L-C bicentennial panel offers grants
The Idaho governor’s Lewis and Clark Trail Committee is accepting applications for the Bicentennial Community Assistance Grants Program, which offers awards ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.
The program gives money to grass roots organizations that help “ensure the success of the bicentennial commemoration in Idaho.”
Applications are due May 25. Any Idaho nonprofit is eligible, as are branches of local and state government and tribal entities.
The committee has provided funding for more than 110 projects, totaling $2 million, in the last four years.
For information or a grant application, contact Idaho Bicentennial Coordinator Keith Petersen at Lewis and Clark Information Center, (208) 792-2249 or e-mail keithp@lcsc.edu.
Mamas to audition for Macy’s parade
Coeur d’Alene’s Red Hot Mamas have been invited to apply for a chance to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The zany drill team is asking for the community’s help in producing a video to submit with their application for the parade. Red Hot Mamas will rehearse Christmas routines in the Coeur d’Alene Target parking lot at 3 p.m. on Feb. 27 and will need volunteer extras to line a short “parade route.”
Also, this week, the Red Hot Mamas announced annual auditions for parade performers and community shows. The auditions will begin at 1 p.m. on March 5 at Ironwood Athletic Club.
For details, visit www.rhmamas.com or call (208) 765-5734.
Group rallies in Spokane over abortion
On the eve of a U.S. Supreme Court announcement, a group of anti-abortion activists gathered in front of the federal courthouse in Spokane on Monday to pray and read Scriptures.
About 60 demonstrators, their mouths covered by red tape to signify the “silence of the unborn,” lined up outside the federal building, which was closed for Presidents Day. It was their hope that the Supreme Court justices would announce today that they have agreed to hear McCorvey v. Hill, Norma McCorvey’s attempt to overturn the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
Rollover crash of semi slows I-90 traffic
Traffic on Interstate 90 was squeezed down to one lane in each direction Monday night due to an accident involving a semi-truck. No one was injured, the Idaho State Police reported.
Police said the accident happened around 10 p.m. in the eastbound lane at Fourth of July Pass. A truck rolled, spilling lumber on both sides of the road, the ISP reported.
Agreement reached on Minidoka center
Boise Federal parks officials and the Friends of Minidoka reached an agreement this weekend to begin working on an interpretive center at the Minidoka Internment National Monument in southern Idaho.
The announcement came at the Statehouse Monday at a ceremony in Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s office marking the 63rd anniversary of the Japanese Day of Internment.
During World War II, the United States government opened 10 internment camps in seven states that held 120,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry. About 13,000 were held in southern Idaho.
At Monday’s ceremony, Kempthorne called the internments a “dark story” in American history. “There were no warrants, no trial, no due process. Only the suspicion that some of these men and women may be the enemy,” Kempthorne said.
Idaho Power begins seeding clouds
Burley, Idaho Idaho Power Co. has begun seeding clouds to pad snowpack and ensure it will have enough water to push through its generators at the Hells Canyon Complex this summer.
The company generates more than half the electricity it needs for its customers at its Hells Canyon, Brownlee and Oxbow dams along the Snake River, where it is seeing record low stream flows.
Cloud seeding sprinkles silver iodide solution inside a storm system to weigh down ice particles and make them heavy enough to fall as snow.