Briefs

• $4.2M available for displaced Idaho workers

BOISE - The federal government is providing $4.2 million of federal assistance to workers recently laid off at the J.R. Simplot Company and an Idaho Falls call center.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday that $2.6 million will be available for the 435 workers who were laid off from August 2013 to April of this year at J.R. Simplot facilities.

Another $1.6 million will be allocated to the nearly 200 workers who were affected by a March 31 closure at Center Partners call center in Idaho Falls.

The money was awarded to the state's Department of Labor to help provide the dislocated workers with re-employment services such as career guidance, case management and job search assistance.

• SE Idaho urban forest canopy being measured

IDAHO FALLS - The Idaho Department of Lands is using a $300,000 federal grant to calculate the urban tree canopy in eastern Idaho.

"There's a lot of benefits that people don't think about when planting trees," agency spokesman Gerry Bates told the Post Register. "That's what we are trying to promote."

The Snake River Canopy Analysis Project starts Monday and is intended to measure shade coverage from trees in Idaho Falls, Ammon, Blackfoot, Shelley, Chubbuck ad Pocatello.

The parks and recreation director in Idaho Falls, Greg Weitzel, said the city helped write the grant proposal. On its website it provides a list of trees approved for planting.

"We want to increase and promote (tree) species diversity so they are less susceptible to disease," Weitzel said. "I think that native trees grow better and are going to last longer. We want the kind of trees that are going to flourish here."

Delbert Lloyd, the city forester, said trees offer many benefits.

"They cool the air, they slow traffic, they are beautiful, most importantly they help with pollution," Lloyd said. "(Air quality) is becoming a problem and trees help to mitigate that. They save the city money."

Bates said estimates show that the region doesn't have enough trees, with only about 7 percent of the 125 square miles having leafy shade coverage. An ideal amount is 25 percent he said.

To get good numbers, the project will have 300 study plots one-tenth of an acre in size spread out across 125 square miles. A computer system will take information from the plots and extrapolate it over the entire 125-square-mile region.

Interns will also work over the summer using aerial photographs and field expeditions to help determine shade coverage in each city.

Bates said he hopes the information will persuade city leaders in the region to promote having more trees.

"What will be the benefits in five years, 10 years or 50 years?" Bates said. "It lets (the cities) strategically develop planting projects that will maximize the benefits that the canopy gives to the cities. It justifies having a successful tree program."

• Man sentenced after prostitution guilty plea

BOISE - A man who pleaded guilty to procurement of prostitution and accepting the earnings of a prostitute has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Forty-four-year-old Derrick Wallace Hicklen received the sentenced Thursday in 4th District Court and must serve at least two years before being eligible for parole.

Ada County prosecutors initially also charged Hicklen with felony counts of human trafficking and rape.

But prosecutors say they couldn't find many of the women who worked for Hicklen to testify against him.

He and a co-defendant, 28-year-old Gypsie Lee Akers, were arrested last fall.

Akers also pleaded guilty to procurement of prostitution and accepting the earnings of a prostitute.

She was sentenced last month to four to 15 years in prison.