The executive director of the Idaho Water Users Association says the group is against a federal bill to designate portions of the Snake River as “wild and scenic” because it could harm historic water rights.

Norm Semanko says the group is dead-set against any federal protection designation for a 42-mile stretch of the Snake River below Jackson dam. That portion of the Snake River flows mostly in western Wyoming before reaching Palisades Reservoir in eastern Idaho.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved a bill to designate 387 miles of the Snake River as “wild and scenic,” which affords protection of parts of the river and its immediate environment.

The bill now goes to the full Senate.

With the 2008 legislative session freeze on fundraising behind her, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire raised twice as much money as GOP challenger Dino Rossi in April.

According to figures provided by the respective campaigns, the Democratic governor raised about $1.3 million in April, while Rossi’s campaign brought in about $625,000 during the same period.

Combined with previously reported contributions, Gregoire has raised about $6 million and has $3.8 million in cash on hand. Rossi’s totals were about $4.4 million raised and about $3 million on hand. Disclosure reports show that Rossi has spent $1.2 million but spending in April was not included.

Detailed public disclosure reports are due next week.

(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Investigators in a preliminary report say a collision between two small planes last week at McCall’s Municipal Airport that killed three people happened while both planes were in flight about 30 feet off the ground.

The report filed on Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board did not place blame on either pilot, who were both in Cessna 172s. The report says the collision happened at the approach end of the runway and that “both airplanes were destroyed in the collision, uncontrolled descent, and postcrash fire.”

Killed were McCall public works Director Bill Keating, 52, and two of his grandsons, ages 1 and 6. A third grandson, age 3, was taken to a Salt Lake hospital for burn treatment.

Justin Mooney, 30, the pilot of the other plane, pulled the 3-year-old from the wreckage. Mooney and his passenger, Mark Fuller, 27, escaped with minor injuries.

(AP)

U. S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, giving the Democratic presidential contender five of Washington’s 17 superdelegates.

Larsen joins fellow Reps. Adam Smith and Brian Baird, Gov. Christine Gregoire, and Democratic National Committee member Pat Notter.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, also has five superdelegates in her corner – Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Reps. Norm Dicks and Jay Inslee, and King County Executive Ron Sims.

The state’s other seven superdlegates remain undecided. They are Congressman Jim McDermott, former House Speaker Tom Foley, State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz , Vice Chairwoman Eileen Macoll, and Democratic National Committee members Ed Cote, Sharon Mast, and David McDonald.

Attorneys for an Idaho woman convicted of killing her parents when she was just 16 years old told the state Supreme Court on Friday that the verdicts should be overturned, because the judge gave the jury instructions that didn’t match the charging document.

Sarah Johnson was convicted in 2005 of using a .264-caliber rifle to kill her parents at their Bellevue home on Sept. 3, 2003. She was sentenced to two life terms for the murders, plus 15 years for using a rifle.

Her state-appointed appeals attorney told the justices they should vacate Johnson’s convictions partly because prosecutors didn’t include aiding and abetting a murder in their charging document, but jurors were instructed they could find her guilty of the charge.

Under Idaho law, aiding and abetting a murder carries the same penalty as actually committing a murder, and it can be an included charge in a murder case. But Johnson’s attorney said that because her trial lawyers weren’t given notice of aiding and abetting in the formal charging documents, they didn’t know they needed to prepare a defense to the charge.

An Idaho deputy attorney general said the charges of murder and aiding and abetting were interchangeable under Idaho law and that charging a defendant with both for the same crime could violate double jeopardy rules.

The state’s highest court took the matter under advisement. It is not clear when they will issue a ruling on the case.

(AP)

The U.S. Marshals Service says a Washington registered sex offender who disappeared after cutting off his state issued GPS tracking ankle bracelet has turned himself in to police in Camden, Arkansas.

David Torrence, a Level 3 offender, had been released from prison on April 20 after serving a one-year sentence for failing to register as a sex offender. State Department of Corrections officials were unable to find adequate housing for the 43-year-old offender so he was fitted with the tracking device, given a sleeping bag and permitted to live beneath a bridge in Snohomish. His ankle bracelet was found on April 24th at an apartment complex near Lynnwood.

Since the incident, the head of the DOC ordered that victims of sex crimes must be notified when those convicted of attacks remove their GPS tracking device.

Torrence was one of nearly 90 Level 3 sex offenders who had been assigned to GPS monitoring since the program began late last year. Of those offenders, four have removed their ankle bracelets and with Torrence’s apprehension only one, James Murphy, remains on the loose.

The DOC started using GPS tracking late last year in reaction to Gov. Christine Gregoire’s promise to keep people safe from sexual predators.

(Seattle Times)