Huckleberries Best of the Northwest — 7/28/05

See: Item No. 2

Four workers at Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, were disciplined recently for violating Shasta Groene’s privacy, after they viewed her medical records even though they weren’t part of her medical team. The four were among 1,000 KMC employees with security passwords that allow them access to medical records that are now electronic/ Cynthia Taggart , Spokesman-Review, here .

1. Eric Devericks /Seattle Times looks at the big union split here .

2. Evel Knievel , 66, the motorcycle daredevil from Butte, Mont. (shown above in his rocket before the September 1974 failed attempt to soar 3/4 of a mile over the Snake Canyon), is battling incurable lung disease and a host of other ailments — so much so that his wife refuses to ride with him — here .

3. The Omak Stampede and Suicide race, an event that has killed 19 horses in 20 years, had no trouble lining up sponsors after Wal-Mart and Crown Pacific pulled out here .

4. Another graveyard employee nails another most-wanted North Idaho perv as John Collins Tuggle is brought to justice in Wallace, Idaho, here . Meanwhile, everyone wonders why Tuggle and killer/kidnapping suspect Joseph Edward Duncan III were so stupid that they’d reappear near the scene of their crimes here .

5. At least half the ski lift gondola cabins at Silver Mountain resort are overdue for new parts, safety inspections or both, according to the former head gondola mechanic at the North Idaho resort, here .

6. IMHO-NW: D.F. Oliveria /Spokesman-Review ( Ronny Turiaf’s surgery ), Robert L. Jamieson Jr. /PI ( Ressam terror case ), G. George Ostrom /Bigfork Eagle ( Of porta-potties and wildfires ), Robert Herold /Pacific Northwest Inlander ( Roe vs. Roberts ), Jamie Kelly /Missoulian ( I want to be rich, so I can laugh at you ).

*2 of 13 Japanese tractors stolen from Sacramento, Calif., turn up in northeast Washington here .

*A Georgia woman out for a pleasant hike spent a miserable night lost in Glacier Park here .

*Threatening man brandishing a club shot dead by Crater Lake rangers here .

*Las Vegas man moves closer to goal of trademarking Montana’s unofficial motto: “Last Best Place” here .

Orbusmax provides the rest of the Northwest here .