Three injured in head-on crash
Ponderay, Idaho Three people were injured Wednesday morning in a head-on car accident on U.S. Highway 95 north of Sandpoint, the Idaho State Police reported.
Lawrence G. Moon, 79, of Hope, Idaho, was driving north in his Subaru at 10:55 a.m. when he drifted across the centerline into the southbound lanes, police said. Moon’s car struck another Subaru driven by Robert S. Olsen, 58, of Sandpoint, according to the ISP.
Moon, Olsen and Olsen’s wife, Rosemary Lucas-Olsen, 60, were all taken to Bonner General Hospital, but were not listed as patients in the evening, according to the hospital. An investigation into the cause of the accident is pending.
Missing pilot found two days after crash
Boise The pilot of a small plane that took off from Jackson, Wyo., was found alive Wednesday, two days after air traffic controllers lost contact with his aircraft over north-central Idaho, a state Transportation Department spokesman said.
Pilot Paul C. Herr, of Pasco, was being treated at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Transportation Department spokesman Mel Coulter said.
A nursing supervisor said Herr was being evaluated in the emergency room Wednesday afternoon, but his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
Herr was headed from Jackson Hole to Pasco on Monday when he reported engine failure in his single-engine Piper 180. Air traffic controllers in Seattle tried to direct him to an airstrip in Kooskia, Idaho, just 20 miles away, but he never arrived.
Searchers with the Idaho Transportation Department, the Idaho County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Forest Service gathered that day, but low clouds and rainstorms kept the rescue workers from carrying out an aerial search until Wednesday.
They found the wreckage about 11:30 a.m. in an extremely rugged backcountry area, 45 miles east of Kooskia, Idaho County sheriff’s spokeswoman Trudy Slagle said.
“He was in a very steep area, and topographically it’s really, really rugged,” she said.
Members of the sheriff’s rescue unit had to rappel into the area by helicopter, using chain saws to cut a landing pad.
Slagle said Herr was alert in the plane wreckage when rescue workers finally reached him.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Lake Pend Oreille’s level on the rise
Sandpoint Lake Pend Oreille’s level is slowly on the rise and is expected to reach an elevation of 2,062 feet by the end of June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Wednesday.
The lake elevation was 2,057 feet on Tuesday. It will be held at between 2,062 and 2,062.5 feet throughout the summer months, the corps said.
The corps regulates the lake level with its operations at the Albeni Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille River. The corps lowers the lake elevation for the winter to provide flood control protection and make water available for fall power generation.
The lake’s elevation can be tracked online at www.nwd-wc.usace.army.mil/nws /hh/basins/pend.html.
Noble’s resignation forces reassignments
Boise State Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes, R-Soda Springs, on Wednesday announced a reshuffling of Senate committee assignments to accomodate the resignation of Sen. Jack Noble, R-Kuna.
Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, will be the new vice chairman of the Education Committee and take Noble’s seat on the Transportation Committee, Geddes said.
Sen. Russell Fulcher of Meridian – appointed by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to fill Noble’s District 21 seat – will replace Jorgenson on the Transportation Committee and serve on the Agriculture Committee.
Noble served as vice chairman of the Education Committee and as a member of the agriculture and transportation committees until he resigned March 7.
He resigned after an ethics investigation concluded the two-term senator attempted to pass a law that would have enhanced the value of his convenience store in Melba.
Explosive found near Pocatello airport
Pocatello, Idaho Federal explosives experts have been called in to investigate a small, apparently homemade explosive device found near the Pocatello Regional Airport.
A passer-by walking a dog discovered the device in a city-owned field last weekend, police Lt. Rick Capel said.
“My best guess is it looked like someone was playing around with assembling an explosive device and doing some experimenting,” Capel said. The device was not placed where it could do much harm, he said.
Local authorities called experts from Utah, who determined that the device was secure before storing it. An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was expected to arrive next week to investigate further.
Last year, the agency investigated more than 750 incidents nationwide involving recovered explosives and explosive devices.
Teen girls accused of trading sex for meth
Salem Two girls at a middle school are suspected of trading sex with adult men in exchange for methamphetamine, police said Wednesday.
Detectives have been working to identify the men involved with the two Waldo Middle School students, said Officer Craig Seibel, who specializes in drug abuse education for the Salem Police Department.
The girls attend the school but the incidents occurred off-campus, Seibel said.
The men likely will face rape charges, Officer Laura Seefeldt told KGW-TV in Portland.
She says meth problems have become “an everyday thing here in this city,” but the tip that led to the middle school investigation was unexpected.
“Too young,” Seefeldt said.
The Oregon Department of Human Services said more than 1,700 children were treated for methamphetamine problems in 2003, which is the latest year for available data. In the past five years, the state agency said the number of girls affected by meth in Oregon has jumped 57 percent.
Biologists trying to re-establish grouse
Nespelem, Wash. State and tribal biologists have moved 60 sharp-tailed grouse from Idaho and British Columbia to Eastern Washington in hope of reviving the birds’ population.
The grouse once thrived in Eastern Washington’s sagebrush, shrub and grassy habitats, but is now a threatened species.
The birds were released in time for mating rituals this spring at the Wells Wildlife Area near Brewster, a site near Nespelem, and the Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area in Lincoln County.
Only about 300 sharp-tailed grouse remain in small patches of habitat in Okanogan, Douglas and Lincoln counties, the state Fish and Wildlife Department said.
A Colville tribal official said Indians do not hunt the grouse but still use their feathers in regalia worn in traditional dancing.
Beam’s partial collapse injures ironworkers
Seattle Three ironworkers were injured Wednesday afternoon when a steel beam partially collapsed on a skyscraper being built in downtown Seattle.
The workers’ injuries included broken bones and possibly internal injuries. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.
The workers were taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment. Their identities were not immediately available.
The 42-story building will be the new headquarters for the Washington Mutual banking company. The accident occurred on the fifth floor.
Bob McCleskey, president of general contractor Sellen Construction, told KOMO-TV that ironworkers were adding about one floor a week of the structural steel. “It should be perfectly stable,” he said. “We’ll figure out what caused it and move forward,” he said, “but we won’t move forward until we’re certain, and we have structural engineers that will be helping us with that.”