Idaho Briefs August 7, 2011
ISU physics lecturer injured in motorcycle crash
POCATELLO - A senior physics lecturer at Idaho State University is being treated at the Portneuf Medical Center in eastern Idaho after crashing his motorcycle while participating in the off-road Tour of Idaho.
A spokeswoman at the hospital said 55-year-old Martin Hackworth was transferred out of the intensive care unit Saturday morning and is listed in stable condition.
Hackworth is also a columnist for the Idaho State Journal.
Family members said Hackworth sustained four broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a concussion in Wednesday's crash in the desert near Arco.
The family said Hackworth was unconscious for about an hour, but afterward rode his motorcycle to his hotel, crashing at least once more on the way.
He was taken to the hospital after having problems breathing.
EPA office to close one-person office in Pocatello
POCATELLO - The Environmental Protection Agency said it will close its eastern Idaho, one-person office in Pocatello sometime in the next several months in a cost-saving move.
The agency said the money could be better used elsewhere and that its Boise office will be responsible for the region.
The eastern Idaho worker, Sue Skinner, was offered a new job with the EPA in Seattle. Skinner said she hasn't yet decided whether to move to Seattle.
Local environmentalist Muriel Roberts said the EPA should keep the local office because it's needed to address environmental concerns.
Small plane lands on gravel bar after bird strike
BLACKFOOT - The pilot of a small plane landed on a gravel bar in the middle of the Snake River in eastern Idaho after a bird struck the aircraft's propeller.
Pilot Joel Milloway said he felt a bad vibration after the collision on Friday so he shut off the power, then spotted a gravel bar right in front of him and made an emergency landing in the aircraft he built himself.
Law enforcement officials picked up Milloway in a boat and he obtained a different propeller and returned and made repairs and took off again.
Milloway said everything turned out as well as could be expected and that it could have been a lot worse.
Sentencing delayed for mental health evaluation
BOISE - The sentencing date for an Idaho man who pleaded guilty to stabbing his mother to death and kidnapping his wife has been postponed until October so a mental health evaluation can be completed.
Fourth District Court Judge Patrick Owen recently ruled that the sentencing date for 24-year-old Michael James Lee be moved to Oct. 26.
Lee had been scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 31.
Lee pleaded guilty in May to first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, and felony battery in connection with the stabbing death of his mother, 46-year-old Lynn Marie Blake, in January.
Detectives said Lee ate dinner with his mother before stabbing her 22 times in front of his infant daughter, who was unharmed.
Judge rules against Meridian in city hall dispute
MERIDIAN - A state judge has denied a request from the city of Meridian to lower damages and fees stemming from a legal tussle with the contractor hired to build the new city hall.
The decision Friday by Ronald J. Wilper means the city is still liable for $1.8 million in attorney fees and costs incurred by Petra Inc. to defend itself in the city's $8.5 million lawsuit.
Meridian has already paid $1.8 million to cover its own legal costs and still owes Petra more than $424,000 in costs and interests.
The judge did allow the city withhold payment to Petra pending an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.
Last month, Wilper rejected the city's claims that Petra breached its contractual obligations and should be liable for flaws discovered in the new building.
Reservoir near Caldwell infested with carp
CALDWELL - Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials aim to reduce the carp population in Lake Lowell after concluding this foreign import damages other fish communities, hurts aquatic plants and generally disrupts the aquatic system in this man-made reservoir that's the centerpiece of the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge.
Carp came to the U.S. in the 19th century, imported by well-meaning but misguided fisheries managers who figured - wrongly - they'd be a beneficial addition.
Records of carp in Lake Lowell date to 1955, with populations exploding in the 1990s.
Managers now estimate about 1.3 million carp in the lake, weighing about five million pounds combined.
As a result, Idaho personnel, with federal wildlife refuge staff, are in the initial stages of determining whether to kill the carp with rotenone treatments.
- The Associated Press