Around Idaho
Thursday, June 25, 2009 10:21 AM PDT
N. Idaho, other regions get mine cleanup cash
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Northern Idaho forests are among those benefiting from some $20 million in federal stimulus money aimed at helping clean up mining blight from the West’s wooded backcountry.
The Panhandle National Forest is due about $3.6 million, to clean up contamination on Forest Service land in Shoshone County.
Mines in the region that have been defunct for a century are targeted for cleanup activities.
For instance, the Sherlock mines near where Sherlock Creek joins the St. Joe Wild and Scenic River are responsible for endangering habitat for fish and other animals.
Among other things, the money in northern Idaho will help remove about 100 tons of soil where dangerous heavy metals continue to plague the environment.
Alaska, Arizona, California, Michigan and Montana are also getting a share of this clean-up cash.
Idaho, still without disclosure, ranks last again
BOISE (AP) — Idaho is last again.
The state’s financial disclosure laws for lawmakers got zero points from a national group that ranks legislatures’ accountability to voters.
Idaho, Vermont and Michigan tied for the worst position on the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity’s annual survey of disclosure laws.
Senators had tried to remedy the situation, passing a measure in the 2009 Legislature to require elected officials and candidates to publicly disclose some details about their and their spouse’s business interests.
But House Speaker Lawerence Denney was miffed at not being more actively included in the drafting of the bill and held it at his desk without a House vote.
Louisiana and Washington state ranked highest on the list, which the Center for Public Integrity has compiled for a decade; in all, 20 states flunked.
Minnick wants Chinese scholar
released
BOISE (AP) — U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick wants the State Department to do its utmost to secure the release of a Chinese scholar and Tiananmen Square protester arrested this week in his home country.
Minnick, an Idaho Democrat, along with Michigan Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, has submitted a House resolution urging the U.S. government to put the pressure on China to release Liu Xiaobo.
Xiaobo spent about two years in prison after the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-Democracy protests and another three years in a work camp in the 1990s for challenging China’s government.
Liu Xiaobo was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of ‘‘inciting to subvert state power,’’ which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail. He had already been in police custody for more than six months.
Risch part of Senate impeachment panel
BOISE (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jim Risch is part of a six-Republican, six-Democrat panel working to force an imprisoned federal judge out of office.
On Wednesday, the Senate accepted four articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent of Texas, who is serving a 33-month prison sentence for lying to judicial investigators about sexual assaults of two women who worked for him.
The House impeached Kent last week on allegations of sexual assault and lying to Justice Department and court officials.
Though Kent pleaded guilty, he resigned effective June 2010 — a ploy that allows him to collect his$174,000 annual salary while he’s behind bars.
Crews find body of missing Salmon River floater
SALMON (AP) — Authorities in eastern Idaho say they have recovered the body of an Oregon man who was reported missing on the final day of his float trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.
Lemhi County Sheriff Sam Slavin says rescue crews found the body of Eddie Miller, 57, of Silverton, Ore.
