InvestigateWest

Editor's note: This article was produced as part of a collaboration between InvestigateWest and The Daily Herald. On Aug. 6, 2025, a Lynnwood police officer got a call from a social worker at a nearby hospital. A girl, hospitalized for suicidal ideation, wanted to make a report about being assaulted by her former teacher.

Brant Houston, who has served as a volunteer member of InvestigateWest's board of directors since the newsroom's founding in 2009, is stepping into an emeritus role after 17 years of leadership, including most recently as board president and chair.

Jesus Agustin Perez Garcia was the kind of defendant who would “typically get probation,” Idaho Judge Darren Simpson said. Perez Garcia had pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamine and trying to hide a pipe after he was pulled over with two other men in southeastern Idaho. He was working for a construction company and living in Idaho Falls with his boss, attended every court hearing, and was enrolled in an outpatient drug treatment program, according to his public defender.

Standing alongside the rectangular glow of a PowerPoint presentation, Sam Wolkenhauer plays up a nerdy persona. In May 2025, he led a group of North Idaho realtors through a slide deck on labor market trends, slipping in self-deprecating references to the Lord of the Rings, actuarial statistics and spreadsheets. Wolkenhauer clicked to a chart on unemployment claims.

When a child is abused, it’s not only the abuser who can be criminally charged. Across the country, a parent can also be prosecuted for not doing enough to stop it. But what if the parent was also being targeted by the abuser, and feared that going to police would put them and their child in an even more dangerous situation?

InvestigateWest and the Invisible Institute are suing Idaho State Police and the Idaho Department of Correction, alleging the agencies deliberately concealed police employment records in violation of the state’s public records law. The lawsuit, filed June 16 in Ada County District Court, accuses the agencies of withholding information about officers’ employment histories that previously had been disclosed to the public, including to reporters with the two news organizations.

In October 2025, Mercer Island School District Superintendent Fred Rundle issued a press release saying that allegations detailed in an InvestigateWest story published that day were new to him. “We learned of an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a former Mercer Island High School teacher, Curtis Johnston, and a female student who graduated in 2011,” Rundle wrote.

On a recent Saturday afternoon in May, a head-on collision on a main highway in southwest Idaho required two ambulances and all of the staff that Payette County Paramedics had available. Then another call came in. A woman in another part of the county was having a seizure. Seizures can be stopped with medications, and intervening quickly can prevent life-threatening conditions or death.

Oregon Health & Science University President Dr. Shereef Elnahal insisted this week that an expansion to its overcrowded neonatal intensive care unit will be a top priority in the  forthcoming strategic plan, but said he can’t put a timeline on the project until the university’s finances improve.

In April, Spokane police arrested a man for grabbing a woman by the neck and pushing her to the ground. A neighbor had called 911 worried that the yelling next door was a domestic violence situation, and the woman told an officer through tears that she was sick of her boyfriend putting his hands on her, according to the police report. The next day, Spokane County prosecutors sent an email to police.