Man pleads guilty to smuggling

A Korean national has pleaded guilty to smuggling 13 South Korean women and one man across the Canadian border, U.S. Attorney Tom Moss announced Tuesday.

Bum Suk “Michael” Kim, 33, entered his plea Monday in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene. Earlier this month, Sang Yoon “Steven” Kim, 29, of Surrey, B.C., entered a guilty plea to the same charge. The two men are not related.

Bum Suk Kim said he was being paid $300 to $350 for every person smuggled into the United States. Sang Yoon Kim was arrested April 3 after the RV he was driving was stopped by Border Patrol agents who had been tipped off by an informant.

The agents found the aliens lying on beds and on the floor of the RV’s cabin. Sang Yoon Kim said he picked them up just south of the Moyie River Bridge after another man guided them on foot across the border. He told the agents that their destination was Los Angeles, and that he had made three prior smuggling trips from Idaho to Los Angeles earlier in the year, according to Moss.

Sang Yoon Kim had driven to North Idaho with Bum Suk Kim from Los Angeles, and he had left Bum Suk Kim at the Coeur d’Alene Casino and Resort in Worley while he went to Boundary County to pick up the South Koreans.

Bum Suk Kim faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Rain gets mixed reaction from farmers

Moscow, Idaho May showers have deposited as much as 51/2 inches of rain on some Palouse fields, prompting mixed reactions from farmers.

Some wheat and legume growers are concerned rain could wash away seeds, drown crops and cause hard red wheat to have lower protein, which would reduce prices and slash profits.

Still, Todd Scholz, director of research and information with the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, said he is happy to see rain.

“We love it,” Scholz said, noting that this year’s rainfall had been below average for the Palouse.

Despite recent downpours, the rain probably hasn’t been enough to end the state’s six year run of lower-than-average precipitation, state officials have said. But some farmers say they’d be overjoyed with a little sunshine.

“We got more water than what we need,” said Robert Blair, a Moscow-area wheat and legume grower who was trying to weed his field recently when he was rained out and forced to work inside on harvest equipment.

36-year mayor says it’s finally quitting time

Chubbuck, Idaho An eastern Idaho mayor who’s held the office here for 36 years has decided not to seek re-election in November.

“Let someone else run the city for a while,” John Cotant said Monday.

Cotant, 81, first ran for mayor of Chubbuck in 1969 as a write-in candidate. In that election, he declared his candidacy on the eve of the vote, then won with a slight margin over a man who had been running unopposed.

Since then, Cotant has had no trouble retaining his position: In most of the eight re-elections he’s won, nobody ran against him.

There’s already one prospective candidate who has declared his intentions to replace Cotant. Chubbuck Councilman Steven England, 58, said Monday that he plans to run next fall.