Huckleberries Best of the INorthwest — 3/2/06

Parents and their babies, including 15-month-old Lillian Baumgartner, left, 14-month-old Theo Hefley and 8-month old Sebastian Bertrand, right, practice their underwater swimming technique during a swim class at the Stewart Aquatic Center in Eugene, Ore. Wednesday/AP Photo/The Register-Guard by Chris Pietsch (who has Sandpoint, Idaho, roots and is featured Marianne Love’s Slight Detour blog today here ).

1. State lawmakers weren’t surprised that a bill outlawing bestiality — prompted by a Seattle man’s publicized death last summer after he had sex with a horse — all but became law Wednesday evening here .

2. Boris the Bison, a 2000-pound Yellowstone Park buffalo known for his legendary migration patterns of up to 200 miles round trip, has died here .

3. A Ferry County sheriff’s detective who saved a state social worker from a machete-wielding parent last year was put on paid leave Tuesday, pending a second investigation into his personal association with several troubled teenage boys here .

4. Fire has destroyed the Wolf Lodge Bay home of C.J. Buck , who recently moved his world famous Buck Knives business from southern California to Post Falls, Idaho, here .

5. The former director of the Children’s House Montessori preschool in Whitefish, Mont., was arrested Wednesday and charged with sexually abusing five young boys at the school here .

6. IMHO-NW: Actor Ted S. McGregor Jr. /Pacific Northwest Inlander ( Rethinking Tom Foley’s defeat ), George Kennedy /Idaho Statesman ( Don Knotts, R.I.P. ), Gary Crooks /Spokesman-Review ( Reasonable VA care ), Ralph Bartholdt /St. Maries Gazette-Record ( A walking soapbox ), and Glenn Ferrell /Idaho Statesman ( New definition of religious tolerance ).

Online Poll: 49.6% of the respondents to a Seattle PI poll said they could care less if the Seattle Supersonics left town. (Meanwhile, the Sonics want no part of a public vote here .)

*Ex-Zag Ronny Turiaf scores career-high 10 points in L.A. Lakers win here .

*Kootenai County commissioners have asked Joseph Duncan’s public defender to get pre-approval for all expenses related to the triple-homicide case here .

*A University of Idaho student was injured this morning in an explosion in a chemistry lab here .

Orbusmax Special: Renton High uses B+ GPA to decide which students can cheer for basketball team here .