Briefs November 24, 2011

Bell ringing record sought

He will be cold, tired and probably suffering a cramped wrist.

But Dale Eller is happily prepared to make those sacrifices and more this weekend, when he will venture to break the world record for Salvation Army bell ringing.

That's 48 hours straight of standing outside the Hayden Walmart, flicking that bell up and down.

"It's just a couple days standing in the cold. That's really nothing, compared to what a lot of people are having to go through this winter," the 52-year-old said.

The rules are simple. No sitting, no sleeping, and he has to keep the bell ringing.

Eller, a personal trainer at the Kroc Center, will start at 8 a.m. outside Walmart's door, and finish on Sunday morning.

Police investigate home invasion

NAMPA (AP) - Nampa Police continued their search for suspects in a home invasion last week in which two middle schools were initially locked down amid the search for three suspects who fired shots as they were fleeting.

The incident last Friday morning put a neighborhood in this southwestern Idaho town on edge.

Police say three people with masks or facial coverings arrived at a house near West and Lone Star middle schools looking for prescription drugs.

They fled in a late 1990s- or early 2000s-model gold pickup truck.

A large wooden spool similar to those which carry wire and a metal cylindrical container were in the back of the truck.

Lawyer feted for civil rights case

BOISE (AP) - An 83-year-old Idaho lawyer is being feted to mark the 40th anniversary of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case he won bolstering women's rights.

The University of Idaho is honoring Allen Derr, who graduated from the school in 1959, for his role in Reed V. Reed.

The Boise lawyer helped make history in 1971 when the Supreme Court ruled for the first time since the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment was passed in 1868 that its Equal Protection Clause protected women's rights.

Derr represented Sally Reed, who prevailed when justices struck down an Idaho law requiring appointment of a man over a woman to oversee a dead person's estate.

Derr, who still practices, was recently on a panel sponsored by the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C. on the case.