Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

UI plans to construct class building in CdA

The Spokesman-Review

Coeur d’Alene is in line for a $24.2 million University of Idaho classroom building that also would house programs from other Idaho colleges, lawmakers learned Tuesday.

The university plans to raise private funds to cover much of the cost to build the 55,000-square-foot classroom center, UI President Tim White told legislative budget writers. Gov. Butch Otter wants $428,800 in state funds in the coming year to start planning and pre-design work.

“I think it’s great,” said Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene. “It gives the city of Coeur d’Alene and the Coeur d’Alene community a great opportunity for expanded access to a four-year institution” that could include “any number of added degrees.”

UI officials said the start of construction likely is about three years away. Among the details still not settled: Where the building would go.

“We have irons in two fires,” White told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. The university could build at its current site on city-owned land at Harbor Center. Or the new building could become part of a new “education corridor” on the current Stimson lumber mill site adjacent to North Idaho College.

– Betsy Z. Russell

ACLU files amicus brief in support of Craig

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s Minnesota appeal, arguing that Craig should be able to withdraw his guilty plea in a sex sting because Minnesota’s disorderly conduct statute is unconstitutional.

“Physical gestures that amount to an invitation to have private sex are a form of constitutionally protected expression,” the ACLU wrote in the brief. Craig, the group wrote, was being prosecuted “for soliciting an act which is not a crime.”

The longtime Idaho senator was arrested in June for making gestures to an undercover police officer in a men’s restroom in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport that the officer said signified a desire for sex. Craig pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, but after news of his arrest and conviction broke he said he’d made a mistake and began trying to withdraw his guilty plea.

A district court judge in Minnesota already rejected that idea, but Craig appealed the decision to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

– Betsy Z. Russell

Spokane

Crime Stoppers replaces Secret Witness tip line

Crime Stoppers of the Inland Northwest has replaced Secret Witness as the place to call to leave anonymous tips about crimes or wanted criminals..

The switch expands the area from which tips can be gathered and assist law enforcement in more counties.

Crime Stoppers of the Inland Northwest initially will handle tips received from Spokane, Stevens, Lincoln, Pend Oreille and Whitman counties.

The number to call is (800) 222-8477. Tips also can be submitted online at www.crimestopusa.com/ReportACrime.asp.

Crime Stoppers of the Inland Northwest, founded in 1970, was known as Crime Check of Spokane County for many years, then as Partners in Crime Prevention. Secret Witness was a subcommittee of the nonprofit civilian organization.

– Karen Dorn Steele