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TEEN MURDER SUSPECT
Judge closes hearing for boy charged in slayings
(Information in the following story is from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesman.com)
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — A northern Idaho judge has closed the preliminary hearing for a 14-year-old boy charged with killing his father and younger brother.
The Spokesman-Review reports that 1st District Magistrate Judge Clark A. Peterson made the decision Tuesday.
The attorney for Eldon G. Samuel III asked that the hearing be closed because sensitive information made public could make it difficult for Samuel to receive a fair trial and also affect his chances for rehabilitation.
Samuel is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the March 24 deaths of his father, Eldon Samuel Jr., 46, and his brother, 13-year-old Jonathan Samuel, inside a home owned by St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho.
No date has been set for the preliminary hearing.
KIDNAPPING SUSPECT
Man accused of kidnapping daughter found in Idaho
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — An Oregon man accused of kidnapping his daughter in southeast South Dakota has been arrested in Idaho.
Lt. Matthew Burns with the Sioux Falls Police Department says 24-year-old Jared Swets was arrested in Boise, Idaho, on kidnapping charges Wednesday. The 2-year-old girl was found unharmed.
Burns says the man from Grants Pass, Ore., did not return the girl to her mother after he visited Sioux Falls during the Easter weekend.
The girl's mother contacted police Tuesday. Detectives on Wednesday learned that Swets might have left South Dakota and two warrants for his arrest were issued.
Burns says the girl is in the custody of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and will be reunited with her mother soon.
Swets is awaiting extradition at the Ada County jail.
HOME INVASION-PLEA
Man pleads guilty to attempted murder in N. Idaho
(Information in the following story is from: Bonner County (Idaho) Daily Bee, http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com)
SANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) — A northern Idaho man who shot an Elmira resident in the face during a home invasion has pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
The Bonner County Daily Bee reports that 19-year-old Joseph Eugene Cleveland made the plea Monday in 1st District Court.
Prosecutors say Cleveland fired at the victim from outside the home after the home invasion on March 10.
Police say the shot from a .40-caliber pistol grazed the 57-year-old victim's cheek and went through the bill of his baseball cap.
Cleveland says he was high on meth at the time and was goaded into the shooting by an accomplice.
Cleveland is scheduled to be sentenced on May 9. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
BAR FIGHT-DEATH
Man dies after bar fight in Meridian
MERIDIAN, Idaho (AP) — A 40-year-old man died following a bar fight in southwest Idaho, and police are seeking witnesses.
Police in Meridian say five to seven people took part in a brawl at the 127 Club in Meridian between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Meridian Deputy Chief Tracy Basterrechea says that after the fight, Dale A. West drove to the home of friends in Boise.
The friends say he complained of a headache and lay down on the sofa. Later in the morning they realized he had died.
Police say the cause of death appears to be blunt force trauma to the head sustained during the fight.
MINE EXPLORATION-LAWSUIT
Lawsuit filed to stop Idaho gold mine exploration
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A conservation group and the Nez Perce Tribe have filed a lawsuit against three federal agencies seeking to stop a central Idaho gold mine exploration project by a Canadian company.
The tribe and the Idaho Conservation League filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Idaho against the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service.
The lawsuit contends the agencies didn't adhere to federal environmental laws in approving the three-year Golden Meadows Exploration Project proposed by Midas Gold, Inc.
The company wants to drill exploratory holes in the Payette and Boise national forests in Valley County to determine the feasibility of creating three open pit gold mines.
The federal agencies late last year approved the project.
BOULDER WHITE CLOUDS
Conservation groups expand proposed monument area
(Information in the following story is from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com)
CHALLIS, Idaho (AP) — Conservationist groups hoping to see a new national monument in central Idaho have added about 21,000 acres to the plan.
The Idaho Conservation League, Wilderness Society and others want the Obama administration to create a national monument in the Boulder-White Clouds.
The Times-News reports that the additional acres include Malm Gulch, an area containing petrified sequoia trees and managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The additional area increases the size of the proposed monument to 591,905 acres.
BIG RIDERS-BIG HORSES
Big riders mean big horses on Western trails
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Wranglers in the West for decades have cashed in on the allure of getting on a horse and setting out on an open trail. But they say they've had to add bigger horses to their stables to help carry larger tourists over the rugged terrain.
Draft horses, the diesels of the horse world, are being used in ever greater numbers to make sure wranglers don't lose out on income from potential customers of any size who come out to get closer to the West of yesteryear.
Ranch operators say they began adding the bigger horses in the 1990s, but the pace has picked up in recent years. Horses of 1,800 pounds now hit the trail, giving riders of more than 300 pounds an opportunity to experience life in the saddle.
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