News

A tribal court on the Umatilla Indian Reservation is one of the first to hand-down a long prison term under new tougher criminal sentencing laws enacted by Congress in 2010.

It used to be that tribes could only sentence a Native American criminal to up to one year of jail time -- no matter the crime. Typically the U.S. Justice Department was called in for everything else -– but many cases were dropped.

Now, tribal courts have the power to sentence native criminals who commit crimes on a reservation up to three years per count, for up to nine years.

The last herds of reindeer in the continental United States are found in the Northwest. But even here, there aren't very many left. This week, federal wildlife authorities are expected to designate the animal's high-elevation stomping grounds as protected “critical habitat.” The move has riled another winter visitor to the area –- snowmobilers.

Reindeer -- or caribou -- used to be found along the northern tier of the U.S., from Washington, to Maine. But that is changing according to Bryon Holt, a biologist with U.S. Fish & Wildlife.

The ski season is officially underway. Mountains in Idaho, Oregon and Washington are now open for business. And ski slopes are hoping for a better season than last year.

The long Thanksgiving weekend is the time when many slopes open. Besides the northwest, mountains in Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming are welcoming skiers over the long holiday weekend.

Gun stores are among the retailers expecting more sales than usual this Black Friday. 

A national trade group that represents the gun and ammunition industry says Black Friday could set a record for the number of background checks performed.  Those are required by the FBI for gun purchases. 

On the day after Thanksgiving last year, the number of background checks set an all-time high. 

Mike Bazinet is a spokesman with the National Shooting Sports Foundation.  He says there are several reasons why gun stores will be busy. 

With Thanksgiving behind us many people are thinking about getting a Christmas tree. Thousands of Idahoans still head to the woods every year to cut their own trees. Permits are now on sale to harvest trees in the state’s ten national forests.

Each year, the Idaho Botanical Garden strings up thousands of twinkling lights, for the annual Winter Garden Aglow.  The event begins tonight.  Last year, we caught up with a dedicated group of volunteers who were putting the final touches on the annual event.  Here’s a look back:

The Nampa School District won’t replace its deputy superintendent. Josh Jensen resigned this week from the troubled district’s number two position. Accounting errors have left Nampa in a budget hole near $4.5 million. The district’s Superintendent resigned two months ago. The new interim superintendent starts next week. In an e-mail to employees Tuesday a Nampa spokesperson said the district has accepted Jensen’s resignation effective immediately. It continues:

The Northwest's second geothermal power plant has entered service. A Boise-based company called U.S. Geothermal built the project at Neal Hot Springs, near the small town of Vale in eastern Oregon.

The company's CEO Daniel Kunz says a good renewable energy resource and nearby transmission lines made Neal Hot Springs attractive for geothermal power generation.

You can stroll into any lumber yard in the Northwest and walk out with a load of pine, fir, cedar, or maple wood.  Ask for juniper, though, and you’ll probably get a blank look. But that may change. Juniper trees have overpopulated eastern Oregon, and scientists say they're sucking the high desert dry.

A group of environmental entrepreneurs thinks the best way to restore the desert is by creating a commercial market for juniper.

Scientists recently looked at what urban development is doing to streams in Portland and eight other U.S. cities. They found that urban development can mean trouble for invertebrate species.

That’s especially true in pristine waters running through forests.  Development from expanding cities can make streams flow faster.  It also changes habitat and increases pollution.

A study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that all that can kill insects like mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies.

Passengers at the Boise airport are now clear to board their planes. Much of the airport shut down for two hours Tuesday afternoon because of what Boise Police and TSA officials are calling a “credible threat.”

The threat centered on the food court area, which was evacuated. The security checkpoint into the terminal was closed and boarding was halted. Planes that had already been boarded were allowed to take off.

A major water rights agreement in the Klamath Basin is set to expire in December 31st. Farmers, tribes, and power company PacifiCorp are getting behind an extension.

The Klamath restoration deal was inked two years ago, with a lot of celebration, and even a cameo from then California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I can see already that the salmon fish is screaming I’ll be back,” he said at the time.

The deal settled decades of lawsuits over water rights in the basin on the Oregon- California border.

Radioactive waste the U.S. Air Force couldn't get permission to bury at a California dump site has found a new home in southwestern Idaho.

The material from the McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento County, Calif., has been buried instead at the U.S. Ecology hazardous waste site east of Boise.

Idaho's top policeman is stepping down in January. Col. Jerry Russell of the Idaho State Police will leave Jan. 18.

The announcement came Monday from Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter who says he regrets losing Russell, but says he leaves behind him a "strong bench."

Russell has a long history of law enforcement work in the region. He worked for more than a quarter-century for the Oregon State Police.

Idaho high school students won't have to take online classes to graduate. The State Board of Education repealed a rule Monday that required them.

Voters rejected the Students Come First laws on November 6 but one of those laws had a twist. It required the board of education to set the online class requirement, which it did. That requirement was still in place despite the laws' repeal.  The Idaho Legislature still has to sign off but, board spokesperson Marilyn Whitney says students should consider it gone.

The Nampa School District is mired in a serious budget crisis. Accounting errors discovered last summer have put the state’s third largest district deep in the red. The deficit is now believed to be more than $4 million.

Two students with ties to Idaho have been selected as Rhodes Scholars. 22 year-old Joseph Thiel and 23 year-old Amanda Frickle were announced as winners of the prestigious honor Sunday.

Thiel is originally from Idaho Falls. He now lives in Boise and is a senior chemical engineering and liberal studies major at Montana State University. He plans to study economics for development while at Oxford University.

An Idaho task force will delay its release of a draft proposal on ways to strengthen the state’s nuclear energy industry. 

The Idaho Leadership in Nuclear Energy Commission was expected to release its draft recommendations on Monday so the public could weigh in. From there, it planned to deliver a final version on January First to Governor Otter.