Huckleberries Best of the INorthwest — 3/12/07

Gonzaga guard Josh Heytvelt (42) looks for help as Virginia defenders Laurynas Mikalauskas (11) and Will Harris (1) put on the pressure during a college basketball game at the John Paul Jones Center in Charlottesville, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 3. Heytvelt will be arraigned on drug charges this afternoon. See Item No. 2. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

March Madness: Gonzaga closer to home and with better seed than expected here , WSU grateful for good seed here , Bracket analysis: WSU here , and brack analysis: Gonzaga here .

1. A California company that offered ultrasound body scans here last summer which it claimed could detect future health problems has been ordered to stop practicing medicine in Montana without a license. The state’s cease and desist order against Ultra Life Inc. resulted from a complaint by a Great Falls radiologist who saw patients after they received incorrect diagnoses from the scans here .

2. Suspended Gonzaga basketball player Josh Heytvelt will be arraigned at 4:30 this afternoon at the Spokane County Courthouse on felony drug possession charges stemming from his arrest Feb. 9th in Cheney, WA. Officers allegedly found hallucinogenic mushrooms in Heytvelt’s vehicle here .

3. Merck & Co.’s painkiller Vioxx contributed to an Idaho postal worker’s heart attack, a jury in Atlantic City ruled Monday, reversing the verdict in the man’s first trial and awarding him and his wife $20 million in damages. The verdict in the case of Frederick “Mike” Humeston, who was granted a second trial in light of new evidence, means Merck has now won nine cases and lost five in the mushrooming litigation over its former blockbuster arthritis pill here .

4. Restaurants in Washington state have reported their best year in nearly a decade with a record number of customers in 2006, but it’s no easier to succeed in the business, according to an industry group here .

5. While more than 17 million women have been raped in their life, according to a Department of Justice 2006 report, American Indian women reported the highest numbers of rape of any other racial or ethnic group in the United States, at a rate 2.5 times higher than the national average here .

6. IMHO-NW: John Blanchette /Spokesman-Review ( Spend Mad Money on gas, coffee, antacids ), Doug Clark /Spokesman-Review ( Harmonicas, guns could be volatile mix ), Rep. George Sayler /Idaho Statesman ( Solons put ideology ahead of kids’ safety ), Jim Fisher /Lewiston Tribune ( Outdoor writer falls from grace ), and Ed Iverson /Moscow-Pullman Daily News ( Darwinists busy keeping science classes pure ).

Online Poll: 80% of 520 respondents to an Idaho Statesman poll say they won’t participate in an NCAA bracket pool this spring.

*Personal information for about 2,700 University of Idaho employees was inadvertently posted at the school’s Web site for 19 days in February here .

*2 Boise women thwart car-jack suspect here .

*Plea agreement made in “mob attack” on landlord here .

*An Idahoan has taken the question of whether or not he is required to wear the seat belt in his pickup all the way to district court here .

Orbusmax Special: Berserk house cat sends owner to the hospital with more than 20 bite wounds here .