Huckleberries Best of the INorthwest — 7/12/06

Drew Sutherland is reflected in his trombone while he plays with the Pocatello Brass at a recent Farmers’ Market in Pocatello, Idaho. (AP Photo/The Idaho State Journal, Doug Lindley)

Stapilus: Risch has boxed himself into a corner on property taxes here .

1. David Horsey /Seattle PI gives his view re: “a nation at war” here .

2. A body believed to be that of the suspect in a June 15 stabbing was found inside a burned-out home early this morning following an eight-hour standoff in northeast Coeur d’Alene here .

3. Raw sewage may have spewed into the Spokane River for days or weeks near the Downriver Golf Course after a blocked pipe caused a gushing overflow that went unnoticed by city crews here .

4. A group of lawmakers, civil liberty organizations and church groups has asked Montana’s highest court to stop executions in Montana until a court can determine if death by lethal injection tortures dying convicts here .

5. The Madison, Idaho, County Commission has delayed a decision on whether to opt out of a plan to distribute Plan B contraception, also called the morning-after pill, after a public hearing Monday here .

6. IMHO-NW: Rebecca Nappi /Spokesman-Review ( Journalists, cops similar ), Kalispell Daily Inter Lake ( Fake Marine’s sentence correct ), Joel Connelly /Seattle PI ( Victoria, B.C., flushing away image ), David Postman /Seattle PI ( Cantwell, McGavick fund raising ), and Dan Hammes /St. Maries Gazette-Record ( Risch earns kudos for tax work ).

Online Poll: 73.9% of 1041 respondents to a Seattle PI poll say they use a Windows XP operating system on their computer.

*Man pleads innocent in burning death of Spokane amputee here .

*Identity of dead child found by Pend Oreille River confirmed as missing boy here .

*Additional charges have been filed against two former Montana State University athletes arrested June 29 in the death of a Bozeman man here .

Orbusmax Special: Thugs rob Pierce County park visitors, threaten to behead them here .