Lewis-Clark State College will hand out a total of 560 degrees and certificates to one if its largest graduating classes in the college’s 115-year history at Friday’s commencement ceremony in the LCSC Activity Center in Lewiston, Idaho.

LCSC will award degrees and certificates to 539 graduates, which is its third-largest graduation class. Two years ago, LCSC had 567 graduates. Eighteen graduates on Friday will receive at least two degrees and/or certificates, including Karen Hunter of Orofino, Idaho, who will earn four degrees and certificates. She will receive Bachelor of Applied Science and Associate of Applied Science degrees in both Paralegal and Legal Assistance. The college also has 112 graduating with honors this year. The commencement program will begin at 6pm PDT, and the event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 4pm PDT and seating is open except for a small area reserved for special guests. There is also an area set up for wheelchairs next to the gymnasium floor. The program will also be webcast live on http://www.lcsc.edu/graduation/k.htm.

LCSC President Dene Thomas will be the main speaker at commencement, while Susan Odom, chair of the LCSC Faculty Association, and Matt Smith, LCSC’s student body president, will give short greetings.

Emeritus status will be awarded to three retiring individuals – Humanities professor William Johnson, Business Technology & Services professor Julie Sages, and Technical & Industrial professor Lynn White. Following the commencement exercise, the LCSC Alumni Association will hold a free reception for graduates, families, friends and alumni at the Student Union Building where cake and refreshments will be served.

The Lewis-Clark State men’s tennis team was eliminated from the NAIA national tournament after being swept 6-0 by two-time defending national champion Auburn-Montgomery. The Senators won the first six contests and was leading in the remaining three when the match was stopped because AUM had clinched the win. The Warriors end the season at 13-11 overall and ranked 19th in the nation.

Fire investigators say a twin-engine airplane experienced a power failure that led to a crash into two parked vehicles near Pappy Boyington Field in north Idaho’s Kootenai County. One of the two men aboard the plane was sent to a hospital with minor injuries while the other walked away from the crash. Both vehicles were unoccupied at the time of the crash. Fire inspectors say the pilot was practicing touch-and-go landings last Monday night when the plane crashed into a pickup and a Sno-Cat vehicle parked near the Kootenai Electric Cooperative office. The vehicles are owned by the power company. Firefighters reportedly sprayed foam on fuel that spilled in the wake of the crash. The men aboard the plane have not been identified.
(AP)

The federal death penalty proceeding for convicted murderer and kidnapper Joseph Duncan will be delayed even longer while Duncan undergoes additional mental evaluations. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has ordered the additional evaluation as the court works to determine if Duncan is competent to represent himself in the federal sentencing for the 2005 kidnapping and abuse of Shasta and Dylan Groene – and the slaying of Dylan. The majority of recent filings in the case have been kept under seal by Lodge, and the attorneys are under a gag order. Duncan has already been evaluated by a Boise-area psychiatrist, and it has not been made clear why the additional mental evaluation is needed. The jury selection process has been suspended until all evaluations are finished and a decision is rendered on whether Duncan can act as his own attorney. Duncan could face the death penalty in the case.
(AP)

High food and fuel prices are increasing demand for relief from Idaho food banks, while those same costs are making it harder for banks to fill their supplies.

Roger Simon with the Idaho Food Bank says people on fixed incomes and low-income families are hardest hit, and demand will increase at the beginning of summer vacation when kids no longer get school lunches.

Roger Simon, Idaho Food Bank, comments

Officials say a statewide network of summer feeding programs helps fill that gap, and are hopeful of a Congressional agreement on the next Farm Bill, which includes a substantial increase in food relief funding.

Two Idaho misdemeanor charges against a triple-murder suspect being held in Lewiston have been dropped, clearing the way for his extradition back to Louisiana.

The charges of providing false information to authorities and having a concealed weapon during an arrest were dismissed Tuesday morning, a day after Robert McCoy was taken to St Joseph Regional Medical Center after attempting suicide.

According to the Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office, McCoy was found hanging from his bedsheet at just after 1 PM. Jail officers cut him down and started CPR until medics arrived a few minutes later – they took over resuscitation efforts and McCoy regained consciousness. He was later returned to the jail and placed on suicide watch.

McCoy, 34, is being held on three murder warrants out of Louisiana for the May 5th murders of his estranged wife’s 17-year-old son and her parents in Bossier City. He was captured Friday night on Normal Hill while traveling as a passenger in a Swift Transportation truck – the driver was not charged. A .380-caliber pistol was retrieved from behind the passenger seat of the truck, and Louisiana authorities believe the gun was used in the Bossier City murders.

McCoy will be returned to Louisiana this week.

Six years after his last election, supporters of Interior Secretary and former Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne are ready to pay off the last $15,000 of his campaign debt.

Kempthorne’s gubernatorial campaign committee will hold a “debt retirement reception” in Idaho next week to pay off obligations from his 2002 campaign.

A fundraising consultant who has been raising money to pay off the remaining debt says paying off Kempthorne’s debt became a challenge after the then-governor was nominated by President Bush to serve as secretary of the Interior. Kempthorne had just more than $250,000 in debt remaining after his 2002 campaign. Ninety percent of that money was paid off while he was still Idaho governor. But after Kempthorne’s nomination to the Cabinet, the campaign had to stop raising money to pay off the remaining debt to comply with the stricter federal rules that administration appointees must follow.

As governor, Kempthorne came under fire for his use of campaign money, before Idaho lawmakers closed a legal loophole that allowed officeholders to use campaign money to cover what were deemed “ordinary and necessary” expenses of running an office. Until the loophole was closed, Kempthorne used his campaign funds on more than $70,000 in meals, gifts and sundries - including expenses related to his time as head of the National Governors Association.

(Idaho Statesman)

Workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation have removed the last of the reactor fuel from the deactivated Fast Flux Test Facility and shipped it to Idaho almost a year ahead of a legal deadline.

The research reactor is being shutdown to allow it to be put into a long-term surveillance and maintenance mode at minimum cost by August 2009.

The Department of Energy was required under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the last of the fuel removed from the reactor by next March. That included 375 fuel assemblies transported to central Hanford earlier for storage - they will be considered for disposal at the nuclear waste depository atYucca Mountain, Nevada. In addition, the Hanford facility had 11 sodium-bonded fuel assemblies that were shipped to the Idaho National Laboratory to have uranium extracted for possible reuse by commercial nuclear power plants.

The first of 11 shipments to Idaho was made in October, with contractor Fluor Hanford receiving word the last shipment arrived May 1.

(Tri-City Herald)