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SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The forested mountains in and around North Cascades National Park have long been considered prime habitat for threatened grizzly bears, so environmental groups are criticizing the Trump administration’s decision to scrap plans to reintroduce the apex predators there. U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt on Tuesday announced his agency will not conduct the environmental impact statement needed to move forward with the plan. That drew swift rebukes from conservation groups, who have worked for decades to grow the tiny population of about 10 grizzlies in the vast North Cascades ecosystem. They called it a political decision that ignored science.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities say they have recovered the final body of eight people killed when two airplanes collided over a scenic mountain lake in northern Idaho on July 5. The last body was found inside one of the wrecked aircraft on the bottom of Lake Coeur d'Alene and recovered Thursday. The body was turned over to the Kootenai County Coroner's Office. One of the aircraft with six people aboard was a float plane operated by Brooks Seaplane of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which conducts charter flights for tourists over the lake. The second airplane was a Cessna 206 carrying two people and was registered in Lewiston, Idaho.
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Prosecutors from more than half of Idaho’s counties questioned whether Gov. Brad Little’s plan to use $200 million in federal aid for property tax relief is legal under the federal coronavirus aid package. The Times-News reported Friday that prosecutors in 16 counties signed a letter that asks Little’s office to request a legal opinion from the U.S. Treasury Department and the Idaho attorney general’s office. The letter asserts that the governor’s plan “does not appear to meet legal requirements” of the federal rescue package.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its request asking a federal judge to prohibit an Idaho man from flying his helicopter near work crews building a public trail on an easement crossing private land. The department says it has accepted Michael Boren's statements that he won't again fly near the work crew that's building a trail connecting the popular tourist destinations of Redfish Lake and Stanley in central Idaho. The trail is at the center of a federal lawsuit seeking to have the project stopped. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the June 20 incident.
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