News Team
BUTTE COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) — The Cedar Fire near Mackay, sparked by a lightning strike on July 29, has grown to an estimated 731 acres. As of this morning, fire crews have achieved 16% containment.
According to the Pocatello Fire Department, which has a team in the area, crews are diligently working to thin fire fuels to slow its spread and mitigate risks. A specific timeline for full containment is not yet available.
News Team
JACKSON, Wyo. (KIFI) — A Jackson Hole High School teacher is being celebrated for her dedication to bringing history to life. Cheryl Katz has been named the 2025 Wyoming History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The award recognizes exceptional K–12 educators for their outstanding work in teaching American history.
For the past 20 years, Cheryl Katz has been a high school social studies educator, teaching students to critically analyze the development of the modern world. Her current courses at Jackson Hole High School include World History and Advanced Placement United States Government.
James G. Basker, president and CEO of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, emphasized the importance of educators like Katz. “History teachers play an essential role in helping students understand the past, build critical thinking skills, and develop a deeper appreciation for the people and events that shaped our nation,” he said. “We are proud to recognize educators who go above and beyond to make history engaging, meaningful, and relevant in their classrooms.”
In addition to the state title, Katz received a $1,000 prize, a collection of books, and other classroom resources. She is now in the running for the national title, which will be announced this fall.
News Release
The following is a news release from the University of Idaho:
MOSCOW, Idaho (KIFI) — University of Idaho researchers are tackling some of the toughest wildfire challenges with support from a new $1.4 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, which will fund nine additional doctoral-level researchers.
Working alongside NSF EPSCoR-funded postdoctoral scientists and faculty from across the university, the students will engage in research and envision new projects in fire physics, mitigation and forest regeneration and strengthen the resilience of rural communities to wildfires and other natural hazards.
“Wildland fire is inherently complex. It can have catastrophic impacts on human communities, yet it is also an essential natural disturbance in many types of ecosystems,” said Jessica Miesel, associate professor in the Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences and a co-principal investigator of the grant. “Understanding fire requires an interdisciplinary scientific approach, as well as close partnerships between scientists and land managers to develop practical and effective management solutions.”
The three-year award comes from the NSF EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program, which provides graduate fellowship funding to institutions in EPSCoR jurisdictions.
Students from institutions across the country who earned an honorable mention from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program within the last three years are eligible to apply. To learn more and apply for the opportunity, visit NSF’s Education and Training Application page: etap.nsf.gov/award/8247/opportunity/11307.
Fellows have the opportunity to earn their doctorates in one of three interdisciplinary degree programs: bioinformatics and computational biology, environmental science or water resources.
“U of I is Idaho’s only Carnegie R1 university and a national leader in foundational and use-inspired wildland fire science,” said Jerry McMurtry, dean of the U of I College of Graduate Studies (COGS) and principal investigator of the grant. “We’re well positioned to equip future scientists with the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills needed to address wildland fire challenges facing our world today and in the future.”
Fellows will conduct original research relating to wildland fire science under the guidance of U of I’s expert research faculty and have the option to pursue an Environmental Education and Science Communication graduate certificate at U of I’s McCall Outdoor Science School.
“The challenges of living with fire will not go away during our lifetime, but this award will help prepare future professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to create practical solutions,” Miesel said.
To learn more about COGS, visit uidaho.edu/cogs.
CNN Newsource
By Karina Tsui, Michelle Watson, Holly Yan, Taylor Galgano, Sarah Dewberry, CNN
(CNN) — Despite a grueling manhunt and a growing search zone, authorities say they might be getting closer to finding an Army veteran accused of gunning down four people for no obvious reason.
Michael Paul Brown is still on the run Tuesday, four days after authorities said he opened fire at The Owl Bar – a beloved gathering spot next to the suspect’s home in Anaconda, Montana.
At least 38 local, state and federal agencies have joined in the manhunt that now spans challenging terrain in the western Montana wilderness – including the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area, which is popular with campers and hikers.
While the last confirmed sighting of Brown was Friday, “there is certainly evidence in our search area that he’s present, and that we’re hunting in the right haystack,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said Tuesday.
He also warned residents in Anaconda, a community of less than 10,000 people, to stay “vigilant.”
“Absolutely, there’s concerns he might come back into the town,” Knudsen previously said. “By all indications, this is an unstable individual.”
Brown is believed to be armed and dangerous, Knudsen said Tuesday, and officials are offering up to $10,000 for information leading to his capture.
It’s still unclear why Brown allegedly killed four people at the bar around 10:30 a.m. Friday before fleeing in his underwear.
Victims include a beloved retired nurse
The victims included a bartender and three patrons, the attorney general’s office said. He identified the four victims as:
– Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59
– Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64
– David Allen Leach, 70
– Tony Wayne Palm, 74
Officials previously gave the wrong spelling for Baillie’s last name.
“I want to offer our deepest and sincere condolences to the community of Anaconda, to the family and friends of these victims,” Knudsen said. “This is just absolutely horrific.”
Kelley was an accomplished nurse who worked with cancer patients and had just started her retirement, bartender Cassandra Dutra said.
“I feel so sad for Nancy because I love Nancy and she was so very good to me from the day that I met her,” Dutra told CNN. “It just is an extremely unfair ending for somebody who spent their entire life dedicated to cancer patients and making a huge difference.”
‘He knew everybody that was in that bar’
It’s unclear whether Brown was targeting any of the victims or if he shot them randomly. But the suspect was a regular at The Owl Bar and likely knew the victims, owner David Gwerder told The Associated Press.
“He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,” Gwerder told the AP. “He didn’t have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.”
CNN has reached out to Gwerder for comment.
One of Brown’s relatives, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for their privacy, told CNN they worked at the bar for years and knew all four people who were killed. Now, they said they fear the hunt for Brown could end in his death.
“They were my customers,” the relative said of the victims. “They were my friends. I have been scared s**tless waiting for him to be found because I don’t want to have to bury (him),” they said.
“I need everybody to know that our family is devastated,” they added. “We can’t believe that this has happened.”
The suspect wasn’t the same after serving in the military, niece says
The suspect lived next door to the bar and would come in frequently, Dutra said. But “he wasn’t a part of the camaraderie” with other customers, the bartender said.
Brown served in the US Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and was part of an armored vehicle crew, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro told CNN. He was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005.
Brown later joined the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009 and left military service as a sergeant, Castro said.
The suspect’s niece, Clare Boyle, said her uncle struggled with mental health in the Army and wasn’t the same after his service.
Brown’s condition worsened after his parents died, Boyle told CNN. She described him as “very sick” but also recalled happy moments with him, such as learning to ride a bike and fishing together.
Brown’s family sought help from the Veterans Affairs Department and the Montana State Hospital, according to Boyle, but she said both institutions “turned us away.” CNN has sought comment from Veterans Affairs and the state hospital.
The Army declined to release information about Brown’s mental health history, citing policy and privacy constraints.
Brown’s niece said some patrons of The Owl Bar were aware of his mental illness and what she described as “his delusions.” Some would mock and bully Brown at times, she said, though she did not identify specific people. She said she was not aware of a specific conflict that could have motivated the shooting. Authorities have said it is unclear whether Brown targeted specific victims.
Boyle said she was devastated for the victims’ loved ones, noting five families were “destroyed” on Friday.
“There are no excuses or words of defense for this awful tragedy,” she said.
‘There’s a thousand places to hide’
Shortly after the killings, Brown was seen on surveillance video barefoot and wearing only underwear. But he may have collected new clothes from a stolen truck, authorities said.
Investigators found a white Ford F-150 truck that Brown was driving – but the suspect wasn’t inside, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson said.
“It was a stolen vehicle, but there was camping equipment in it,” Knudsen said. “We believe there was some clothing in it.”
Authorities locked down the Barker Lake area of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest over the weekend as local, state and federal agencies searched by land and air, the Montana Department of Justice said.
On Tuesday, Johnson declined to specify the latest scope of the search area.
“The type of terrain, it’s very challenging, so we have expanded our perimeters to look in different areas,” he said.
So far, there’s been no evidence that Brown has broken into cabins in the popular area, the attorney general said.
“There’s a number of cabins up there. They’ve all been swept and checked,” Knudsen said.
Anaconda resident Dan Haffey, who was a fire foreman for the Montana Division of Forestry, knows the area well. He told CNN his team would cut trails into Garrity Mountain for hikers.
“There’s a thousand places to hide on that mountain,” Haffey said.
“I’ve been on forest fires, and in that drainage up there, and (there are) 5,000 acres,” Haffey said. “That mountain is gigantic.”
The dozens of agencies searching for Brown include the FBI, Anaconda Deer Lodge County Police, the Granite County Sheriff’s Office, and the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“This manhunt has involved individuals from 38 local, state and federal agencies, and coordination of hundreds from all of those agencies has been a very difficult task,” Anaconda Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith said Tuesday.
“They are responding to every call, to every tip, and they are tirelessly searching the area where the suspect is believed to be.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Taylor Romine, Josh Campbell, Taylor Galgano, Danya Gainor and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
CNN Newsource
By Holly Yan, Josh Campbell, CNN
(CNN) — Stymied by treacherous terrain and untamed wilderness, authorities are struggling to find an Army veteran suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar last week.
Investigators say Michael Paul Brown, 45, vanished Friday after gunning down a bartender and three patrons at The Owl Bar in Anaconda – a community of less than 10,000 people nestled between the dense forests and formidable mountains of western Montana.
“This is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood – for no reason whatsoever,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said Sunday. “So there absolutely is concern for the public.”
Among the countless potential hideouts: Garrity Mountain, a popular hiking and camping site lined with cabins for outdoor enthusiasts.
As of Tuesday, the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area remained closed “until further notice” due to public safety concerns and an ongoing law enforcement presence, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said.
Other manhunts in the wilderness have lasted weeks – with at least one fugitive still missing after two months.
But it’s not just the challenging landscape impeding Brown’s capture.
The suspect had a big advantage
Brown fled in a sparsely populated area with fewer authorities, one official said, essentially giving him a head start while partnering law enforcement agencies were brought in from around the state.
And Garrity Mountain “is gigantic,” said Anaconda resident Dan Haffey, a former fire foreman for the Montana Division of Forestry whose team cut trails for hikers.
“There’s a thousand places to hide on that mountain.”
An array of local, state and federal authorities have joined in the manhunt, including the FBI, the Granite County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. But many of them had to travel to the manhunt, giving Brown more time to get away.
Denver, for example, is about 600 miles from Anaconda.
The search is exhausting with a grueling landscape
Hundreds of people from 38 local, state and federal agencies have helped with the manhunt, Anaconda Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith said.
The work is particularly strenuous for crews on the front lines.
“Look, it’s rough terrain up there. We’ve got a lot of personnel up there working. They’re carrying a lot of gear – animals, equipment, packs,” Knudsen said Tuesday.
While investigators have found evidence in the area, they’ve also expanded the search zone, said Lee Johnson, head of the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.
“The type of terrain, it’s very challenging,” Johnson said Tuesday. “So we have expanded our perimeters to look in different areas.”
There are fewer witnesses around
A $10,000 reward is available for information leading to Brown’s capture. But four days after the killings, Brown still hasn’t been found.
“There’s a lot of land, and not a lot of people,” said Dan Brunner, a former agent at the FBI’s field office in Bozeman, Montana.
“So there’s not a lot of civilians that will be looking out their window looking for a suspicious person,” Brunner said. “This man could easily hide for multiple, multiple weeks if he had resources prepared for himself.”
Brown has already been resourceful in his escape. Even though surveillance footage showed him fleeing in his underwear shortly after the killings, authorities believe he gathered fresh supplies from a white Ford F-150 pickup truck.
“It was a stolen vehicle, but there was camping equipment in it. We believe there was some clothing in it,” Knudsen said.
“So at this point, we have every reason to believe the suspect is fully clothed, shoes on his feet, able to get around.”
His military experience might help
Brown’s military background may have also honed his tactical skills.
He served in the US Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and was part of an armored vehicle crew, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro told CNN. Brown was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005.
He later joined the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009 and left military service as a sergeant, Castro said.
Brown is the latest fugitive with military experience who’s led authorities on an arduous manhunt through the wilderness.
Army veteran Travis Decker is still nowhere to be found two months after authorities said he suffocated his three daughters and left their bodies in the woods near Leavenworth, Washington.
Joseph Couch, a former combat engineer in the Army Reserve, evaded capture for more than a week last year after he sprayed bullets from an AR-15 onto cars on Interstate 75 in Kentucky, wounding five people. After an 11-day manhunt, Couch’s body was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
It’s not clear how long Brown might be able to elude authorities.
“If someone has knowledge of a wooded area – in other words, they live there, they may have hunted there, they know that area – they can live there for quite a long time, and those are some of the toughest people to locate,” retired US Marshal Steve Prosser said.
However, “even if you have survival skills, you’re not equipped in the long term to be self-sustaining without the help of other human beings,” said Donald Lane, who worked as a Secret Service agent and with the Department of Homeland Security for 20 years.
But authorities are confident Brown won’t outsmart them.
“We’ve got a lot of expertise, a lot of knowledge of the area,” Knudsen said.
“We’ve got every cabin, every hunting site that’s known up there pinned. There is a tremendous number of assets focused on searching that area.”
CNN’s Taylor Romine and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN Newsource
By Pat Reavy
Click here for updates on this story
SPANISH FORK, Utah (KSL) — The man charged with capital murder in the death of Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser is now facing additional charges for allegedly attacking multiple deputies at the Utah County Jail.
Michael Aaron Jayne, 43, of Garrett, Indiana — who is already awaiting trial on a charge of aggravated murder — was charged Monday in 4th District Court with aggravated assault by a prisoner, a second-degree felony; two counts of assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony; and causing property damage, a class A misdemeanor.
On July 30, two Utah County sheriff’s deputies were questioning Jayne about contraband found in his jail cell, according to charging documents.
“During the interview, (Jayne) became increasingly hostile and combative. When the deputies told him he would be moved to a more secure and restricted area of the jail, (Jayne) got to his feet, pushed the table toward the deputies, got in a fighting stance and said, ‘You’ll have to (expletive) make me go to Can One,'” the charges state.
As the deputies attempted to place handcuffs on Jayne, he threw punches at both men. After the deputies were able to pin Jayne against a wall, he yelled, “I will (expletive) kill you” and then “clawed” at one deputy’s face until he was able to dig a finger into the deputy’s eye socket “and curled his finger in an attempt to remove (the deputy’s) eyeball,” according to the charges.
Jayne also grabbed that deputy’s prescription glasses and “was stabbing at (the deputy’s) stomach with the metal part of the eyeglass frame, which he had sticking out between his fingers,” the charges state. The stabbing caused superficial wounds.
The second deputy attempted to help his partner, prompting Jayne to scratch and kick that deputy, according to the charges.
A third deputy who entered the room in an attempt to help suffered a sprained hand.
Jayne is already facing the death penalty if convicted of murder. He is accused of intentionally running over Hooser with a semitruck on May 5, 2024. A preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled for November.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
CNN Newsource
By Andrew Adams and Mary Culbertson
Click here for updates on this story
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah (KSL, KSL-TV) — A woman was arrested Monday in a stalking case that Cottonwood Heights police called “incredibly alarming” because of apparent delusions the woman has about her and the victim in the case — songwriter and Utah local, Post Malone.
According to Malone’s family, their concern had peaked because the woman’s behavior hadn’t stopped and had instead escalated continuously since early January.
On Monday, his father, Rich Post, told KSL-TV that the woman, Cherish Gomer, 31, had shown up at his son’s home at least a dozen times. Once, she even arrived barefoot after walking all the way from Salt Lake City, he said.
Further, law enforcement wrote in a police booking affidavit that Gomer “continues to stalk her victim and is always released from jail. She does not care about the consequences of her offenses, and will continue to cause significant emotional distress to her victim.”
According to court documents, the woman is homeless and reportedly “difficult to find.”
The latest encounter occurred early Monday, when she jumped in front of Malone’s car as he was trying to leave. Police said Malone’s driver had to swerve to avoid hitting her.
Officers quickly arrived and arrested Gomer just down the street. It was the second time she’d been arrested outside his home in eight days.
Court records show six stalking and criminal trespass cases in her file that date back to January, and a permanent protective order that was issued in February.
“She truly believes she has a calling from some sort of spirit animal, and she thinks she has a relationship with Mr. Post, and so she’s ‘entitled’ to do this, which is incredibly alarming, and these people can be incredibly dangerous as we’ve seen throughout history,” said Robby Russo, Cottonwood Heights police chief.
In Gomer’s most recent two cases, she was booked for investigation of third-degree felony stalking with a prior conviction and a violation of a permanent criminal stalking injunction. Additionally, Gomer pleaded no contest in April to an intoxication charge, stemming from an incident in January at the Post Malone-themed Raising Cane’s, 890 E. Fort Union.
Police said their goal was not only to protect Malone and his family, but also protect the woman “from herself.”
“We’ve exhausted all the remedies available within the system and the law, so we have the protective order, we keep arresting her, we keep putting her in jail and before a magistrate,” Russo said. “We’re hoping to find another remedy that keeps her away from the home and into some sort of program that helps her.”
As of Monday, Gomer was being held without bail at the Salt Lake County Jail.
Malone is scheduled to continue with upcoming tour dates, with the next date scheduled in Romania.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by KSL-TV’s editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
CNN Newsource
By Matt Gephardt
Click here for updates on this story
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSL, KSL-TV) — Utahns are losing millions of dollars to fraudulent contractors who are taking the money but then walking off the job. Now, the state has formed a task force to protect consumers from contractor scams.
The KSL Investigators have reported on contractors leaving their clients high and dry several times in our continuing “Cited but not Shut Down” series of reports – including a fencing contractor who abandoned several jobs, a deck builder who abandoned several jobs and a landscaper who was paid and then abandoned several jobs.
These are just three of the scores of complaints regularly sent to Get Gephardt by frustrated viewers dealing with contractor issues. State regulators hear complaints, too.
The Utah Division of Professional Licensing received over 2,100 construction complaints in 2024. It says more than 1,000 complaints have been processed in 2025 – and counting.
Newly released data shows Utahns reported a staggering $32 million in construction fraud losses over the last three years, according to the Utah Commerce Department.
“We’ve seen a surge in reporting of construction fraud,” said Margaret Woolley Busse, executive director.
She said the losses are particularly brutal for people building new homes, where the average loss per consumer is $302,000.
“We have a new task force that is going to be focused on the construction fraud problem that we have here in Utah,” Busse said.
Fraud is already a crime in Utah, but victims have long lamented that police tend to treat construction fraud as a civil matter, telling folks their recourse is filing a lawsuit.
One of the biggest changes with the new task force is that the state is assigning a prosecutor to go after bad contractors.
“We are putting together a very coordinated effort to stop this construction fraud,” Busse said.
Part of that effort includes working to stop scams before they happen. The task force is also putting together tools like contract templates, tips to hire good builders, and free guides on avoiding rip-offs.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
News Release
The following is a press release from the City of Idaho Falls:
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — The City of Idaho Falls recognizes City Attorney Michael Kirkham with both pride and a deep sense of gratitude for his outstanding service to the city as he takes judicial office as a Bonneville County magistrate judge. Kirkham’s legal expertise, professionalism and unwavering commitment to the City of Idaho Falls have been hallmarks of his extraordinary tenure. His contributions have played a vital role in shaping sound municipal governance and protecting the interests of the community.
Kirkham has served the City of Idaho Falls for more than 11 years. He began as the assistant city attorney in 2014 and was appointed as the city attorney on Dec. 1, 2023, following the retirement of longtime City Attorney Randy Fife.
“Mike’s service to the city has been nothing short of exceptional,” said Mayor Rebecca Casper. “His thoughtful counsel and steadfast integrity have earned the trust and respect of his colleagues and community alike. While we are excited for him and the next chapter in his career, he will be deeply missed — both personally and professionally.”
Kirkham’s official transition date is still being finalized, but city officials have already begun outlining the next steps and establishing a timeline for leadership transition.
The position of Idaho Falls city attorney has been posted and is available on the city’s website on the Career Page. The city hopes to announce Kirkham’s successor by early October. “The city attorney is critical to the operations of every city department, so we will be working to fill this position without delay,” stated Mayor Casper.
“It has been an incredible honor to serve the people of Idaho Falls,” said Kirkham. “I’ve been fortunate to work alongside dedicated public servants who care deeply about this community. My time with the city has shaped me both personally and professionally. I am extraordinarily grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve the community.”
The City of Idaho Falls extends its heartfelt congratulations to Kirkham on this well-deserved appointment and thanks him for his many years of distinguished service.
Stephanie Lucas
CHEYENNE, Wyoming (KIFI) – If Wyoming residents are wondering about the enforcement of fair hunting practices in their state, the Wyoming Game and Fish Law Enforcement Report was just released.
Using 2024’s statistics, Game and Fish reports on the number of times law enforcement action was taken against hunting violations, which included over 240 in the Jackson region and 3,102 across the state.
There’s also a list of the top ten violations documented in 2024. Number one is fishing without a license, followed by trespassing on private land at number two.
If you’re in a reading mood, there’s a collection of memorable stories from Wyoming Game and Fish in the report, including one about two elderly hunters who went way over the limit and shot 7 elk in 12 hours last November.
One of the hunters didn’t even know he’d shot three of the extra elk himself. According to the report, he’d just assumed the caliber of his rifle was high enough that when the elk did not go down immediately, he must not be hitting the elk due to his age and physical inability, so he kept taking shots at more elk. Unfortunately, the three elk he hit were left to waste.
There’s also a Nebraska man who was fishing without a license but had a stolen van, plus a Wyoming social media personality caught releasing live fish into Sloan’s Lake without permission, and a woman running a packing-and-outfitting operation on national forest land without a license, and more.
If you’d like to check out the information for yourself, there’s a link to the report here.
