Toe-tapping U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was a shoo-in for Mad magazine's "20 Dumbest People, Events & Things of 2007." Story here.

1. The Jesuits have agreed to pay $4.8 million to 16 people who where sexually abused as schoolchildren in the 1960s and early 1970s at St. Mary's Mission and School near Omak on the Colville Indian Reservation here/John Stucke, Spokesman-Review.

2. A weathered bundle of $20 bills will go on auction as the FBI launches a new effort to find the hijacker who called himself D.B. Cooper and who parachuted into the night after taking over the 1971 Northwest Orient Airlines flight here/Associated Press.

3. Sports: PAC-10 basketball preview/Bob Condotta, Seattle Times. Also, McElwain turns down Eastern Washington/Steve Bergum, Spokesman-Review.

4. News Roundup: Boise diving instructor almost drowns/KTVB; Montanan trapped in trench may lose limbs/Daily Inter Lake; Idaho newspaper claims mag stole stuff/KTVB; Ex-Spokane music instructor stabbed to death/SR; and Wyoming snowmobile trail rated nation's best/Billings Gazette.

5. Blogosphere: How about a Potatohead Political Bowl/Slight Detour; Room 666!/TUBOB; Big issues for Idaho Legislature/Kevin Richert; Golden Duke Awards/IdaBlue; and Desperate Jim Risch, Part II/MountainGoat Report.

6. IMHO: Baby Boom revolution is here! Where's my cane/Doug Clark, Spokesman-Review; One bad joke can scar officers' reputations/Idaho Statesman; Seeking a Ron Paul boomlet? Look to Montana/Jim Fisher, Lewiston Tribune; So, how's the weather in "Sain" Antonio/Paul Turner, Spokesman-Review; Wild Bill's Predictions for Outdoors 2008/Bill Schneider, New West; and UI turnaround is palpable/William G. Gilbert/Idaho Statesman.

Orbusmax Special: Son seeks estate of mother he killed here.

---

---