Huckleberries Best of the INorthwest — 7/27/06

QBs for seven of the nine WAC teams have star potential, according to the Idaho Statesman, including UI’s Steve Wichman here . Idaho football coach Dennis Erickson, shown above during spring drills, discusses Wichman and the upcoming season in an audio report provided at the same link above. (AP Photo/Joe Barrentine)

Daily Kos: GOP worried about its House seat “in freakin’ Idaho? here .

1. FBI: A convicted sex offender living in a Spokane police officer’s home was part of an international network of “online predators” who traded thousands of pictures of children being raped, sodomized and sexually abused here .

2. Study: Men who grew up near the Hanford nuclear reservation in south-central Washington during the 1940s and 1950s have a slightly higher risk of developing thyroid disease here .

3. The Boise Airport has been ranked as the worst small airport in the country by JD Power & Associates. The independent consumer ranking company, well-known for its car ratings, gave Boise the lowest possible marks in all five categories measured for its 2006 survey here .

4. A Basin man was sentenced in Jefferson County district court to two years in jail Wednesday for the macabre killing and beheading of a dog with a chainsaw — and then throwing the head into the campsite of the dog’s owners here .

5. Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Wednesday that Oregon and Washington state will form a prescription-drug-buying cooperative to leverage their combined buying power to get medicine for the uninsured here .

6. IMHO-NW: Robert Herold /Inlander ( Unlikely penpals ), Ralph Bartholdt /St. Maries Gazette-Record ( Nothing beats summer ), Missoulian ( Getting a charge out of hurricane disaster ), The Olympian ( Eyman’s claim not credible ), and Art Thiel /Seattle PI ( Serving youth part of M’s plan ).

Online Poll: 57% of 2262 respondents to a NWCN.com poll support the Washington Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a state ban on gay marriage.

*Fairchild Air Base has named a tanker in honor of its home town here .

*Tear gas canister started fire in fatal Coeur d’Alene standoff here .

*People of interest sought in slayings of hiking mother and daughter here .

Orbusmax Special: Oregon parental notification measure qualifies for ballot here .