Huckleberries Best of the INorthwest — 1/31/07

Two coyotes fight over an animal carcass next to the Gardner River near Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo., in Yellowstone National Park, Tuesday morning/Garrett Cheen, AP Photo/The Livingston Enterprise.

Stapilus: An evolution of sorts was behind the 9th Circuit’s decision to yank field burning from Idaho’s purview here .

1. A Kent, Wash., mother who police say let her two young children starve to death while she got drunk is no longer facing criminal charges here .

2. Growth on the Vancouver campus is bucking a couple of trends in the Washington State University system. When spring enrollment figures for the four-campus WSU system were announced Friday, Vancouver was the only site showing a gain, with 323 more students than a year ago here .

3. KING 5 News in Seattle has learned that three former foster children have just filed a $45 million claim against the State of Washington. The girls say their foster dad abused them for years while the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) ignored a slew of graphic complaints that should have put a stop to it here .

4. Gov. Butch Otter plans to meet with the billionaire founder of the Montana Meth Project about bringing an in-your-face advertising campaign on the perils of methamphetamine to Idaho here . ( Online Poll: 88% of 720 respondents to an Idaho Statesman poll favor Otter’s plan here . )

5. Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith is threatening to filibuster a must-pass spending bill if Congress does not extend payments to rural counties hurt by cutbacks in federal logging here .

6. IMHO-NW: John Blanchette /Spokesman-Review ( Zags have to be as tough as schedule ), Jim Fisher /Lewiston Tribune ( Smaller capitol wings best for voters ), Steve Crump /Twin Falls Times-News ( Confronting dark hillbilly fears ), Idaho Statesman ( Table Otter’s talk about dams ), and Art Thiel /Seattle PI ( Best Mariners rotation in years ).

Online Poll: 76% of 357 respondents to a Great Falls Tribune poll oppose four-day weeks for schools.

*No serious injuries after school bus with six students plunges into Snake River here .

*Jury favors WTO protesters who sued Seattle here .

*Another baby girl has been born on Seattle’s gridlocked streets this week here .

*Miss Montana 2003 claims she was a victim of battery and defamation by two pageant volunteer organizers here .

*Boise teens survive crash, cold swim, cut head, night alone here .

Orbusmax Special: Washington woman to pay court costs, serve probation for filling out daughter’s absentee ballot and signing it here .