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BOISE, IDAHO (KIFI) – The Bryan Kohberger murder case has taken another unexpected turn.

All four families of the murdered University of Idaho students are suing Washington State University, according to the Idaho Statesman.

The lawsuit maintains the University remained “idle,” despite knowing about what the lawsuit claims were “repeated instances of discrimination, sexual harassment, and stalking by Kohberger in its educational program.”

Kohberger was a teaching assistant at Washington State University while he was pursuing his P.h.D in criminology at the time of the murders.

The families claim WSU’s inaction on previous complaints that Kohberger was harassing women “ultimately culminated in Kohberger stalking and murdering the decedents.”

The Statesman got the 126-page complaint from Skagit County Superior Court in Washington. It seeks unspecified monetary damages. 

All four University of Idaho students – Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen – were murdered in an off-campus home in Moscow in November 2022.

Bryan Kohberger took a plea deal on four counts of first-degree murder earlier this year.

He is serving four life terms plus ten years at the Idaho maximum security institution. 

IDAHO FALLS/POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) —The City of Pocatello officially welcomed new Mayor Mark Dahlquist and City Council Members Dakota Bates, Stacy Satterfield, and Ann Swanson during the City Council meeting on Jan. 8, 2026.

Mayor Dahlquist, a lifelong resident of Pocatello, brings extensive experience in leadership and management to the role. From 2007 until 2025, he served as Chief Executive Officer of NeighborWorks Pocatello, where he focused on housing, community development, and neighborhood revitalization. Before that, he spent 17 years in leadership and management positions with Farmers Insurance.

After the ceremony, Dahlquist said, “To make our community the very best it can be. Just remember to be involved. Volunteer being advocates for the community. We all together will make this community rise and be the very best it can be.”

The City also recognized the three City Council members who were sworn in following the November election.

In Idaho Falls Mayor-elect Lisa Burtenshaw officially began her term, taking the oath of office alongside elected City Council members during a ceremony at the City Council Chambers.

In addition to Burtenshaw, Brandon Lee was sworn in to City Council Seat 1. Jim Francis and Jim Freeman, who were reelected to Seats 4 and 6, also took the oath to begin their new terms.

Burtenshaw’s term begins following her election in December 2025. She succeeds outgoing Mayor Rebecca Casper, who served the city for 12 years and leaves a legacy of dedicated public service.

“I am honored to serve the residents of Idaho Falls and to begin this next chapter with such a dedicated City Council,” Burtenshaw said. “I look forward to engaging with our community, listening to their ideas, and working together to make Idaho Falls a great place to live, raise a family and grow a business.”

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — Warm winter weather is reshaping Idaho’s snowpack and raising concerns about water supplies for farmers, especially in the state’s southern basins.

If the lack of a white Christmas was not troubling enough, the latest precipitation numbers aren’t going to be enough to save farmers from using reservoirs in parts of the state.

While this year is not a traditional drought year in terms of precipitation, temperatures have been so warm that much of that moisture is falling as rain instead of snow at lower and middle elevations.

“We haven’t seen a winter this warm in quite a while,” said David Hoekema a Hydrologist at Idaho Dept. of Water Resources. “From a precipitation perspective, we’re leaning more pluvial — the opposite of drought — but the way that moisture is stored is the real issue.”

In the Boise basin, precipitation is about average, In the Upper Snake the snow pack is above average, but the situation is most troubling along Idaho’s southern border basins — including areas south of Twin Falls, Goose Creek and Salmon Falls Creek — where warm temperatures and a forecast for a warm January point to a “really rough year” unless weather patterns change dramatically.

If warm temperatures continue and spring arrives early, runoff could come sooner and weaker than usual, leaving farmers with water shortages. How severe those shortages become will depend on storms and temperatures over the next several weeks.

Farmers there are expected to rely heavily on whatever water is already in reservoirs, plus minimal runoff if conditions do not improve.

In the Upper Snake region, which includes irrigators from the Henry’s Fork down to Milner Dam, the outlook is “dicey.” Reservoir storage is roughly 500,000 acre-feet below normal, and an early warm spring could trigger an early and weaker runoff than current snowpack indices suggest.

“We’ll probably see some water shortages,” Hoekema said “How serious those are depends on what happens from here on out.”

State and federal water managers plan to dig deeper into the data at a water supply meeting scheduled for Jan. 15. Analysts will compare SNOTEL measurements with modeling tools that estimate snowpack across entire basins at fine elevation intervals.

Their goal is to determine how much area lies below the current snow line and how much snow might be missing from the official record before making firmer projections about irrigation supplies for the coming growing season.