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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials say new unemployment claims jumped 26% last week to about 5,500. The Idaho Department of Labor said Thursday that it received about 1,100 more new claims last week compared to the week before that. Idaho's unemployment numbers have been edging down under Republican Gov. Brad Little's reopening plan during the coronavirus pandemic. But a spike in new infections in recent weeks has led to the closing of bars and the return of tougher restrictions in highly populated Ada County. Idaho's unemployment rate is 8.9%, with about 80,000 people looking for work.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service says visitors to six active fire lookouts in northern Idaho won't be able to access the top level of the lookouts due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency says the restrictions from early July to early September are needed to protect the health of people working at the fire lookouts in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests as well as visitors. The lookouts with restrictions are Sundance Lookout, Lookout Mountain Lookout, Hughes Ridge Lookout, Gisborne Lookout and Middle Sisters Lookout.
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — The body of a man who moved to south-central Idaho to train as a BASE jumper has been found in the Snake River several weeks after he went swimming following a successful jump. The Jerome County sheriff's office says that searchers found the body of Austin Carey on Wednesday morning near Pillar Falls. Carey went missing June 18 after he tried to swim across the river near the falls. BASE stands for building, antenna, span and earth _ the objects jumpers leap from and parachute down. Carey last summer moved from California to the area that has a high bridge spanning the Snake River that's used by BASE jumpers.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials have agreed to decide by the end of August whether climate change and other threats are pushing the rare wolverine closer to extinction. Government attorneys and conservation groups that sued to force a decision filed court documents Thursday settling the lawsuit and agreeing to the deadline. That comes more than four years after a federal judge chastised government officials for rejecting the views of many of its own scientists when it decided against protecting wolverines. Also known as “mountain devils," wolverines need deep snows to den. Scientists warn such habitat could shrink as the Earth heats up.
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