Author: KIFI

Megan Lavin

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) —  Mark Lach, Titanic explorer and the exhibition’s Creative Producer, visited live in studio to show us two of the Titanic’s artifacts.

We also learned the tragic story about a family who were on their way to Idaho.

Mike has first-hand experience visiting the wreck site in a submersible and shares what you can expect at the exhibit.

You can find more information and tickets for the Salt Lake exhibition at their website: https://thetitanicexhibition.com/salt-lake-city/

Click here to follow the original article.

Curtis Jackson

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) – Voters have chosen Mark Dahlquist as the next mayor of Pocatello on Tuesday night.

Dahlquist won with 7,238 votes, or 62%, over Greg Cates 4,424 votes, or 38%.

In the November 4th election, Mark Dahlquist also led the field, cruising to a first-place finish with 5,135 votes. Not far behind, Greg Cates secured the second spot with 3,938 votes.

“I’m so humbled for people for their support and their trust and confidence with me,” Dahlquist said Tuesday night at a watch party held at the Portneuf Valley Brewery. “I think the mayor’s position, there is no higher way or no higher form to serve your city. It’s a big responsibility, but I’m so excited.”

“They (voters) wanted a new direction. They wanted to hit the reset button,” Dahlquist said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of people have spoken with me and they’ve got good solid platforms or ways I want to move, so I’m ready to roll up my sleeves. I’m ready to give this my all.”

Cates held a watch party at the Purpose Building in Downtown Pocatello.

“This has been a great experience regardless of the outcome. I met a lot of people, and I’ve learned a lot about myself as a person,” Cates said before knowing what the final results were.

Dahlquist will be replacing the outgoing mayor, Brian Blad. Blad came in third during the November 4th election.

Click here to follow the original article.

Curtis Jackson

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Lisa Burtenshaws won the runoff election for Idaho Falls mayor.

The unofficial results show Burtenshaw received 6,435 votes, or 53.1%, of the votes over Jeff Alldridge 5,663 votes, or 46.8%.

That’s a change from the November 4th election where Jeff Alldridge took a narrow lead with 5,599 votes, while Lisa Burtenshaw secured 5,537 votes.

“I’m excited to get to work,” Burtenshaw told Local News 8 after learning of her win. “I have listened to people along the campaign trail, and I know we have work to do with the community. I’m excited because we have great city employees. We have great directors in the city, and I know that we can. Accomplish the things that the community is asking us to do,” Burternshaw said.

In the Idaho Falls City Council race for Seat 2, Brandon Lee took 59.5% of the vote over Teresa Dominick’s 40.5%

12,107 ballots were cast on Tuesday compared to 11, 868 ballots cast in the November 4th election.

Click here to follow the original article.

News Team

ORIGINAL:

FORT HALL, Idaho (KIFI) — Repairs are currently underway at the Shosone Bannock Jr./Sr. High School after the building’s heating system failed Tuesday night, Dec. 2nd. School will once again be closed Thursday, December 4, 2025.

UPDATE:

FORT HALL, Idaho (KIFI) — The Shosone Bannock Jr./Sr. High School will be closed tomorrow, Wednesday, December 3, 2025, due to the building’s heating system not functioning properly.

School Administration announced the closure on Facebook Tuesday night, apologizing for the inconvenience. The post did not indicate the cause of the problem or how long the issue would take to repair.

Click here to follow the original article.

Seth Ratliff

UPDATE:

MALAD CITY, Idaho (KIFI) — Power is back on in Malad City today, Dec. 3rd, after thousands spent the night in the dark. Rocky Mountain Power says an equipment failure knocked out power yesterday afternoon, and it took until this morning to get everything back on track.

The outage hit as temperatures dropped below freezing and light snow moved through the area. Oneida County acted quickly by opening the fairgrounds event center for anyone who needed a warm place to sleep.

ORIGINAL:

MALAD CITY, Idaho (KIFI) —  3,100 people in Malad are currently without power, after an equipment failure early Tuesday afternoon. In a press release, Rocky Mountain Power said “crews are in the field working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” but the repairs will take some time. The outage is expected to last until early tomorrow morning, Wednesday, December 3rd.

The outage comes as the National Weather Service forecasts temperatures in Malad will drop to 21 °F overnight while scattered snow showers continue.

In winter power outages, the Idaho Office of Emergency Management directs Idahoans to keep blankets, jackets/sweaters, hand warmers, gloves, and hats ready to stay warm. The Office of Emergency Management website also advises residents to use a safe, portable heater and generators to keep their homes warm, but it’s important to use them safely to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and other hazards

Rocky Mountain Power is encouraging customers in Malad to follow any directives from local public safety officials and check the Rocky Mountain Power outage map for updates and estimated restoration times. For more information, click HERE.

Click here to follow the original article.

News Release

The following is a news release from Idaho Fish and Game:

CUSTER COUNTY, Idaho — Beginning in early December, Idaho Fish and Game staff will take to the air to get a closer look at deer numbers, including several low-level helicopter surveys planned in the Salmon and Challis areas. The purpose is to gather abundance and herd composition information that helps game managers understand population numbers and trends.

The flights will be completed in big game management units 21, 21A, 29, 37, 37A, and are expected to take a week if the weather permits. 

“People may see and hear low-flying helicopters near Salmon and Challis in the coming week,” said Fish and Game Wildlife Biologist Bret Stansberry of Salmon.  “While we understand that folks are still recreating, we will do our best to temporarily avoid areas where we observe people.”

Care is taken to minimize disturbance to the animals and prevent the expenditure of valuable energy reserves.  Generally, the information collected can be gathered within a few minutes or less of an animal being spotted. 

This information, together with abundance monitoring, survival monitoring and hunter harvest information, will be used to determine the overall health of Idaho’s big game herds, which plays a critical role in determining future hunting seasons.

Click here to follow the original article.

Curtis Jackson

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – The Idaho National Lab is celebrating the arrival of a special kind of fuel called TRISO. TRISO stands for tri-structural isotropic particle fuel.

This fuel will power Project Pele, a first-of-its-kind mobile microreactor designed to give the military reliable energy anywhere, even if the grid goes down.

Think of the fuel as tiny, super-tough particles—about the size of poppy seeds—that can handle extreme heat and radiation. It’s made of uranium, carbon, and oxygen, and is formed into a small kernel. It’s then coated in multiple layers, including silicon carbide, which makes it extremely durable under high heat, radiation, and corrosive conditions.

A single cask can hold more than one-fourth of the TRISO fuel needed to fuel Project Pele.

Tuesday’s delivery is a huge milestone, showing years of work by top scientists and partners like the Department of Energy and the Army.

“This milestone reflects years of dedicated effort by the Office of Nuclear Energy’s Advanced Gas Reactor TRISO Fuel Qualification Program to fabricate and qualify TRISO fuel using world-class capabilities at INL’s Advanced Test Reactor and Materials and Fuels Complex, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory — capabilities that exist nowhere else in the world,” said John Wagner, INL director. “That investment is now enabling Project Pele to move forward with the speed and confidence our national security demands to accelerate American innovation and demonstrate the leadership that will define this era of nuclear energy.”

They say it’s a big step toward next-generation nuclear power and keeping critical operations running no matter what.

A GEO basket, the inner container of the shipping package, is removed from the
containment vessel’s transport cask.

“This is the first TRISO microreactor fuel delivered at its final destination,” added Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment. “Project Pele is a transformational leap toward Gen-IV nuclear power, and the Army’s Janus Program will follow on to deliver affordable, reliable, commercial nuclear power to ensure that our critical infrastructure has power even if the electric grid is disrupted.”

Click here to follow the original article.

Maile Sipraseuth

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — A Brigham Young University-Idaho student has been charged with kidnapping a four-week-old infant after allegedly taking a shopping cart containing the baby from a Costco store last month.

Michael Garrison Raine, 24, faces one count of second-degree kidnapping. The arrest followed an investigation prompted by a mother’s quick response after she discovered her shopping cart containing her child was missing.

Shopping Cart and Infant Vanish

According to court documents, the alarming incident took place on Thursday, November 20, while a local mother was shopping with her four-week-old daughter, who was secured in a car seat placed in the main basket of the shopping cart.

The mother told police she was in the book section, with her cart within arm’s reach, when she noticed a man lingering nearby. As she began reading the back of a book, she said she had a “weird feeling,” and when she looked up, the cart and her baby were completely gone.

She immediately searched for her daughter and found her a few aisles over in the snack section. There, she spotted the same man pushing the cart away from her. The mother quickly grabbed the cart back. The man, later identified as Raine, immediately began apologizing repeatedly, saying, “I’ll never do that again, I promise.”

Surveillance Video and Conflicting Accounts

Investigators later obtained Costco security video, which reportedly captured Raine taking the cart and the following confrontation with the mother. The video also showed Raine using a self-checkout under the membership of fellow BYU-I student Benjamin Jensen, before eating at the food court.

Detectives eventually identified Raine as Jensen’s roommate through his BYU-Idaho and Facebook profiles, which matched the surveillance footage and the mother’s description.

Raine was ultimately detained on November 26 at a Marine Corps Recruiting station in Idaho Falls, where he had been speaking with a military recruiter. Court documents reveal that Raine had visited the same Recruiting Station earlier that week but failed out of the Military Entrance Processing Station due to psychological reasons.

When brought in for questioning, Raine initially denied that anything unusual had happened, only acknowledging that he had visited Costco that day. When confronted with the fact that a child was taken that day, he appeared surprised. According to court docs, when investigators clarified that he had been the individual who took the child, Raine responded, “Oh! That! I’m so sorry. I remember that now.”

Raine claimed he was “completely mistaken” and had “grabbed the wrong cart.” He told the arresting officer he apologized to the mother, but that she simply walked away, and he then grabbed his own cart and went to checkout. When officers showed him the surveillance video, Raine responded, “I was just so oblivious.”

Raine ultimately denied taking the child on purpose, stating it was an accident. However, the arresting officer noted in court documents that the video evidence “does not appear to support this claim.”

After downloading his phone with written consent to search it, Raine was transported to the Bonneville County Jail and booked on the kidnapping charge. He is set to appear in court next week, on December 10th, at 1:00 PM for a preliminary hearing before Judge Tawnya Rawlings.

Click here to follow the original article.

Seth Ratliff

SOUTHEAST IDAHO (KIFI) — The 2025 election wraps up tonight, Tuesday, December 2, 2025, as polls are now open for critical runoff elections in both Idaho Falls and Pocatello. This is the final chance for residents in both cities to cast their ballots and decide the leadership that will guide their communities over the next four years.

Heading to the Polls,

Polls are open until 8:00 p.m. local time. Here’s what you need to bring in order to cast your vote:

Idaho law requires a photo ID for in order to vote. Acceptable forms include:

Idaho-issued driver’s license

A passport

Or a signed affidavit confirming your identity

Idahoans are also required to vote at their designated precinct based on residence. To confirm your polling location, click HERE.

Pocatello Run-Off

In Pocatello, today’s election will decide the high-profile mayoral race between Greg Cates and Mark Dahlquist. In the November election, Mark Dahlquist led the field, cruising to a first-place finish with 5,135 votes. Not far behind, Greg Cates secured the second spot with 3,938 votes.

Both candidates joined Local News 8, late November for a Mayoral debate to highlight the differences in their platforms. For more information or to view the debate, click HERE.

RELATED: Down to the Wire: Pocatello Mayor Run-off Election is Tuesday

Idaho Falls Run-Off

In Idaho Falls, voters are deciding two key positions. The city’s next mayor will be elected from the top two finishers in the general election, who were Jeff Alldridge and Lisa Burtenshaw. The November election ended in a tight mayoral race; Jeff Alldridge took a narrow lead with 5,599 votes, while Lisa Burtenshaw secured 5,537 votes.

Heading into the run-off, Burtenshaw has seen a strong show of support from regional and local lawmakers, boasting endorsements from Congressman Mike Simpson, Governor Brad Little, and Lieutenant Governor Scott Bedke.

Meanwhile, in interviews with Local News 8, Alldridge talked on how things have changed since the November election, saying “Some of the biggest issues that changed in the last month of this campaign has definitely been how the campaigns are run, local supporters versus outside supporters, and even attack mailers versus just local canvassing. So that’s been the biggest surprise. I’ve seen this shift in dynamics before November 4th and then post November 4th.”

RELATED: Idaho Falls Mayor Election Run-off on Tuesday

Watch Local News 8 tonight for full coverage on both the Idaho Falls and Pocatello mayoral races and the run-off for City Council Seat 2 between Brandon Lee and Teresa Dominick in Idaho Falls.

Click here to follow the original article.

Stephanie Lucas

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – A local mother had to face a scary situation when her two-year-old daughter stopped breathing in an Idaho Falls restaurant.

While performing CPR is part of Klarisa Jensen’s job, she never thought she’d have to perform it on her own daughter, Ray, especially at the family’s favorite gathering spot, Smitty’s Pancake and Steak House.

“We were just here eating breakfast. We come every Sunday,” said Klarisa. “It’s our go-to place.”

The restaurant booth that delivered full tummies and held memories of smiles and laughter became filled with panic as Ray’s parents called 911 and told the dispatcher her daughter was not breathing.

Witnesses watched, their hearts racing in fear that Ray’s might stop, while a bystander told the 911 operator Ray had experienced a seizure.

The 911 operator asked if anyone was performing CPR, unaware that Klarisa had already started.

“My wife is giving us CPR…” says Ray’s other parent in the background, describing how Klarisa went into action. The 911 call goes on. “She is trained in it, and she does it for a living…”

Klarisa performed CPR on her daughter for 3 minutes until the ambulance arrived and paramedics took over.

“I don’t think that anybody else here would have known what to do,” she said, reflecting on the day no one else knew how to help. “So she would have been without oxygen for that whole duration of her seizure.”

Hospital tests came back normal, and Ray went back to being a happy toddler and playing with her big sister, Kelly. who had already experienced the pain of losing a sibling.

“I was thinking like, I can’t lose another sibling. And I was like, really scared about that,” she says.

“We lost our son at six and a half weeks two years ago,” Klarisa confirms. They [Ray and her brother] were supposed to grow up together, you know, twins, but not quite twins – you know, best friends. And so that heartache that we felt, I don’t ever want to feel that again.”

This experience has set Klarisa on a mission to spread the importance of knowing CPR.

“It’s scary,” she reflected. “I mean, what if it was somebody else’s kid? I keep having that thought of what if I hadn’t been CPR certified? But then I think of the reverse of that coin; what if it was a mom who lost a kid and had the thought of ‘What if I had been CPR certified?’”

After starting with her own family and getting adults CPR certified, Klarisa is now teaching CPR classes in her own community.

For more information on how to perform CPR on an infant, click HERE.

Click here to follow the original article.