Car prowls reminder to lock up

A recent rash of car burglaries in Hayden and Coeur d’Alene is a reminder to lock your car, said Kootenai County Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger.

Between the Sheriff’s Department and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, more than two dozen reports were received of car burglaries or malicious damage to cars from Thursday night through Saturday morning – the most occurring from Thursday night to Friday morning.

“If you leave valuables in it and leave it unlocked, you’re asking for trouble,” Wolfinger said.

While most of the burglaries in Hayden were of unlocked cars, several of the Coeur d’Alene vehicles were locked and broken into by breaking windows, according to the reports.

Cameras, car stereos, cell phones, jumper cables, speakers, tools, jewelry and CDs were among the items stolen.

Manslaughter charges filed in fatal crash

Boise A Boise man was charged Monday with vehicular manslaughter and a college football player may also face charges in what police describe as a 100-mph highway showdown that ended with the deaths of a young couple and their 5-week-old baby.

Tony and Stephanie Perfect of Boise, both 23, and their daughter Zoe were killed instantly Saturday night when their car was struck by one of two vehicles police say were racing on Idaho state highway 55.

The family was en route to a church camp in Horseshoe Bend, about 30 miles north of town.

Mark Lazinka, 45, whose truck struck the victims’ car, was charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter and booked into Ada County jail on $1 million bond. Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney said alcohol was a factor in the crash, and Lazinka may also be charged with drunken driving. With a drunken-driving enhancement to the manslaughter charges, he would face up to 15 years and a $15,000 fine on each count.

Boise State University football starting strong safety Cam Hall, 22, of Kennewick, said by police to have been driving the vehicle racing Lazinka’s truck, has not yet been charged.

He likely will at least be charged with misdemeanor reckless driving, Raney said, but he did not rule out other charges after investigators have completed their work.

Woman awarded degree posthumously

A Montana woman got her degree posthumously from Lewis & Clark College in a weekend ceremony in which all graduates wore purple ribbons and the entire audience stood silently to honor Cody Dieruf of Bozeman.

Dieruf died of cystic fibrosis 11 days before graduation at the age of 23.

The posthumous bachelor of arts degree was conferred upon Dieruf in commencement ceremonies Sunday at the school in Portland, Ore.

About 370 graduating seniors and faculty wore purple ribbons of remembrance for her, and professor Linda Isako Angst read Dieruf’s final letter, sent by her older brother, Levi. It thanked the students and faculty for being her second family.

“It was one of my greatest dreams in life to be sitting beside all of you,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, I had challenges of my own I could not overcome.”

At the moment her name was read for conferral of her degree in sociology and anthropology, the entire audience stood for a moment of silence to honor the time it would have taken her to walk across the stage to get her degree, a school spokeswoman said.

INL contractor to file restructuring plan

Idaho Falls The contractor in charge of cleaning up the Idaho National Laboratory site will submit a workforce-restructuring plan to the U.S. Department of Energy this week.

The proposal from CH2M-WG Idaho is the first step toward layoffs of some of the roughly 2,600 cleanup workers at the site. Some layoffs could start in about six months, but company spokeswoman Amy Lientz said numbers would not be released until the overall plan was approved.

“Right now it’s a draft. Once we have the plan approved, as soon as we know the details of that, we will share more,” Lientz said.

The Department of Energy is requiring the contractor to submit a restructuring plan if more than 100 people are to be laid off within a year. The contractor also must give affected workers advance notice.

CH2M-WG Idaho took over the $2.9 billion cleanup contract about a week ago. Under that agreement, nuclear and radioactive waste cleanup is to be finished by 2012. The company will earn a 30 percent bonus if the work is finished earlier and more cheaply than projected. Conversely, the company will be penalized financially if it fails to meet the deadline.