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IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)- Before the Community Food Basket of Idaho Falls can Stamp Out Hunger, it’s got to clamp down on getting the word out. The food basket is preparing for one of it’s biggest food drives of the year. This week, volunteers are gathering for what is being called a stapling party.

Community members are being invited to help staple postcards for the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive to grocery bags. The national food drive will be on Saturday May 9th. By stapling the grocery bags to the post cards, executive director Ariel Jackson hopes this will serve as a stronger reminder.

“If you just get a postcard, you might throw it away. You might think it was junk mail or something of that, that nature.”

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is the second biggest food drive of the year for the Community Food Basket. It helps them stock up for the summer months, when demand increases.

“Kids are eating at home and food bills tend to triple,” explains Jackson. “This food drive allows us to stock up for when kids are home and out of school and parents are working.”

Jackson says the extra man power by holding the stapling party makes the job much easier.

“I have been doing this for 15 years, and it used to just be my husband and I at home folding and stapling, and folding and stapling. But we realized we needed 44,000 little cards with bags on them. It was just something we could not do on our own. We thought, let’s invite the community.”

The stapling party is being held this week at the food basket warehouse at 1895 N. Blvd in Idaho Falls from 5 pm to 7 pm. There is one more chance for people to come help out Thursday night, April 30.

Jackson invites anyone who wants to help to come out.

“We have the staplers, we have the staples, we have the bags. We just need the people.”

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Voters heard from two candidates for Bonneville County Coroner at a Greater Idaho Falls Chamber debate yesterday at Compass Academy.

Incumbent Shante Sanchez has been serving as the Bonneville County Coroner since she was appointed in December 2024. Challenger Tim Schuijt is a Family Nurse Pracitioner and a former Emergency Room nurse with experience at hundreds of death scenes.

Tim Schuijt: “This office requires something very specific – a deep medical understanding paired with genuine compassion for families during their worst moments. Determining when an autopsy is truly needed for understanding of how the human body works, how diseases progress, and how trauma presents., as well as how medical history fits the whole narrative.”

Shante Sanchez: “My background is rooted in the science of death investigation and the complexities of human behavior. With a master’s degree in forensic psychology and national certification as medical legal death investigator and a former deputy coroner, I spent my career at the intersection of public safety and mental health.”

Sanchez is certified in Medicolegal Death Investigation and is completing the process to be an American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigator.

Tim Schuijt is endorsed by former Bonneville County Coroner Rick Taylor and Dr. Joseph Anderson, an emergency room physician and former deputy coroner.

For more information you can visit the candidates’ websites at www.timforbonnevillecountycoroner.com and Sanchez’s bio at her official site www.bonnevillecountyidaho.gov/page/staff-bios.

Blackfoot (KIFI) — Just days after water began flowing back into Jensen Grove, a new state-ordered cutoff has stopped the city from filling the popular recreation area.

Mayor Scott Stufflebeam said the city was notified by the Snake River Valley Irrigation District that Idaho has curtailed water rights based on priority dates.

“Anything prior to 1898… Blackfoot water rights are 1900,” Stufflebeam said. “So what that basically says is that we can no longer fill Jensen’s Grove because we don’t have the water rights to do it.”

Idaho follows the prior appropriation system, which gives priority to older, or “senior,” water rights during times of shortage. When supplies are limited or in a drought year, newer, or “junior,” rights can be reduced or cut off to prioritize senior holders.

Stufflebeam said the timing of this year’s cutoff is earlier than expected.

“The idea was we’d make it through June and into July, and then the cutoffs would happen,” he said. “This year… April. We don’t even have a chance to fill the lake.”

The announcement comes after the city recently completed repairs to a dike that was damaged during last year’s high spring runoff. The project was designed to restore the system that diverts water from the Snake River, under I15 and into Jensen Grove.

Despite the improvements, the cutoff means the city cannot use the infrastructure to fill the pond this season.

“We’ve got the infrastructure now. We built it, we paid for it, but we can’t go ahead and fill it because of that issue,” Stufflebeam said.

The change is already affecting planned events at the park.

“We had a triathlon planned… that will now become a biathlon,” Stufflebeam said. “It’s an unfortunate event, but it’s one that we knew could have come. Given the drought this year, we just didn’t expect it this early.”

Some water may still be visible in the area due to excess flows in nearby canal systems, but this is expected to disappear as temperatures rise and irrigation demand increases.

Residents say the development is disappointing, but understandable.

“I think it’s sad, but I can understand,” said Therese Tominaga, a Blackfoot resident. “Farmers need it, especially this year.”

Tominaga said Jensen Grove is an integral part of the community, serving as a venue for recreation, gatherings, and events.

“It looks so attractive when the water is in the pond,” she said. “It’s a good place for the community to hold events.”

Stufflebeam said while the outcome is disappointing, the city supports the decision to prioritize agricultural water use.

“We need to support our farmers,” he said. “Let’s make sure they can at least have a chance to grow crops.”

He added that the work completed this year will still benefit the city in the future if water conditions improve.

“We did everything we could,” Stufflebeam said. “Mother Nature gets to have final say, and evidently she said, not this year.”

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Two candidates for the Seventh District Judicial Court took to the stand tonight and answered questions from the community.

Incumbent District Judge Steven Boyce is being challenged by Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney Randy Neal.

In their opening arguments, Boyce laid out his extensive experience on the bench, while Neal primarily emphasized that judges should be elected officials, not just appointed officials.

Steven Boyce: “Currently I was voted unanimously by our district judges as the administrative judge. There’s seven of us in the state. We’re in charge of all assignments of other judges and administrative matters for the entire district. So I spent a lot of time in the Supreme Court working on those administrative issues, and I was with them last week.”

“I’m also the chair of the magistrate commission for our district,” he said. “So when we select new magistrates, we recently selected three new magistrates in Jefferson County. I chair that commission with a group of attorneys, citizens, county officials, mayors, etcetera.”

Randy Neal: “I think all of you know that currently I’m the prosecuting attorney here for Bonneville County. I’ve been elected twice to that position. I’ve been an attorney now for 23 years, and I was in law enforcement for 18 years before that. Law is my second career. 

“What do I think you have to bring to the bench?” he asked. “I think that the fact that we have, a principle embodied in our state constitution that our judges are elected, we bring the idea that we are accountable to the community.”

The forum was hosted by Stand Up for Idaho at the Snake River Events Center.

While judges at the district level are appointed by the Governor in case of a vacancy, voters will directly choose who will serve as judge at the ballot box next month. 

Usually, these non-partisan, judicial races go uncontested. 

However, that will not be the case for the Seventh District Judicial Court on May 19th, which is holding its first contested race since 2014.

You can watch the full debate at Stand Up for Idaho’s website to hear the judicial candidates respond to audience questions.