A federal judge has agreed to reconsider his ruling in a lawsuit between Idaho’s public schools and the state’s highest court. But U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill warned both sides that no matter what he decides the case will likely go on to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The school districts are suing the Idaho Supreme Court justices, contending that the high court failed to provide a remedy for the schools after finding that the state’s school funding system was unconstitutional. The districts say that was a violation of their due process rights. But the justices say the U.S. District Court doesn’t have the jurisdictional authority to tell them how to handle the case, and that their disposition of the matter should stand. Judge Winmill did not say when he would make his ruling.
(AP)

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has released its recommendations for hunting wolves in 2008. Fish and Game is proposing a total mortality cap of 328 for the state’s wolf population. That total includes wolves killed by hunters and state managers, or those killed in accidents or by natural causes. The total is in line with Idaho’s overall plan for managing the predators. The state plan approved in March calls for maintaining a population level between 500 and 700 wolves for the first five years after delisting. The federal government lifted endangered species protections for wolves in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana in March, however that decision is being challenged in federal court.
(AP)

State Representative Bruce Chandler calls Washington’s gambling policy “bipolar.” He recently told Pasco radio station KONA that lawmakers see tribal casinos as an economic benefit to Indians, but that lawmakers treat non-tribal gambling as a threat to community morals. The Granger Republican says some tribal leaders have acknowledged there is a downside to the spread of Indian gaming in Washington, but he predicts the number of slot machines at tribal casinos will triple in the next fews years.
(AP)

This year’s West Coast salmon fishery is an economic disaster according to a declaration issued this week by NOAA Fisheries in Portland, Oregon. The designation is the first step toward providing federal disaster assistance to commercial and charter salmon fishermen and related businesses in Washington, Oregon and California. The governors of those states have estimated $290 million in losses due to the shutdown of salmon fishing. Fishing was curtailed because of a sudden collapse in populations of Chinook salmon from California’s Sacramento Valley. NOAA Fisheries is the federal agency in charge of ocean fisheries and turning around the long-standing decline in salmon populations.
(AP)

The Washington state Supreme Court has reinstated the conviction of man who used other people to stalk an ex-girlfriend.

In Thursday’s 6-3 decision, the high court says the crime of stalking includes using other people to intimidate someone. The dissenting opinion says the jury was not given proper jury instructions, but the majority says state stalking law is clear.

The court overturned a Court of Appeals ruling that threw out the conviction against a man convicted by a jury in Ferry County Superior Court of using several friends to follow his ex-girlfriend and report back to him.

Due to lingering debt, a southwest Idaho consulting business is only accepting cash for services rendered to U.S. Representative Bill Sali (R-Idaho). Lou Esposito, owner of Spartac, LLC of Eagle, Idaho, a general campaign consulting company started when Sali decided to run for Congress, says the new agreement stems from the $76,000 still owed to the company from Sali’s 2006 election campaign.

Spartac conducted about $119,000 in services, including survey research, Web development and writing, and producing and directing commercials for the congressman. According to Esposito, the Sali campaign has developed a solid repayment plan and is committed to repaying all creditors, adding that the debt shouldn’t be a campaign concern.

Recent Federal Election Commission reports show Sali paid Spartac and two other consulting firms equal payments of $7,650 in January to help pay down his debt. The report also shows that the campaign paid Spartac $7,000 in March for campaign research and polling for the current re-election campaign. Sali has $144,677 in total debt, of which $76,000 is owed to Spartac and just over $46,000 to two other consulting companies in Virginia and Arizona.

The remainder of the debt includes Sali’s personal loans and money owed to staff, including $7,000 to his daughter-in-law, Jessica Sali.
(Spokesman-Review)

Idaho’s congressional delegation is fighting a U.S. Department of Agriculture decision that prohibits poor women from buying potatoes with the money they get each month to buy nutritious food.

Lawmakers hope that they can change the farm bill as it works its way through Congress – it’s supposed to be finished this week.

The USDA decided late last year to prohibit potatoes in its Women, Infants and Children program, which is changing its guidelines to allow participants to buy more produce with their monthly stipends.

The WIC program gives poor women extra money, typically about $40 each month, to buy nutritious food while they’re pregnant, nursing or caring for infants. The program, which began in 1974, provides extra nutrition to an estimated 8 million people each year.

Most states give mothers vouchers to buy specific types of food designed to supplement their diets and their children’s diets. The USDA decided not to include potatoes, because a study found that many poor people already base their diet on them. The study, by the Institute of Medicine, looked at what sort of foods WIC participants were already eating and what sort of nutrients they were lacking.

Potatoes are the only vegetable not included on the USDA list, and Idaho’s potato growers are fighting the exclusion.

Avista Corp. has reported improved first quarter earnings of $25.2 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with earnings of $14.1 million, or 26 cents per share, for the first quarter of 2007.

Officials at the Spokane-based utility attributed the improved results to last year’s sale of Avista Energy, a subsidiary involved in the high-risk business of traded electricity and natural gas. Avista Energy lost money during the first quarter of 2007.

A rate increase for Washington utility customers that took effect Jan. 1 also benefited the company’s bottom line.