Huckleberries Best of the Northwest — 10/21/05

Rene Ducroux stands next to his recently purchased ex-police horse “Spatsir” in Meridian, Idaho. Ducroux purchased Spatsir at an auction where the Boise Police Department sold off all the mounted patrol equipment, from the horses to the halters. The BPD disbanded its mounted police force last month due to budget concerns/APhoto by Matt Cilley.

Breaking News: A Medford man has confirmed that he has a winning Powerball ticket worth $340 million, ABC News reported today, here .

2. Flathead Valley CC instructor Karen Longhart is one of the real whiz kids behind the sensational hit CBS drama “Numb3rs,” according to Candace Chase /Daily Inter Lake of Kalispell, Mont., here .

3. Computer records show Mayor Jim West’s taxpayer-owned laptop contained links to images of men engaged in sex acts with other men, according to Bill Morlin , Spokesman-Review, here .

4. Three University of Idaho football players (including ex-Lake City High standout Luke Smith-Anderson ) have pleaded not guilty to various crimes allegedly committed Saturday night against members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, according to Sam Taylor /UI Argonaut, here .

5. A 6-year-old boy apparently shot and wounded his father by accident on a hunting trip near Kamloops, BC, and the father may be charged with carelessness here .

6. IMHO-NW: Milt Priggee /Puget Sound Business Journal ( Hot housing market ), Danny Westneat /Seattle Times ( Eyman finds a good cause ), ( Brandi Swindell Campaign/Idaho Statesman ( Columnist Popkey should apologize ), Art Thiel /Seattle PI ( Coach Price right to leave futile M’s ), and John Blanchette /Spokesman-Review ( NBA emperor Stern ).

*UI students are living up to their mascot name, Vandals, as Moscow, Idaho, has become their toilet and garbage dump here .

*Weyerhaeuser to close 2 mills, cut 342 jobs here .

*Defense attorneys want to know why controversial ex-LAPDetective Mark Fuhrman was allowed to visit Joseph Edward Duncan’s III’s crime scenes here .

*Don’t look now, but the contentious word “wilderness” has disappeared from some Montana maps here .

Orbusmax provides the rest of the Northwest here .