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JUVENILE DETENTION-SEX ABUSE
Fewer kids report sex abuse in US juvenile detention centers
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A new federal report has found that the number of kids who say they’ve been sexually victimized in juvenile detention centers has dropped across the U.S. But the Bureau of Justice Statistics report released Wednesday found that remarkably high rates of sexual victimization persist in 12 facilities stretching from Oregon to Florida. Nationwide, about 7% of kids reported being sexually victimized in juvenile facilities last year. That compares with about 9.5% in 2012, the last time the federal survey was done. Advocates say there's been progress, but sexual violence remains commonplace. At one facility in Florida, just over 26 percent of youth reported being sexually victimized in the past 12 months.
PROBLEM ELK-HARVEST
Farmers bump up harvest of problem elk north of Seattle
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — Officials say landowners in northwest Washington are harvesting elk at a faster pace than last year to reduce damage to farmland. State Fish and Wildlife officials say since July 1, landowners or their hand-picked hunters have shot 22 elk, compared to 15 at this time last year. The Capital Press reports the uptick comes after Fish and Wildlife said it was OK for farmers to charge hunters a fee for coming onto their land to fill a kill permit. Skagit County farmers in have complained for years about elk-damaged fences, pastures and crops. The county assessor has estimated that elk do roughly $1.4 million worth of damage annually.
AP-MT-EXCHANGE-YELLOWSTONE ARCHIVES
Archives tell Yellowstone's story with millions of records
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park's archives are home to several million documents that tell the story of America's first national park. They span from the early military administration of Yellowstone to modern records, such as 82 boxes about the park's 2000 winter plan. They include a letter from President Theodore Roosevelt and the first written account of someone traveling through Yellowstone in 1820. The archives are housed near Gardiner, just inside the park boundary in the shadow of the Roosevelt Arch. Archivist Anne Foster cares for the records in what she tells The Livingston Enterprise is her dream job.
EXECUTION DRUGS-SECRECY
Prison department updates execution secrecy rules
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho prison officials have updated their administrative rules to ensure secrecy surrounding the source of the state's lethal injection drugs. The rule forbids the Idaho Department of Correction from disclosing information that prison officials believe could jeopardize the ability to carry out an execution. It's not clear what that will mean for a lawsuit brought by a University of Idaho professor who is seeking access to lethal injection documents. A lower court judge has ordered the state to turn over the documents, but prison officials have appealed.
GROENE-OBIT
Steve Groene, father of kids slain by killer, dies at 62
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Steve Groene, the father of a northern Idaho family whose children fell prey to serial murderer Joseph Edward Duncan III, has died of at the age of 62. Groene's family members said he died of lung cancer early Monday. Groene was thrust into the public eye in 2005 after Duncan broke into his children's Coeur d'Alene home, killing several members of the family and kidnapping two of the children for several weeks.
ELECTION 2020-COLORADO WOLVES
Colorado initiative would OK reintroducing the gray wolf
DENVER (AP) — Wildlife activists want Colorado voters to decide whether the endangered gray wolf should be reintroduced decades after it disappeared from the state. Backers of a voter initiative delivered thousands of signatures on Tuesday in hopes of getting the proposal on the 2020 ballot. Officials have 30 days to determine if enough signatures are valid to qualify the initiative. The gray wolf has been successfully restored in a number of U.S. states but was hunted to near extinction in Colorado in the 1940s. Colorado ranchers and other interests strongly oppose the initiative, saying it would threaten livestock.
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