An Idaho congressman is asking Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to delay opening a Mexican consulate in Idaho. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, sent Rice a letter Wednesday saying the delay is necessary until the federal government can prove that a consulate will not foster the continued presence of illegal aliens in the state. Idaho is one of several states without a Mexican consulate. Recent data from the U.S. Census shows Hispanics make up the state’s biggest and fastest-growing minority population. Sali has made his fight against the consulate a campaign issue. The conservative Republican represents Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Canyon County, home of one of the state’s biggest Latino communities.
(AP)
The Lewis-Clark State baseball team remains the nation’s 2nd ranked team in the latest NAIA Top-25 Poll. Despite seeing its winning streak end at 38 games, Lubbock Christian retained the poll’s top spot as the Chaps received 19 of the possible 20 first place votes. The Warriors picked up the other first place vote, but trail Lubbock in overall points by 19. LC has won 15 straight games and is 44-4 on the year. There were no changes in the poll’s top-5, as Lee of Tennessee is 3rd, followed by Oklahoma City and Azusa Pacific of California. The Warriors close out the home portion of the regular season schedule this weekend with a four-game Region I series against Oregon Tech. Double-headers are scheduled for both Saturday at 1pm PDT and Sunday at 11am PDT at Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho with live coverage on Talk Radio 950 KOZE-AM and on-line at koze-sports.com.
With no third-party contractor to supply Potlatch Corporation with refuse-derived fuel, the company has withdrawn its permit application to burn alternative fuels at its Pulp and Paperboard mill in Lewiston.
For two years, Potlatch has been seeking permission from Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to burn construction demolition material and other waste in its Number Four boiler as a downturn in the housing industry has cut back the timber industry, which has, in turn, shrunken Potlatch’s supply of lumber mill and logging waste that it burns at its power boiler.
Company officials say its withdrawal of the permit application was also brought about by health concerns from the public over potential mercury emissions burning of the alternative fuels would have released into the environment - Potlatch had previously pledged to not burn any mercury-laden fuels.
The U.S. House of Representatives has given final congressional approval to a public lands bill that includes language to expand the borders of Idaho’s Minidoka National Internment Site.
Minidoka was one of 10 detention camps in the West and Arkansas that the federal government operated between 1942 and 1946. The camps held thousands of West Coast residents who were deemed a security risk because they had at least 1/16th Japanese ancestry.
Bill sponsor Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) says the measure allows the Minidoka monument to stretch its borders through a series of acquisitions of adjacent public and private land.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
Backers of the project have identified more than 200 acres to add, an amount that would more than triple the monument’s size. The legislation also clears the way to allow private groups to raise money for the expansion and pay to refurbish the camp and rebuild a block of barracks.
Crapo continues
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig and Reps. Bill Sali and Mike Simpson also supported the measure. The Senate passed the legislation earlier this month and it’s expected to be signed into law by President Bush.
The victim in Tuesday’s accident near Alpowa Grade has been identified as a Clarkston man.
The Washington State Patrol says John Teed, 38, died after the GMC van he was driving on U.S. Highway 12 collided with a semi-truck that lost its cargo hauler at about 1:30 PM.Teed’s vehicle was forced over the guardrail and down and embankment where it caught fire.
Teed was pronounced dead at the scene – the semi driver, 23-yuear-old Benjamin Pratt of Pierce, was uninjured.
The accident closed the highway for several hours.
Another day, another record high for gasoline and diesel prices across the nation, and Northwest states are not immune.
According to the AAA, the national average price for regular unleaded gasoline is at an all-time high $3.62 a gallon, and diesel is $4.25 a gallon, also a new high.
Idaho, Washington and other Northwest states also posted record highs for both unleaded and diesel gasoline.Idaho’s unleaded prices average $3.51 a gallon, and diesel is at $4.25; Washington is at $3.73 a gallon for unleaded and $4.48 for diesel.
Montana gasoline is $3.56 a gallon, diesel $4.27; and Oregon gas prices are $3.67 a gallon, with diesel at $4.36.
The highest gasoline prices in the country are in California where regular unleaded averages $3.92 a gallon, and in Connecticut where diesel averages $4.52 a gallon.
The name of fallen Moscow Police Officer Lee Newbill will be engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. Thursday morning.
Newbill was killed in the line of duty on May 19, 2007, by gunman Jason Hamilton.Hamilton killed four people, including himself, and wounded two others.
Newbill’s name will be engraved on the national memorial at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
Washington state is shaping up to be a national battleground in the fight over legalizing assisted suicide this fall.
With several months still to go before Election Day, Washington’s Initiative 1000 has drawn cash contributions from all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
The initiative would make Washington the second state - following Oregon – that allows physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication for mentally competent, terminally ill patients who request it.Proponents say dying people should be able to choose the terms of their death, while opponents say the safeguards are grossly inadequate and that it’s a slippery slope to euthanasia.
Oregon has had such a law for a decade, and in recent years, 26 states have considered legalizing assisted suicide.Washington is the only state considering such a measure this year.
As of the last reporting period April 10, proponents had collected nearly $900,000, and spent nearly $600,000, much of it on consultants, fundraising and signature-gatherers. It takes about 225,000 signatures to get an initiative on the November ballot. Supporters say signature-gathering is going better than expected.So far, opponents to the measure have raised about $50,000.
Recent polling indicates there’s about 60 percent to 64 percent support for I-1000.
Washington voters rejected a similar initiative back in 1991.
