In brief: Alpine College closes its doors
Alpine College, a Spokane Valley vocational school, has gone out of business.
Signs on the school doors at 10020 E. Knox Ave. advised students to call Alpine officials Tuesday after 10 a.m. at (509) 892-0155.
Students with financial-aid or student-loan questions were urged to contact the “Washington State Department of Education” at (800) 433-3243. That’s actually the number of the federal Student Aid Information Center; Washington doesn’t have a Department of Education.
The signs gave no reason for the closure.
Spokane County Superior Court records show that Esprit Technologies, which does business as Alpine College, was the target of a half-dozen legal proceedings last year to collect allegedly unpaid debts and taxes.
Idaho man, 77, injured in crash
A head-on crash Sunday near Worley, Idaho, sent a 77-year-old man to the hospital, authorities said.
Erling D. Place, of nearby Plummer, was rushed to Kootenai Medical Center following the 2:28 p.m. collision along U.S. Highway 95, according to the Idaho State Police. Information about his condition was not immediately available.
Place was northbound in a 2010 Subaru Legacy when a southbound Subaru station wagon driven by Felix R. Cox, 52, of St. Maries, veered into his lane and the two vehicles collided, the ISP said. Cox, who was cited for inattentive driving, was uninjured, troopers reported, as were his passengers, Dillon R. Imbring-Cox, 15, and Katlin A. Legan, 18, both of St. Maries.
All were wearing seat belts.
Potato blight threatens crop
RONAN, Mont. – Officials in Lake County in northwestern Montana say the county’s $15 million-a-year seed potato crop faces a serious threat from potato blight due to cool and damp weather.
Lake County extension agent Jack Stivers said a storm last summer likely blew in the spores that can cause potato blight.
Officials are asking area residents with backyard vegetable gardens to be vigilant for signs of the disease and apply fungicides.
Potato blight is the same disease that caused about 1.7 million Irish immigrants to flee their homeland and come to the United States from the 1840s to the end of the 1850s.
Scientists say soil is more acidic
GRANGEVILLE, Idaho – Scientists in north- central Idaho say crop soils are becoming more acidic, possibly because of the repeated use of ammonium-based fertilizers.
Robert Sandlund, of the Natural Resource and Conservation Service in Grangeville, said some farmers have started to notice a reduction in crop yields.
Sandlund said ammonium-based fertilizers can lower soil pH. He said farmers aren’t over-applying the fertilizer, but years of use could be reducing soil pH.
He said a new trend of minimum tillage that limits how much soil is stirred up could also be causing the drop in pH by not allowing the fertilizer to spread out.
Rising waters close part of I-90
BILLINGS – Officials have closed a section of Interstate 90 in Montana because of surging water from the Bighorn River as authorities Sunday continued to deal with rising water in the eastern part of the state, where a slow-moving storm dumped up to 6 inches of rain.
The National Weather Service blanketed much of Eastern Montana with flood warnings as the storm began moving out of the area but runoff worked its way through streams and rivers.
Meteorologist Keith Meier in Billings said attention was turning to larger rivers that run through more populated areas. The Yellowstone River at Miles City is expected to crest about 3 feet above flood stage today.