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SOLAR POWER-IDAHO POWER
Solar power deal involving Idaho homeowners reached
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho utility has reached an agreement involving paying homeowners who generate electricity with rooftop solar panels and other renewable energy methods.
Idaho Power and the staff of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission on Friday submitted the agreement to the commission for its possible approval.
The Sierra Club, city of Boise, Idaho Irrigation Pumpers Association and others also took part in the negotiations.
Idaho Power has 560,000 customers in Idaho and eastern Oregon, with increasing numbers of homeowners generating power and being credited for extra power sold back to the utility.
Idaho Power says the current system allows homeowners to sell power without paying their fair share to maintain the company's vast electric grid.
Solar power backers fear killing incentives for homeowners to produce clean energy.
The agreement calls for the commission to hold public hearings.
FUEL BREAKS
Proposed wildfire fuel breaks plan released for 3 states
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities have released plans to stop devastating wildfires in southwestern Idaho, southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada with one option creating 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) of fuel breaks up to 400 feet (120 meters) wide along existing roads.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Friday released a draft environmental impact statement for the Tri-State Fuel Breaks Project and is taking public comments through the end of November.
The BLM says creating fuel breaks by clearing vegetation will help firefighters stop wildfires and protect key habitat for sage grouse and other wildlife on land also used by ranchers and outdoor enthusiasts.
The BLM says options include fewer miles of fuel breaks all the way down to no fuel breaks at all.
The region in recent decades has seen repeated giant rangeland wildfires.
SCHOOL BUS CRASH
6 students injured in school bus crash
KUNA, Idaho (AP) — Six middle and high school sustained minor injuries when a vehicle collided with the school bus they were riding in southwestern Idaho.
The crash happened about 7:25 Monday morning in Kuna.
Kuna School District spokeswoman Allison Westfall says five of the injured students were picked up by their parents after the crash, and the sixth student was taken to a nearby hospital.
The rest of the students were driven to school by another bus.
No other information about the collision was immediately available.
SKELETON FOUND
Idaho County officials trying to identify skeletal remains
GRANGEVILLE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities in north-central Idaho are trying to find the identity of skeletal remains found by beachcombers along the Salmon River.
The Idaho County Sheriff's Office says the beachcombers found a few small pieces of bone in September that were under the high-water mark of an eddy and nearly covered under sand and silt.
The sheriff's office says the site was excavated earlier this month and nearly an entire skeleton was found of an adult was found. The remains have been turned over to anthropologists from the University of Idaho for testing.
Officials don't yet know how long the remains were there.
FATAL BOISE FIRE
Woman, dog dead after Boise house fire
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities say a 64-year-old woman's death in a small Boise house fire is under investigation.
The Ada County Coroner's office identified the woman as Janet Finney. A dog also died in the fire late Thursday morning.
Crews were sent to the home just after 11 a.m. They found Finney's body and the body of the dog in a bedroom with the door closed.
Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire, but say it was contained to the bedroom and burned out on its own.
ONION FARM-FATAL ACCIDENT
Sheriff releases name of man who died in farming accident
(Information from: Argus Observer, http://www.argusobserver.com)
ONTARIO, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say the man who died in an accident at an eastern Oregon onion farm is 42-year-old Theodore Frahm of Ontario.
Malheur County Sheriff Brian Wolfe says Frahm died Tuesday night when he was pulled into a piece of equipment used to harvest onions.
The Argus Observer newspaper in Ontario says several agencies from the region responded to the accident to help extricate the victim when the accident was reported just after 10:30 p.m.
Wolfe says the death was accidental and no charges are pending. He says the farm workers were just trying to get the crop to harvest before bad weather hit.
This was the county's second farming fatality within the past month.
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