Shares of Boeing fell nearly 2 percent Monday after reports that the company is considering not bidding in the next round for the Pentagon’s $35 billion airborne refueling tanker contract.

Aviation Week reports that the company is “strongly considering” not submitting a bid for the Air Force tanker after the Pentagon issued new guidelines last week for the plane. The report cited unnamed sources familiar with Boeing’s internal strategy, but the company did not comment.

Boeing’s Capitol Hill supporters have complained that the new rules favor Northrop Grumman’s larger plane and give Boeing little time to make any changes to its original proposal.

Boeing lost the first round of bidding to rival Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent EADS earlier this year, but the Government Accountability Office later ruled that the Air Force had committed several errors in awarding the contract. The Pentagon decided to reopen the bidding and hopes to award a new contract by the end of the year.

The new request for proposal said the Pentagon will give “additional value” to a plane that can carry more fuel than is required. Boeing’s supporters say that unfairly favors Northrop’s larger plane. (AP)

Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo honored Nez Perce Tribal elder Horace Axtell before the Senate with a Congressional Record Statement noting his efforts to preserve the tribe’s heritage.
Axtell, a historian, writer, storyteller and cultural expert was recently awarded a national heritage fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was 1 of 10 people nationwide earning the award.
Crapo will be in Lapwai on Wednesday to present the Congressional Record Statement to Axtell at the Nez Perce Tribal Offices. (AP)

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff joined Interior Secretary and former Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne in Boise this week to tour the National Interagency Fire Center.

The two Cabinet members were at the center on Wednesday to learn more of how the center goes about coordinating national firefighting efforts throughout the West and nation.

While Idaho has had almost no fire activity this year, California has seen a slew of wildfires tear through that state, destroying homes and prompting mass evacuations. Last year, 2.5 million acres across the U.S. were burned by wildfires, including 1.9 million acres in Idaho. So far this year, about 400,000 acres have been charred, but officials say the California wildfire season started a month earlier this year and they expect it to be a very bad fire season.

Chertoff, who was making his first ever visit to Idaho, and Kempthorne also toured the Wildland Firefighters Monument. (Idaho Statesman, KTVB, KBCI)

More than 3,000 troops with the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade are leaving the Yakima Training Center Thursday.

After a 10-day break they’ll report to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin for advanced training prior to heading to Iraq in October for a 12-month deployment.

The Seattle-based brigade is made up of 2,400 soldiers from Washington and 900 from California.

It’s the second tour for the brigade that also served in Iraq in 2004. The soldiers will provide convoy security and force protection. (AP)

Washington and Idaho have notified about 120,000 residents they might be eligible to collect unemployment checks as part of a federal extension for workers who lost their jobs and who exhausted their original insurance benefits.

Both states have established Web sites that allow workers to file for extensions.

Washington officials say roughly 100,000 workers could qualify if they filed a claim for unemployment benefits on or after May 7, 2006, and later exhausted the benefits - Idaho officials say they mailed out notices to some 20,000 workers.

Recently approved federal emergency compensation allows up to 13 additional weeks of benefits for those workers who are still unemployed or meet other qualifications. (Spokesman Review)

Idaho Senator Larry Craig does not plan to attend the Republican National Convention September 1-4 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Craig was arrested in a sex sting at a restroom in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last summer.
A spokesperson for the senator says Craig plans to stay in Idaho during the convention because he is retiring and not running for re-election. (AP)

Nearly 200 members of the Idaho Air National Guard will return Wednesday from Afghanistan after completing a 45-day mission in support of NATO military operations.

The deployment consisted of about 30 A-10 pilots from the 190th Fighter Squadron and the rest were a mixture of operations, support and maintenance personnel from the 124th Wing. Four Idaho Air Guard A-10 attack aircraft were used in conjunction with A-10s from other Air Force units.

It was the 190th Fighter Squadron’s second overseas deployment in as many years and the third since 2001. The unit deployed to Iraq in 2007, and in 2003 it was the first A-10 squadron to deploy from Kuwait into Iraq in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (Idaho Statesman)

In a few months, the 3,400 members of the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team begin their second deployment to Iraq in four years.

The unit recently began months of training at the Army’s Yakima Firing Center, to be followed by further training at Fort McCoy, Wisc., and Kuwait. Instead of its exercises with tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, the 81st Brigade is relearning the use of quicker and lighter armored Humvees and other vehicles to protect supply convoys.

About 70 percent of the troops have served at least one tour in Iraq, while others have done more.

One soldier, a 26-year-old sergeant from Mead, served two tours in Iraq with the regular Army. When the 81st got call-up orders in October, he was told he didn’t have to go but volunteered anyway, despite the fact that he won a $1 million Washington Lottery scratch ticket prize in February. (AP)