Idaho

BOISE, Idaho - Idaho has become the first state to have its so-called fetal-pain law banning abortions after 20 weeks struck down by the federal courts. The decision from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill was handed down Wednesday as part of a ruling that also overturns other abortion restrictions in Idaho. Also on Wednesday, Arkansas adopted a law banning abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy, around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by abdominal ultrasound. The Idaho ruling is binding not only in that state but could have a persuasive effect in lawsuits challenging similar bans in other states - such as Arizona, where a suit is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

BOISE, Idaho - Firefighters gained ground on a number of wildfires across the West but struggled in southern Idaho, where winds fanned a fast-moving blaze across 235 square miles of sagebrush and dry grass, threatening a handful of homes, authorities said Monday. More firefighters were headed to the Idaho wildfire, which was sparked by a Saturday lightning storm. The fire was threatening six homes in the Castleford area, west of Twin Falls, said Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kyli Gough.

A fugitive sought in Garden City, Idaho, on charges of arson for hire was arrested as a result of a motor vehicle accident in Lester on June 10, police said. Police said the accident took place at 10:53 p.m. at the Rosenbluth Valet Parking and Car Wash, 621 N. Governor Printz Blvd. The driver attempted to leave the scene but was reportedly restrained by Rosenbluth employees. When police arrived, the driver identified himself as Ernest Borg but refused to turn over his license, registration card or proof of insurance, authorities said.

When my friend Ridley Pearson invited me back to Idaho, I said to myself: He is NOT getting me up another tree. I was still combing sap out of my hair from a trip to Idaho last fall, when Ridley talked me into - this is an Idaho sport - climbing way up into a blatantly hostile tree and then getting back to Earth by "rappelling," which means "sliding down at the Speed of Fear on a rope approximately the same width as a strand of No. 8 spaghetti....

Montgomery County authorities are investigating the possibility that one of two neo-Nazi skinheads wanted in last week's killing of an 18-year-old Norristown man, also believed to have been a skinhead, has fled to Idaho. First Assistant District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said yesterday, "We have federal authorities in Idaho working on the case now. " Paul Minton, 23, of Philadelphia, may have fled west to be with other white supremacists, Castor said. Keith James Pearce Jr., 21, of Norristown, also remains at large.

As outlined in court documents, Larry L. Eastland had a job that is not easily explained on a resume. Among the hats he contends that he wore: ghostwriter, security chief, and tracker of pedigrees of his boss' pets. Salary: $25,000 a month. Employer: John E. du Pont. His position ended in June 1995, Eastland claims in a suit in federal court, when he was told that his services were no longer needed. Now Eastland, who once ran for governor of Idaho, wants what he says was promised to him: nearly $1 million, most of it part of a severance agreement that was never put on paper.

The state of Idaho has offered to settle out of court a $1.3 million lawsuit it filed against a retired Scranton-area couple who inadvertently started a forest fire near Boise last year, a state official said yesterday. The state, which alleged that Frederick and Jeanne Howard started the blaze when a car they were towing behind their motor home caught fire, decided to settle for $355,000, the maximum money believed to be provided in the Howards' insurance policies. But Idaho Deputy Attorney General Terry Anderson said the decision, reached Thursday by the state Land Board, also called for the Howards' insurance companies to reveal the full amounts of the insurance and for the Howards to sign an affidavit stating that their other assets did not exceed $500,000.

To look at Sheriff Tim Nettleton - limping along in grimy Reeboks, worn Wranglers riding dangerously low on his hips, a little five-shot revolver on his belt and a star on the buckle the only indication of his law-enforcement capacity - is to think: Here's a guy who doesn't go by the rules. That thought would be misguided. Nettleton, 57, Idaho's longest-serving sheriff, is a big believer in rules - his. He rewrote the book. Working with inmates is no different than working with spoiled mustangs.

Emergency workers tend to a high school student injured when a bus rolled on a snowy highway south of Moscow, Idaho. Several of the 26 passengers suffered head and neck injuries yesterday.

BOISE, Idaho - Federal authorities in Idaho said yesterday that they have arrested an Uzbekistan national accused of conspiring with a designated terrorist organization in his home country and helping scheme a plot to use a weapon of mass destruction. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced that Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, was arrested in Boise after a grand jury issued a three-count indictment as part of a terrorism investigation into his activities in Idaho and Utah. The Idaho grand jury's indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

BOISE, Idaho - Federal authorities in Idaho said yesterday that they have arrested an Uzbekistan national accused of conspiring with a designated terrorist organization in his home country and helping scheme a plot to use a weapon of mass destruction. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced that Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, was arrested in Boise after a grand jury issued a three-count indictment as part of a terrorism investigation into his activities in Idaho and Utah. The Idaho grand jury's indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

    Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis led six Connecticut players in double figures as the top-seeded Huskies routed Idaho, 105-37, in Storrs Conn. in a Bridgeport Regional game. In other Bridgeport Regional games in College Park, Md., Alyssa Thomas had 29 points, and Maryland spoiled Quinnipiac's debut in the NCAA women's tournament by pulling away to a 72-52 victory. . . . Kiana Johnson scored 16 points as Michigan State halted Marist's string of first-round NCAA upsets with a 55-47 win in College Park.

BOISE, Idaho - Idaho has become the first state to have its so-called fetal-pain law banning abortions after 20 weeks struck down by the federal courts. The decision from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill was handed down Wednesday as part of a ruling that also overturns other abortion restrictions in Idaho. Also on Wednesday, Arkansas adopted a law banning abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy, around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by abdominal ultrasound. The Idaho ruling is binding not only in that state but could have a persuasive effect in lawsuits challenging similar bans in other states - such as Arizona, where a suit is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Idaho senator gets DUI date ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A conservative U.S. senator from Idaho who has said he doesn't drink because of his Mormon faith has been charged with drunken driving. Sen. Michael Crapo, a three-term Republican with a reputation as a social and fiscal conservative, registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.11 percent after police pulled his car over in this suburb south of Washington, authorities said. The 61-year-old lawmaker, who faces a court date Jan. 4, apologized in a statement issued hours after his arrest early Sunday.

BOISE, Idaho - Firefighters gained ground on a number of wildfires across the West but struggled in southern Idaho, where winds fanned a fast-moving blaze across 235 square miles of sagebrush and dry grass, threatening a handful of homes, authorities said Monday. More firefighters were headed to the Idaho wildfire, which was sparked by a Saturday lightning storm. The fire was threatening six homes in the Castleford area, west of Twin Falls, said Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kyli Gough.

WASHINGTON - Mike Sackett remembers what he thought when he saw the eye-popping fines of more than $30,000 a day that the Environmental Protection Agency was threatening to impose on him over a piece of Idaho property worth less than one day's penalty. "If they do this to us, we're going to lose everything we have," Sackett said. The EPA said that Sackett and his wife, Chantell, illegally filled in most of their 0.63-acre lot with dirt and rocks in preparation for building a home.

BOISE, Idaho - A woman was able to escape an attack by a mule deer after a passer-by and his daughter fought off the buck, grabbing the antlers and striking it with a hammer until it fled, state wildlife officials said. Sue Panter was on a stroll near her home in rural southeastern Idaho when the buck attacked, raking her body with his antlers and goring her legs, officials said. Michael Vaughan and his 17-year-old daughter, Alexis, spotted the struggle early Friday and tried to intervene, the state Department of Fish and Game said in a statement on Sunday.

By Michael Silverstein These days there's a lot of talk about privatizing various government functions to save money and improve efficiency. All of it, however, amounts to half-measures. It's time to consider going all the way by taking the United States of America private. The U.S. government is actually a classic takeover candidate. It's a well-known enterprise with a long and often distinguished history that is facing new fiscal challenges. It also has an enormous wealth of assets with huge revenue potential - were they operated with that end in mind.

BOISE, Idaho - Rescuers trying to reach a trapped Idaho silver miner Tuesday were forced by dangerous conditions to shift to a new route, more than quadrupling the distance officials said workers must dig through to reach him. They were also still trying to get a separate air hole to Larry "Pete" Marek, a 53-year-old employee of Hecla Mining Co., who was trapped Friday in the cave-in and hasn't been heard from since. Instability deep inside the Lucky Friday Mine led to the shift in plans to reach Marek, said Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration spokeswoman Amy Louviere.

BOISE, Idaho - Part science and part sculpture, Bob Crum's fruit trees look like delicate relatives of their cousins in nearby orchards. That's intentional. "I've tinkered with this for a long time," he said of his espaliers. "The thing about espalier is it's a work in progress. You can make your own shape. All it takes is time. " Espalier is a method of training trees to grow in two dimensions in an ornamental design, often against a wall, but the trees also can be attached to freestanding trellises, such as Crum's.