CJD death not linked to mad cow

A test on brain tissue has confirmed that an Idaho woman died of a form of the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease not believed to be linked to the consumption of beef tainted by mad cow disease.

“Test results showed it was not the variant form of CJD,” Tom Shanahan, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, told the Twin Falls newspaper, the Times-News, on Tuesday.

Classic CJD, also known as sporadic CJD, has no known cause or cure but is not believed to be linked to consumption of mad-cow-tainted beef. Beef-related cases are classified as variant CJD, which has killed at least 180 people in the United Kingdom and Europe since the 1990s.

The state health department has investigated nine Idaho deaths for possible links to CJD since January 2005. Of the nine, four people were buried without an autopsy and brain tissue could not be tested.

Of the five remaining, brain tissue was sent to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, where three tested positive for CJD and two tested negative.

Of the three positive CJD tests, more extensive tests were done to determine which form of CJD was involved. Now, all three have been confirmed to have died of the classic form of CJD.

Classic CJD hijacks the body’s ability to control movement and causes dementia. There is no treatment.

The nine cases investigated are four women from Twin Falls County, a woman from Minidoka County, a woman from Benewah County, a woman from Bear Lake County, a man from Elmore County and a man from Caribou County. The man from Elmore County tested negative for CJD, as did a woman from Twin Falls County. All but one were 60 or older.

Shanahan said there is usually one case of CJD per million people a year. But between 1984 and 2004, Idaho averaged 1.2 cases a year.

Vigil set for WSU alumna killed in Iraq

Washington State University is hosting a vigil today for an alumna killed while serving in Iraq.

The memorial honoring U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jaime Campbell will begin at 3:45 p.m. at the Compton Union Building. Participants will walk across campus to the WSU Veterans Memorial at 4 p.m.

Campbell was killed Jan. 7 when the Blackhawk helicopter she was piloting crashed.

She graduated from WSU in 2002.

Boise

Senators are no-shows at go-kart race

None of Idaho’s 35 state senators showed up for a go-kart race against House members, so the representatives won the checkered flag by default.

The event was sponsored by the Idaho State Independent Automobile Dealers Association, an advocacy coalition of more than 180 car dealers in Idaho. It attracted 40 Idaho House members, legislative staffers and their families to SuperKart Indoor Racing in Boise late Monday.

Rep. Mark Snodgrass had the best time for a lawmaker, but he tied with Rep. Ken Roberts’ teenage daughter, Johanna, for the fastest time overall.

North Bend, Wash.

Man run over after stripping on I-90

A man who owned three McDonald’s fast-food franchises crashed his truck on Interstate 90 early Wednesday, then got out, took his clothes off and stood in a traffic lane, where he was run over and killed.

Brett T. Arnes, 35, of Ellensburg, crashed his red pickup about 4 a.m. just west of Snoqualmie Pass, the Washington State Patrol said in a news release.

The westbound truck crossed the median and the eastbound lanes before stopping against a guardrail.

Arnes then took off his clothes and stood in the second eastbound lane, the WSP said. A white pickup ran him over.

Trooper Kelly Spangler said no charges were pending against the driver of the pickup, Erick Hanson, 60, of Wilkeson, who was on his way to work. Hanson was not injured.

Arnes had been a McDonald’s franchise-holder since 1996, said McDonald’s spokeswoman Cheryl Lewis in Kirkland.

He owned franchises in Ellensburg, Quincy and Ephrata.

Spangler said investigators have no idea why Arnes removed his clothing.

Temperatures at the pass hovered around freezing at daybreak, hours after the accident.

A dead dog was found near the truck.

The dog’s body straddled the two eastbound lanes nearest the shoulder of the highway, Spangler said.

Authorities did not know if the dog belonged to Arnes.

OLYMPIA

Washington considers earlier primary

After years of angst over whether to change Washington’s mid-September primary, one of the nation’s latest, lawmakers are poised to move up the election by a month, starting in 2007.

The Senate, which has been a graveyard for the primary move bill in previous years, gave the August primary a surprisingly strong bipartisan sendoff, approving it 37-11 on Wednesday. The House is expected to follow suit.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, county auditors, the military and others have long advocated moving the primary to an earlier date. They said the seven-week window between the September primary and the November general election doesn’t leave enough time to count ballots, deal with any recounts or contested elections, and get out the absentee ballots for the general election.