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Thursday, December 11, 2008 10:13 AM PST
Hawk breaks into N. Idaho home through window
COEUR D’ALENE (AP) — A large raptor crashed through the window of a northern Idaho home, showering a youngster with glass and stunning itself before recovering and flying off.
Karyn Holt of Coeur d’Alene says her 1-year-old son was eating breakfast in his high chair Tuesday morning when the bird, possibly a Cooper’s Hawk, broke through the window facing their backyard.
Holt’s son, Quinn, suffered only minor cuts. Her daughter came running and asked, ‘‘Mom, why is there a hawk in the house.’’
Neighbors settle 16-month cat custody battle
PORTLAND — A 16-month cat fight in an Oregon court has come to an end.
A pair of Portland neighbors resorted to attorneys to sort out their dispute over a 4-year-old Siamese cat named Merlin.
Donella and Charles Whitacre had claimed their neighbors, RoseMarie Opp and Lawrence Hudetz, ‘‘kidnapped’’ Merlin.
But Opp and Hudetz said they kept the cat because they believed he had been neglected.
Donnella Whitacre posted fliers around their neighborhood, calling Opp and Hudetz cat thieves.
She reported the cat stolen, sending a police officer to retrieve it.
S.W. Idaho commissioner apologizes for e-mail
CALDWELL (AP) — A southwestern Idaho county commissioner has apologized for circulating an e-mail comparing Michelle Obama to a black widow spider.
Republican Canyon County Commissioner Steve Rule received the e-mail from a family member on his county account, then forwarded it to 26 people earlier this month.
The e-mail shows the wife of the president-elect in the black and red dress she wore election night next to a photo of one of the poisonous spiders, which have black and red markings.
The e-mail read, ‘‘The female has a very wide backside, is black, and has a red hour glass shaped marking on her belly. You can find this spider in: Closets, wood piles, under beds and soon the White House.’’
Rule told the Idaho Statesman, ‘‘Apparently it offended some people, and I’m sorry.’’
Ore. board splits over Bunny Suicides book
HALSEY, Ore. (AP) — After more than an hour of debate, the Central Linn School Board found itself split on a motion to remove the divisive ‘‘Book of Bunny Suicides’’ from library shelves.
With a 3-3 vote, the board decided to take up the issue again in January, when all seven members will be present.
The book, a collection of macabre cartoons in which bunnies commit suicide in various ways, has been a topic of debate for months.
A parent complained about the book in October after her 13-year-old son brought it home. She threatened to burn the book, drawing national attention to the story.
As a result, the district received 24 copies of the book.
The mother ultimately returned the original when the district agreed to have a seven-member committee determine whether it should remain in the combined high school-junior high library.
The committee strongly favored keeping the book, without restrictions, on a vote of 6-1.
Still, the school board found itself deeply divided at this week’s meeting.
‘‘While I understand we do need to protect the kids, and that’s part of our job being a board member, I just don’t believe in censorship,’’ board member Julie Smith said. ‘‘We could all find something objectionable in our library. Does that give us the right to go in and take whatever anybody finds objectionable off the shelf?’’
Verne Hoyer, another board member, disagreed and cast his vote in favor of a ban. He said the decision stemmed, in part, from his work with the Eugene Police Department, where he had to deal with more than one suicide.
