News Digest:
Friday, May 9, 2008 12:32 PM PDT
GOOD AFTERNOON
IDAHO
Canadian company
nixes Idaho for ethanol plant
IDAHO FALLS (AP) — A Canadian biotechnology company has decided to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Saskatchewan, rather than southeast Idaho.
Iogen Corp. on Wednesday said it has suspended its operations in Idaho.
For the last two years, Iogen had leaned toward building a cellulosic ethanol facility near Shelley, near where farmers already are under contract to provide the wheat and barley straw, corn leaves and stalks, and switch grass used to produce ethanol.
A U.S. Department of Energy spending package included loan guarantees and an $80 million grant for the project, estimated in 2006 to cost up to $350 million.
OREGON
Ontario men get at least 30 years for Boise stabbing death
BOISE (AP) — A $50 robbery that ended in a fatal stabbing in Boise has resulted in prison terms for two Ontario, Ore., men.
Twenty-two-year-old Joseph Garcia was sentenced Thursday in 4th District Court to 30 years before he will be eligible for parole, and 21-year-old Mark Pando got at least 25 years.
Garcia pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and Pando to robbery in the stabbing death of 24-year-old Christopher J. Swanson on Oct. 17.
According to court filings, Garcia and Pando told investigators they met Swanson in a bar and gave him $50 to buy drugs for them.
THE NATION
Investigation at Death Valley ranch where Charles Manson hid
INDEPENDENCE, Calif. (AP) — National Park Service officials say the Death Valley ranch where Charles Manson was arrested will be closed for a second time this year to search for possible human remains.
A press release Thursday said that Barker Ranch will be closed for up to four days later this month.
A team of forensic researchers found possible unmarked graves at the site in February that they believe could be the bodies of additional Manson victims.
The park was briefly closed in April, but digging was put off because a piece of high-tech soil testing equipment was damaged en route to the site. Authorities said they wanted to conduct tests using lasers before disturbing the soil.
Manson and his followers hid out in the park after their 1969 killing spree.
