UI president suggests privatizing transit
University of Idaho President Tim White has said public transportation on the Palouse could be best served if it’s eventually taken over by a private enterprise, raising concerns that the school’s funding for bus service between Moscow and Pullman could be in jeopardy after 2007.
Currently, the Wheatland Express, which runs between UI and Washington State University, gets half of its funding from a $200,000 annual grant from UI. The other half comes from WSU.
Moscow Valley Transit, the public transportation provider in Moscow, relies on the UI money in its grant applications as matching funds for its public transportation services.
A University of Idaho financial official said the letter from White doesn’t mean that funding will expire beyond 2007. The letter was to reassure transportation officials that funding for the 2006-2007 years was assured, the official said.
LEWISTON
Judge’s verdict may upset water pact
Some Idaho water groups say a federal judge’s impending decision on whether farmers who take water out of the Snake River for irrigation are harming endangered salmon could disrupt a historic pact between the state, the Nez Perce Tribe and the federal government over who owns the water.
U.S. District Court Judge James Redden, of Portland, is expected to rule in that case in the next few weeks.
Depending on Redden’s decision, irrigators in Southern Idaho could pull out of the Snake River Adjudication, the 20-year-old attempt to sort out 180,000 water claims in the river basin that makes up 87 percent of the water in Idaho and includes major tributaries such as the Clearwater, Salmon and Weiser rivers.
The 30-year agreement calls for the Nez Perce to drop claims to nearly all the water in the Snake River Basin in exchange for annual rights to water in the Clearwater River, $80 million in cash and land and a pledge from the state and federal governments to provide for fish habitat and other environmental improvements.
SEATTLE
Murder trial to start for decorated soldier
A soldier awarded a Purple Heart for combat injuries in Iraq now stands accused of brutally attacking his young wife with knives and a meat cleaver.
Spc. Brandon Bare of Wilkesboro, N.C., faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder and indecent acts related to the mutilation of 18-year-old Nabila Bare’s body on July 12, 2005.
Military prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to make their opening statements during the start of Bare’s general court-martial Monday morning at Fort Lewis, Wash. The trial is expected to last five days.
Attorneys have declined to comment on the case and details surrounding the woman’s death have been limited.
Bare, 20, has been held in the post’s Regional Corrections Facility since his arrest in July 2005.