Senators vote to reconfirm Terrell

A Senate committee voted to approve the reconfirmation of state Board of Education President Milford Terrell on Thursday, after earlier vowing to hold off until calling the full board on the carpet.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, the Education Committee chairman, said Gov. Butch Otter is “back and engaged now,” and asked legislative leaders to move the confirmation along. Otter made his first public appearance Thursday since his Jan. 29 hip surgery, presiding over a state Land Board meeting.

Sen. Stan Bastian, R-Eagle, told the committee, “I believe that Milford Terrell has done a great job in a difficult situation. … I think he is to be commended for that. … He deserves to have our support.”

Goedde said most of the other board members will come before the committee for questioning next Thursday, but member Rod Lewis has an out-of-state trial and can’t make it.

The Terrell confirmation now goes to the full Senate.

Scouts, Mormon Church sued

A man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, contending they didn’t do enough to stop a Scout troop leader from sexually abusing children.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in in Vale, Ore., by a 53-year-old man identified only as Tom Doe.

Doe alleges that Larren Arnold, a leader of his Nampa, Idaho, Boy Scout troop, sexually abused him for about three years, starting in 1967, and that the abuse left him with debilitating physical, emotional and mental injuries.

Arnold could not be immediately reached by the Associated Press for comment. A recorded message for a Pocatello listing under Arnold’s name said the number had been temporarily disconnected at the customer’s request.

Doe, who grew up in Nampa but now lives in the Portland, Ore., region, alleges that the Nampa ward of the LDS church “called” Arnold to serve as a Scout troop leader to educate and minister to LDS families and their children. The troop was jointly operated by the Boy Scouts and the LDS church, Doe said.

Doe maintains that leaders of the Boy Scouts Ore-Ida Council, the national Boy Scouts of America organization and the church knew they had “institution-wide child abuse problems.”

David Kemper, the Scout executive for the Ore-Idaho Council, said he had not yet seen the lawsuit and so couldn’t give specific comments. However, Kemper said, the Boy Scouts take any allegation of child abuse seriously.

VANCOUVER, Wash.

Eruption declared over, for now

The minor eruption of Mount St. Helens that began in the fall of 2004 is over for now.

New lava has stopped pushing into the crater in the past month and on Thursday scientists at the Cascades Volcano Observatory lowered the alert to the second-lowest of four levels. It’s now a yellow-advisory, down from an orange-watch.

Earthquakes have diminished to background levels, but it’s just a pause in the geologic history of the southwest Washington volcano, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Seth Moran.

The volcano has a geologic history of cycles of formation and destruction.

“Over the last several thousand years it’s built itself up and blown itself apart,” he said.

The volcano had been quiet for 18 years when the latest round of activity began in September 2004 as fresh lava broke through the floor of the crater and added to a lava dome there.

At first the flow was about a dump truck load, roughly 8 cubic yards, per second. A year later it was down to slightly more than 1 cubic yard per second and it slowly declined since then.

Spokane

Lawyers want jury to see fire site

Defense lawyers for a crew boss charged in a deadly fire that killed four firefighters in 2001 want the jury hearing his case to visit the site of the north-central Washington blaze.

A U.S. District Court judge will hear arguments Feb. 29 about whether the jury needs to see the site of the Thirtymile fire, where four firefighters died when flames trapped their crew and two civilians in the Chewuch River Canyon north of Winthrop.

Ellreese Daniels, 47, of Lake Wenatchee, is believed to be the first federal firefighter to face criminal charges alleging negligence resulting in the deaths of fellow firefighters.

The federal public defender representing him, Tina Hunt, first filed a motion Jan. 28 to bring the jury to the fire site, saying she has visited the site and does not think pictures or videos provide enough detail for the jury to make certain judgments.

Federal prosecutors contend the fire is so well-documented, there’s no reason to bring a jury and court staff to the fire site.

Daniels’ trial is scheduled to begin April 14 in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

Reward offered in hunt for suspect

Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward for information leading to the arrest of a Spokane man wanted for selling stolen merchandise to a home building supply store in 2005.

Police say Thomas A. Tyger, 44, returned more than $260 in merchandise to a local Home Depot. He hadn’t bought the items but had taken them off the shelves during his visit, according to Crime Stoppers.

Tyger is wanted on felony arrest warrants for second-degree theft by deception and trafficking stolen property. He was living at 1708 W. Pacific Ave. at the time of the crime, according to Crime Stoppers.

Anyone with information is asked to (800) 222-TIPS.

Tipsters do not have to give their name to collect the cash reward, but should provide the operator with a code name or number.