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Views: Boise Biking Best
San Francisco Bay Guardian
05/15/2008
By drawing a legal line in the sand between cars and bikes, allowing them different rules in the same environment, Idaho's bike laws ultimately foster a mutual respect between drivers and cyclists. In Boise it's common to see road signs instructing drivers and cyclists to "share the road." It may be common sense advice for cyclists, but to motorists, it's a subtle reminder that bigger shouldn't mean better.
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Idaho Fish and Game Talk Wolves
Coeur d'Alene Press
05/15/2008
Fish and Game held the meeting to seek public input on the 2008 wolf hunting season as part of the first Idaho Wolf Population Management Plan. The state took over managing wolves on March 28 after they were taken off the endangered species list.
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Lead Fragments in Game Meat
The Dickinson Press
05/14/2008
An Idaho raptor group working to eliminate lead from ammunition has released findings it says shows 80 percent of ground venison from deer killed with high-velocity lead bullets contains metal fragments.
The Peregrine Fund, based in Boise, and researchers from Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., say the study released Tuesday is further evidence people who eat meat from game animals shot with lead bullets risk exposure to the toxic metal.
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The Last Mill in Coeur d'Alene
KUOW
05/12/2008
Dozens of sawmills are being idled around the Northwest because of plummeting demand for lumber. KUOW reports on the end of an era in Coeur d'Alene.
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Forest Service Fights Weeds in Montana, Idaho
Bitterroot Valley Ravalli Republic
05/13/2008
With non-native plants a growing concern in the 1.35 million-acre Selway Bitterroot Wilderness, the Bitterroot National Forest and three other forests plan to use chemical, biological and mechanical controls to reduce the impact of existing invasive plants and work to prevent establishment of new ones.
The weed-fighting effort will include chemical, biological and mechanical treatments, re-seeding and replanting, and education and prevention designed to reduce the unintended human transport of invasive plants into the wilderness.
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Corp of Engineers Damages Idaho River Habitat
Spokane Spokesman-Review
05/13/2008
Two Sandpoint outfitters say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fouled a tributary of the Clark Fork River and destroyed protected bull trout habitat during a $250,000 flood-control project.
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Big Oil Tours NW
KUOW
05/12/2008
Another day, another new high for oil prices. Against that backdrop, the president of Shell Oil Company (USA) delivered a vigorous defense of his industry's record profits. The oil executive stopped in the Northwest -- in his words -- to "educate" political leaders. KUOW reports on the message and the reaction in Coeur d'Alene.
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Agencies issue plan to run Columbia dams, preserve salmon
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/10/2008
The Bush administration Monday issued its final court-ordered plans for making Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams and irrigation projects safe for endangered salmon.
The proposed changes in operations would cost hundreds of millions of dollars but no dam removals.
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Idaho Company Makes Millions from Toxic Waste
Boise Idaho Statesman
05/08/2008
The dump at Grand View, where tainted sand from Kuwait will be taken, stores hazardous material from government and industry.
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Idaho Uranium Enrichment Plant To Bring Jobs
Boise Idaho Statesman
05/07/2008
A uranium enrichment plant near Idaho Falls will be one of the largest construction projects in the state's history, and it could create 1,000 jobs for the five years it takes to complete it.
Construction on Areva Inc.'s $2 billion facility could begin as early as 2011, once the French-backed company obtains a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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Idaho, Montana To Court To Keep Wolf Control
Great Falls Tribune
05/07/2008
Three states have asked to intervene in federal court against a lawsuit seeking to return gray wolves in the Northern Rockies to the endangered species list.
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Bus Service for Northern Idaho's Nez Perce
Twin Falls Time-News
05/07/2008
The Nez Perce Tribe in northern Idaho has started a bus service connecting Lewiston to Kooskia and other areas to help workers get to the Clearwater River Casino, the tribe's headquarters in Lapwai and jobs in Lewiston.
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$2 Billion Uranium Plant for Idaho
The Santa Fe New Mexican
05/06/2008
French-owned energy services company Areva Inc. will build what it's said will be a $2 billion uranium enrichment facility near the eastern Idaho city of Idaho Falls, after winning tax concessions from the state Legislature meant to lure the plant to the region.
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Another Idaho Development Files Chapter 11
New West
05/06/2008
The Village Green at the Valley Club, a new high-end subdivision and golf course development in Ketchum, Idaho, filed last week for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owing more than $24 million to its creditors.
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North Idaho Wolf Plan Sets Hunting Limits
Boise Idaho Statesman
05/06/2008
State officials are recommending that a quota of 25 wolf deaths annually be allowed in Idaho's Panhandle region, with hunting stopped once that limit is met.
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Attorney Generals Talk Green Energy in Idaho
Coeur d'Alene Press
05/06/2008
Attorneys general nationwide will gather with energy notables to learn of trends and problems surrounding energy in America.
Keynote speakers include the president of Shell Oil Company, John Hofmeister, on the reality of America's energy future, and Ward Hubbell, president of The Green Building Initiative, an organization seeking to accelerate green construction.
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Mining's Return Faces Resistance
Christian Science Monitor
05/05/2008
The high price of metals has brought mining roaring back to the region. Once seen as economic engines, mining companies are now treated more like pariahs in communities that have prospered by attracting wealthy pre-retirees and "knowledge economy" jobs.
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Radioactive sand coming to Idaho from Kuwait
Boise Idaho Statesman
05/02/2008
Nearly 80 rail cars loaded with contaminated sand from Kuwait are headed toward a dump in southwestern Idaho.
American Ecology Corp. is shipping about 6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longview, Wash., this week and company officials say loads are scheduled to begin arriving in Idaho by rail in two weeks.
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Idaho's Hispanic Population Growing Rapidly
Twin Falls Time-News
05/01/2008
Hispanics remain the largest minority group in Idaho, growing by more than 43 percent from 2000 to 2007, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
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Idaho Judge Sides With Surface Water Users
Twin Falls Time-News
05/01/2008
A former Idaho chief justice has issued his recommendation on the second of three water hearings, an attempt to clarify complex rules about water rights in southern Idaho.
The Surface Water Coalition, which includes the North Side and Twin Falls canal companies, alleged groundwater pumpers have taken water from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer that belongs to them under Idaho's first-come, first-served water law
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Idaho State Workers Could Telecommute
Twin Falls Time-News
04/30/2008
Last summer, Gov. Butch Otter sat in his Ford Expedition in traffic on Boise's busy State Street. He wondered aloud to a reporter who was riding shotgun how much gas - and taxpayer money - could be saved if a good percentage of the 19,000 state of Idaho employees worked from home.
It's still a good question.
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Idaho Park Deal Crumbles
Boise Idaho Statesman
04/30/2008
A complex land exchange that would have let hikers and climbers access a popular Foothills landmark and also created a lakeside county park near Kuna has fallen apart.
The deal, which would have opened Stack Rock to the public, “is off the table,” said Perry Whittaker, real estate bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Lands.
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EPA Reviewing Idaho Wastewater Plant
Boise Idaho Statesman
04/30/2008
The Environmental Protection Agency has not concluded its review of the Meridian Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The city still faces fines or other legal action if the EPA determines it has violated its wastewater treatment permit or the Clean Water Act.
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Views: Keeping Gray Wolves Alive
Los Angeles Times
04/30/2008
The Fish and Wildlife Service should re-list the wolves until it receives more reasonable management plans from the states involved, and should demand that the population fall no lower than 1,000. The wolves weren't reintroduced to provide target practice for hunters.
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EPA OKs Idaho Field Burning
Twin Falls Time-News
04/30/2008
The Environmental Protection Agency has given an early nod to Idaho's proposed new rules and changes to its approach to regulating the long-standing farm practice of field burning in northern Idaho.
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