In brief: Inmate recaptured after prison break

An Idaho inmate who escaped from the Newton County Correctional Center in Texas was recaptured Thursday while riding a bike about 12 miles from the private prison.

Rudolfo Garcia-Lopez, 38, and another Idaho prisoner were seen scaling a fence Monday night, according to officials with the Idaho Department of Correction.

A manhunt netted the other prisoner about 90 minutes after the escape.

Texas authorities had been searching for Garcia-Lopez since Monday. He was serving a five-to-20-year sentence for assault and attempted kidnapping in Canyon County.

The Department of Correction has transferred 419 Idaho inmates to Texas to relieve Idaho’s overcrowded prisons.

Idaho has 6,987 inmates and a prison capacity to house 5,967 prisoners. The Department of Correction forecasts that 1,400 Idaho inmates will be housed out-of-state in the next four years.

Moscow, Idaho

Proposal may preserve grove

A cedar grove with 800-year-old trees atop Moscow Mountain may soon be preserved as a local park under a proposal before Latah County commissioners.

Commissioners will visit the 296-acre site soon. A plan to designate the grove as a state park failed earlier this year. After a public outcry, Latah County agreed to take over management.

The land is currently owned by the Idaho Department of Lands and leased to the Nature Conservancy, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving natural resources.

The conservancy’s lease with the state is scheduled to end this year.

State officials have said the ultimate goal is for Latah County to own the cedar grove acreage, preferably through a future land exchange.

County residents became concerned about the cedar grove’s future in the early 1990s, when 640 acres of state-endowed land on the mountain was proposed as part of a land exchange with Bennett Tree Farms Inc.

The Bennett Lumber Products mill is about 15 miles from the grove.

Spalding, Idaho

Lewis and Clark journey celebrated

More than 1,200 people joined hands in a friendship circle marking the opening ceremony of the Nez Perce Tribe’s four-day Lewis and Clark Bicentennial event.

Tribal leaders said it was the largest “circle dance” they had ever staged and they hoped it served to symbolize their efforts to bridge cultures and bring people of diverse backgrounds together.

“It’s important for all of us to go back and review historical events … and learn about the things both cultures have in common because ultimately, we are neighbors in a neighborhood called the United States,” said Allen Pinkham Sr., a tribal member who sits on the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.

Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through the valley on the Idaho-Washington border in 1805 and 1806 that today bears their names. The Nez Perce event, which runs through Saturday, is one of the last official commemorations of the journey.

Joe Marshall, chairman of the Idaho Governor’s Trail Committee, said the Nez Perce commemoration is the most significant because it is hosted by a tribe that was once at war with the United States.

“The heart of the bicentennial commemoration in Idaho is the renewal of friendship for people along the trail in Idaho and throughout the state,” Marshall said Wednesday. “(In 1877), the United States dealt very harshly with the Nez Perce Tribe, and now they invite us to join with them in a summer of peace.”

Spokane

Club invites public to gaze at planets

Members of the Spokane Astronomical Society will be setting up their telescopes on a lawn adjacent to Sacajawea Middle School, 401 E. 33rd Ave., about 8:45 p.m. Saturday, weather permitting, to view the planets Mars and Saturn in close alignment with one another.

Members of the public are invited to stop by for a look at the two planets as they pass within 0.6 degrees of one another in the western sky just after sunset. They will be located next to the Beehive star cluster in the constellation Cancer.

Mercury, which is not often visible, and Jupiter, a bright night sky object this year, can also be seen at the same time. The telescopes will be set up in a grassy area near the school.

From staff and wire reports