In brief: More funding for cleanup approved

Members of the Legislature’s joint budget committee on Friday unanimously endorsed more spending for yard remediation in the Coeur d’Alene basin, where federal Superfund money is paying to clean up mining contamination.

Toni Hardesty, director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said a record 550 yards were cleaned up in 2006, thanks to higher than expected funding from the Environmental Protection Agency. Her agency came to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee for legislative approval to spend $5.5 million more than expected in federal funds.

Yard cleanups include installing a barrier and adding clean topsoil, to keep residents of the home from coming in contact with contaminated soil.

Rob Hanson, mine waste program manager for DEQ, said an additional 350 to 400 yards will be cleaned up this year. “It’s just nice to have the support, and there’s progress being made,” he said.

Coeur d’Alene

Wire stolen from construction site

Kootenai Electric Cooperative is offering a $500 reward for information on the theft of wire from a job site on the northeast corner of Prairie and Ramsey roads.

About $1,000 worth of wire was stolen between 5 and 6 p.m. Wednesday, the utility company said in a press release.

“Fortunately, this wire was not energized,” said Gary Nieborsky, KEC’s Engineering and Operations manager. “If it had been, the thief would not be alive.”

Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department at (208) 446-1300.

Sandpoint

Iraq deployment topic of discussion

Community members and veterans are invited to attend a discussion Wednesday in Sandpoint led by Brig. Gen. Allan Gayhart about the role of the Idaho Army National Guard’s 116th Brigade Combat Team during its recent deployment to Iraq.

Gayhart will discuss the mission and answer questions about the operation and future of the military in Iraq. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at VFW Post 2453, 1325 Pine St. in Sandpoint.

BOZEMAN

Bison hazed into Yellowstone

A group of 41 bison was hazed into Yellowstone National Park from nearby Church Universal and Triumphant lands, park officials said.

“It’s really the first significant action we’ve had” this winter, park spokesman Al Nash said of Tuesday’s hazing.

The cows, calves and bulls had wandered about 1.5 miles out of the park along the west side of the Yellowstone River. No bison hunting is allowed on that side of the river.

Church officials don’t want the bison near their cattle, so a state/federal bison plan calls for them to be hazed from church property.

On the east side of the river, where hunting is allowed, relatively few bison have made an appearance this winter.

“We’re not to the point where it would be hard for them to get forage,” inside the park, Nash said Thursday.

WASHINGTON

Supreme Court to hear Seattle case

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to reconsider another death penalty decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, this one overturning the death sentence for a man who abducted a young Seattle woman, then raped and tortured her for two days before killing her.

It will be the fourth case before the justices this term in which the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit had reversed a murder conviction or a death sentence.

The new case, from Seattle, focuses on a potential juror who was excluded because of his views on the death penalty.

On May 23, 1991, Holly Washa, 21, was leaving her job at a hotel near SeaTac when Cal Brown stopped her to say her tire was flat. He then jumped in the car and put a knife to her throat. He forced her to take money from her bank account.

Brown took her to a motel where he kept her in handcuffs and raped her. On the third day, he slit her throat and left her to die in the trunk of her car.

From there, Brown flew to Palm Springs, Calif., where he abducted, tortured and stabbed a second woman. Remarkably, despite a slit throat, she was able to call the hotel desk when Brown left the room. The police arrived and arrested Brown when he returned.

He gave a detailed confession to both crimes. In Seattle, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to die in 1993 for the murder of Washa. His conviction and sentence were upheld by state courts and by a federal judge in Seattle.

“This was not a case where there was any doubt about who committed the murder,” John J. Samson, an assistant attorney general from Washington, said Friday.

Last year, however, Brown’s appeal came before a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit, which reversed the death sentence on the grounds that one of the potential jurors was improperly excluded from the trial.

The justices voted Friday to hear the case of Uttecht v. Brown in April and to issue a ruling by late June.

Compiled from staff and wire reports