Idaho

As his offense trotted back on the field, that fleeting voice of consciousness popped into Robb Akey’s head. Was this the right move for Idaho? Why not play for overtime, instead of risking everything on a 2-point conversion with four seconds left? “It jumps into the back of your head. Unfortunately it just does,’’ Akey said. “I could hear the ‘dumb’ comment and some of those other things.’’ No one is going to question the Vandals’ coach now. Not after the gold and black celebration on the famed blue turf at rival Boise State, capping a finish that’ll be hard to match by...

The Associated Press and 16 other organizations sued the state of Idaho on Tuesday to force officials to let witnesses watch executions from start to finish, arguing that the media has a First Amendment right to view all steps of a lethal injection execution. The group asked a U.S. District Court judge to require the state to increase witness access to its executions, starting with the upcoming execution of Richard A. Leavitt, a convicted killer scheduled to be put to death on June 12. The AP was joined in the lawsuit by the Idaho Press Club, Idahoans for Openness in Government,...

Idaho must agree with Trey McIntyre. Though he’s one of the hottest modern dance choreographers on the international scene, he settled his five-year-old company not in a booming metropolis but in Boise, drawn to its remoteness and connection with nature. In the Boston debut of his Trey McIntyre Project last night at the ICA, you can sense the influence in his new multimedia “The Sun Road.’’ Commissioned to commemorate Glacier National Park, it reflects McIntyre’s earnest, rather bleak view of man’s general disrespect of the natural world.

Police in southwest Idaho say a man chose briefs over boxers to wear on his head as he held up a coffee shop and stole a safe. Coffee shop owner Jason Wilson tells the Idaho Statesman says he believes the man was likely not prepared when he entered Big Star Coffee in Fruitland with an accomplice on Tuesday morning. Wilson asked: "Who robs something with underwear on their head?" Investigators say the two burglars made off with about $500 in cash that was inside the safe.

BOISE, Idaho -- You may have an image of Idaho in your mind: mountains, skiing, special potatoes, enormous sky. On my flight here, I was certain of one thing: There was no preconceived picture of Idaho in my mind. Now, to conceive one. Landing helped. All around the airport was impressively dry. I was sorry there were so many trees in the city. I had started thinking "desert" in my description. And it would have been easier if people in town seemed more like hicks. Instead they were bicyclists and brewers of espresso . Was this state capital a sunny version of Seattle?

HAYDEN, Idaho -- The people of Hayden can't seem to rid themselves of neo-Nazi Richard Butler. The founder of the Aryan Nations lost his compound outside of town to bankruptcy several years ago, but moved into a Hayden house bought by a supporter. Now Butler is running for mayor of this town of 9,000, linking Hayden in the public mind once more with his anti-Semitic, white separatist views. "I'm not really anxious to become mayor," Butler, 85, said recently. "I'm just anxious to get my word out. " Two Butler supporters are also on the ballot in...

BOISE - Harry F. Magnuson, whose keen investments in Idaho mining companies helped place him among the state's giants in industry and philanthropy, has died. He was 85. Mr. Magnuson died of cardiac arrest Saturday night at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., where he was being treated for mild pneumonia, said his son, John. "We've lost a giant," said Cecil Andrus, former governor of Idaho and a friend for more than 50 years. "But he certainly has left a great legacy.

Business and agricultural industry groups told legislative tax committees that restoring research and development spending and adding financial incentives for job creation would help boost Idaho's economy. The House Revenue and Taxation Committee and the Senate Local Government and Taxation committees met Wednesday in a rare joint session, to gather input as they consider Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's proposal to dedicate $45 million to tax cuts. House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke told presenters to imagine they were in the tax policy store,...

Out-of-state companies would have an easier time selling health insurance in Idaho if a Boise lawmaker has her way. The House State Affairs committee agreed Thursday to hear the legislation, which removes the requirement that licensed health-insurers have physical locations in the state to sell policies to residents. Bill sponsor Rep. Julie Ellsworth says out-of-state companies would have to comply with Idaho's mandatory minimum benefit requirement. They would also have to contribute to a fund that helps pay for medical care for the indigent that don't...

Officials say an American Airlines passenger jet traveling from Dallas to Seattle carrying 145 passengers and crew members landed in Boise, Idaho, on Saturday after the pilot reported a mechanical issue. A Boise Airport spokeswoman tells KTVB-TV (http://bit.ly/yeKqfy) that the MD-80 landed safely at the Idaho airport. Officials say the flight stopped in Boise as a precaution because of a low-oil indicator light. Airline spokesman Matt Miller says an additional American Airlines aircraft was brought to Boise from Los Angeles to pick up passengers and take them to Seattle.

Midwives and doctors are longtime rivals in the politics governing where women should give birth: Home or hospital. But that tension, typically played out privately between pregnant women and their health care providers, was laid bare this month in the case of two Idaho midwives suspended by the state after three babies died during a 14-month period between 2010 and 2011. The Baby Place in Meridian remains open, but its midwife owner, Coleen Goodwin, and her daughter, Jerusha Goodwin, are barred for now from practicing, in part over decisions allegedly influenced by their distrust...

An Idaho man has been charged with assault after authorities say he ordered another man to perform the "moonwalk" at gunpoint. The Coeur d'Alene Press ( http://bit.ly/IhdPmS) reports 30-year-old John Ernest Cross was charged with the felony Tuesday in 1st District Court and appointed a public defender. Police say they were called to Cross' Clark Fork home on Monday after getting a report that he pointed a rifle at another man and demanded that the man perform the dance move popularized by Michael Jackson in the 1980s.

BOISE, Idaho - The state's only black lawmaker said she received a mailing from the Ku Klux Klan that has bolstered her resolve to fight prejudice. Childhood memories of a cross burning on her lawn on Boise's north end were rekindled for Representative Cherie Buckner-Webb when she opened a hand-addressed application last week to join the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. "It conjured up a lot of things for me that weren't very comfortable," she said. The mailing solicited a photo, $35 in annual dues, and asked for a completed statement proclaiming: "I am a White Christian man or woman,"...

Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho predicted Sunday that the press would make Mitt Romney's Mormon faith a major issue in the Republican front-runner's expected general election contest with President Obama. Romney's religion was on the table Easter Sunday during religion-themed political talk shows, including NBC's "Meet the Press," where Labrador was a guest. Labrador, also a Mormon, was responding to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch's statement Tuesday that the Obama campaign is "going to throw the Mormon Church at him like you can't...

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has signed off on a $35 million tax cut for the Idaho's corporations and high-income earners. Otter signed the measure Thursday, essentially marking a victory after making tax relief one of his chief priorities for lawmakers in the 2012 Legislature. The measure cuts the top individual tax rate from 7.8 percent to 7.4 percent and the corporate rate from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent. Idaho's improving economy is projected to generate a $105 million surplus in fiscal year 2013.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's proposed $35 million income tax cut will be in the hands of the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee Thursday morning. But its fate remains uncertain. During Wednesday's behind-closed-doors Senate Republican caucus meeting, committee chairman Sen. Tim Corder of Mountain Home agreed to give Otter's tax relief bill a hearing. That's despite Corder's misgivings that Idaho's finances aren't strong enough to merit the relief — and that it provides only $71 for families earning $100,000.

Authorities say an Idaho woman accused of taking her three children in a custody squabble may be in the Phoenix metropolitan area on the way to Mexico. The FBI in Salt Lake City says an Amber Alert was issued Sunday morning for a 9-year-old boy and two girls, ages 5 and 7. They say 35-year-old Bertha Sabala Guerrero lost custody of the three children in December after authorities say she left them with a woman she had just met. They were placed in foster care in Caldwell, Idaho.

A constitutional amendment requiring future fee or tax hikes win two-thirds support of the Idaho House and Senate has been swept into history's dustbin. The House's 37-33 vote on Thursday failed to meet the two-thirds threshold necessary to put the measure on the November 2012 ballot, so Idaho voters won't have a chance to weigh in. Rep. Dennis Lake of Blackfoot told colleagues he was all for requiring significant support for tax or fee hikes. He agreed such decisions shouldn't be taken lightly.