut off. Of those funds, around $2 million was given to MU School of Medicine’s immunization program.

“We were totally depressed, it was horrible,” McElroy said. “I don’t think I understood the reason, I don’t understand why we would not want to be continuing to do this work.”

McElroy adds that they were notified about the cuts on March 25 and the team was given until March 30 to send in all invoices from participants for claims to be received.

“It was six health care centers, they had to scramble to get all their invoices, all the receipts in to us, basically in three working days, or they weren’t going to get paid any money, so it’s quite a challenge for everybody to be able to handle that,” Canaday said.

Of the $2 million given, only $1 million was able to be used before the cuts.

McElroy says that isn’t currently a plan for vaccine resources in the works and she is especially worried about measles cases in Missouri on the rise as pediatric clinics are already stretched thin.

“Clinicians, pediatricians, when they’re seeing a patient, they have a gazillion things that they can do for preventative care, it’s a long list of things they can do at any 15 minute visit,” McElroy said. “With us going away, that may bubble down now so that’s one thing that may not be as on the top of their to-do list with the patients.”

McElroy recommends any parents looking for more information on measles to check the CDC’s website.

“It’s not clear if there will be any opportunities for money to get support, fiscal support to do with immunizations, at this moment, it’s it’s very much up in the air,” McElroy said. “It’s a very disruptive climate right now as far as understanding what will be possible in the near future.”

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Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies arrest jailed Level 3 sex offender on new charges

KTVZ on May 6, 2025

Barney Lerten

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — A Level 3 registered sex offender has been arrested on new charges of encouraging child sex abuse while in the Deschutes County Jail on a probation/parole violation.

Last November, Deschutes County Parole and Probation contacted the Bend Police Department regarding Emily Fawkes, also known as Jeffrey Yaeger, 45, of Bend, being in violation of their supervision requirements, sheriff’s Sergeant Thomas Lilienthal said.

Bend Police Department Officers were able to locate Fawkes at a Bend store and took Fawkes into custody for a probation/parole violation, Lilienthal said.

While being taken into custody, Bend Police officers located a tablet in Fawkes’s possession, which is an additional violation of their probation/parole conditions.

Deschutes County Parole and Probation officers developed information that the tablet located in Fawkes’s possession was utilized to consume Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM) while in their possession. Parole and Probation officers and Bend Police informed the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit.

ICAC Detectives wrote a search warrant to both seize and analyze the device and Fawkes was lodged at the county jail in Bend for violating probation and parole.

Over the next several months, Lilienthal said, Redmond Police Department Digital Forensics completed the analysis of data on Fawkes’s tablet, locating Child Sex Abuse Material and other information consistent with Fawkes seeking both Child Sex Abuse Material and contact with children online.

On April 29th, 2025, while still in jail, additional crimes of second-degree encouraging child sexual abuse were charged against Fawkes, the sergeant said.

Fawkes is a Level 3 registered sex offender for a child sex crime and is on post-prison supervision for a child sex crime as well.

Lilienthal wrote, “The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank Deschutes County Parole and Probation, the Bend Police Department, and the Redmond Police Department for their partnership and investment in protecting the children of our community.”

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Board backs new Joint Powers Authority to find solutions to Coachella Valley power shortfalls

KESQ on May 6, 2025

City News Service

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – Riverside County supervisors today approved a compact to establish a new governing authority comprised of the county and multiple cities within the Coachella Valley that will be responsible for developing plans to ensure desert communities secure affordable electricity in the future.

“This is years in the making,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Manuel Perez said. “It’s going to cost $1.5 billion to build up and improve the generation and transmission (capacity), improve the power grid to provide electricity in the eastern Coachella Valley. Our goal is to keep costs as low as possible.”  

The board’s 5-0 vote Tuesday to join the proposed Coachella Valley Power Agency-Joint Powers Authority, or CVPA-JPA, lays the groundwork for eventually setting up an independent entity for acquiring, or possibly generating, electricity to sustain wide swaths of the valley. For now, however, the CVPA-JPA is proposed to function as a coordinate branch of the Imperial Irrigation District, which has been supplying the power needs of a large segment of eastern Riverside County for almost a century.

“Growth is occurring in the Coachella Valley at a tremendous pace, and frankly, the power needs have not kept up with that,” Coachella Valley Association of Governments Executive Director Tom Kirk told the board. “Something has to change. We’ve been wrestling with this issue for a number of years. We’re concerned that IID’s power system is not keeping up with demand, and we’re concerned that (county residents) are not receiving representation. This JPA would not replace IID, but would work with it to address issues specific to the Coachella Valley.”

CVAG took the lead in initiating the JPA concept, and its staff are slated to be at the forefront of fulfilling the new governing body’s administrative needs.

The JPA would supplant the Coachella Valley Energy Commission, which IID formed in 2021 in response to complaints from the agency’s Riverside County energy recipients about not having direct input on the IID Board of Directors. The CVED has only offered advice; the new JPA would be positioned to vote on plans for projects, as well as pass resolutions advocating new ones.   

Under the California Government Code, to found a JPA, at least three voting members are needed. The La Quinta City Council formally approved adding a representative last month, and with the county’s support Tuesday, only one other prospective member is needed to enact the JPA. That’s expected to happen Wednesday, when the Indio City Council will take up the proposal.   

Going forward, multiple entities will be eligible to join, including four Native American tribes, four municipalities and the Coachella Valley Water District.

Only one person spoke in opposition to the JPA — Rancho Mirage resident Brad Anderson. He told the board there were “other avenues that should be investigated” before creating another governing entity that will come with costs.

The JPA agreement acknowledged that operations, including the use of CVAG personnel, will require funding, which may be obtained via new fees, assessments on cities that are voting members, or possibly electrical surcharges. None of those costs had been determined yet.

Moreno Valley resident Roy Bleckert suggested the obvious electricity cost-saver may be a new nuclear power plant.   

“There won’t have to be subsidies,” he told the board. “California has the highest cost of electricity in the country, and it’s going higher. You should be enacting policies that would actually be effective.”

Perez, whose Fourth District encompasses the entire Coachella Valley, said it was worth considering.   

Once the JPA is formed, affected residents will be notified of the governing body’s meetings and how to contact their representatives about any issues of concern.

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78-year-old man in Gasconade County crash dies

KMIZ on May 6, 2025

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A 78-year-old man died after he was in a single-vehicle crash early Tuesday on Route N in Gasconade County, south of Highway 100, a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol says.

The report says the Morrison man was driving his 2025 Polaris Ranger southbound when he suffered a medical issue. The vehicle went off the left side of the road, hit a utility box and a tree, the report says.

The man flown to University Hospital in Columbia, where he was pronounced dead, the report says. The man was not wearing a seatbelt, according to the report.

The vehicle was totaled.

MSHP reports do not name those involved in crashes.

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Ron Oliver, ‘King of Hallmark Christmas movies,’ receives star on Palm Springs Walk of the Stars

KESQ on May 6, 2025

Jesus Reyes

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – Acclaimed writer and director Ron Oliver, known as the “King of Hallmark Christmas movies,” received his star on the Palm Springs Walk of the Stars.

The ceremony was held Friday morning at 222 S Palm Canyon Drive, where the star is located.

Oliver is an Emmy-nominated director, writer, producer, and composer whose career launched with the cult horror classic Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, called “the Blue Velvet of high school horror movies” by the Los Angeles Times.

He’s written and directed a string of award-winning movies and TV favorites for Warner Bros., Universal, Disney, and Fox.

Oliver is perhaps best known for his numerous Hallmark Christmas films, which are among the highest-rated in the network’s history, and his Netflix hit “Falling for Christmas,” which became the #1 movie worldwide.

He’s also been recognized for helping make Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark one of the “Top Ten Most Frightening TV Shows” ever made. He also cast a teenage Ryan Gosling during his time on “Goosebumps.”

A two-time Directors Guild of America nominee, Oliver’s career has taken him from Berlin to Johannesburg to Hollywood (with a few stops for cocktails along the way). His work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, and even splashed across the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

He’s a published author of award-winning short fiction, and in 2018, he was granted Knighthood by the Sovereign Nation of Sealand — although despite the official title Sir Ronald Oliver OMS, he still happily answers to “Hey, you!”

A proud Palm Springs resident since 2003, Ron Oliver purchased a midcentury A-frame in Racquet Club Estates and quickly became an active part of the community. As a founding Communications Coordinator for the Racquet Club Estates Neighborhood Organization (RCENO), he helped raise funds for the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, Vista Del Monte Elementary, and other local causes. He’s also a longtime supporter of the Palm Springs Art Museum, Modernism Week events, and formerly, the Well in the Desert.

Oliver famously penned Beethoven’s Treasure Tail while staying at the historic Ingleside Inn—where, on Christmas night 2013, he married his husband in a courtyard ceremony officiated by actor and close friend Udo Kier.

Oliver nominated Kier for a star, which is the 437th. The ceremony was held in Jan. 2020.

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