Samantha Wright

Saturday marks the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to fight breast cancer.  In Idaho, 117 out of every 100-thousand women will get the disease.  It’s a frightening diagnosis.  One group works to help the newly diagnosed through the maze of doctors, treatments, and emotions. 

Now that the Idaho Republican Party has opted for a closed primary, voters will encounter some big changes at the polling booth.  Elections officials are trying to explain the new format to the public, and prepare workers for questions on voting day.  Lots of questions. 

Helen Robins is gearing up for Election Day.  She’s petite, energetic, and she laughs a lot.  She’s been a poll worker and a Chief Judge, that’s the person in charge at a precinct.  “I think I’ve seen it all…”

When you vote in the primary next Tuesday, you must, for the first time, register for a political party.  That’s after the Idaho Republican Party sued the state for the right to close its primary.  The GOP argued party faithful, not crossover Democrats, should pick Republican candidates.

New figures from the Alzheimer’s Association show 75-thousand people in Idaho - usually family members - are helping care for a patient with the disease.  An organization known as the Idaho Alzheimer’s Planning Group is working on a state plan to help patients and those caregivers.

The 391st Combat Engineer Company will be welcomed home Saturday at Gowen Field.  98 Idahoans are part of the unit, most of them from the Treasure Valley.  The Army Reserve Soldiers recently came home from their second tour of duty in Iraq.  The “Welcome Home Warrior Citizen” ceremony is for soldiers and their family members. 

Each soldier gets a label pin set, a commemorative coin, and an encased U. S. flag.

A plane from Mountain Home Air Force Base crashed on a routine training mission in Southwest Asia.  The Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle crashed Thursday morning.  Both crew members ejected safely. 

“We are extremely grateful that our Gunfighters are safe,” said Col. Bruce Smith, 366th Fighter Wing Vice Commander.  U-S Air Force Central Command says the cause of the crash is under investigation, but was not due to hostile fire or insurgent activity.

More than 300 Airmen from Mountain Home Air Force Base are deployed to support F-15E overseas missions.

He's been a lawyer, a political mover and shaker, and a former Idaho Supreme Court Justice.  But at heart, Byron Johnson has always been a poet.  Now that he's retired, Johnson has devoted much of his time to writing poetry and his memoir. That book "Poetic Justice" is now out. It's pages are filled with his early childhood, court cases and yes, poems. Byron Johnson - who has battled Parkinson’s disease and cancer - told Samantha Wright that poetry has always had a place in his life:

Four Idaho health centers will pick up some cash today from the federal government.  The U.S. Health and Human Services Department is giving more than $9.5 million dollars to build and expand health centers.  The hope is to help serve 16-thousand new patients.   

Neighbors of a proposed nuclear power plant in Payette County have filed a complaint against it in district court.  They say the plant is part of a stock scheme, and that Payette County has played a role in this complicated case. 

The suit accuses Alternate Energy Holdings of manipulating its stock price as part of a fraud scheme.  It says the company has never had any revenues, never shown a profit, and never built anything.  It also blames Payette County officials for joining in the scheme.

A prototype earthquake early warning system worked as designed when an actual quake gently shook California last Friday. Researchers reported the results Tuesday at the annual meeting of American seismologists.

Last year, a private foundation in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey gave a multimillion dollar grant to create an automated earthquake warning system for the Pacific Coast states. The idea is to provide advance notice to prepare people for severe shaking. It could come via a cell phone alert or a pop-up on your computer or TV screen.

The company that wants to build a nuclear power plant in Payette County faces a new complaint. A group of property owners who have land near the proposed site for the plant filed a complaint in district court Monday against Alternate Energy Holdings and Payette County.  The complaint says AEHI has never had any revenues, never shown a profit, and never built anything.  It says AEHI used Payette County as part of a scheme to fraudulently promote its stock and boost its stock price. 

Lieutenant Colonel Barry Bridger knows a lot about how to overcome obstacles. He survived six years in Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison camp.  Now he works with other veterans on how to achieve success after they return home from duty. Bridger brings his message to Boise tonight. Samantha Wright talked with him about his two tours in Vietnam and how his experiences shaped the message he brings to veterans.

Four years ago, thousands of voters lined up around the state to participate in Idaho’s Democratic Caucus.  Back then, the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was still going strong.  This year the caucus tomorrow is more of a foregone conclusion, but the party still wants voters to turn out.  

An Eagle man, who tried to buy the bankrupt Tamarack Resort in Donnelly, was arrested today.  Matthew Hutcheson faces 17 federal counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of theft from an employee pension plan.   

Hutcheson made news two years ago with a bid to buy the Tamarack ski resort for $40 million.  Now, Idaho’s U-S Attorney, Wendy Olson, says $3 million of that money came from a pension plan where he was a trustee.  

Blue Cross of Idaho has teamed up with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana to buy two companies, one in Coeur d’Alene and one in Montana.  Peak 1 Administration and Insurance Coordinators of Montana will merge together to provide ancillary support services for the insurance companies.

Those include running Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Reimbursement Accounts, and COBRAs, where employees can temporarily continue their health coverage after they leave their job.  Blue Cross says the acquisition will allow it to increase services to more clients in more areas.

Hydrologists from the Natural Resources Conservation Service call the latest snow survey results "March Madness in Idaho."  Storm after storm hit the state in March, marking one of the greatest one-month changes in snowpack on record. 

The body of an Army soldier from Jerome, who died in Afghanistan, will be returned home today.  Sergeant Brown of Jerome was in Kandahar province, Afghanistan when he was hit by an improvised explosive device.  He died on March 24th.  Colonel Tim Marsano with the Idaho National Guard says his body will be flown to Twin Falls and released to his family in a special ceremony.  “Very sadly, we in the Idaho National Guard have done this dozens of times since September 11, 2001,” he says, “but what that experience does is helps ensure that the family is going to get the proper and dignified ceremony that they deserve.” 

Researchers have found a way to rank the healthiest counties in Idaho.  Blaine County comes out on top. 

Where you live matters to your health.  That’s according to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin.  Their 2012 County Health Rankings break down the healthiest counties in Idaho.

Americans are pouring over the newly released data from the 1940 Census. Demand was so high  Monday that the National Archives website crashed. But many people in the Northwest have an extra challenge in finding information about their relatives.