Briefly

Free Christmas dinners being offered

The following community organizations will be offering free Christmas dinner for those in need this holiday season.

In Kootenai County, St. George’s Catholic Church will serve Christmas dinner on Dec. 23 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the church, 2010 Lucas St., Post Falls.

In Bonner County, the Bonner Gospel Mission will be serving dinner on Christmas day from noon to 3 p.m. at the Sandpoint Community Hall, 204 S. First Ave. For more information, call the mission at (208) 263-6698.

Stimson selling parcel to CdA

Stimson Lumber Company is selling a small chunk of land to Coeur d’Alene for the expansion of its neighboring wastewater treatment plant.

The company used the one-third acre strip for stormwater disposal. Stimson eventually will install an alternative stormwater treatment and disposal system with the participation of the city.

Stimson is selling the land for the appraised valued determined just over two years ago but the amount wasn’t included in the city’s press release.

The wastewater treatment plant’s new headworks will be located on the new property and construction could begin this spring.

For more information, call 769-2277.

FBI gives polygraph tests in Blackfoot

Blackfoot, Idaho FBI agents gave eight people in Blackfoot lie detector tests in a bid to capture the person who tampered with a natural gas line at the local wastewater treatment plant.

Law enforcement agents said the late November crime — somebody opened the natural gas line — could have led to an explosion. An employee smelled the gas and promptly shut it off, averting a potential crisis that could have cut off the city’s water supply.

Included among those who took the lie detector tests were current and former employees of the facility, said Blackfoot Police Chief David Moore.

“In this case, we had no choice but to go through everybody there,” Moore said.

The FBI and detectives from the Blackfoot Police Department and the Bingham County Sheriff’s Office are working together on the investigation.

The FBI will analyze the tests and send the information to local authorities, Moore said. Police expect to hear from the FBI after Christmas.

Airliner makes unscheduled landing

Twin Falls, Idaho A United Airlines 737 that took off from Boise bound for Denver made an unscheduled landing at Magic Valley Regional Airport Sunday morning.

A light indicating there was an engine generator fault on Flight 1220 had gone on, and pilots opted to put the plane down for an inspection rather than continue with the flight.

“They had something on the left engine on departure from Boise,” said airport manager Bill Carberry. “They notified the tower here.”

The plane landed without incident. Mechanics conducted safety tests and ultimately sent the plane on to Denver after determining that the problems wouldn’t make it unsafe to fly.

The jet was carrying 118 passengers at the time. The Twin Falls Fire Department responded with three trucks and 10 firefighters.

Yellowstone wolves hit population plateau

Billings Yellowstone National Park’s wolf population has apparently hit a plateau and major growth increases aren’t expected, wildlife officials said.

“I’d say that wolves are approaching carrying capacity in the park,” said Doug Smith, a Yellowstone wolf biologist on Monday.

Preliminary estimates indicate about 170 wolves in 15 packs, Smith said. Competition apparently contributed to a decrease of 10-15 wolves on Yellowstone’s Northern Range, where seven packs are trying to survive.

Most of the wolves that died were killed in fights with other wolves, Smith said.

“In the Northern Range, every pack has a neighbor infringing on its territory,” he said.

The park’s wolf population grew at least 40 percent annually between 1995 and 1998, then declined to a 10 percent annual growth rate between 2000 and 2003.

Sound Transit to finish train line

Seattle For years, critics of Sound Transit have derided its plan to build a light rail line that stops just short of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as a “train to nowhere.”

The agency announced Tuesday it hopes to answer that complaint by completing a 1.7-mile extension in 2009 — just a few months after the initial stretch from downtown Seattle to South 154th Street in Tukwila opens.

It should take riders 35 minutes to reach the airport from Seattle.

“I expect the headlines now to read: ‘Central Link is a train to somewhere,’ ” Sound Transit board chairman John Ladenburg said.

The extension will cost about $225 million, on top of the $2.4 billion pricetag for the line from downtown Seattle. The money will come from existing sources, primarily sales and motor vehicle excise taxes collected locally, Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said.

Sequim sculptor to spend Christmas at home

Sequim, Wash. A torrent of e-mails, letters and phone calls — including a crucial one from Rep. Norm Dicks — helped ensure that a sculptor from Sequim will spend Christmas at home instead of in a federal detention center.

But Oliver Strong and his wife still face deportation.

Strong, 43, was detained Oct. 21 by Homeland Security agents who accused him and his wife of ignoring a deportation order. The two were scheduled to be returned to their native South Africa by early this month, prompting an uproar from hundreds of Olympic Peninsula residents who want them to stay. The Strongs have five children, four of whom were born here.

Supporters flooded Dicks’ office with pleas for help, and Dicks, D-Wash., responded by calling an assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security to say that “keeping Mr. Strong locked up simply makes no sense,” Dicks spokesman George Behan said. “He felt there was no issue of flight risk here.”

Neil Clark, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s director of detention and removal in Seattle, agreed, but he set bail at $20,000.

The family’s supporters went back to work, helping collect the money to get Strong out of the Northwest Detention Center. He was released Dec. 13.

“If the congressman hadn’t have stepped in, this wouldn’t have happened,” Strong told the Peninsula Daily News in Port Angeles. “It was a major, major relief to us.”

Charges likely in shooting of moose

Moose, Wyo. Charges are expected against a man accused of shooting a cow moose in Grand Teton National Park and not reporting it.

Ryan Weber, 29, of Palmdale, Calif., was hunting elk for the first time and hunting in the park for the first time when the moose was shot Nov. 16, Grand Teton officials said.

Weber was licensed to hunt elk in the Kelly Hayfields area. He allegedly left the area soon after realizing that the animal he shot was not an elk.

Although he did not report the incident, two other hunters saw what happened and provided information about the hunter and his vehicle. Weber was found after he returned home.

Weber reportedly confessed, and park officials said he could be charged with taking a wrong species, wanton waste of wildlife and failure to report.