Salt flats concerns; woman steals lottery voucher; rapper's caracal dies
- Updated
Odd and interesting news from the West.
- By MICHELLE L. PRICE The Associated Press
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY — Racers who have sounded the alarm that Utah's famous Bonneville Salt Flats are deteriorating now want Congress to step in, arguing that a law is needed because federal land managers aren't doing enough to restore the flats where record-breaking races are held.
Dennis Sullivan, president of the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association, said racing enthusiasts urging protection of the flats are drafting a federal law that would call for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take some kind of action to restore depleted salt within a certain time frame.
Sullivan declined to provide a copy of the draft legislation or offer any specifics about what the proposal would call for, citing ongoing changes to the proposal the group is making. He said it will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
Racers have gathered for decades on the gleaming white sheets of salt about 100 miles west of Salt Lake City where cars, motorcycles and anything else with wheels attempt to reach speeds topping 400 mph.
But wet patchy surfaces have caused nine major races to be canceled or cut short in recent years, and the racing community worries that nearby potash mining is draining an aquifer that helps replenish the flats.
They argue that's left shrunken flats with rougher, thinner crust instead of the hard, flat surface needed for racing.
U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, whose district includes the Bonneville Salt Flats, said in a statement that he's concerned about the flats, but according to his spokeswoman Allison Leavitt, he is not working on legislation right now.
"My office has been in touch with key stakeholders in Washington, D.C. and Utah, and I'm working to find a solution that will preserve this national jewel," Stewart said in a statement.
The BLM has pointed out that heavy rains have left standing water on the flats in past years, leading to cancelations, and that the agency requires the mining company to pump brine back onto the flats every winter with the goal of thickening the salt crust.
But racers say that's not enough to keep up with decades of mining. They've put together a 90-page document outlining steps the BLM could take, including a suggestion that more than 1 million tons of brine be pumped back each year, up from about 400,000 tons.
BLM spokeswoman Lisa Reid said the agency is reviewing the racers' proposal and whether they can take any of the steps outlined.
She said the agency is also waiting for a 2018 study by a University of Utah professor examining the salt crust and the effects of human activity, weather and other factors.
Dr. Brenda Bowen, the researcher, said preliminary findings based on satellite images show the surface area of the flats has shrunk over 30 years, measuring about 27 square miles down from about 54 square miles. Bowen said it's too early in the research to know what's caused that, and it's unclear whether the crust itself is thinner.
Sullivan, with the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association, said racers don't yet know if the flats will be in any condition to host major races later this summer because the surface is covered in water from recent rains.
He said he's interested to see the results of the 2018 study but significant steps need to be taken before then.
"If we keep going the way we're going, there will not be anything to study," Sullivan said. "We can't wait that long. The salt flats can't wait that long."
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SANTA FE, N.M. — Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is pleading no contest to charges of driving away from a traffic accident without notice.
Richardson dialed in remotely to a municipal court hearing on Friday in Santa Fe and agreed to pay $56 in court costs and complete a defense driving class under the judgment. A sentence of 90 days unsupervised probation is on hold while Richardson completes the requirements.
In January, Richardson rear-ended another vehicle at low speed in downtown Santa Fe, drove off and was tracked down quickly by police. A police video shows Richardson initially feigning ignorance before acknowledging to a Santa Fe police officer that he bumped into another car and didn't pull over.
Court records show that a charge of driving too close was dismissed.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities say a woman who died while riding a zip line at a Utah resort was killed because she hit a tree that was in her path.
Investigators said Friday the tree likely got in the way of 55-year-old Lisa Lambe's zip line because of high winds.
The South Carolina woman had been found suspended in her harness and was then brought to the ground for treatment. She died last weekend after suffering serious injuries caused by the impact.
The Sundance Mountain Resort website says the "zip tours" have only been offered for about a year. They allow visitors to take in scenery while riding a zip line with more than a 2,100-foot vertical drop. Guests can control their speed and cruise at about 65 mph.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
MISSOULA, Mont. — Police are searching for two men who robbed a Missoula casino, took a family hostage and fired shots at pursuing officers before finally freeing the uninjured hostages at separate locations.
Missoula County Sheriff T.J. McDermott said the men robbed Deano's Casino at about 3:30 a.m. Friday, carjacked a family from Lake Stevens, Washington, and sped through downtown Missoula.
A 12-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and their grandmother were released in Missoula. The family's vehicle and the children's parents were located at about 5:30 a.m. near Evaro Hill, northwest of Missoula.
McDermott says the suspects were on the phone arranging for someone to pick them up before they fled the family's vehicle on foot.
The suspects are a black man and a white man, both about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and in their early 20s.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
EUGENE, Ore. — Police say a Eugene man's winning lottery voucher was taken by a woman sitting near him while he played video poker at CJ's Restaurant.
The Register-Guard reports (http://bit.ly/1Wq2dUy ) that police say the 31-year-old man was on a winning streak early Wednesday morning when he decided to step away from the machine for a moment. He hadn't yet printed his ticket voucher.
Eugene police say a woman sitting nearby printed the winning ticket and ran out of the restaurant. Spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin would not say how much the winning ticket was worth.
Police say the victim followed the woman and kept 911 dispatchers updated on her location.
Officers say they found the woman and arrested her on an unrelated theft warrant. It's unknown whether additional charges are pending against her.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho water managers say they will step up funding for a cloud-seeding program that's already been credited with increasing the state's mountain snowpack.
The Idaho Power Co. program releases silver iodine into the atmosphere, which helps ice form in the clouds and increases precipitation, The Capital Press ) reported.
The cloud seeding began in 2003. Idaho Power estimates that the extra snowpack creates an average of 800,000 acre-feet of water, roughly the volume of the American Falls Reservoir. It generates enough hydro-power to supply 17,000 homes.
Irrigation organizations, the Idaho Water Resource Board and Idaho Power will each shoulder about a third of the project's cost, according to Idaho Power engineering leader Jon Bowling.
"We wouldn't want our customers to bear the full cost of a program other stakeholders benefit from," said Bowling. "I think we've had a pretty good reception to the collaborative funding mechanism."
The Water Resource Board contributed $500,000 to help the program add infrastructure two years ago, followed by another $200,000 last year toward an airplane for cloud seeding in the Upper Snake River Basin, said Brian Patton, the Planning Bureau manager with the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
Water District 1, which includes the Upper Snake system, gave $200,000 to the program. Watermaster Lyle Swank says his district's contribution is 20 percent of its total budget, but members voted for the contribution.
"When we can extract a little extra moisture from the atmosphere, that can be really helpful," Swank said.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
LAS VEGAS — Authorities in Las Vegas are investigating the cause of a fire that damaged the home of a hip hop figure and left an exotic pet wildcat dead.
Rapper and reality TV star Rashid "Mally Mall" Jamal wasn't injured in the Thursday afternoon fire at his two-story home in southeast Las Vegas.
A Clark County fire official says firefighters discovered the cat, a caracal, unresponsive after dousing flames. The species is native to Africa, the Middle East and India, and can grow to about 40 pounds.
County officials told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/1VlDNKF ) the rapper had a permit for the cat.
In 2014, FBI agents served warrants at the home and Jamal's company, Las Vegas Concierge VS1, as part of a federal human trafficking investigation. No charges have been filed.
- By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press
- Updated
BOISE, Idaho — Federal officials have released a plan to close about 30 square miles of grazing allotments to domestic sheep and goats in west-central Idaho to protect bighorn sheep from diseases.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's release of the final supplemental environmental impact statement closing three allotments starts a protest period that runs through June 19.
Two of the allotments are east of Riggins near the Salmon River and one is to the south along the Little Salmon River.
None of the allotments currently have domestic sheep, one because of a court order following a lawsuit.
The document released earlier this month replaces a 2008 plan that drew protests.
BLM officials say the new plan is partly based on a better understanding of the risks to bighorns of diseases transmitted by domestic sheep.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SCOTTSDALE — A Salt River Police Department officer is accused of sexually abusing a woman in his custody.
Scottsdale police say 45-year-old Jay Hun Wu was arrested late Thursday on suspicion of kidnapping, sexual abuse and other crimes following an investigation into a March 29 incident.
Scottsdale police say a woman reported that Wu sexually abused her near her home when Wu gave her a courtesy ride home when she was the subject of an investigation.
It could not be immediately determined whether Wu has an attorney who could comment on the allegations, and a Scottsdale police spokesman said Wu remained in custody Friday.
A Salt River Police Department spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment
Scottsdale police say Wu's department cooperated with its Scottsdale counterpart during the investigation.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
BOISE, Idaho — For the second year in a row, Idaho health officials say preliminary tests on dead ground squirrels south of Boise have come back positive for plague.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is still confirming the diagnosis, but officials are asking the public to be cautious.
A map of the infected area is a circle shape extending about 45 miles south from Boise to the Snake River. The boundary also extends over Interstate 84 but doesn't reach Mountain Home.
The bacterial disease can be spread by flea bites or by direct contact with infected animals. The last human cases to have the plague occurred in 1991 and 1992, when both patients fully recovered.
Officials say symptoms of plague in humans include fever, chills, headache and weakness, and that prompt diagnosis and treatment greatly reduces the fatality rate.
- By RYAN VAN VELZER Associated Press
- Updated
PHOENIX — Arizona schools are working with federal investigators to avoid civil rights violations for removing thousands of students learning English from language support classes before they were ready.
For the second time in five years the U.S. Department of Justice cautioned that the Arizona Department of Education needs to raise its testing standards or face penalties including losses in federal funding, according to a settlement agreement reached earlier this month.
Education officials also have to find out how many students in Kindergarten and grades 3-12 need additional help in the classroom then catch them up to speed.
Education experts warn the state's low expectations for English proficiency can hurt high school graduation rates and college preparedness for students learning English as a second language.
- By FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press
- Updated
FLAGSTAFF — Calm winds, sunny skies and no campfire restrictions in national forests.
The Memorial Day holiday is looking ideal for spending time outdoors, barbecuing, hiking, biking and fishing.
The state is cutting the price in half for one-day fishing licenses and stocking trout in popular lakes. State transportation crews also will be taking a break from major road projects.
The holiday weekend is routinely among the busiest of the year at recreation sites.
Waits at the Grand Canyon's South Rim entrance station are expected to be long. Campsites are filling up quickly.
The lack of fire restrictions comes thanks to the amount of moisture in fuels.
But officials say that doesn't mean they're not worried about embers escaping from campfires. They say visitors should extinguish campfires completely to prevent wildfires.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
EVANS, Colo. — Residents of the Weld County city of Evans are praising a police officer who helped rescue their dog, which had been trapped in a crawlspace under a nearby home.
The Greeley Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1WpFB6q ) that Mike Linn's 6-year-old dog Tanka got out after he left the gate to his home open and after four days he was sure she was gone for good. Evans Police Department's community service technician Deidra Jesmer found the dog on May 18 after a neighbor called about hearing a crying animal under their home.
Jesmer, with help from the Evans Fire Protection District, was able to crawl under the home and hook a net around the dog, pulling her out.
Linn was cited for letting his dog out, but says the $55 fine is worth it to have his dog back.
- By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press
- Updated
SPOKANE, Wash. — It was 75 years ago that folk singer Woody Guthrie traveled across Washington and Oregon, composing 26 songs that extolled the virtues of Grand Coulee Dam and the electricity it produced.
It was one of the most productive months of Guthrie's career, and will be celebrated on Saturday at the giant dam on the Columbia River.
The 26 songs composed in the spring of 1941 included favorites like "Roll on Columbia," ''Pastures of Plenty," and "The Biggest Thing that Man has Ever Done." Collectively they are known as "The Columbia River Songs."
In honor of the anniversary, Gov. Jay Inslee proclaimed Saturday as Woody Guthrie Day in the state.
Events at the mile-wide dam, located 80 miles west of Spokane, run from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
CASPER, Wyo.— Officials in Wyoming say the dam at Pathfinder Reservoir will spill over for the fourth time in 30 years.
Mahonri Williams, chief of the resources management division for the Wyoming office of the Bureau of Reclamation, told The Casper Star-Tribune that the Pathfinder in Alcova doesn't spill over often. The most recent spill was in 2011.
Williams says an unexpected increase in snowpack levels in March and April led to the overflowing dam. He says officials will try to move water downstream if they know a big inflow is coming, but they weren't expecting this year's snowpack increase and had little time to react.
Williams expects the reservoir to be two feet above the spillway by mid-June.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
FLAGSTAFF — Arizona Game and Fish Department officials are seeking information on the illegal killing of a yearling elk found in the Strawberry area last weekend.
They say the elk was illegally taken out of season.
It was discovered along Highway 87 north of Strawberry.
Authorities say some of the edible meat was left to waste and was dumped at a different location than where the poaching is suspected to have taken place.
Investigators believe the poaching occurred on the National Forest between Pine and Happy Jack.
Evidence collected at the scene currently is being analyzed by the crime lab.
Game and Fish officials say a reward of up to $750 may be available for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the elk poaching.
- By HENRY BREAN Las Vegas Review-Journal
- Updated
TUCSON, Ariz. — On the fourth floor of a research facility at the University of Arizona, the remnants of a famous Nevada tree anchors a display on one of modern science's most notorious blunders.
Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research calls it the Currey Tree after Donald Currey, the researcher at the center of the controversy. But most people know the beloved bristlecone pine by another name: Prometheus.
Currey was a graduate student in the summer of 1964 when he came to eastern Nevada's Snake Mountains to study ancient trees and prehistoric climate change, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1U7MwuA).
During his fieldwork, he persuaded the U.S. Forest Service to cut down a large bristlecone near the tree line on Wheeler Peak so he could count its rings and chart its history.
Currey's casualty turned out to be approximately 4,900 years old, making it the oldest known tree on Earth at the time.
"The cutting of the so-called oldest tree in the world just dismayed people, and it was a major learning episode," said Gretchen Baker, ecologist for Great Basin National Park.
The incident prompted tighter restrictions on the destruction of old trees and contributed to the eventual creation of the national park 300 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Currey would go on to a distinguished career in geography, where he was known among academics for his extensive research on the relics of ancient Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin region. But Prometheus would haunt him until his death in 2004.
His story has taken on an almost mythic quality — one fueled by the tree's dizzying age and the folly of killing it to learn how long it had lived.
According to some accounts, the first man the Forest Service brought in to do the job took one look at the tree and refused to start his chainsaw, delaying the job until the next day so another crew could be found.
Several of those involved in the tree's dissection are said to have later died under unusual circumstances.
"There's enough mystery to keep people interested," Baker said.
But there's no mystery to why the lab at the University of Arizona ended up with a piece of Prometheus.
"That is the pre-eminent tree-dating lab in the country," Baker said. "They have done a lot of the age-dating on bristlecones throughout the West."
In 2013, researchers there took a fresh look at Currey's tree and determined it to be older than previously thought, something on the order of 5,000 years.
"No other bristlecones, living or dead, are known to have reached this age," according to the display beneath the lab's cross section of Prometheus.
Another piece of the tree is on display at the main visitor center at Great Basin National Park; a third slab of the wood decorates the aptly named Bristlecone Convention Center in Ely.
Ed Spear, the convention center's executive director, said the tree has been there for decades, though it spent a few years in the lobby of Ely's Hotel Nevada.
He said they get inquiries about it "pretty regularly," including the occasional call from outside the country.
Spear is happy to tell people what he knows and defend the tree's honor when necessary. Like when people bring up much older "clonal colonies" of plants, including a ring of creosote bushes in the California desert that's said to be 11,700 years old.
"If it's a clone, it's not older. It's a copy," Spear said.
The stump and part of the trunk of Prometheus can still be found high on the rocky slope of Wheeler Peak, about a mile from the park's Bristlecone Trail.
Baker said she hasn't been there in a while, but she knows people who go every year and "leave prayer offerings" on the stump.
You have to know where to look. The spot doesn't appear on any park maps, and there are no signs or trails leading to it. Park officials don't advertise the exact location because they want to protect what's left from vandals and souvenir hunters.
"And it's not an easy place to get to," Baker said.
Though she's heard the tale of Prometheus dozens of times now, Baker said she loves to hear new versions of it, especially from a skilled storyteller in the proper mountain setting.
"It's a great drama," she said. "It's like one of those campfire stories that keeps getting better."
- By MICHELLE L. PRICE The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Racers who have sounded the alarm that Utah's famous Bonneville Salt Flats are deteriorating now want Congress to step in, arguing that a law is needed because federal land managers aren't doing enough to restore the flats where record-breaking races are held.
Dennis Sullivan, president of the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association, said racing enthusiasts urging protection of the flats are drafting a federal law that would call for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take some kind of action to restore depleted salt within a certain time frame.
Sullivan declined to provide a copy of the draft legislation or offer any specifics about what the proposal would call for, citing ongoing changes to the proposal the group is making. He said it will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
Racers have gathered for decades on the gleaming white sheets of salt about 100 miles west of Salt Lake City where cars, motorcycles and anything else with wheels attempt to reach speeds topping 400 mph.
But wet patchy surfaces have caused nine major races to be canceled or cut short in recent years, and the racing community worries that nearby potash mining is draining an aquifer that helps replenish the flats.
They argue that's left shrunken flats with rougher, thinner crust instead of the hard, flat surface needed for racing.
U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, whose district includes the Bonneville Salt Flats, said in a statement that he's concerned about the flats, but according to his spokeswoman Allison Leavitt, he is not working on legislation right now.
"My office has been in touch with key stakeholders in Washington, D.C. and Utah, and I'm working to find a solution that will preserve this national jewel," Stewart said in a statement.
The BLM has pointed out that heavy rains have left standing water on the flats in past years, leading to cancelations, and that the agency requires the mining company to pump brine back onto the flats every winter with the goal of thickening the salt crust.
But racers say that's not enough to keep up with decades of mining. They've put together a 90-page document outlining steps the BLM could take, including a suggestion that more than 1 million tons of brine be pumped back each year, up from about 400,000 tons.
BLM spokeswoman Lisa Reid said the agency is reviewing the racers' proposal and whether they can take any of the steps outlined.
She said the agency is also waiting for a 2018 study by a University of Utah professor examining the salt crust and the effects of human activity, weather and other factors.
Dr. Brenda Bowen, the researcher, said preliminary findings based on satellite images show the surface area of the flats has shrunk over 30 years, measuring about 27 square miles down from about 54 square miles. Bowen said it's too early in the research to know what's caused that, and it's unclear whether the crust itself is thinner.
Sullivan, with the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association, said racers don't yet know if the flats will be in any condition to host major races later this summer because the surface is covered in water from recent rains.
He said he's interested to see the results of the 2018 study but significant steps need to be taken before then.
"If we keep going the way we're going, there will not be anything to study," Sullivan said. "We can't wait that long. The salt flats can't wait that long."
- The Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. — Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is pleading no contest to charges of driving away from a traffic accident without notice.
Richardson dialed in remotely to a municipal court hearing on Friday in Santa Fe and agreed to pay $56 in court costs and complete a defense driving class under the judgment. A sentence of 90 days unsupervised probation is on hold while Richardson completes the requirements.
In January, Richardson rear-ended another vehicle at low speed in downtown Santa Fe, drove off and was tracked down quickly by police. A police video shows Richardson initially feigning ignorance before acknowledging to a Santa Fe police officer that he bumped into another car and didn't pull over.
Court records show that a charge of driving too close was dismissed.
- The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities say a woman who died while riding a zip line at a Utah resort was killed because she hit a tree that was in her path.
Investigators said Friday the tree likely got in the way of 55-year-old Lisa Lambe's zip line because of high winds.
The South Carolina woman had been found suspended in her harness and was then brought to the ground for treatment. She died last weekend after suffering serious injuries caused by the impact.
The Sundance Mountain Resort website says the "zip tours" have only been offered for about a year. They allow visitors to take in scenery while riding a zip line with more than a 2,100-foot vertical drop. Guests can control their speed and cruise at about 65 mph.
- The Associated Press
MISSOULA, Mont. — Police are searching for two men who robbed a Missoula casino, took a family hostage and fired shots at pursuing officers before finally freeing the uninjured hostages at separate locations.
Missoula County Sheriff T.J. McDermott said the men robbed Deano's Casino at about 3:30 a.m. Friday, carjacked a family from Lake Stevens, Washington, and sped through downtown Missoula.
A 12-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and their grandmother were released in Missoula. The family's vehicle and the children's parents were located at about 5:30 a.m. near Evaro Hill, northwest of Missoula.
McDermott says the suspects were on the phone arranging for someone to pick them up before they fled the family's vehicle on foot.
The suspects are a black man and a white man, both about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and in their early 20s.
- The Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. — Police say a Eugene man's winning lottery voucher was taken by a woman sitting near him while he played video poker at CJ's Restaurant.
The Register-Guard reports (http://bit.ly/1Wq2dUy ) that police say the 31-year-old man was on a winning streak early Wednesday morning when he decided to step away from the machine for a moment. He hadn't yet printed his ticket voucher.
Eugene police say a woman sitting nearby printed the winning ticket and ran out of the restaurant. Spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin would not say how much the winning ticket was worth.
Police say the victim followed the woman and kept 911 dispatchers updated on her location.
Officers say they found the woman and arrested her on an unrelated theft warrant. It's unknown whether additional charges are pending against her.
- The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho water managers say they will step up funding for a cloud-seeding program that's already been credited with increasing the state's mountain snowpack.
The Idaho Power Co. program releases silver iodine into the atmosphere, which helps ice form in the clouds and increases precipitation, The Capital Press ) reported.
The cloud seeding began in 2003. Idaho Power estimates that the extra snowpack creates an average of 800,000 acre-feet of water, roughly the volume of the American Falls Reservoir. It generates enough hydro-power to supply 17,000 homes.
Irrigation organizations, the Idaho Water Resource Board and Idaho Power will each shoulder about a third of the project's cost, according to Idaho Power engineering leader Jon Bowling.
"We wouldn't want our customers to bear the full cost of a program other stakeholders benefit from," said Bowling. "I think we've had a pretty good reception to the collaborative funding mechanism."
The Water Resource Board contributed $500,000 to help the program add infrastructure two years ago, followed by another $200,000 last year toward an airplane for cloud seeding in the Upper Snake River Basin, said Brian Patton, the Planning Bureau manager with the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
Water District 1, which includes the Upper Snake system, gave $200,000 to the program. Watermaster Lyle Swank says his district's contribution is 20 percent of its total budget, but members voted for the contribution.
"When we can extract a little extra moisture from the atmosphere, that can be really helpful," Swank said.
- The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Authorities in Las Vegas are investigating the cause of a fire that damaged the home of a hip hop figure and left an exotic pet wildcat dead.
Rapper and reality TV star Rashid "Mally Mall" Jamal wasn't injured in the Thursday afternoon fire at his two-story home in southeast Las Vegas.
A Clark County fire official says firefighters discovered the cat, a caracal, unresponsive after dousing flames. The species is native to Africa, the Middle East and India, and can grow to about 40 pounds.
County officials told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/1VlDNKF ) the rapper had a permit for the cat.
In 2014, FBI agents served warrants at the home and Jamal's company, Las Vegas Concierge VS1, as part of a federal human trafficking investigation. No charges have been filed.
- By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Federal officials have released a plan to close about 30 square miles of grazing allotments to domestic sheep and goats in west-central Idaho to protect bighorn sheep from diseases.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's release of the final supplemental environmental impact statement closing three allotments starts a protest period that runs through June 19.
Two of the allotments are east of Riggins near the Salmon River and one is to the south along the Little Salmon River.
None of the allotments currently have domestic sheep, one because of a court order following a lawsuit.
The document released earlier this month replaces a 2008 plan that drew protests.
BLM officials say the new plan is partly based on a better understanding of the risks to bighorns of diseases transmitted by domestic sheep.
- The Associated Press
SCOTTSDALE — A Salt River Police Department officer is accused of sexually abusing a woman in his custody.
Scottsdale police say 45-year-old Jay Hun Wu was arrested late Thursday on suspicion of kidnapping, sexual abuse and other crimes following an investigation into a March 29 incident.
Scottsdale police say a woman reported that Wu sexually abused her near her home when Wu gave her a courtesy ride home when she was the subject of an investigation.
It could not be immediately determined whether Wu has an attorney who could comment on the allegations, and a Scottsdale police spokesman said Wu remained in custody Friday.
A Salt River Police Department spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment
Scottsdale police say Wu's department cooperated with its Scottsdale counterpart during the investigation.
- The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — For the second year in a row, Idaho health officials say preliminary tests on dead ground squirrels south of Boise have come back positive for plague.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is still confirming the diagnosis, but officials are asking the public to be cautious.
A map of the infected area is a circle shape extending about 45 miles south from Boise to the Snake River. The boundary also extends over Interstate 84 but doesn't reach Mountain Home.
The bacterial disease can be spread by flea bites or by direct contact with infected animals. The last human cases to have the plague occurred in 1991 and 1992, when both patients fully recovered.
Officials say symptoms of plague in humans include fever, chills, headache and weakness, and that prompt diagnosis and treatment greatly reduces the fatality rate.
- By RYAN VAN VELZER Associated Press
PHOENIX — Arizona schools are working with federal investigators to avoid civil rights violations for removing thousands of students learning English from language support classes before they were ready.
For the second time in five years the U.S. Department of Justice cautioned that the Arizona Department of Education needs to raise its testing standards or face penalties including losses in federal funding, according to a settlement agreement reached earlier this month.
Education officials also have to find out how many students in Kindergarten and grades 3-12 need additional help in the classroom then catch them up to speed.
Education experts warn the state's low expectations for English proficiency can hurt high school graduation rates and college preparedness for students learning English as a second language.
- By FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press
FLAGSTAFF — Calm winds, sunny skies and no campfire restrictions in national forests.
The Memorial Day holiday is looking ideal for spending time outdoors, barbecuing, hiking, biking and fishing.
The state is cutting the price in half for one-day fishing licenses and stocking trout in popular lakes. State transportation crews also will be taking a break from major road projects.
The holiday weekend is routinely among the busiest of the year at recreation sites.
Waits at the Grand Canyon's South Rim entrance station are expected to be long. Campsites are filling up quickly.
The lack of fire restrictions comes thanks to the amount of moisture in fuels.
But officials say that doesn't mean they're not worried about embers escaping from campfires. They say visitors should extinguish campfires completely to prevent wildfires.
- The Associated Press
EVANS, Colo. — Residents of the Weld County city of Evans are praising a police officer who helped rescue their dog, which had been trapped in a crawlspace under a nearby home.
The Greeley Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1WpFB6q ) that Mike Linn's 6-year-old dog Tanka got out after he left the gate to his home open and after four days he was sure she was gone for good. Evans Police Department's community service technician Deidra Jesmer found the dog on May 18 after a neighbor called about hearing a crying animal under their home.
Jesmer, with help from the Evans Fire Protection District, was able to crawl under the home and hook a net around the dog, pulling her out.
Linn was cited for letting his dog out, but says the $55 fine is worth it to have his dog back.
- By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — It was 75 years ago that folk singer Woody Guthrie traveled across Washington and Oregon, composing 26 songs that extolled the virtues of Grand Coulee Dam and the electricity it produced.
It was one of the most productive months of Guthrie's career, and will be celebrated on Saturday at the giant dam on the Columbia River.
The 26 songs composed in the spring of 1941 included favorites like "Roll on Columbia," ''Pastures of Plenty," and "The Biggest Thing that Man has Ever Done." Collectively they are known as "The Columbia River Songs."
In honor of the anniversary, Gov. Jay Inslee proclaimed Saturday as Woody Guthrie Day in the state.
Events at the mile-wide dam, located 80 miles west of Spokane, run from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- The Associated Press
CASPER, Wyo.— Officials in Wyoming say the dam at Pathfinder Reservoir will spill over for the fourth time in 30 years.
Mahonri Williams, chief of the resources management division for the Wyoming office of the Bureau of Reclamation, told The Casper Star-Tribune that the Pathfinder in Alcova doesn't spill over often. The most recent spill was in 2011.
Williams says an unexpected increase in snowpack levels in March and April led to the overflowing dam. He says officials will try to move water downstream if they know a big inflow is coming, but they weren't expecting this year's snowpack increase and had little time to react.
Williams expects the reservoir to be two feet above the spillway by mid-June.
- The Associated Press
FLAGSTAFF — Arizona Game and Fish Department officials are seeking information on the illegal killing of a yearling elk found in the Strawberry area last weekend.
They say the elk was illegally taken out of season.
It was discovered along Highway 87 north of Strawberry.
Authorities say some of the edible meat was left to waste and was dumped at a different location than where the poaching is suspected to have taken place.
Investigators believe the poaching occurred on the National Forest between Pine and Happy Jack.
Evidence collected at the scene currently is being analyzed by the crime lab.
Game and Fish officials say a reward of up to $750 may be available for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the elk poaching.
- By HENRY BREAN Las Vegas Review-Journal
TUCSON, Ariz. — On the fourth floor of a research facility at the University of Arizona, the remnants of a famous Nevada tree anchors a display on one of modern science's most notorious blunders.
Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research calls it the Currey Tree after Donald Currey, the researcher at the center of the controversy. But most people know the beloved bristlecone pine by another name: Prometheus.
Currey was a graduate student in the summer of 1964 when he came to eastern Nevada's Snake Mountains to study ancient trees and prehistoric climate change, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1U7MwuA).
During his fieldwork, he persuaded the U.S. Forest Service to cut down a large bristlecone near the tree line on Wheeler Peak so he could count its rings and chart its history.
Currey's casualty turned out to be approximately 4,900 years old, making it the oldest known tree on Earth at the time.
"The cutting of the so-called oldest tree in the world just dismayed people, and it was a major learning episode," said Gretchen Baker, ecologist for Great Basin National Park.
The incident prompted tighter restrictions on the destruction of old trees and contributed to the eventual creation of the national park 300 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Currey would go on to a distinguished career in geography, where he was known among academics for his extensive research on the relics of ancient Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin region. But Prometheus would haunt him until his death in 2004.
His story has taken on an almost mythic quality — one fueled by the tree's dizzying age and the folly of killing it to learn how long it had lived.
According to some accounts, the first man the Forest Service brought in to do the job took one look at the tree and refused to start his chainsaw, delaying the job until the next day so another crew could be found.
Several of those involved in the tree's dissection are said to have later died under unusual circumstances.
"There's enough mystery to keep people interested," Baker said.
But there's no mystery to why the lab at the University of Arizona ended up with a piece of Prometheus.
"That is the pre-eminent tree-dating lab in the country," Baker said. "They have done a lot of the age-dating on bristlecones throughout the West."
In 2013, researchers there took a fresh look at Currey's tree and determined it to be older than previously thought, something on the order of 5,000 years.
"No other bristlecones, living or dead, are known to have reached this age," according to the display beneath the lab's cross section of Prometheus.
Another piece of the tree is on display at the main visitor center at Great Basin National Park; a third slab of the wood decorates the aptly named Bristlecone Convention Center in Ely.
Ed Spear, the convention center's executive director, said the tree has been there for decades, though it spent a few years in the lobby of Ely's Hotel Nevada.
He said they get inquiries about it "pretty regularly," including the occasional call from outside the country.
Spear is happy to tell people what he knows and defend the tree's honor when necessary. Like when people bring up much older "clonal colonies" of plants, including a ring of creosote bushes in the California desert that's said to be 11,700 years old.
"If it's a clone, it's not older. It's a copy," Spear said.
The stump and part of the trunk of Prometheus can still be found high on the rocky slope of Wheeler Peak, about a mile from the park's Bristlecone Trail.
Baker said she hasn't been there in a while, but she knows people who go every year and "leave prayer offerings" on the stump.
You have to know where to look. The spot doesn't appear on any park maps, and there are no signs or trails leading to it. Park officials don't advertise the exact location because they want to protect what's left from vandals and souvenir hunters.
"And it's not an easy place to get to," Baker said.
Though she's heard the tale of Prometheus dozens of times now, Baker said she loves to hear new versions of it, especially from a skilled storyteller in the proper mountain setting.
"It's a great drama," she said. "It's like one of those campfire stories that keeps getting better."
3 Shake Shack locations coming to Tucson area
