Huckleberries Best of Idaho — 8/24/07

Kerri Thoreson/OnLocation North Idaho

Coeur d’Alene mogul Duane Hagadone (white shirt) escorts former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani onto his wooden boat en route to a $500-per-head fund-raiser at local attorney John Magnuson’s Lake Coeur d’Alene home Thursday. Car dealer Tom Addis is standing in the cabin to the left. Story here .

1. It sounds like a wedding dress found lying in the middle of Interstate 84 earlier this month might be returning home today. A man called the Idaho Transportation Department this morning to report that he lost his wife’s wedding dress when it fell out of a truck as he was moving from Boise to Caldwell Aug. 10 here .

2. Book Review: Randy Stapilus, Idaho’s political reporter emeritus, tabs former U.S. Sen. Jim McClure as one of the state’s most successful politicians, even though he didn’t have a charismatic personality or a significant controversy, here .

3. Online Poll: By a plurality of 47% to 25%, 773 respondents to an Idaho Statesman poll said they could live without new clothes over cell phones for a year, with TV third at 16%.

4. News Roundup: CdA priest survives crash into home here , Charges dropped against man who killed dog here , Wolf pack eradicated here , Twin Falls mayor upset over YMCA turmoil here , and Pocatello teens gets life sentences for murdering classmate here .

5. Idaho Blogs: Clayton Cramer ( Serious cluelessness ), Mountain Goat Report ( LaRocco in hot water? ), Alan /IdaBlue ( Cemeteries ), The Idahoan ( On the White House watch ), and Julie Fanselow /Red State Rebels ( Happy birthday, Cece and Larry ).

6. IMHO Idaho: Jim Fisher /Lewiston Tribune ( Some children left behind ), Doug Bauer /Moscow Pullman Daily News ( A tragedy indeed ), Tom Henderson /Lewiston Tribune ( Bush passes true-false test, fails essay question ), Tim Trainor /St. Maries Gazette-Record ( A walk in the woods ), and Idaho Statesman ( Western wildfires become national issue ).