Huckleberries Best of the INorthwest — 5/1/06

Ulises Galindo, 6, from Portland, Ore., holds a sign during an immigration rally in Portland earlier today/Don Ryan, AP photo.

1. David Horsey /Seattle PI presents the Golden Nozzle Award to (drum roll, PUH-leez) vice president Dick Cheney here .

2. A Chinese businessman has bought a MiG-21f plane reportedly in Lewiston from a U.S. seller on the online auction Web site eBay for $24,730 and plans to use it to decorate an empty space at his offices here .

3. Pro-Hispanic rallies under way in Boise here , in Portland here , and in Seattle here .

4. Ryan Leaf , a name that has come to symbolize NFL draft day busts, has come to grips with his notorious celebrity and is prospering as a QB coach in a tiny Division II college in Texas here .

5. In a legally sanctioned game of courtroom make-believe, convicted child raper Jewell C. Walker , 30, of Spokane, avoided a potentially hefty jail term for robbery by instead accepting responsibility for a separate crime that never occurred here .

6. IMHO-NW: D.F. Oliveria /Spokesman-Review ( Huckleberries: Scary places ), Idaho Statesman ( WNBA exec helps Idaho kids ), Kalispell Daily Inter Lake ( Bad neighbor Mexico ), D. Parvaz /Seattle PI ( Money-losing airlines ), and Steve Kelley /Seattle Times ( Holmgren conflicted about future ).

Online Poll: 84.8% of 1429 respondents to an Idaho Statesman poll say the “Star-Spangled Banner” should be sung in English only.

*WSU running back Jerome Harrison was the only Inland Northwest college football player picked in the weekend NFL draft here .

*A new party may appear on the Idaho ballot this fall even though it didn’t collect the required 12,000 signatures necessary to do so here .

*The Oregon Medical Association has passed a symbolic resolution declaring that access to universal health care for all state residents is its number-one priority here .

Orbusmax Special: Ex-Mariner, Kennewick lefthander Russ Swan dies at 42 after fall here .