Idaho

BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho Water Resources Director David Tuthill issued orders Friday to farmers, food processors, dairies and 13 cities in six counties to shut off their water pumps July 6. The order, if carried out, would dry up 16,600 acres of farmland planted in crops including corn, sugar beets, potatoes and hay. Tuthill issued the curtailment order under the state's first-come, first-served water law to meet the demands of two spring-fed fish producers...

BOISE, Idaho -- FBI sharpshooter Lon Horiuchi pleaded not guilty yesterday to a charge of involuntary manslaughter after winning his bid to be tried in federal court on charges that he illegally fired the shot that killed Vicki Weaver in the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge.Horiuchi, the first member of the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team ever to face criminal charges in connection with a bureau operation, had sought to move the case out of state court in rural northern Idaho in order to assert claims he was acting within the scope of his duties as a federal law enforcement officer.

Idaho (8-3) vs.Southern Mississippi (7-4)When: Today, 3 p.m.Where: Boise, IdahoTV: ESPN2Line: Southern Mississippi by 16 1/2Series record: Idaho leads 1-0Outlook: The Vandals, in their third season in Division I-A, use a West Coast offense featuring freshman QB John Welsh and senior RB Joel Thomas (1,229 yards rushing, 16 TDs). The unit ranks 19th in the nation in total offense (444 ypg). Southern Mississippi lost to national powers Penn State, Texas A&M and Alabama, along with unbeaten Tulane.

BaseballDodgers: Named Ed Creech assistant to GM; he had been director of scouting for Cardinals.Royals: Agreed to two-year contract with Single-A Charleston (W.Va.).Basketball Basketball Hall of Fame: Selected Bulls assistant Tex Winter, whose 51 years is tops among active college and pro coaches, to receive John Bunn Award.Idaho (CBA): Signed G Spud Webb.CollegeACC: Named North Carolina's Laurie Schwoy (McDonogh) women's college soccer Player of the Week.Centennial Conference: Named Western Maryland setter Jessica Rouse volleyball Player of the Week.

BOISE, Idaho -- As Idaho's new welfare law nears the five-month mark, the number of people on welfare has fallen sharply, but the lines at soup kitchens are stretching into the streets.It is a perplexing -- some critics would say, predictable -- juxtaposition as winter weather and the holiday season hit this mountain state.The state's strict new law has resulted in a 70 percent decline in the number of single women with children applying for federal and state cash assistance -- to about 2,000 families as of Dec. 1 from 6,800 families receiving aid before July 1."

SELWAY-BITTERROOT WILDERNESS, Idaho -- Old-timers never strolled here as people do now, heedless and blithe through head-high huckleberries.Back when this wilderness was truly wild, a prudent traveler passed here like a soldier walking point. A blur of tawny motion, a rustling sound, might be the only warning:Grizzly bear.A quarter-ton of muscle, scythe-shaped claws and racehorse speed. Near-sighted eyes, sharp nose and sharper wits. To stumble on a grizzly in these canyons was to know, with pounding heart, what it meant to be at a stronger creature's mercy.

WASHINGTON -- A senior FBI executive pleaded guilty yesterday to destroying an internal report critical of the agency's performance in a 1992 standoff with a white separatist at his remote Idaho cabin.The official, E. Michael Kahoe, who was chief of the violent crime and major offenders' section at the bureau's headquarters, admitted to a single felony count of obstruction of justice, an offense punishable by a maximum term of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of U.S. District Court postponed sentencing pending Kahoe's cooperation with prosecutors, who are investigating whether Kahoe's superiors at the agency sought to conceal their actions after the Idaho confrontation.

GTS Duratek Inc. of Columbia is part of an industry team that won a $1.18 billion contract yesterday from the Department of Energy to clean up a nuclear waste site in Idaho.On a team led by BNFL Inc. of Great Britain, GTS Duratek will provide its patented vitrification method of disposing of radioactive and hazardous waste by dissolving it in molten glass.The pair of companies won a similar -- and potentially bigger -- contract in September to clean up waste at one of the country's largest disposal sites in Hanford, Wash.

BOISE, IDAHO -- ''Somebody Needs You'' was the small headline over two columns of type on page 6 of the B section of Sunday's edition of the Idaho Statesman. There were 37 short paragraphs on the page, and these were the first four:''Living Independent Network Corp., a nonprofit working with people with disabilities, needs a 486 computer to run new software. Call Crystal . . . ''''Special Olympics needs volunteers to be sports partners, to coach and to organize. Times are flexible . . . ''''Volunteers . . . are needed to act as impartial reviewers in the case-review process for abused children in foster care . . . ''''Frail elderly male, low income and legally blind, needs an electric razor and vacuum . . . ''Then there was a woman with three children who needed wood %% for the winter; a disabled woman, housebound, who needed any kind of used computer to do some bookkeeping work at home; a 12-year-old boy, a foster child, who needed cleats and money for a school fee to play football this season; and a 3-year-old girl, another foster child, who wanted a rag doll with yarn hair for her birthday.

BOISE, Idaho -- William J. Agee, who made headlines in the 1980s for his role in takeovers and reports of an office romance, left the helm of struggling Morrison Knudsen Corp. yesterday under pressure from its board.Mr. Agee had said last week that he would retire as chief executive in November, but he was lobbying to stay on as chairman of the construction and engineering company until 1998.After two consecutive quarters of losses, though, with another expected for the fourth quarter, Morrison Knudsen directors apparently had enough.

J.R. SIMPLOT, 99 Businessman, philanthropist J.R. Simplot, Idaho's richest man and a state icon, died of pneumonia Sunday at his home. A farmboy who never attended high school, Mr. Simplot built a personal fortune recently estimated at $3.6 billion. He and the company he founded all but reinvented the humble potato, creating the first successful frozen french fries and partnering with McDonald's to sell them worldwide. The private company he began became one of the largest agribusiness conglomerates in the world.

BOSTON -- Well, that didn't take long. A mere five days from the Roll Call revelations to the presumed resignation. When Sen. Larry E. Craig of Idaho got caught in a sex sting in a Minneapolis airport restroom, Republican stalwarts broke the speed record turning him from the distinguished senator into the disgusting senator. Gay rights groups did not rise to the defense of their public enemy. The only politician expressing empathy for Mr. Craig was James E. McGreevey, the "outed" former governor of New Jersey who is now - you cannot make this stuff up - in divinity school.

WASHINGTON -- In 27 years as a congressman and senator representing Idaho, Larry E. Craig built a long legislative record. He played a key role in enacting a law that shields gun makers and sellers from lawsuits over misuse of their weapons. He helped broker a deal that led to legislation aimed at preventing forest fires. And he steered millions of dollars to his state for projects. But just four days, 19 hours and 42 minutes after the first report of his arrest in a sex sting operation was posted on the Internet, his political career came to an end. He faces the prospect of being remembered, not for his legislative record, but for his police record.

BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho Water Resources Director David Tuthill issued orders Friday to farmers, food processors, dairies and 13 cities in six counties to shut off their water pumps July 6. The order, if carried out, would dry up 16,600 acres of farmland planted in crops including corn, sugar beets, potatoes and hay. Tuthill issued the curtailment order under the state's first-come, first-served water law to meet the demands of two spring-fed fish producers...

LEONID HAMBRO, 86 Victor Borge's sidekick Leonid Hambro, a concert pianist who served as Victor Borge's comedic sidekick and was known for his ability to commit to memory a huge repertoire, died Monday at his Manhattan home of complications from a fall, said his wife, Barbara Hambro. He had a 10-year partnership with Mr. Borge, beginning in 1961, that earned him the most visibility. Mr. Borge's piano comedy act had Mr. Hambro playing the straight guy to his antics. He also had a 16-year career as pianist for WQXR radio station, where he played live weekly broadcasts and chamber music recitals.

BOISE, IDAHO -- Since the first captured Canadian gray wolves bounded out of their cages 10 years ago and disappeared into the trees, the animals that once were hunted to near-extinction throughout the West have become a rare success story for the Endangered Species Act. Thanks, in part, to strict federal protection, nearly 900 wolves now roam in scores of packs across their historic range. The wolves' comeback is all the more remarkable given the hatred that heralded their reintroduction, followed by a campaign of shooting and poisoning that continues.

JEROME COUNTY, Idaho - The big, white Starline bus rolls to a stop and Jeni Yamada is the first to stand. It has taken a long time to get to this place in the middle of nowhere, this place called Minidoka. Far longer than the 12-hour, 650-mile trip from Seattle just ended, or the flight from Baltimore days before. More than six decades ago, Jeni's mother, uncles and grandmother lived here behind barbed wire, under armed guard, in a drafty, tar-papered barracks. With some 120,000 other Japanese immigrants and their American-born children, they were interned during World War II - summarily evicted from their homes and communities, rounded up, put on trains and buses, and sent here or to one of nine other hastily erected camps.

THERE COMES A TIME when a man must go into the wilderness and face one of Mankind's oldest, and most feared, enemies: trout. For me, that time came recently in Idaho, where I go every summer. Many people think Idaho is nothing but potato farms, but nothing could be farther from the truth: There are also beet farms. No, seriously, Idaho is a beautiful state that offers - to quote Emerson - "nature out the bazooty." This includes many rivers and streams that allegedly teem with trout. I say "allegedly" because until recently I never saw an actual trout, teeming or otherwise.

EVERY SO OFTEN I head for Sun Valley, Idaho, because I have friends there and because Idaho contains large quantities of nature. The problem is that my friends are never content to sit around with a cool beverage and look at the nature from a safe distance, as nature intended. No, my friends want to go out and interact with the nature in some kind of potentially fatal way. Frenzied suicidal outdoor interactivity is big in the Sun Valley area. Everybody you see is wearing a helmet and those really tight shorts that outdoorsy people wear to ensure that their personal characteristics are visible from Mars.

HORSESHOE BEND, Idaho - The electronic sign flashes at motorists speeding through the hills on their way to raft, kayak or fish in the river running through the green valley below. "Crickets on Highway. Slick Road," it warns. There they are climbing up the guardrail and spilling onto the road - thousands of dark red Mormon crickets, resembling giant grasshoppers. Behind them, the hills are swarming with hordes, more than anyone could possibly count. This is one of nature's cruel surprises in the sea of sagebrush that stretches across southern Idaho, northern Nevada and Utah: infestations of ravenous crickets, which march in armies up to 100,000 strong, eating virtually everything they find that has moisture content, including each other.