Best of the Northwest — 6/3/05
Idaho Congressman Butch Otter and actress Patty Duke of Coeur d'Alene are spearheading an effort to preserve 80,000 acres of forest in the St.Joe River Basin of North Idaho by creating a conservation easement here/Kathy Plonka, Spokesman-Review.
Lamar Outdoor Advertising/Spokane has donated billboard space on US Highway 95 to keep the faces of two Wolf Lodge Bay children, missing since the triple murder that claimed their mother and brother, in front of the public here.
David Postman/Seattle Times blogs the Washington election trial here.
1. David Horsey/PI looks at the downside of everyone suddenly being 10 years younger here.
2. State and local Repub leaders called on Spokane Mayor Jim West to step down immediately as a result of sexual misconduct allegations against him here. But West's attorney sez he's staying put to defend himself here.
3. Tri-Cities woman who risked her cat from the jaws of coyotes faces $12,000 in medical and vet bills. Sez she: "I didn't want to let my cat go. It wasn't going to end like that. When it was over, my porch looked like a 'CSI' crime scene — hair, blood and slime was everywhere." Click here.
4. Penn Siegel, chairman and CEO of Spokane-based Potlatch Corp., led the Spokane Journal of Business' Top 40 list of executive compensation for publicly traded companies in the Inland Northwest, with $3.9 million last year. Dennis Wheeler/Coeur d'Alene Mines is among the top 20, too. In fact, exec pay in the Inland Northwest surged 63% in 2004. Click here.
5. Idaho man sez seatbelt ticket may have saved his life the next day when he crashed at 55 mph here.
6. IMHO-NW: Spokane Journal of Business (West should resign), Doug Floyd/Spokesman-Review (Deep Throat acted appropriately), G. George Ostrom/Bigfork Eagle (Orphan foxes and red tape), Hungry Horse (Mont.) News (Enjoy, but also respect wildlife), and Robert Herold/Inlander (Reforming strong mayor government).
*A rare owl makes an incredible appearance in Glacier National Park here.
*Noncombat injuries kill Idaho Guardsman in Iraq here.
*Developer Marshall Chesrown's vision of creating an 77-acre urban village in downtown Spokane conflicts with Spokane's traffic plans here.
Orbusmax provides the rest of the Northwest here.
