News Digest

Monday, September 10, 2007 10:55 AM PDT

IDAHO - Craig says pressure from journalists led him to plead guilty

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Larry Craig should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a sex sting because he was under extreme stress after being hounded by journalists asking questions about his sexuality, his lawyer argues.

Craig, an Idaho Republican, pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct following a sting operation in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis airport. His lawyer, William Martin, said he will file court documents today trying to undo that decision so Craig can fight the charge.

Martin said Monday that Craig did not ‘‘knowingly and intelligently enter a guilty plea.’’ The senator simply admitted conduct that ‘‘itself does not constitute a crime,’’ Martin said.

Federal grant money at risk for Idaho students

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BOISE (AP) — The state Board of Education has until Tuesday afternoon to come up with $6 million or lose $18 million in federal grant money for a program designed to help more Idaho students go to college.

The state’s Division of Financial Management gave the board until Tuesday to show how it will come up with the match for federal money over six years. The state is $6 million short.

OREGON

Woman wants money back

EAGLE POINT (AP) — A woman who donated more than $80,000 to help establish a library branch in this southern Oregon city wants Jackson County to return her money.

Carole Mercer sold a house in 1999 and the money was used to buy the land on which the Eagle Point Library now sits. As part of the agreement, the library would house a memorial in memory of Mercer’s daughter, Sarah Ann Mercer, who died a decade ago after being hit by a car in Northern California.

In a letter to the county asking for her money back, Mercer said the county never created the memorial as agreed upon.

Mercer said she and others had to put it together.

Mercer said the county also breached a written agreement with her when it closed all its libraries this spring because of budget cuts. Mercer said she will sue the county on Sept. 15 unless the money is returned to her.

‘‘I’m a mother grizzly bear wanting to defend my dead cub,’’ Mercer said.