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TETON COUNTY - An 11-year-old boy has shot and killed a black bear at point blank range in Teton County. The Teton Valley News reports that the boy was home alone with two younger sisters and was afraid the bear would make its way into the house just like the bear that Fish and Game trapped and euthanized two weeks ago. The boy tried to get the bear to leave initially. Fish and Game says that the family isn't in trouble, and that they would have likely put this bear down themselves.

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

DRIGGS, Idaho (AP) — An 11-year-old boy shot a black bear on his family's front porch after he said it wouldn't leave. The boy was at his home near Driggs, just west of the Idaho-Wyoming border, with his younger sisters last Wednesday when the bear showed up. The youngster says he couldn't shoo it away, so he went and got his gun and shot it. Black bears in the area have prompted multiple complaint calls, largely because they've been hanging around a transfer station. It wasn't clear if the bear shot by the boy was also attracted by the transfer...

MOUNTAIN HOME, IDAHO -- The setting sun is streaming in the living room window of Marion Lewis's house as he puts aside his cigarette and starts telling the story of the day his daughter was murdered. break He remembers the day, Oct. 3, 2002, when Lori Lewis Rivera was shot to death by the D.C. snipers at a gas station in Kensington. Two thousand miles away, her father was oblivious, out in the wilderness running a giant rock-crushing machine. Lewis stares at the floor as he recalls it, kneading his beefy hands and wiping away tears with his fingers. break...

As a Democrat in a very red state, Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick knew from the day he was elected that he would have a hard time holding on to his seat in 2010. But there's also an interesting tale to be told about just which candidate the Republicans will put up to run against Minnick. Political blogger Randy Stapilus has the story about how Ken Roberts, the majority leader of the Idaho House, has racked up a slew of statehouse endorsements and is well-plugged into the Idaho GOP establishment - but now looks like he could get swamped by newcomer...

LATEST RALLY DRAWS OVER 1,000+ IN LIBERAL SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA (ON THE ROAD IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA) - Crowds continue to build as the Tea Party Express II: Countdown to Judgment Day (www.TeaPartyExpress.org) gains momentum! Yesterday in the very liberal San Francisco Bay Area, more than 1,000 people turned out to show their support for smaller government, less deficit-spending, and opposition to government-run healthcare. The rally held particular importance as a Special Election for Congress takes place on November 3rd in California's 10th Congressional District. Conservative candidate for Congress, David Harmer, spoke at the event. The Tea Party Express II...

Twin Falls, Idaho » The headquarters for 620 Girls Scouts in south-central Idaho is moving because too many registered sex offenders live near its current downtown office, officials said. "Do we feel this is the safest environment for girls being served in the area?" asked Shelli Rambo Robertson, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Silver Sage Council, which includes Idaho, Oregon and Nevada. "We did not." The group last month discontinued meetings at the southern Idaho office and is moving to a new office near the College of Southern Idaho. The headquarters on Fourth Avenue was in an industrial part...

Dear Friends,             Gene Malvino is a very unusual person.  He is a retired college professor who actually believes in the free enterprise system, and the values that made America great.  He has continued to work tirelessly to bring out the truth of those issues that are important to us as a nation.              The attached letter appeared in the Coeur d’Alene Press on Friday, October 23.  This is the original, unedited version. I trust you will find it instructional.             Jim Hollingsworth Gene J. Malvino If the readers of this newspaper believe that the much discussed and debated Obamacare...

Washington, D.C. – The issue is resolved, but it means an Idaho Congressman no longer has an excuse to slip out his pocketknife at a committee meeting. Last week, the House of Representatives approved the conference report setting appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security. This final bill included language preventing spring-assisted knives from being classified by the Department as switchblades. The language was first championed by Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) and Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio.) “This amendment was necessary to prevent commonly-used pocketknives from being branded as illegal switchblades,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “The National Rifle...

The developers behind a proposed Elmore County nuclear plant have now applied for another site in western Idaho. Alternate Energy Holdings Inc., which shifted its proposed plant from Owyhee County to a site near Hammett in early 2008, has asked for a comprehensive-plan amendment for a remote, 5,100-acre site in northern Payette County. Company officials said in August that delays in the Elmore County process led them to consider other options, though spokesman Martin Johncox said Tuesday that AEHI is not leaving Elmore County. "If we indeed want to build a nuclear power plant, we have to press forward, and...

Dr Gordon Wilson (pictured left) has a Master’s degree in Entomology, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Public Policy. He is currently a Senior Fellow of Natural Philosophy (a.k.a. biology professor) at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, USA--a classical liberal-arts college that he says takes an unashamedly biblical, young-earth creation position...

Gunslingers twice rejected from family dining establishments First, they were turned away from Fuddruckers, then Idaho Pizza Company, farther out. But here at Shari's, just west of the Idaho State Police building in Meridian, John Carter and Mike Ludlow are finally able to sit down to dinner, black Glocks still strapped to their hips. The evening, up to this point, had certainly taken on a no-room-at-the-inn feel. Their objectives were simple: to sit down in a restaurant with their handguns clearly hanging in hip holsters, and to enjoy dinner with other like-minded and explicitly armed individuals. Carter and Ludlow are...

Board chairman: Brannon dismissed for fiscal, not political, reasons COEUR d'ALENE -- Ninety minutes before his live, televised debate for a Coeur d'Alene city council seat was to begin Wednesday evening, Jim Brannon was notified that he was fired. Brannon, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of North Idaho, was given a letter stating that today would be his last day and that he would be paid through the end of the month. Habitat board chairman Rick Shipman says the decision to eliminate Brannon's job was purely fiscal. Brannon supporter and businessman Jim Doty believes the decision was politically inspired....

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- The Humane Society of the United States and other groups are petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating confined-animal feeding operations under the Clean Air Act. The groups submitted the 69-page petition late last month asking that emissions of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and other gases be curbed. EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said the agency will review the petition and respond within 120 days. The EPA is wrapping up a study of emissions at 24 U.S. feedlots, but doesn't have enough information yet to decide whether confined-animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, need more regulation. "We...

Thursday's raid followed a two-year criminal investigation into the company and corporate officers, including founder Ryan DeLuca, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to search warrants filed in U.S. District Court. The searches were conducted at Bodybuilding.com's headquarters at 2026 S. Silverstone Way, Meridian, and its warehouse off Gowen Road in south Boise, after two warrants were signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale, said Wendy Olson, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boise. DeLuca could not be reached for comment, but a spokeswoman said the company is cooperating fully in the investigation. "We are not the manufacturers...

MERIDIAN - A Meridian teacher is behind bars, and police say she had inappropriate contact with one of her students. The teacher, Ashley Jo Beach, 37, has been arrested on a felony charge of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16 Officers say they caught Beach in the bushes with a 13-year-old boy Thursday night in Meridian. It started with a call from neighbors in the area of Cherry Lane and Vineyards - who say they saw something suspicious about 9:30 p.m. When officers arrived, they say Beach and the boy were between a fence and some...

Pilots would get 29 percent more elbow room and the base’s airspace would edge farther into Oregon and Nevada. If approved by federal officials, the expansion could pave the way for state-of-the-art aircraft like the F-35 at the base. More importantly, according to 366th Fighter Wing commander Col. John Bird, the expansion would double the effectiveness of the airspace and the training offered in Idaho. “We are starting to get customers,” Bird said. “It’s the perfect practice ground.” An expansion would make Mountain Home comparable to Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base, Bird said.

The Boise City Council passed a controversial health care resolution Tuesday night by a four to three margin. Mayor Dave Bieter passed the deciding vote after listening to more than an hour of public testimony. Most of that testimony was against the resolution on the national health care crises. Less than a handful sided with the mayor who'd proposed the resolution. "You're not concerning yourself with city Business at all I don't think you guys need to comment on it," one man told the council just before applause broke out inside council chambers. The resolution reads "The city council of...

The Obama administration said Tuesday the federal government's salmon and dam plan for the Columbia and Snake rivers, with modifications, will not jeopardize endangered salmon and steelhead. A drop in the populations of the endangered salmon and steelhead in the region would trigger a new review of the recovery efforts and a consideration of alternatives including breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. But the administration said that the so called biological opinion, "combined with the implementation plan, is legally and biologically sound and based on the best available science." It would order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...

When the majority of American voters selected Barack Obama as President of the United States of America last year, we caught a brief glimpse of post-racial America. It lasted a few weeks, at least. But the racial tension that has accompanied each major period of American history is again emerging under a new guise: The Tea Party/9-12 Project/Continental Congress '09 marches this weekend represent the new racist vanguard in America, uniting the anti-Muslim sentiments which followed the 9-11 attacks, Joe Wilson's singular obsession with undocumented immigrants receiving health care, and though in some ways subconsciously, a reaction to the nation's...

A new line of shotguns will roll off the assembly line for the first time Thursday in Meridian, boosting a business that has lost jobs and work hours in the recession. Advanced Precision Machining, 180 S. Adkins Way, founded in 1981, makes proprietary precision medical and semiconductor parts and prototypes for other companies. It recently began making parts for the shotguns and for rifles.

A federal judge has sided with managers of northern Wyoming's Bighorn National Forest and against an environmental group that challenged livestock grazing in the forest. Boise-based Western Watersheds Project filed suit over a 2005 revision to the forest management plan... U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer ruled Monday that forest managers did as the law required -- they took a "hard look" at the environmental consequences of the forest plan.

Hunters purchased nearly 2,600 wolf licenses Monday, the first day they went on sale in Montana. The sales occurred on the same day U.S. District Judge Mike Molloy of Missoula heard arguments from animal rights and environmental groups seeking to block hunts in Idaho and Montana. Idaho's hunt started Tuesday as Molloy took the arguments under consideration. the slower sales — compared to the 4,000 sold on the first day licenses were available in Idaho — might have been due to the uncertainty of the court decision. If the hunt is halted before the season starts, holders will be refunded...

MISSOULA, Mont. – Gray wolf hunting was set to begin in the Northern Rockies, even as a federal judge eyed a request to stop the killing of the predators just four months after they were removed from the endangered species list. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said Monday he would rule as quickly as he could on a last-minute injunction sought by environmental and animal welfare groups opposed to the hunts in Idaho and Montana. Hunters were poised to head into the field Tuesday in Idaho, where a quota allowed as many as 220 wolves to be killed. Montana's season...

CALDWELL, Idaho – While the national media wonder what Sarah Palin’s doing and what she’ll do next, she’s holed up working on her book, her father said Friday. “Sarah’s been out of town for almost a month now,” said Chuck Heath,who is on a campaign swing through Idaho for GOP congressional candidate Vaughn Ward. “I don’t know exactly where she is, but she’s writing her book. She e-mails me quite frequently. She asks, ‘Oh, what happened on June 13, 1978?’ This is material for her book.” Palin, the former Alaska governor whose turn as John McCain’s running mate last year...

Kathy Konen has lost guard dogs to wolves in the past, but nothing prepared the Dillon rancher for the killing of 120 buck sheep last week. "They were in the sagebrush, on the creek bottom - just all over the pasture," Konen said Thursday. "It's a terrible loss to our livestock program." Konen said they discovered the attack Aug. 16 while checking their sheep in the Rock Creek drainage of the Blacktail Mountains south of Dillon, where they pasture buck sheep in summer. She said they check their sheep every two or three days, so the attack was recent. She...

At a GOP rally Tuesday in Twin Falls, someone shouted "Obama tags." Rex Rammell said: "The Obama tags? We'd buy some of those," the Twin Falls Times-News reported. Rammell, a former elk rancher and Senate candidate who is challenging Gov. Butch Otter in 2010, said he was being sarcastic. The reaction: "He and his party should tone down the violent rhetoric," said Idaho Democratic Chairman Jim Hansen. "It distresses me that the governor and the Republican leaders of the state immediately ... didn't say, 'This doesn't reflect our party.' " Jonathan Parker, executive director of Idaho's GOP, did just that...

Political newcomer Vaughn Ward basked in some star power as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's father and father-in-law began a three-day swing for his congressional campaign in Meridian on Thursday. Ward, 40, of Eagle, is an Iraq War veteran. Born in Twin Falls and a Boise State grad, he returned to Idaho in 2007. He was working on the 2008 McCain-Palin campaign in Nevada when he met Palin's father, Chuck Heath, an Idaho native, and Todd Palin's dad, Jim. They back Ward's bid to be the GOP challenger to Democrat Walt Minnick in 2010

An Idaho Republican gubernatorial hopeful insists he was only joking when he said he'd buy a license to hunt President Barack Obama. Rex Rammell, a former elk rancher slated to run against incumbent C.L. "Butch" Otter in the May 2010 GOP primary, made the comment at a Republican rally Tuesday in Twin Falls where talk turned to the state's planned wolf hunt, for which hunters must purchase an $11.50 wolf tag. When an audience member shouted a question about "Obama tags," Rammell responded, "The Obama tags? We'd buy some of those."

For 42 years, the God and Country Rally in Idaho has started its rally with a military fly over. The God and Country Rally is a non-denominational rally that supports American soldiers. For 42 years the Pentagon has carried out the military fly over. Not any more. In Barack Obama’s America, the military is no longer allowed to do such things if the group requesting the fly over is Christian oriented. That’s not an exaggeration.

U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick has agreed to appear at a town hall meeting Saturday hosted by Tea Party Boise

Eight-year-old Robert Manwill was killed by Daniel Erhlick Jr., who tortured and beat him to death while Manwill's mother, Melissa Jenkins, hid her son from government authorities who might have helped him. SNIP Jenkins, 30, a mother of three, had knowledge of the beatings and repeatedly hid her son from authorities and others who might have intervened. SNIP Prosecutors have 60 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Note: Photo and videos included. COEUR D'ALENE -- The Aryan Nations is experiencing an unwanted resurgence in North Idaho. SNIPPET: "However, a man named Paul Mullet claims he is going to bring the racist organization back." SNIPPET: "Mullet says he moved here from Ohio five months ago because North Idaho is the "last stand" for the Aryan Nations movement. Mullet says he's in the process of buying a large amount of land in the area." SNIPPET: "Monday's distribution of racist material in Spokane Valley's Trentwood neighborhood was the latest in a series of similar incidents. Aryan Nations literature has also...

BOISE, Idaho — The mother of an 8-year-old boy found dead in an Idaho canal and her live-in boyfriend have been indicted by an Ada County grand jury on first-degree murder charges. Thirty-year-old Melissa Jenkins and her boyfriend, 36-year-old Daniel Ehrlick Jr., were arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of Jenkins' son, Robert Manwill.

A friend needs to know any town hall meetings that are scheduled to discuss health care in northern Idaho.

"Remember to educate yourselves about politics, because politics are really policies, and those policies affect your life, finances and freedoms." Wise words for such a time as this. Here is an overview of the policies from the first 427 pages (there are over a 1,000 pages) of President Obama's Health Care Plan. It is the House of Representatives bill HR 3200, and this is how it will affect your life, your finances, and your freedom: All citizens: A government committee will decide treatments/ benefits (p.30) and rationing. (p. 29, lines 4-16) The health choices commissioner will choose your benefits for...

DeLoyd Scott was riding his bicycle through a residential street in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho last year when he came across a group of officers making a traffic stop. One of the cops stopped him and asked for his identification. He asked them if he was under suspicion of a crime. The cops said he was. He refused to provide his identification until he was provided with “assistance of counsel” - which is his legal right in Idaho, according to the local news report. That prompted the cops to wrestle him to the ground and use their Taser on him. Twice....

WASHINGTON — The fathers of Sarah and Todd Palin will be joining forces this month to help an Idaho congressional candidate who's getting an early start on his 2010 election bid. Both Chuck Heath and Jim Palin will be in Idaho later on this month to help out Vaughn Ward, a Republican candidate for Congress. They’ll be attending events for Ward at the end of the month in Boise and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Ward's campaign spokesman said. The former Alaska governor's father is an Idaho native who graduated from Sandpoint High School in northern Idaho. Palin, Sen. John McCain’s vice-presidential...

Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Cal Groen sent letters offering up Idaho wolves to any state that wanted to manage them. So far, at least 20 states have rejected Idaho's pitch to trap and export some of its wolves. nobody wants them... In May, the federal government removed more than 1,300 wolves in Montana and Idaho from the endangered species list. Environmentalists have sued to restore federal oversight.

More than two dozen Republican gubernatorial candidates converged Friday at an Idaho resort for a three-day session organized by the Republican Governors Association to lay out a strategy to rebuild the GOP for the 2010 election cycle. The Sun Valley event will feature sessions led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Michigan Gov. John Engler and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. It was the latest sign that the governors association and its chairman, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, were emerging as influential players in shaping a Republican comeback bid from disastrous losses in the past two election cycles. Mr. Barbour...

Grand Teton National Park and the National Elk Refuge are encouraging hunters to voluntarily use non-lead ammunition during the upcoming elk and bison seasons. The park and refuge issued a joint release Thursday saying lead is an environmental toxin that can poison animals that eat carcasses shot with lead bullets. Officials say studies have found that lead levels increase in ravens and eagles

WORLEY, Idaho -- Democrats from around the West are gathering in northern Idaho for four days of planning and strategy.

Police say the boy was not abducted by a stranger, and the coroner has ruled his death was not an accident. As Boise Deputy Police Chief Jim Kerns promised Wednesday to "determine how and when Robert Manwill died, and who is responsible," his comments narrowed the field of suspects to people who knew Robert. Police still won't name any suspects or even people of interest. Kerns said police would not prematurely release anything that could "compromise the legal procedures" and the integrity of their case.

Obama is coming to Bozeman next week, sources familiar with the event say, but the White House is staying tightlipped about the reported visit. “He’s definitely coming, that much is clear,” Mayor Kaaren Jacobson Josh Holland, with Avis Rent a Car in Belgrade, told the Chronicle that Secret Service had reservations for more than 30 cars for Aug. 13 and 14.

Police say a body pulled from an Ada County canal matches the size and age of an 8-year-old boy who disappeared more than a week ago. Boise Deputy Chief Jim Kerns said Monday the Ada County coroner had not identified the body and was performing an autopsy. Kerns said the family of Robert Manwill had been notified. The child reportedly disappeared July 24 after leaving his mother's apartment in Boise, where he was visiting. The boy's father, Charles Manwill, lives in New Plymouth and has had custody since 2008. Police said Friday new evidence in the case indicated suspicious circumstances...

BOISE - A body has been pulled from an area canal. Ada County Dispatchers tell NewsChannel 7, they received a report it's a male juvenile's body. The body was pulled from a canal near Deer Flat and Cloverdale in the Kuna area. A temporary command post is being set up in the area. Boise Police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower tells NewsChannel 7 and KTVB.COM that the previously scheduled 2pm news conference on the search for Robert Manwill has been cancelled, in order to further investigate the body found in the canal.

Vaughn Ward, a former Marine who led a combat tour in Fallujah, Iraq and current GOP House candidate in Idaho, says that "two Alaskans" are coming to campaign for him. ..... Two of his donors are Jim and Faye Palin of Wasilla, Alaska — the father-in-law and mother-in-law of former GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Which suggests he might have a connection or two up in that state.

Reporting from Flint, Mich. -- As the unemployment rate topped 25% and General Motors planned to cut more jobs in this long-struggling auto town, voters decided to focus their anger on one person: Mayor Donald J. Williamson. More than 17,000 residents signed a petition demanding his recall, citing waste, corruption, mismanagement and sundry other complaints. Williamson resigned 10 days before the vote. "He made people so mad," said Eric Mays, a retired GM worker who led an earlier effort to recall Williamson that failed. "He had to go." Fueled by the recession, voters nationwide are recalling local leaders, including mayors,...

A new charter school planning to open this fall in Idaho has come under fire since it publicly announced one of the textbooks students will be using is the Bible. Unlike a typical public school, the Nampa Classical Academy has the freedom under Idaho's Public Charter School Commission to develop its own curriculum. Students will be taught, for example, Latin and Western civilization, but it's the school's choice to use the Bible as a historical and literary text that has ignited a public firestorm. At a meeting of the Public Charter School Commission, parents stood and argued for and against...

Police investigating the disappearance of an Idaho boy missing for a week said Friday they are afraid the child may have been the victim of a tragedy.