The Idaho Attorney General’s office has concluded that researchers at a University of Idaho center in Post Falls broke no state laws in mixing the interests of the university and two private companies that benefited the researchers.

The Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research and then-director Gary Maki were the subject of a university audit in 2005 that found the center’s officials deliberately and improperly used university resources to “further private business interests” – namely, two businesses formed by CAMBR researchers and run in close alignment with the center.

The audit concluded that company work was done on university time, that university employees had a profit-sharing arrangement with one company, and that university resources were used for company business, such as testing products. The audit said the conflicts were a violation of university policy and possibly of state law.

The Idaho attorney general’s office opened a criminal investigation into the audit findings in 2006, but a lawyer for former CAMBR researchers that sued the UI for allegedly being punished for raising questions about conflicts of interest, says that she was notified in March by the AG’s office that it had concluded its investigation and decided there was no violation of Idaho law.

Still, investigators with the space agency NASA, which provides a large share of funding for CAMBR, are still probing how the center’s officials handled federal grants over the years.

In the meantime, the UI has reorganized its staff at the center, bringing in a new director and allowing Maki to focus chiefly on leading the research.

CAMBR researches computer chips and microprocessors that routinely go into space on major projects like the Hubble Space Telescope. The center has brought in more than $17 million in grants since setting up in Post Falls in 2002.

Boise State University will play host to a scientific conference this week addressing the potential risk of lead poisoning from high-velocity bullets in wildlife and venison for humans.

The four-day gathering will cover issues ranging from lead poisoning among subsistence hunting Inuits in Alaska and Russia, lead levels in ravens in southern Yellowstone National Park, lead found in swans in Western Washington, and the politics of nontoxic ammunition.

The issue has been heightened since North Dakota and Minnesota officials told food bank operators to clear their shelves of venison donated by hunters this year.

Researchers realized there might be a connection between lead poisoning, bullets, venison and humans after 1996, the year rare California condors were reintroduced in northern Arizona. As many as 60 now fly over the Grand Canyon and southern Utah, but researchers and the Arizona Game and Fish Department found the scavengers were ailing from lead poisoning after eating hunter-killed deer and leftover gut piles. In 2006, five condors died of lead poisoning and 90 percent of the rest had signs of exposure.

One North Dakota researcher used a CT scan to examine about 100 packets of venison from local food giveaway programs and found 60 percent had multiple lead fragments. While no cases of lead poisoning from venison had been reported, his research helped lead to the warning to food banks in North Dakota in March.

Days later, Minnesota followed suit after separate tests in that state.

Two University of Idaho athletic teams have been forced to surrender several athletic scholarships after the NCAA found the programs to be in violation of meeting minimum academic progress requirements. Under the NCAA’s decision, the Vandal football team has lost eight scholarships for the 2008-2009 season because of the dismissal of seven players who were in violation of either university policy or state law. Another five football players left because of personal matters or academics; and one player decided not to return to the team because of a chronic injury. The men’s basketball team lost one scholarship, because a player transferred to another school when he was academically ineligible to play at the U of I. The NCAA rejected the university’s appeal on the scholarship losses. Idaho Athletic Director Rob Spear says the NCAA’s actions were not a surprise to the athletic department and that steps are being taken to ensure the academic success of student-athletes. Steps include: a closer working relationship between the registrar’s office and the athletic department for earlier identification of any potential academic challenges and to develop solutions for student-athletes; enhancing the academic support services staff; renovating and doubling the size of computer labs within the athletic department; and improving the lines of communication between the coaching staff, academic support staff and the registrar’s office.

University of Idaho Athletic Director Rob Spear has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Legislative Council - one of two top-tier governing bodies in the organization.

The Legislative Council is charged with evaluating proposals during the legislative cycle. It serves alongside the Leadership Council with both reporting to the NCAA Board of Directors. Each council has 31 members.

Spear’s term begins Sept. 1, 2008, and continues through April 30, 2010, at which time he can be reappointed.

Washington State University’s Board of Regents on Friday approved the university’s capital and operating budget requests, which will be considered by the State Legislature in 2009.

The capital requests include $7.4 million in design funding for a veterinary medical research building in Pullman, $15.75 million for a wastewater reclamation project and $16.1 million to turn the Bookie building in Pullman into classroom space. The Bookie will vacate its current building and move to the
renovated Compton Union Building, which will open this fall.

Included in the operating budget is $18 million to overhaul the university’s core computer systems; $5 million in funding for the School of Global Animal Health; $3 million for public safety and emergency management funding; money to fund salary increases for faculty, staff and graduate students, and funding to support higher enrollments.

The regents also approved several fee increases for the upcoming academic year. Generally, service and activities fees and health fees were raised by five percent. The regents approved a 6.64 percent increase in the per semester fees for Pullman students for use of the Student Recreation Center.

In other action, the board approved the creation of a bi-state School of Food Science, in collaboration with the University of Idaho. The action merges food science faculty and programs from the WSU Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition with those from the UI Department of Food Science and Toxicology.

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)

A Tumwater, Wash., man already charged with sexually abusing boys at a Latah County Boy Scout camp has turned himself into authorities for five additional felony charges of lewd and lascivious conduct.

Timothy Kellis, 38, is scheduled to appear in Moscow’s 2nd District Court on Thursday on one count of sexual abuse of a child younger than 16 and two counts of lewd conduct with a minor younger than 16 for his alleged conduct in 2007 as a counselor at Camp Grizzly near Harvard. Kellis was arrested April 12 in Moscow on the initial charges and was released three days later after posting bail.

The new charges stem from allegations by two additional victims.

Kellis, a band leader at A.G. West Black High School in Tumwater, worked as a teacher at Highland High School in Craigmont from 2001 to 2006, and was an assistant director for the Clarkston High School marching band from 1995 to 2006. He was also a Scout master in Clarkston.

Kellis is being held in the Latah County Jail on $50,000 bond.

The Washington state Board of Education has approved new math standards for elementary and middle school students.

The board’s action was the final review and approval of the standards, which will now be adopted by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The standards outline the mathematics learning expectations for all students in Washington. The standards range from counting forward and backward to multiplying and dividing fractions.

Now that the standards are adopted, the state will review the curriculum and recommendation and prepare math teachers to teach the new standards.

Revised math standards for grades 9-12 will be presented to the for review later this spring or summer.

(AP)