Author: Keith Ridler
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Voting ends tonight, Feb. 5, for the 2023 Gazette Best of the Springs
Sunday is the last day of voting for the 2023 Gazette Best of the Springs. Thousands have registered their choices for favorites in Arts & Entertainment, City Life & Recreation, Food & Drink, Family & Health, Services & Professionals and Shopping. Honors will go to gold, silver and bronze winners in each of 351 categories.…
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Idaho governor signs abortion ban modeled on Texas law
BOISE, Idaho • Idaho on Wednesday became the first state to enact a law modeled after a Texas statute banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and allowing it to be enforced through lawsuits to avoid constitutional court challenges. Republican Gov. Brad Little signed into law the measure that allows people who would have…
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Idaho, Utah seek to defend Trump drilling plan lawsuit
BOISE, Idaho — Two states are seeking to intervene on the side of the federal government after four conservation groups asked a judge to immediately halt drilling, mining and other activities to protect habitat for a ground-dwelling bird in seven Western states. Idaho and Utah filed documents in U.S. District Court late last week seeking…
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Experts: Employees pose big potential threat to avaition
OLYMPIA, Wash. • The theft of an empty plane by an airline worker who performed dangerous loops before crashing into a remote island in Puget Sound illustrated what aviation experts have long known: One of the biggest potential perils for commercial air travel is airline or airport employees causing mayhem. “The greatest threat we have…
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Colorado Springs-based supertanker wins protest, may fight more US wildfires
BOISE, Idaho — A giant passenger jet converted to fight wildfires was grounded this year by U.S. officials during much of what turned out to be an especially destructive U.S. fire season, but it could be flying much more next year. The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Thursday sided with Global SuperTanker Services in its…
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PHOTOS: Late-season wildfires choke US cities, towns with smoke
BOISE, Idaho — Heavy winter snow and a very wet spring in the Western U.S. generated predictions the 2017 wildfire season would be tame. But it’s shaping up to be one of the worst in U.S. history in land burned. Across the region, smoky haze in cities and towns prevented people from going outside except…
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Debate over use of Colorado Springs-based supertanker as wildfires rage in West
A giant aircraft that can fly high above oceans on intercontinental flights instead jets in low and slow over a flaming forest, trailing a long plume that settles on the ground and creates a wildfire-stopping barrier. The operators of the Colorado Springs-based Boeing 747 converted from a passenger jet into a firefighting air tanker say…
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Pet squirrel that foiled Idaho home burglary returns to wild
BOISE, Idaho — A pet squirrel named Joey who gained fame as a crime-fighter might be more of the lover type. Joey, who police credited with scaring off a burglar trying to break into his home’s gun safe, made his long goodbyes earlier this month, then scampered up a backyard apple tree at his Meridian,…
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Scientists try bacteria to halt invading cheatgrass in West
BOISE, Idaho — Scientists in southwestern Idaho are experimenting to find out if bacteria can stop an invasive weed that is taking over the West. Cheatgrass gets its name by sending out early roots and cheating other plants of water in the spring. Then it dries out in the summer, becoming a powerful catalyst for…
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Study: Human-caused warming burns more Western forests
BOISE, Idaho — A new study of Western forest fires confirms what is already apparent — wildfire seasons are getting longer and more destructive. But researchers with the University of Idaho and Columbia University also say humans are to blame. The study made public Monday says human-caused global warming contributed an additional 16,000 square miles…