March 5 edition new .pdf

Pet of the Week: Simba needs a home A12

Eye spy: New glasses help legally blind see D1

Cute as a button
Announcing the winners of
the Born in 2016 contest!: INSERT

SUNDAY

www.postregister.com

March 5, 2017

Trump on a wire

Dietrich case
Wasden: Not enough
evidence’ to charge
sex crime A3

So close, again
Ririe comes in 2nd at
state for the second
year in a row B1

Trump accuses Obama of tapping
his phones, cites no evidenc C1

Waste not, want not

FBI probing
investment
company in
Likely option for AMWTP is treating outside waste Idaho Falls
n Agents raided
Yellowstone Partners
this past November
B y LUKE RAMSETH
news@postregister.com

On the morning after the
November election, FBI agents
raided the Idaho Falls headquarters of Yellowstone Partners, a well-established investment adviser with satellite offices
around the West and more than
$850 million in assets under management.
Agents were
“conducting
court-authorized
activity related
to an ongoing
investigation,”
FBI spokeswoman
Sandra Barker
confirmed this
Rubin
week, saying
she could not
comment further.
The U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission also has
been looking into practices at
the firm, according to a denial by
the SEC of a request for records.
The denial was based on the
stated need not to “interfere with
enforcement activities.” FBI and
SEC officials refused to acknowl-

Post Register file

Workers at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project prepare to retrieve a box containing radioactive waste in this 2012
file photo. Now that waste retreival is complete, officials are considering the future of the facility.
B y LUKE RAMSETH
news@postregister.com

As a major radioactive waste
cleanup milestone was celebrated at the Department of
Energy desert site’s Advanced
Mixed Waste Treatment Project
this week, many are now considering what the future holds for
the facility and its 700 employees.
Last week, Fluor Idaho
employees finished retrieving
some 65,000 cubic meters of
transuranic waste from a dirt-covered pile at the facility — a del-

icate process underway for the
past 14 years. Gov. C.L. “Butch”
Otter, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and others congratulated employees for the
accomplishment at an AMWTP
event Thursday.
“Today’s a big day,” Wasden
told the Post Register. “There was
a lot of creativity, and a lot of
commitment by a lot of people to
make this all happen. It’s kudos
to the Department of Energy, and
the contractors and the crews —
they really went out of their way
to get this job done.”

Now, federal officials are
considering what to do with the
AMWTP after 2018, when the
facility’s current mission will be
mostly complete. A pending DOE
report is expected to recommend
whether AMWTP should start
accepting transuranic waste from
DOE sites around the country.
About 8,500 cubic meters of
the retrieved waste remains to
go through AMWTP’s extensive treatment and repackaging
process. The waste is supposed
to be shipped out of the state
by the end of next year under a

n As of last month, a major
leadership shakeup had occurred
Probe, Continued on Page A5

state deadline laid out in the 1995
Idaho Settlement Agreement with
the DOE.
But after that’s done, it’s
unknown what will come next.
Sue Cange, a DOE deputy assistant secretary, is expected to be
briefed on the report in the next
few weeks, but it’s not yet known
when it will be released to the
public.
Wasden said the success seen
n Last year, AMWTP underwent an
approximately $10 million overhaul
Waste, Continued on Page A4

Sugar-Salem
digs deep

Public lands
rally draws
big crowd
n Event aims to
make allies of
former opponents
B y BRYAN CLARK
bclark@postregister.com

BOISE — There were hunters
and hippies, dirt bikers and
mountain bikers, rafters and
ranchers. More than 2,000 turned
out Saturday in Boise for a
massive public lands rally on the
steps of the Capitol, holding signs
attached to fishing poles and raft
paddles.
Many of the signs were to the
point: “Keep your hands off our
public lands.” Others were more
biting, like the signs carried by
several dog owners who asserted
that their Labrador retrievers
were smarter than the Idaho congressman of the same name. One
man held a sign reading: “I see

The Sugar-Salem High
School boys basketball team
celebrates its overtime 71-69
win over Snake River in the
3A state championship game
at the Ford Idaho Center in
Nampa on Saturday. The
Diggers, who finished the
season with a 20-5 record,
earned their first state title
since 1994. Read more about
the game on B1
Otto Kitsinger / Associated Press

n The group who organized it is
called Idahoans for Public Lands
Lands, Continued on Page A4

Thursday, March 16, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Presenting
sponsors:

Navigating the Medicare Maze
10, including light appetizers

$

A series of retirement planning workshops that go “Beyond Just Money” to help you age in style.

Register Now at www.beyondmoneyidaho.com

Z|xgBDJBIy1 1 1lz[ Z|xgBDJBIy2 2 2kzU Z|xgBDJBIy3 3 3tz] Z|xgBDJBIy4 4 4sz\
Births............................. A10
Breakfast Briefing............. A2
Bulletin Board........ A12, A13
Classified....................E1, F1

$1 daily / $2 Sunday

Comics............................ D4
Commentary.................... A9
From the Weeklies........... A7
Games........................ F4, F5

Lottery Numbers.............. A2
Nation & World................ C1
Obituaries......A10, A11, A13
Pet of the Week............. A12

Smart Living.................... D1
Sports.............................. B1
Stocks............................. C4
Weather........................... A2

39 Low
High
20

Today: Rain and
snow likely.
Forecast: A2

Vol. 86, No. 125 © 2017 Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho

PET OF THE WEEK: Simba needs a home A12

EYE SPY: New glasses help legally blind see D1

Cute as a button
Announcing the winners of
the Born in 2016 contest!: INSERT

SUNDAY

www.postregister.com

March 5, 2017

Trump on a wire

Dietrich case
Wasden: Not enough
evidence’ to charge
sex crime A3

So close, again
Ririe comes in 2nd at
state for the second
year in a row B1

Trump accuses Obama of tapping
his phones, cites no evidenc C1

Waste not, want not

FBI probing
investment
company in
Likely option for AMWTP is treating outside waste Idaho Falls
n Agents raided
Yellowstone Partners
this past November
B Y LUKE RAMSETH
news@postregister.com

On the morning after the
November election, FBI agents
raided the Idaho Falls headquarters of Yellowstone Partners, a well-established investment adviser with satellite offices
around the West and more than
$850 million in assets under management.
Agents were
“conducting
court-authorized
activity related
to an ongoing
investigation,”
FBI spokeswoman
Sandra Barker
confirmed this
Rubin
week, saying
she could not
comment further.
The U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission also has
been looking into practices at
the firm, according to a denial by
the SEC of a request for records.
The denial was based on the
stated need not to “interfere with
enforcement activities.” FBI and
SEC officials refused to acknowl-

Post Register file

Workers at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project prepare to retrieve a box containing radioactive waste in this 2012
file photo. Now that waste retreival is complete, officials are considering the future of the facility.
B Y LUKE RAMSETH
news@postregister.com

As a major radioactive waste
cleanup milestone was celebrated at the Department of
Energy desert site’s Advanced
Mixed Waste Treatment Project
this week, many are now considering what the future holds for
the facility and its 700 employees.
Last week, Fluor Idaho
employees finished retrieving
some 65,000 cubic meters of
transuranic waste from a dirt-covered pile at the facility — a del-

icate process underway for the
past 14 years. Gov. C.L. “Butch”
Otter, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and others congratulated employees for the
accomplishment at an AMWTP
event Thursday.
“Today’s a big day,” Wasden
told the Post Register. “There was
a lot of creativity, and a lot of
commitment by a lot of people to
make this all happen. It’s kudos
to the Department of Energy, and
the contractors and the crews —
they really went out of their way
to get this job done.”

Now, federal officials are
considering what to do with the
AMWTP after 2018, when the
facility’s current mission will be
mostly complete. A pending DOE
report is expected to recommend
whether AMWTP should start
accepting transuranic waste from
DOE sites around the country.
About 8,500 cubic meters of
the retrieved waste remains to
go through AMWTP’s extensive treatment and repackaging
process. The waste is supposed
to be shipped out of the state
by the end of next year under a

n As of last month, a major
leadership shakeup had occurred
PROBE, Continued on Page A5

state deadline laid out in the 1995
Idaho Settlement Agreement with
the DOE.
But after that’s done, it’s
unknown what will come next.
Sue Cange, a DOE deputy assistant secretary, is expected to be
briefed on the report in the next
few weeks, but it’s not yet known
when it will be released to the
public.
Wasden said the success seen
n Last year, AMWTP underwent an
approximately $10 million overhaul
WASTE, Continued on Page A4

Sugar-Salem
digs deep

Public lands
rally draws
big crowd
n Event aims to
make allies of
former opponents
B Y BRYAN CLARK
bclark@postregister.com

BOISE — There were hunters
and hippies, dirt bikers and
mountain bikers, rafters and
ranchers. More than 2,000 turned
out Saturday in Boise for a
massive public lands rally on the
steps of the Capitol, holding signs
attached to fishing poles and raft
paddles.
Many of the signs were to the
point: “Keep your hands off our
public lands.” Others were more
biting, like the signs carried by
several dog owners who asserted
that their Labrador retrievers
were smarter than the Idaho congressman of the same name. One
man held a sign reading: “I see

The Sugar-Salem High
School boys basketball team
celebrates its overtime 71-69
win over Snake River in the
3A state championship game
at the Ford Idaho Center in
Nampa on Saturday. The
Diggers, who finished the
season with a 20-5 record,
earned their first state title
since 1994. Read more about
the game on B1
Otto Kitsinger / Associated Press

n The group who organized it is
called Idahoans for Public Lands
LANDS, Continued on Page A4

Thursday, March 16, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Presenting
sponsors:

Navigating the Medicare Maze
10, including light appetizers

$

A series of retirement planning workshops that go “Beyond Just Money” to help you age in style.

Register Now at www.beyondmoneyidaho.com

Z|xgBDJBIy1 1 1lz[ Z|xgBDJBIy2 2 2kzU Z|xgBDJBIy3 3 3tz] Z|xgBDJBIy4 4 4sz\
Births ............................ A10
Breakfast Briefing ............ A2
Bulletin Board ....... A12, A13
Classified ...................E1, F1

$1 daily / $2 Sunday

Comics ........................... D4
Commentary ................... A9
From the Weeklies .......... A7
Games ....................... F4, F5

Lottery Numbers ............. A2
Nation & World ............... C1
Obituaries .....A10, A11, A13
Pet of the Week ............ A12

Smart Living ................... D1
Sports............................. B1
Stocks ............................ C4
Weather .......................... A2

39 Low
High
20

Today: Rain and
snow likely.
Forecast: A2

Vol. 86, No. 125 © 2017 Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho

breakfastbriefing

A2

S un day, M a rch 5, 2017
P ost regi s t er

Actor Dean
Stockwell is
81. Actress
Samantha Eggar
is 78. Rock musician Alan Clark
(Dire Straits) is
65. Actress-comedian Marsha
Warfield is 63.
Magician Penn
Jillette is 62.
Rock musician
John Frusciante is 47.
Singer Rome
is 47. Actor
Kevin Connolly
is 43. Actress
Eva Mendes
is 43. Actress
Jill Ritchie is
43. Actress
Jolene Blalock
is 42. Model
Niki Taylor is 42.
Actress Kimberly
McCullough is
39. Actress Karolina Wydra is 36.
Singer-songwriter
Amanda Shires is
35. Actress Dominique McElligott
is 31. Actor Sterling Knight is 28.
Actor Jake Lloyd
is 28.

All you need to know to start your day

sidelines

peopletalk

today’s quiz
By Wilson Casey
1. Is the book of Jude in the Old or
New Testament or neither?
2. From Acts 17, at what church was
Paul accused of turning the world upside
down?
a. Antioch, b. Smyrna, c. Thessalonica, d. Galatia
3. How many days did it take Nehemiah to get the wall around Jerusalem
completed?
a. 6, b. 52, c. 100, d. 1000
4. From Genesis 3:15, the snake is
supposed to strike at what part of man?
a. Throat, b. Hand, c. Heel, d. Eyes
5. Some were known by more than
one name, as what was Thomas’ other
name?
a. Andrew, b. Didymus, c. Caleb,
d. Zimri
8. From Revelation 12, what angel
fights against Satan?
a. Gabriel, b. Angel of the Lord,
c. Cherubim, d. Michael

Russia: Sarah Jessica Parker can meet envoy
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s
foreign ministry says it would
be happy to
play matchmaker
between
American
actress
Sarah
Jessica
Parker and
Moscow’s
ambassador to
Parker
the United
States.
Parker on Thursday made
a post on Instagram showing
her typing at a computer, captioned: “I couldn’t help but
wonder ... had the Russian
ambassador been meeting with
everyone but me?”
Questions have arisen
in Congress and the media
about Russian Ambassador
Sergei Kislyak’s meetings with
members of the Trump administration.
On Friday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mara

Zakharova said on the ministry’s English-language account:
“If #SarahJessicaParker desperately wants to meet Russian
Ambassador to US -anything is
possible. Sergey Ivanovich will
be happy.”

after three women came
forward and reported they
were sexually assaulted by
Masterson in the early 2000s,
Officer Drake Madison, a Los
Angeles police spokesman, said
Friday. He declined to provide
any further details, citing the
ongoing investigation.
The 40-year-old actor is best
known for his role as Steven
Hyde on “That ’70s Show,”
which aired from 1998 until
2006. He’s currently starring
in a Netflix series called “The
Ranch.”
A representative for Masterson, who has not charged
with a crime, denied the allegations in a statement Friday. The
representative said one of the
accusers was Masterson’s longtime girlfriend, who continued
to date him after the alleged
incident.
“The alleged incident
occurred in the middle of their
six-year relationship, after
which she continued to be his
longtime girlfriend,” the statement said.

Danny Masterson faces
sex assault allegations
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los
Angeles police are investigating
after three women reported
being
sexually
assaulted
by actor
Danny
Masterson
in the early
2000s, but
the actor
denies the
allegations,
which he
Masterson
says are
motivated
by the producer of an anti-Scientology television series.
The probe was launched

ANSWERS: 1. New, 2. Thessalonica,
3. 52, 4. Heel, 5. Didymus, 6. Michael

birthdays

Powerball: 2-18-19-22-63 (PB: 19)
Mega Millions: 14-26-39-48-51 (Mega: 9)
Hot Lotto: 2-16-40-44-46 (HB: 18)
Weekly Grand: 7-8-14-20-25
Pick 3: March 4: 9-0-2; March 3: 7-0-4;
March 2: 5-8-3; March 1: 5-4-5

in history
Today is Sunday, March 5, the 64th day of
2017. There are 301 days left in the year.
In 1770, the Boston Massacre took
place as British soldiers who’d been
taunted by a crowd of colonists opened
fire, killing five people.
In 1867, the Fenian Rebellion took
place in Ireland as thousands of members
of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
launched an attempt at overthrowing
British rule; the poorly-organized rising
was swiftly put down by British and Irish
authorities.
In 1868, the U.S. Senate was organized into a Court of Impeachment to
decide charges against President Andrew
Johnson, who was later acquitted.
In 1927, “The Adventure of Shoscombe
Old Place,” the last Sherlock Holmes story
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was published
in the U.S. in Liberty Magazine.
In 1933, in German parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the
vote; the Nazis joined with a conservative
nationalist party to gain a slender majority
in the Reichstag.
In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered
his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which
he said: “From Stettin in the Baltic, to
Trieste in the Adriatic, an ‘iron curtain’ has
descended across the continent, allowing
police governments to rule Eastern
Europe.”
In 1963, country music performers
Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the crash of their
plane, a Piper Comanche, near Camden,
Tennessee, along with pilot Randy
Hughes (Cline’s manager).

Another award for
Viola Davis: Harvard
‘Artist of the Year’
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Fresh from her best supporting
actress Oscar win for her role in “Fences,” Viola Davis is at Harvard
University to receive the 2017 Artist of the Year Award from the
Harvard Foundation.
Davis is attending the Cultural Rhythms Festival on Saturday. She
briefly came on stage before taking a seat to watch a series of cultural musical performances by students.
In addition to the Oscar, Davis received the Critics’ Choice,
Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and British Academy of
Films and Television Arts awards for her portrayal of Rose
Maxson in the film adaptation of “Fences,” an August
Wilson play.
Davis also won a Tony Award for the 2010
Broadway revival of the play.
Previous winners of the Harvard award
include Quincy Jones, Andy Garcia, Matt
Damon, Salma Hayek and Shakira.

today’sweather
Forecast for Idaho Falls
Rain & Snow
Likely

39 / 20
Precip Chance: 85%

15-20 mph SSW

Monday
Snow Likely

30 / 19
Precip Chance: 55%

25 mph SW

Morning: At 8 a.m., the temperature is forecast to be 31°,
cloudy with a 60% chance of rain & snow, 11 mph winds out of
the south.
Afternoon: At 12 p.m., the temperature is forecast to be 38°,
cloudy with an 85% chance of rain & snow, 17 mph winds out
of the south southwest.
Evening: At 6 p.m., the temperature is forecast to be 32°,
cloudy with an 85% chance of snow, 14 mph winds out of the
southwest.

Weather Trivia
Which way does air flow around high and low
pressure systems?
Answer: Clockwise around a high; counterclockwise around
a low.

TODAY

Idaho Falls Almanac

The next 24 hours

Tuesday

?

Salmon
39 / 20

Precip Chance: 30%

15-20 mph SSW

West Yallowstone
32 / 11

Mostly Cloudy

Challis
37 / 19

38 / 29

Dubois
32 / 14 St. Anthony
36 / 17
Mackay
32 / 8

Precip Chance: 15%

10 mph S

Thursday
Partly Cloudy

42 / 32

Sun Valley
33 / 13

Precip Chance: 5%

10 mph S

Friday
Partly Cloudy

41 / 26
Precip Chance: 20%

15-20 mph SSW

Saturday

Twin Falls
40 / 24

Ashton
34 / 17

Jackson
Terreton Rexburg 35 / 18
Arco
38 / 20 37 / 19
31 / 13
Idaho Falls
39 / 20
Blackfoot
38 / 20
Shelley
34 / 19

Rupert
41 / 24

Pocatello
42 / 24
Preston
41 / 21

Cloudy

36 / 22
Precip Chance: 0%

5-25 mph W

0.00"
 
 
0.00"
0.11"
 
 
2.14"
1.46"
 

Air Quality
Today's forecast Good
 
17, Good
Yesterday

Sunset Moonrise
6:22 p.m.11:37 a.m.
6:23 p.m.12:30 p.m.
6:25 p.m. 1:29 p.m.
6:26 p.m. 2:32 p.m.

Moonset
2:36 a.m.
3:34 a.m.
4:25 a.m.
5:10 a.m.

Yesterday's Extremes
National:   High: 85° in Thermal, Calif.   Low: -24° in Mt. Washington, N.H.

City
Arco
Blackfoot
Boise
Burley
Challis
Elko, NV
Island Park
Jackson, WY
Lewiston
Moscow
Nampa
Ogden, UT
Pocatello
Rexburg
Salmon
Shelley
Stanley
Twin Falls
W. Yellowstone

Today
Hi/Lo Wx
31/13 sn
38/20 rs
44/30 rs
42/25 rs
37/19 sn
40/20 ss
36/14 sn
35/18 rs
47/30 rs
38/26 ss
45/30 rs
53/25 rs
42/24 rs
37/19 rs
39/20 rs
34/19 rs
31/12 sn
40/24 rs
32/11 ss

0-50................Good
51-100.....Moderate
101-150....Sensitive
151-200..Unhelathy

The higher the number, the greater the need for people
with respiratory problems to reduce outside activity.

Today's UV
0 - 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11+

First
3/5

Full
3/12

Around The Region

Regional Forecast Map

Wednesday

Yesterday to 4pm
Month to Date
Avg. Month to Date
Year to Date:
Avg. Year to Date

Sun and Moon
Sunrise
Today
6:57 a.m.
6:55 a.m.
Monday
Tuesday 6:53 a.m.
Wednesday6:52 a.m.

Isolated Snow

34 / 27

Precipitation

Temperature
Yesterday's High / Low 42 / 29
 
Normal High
39
 
Normal Low
19
 
Record High
 
63 in 1987
Record Low
-8 in 1985
 

Tomorrow
Hi/Lo Wx
26/11 sn
29/19 sn
43/32 ss
35/26 sn
33/18 sn
39/25 ss
28/10 sn
27/17 sn
45/31 rs
37/26 ss
46/33 rs
32/26 ss
32/24 sn
27/17 sn
32/20 ss
25/18 sn
26/14 sn
35/28 ss
25/7 sn

Weather (Wx): cl/cloudy; fl/flurries; pc/partly cloudy;
mc/mostly cloudy; ra/rain; rs/rain & snow; s/sunny;
sh/showers; sn/snow; ss/snow showers;
t/thunderstorms; w/windy

Last
3/20

0-2: Low, 3-5: Moderate,
6-7: High, 8-10: Very High,
11+: Extreme Exposure

New
3/27

Across The Nation
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
Houston
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Minneapolis
New Orleans
New York
Orlando
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Portland
Salt Lake City
San Deigo
San Francisco
Seattle
Tampa Bay
Washington,DC

Today
Hi/Lo Wx
65/49 pc
30/12 s
54/49 mc
61/43 s
44/40 pc
64/60 sh
71/38 pc
42/39 pc
70/66 t
64/57 mc
66/42 mc
59/47 ra
63/56 cl
74/69 pc
58/49 mc
73/64 sh
35/26 s
73/61 mc
73/50 mc
47/38 pc
45/33 sh
59/32 rs
60/51 sh
54/47 t
42/36 sh
77/59 pc
40/30 s

Tomorrow
Hi/Lo Wx
67/53 mc
40/35 pc
60/44 sh
60/56 sh
54/50 sh
76/61 mc
45/25 pc
55/49 ra
80/69 mc
71/40 t
58/42 s
63/47 pc
70/58 t
75/70 mc
65/34 t
76/66 t
45/42 mc
74/61 mc
66/49 s
56/52 cl
44/40 sh
35/31 ss
60/51 s
57/48 mc
41/39 sh
76/62 mc
56/48 mc

Recreation Information
Streamflows
Snake River Basin:
Snake R. near Heise
Snake R. at Blackfoot
Henry's Fork near Island Park

Resevoir Storage

Stage Flow Avg.
Feet
cfs
Flow
2.38 3,860 2,790
5.92
Ice 2,710
2.34
184
412

Snowpack
Bear River Basin
Henry's Fork, Tetons Basins
Salmon Basin
Snake Basin Above Palisades
Willow, Blackfoot, Portneuf Basins

172% of Normal
126% of Normal
131% of Normal
160% of Normal
152% of Normal

American Falls
Henry's Lake
Island Park
Jackson
Palisades
Ririe

86% of Capacity
94% of Capacity
73% of Capacity
69% of Capacity
45% of Capacity
62% of Capacity

Road and Travel
Idaho: 1-888-432-7623
Montana: 1-888-432-7623
Wyoming: 1-888-432-7623
Yellowstone Park: (307) 344-2117
Grand Teton Park: (307) 739-3614

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Post Register A3

Local

Idaho AG discusses Dietrich locker room case
could say we have proof
beyond a reasonable doubt
that the purpose of this anal
entry was sexual arousal,
gratification or abuse. In this
instance, we would have to
prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that that purpose was
sexual. In this instance, we
didn’t have that evidence.

n Wasden said
he ‘didn’t have
enough evidence’
to charge sex crime
B y JOHN SOWELL
Idaho Statesman

There was no evidence
the October 2015 attack on
a black, disabled Dietrich
High School football player
was motivated by sexual
arousal, gratification or
abuse — making it impossible under Idaho law to
charge it as a sex crime,
Idaho’s attorney general
said Wednesday.
Lawrence
Wasden
defended his office’s prosecution of John R.K. Howard
for the incident where a
clothes hanger was kicked
into the black teen’s buttocks in a school locker
room.
Howard, 19, was originally charged with forcible
sexual penetration with a
foreign object, a felony. In
December, he entered an
Alford plea to felony injury
to a child, maintaining his
innocence but acknowledging prosecutors could
have won a conviction. The
ultimate fates of two others
charged as juveniles are
unknown, as their cases
are sealed.
“It is not, in my view,
a sex crime,” Deputy
Attorney General Casey
Hemmer said at Howard’s
change-of-plea hearing,
a statement that led to
national criticism.
What was it then?
Extreme bullying and
hazing,
Wasden
and
Hemmer said Wednesday.
“And it was targeted at
anyone that these persons
believed or perceived as
being weaker or younger,”
Wasden said.
A freshman player who
was nearby when the victim
was targeted told Howard
and the others to stop. “‘It’s
not any of your business or
we’ll do the same to you,’”
Wasden said the bullies
told the other player. “They
were victimizing a whole
variety of people.”
Last week, Howard was
sentenced to 300 hours of
community service and
three years of probation,
renewing the public outcry
— including attention to a
petition calling for 5th District Judge Randy Stoker’s
removal.
Wasden, Hemmer and
several other officials sat
down Wednesday afternoon with the Idaho
Statesman to talk about the
case.
Q: What were your goals
in prosecuting this case?
Wasden: This was a
tough case to handle,
because we have two
primary goals. No. 1 was to
protect this very vulnerable
young man. What happened
to him was tragic and terrible. We have an obligation
to protect him. The other
thing that we have an obligation to do, and a commensurate responsibility, is to hold
the perpetrators responsible.
And that’s precisely what we
did here.
Q: A lot of people say
you didn’t protect the
victim, you didn’t go far
enough.
Wasden: We have to take
into account, what did we
do to protect this victim? We
have to recognize that he
did not want to testify. His
parents did not want him to
testify. In fact, it was not in
his best interest to put him
on the stand. And so, as a
consequence, we chose not
to do that. We couldn’t try
this case without putting him
on the stand. And it was not
good for him to do that. And
so the consequence of that
is, what else do you do? The
answer is we were able to

Q: What are your feelings about what happened?
Wasden: We don’t think
this was good behavior in
any way, shape or form. But
the question isn’t whether
we think that or not. The
question is, based on this
evidence, can we prove
beyond a reasonable doubt
elements of that crime?
That’s what we had to do.

Darin Oswald / doswald@idahostatesman.com

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, during a Wednesday interview, explains how his office
approached prosecuting an October 2015 attack involving a Dietrich High School football player and
some of his teammates.
get a felony conviction … for
the defendant and still preserve the victim in fulfilling
his wish not to testify.
Q: What would have happened if you had gone to
trial?
Wasden: The case would
have been tried as a felony
injury to child case because
that’s where the facts fit.
… Secondly, there would
have been the potential of
a conviction on that case or
a lesser crime of battery, or
it could be that there would
not be a conviction at all.
So those are the risks you
have associated with that
case. You have to take into
account, not only the provable facts you have, but the
quality of evidence that you
have, how well the witness
is going to perform on the
stand and, in this instance,
there were countervailing
recorded statements that you
have that all goes into how
effective we are going to be
in proving our case beyond a
reasonable doubt.
Q: It would seem like
the victim’s shifting stories
would have made it difficult.
Wasden: It certainly
added to our prosecutorial
challenges. We felt committed to putting an end
to this abuse of this young
man. But there were statements we were going to
have to face at trial and it
does add to the challenges
of prosecuting the case.
Q: The Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and
Domestic Violence said
you were “complicit in
state-sanctioned sexism,
racism, able-ism and
violence.” How do you
respond to that?
Wasden: We took a
case as a special prosecution case (at the request
of Lincoln County) that
involved a very vulnerable
young man and we had an
obligation to protect him.
We did that. We had an obligation to impose criminal
sanctions against the perpetrators of that crime and we
did that. So I felt like we did
exactly what we were supposed to do.
Q: There’s been a lot of
talk about whether names
the victim was called —
watermelon, fried chicken,
grape soda — whether
those were racist hate
words directed toward him.
Wasden: The statute
that is in play is the malicious harassment statute.
And what it says is that it
shall be unlawful for any
person maliciously, and
with the specific intent, to

intimidate or harass another
person because of that person’s race, color, religion,
ancestry or national origin.
What we have to do is to
step into the mind of the
perpetrator, the defendant
here. And we have to show
beyond a reasonable doubt
that he had the specific
intent to harass this victim,
this vulnerable victim. And
that … the specific intent
for that was because of
that person’s race or color
or religion or so forth. That
was the evidence that was
missing. It isn’t what other
persons may have said, it’s
what this individual did. And
what was in this individual’s
mind. … The incidents concerning grape soda, watermelon, those kinds of things
occurred but not in the
location or in the time frame
of these acts. We didn’t
have the evidence to show
beyond a reasonable doubt
… that the specific intent
to intimidate or harass was
because of his race, color or
so forth.
Q: What happened in
the locker room?
Tony Pittz, Attorney
General’s Office investigator: Before practice, a
member of the football team
either put his arm around
our victim or gave him a
hug. Another player gave
him a wedgie, enough to
tear his underwear. They
chased one another around
the locker room and went
to practice. After practice,
the victim’s underwear was
torn enough that they’re
hanging below his buttocks, exposing his buttocks. A member of the
football team took a coat
hanger and either once
or twice, depending upon
the witnesses, slips the
shoulder end of the hanger
in between his buttocks.
At some point this hanger
is stuck between the buttocks of the victim and the
defendant John Howard
kicks at the victim, either at
the victim or at the hanger.
He kicked at the victim,
making contact with the
hanger, either on purpose
or on accident and forces
the hanger further into the
victim. The victim yells out
as if he’s in pain, someone
removes the hanger from
him and throws it across the
room. The coaches come
into the room at that time
and everyone shuts up.
Q: What did you consider in charging Mr.
Howard?
Wasden: We applied
those facts against the provision for forcible sexual
penetration by the use of

a foreign object. It says for
every person who for the
purpose of sexual arousal,
gratification or abuse causes
the penetration, however
slight, of the genital or anal
opening of another person
by any object, instrument or
device against his will. The
question is whether, based
upon that evidence, that

we can establish beyond a
reasonable doubt that the
purpose for this anal penetration was sexual arousal,
gratification or abuse. On
the basis of that evidence,
there isn’t evidence there
was some sexual reference
or sexual activity. There was
nothing that raised that level
of activity to something we

Q: What happened
between the filing of the
original felony and the final
charge?
Hemmer: Over time
cases evolve. They don’t
always start charged one
way and finish charged the
same way. That’s through
witnesses, how they develop
over time, additional information that comes out, the
best interests of the victim.
All of those things are taken
into account. As the case
progressed, it became clear
that we couldn’t prove the
sexual intent element. It was
important to the family and
to the state that a felony
conviction was obtained,
but what statute does this
conduct fit? And in this case
it was felony injury to children.

A BRA FIT EVENT TO HELP
END BREAST CANCER

JOIN DILLARD’S & WACOAL
FOR A FIT FOR THE CURE ® EVENT
TUESDAY, MARCH 7

GRAND TETON MALL • 10 A.M. - 8 P.M.
Wacoal will donate $2 to Susan G. Komen® for every bra fitting.
Receive a complimentary fitting in a Wacoal or b.tempt’d bra from a certified fit specialist.
For every woman that participates in a Fit for the Cure event from Jan. 1, 2017 through
Dec. 31, 2017*, Wacoal will donate $2 to Susan G. Komen® to support its mission to save
lives and end breast cancer forever. Wacoal will also donate an additional $2 for every
Wacoal bra, shapewear piece, or b.tempt’d bra purchased at these events.
*No purchase necessary. **While supplies last on the day of the event. Together with all other
promotions conducted by Wacoal, Wacoal will donate an aggregate minimum guaranteed
donation of $250,000.00 to Komen in 2017. Fit for the Cure® is a registered trademark of
Susan G. Komen®. For breast health information, please visit www.komen.org or call 1-877-GO KOMEN.

OUR GIFT TO YOU
Navy Tote Bag with $80 purchase**

A4 Post Register

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Local

Lands

From Page A1
power.”
The rally’s aim was to
unify and organize disparate groups who favor
the preservation of federal
lands but have been divided
by arguments about how
such lands ought to be
managed. The group who
organized it is called Idahoans for Public Lands.
“As a group of public
land users in this audience,
we have a diverse background, a background in
all different sorts of public
land use,” said Jimmy Hallyburton, a mountain biker
who emceed the event.
“I think today is a credible example of what can
happen and what power we
can create when Idahoans
come together.”
“Hell, yeah,” the crowd
chanted in reply.
Martin Hackworth is
executive director of sharetrails.org, formerly known
as the Blue Ribbon Coalition, a group that lobbies
for greater motorized
access on federal lands.
Many of the people he

Katherine Jones / Idaho Statesman

Saturday’s public lands rally at the Capitol was
sponsored by Idahoans for Public Lands, and featured speakers who spanned the political spectrum.

Katherine Jones / Idaho Statesman

More than 2,000 gathered at the Capitol for a public lands rally on Saturday.
has fought with about that
issue — groups that favor
restricting motorized use
— stood next to him Saturday.
“We all have a say-so
regarding public land,” he
said. “… One of the things
that happens in a democracy is you don’t get 100
percent of everything
you want. You sit down
and hammer out a deal.

I’m here to support these
people because, on this
issue, we all see things the
same way.”
Hackworth’s
position hasn’t changed, and
neither have his opponents’. But with a growing
sense that public lands are
in danger, he said what was
most important was for all
of them to have a seat at
the table.

“Public land is our birthright,” he said in an interview. “All of us are stakeholders in public land, and
that’s a great part of this
country. It’s unique. If you
go to Europe, they don’t
have public lands like there
is in the United States.
They hold their (dirt bike)
races in rock quarries.”
And Hackworth said
transferring public lands

to states is “the first step
toward our not owning
these resources as a
society.”
“The reason for that is
I lose my seat as a stakeholder,” he said. “The
federal government has
recreation as a mandate.
It’s part of what you have to
do with public land. States
have no such mandate.”
And Hackworth said
if federal lands are transferred to states, it’s only a
matter of time before state
officials have to sell them
off to the highest bidder.
“Every state has a mandated balanced budget,” he
said. “So you’re a single
forest fire, a single wellfunded lawsuit away from
having to make a choice
about whether you’re going
to close a school or sell off
some public land.”
Policymakers will face
that choice all the time, he
said.
“It will be so tempting,”
agreed Margaret Fuller.
Fuller is the author of
several trail guides and
books about Idaho outdoor
recreation, including the
first comprehensive guide
to hiking trails in the Sawtooth and White Clouds
ranges. She started hiking
and backpacking in the
central Idaho mountains in

Waste

From Page A1
with the DOE waste retrieval
has built “confidence and
trust” with state officials,
which could “pave the way
for future (AMWTP) activities, whatever they may be.”
Susan Burke, INL oversight coordinator for the
Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said her
agency has not received a
formal proposal from DOE
about the facility’s future
use. But it would be something state regulators would
consider, she said, as long
as the proposal met regulations laid out in the 1995
Settlement Agreement.
“It’s something we’ve
done in the past, and
it’s something we’d be
amenable to doing again,”
Burke said.
The idea of shipping
transuranic waste from
outside Idaho to the AMWTP
for treatment isn’t new. It
has already been done with
about 700 cubic meters of
waste over the years. The
1995 Settlement Agreement
allows for bringing in a
transuranic waste shipment
for treatment, as long as it
leaves the state within one
year.
A 1999 DOE environmental impact statement on
the proposed construction
of the AMWTP anticipated
the possibility that “additional quantities of waste”
might come to the facility
from 14 other DOE sites
around the country. A 2008
DOE analysis recommended
sending transuranic waste
to AMWTP from sites that
“do not have the capability
to process this waste.” It
also identified waste from
14 sites that could be sent to
AMWTP for treatment.
The analysis argued the
Roger Plothow, Editor and Publisher, Vice President of APG of the Rockies LLC, rplothow@postregister.com, 522-1800
Brett Acor, 542-6776 Monte LaOrange, 542-6795 Chantal McMurtrey, 542-6710 Joe Kimbro, 542-6721
Director of Sales
Managing Editor
Business Manager
Circulation Director
bacor@postregister.com mlaorange@postregister.com cmcmurtrey@postregister.com jkimbro@postregister.com
In Idaho Falls:
333 Northgate Mile
Idaho Falls, ID 83403
Main number (208) 522-1800
Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mark McKenzie, 529-0618
Press and Packaging Manager • mmckenzie@postregister.com

n To place an ad: 522-1800

To place a classified ad: Call Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 524-7355
For all other advertising: Call Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 542-6704

Karen Fioretti, 542-6779
Director of
Production & Technology
kfioretti@postregister.com

n To get your news in the paper email or fax your information to:
news@postregister.com or fax 529-9683
Newsroom customer service hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday

n To order delivery: 542-6777 or 1-800-574-6397: To subscribe or report delivery problems, call Monday-Friday 6:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. or weekends
from 6 a.m. to noon, or for 24-hour subscriber service and rates go to www.postregister.com/subscribe/subservices.php

1957. Her life has centered
around public lands, she
said, and she isn’t ready to
give up on them now.
Luke Nelson travelled
from Pocatello to speak at
the event.
A professional trail
runner, he’s used to traveling long distances. Very
long distances. He came in
third in his first marathon,
which he ran because he
lost a bet, with no prior
training. His personal
record is a 155-mile run.
“Public lands are where
I do my work. It’s where I
practice my craft,” he said
in an interview.
Nelson said he would
rather be spending his Saturday as he spends most of
his days, running through
trails in public lands
throughout the state. But
Nelson has children, and
he said he came to speak at
the rally because he wants
his children to have the
same opportunities that he
did.
“That’s what makes
America what it is: All of us
own this land, and it needs
to stay that way,” he said.
“(If federal lands are transferred) the interest of the
public will not be put first.
The interests of extraction
will be put first.”

waste should be shipped to
AMWTP “because setting
up duplicative characterization or other necessary facilities at other sites would not
be practical or cost effective.” AMWTP cost about
$560 million to construct.
The facility has capabilities not found elsewhere. It has a remote-controlled
supercompactor
that smashes 55-gallon
steel drums full of waste
into three-inch tall “pucks.”
Other equipment safely
sorts and repackages the
waste without putting
workers in danger.
Last year, AMWTP
underwent an approximately $10 million overhaul.
Officials said much of the
new equipment was needed
to simply finish the job of
treating the Idaho waste
over the next two years.
But the upgrades were also
made with an eye toward
the future, and bringing in
more waste in the coming
years from outside the state.
Roughly 20,000 cubic
meters of waste could
potentially come from the
Hanford Site in Washington,
according to a 2015 DOE
presentation, with roughly
8,000 cubic meters from
the Savannah River Site in
South Carolina, and 6,500
from Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico.
Other sites have much
smaller quantities that could
be shipped to the facility.
Herb Bohrer is chairman
of the Idaho National Laboratory Citizen’s Advisory Board, and a former
DOE director overseeing
AMWTP. He said he and
the board are “absolutely”
supportive of continuing
the facility’s mission by
accepting outside waste.
“The facility has shown
over time that it’s fully
capable,” Bohrer said. “It
would be a shame not to
use it.”

Member of The Associated Press
Although every effort will be made to make sure your ad runs without errors, some mistakes do occur.
If we run your ad with a significant error or omission, we will gladly submit a letter of correction, but
we cannot be held responsible for any loss beyond the actual value of the advertising space itself.

(USPS)-439-900)
The Post Register is published daily except Mondays and Christmas Day by APG of the Rockies LLC.
333 Northgate Mile, Idaho Falls, ID 83401. Periodicals postage-paid at Idaho Falls, Idaho.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
Post Register, Circulation Department, P.O. Box 1800, Idaho Falls, ID 83403

Corrections: Our Code of Ethics calls us to admit mistakes and correct them
promptly, which we do with a standing item in the first section of the paper. If you
spot a mistake, call Managing Editor Monte LaOrange at 208-542-6795 or e-mail him at
mlaorange@postregister.com. Readers interested in our commitment to accountability
should review our ethics code at www.postregister.com/ethics

n

A5 Post Register

Local

Group effort saves
Idaho Falls skier’s life
POST REGISTER

A backcountry skier
owes his life to resuscitation
efforts from Grand Teton
National Park rangers,
Teton County Sheriff’s
Department Search and
Rescue members and the
efforts of his ski party,
according to a news release
from Grand Teton National
Park.
Emergency personnel
received a call Friday afternoon about a backcountry
skier having chest pains.
The skier, Mike Connolly,
61, of Idaho Falls, was skiing
with three other family
members and friends when
the incident occurred. The
reporting party, located on

the southwest ridge of Maverick Peak in the park, had
a cell phone and was able
to provide GPS coordinates.
A helicopter from Teton
County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue
— with three county search
and rescue members — were
sent to help a park ranger
and a county member in the
rescue.
Connolly had gone
into cardiac arrest and
CPR efforts were in progress by other members of
the party when rescuers
arrived. Rescue personnel
used a defibrillator once
and Connolly regained a
pulse and began breathing.
A short time later he was
able to verbally communi-

cate, according to the news
release.
Connolly was transported to Eastern Idaho
Regional Medical Center in
Idaho Falls. His current condition is unknown.
“The persistent training
and teamwork with the
Teton County Sheriff’s
Department Search and
Rescue Team helped to
obtain the outcome that
we always strive to achieve
during these incidents.
As a result of this well-orchestrated effort, our skier
has a very hopeful second
chance in life.” Grand Teton
National Park Superintendent David Vela said in the
news release.

I.F. Zoo and Art Museum to hold camps
B y LINDSEY JOHNSON
ljohnson@postregister.com

The Idaho Falls Zoo and
The Art Museum of Eastern
Idaho are offering four-day
education camps for kids
during spring break.
The camps, which will
be divided by age, will take
place March 21-24 for kids
ages 5-12. According to a
city of Idaho Falls news
release, two days will be
spent at the zoo learning
about “natural habitats and
patterns of animals that
live at the zoo,” and two
days will be spent at the art

museum discovering “specifics about animal patterns
and the unique cultures
found in the regions of the
world where the animals
live.”
The camps will be split
up by age.
n Ages 5-8: Will meet
from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday will
be spent at the art museum,
and Wednesday and Friday
at the zoo. The cost is $70
each for members of the
Tautphaus Park Zoological
Society and Art Museum
members, and $85 for nonmembers.

n Ages 9-12: Will meet
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday will
be spent at the zoo, and
Wednesday and Friday at
the art museum. The cost
is $120 for members of the
Tautphaus Park Zoological
Society and Art Museum
members, and $140 for
nonmembers.
Registration should be
submitted at least three
days before camp begins.
More information and registration can be found at
www.idahofallszoo.org or
by calling 208-612-8453 or
208-524-7777.

Yellowstone roads begin closing for spring plowing
POST REGISTER

The winter season in
Yellowstone National Park
is quickly winding down.
Oversnow travel will
close on roads throughout
the park beginning today,
according to a park news
release. All oversnow travel
will end for the season on
March 15. The release said
spring plowing will begin
soon after that, and all
roads will likely open to

Probe

From Page A1
edge an investigation when
initially asked about the
company in late November.
Yellowstone Partners
CEO Eric Rubin, who was
hired last month, said
Thursday the firm was
“fully cooperating with
investigators,” and “our
real focus is servicing our
clients.” He said he didn’t
think the company had
“anything to hide.”
Established in 2005 by
Idaho Falls resident Dave
Hansen, Yellowstone Partners has “a clear objective
of being among the premier
wealth management firms
in the nation,” according to
its website.
It manages about 3,000
accounts, some worth millions of dollars. According
to a firm brochure, clientele for its management
and financial planning services is made up of “high
net worth” and “ultra-high
net worth individuals.”
The firm’s luxury stone
and stucco headquarters
is located off Sunnyside
Road and Merlin Drive. It
has seven satellite offices,
including a Boise branch
that opened in 2015,
with roughly two dozen
employees.
The
Wednesday
morning FBI raid — where
agents spent several hours
seizing computer files and
other records — capped
months of turmoil within
the company, according
to multiple people with
knowledge of the situation who spoke to the Post
Register on the condition
of anonymity, due to the
ongoing investigation.
Yellowstone attorney
Brett Tolman confirmed
that the federal investigation, as well as an internal
audit the firm is conducting, is looking for inappropriate fees taken from
client accounts going back
several years. He said a

automobiles on April 15,
weather permitting.
Here are the oversnow
road closure dates.
n The road from
Mammoth Hot Springs to
Norris, 9 p.m. today.
n The roads from Norris
to Madison and Norris to
Canyon Village, 9 p.m.
Tuesday.
n The roads from
Canyon Village to Fishing
Bridge to Lake Butte Overlook, 9 p.m. March 12. The

road from Lake Butte Overlook over Sylvan Pass to
the East Entrance is already
closed for the season.
n All remaining park
roads, 9 p.m. March 15.
The release said temporary travel restrictions or
closures can occur at any
time. For current information on road conditions and
closures, visit go.nps.gov/
YellRoads, or call 307-3442117 for recorded information.

number of fees have been
refunded to clients.
Tolman, former U.S.
Attorney for the District of
Utah, said the SEC and FBI
probes were “parallel proceedings.” While the SEC
is looking for compliance
issues with the company
itself, the FBI has a more
narrow criminal investigation, he said.
“At this point, we’re just
as interested as anybody
else to make sure the appropriate fees were taken out,”
Tolman said.
Former employees say
significant irregularities —
what appeared to many as
over-billing — were found
last spring by Yellowstone
employees in a number of
client accounts. The former
employees say the events
touched off an internal
controversy over what had
caused the irregularities,
which appeared isolated
to one group of accounts
under one adviser.
Several
Yellowstone
employees left the firm by
the early summer. Some
said they felt uncomfortable with the situation. The
SEC conducted an audit of
the company around the
same time.
In July, the firm hired
Karen Steighner, a compliance consultant from
Denver, who according to
her website “provides executive-level direction and
oversight of enterprise-wide
audits, risk assessments,
investigations and compliance reviews.” In August,
Yellowstone filed with the
SEC a flurry of 11 quarterly reports dating back
to 2013 detailing its investment holdings, according
to commission records.
In the weeks leading up
to the November raid, the
FBI began quietly interviewing former employees
of the company; it is not
known when the agency
began its probe.
At least five more people,
some who said they were
caught off-guard by the
seriousness of the developments, have departed the

company in recent months
since around the time of
the raid, according to the
sources and employee listings posted on the Yellowstone website.
As of last month, a
major leadership shakeup
had occurred, according
to employee listings on
the website and an SEC
form. Instead of his longtime role of president and
CEO, Hansen was listed
along with several others
as a wealth management
adviser. Hansen did not
return a call or email this
week seeking comment.
Other people have
also moved out of Yellowstone’s top leadership
posts, including Cameron
High, the longtime chief
compliance officer and
a minority owner, who
recently departed his job
with the company and was
no longer listed on the
website.
Rubin is the new CEO,
having been hired last
month from the New York
City firm RiskX Investments. In addition to their
Yellowstone roles, Hansen
and Yellowstone’s current
Chief Investment Officer
Rick Baird had worked
together as portfolio managers at New York-based
American Independence
Financial Services, of
which Rubin was president.
American Independence
later became RiskX. Baird
declined to comment about
the investigation.
Rubin said he was
brought in to “provide some
new leadership, and take
the firm to a new level.” He
said he was already generally familiar with Yellowstone’s operations.
“The most important
thing is, we’re going to
keep cooperating with (the
FBI and SEC),” Rubin said.
“Our clients are all getting
serviced, nobody is out any
money, there’s no problems with any investments
or anything, and we’ll keep
working through this with
the regulators.”

Sunday, March 5, 2017

A6 Post Register

Sunday, March 5, 2017

The West

Beat

The Winter Blues!

BreaKFast-luncH-dinner
all day-eVery day!

COUPOn

½ PriCe BreakFaST

• Kids Menu & special Value Meals! •
• Hand Battered FisH & cHips - Best in town! •
• catering For sMall or large groups •
• Banquet rooM •
2150 Channing Way, idaho Falls
Hours: 7am-9pm Sun-Thurs
7am-10pm Fri-Sat

Buy any Breakfast and 2 drinks at
reg. price & get a 2nd Breakfast
of equal or lesser value
HALF PRICE!

542-1950

Limit 1 coupon per table. Expires 9/30/17.
Not valid with any other offers

COUPOn

½ PriCe Dinner

Buy any Dinner and 2 drinks at
reg. price & get a 2nd Dinner of
equal or lesser value
HALF PRICE!

Limit 1 coupon per table. Expires 9/30/17.
Not valid with any other offers

Michael Dinneen / Associated Press

Dee Dee Jonrowe, of Willow, mushes during the ceremonial start of the
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday.

Fan-friendly event kicks off
Iditarod race across Alaska
n The official start
of race is Monday
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
(AP) — The sound of
howling dogs filled downtown Anchorage on Saturday as mushers from
around the world gathered
for the ceremonial start of
the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog
Race.
About
2,000
dogs
belonging to 72 mushers
waited their turn — some
more patiently and less
vocally than others — to
hit the trail this year. The
race spans nearly 1,000
miles of Alaska wilderness,
including the last stretch
when the teams battle the
frozen Bering Sea coast en
route to the finish line in the
community of Nome.
The ceremonial start is a
fan-friendly event designed
to show off mushing to fans
in Alaska’s largest city.
Spectators pet the dogs,
mingled with mushers and
even grabbed an autograph
or two.
Racers then left the
downtown area every two
minutes in a staggered start
with an Iditarider — people
who won auctions for a

prime spot in a competitor’s
sled — for an 11-mile course
on city trails and streets.
Carol Stedman, a retired
postal worker from Alexandria, Virginia, was an Iditarider for the fifth time
since 2011. That was the
first time she came to
Anchorage to watch the
start of the race.
She said after that initial
experience, she crossed the
Iditarod off her bucket list
and put it on her to-do list.
“You’re in the sled, you
see everything going on,
it’s like a big party all the
way out of town,” she said
Saturday morning while
wearing a stocking cap
fashioned like a Husky dog.
“Seeing the interaction
between the mushers and
the dogs is just spectacular,” she said. “Everybody
should do it once.”
Amanda Gourley of Sacramento, California, had
business in Alaska, and
decided to stick around to
see her first-ever Iditarod.
“I remember as a little
girl watching the Iditarod
on ‘Wide World of Sports,’
and it’s just one of those
things I’ve always wanted to
see,” she said. “I love dogs.”
City crews trucked in

snow overnight to make the
streets ready for the dog
sleds.
Anchorage had more
than enough snow to stage
the ceremonial start. But
just a few hundred miles
north, the Alaska Range
— a mountain span that
includes Denali — has little
snow and open-water conditions.
That has prompted race
officials to move the competition’s official start from
the Anchorage area, over
the mountain range to Fairbanks to avoid the dodgy
spots. It’s the second time
in the past three years, and
third in the past 14, that
the race has had to move to
Fairbanks to find suitable
winter conditions to start.
But there is good news
for mushers and dogs
making the journey to
Nome.
“There’s lots of snow
on the trail,” race marshal
Mark Nordman said after
surveying the route late
last week. “Lots of deep
snow. And when we’re on
the (Yukon) river, it’s a
freeway.”
The official start of the
race is Monday.

Police search for man who
shot Sikh in Seattle suburb
n Sikhs have been
the target of attacks
in the United States

WEEKLY
LAWN CARE
LAWN
FERtiLizAtioN
SpRAYiNg
WEEd CoNtRoL
LAWN AERAtioN &
poWER RAKiNg

FertiLiZinG
& weeD
COntrOL
Come shop
just in time for
Easter and
enjoy lunch at our
family friendly
event!

Free Lawn Care
estimates

Call terry @

208-360-4391

KENT, Wash. (AP) —
Police in a Seattle suburb
were looking for a gunman
who shot a man in the arm
and told him to “go back
to your own country,” the
Seattle Times reported.
The victim — a 39-year-old
man who observes the Sikh
faith — told police that he
was working in his driveway
about 8 p.m. Friday when
the unknown man came up
to him, the Times reported.
Male observant Sikhs often
cover their heads with
turbans, which are considered sacred, and refrain
from shaving their beards.
The faith comes from South

Regional news

briefly

Asia’s Punjab region.
An argument ensued, and
the suspect told him to go
back to his homeland, the
victim said. The victim told
police the man then shot him
in the arm, the newspaper
reported.
The victim told police
that the shooter is 6-foot-tall,
white and has a stocky build.
The victim said the man was
wearing a mask covering the
lower half of his face.
Kent police told the newspaper that the agency has
contacted the FBI and other
law enforcement agencies
about the incident.
“We’re early on in our
investigation,” Kent Police
Chief Ken Thomas said Saturday. “We are treating this
as a very serious incident.”
Jasmit Singh, a leader of
the Sikh community in the

nearby suburb of Renton,
said he had been told the
victim was released from the
hospital, the Times reported.
“He is just very shaken
up, both him and his
family,” Singh told the newspaper. “We’re all kind of at
a loss in terms of what’s
going on right now, this is
just bringing it home. The
climate of hate that has been
created doesn’t distinguish
between anyone.”
Sikhs have previously
been the target of attacks in
the United States. After the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the
backlash that hit Muslims
across the country expanded
to include Sikhs and their
faith as well, with some
assuming the sight of a long
beard and turbaned head
can only mean one thing.

candlelight vigil at the San
Fernando school the boy
attended and then threw
white flowers from a bridge
over the wash.

seatbelts. Police say the child
was buckled in a car seat but
the seat wasn’t secured to
the vehicle.

Funeral held for boy
drowned in L.A. River Idaho woman dies
in crash on I-84
SAN FERNANDO, Calif.

(AP) — About 1,000 people
have turned out to honor
a 14-year-old boy who was
found drowned in the Los
Angeles River after a storm.
A funeral service for
Elias Rodriguez was held
Saturday at a church in his
Sylmar neighborhood in the
San Fernando Valley.
The teenager vanished
on Feb. 17, leaving a phone
message for his mother
saying he was walking home
from school.
His body was found on
a tree-covered island in the
river last weekend. Police say
he may have slipped or fallen
into a storm-swollen wash a
dozen miles upstream and
been swept away.
On Friday night, more
than 1,000 people held a

CALDWELL (AP) — A
33-year-old Boise woman
died and a man and
3-year-old boy sustained
injuries after all were ejected
from a vehicle in a crash on
Interstate 84 near Caldwell.
Idaho State Police say
Jessica L. Smith died at the
scene of the crash at about
10:15 p.m. Friday.
Police say 38-year-old
Timothy J. Ficarro of
Meridian was driving west
in a 2001 Chevy Malibu
when the vehicle’s left rear
tire blew and Ficarro lost
control.
Police say the vehicle
veered off the left shoulder
and overturned, ejecting the
occupants.
Police say Smith or
Ficarro weren’t wearing

Boise police have
new police dog

BOISE (AP) — The Boise
Police Department has a
new police dog to replace
a dog shot and killed by a
suspect who also wounded
two police officers.
The agency announced
Friday that the 2-year-old
Belgian Malinois/German
shepherd mix named Edo is
trained in drug detection and
suspect apprehension.
Edo replaces Jardo, who
died after being shot Nov.
11 in Boise by a suspect in
a previous shooting and carjacking.
Cpl. Chris Davis and
Cpl. Kevin Holtry were also
shot. Davis was treated and
released from a hospital
while Holtry was paralyzed
below the waist and has been
in long-term rehabilitation.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Post Register A7

Local

From the weeklies ...
A look at the big news in eastern Idaho’s small towns
Editor’s note: Each
Sunday, the Post Register
gathers news from the weekly newspapers in Shelley,
Rigby and Challis and summarizes the highlights. For
information on these stories
or to comment, email news@
postregister.com.

Bus driver shortage
may affect sports
From the Challis
Messenger:
Older school bus drivers
are getting tired and close to
retirement, but younger men
and women aren’t applying
for vacancies that Challis
Joint School District No. 181
Transportation Director Blain
Aldous is struggling to fill.
Existing drivers are barely
keeping up with routes and
sports schedules, Aldous
told school board trustees
at their Feb. 8 meeting. The
ongoing driver shortage is
nearing a critical point for
extracurricular activities and
might lead to cancellations
of games down the road, he
said. He proposed increasing
current salaries, paying for
commercial driver training,
offering retention bonuses
and benefits for all activity
and school bus route drivers
plus annual step increases to
solve the shortage.

N. Custer volunteers
win at fire academy
From the Challis
Messenger:
It was a win-win for North
Custer volunteer firefighters at the annual Southern
Idaho Fire Academy in Burley, where eight volunteers
learned new skills and two
won a race of skill and fitness
that pitted pairs from fire departments in this part of the
state against the clock and
each other.

Chris Herr and Brandon
Jones teamed up to take first
place in the Firefighter Mystery Challenge. The young
men beat the clock and 15
other teams with a winning
time of 1:36, besting the second place team by
12 seconds.
This is the first time North
Custer has won the event,
Chief Launna Gunderson
said.

uty to replace Barbara Poole,
who will retire within a year.
By utilizing a State of
Idaho contract with Goode
Ford in Burley, the county will
save approximately $7,000
per vehicle, and said that he
has budgeted money for the
vehicles and cash on hand.

Water on roads causes
closures

From the Shelley Pioneer:
The Basalt City Council
heard encouraging news
from its engineer Paul
Scoresby, of Scheiss and Associates, that its application
for a $350,000 grant is going
forward.
Mayor Larry Wagoner also
reported in an interview with
the Shelley Pioneer that city
Clerk Deborah Anderson,
who has worked for Basalt for
31 years was retiring.

From the Jefferson Star:
Last week, Jefferson
County closed six roads west
of Interstate 15 due to water
flowing over them. This week,
Jefferson County Road and
Bridge crews are working to
reopen them.
According to a Jefferson
County press release, as
of Feb. 21 the roads closed
were: 600 North from 2450
East to 2300 East; 400 North
from 2400 East to 1800 East;
2300 East from County Line
to 400 North; 2100 East from
County Line to 400 North;
2600 East from 200 North
to 400 North; and 1800 East
from 400 North to 1200
North.
As of Feb. 27, 2800 East
and 2300 East, from County
Line to 400 North, had reopened. Crews were working
to get 2400 East near 150
North, and 400 North from
2300 to 2400 reopened to at
least one lane.

Sheriff’s office buys
three new cars
From the Jefferson Star:
The Jefferson County
Sheriff’s Office is moving
forward with the purchase of
three new police vehicles at
a total cost of approximately
$89,360. Sheriff Steve Anderson will also add a civil dep-

Basalt grant and loan
applications advancing

Principals discuss
test results
From the Shelley Pioneer:
Shelley elementary principals Robin Elswood and Ben
Lemons reported that the
Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI)
test results show that their
students are doing well, but
there are some doubts about
its accuracy.
Elswood presented her
kindergarten to second grade
test results to the public in
the Shelley Joint School District #60 Board of Trustees
on Feb. 16.
Kindergartners — as well
as first, second and third
graders — take the IRI test
three times a year. Students
are tested at the beginning of
the school year, again in late
spring and then a final test at
the end of the school year.

How to contact your legislator
Senate
n District 8 (Custer and
Lemhi counties)
Steven Thayn: sthayn@
senate.idaho.gov, 208-332-1344
n District 30 (Bonneville
County)
Dean Mortimer: dmortimer@
senate.idaho.gov, 208-332-1358
n District 31 (Bingham
County)
Steve Bair: sbair@senate.
idaho.gov, 208-332-1346
n District 32 (Bonneville and
Teton counties)
Mark Harris: mharris@senate.
idaho.gov, 208-332-1429
n District 33 (Bonneville
County)
Bart Davis: bmdavis@senate.
idaho.gov, 208-332-1305
n District 34 (Madison and Bonneville counties)
Brent Hill: bhill@senate.idaho.gov, 208-332-1300
n District 35 (Butte, Clark, Fremont and Jefferson counties)
Jeff Siddoway: jsiddoway@senate.idaho.gov, 208-332-1342

House
n District 8 (Custer and Lemhi counties)
Dorothy Moon: dmoon@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1180
Terry Gestrin: tgestrin@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1124
n District 30 (Bonneville County)
Wendy Horman: WendyHorman@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1071
Jeff Thompson: jthompson@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1081
n District 31 (Bingham County)
Neil Anderson: nanderson@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1086
Julie VanOrden: jvanorden@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1038
n District 32 (Bonneville and Teton counties)
Marc Gibbs: mgibbs@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1042
Tom Loertscher: tloertscher@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1183
n District 33 (Bonneville County)
Bryan Zollinger: bzollinger@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-0731
Janet Trujillo: jtrujillo@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1189
n District 34 (Madison and Bonneville counties)
Ronald Nate: nater@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1053
Dell Raybould: draybould@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1173
n District 35 (Butte, Clark, Fremont and Jefferson counties)
Karey Hanks: khanks@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1056
Van Burtenshaw: vburtenshaw@house.idaho.gov, 208-332-1179

Beat

The Winter Blues!
HAPPY HOUR
Extended Hours: Monday-Friday From 3-7 pm

Specials:
$1.99

House Lime Margaritas
12 oz

Domestic & Import Drafts
16 oz

$3.99

Happy Hour Meal

Buy one
dinner and
2 drinks
and receive

$5.00 off

second dinner!*

or Appetizer

*Offer not valid on other specials or coupons.

2107 E. 17th St.
Idaho Falls,
ID 83404
208-552-2021

www.jaliscosmexicanrestaurant.com

325 River Parkway
Idaho Falls,
ID 83401
208-612-0102

BOTT YAMAHA

100 Maple, Idaho Falls

(208) 522-1700

WWW.BOTTSALES.COM
©2016 Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. (BRP). All rights reserved. ®, ™ and the BRP logo are trademarks of BRP or its affiliates. In the U.S.A., products are distributed by BRP US Inc. Offers valid in U.S.A. only. The terms
and conditions may vary depending on your state and these offers are subject to termination or change at any time without notice. Certain conditions may apply. See an authorized BRP dealer for details. ‡ Get 3-YEAR COVERAGE
on select 2017 models: Eligible units are new and unused 2017 Sea-Doo® PWC models.The buyer of an eligible model will receive a 12-month BRP Limited Warranty plus a 24-month B.E.S.T. Coverage from August 17, 2016
to March 31, 2017. Exception for Florida residents who will receive the 36-month BRP Limited Warranty. Subject to the exclusions, limitations of liabilities and all other terms and conditions of BRP’s standard limited warranty
contract, including without limitation the exclusions of damages caused by abuse, abnormal use or neglect. B.E.S.T. service contract is subject to a $50 deductible on each repair. For complete details, please see the BRP limited
warranty and the BEST agreement at an authorised BRP dealer near you. Offer may not be assigned, traded, sold or combined with any other offer unless expressly
stated herein. Other conditions and some restrictions may apply. Offer void where prohibited by law. BRP reserves the right, at any time, to discontinue or change
specifications, prices, designs, features, models or equipments without incurring any obligations. Follow all instructional and safety materials. BRP recommends a
minimum operator age of 16 years old. Always observe applicable laws and regulations. Respect the rights of shoreline residents, and keep a safe distance from
other recreationists. Always wear appropriate protective clothing, including a Coast Guard-approved PFD that is suitable for PWC use. Not all riding conditions are
appropriate for inexperienced or beginner riders. Always ride safely and responsibly. Remember that riding and alcohol/drugs don’t mix.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

A8 Post Register

LOSE 20-40+ LBS. IN 40 DAYS!

IDAHO FAT LOSS
•
•
•
•
•
•

NO Drugs • No Exercise Needed
NO Hormones
NO pre-packaged Meals
NO Shakes or Bars to Buy
Hunger and Cravings Disappear
Doctor Designed and Supervised

CHaNGE yOur lIFE IN 2017
It is possible to

• GET OFF MEDICATIONS YOU HAVE TAKEN FOR YEARS
• RECOVER FROM HEALTH CHALLENGES YOU HAVE
SUFFERED WITH FOR YEARS
• RETURN TO ACTIVITIES YOU HAVE NOT ENJOYED IN YEARS
• FEEL YOUNGER WHILE ENJOYING LONGEVITY
AND VITALITY

WHat COulD yOur SuCCESS StOry BE?
GEt StartED tODay

Brad lost 40
pounds in 45 days
and got off all
his prescribed
medications.

“I saw dramatic improvements
in my blood sugar and blood
pressure readings”.
Before

AfTer!

ho

Jean M. – Pocatello, Ida

Lost 24.7 Pounds in 40 days g, but I DID IT!! Even if you don’t
e eater and fish wasn’t my thin

. Not only
a vegetabl
I must admit, I’m not much of this program, JUST DO IT! Anyone can do anything for 40 days a great
d
on
ene
s
less
food
has
the
of
ram. My chronic pain
think you like some
much better since doing this prog noticeably better. I have done many diets
have I lost weight, but I feel so
is
l
than before, and my energy leve on the Idaho Fat Loss Program.
deal. I walk more comfortably
feel as good on them as I have
not
did
I
but
life,
my
in

Before

AfTer!

Brad M. – Pocatello, Ida
ho

Lost 40.2 lbs. in 45 days
Previously I was wearing a size
42
Since starting the program I hav waist and now I have gone down to a size 38. I lost a total of
e also
40.2 lbs. in 45 days.
to stop taking all of my prescrib seen dramatic improvements in my blood pressure and blood
sugar. I was
ed medications. The weight loss
has
also
Friends and family have commen
improved my sleep and appeara able
ted on how good I look, but the
nce.
best part is feeling much better!

Jean lost 24.7
pounds in 40 days
and the chronic pain
she felt when she
walked went away
“My energy level is noticeably
better, JuSt DO It”!!

IDAHO FALLS • POCATELLO • TWIN FALLS