Beaver attacks dog; heart attack leads to crash; expensive wine stolen
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Odd and interesting news from the West.
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NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say they successfully rescued an injured logger who reportedly fell 500 feet down a ravine about 15 miles east of Newport.
The U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release one of their helicopter crews was called to assist in the rescue near Chitwood Friday morning. They were able to hoist the logger out and transport the person to waiting emergency personnel in Corvallis.
Officials say the logger had broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
Members of the Lincoln County rope rescue say transporting the logger out on foot would have taken hours as opposed to the helicopter.
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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park officials say a driver who suffered a heart attack collided head-on with a van in a crash that closed a portion of the park's main roadway during peak tourist season.
Park officials said in a statement Friday the driver of the pickup truck died, likely due to the heart attack. The van's occupants suffered minor injuries.
None of the people involved in the crash has been identified.
The collision happened on the Grand Loop Road near Craig Pass, about eight miles west of West Thumb.
Officials closed the roadway between West Thumb and Old Faithful, one of the most trafficked corridors in the park, for several hours.
July is Yellowstone's busiest month, with an average of 24,800 visitors a day.
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DENVER (AP) — A suburban Denver baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case after a lower court ruled he must provide the service despite his Christian beliefs.
The Denver Post reports (http://goo.gl/ai9Cfh ) attorneys for Jack Phillips filed the petition Friday. The Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear the Lakewood baker's case after an administrative law judge and an appeals court ruled against him.
Attorney Jeremy Tedesco says no one should be forced to further a message they can't in good conscience promote.
In 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins were turned away by Phillips when they requested a custom wedding cake from Masterpiece Cakeshop. The couple planned to marry in Massachusetts and wanted a cake to celebrate in Colorado.
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Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com
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STANLEY, Idaho (AP) — Idaho biologists say the first sockeye salmon has arrived in central Idaho.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game in a statement Friday says the fish arrived Tuesday after a 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean.
Officials say about 1,000 sockeye bound for Idaho have crossed Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, and more than 700 of those have crossed Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River on the way to Idaho's Salmon River and the Stanley area.
Last year, an estimated 4,000 sockeye entered the Columbia River in what managers expected would be one of the best-ever returns to high mountain lakes in central Idaho.
But 99 percent of the run died due to lethally hot water in the Columbia Basin.
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BEND, Ore. (AP) — Officials with Oregon's Medicaid program are considering a policy that would reimburse providers for placing contraceptives immediately after women give birth or have abortions.
The Oregon Health Plan already covers intrauterine devices, contraceptives that providers place into the uterus, and contraceptive implants, but most providers don't place the devices until visits weeks or months after deliveries, leaving a chance that women could become pregnant before that time, The Bulletin reported (https://is.gd/DDVYhn ).
"It is hard to imagine why this would not be enacted," certified nurse midwife Olivia Kroening-Roche wrote in an email to Oregon Medical officials supporting the proposal.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent out a notice to states in April urging them to cover IUDs and implants immediately following births. Dr. Catherine Livingston, associate medical director of Oregon's Health Evidence Review Commission, said the policy was already under consideration when the notice came out.
Officials have received dozens of emails of support for the proposed change, which the Health Evidence Review Commission could approve as early as October.
Dr. Rita Sharshiner, an obstetrician with Oregon Health and Science University, wrote that she works with underserved populations and sees the effects of short interval pregnancies that can result when women do not have access to contraceptives.
"Unintended pregnancies can occur as early as 3 to 4 weeks postpartum, long before most women present for their postpartum clinic visit," she wrote.
She wrote that back-to-back pregnancies are associated with a higher risk of preterm birth and other complications.
The commission is still working on the proposal, but some providers are stressing the need for it to include women who rely on Citizen Alien Waived Emergent Medical, a program that provides health care for low-income, undocumented individuals in emergency situations, including pregnancy.
"Many of the CAWEM patients that I serve are recent immigrants who are fleeing violence and seeking a better life for their families," Holly Pranaat, a certified nurse midwife with Providence Columbia Women's Clinic, wrote in an email to the commission. "Family planning is a vital aspect of this as women strive to provide for their children and work out of poverty."
Oregon would not be the first state to cover contraceptives post-delivery. In 2012, South Carolina's Medicaid program adopted a policy to cover IUDs and implants immediately following delivery. Now 19 state Medicaid programs have adopted policies that reimburse for IUDs and implants immediately postpartum.
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Information from: The Bulletin, http://www.bendbulletin.com
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SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico lawmaker is calling for the resignation of a district attorney who was allowed to leave without taking a field sobriety test despite police believing she was intoxicated.
Grant County District Attorney Francesca Estevez was pulled over on June 11 in Silver City on suspicion of drunken driving after someone reported a vehicle driving erratically. Police officers pulled Estevez over and let her go after a two hour traffic stop. The officers did not conduct a field sobriety test.
Silver City Democratic Senator Howie Morales is now asking for Estevez to step down and for the Attorney General's Office to investigate the incident.
An attorney for Estevez says her driving was erratic because of a flat tire.
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EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man charged with murder told a judge he needed another court-appointed attorney because he "killed a woman" and therefore shouldn't be represented by a woman.
"If I'd have killed a man, this woman could have defended me," Howard Stull, 79, of Eugene said of Elizabeth JC Baker.
Stull was arrested a year ago after his landlady died from stab wounds. He pleaded not guilty after his arrest.
Baker acknowledged in court that Stull has been a difficult client, accusing her and a defense investigator of being police officers, The Register-Guard reported (http://bit.ly/29ORUYU ).
She took issue with a state hospital report that determined Stull is mentally fit to stand trial. Stull, however, described himself in court as a "normal cat" and said he's "not nuts."
Lane County Judge Charles Zennaché agreed to remove Baker from the case, though he told Stull that Baker is one of the most zealous advocates among Eugene defense lawyers.
Baker was assigned to Stull in December after the defendant kicked his original lawyer off the case. The judge said he's maintaining a list of attorneys in case Stull is unhappy with lawyer No. 3.
Stull's landlady, 59-year-old Kathy Kay Braun, was found dead inside the garage at her home last July. Braun's mother told police her daughter allowed Stull to rent a bedroom in her garage, but later, after learning details of his criminal past, had difficulty trying to get him to leave, according to court records.
Stull's record includes convictions for robbery, assault and other crimes.
Baker said she had been exploring potential trial defenses on Stull's behalf, and that a neurologist concluded from a review of medical records that Stull has a traumatic brain injury.
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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com
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MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Police are searching for thieves who took about $65,000 worth of high-end wine from a Bay Area store.
KNTV-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2aieKpr ) that thieves last week broke into Beltramo's Wine and Spirits in Menlo Park, taking bottles of First Growth Bordeaux and collectible California Cabernet, each priced from $500 to $1,000 a bottle.
The liquor store is slated to permanently close this weekend. The owners had brought out the specialty wine from a locked library, hoping to showcase some of their high-end selection before shutting down.
The owners say the wine was insured and that they're working on a claim with the insurance companies.
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Information from: KNTV-TV.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — State wildlife officials may soon have to consider getting rid of beavers at an Anchorage park after recent violent encounters between the animals and dogs.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Dave Battle told KTVA-TV (http://bit.ly/29SlSa4) any more reports of beavers behaving aggressively will result in their removal from the University Lake park.
"It would mean killing them," Battle said. "That's what we do with beavers. It's not much good to try to relocate them. Presumably any habitat you would take them to that is good beaver habitat would already have beavers in it."
The department has been monitoring the problem for years and signs posted around the park warn visitors about "aggressive beavers" in the lake and urge them to keep dogs out of the water.
In the latest incident Sunday, Jennifer Minderlein said she had been walking her dog along a designated off-leash trail when a beaver slapped its tail in the water and her pet went after it. The dog suffered bite wounds and required stitches.
"She had two decent bite marks and one was really, really deep," Minderlein said. "I was really shocked at how deep her wounds actually were."
Staff at a pet treatment facility in the area said they have seen two other dogs bitten by beavers within the last two weeks.
Battle said only one of those was reported to Fish and Game. He encouraged others who have encountered problems with beavers to contact the agency.
"You can report it on social media, you can report it to the news, but one of those calls — it would be nice — if it was to us so we can use it in our decision-making process."
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Information from: KTVA-TV, http://www.ktva.com
- By MITCHELL BYARS The Times-Call
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LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) — Walter Plywaski was only a 15-year-old boy in Nazi-occupied Poland when his mother died, taken to a gas chamber in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Plywaski doesn't have a photo of her, so for the past 70 years all he has had of her was an image in his mind.
"A boy losing his mom like that was maybe the most traumatic thing someone could go through," said Plywaski's daughter, Gabriella Armstrong. "Whenever he has spoken about his experience, he has a lot of sadness around the memory of his mom."
But now a sketch of Regina, dressed in pearls and a flapper dress with her black hair pulled back into a braid, sits in Plywaski's house in Boulder County; something that he can now show people when he talks about his mother, something he can look at to remember a time before the pain and the loss, reported The Times-Call (http://bit.ly/29vEfWr).
"That is important, because most people when they think of Holocaust survivors, they don't think of the fact that these were real people before the horror," Plywaski said. "You have to know what is before, before you can appreciate the horror of the after."
In the corner of the sketch is the signature of the man who drew the sketch, Steve Ainsworth. But even though Plywaski keeps saying he wants to buy Ainsworth a beret to mark his artistry, Ainsworth's actual job calls for a badge. A longtime detective with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, Ainsworth has investigated some of the county's most infamous murder cases.
But Ainsworth is also the department's sketch artist and — armed with only stories and memories — it was his hands that put Plywaski's memories onto paper.
"This is a once in a lifetime thing," Ainsworth said. "I was so grateful to not just to have the opportunity, but to be able to have the tools to do it for him. It's just one of those things you will cherish for the rest of your life.
"I'll never forget this."
'It brings that person alive'
The pairing of Plywaski and Ainsworth came about when Armstrong floated the idea on Facebook of getting a portrait of Plywaski's mother and someone recommended using a police sketch artist.
"I've always wondered what my grandma would have looked like," Armstrong said. "I had a generalized image of what she might have looked like in my brain. But my dad has a hard time talking about my mom."
Armstrong — who now lives in Portland — began calling around to local law enforcement agencies looking for a sketch artist. She eventually called the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, where she was put in touch with Ainsworth, who does composite sketches as well as working as a detective.
"Ever since I was a little kid I've been able to draw," Ainsworth said. "I wanted to have a job where I can draw pictures but I wanted to be a policeman."
Most of Ainsworth's drawings end up on wanted bulletins and not in frames, so when he heard about the chance to draw a portrait and help out Plywaski, he leapt at the chance.
"One of my sergeants doesn't think I can draw anything but suspects in crew neck T-shirts," Ainsworth said. "This was really a lot of fun for me to do."
Ainsworth and Plywaski met at the sheriff's office, where Plywaski gave a description of his mother for Ainsworth to start a sketch.
"Everybody has a picture in their mind of their mom, but if you had to sit down and describe what your mother looked like, imagine how tough that would be," Ainsworth said. "But because of the way he lost her, I think it's more deeply imprinted in him. The descriptions he gave me were just amazing."
But Ainsworth was aided by more than the descriptions. He asked Plywaski to tell him stories about his mother and what she liked to do. He decided to draw her in a flapper dress after hearing Plywaski talk about how she loved to go dancing.
"It brings that person alive to me," Ainsworth said. "You just have this image in your mind, and it's not just of a one-dimensional line drawing."
Plywaski said that it was at times painful to recall his mother.
"I had to reach into the happy memories behind the awful horror," Plywaski said. "That was difficult."
After a few hours, Ainsworth had the basic face done and showed it to Plywaski.
"Once I turned it around and showed it to him, he teared up and started to shake," Ainsworth said.
Ainsworth said it usually only takes an hour or so to do a composite sketch, but this time he wanted to really fine tune it. So for weeks, Ainsworth took time on his days off to work at the sketch, sending scanned images to Plywaski to get his opinion.
"I just kept refining it and refining it," Ainsworth said. "I just felt like I had to get this right."
Finally Ainsworth sent him an image a few weeks ago and Plywaski said, "Excellent, that's it." So Ainsworth sprayed it with a finish and framed it, created a few copies, and presented it to Plywaski in early July.
"Wow," was all Plywaski could say when asked to describe his reaction to seeing the final sketch. "It looks very much like her."
'We did it together'
Plywaski has spent the past two decades giving speeches at various schools and organizations about how he survived the horrors of the Holocaust, and was awarded Poland's Knight's Cross of Merit for what he has done.
So Ainsworth said he was eager to help Plywaski.
"His generation has been called the Greatest Generation for a reason," Ainsworth said. "This is one of those things you look at it and go, 'I must be in the right place and the right time to be able to try and do this for him.'"
But nevertheless, Armstrong said she and her family are grateful Ainsworth was able to do the sketch.
"I think it's a wonderful thing, for me to be able to show it to my daughter and say, 'This is what your great-grandmother looked like," Armstrong said. "I'm very grateful that Mr. Ainsworth just stopped and took the time out to do this. I know what it means to take time out of your life."
Added Plywaski, "It's extremely warm and touching."
When Plywaski chides Ainsworth for putting the sketch in a fancy frame for him, Ainsworth waves him off.
"Must have slipped my mind," Ainsworth said. "I'm 60, my memory is going."
"Ah, you're just a whippersnapper," Plywaski said.
Sitting at his dining room table, Plywaski and Ainsworth banter back and forth like that frequently, as if they've known each other for ages; a unique bond formed over the strangest of circumstances.
Grabbing a hold of Ainsworth's hand, Plywaski said, "You did very well," to which Ainsworth replied, "We did it together."
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Information from: Daily Times-Call, http://timescall.com/
- By ERIC QUITUGUA Times-News
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TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — In an episode of FX's "Louie," the titular character, played by comedian Louis CK, and his daughter Lilly attend a play set in the 1960s. As the dark drama unfolds, Louie is noticeably emotional during the climactic scene. But as he looks over, he sees his daughter glued to her phone and assumes she is texting.
Outside the theater, he asks her for the phone and calls her out.
"It's gross. It's really gross," he says. Lilly tells her dad she was Googling the play, and he asks how she can appreciate and Google the play at the same time.
"Because it's a great play," Lilly says, "and I wanted to know more about it while I was watching it."
Millennials. Deride them with sweeping generalizations of being coddled, self-absorbed and in need of safe spaces. Or laud them for their ability to quickly absorb information at the swipe of a thumb, reported The Times-News (http://bit.ly/29cRo2V).
Either way, as they've surpassed the population of baby boomers, millennials are sought after to fill jobs all over the country. Employers value them for their creativity and their fresh perspectives. But in the Magic Valley, they make up less than a third of the population — on par with the nation as a whole, but less than the Northwest's metropolitan areas.
How can south-central Idaho keep its talented millennials and attract more? By marketing its outdoor recreation and challenging misconceptions about its industries, economic development leaders say.
Who are the millennials?
Different sources define millennials differently, making categorizing America's largest generation pretty subjective and laborious.
Are they simply twenty-somethings in 2016, whose childhoods were book-ended by 9/11 and the echo chamber of social media as social understanding? Are they the people born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s, growing up with acid-washed family sitcoms and the original Nintendo?
How about the ones born in the late 1970s who happen to tweet, use Snapchat and swipe left and right — do they count?
Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe coined the term millennials in their 1991 book, "Generations: The History of America's Future." At that time, they considered these Generation X successors to be those born from 1982 to 2000. But after their 2000 book, "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation," the young generation described as "upbeat" and "engaged" with the potential to cause "seismic consequences for America" was extended to include people born as late as 2004.
The Pew Research Center has also changed its idea of what constitutes a millennial. In a 2010 study on internet uses among millennials and Gen Xers, it said the younger generation was born between 1977 and 1992. But its 2015 study that proclaimed the millennials taking over baby boomers as America's largest generation put the oldest ones at 34 — born in 1981.
It's not surprising that some born in quasi cusps either identify as both a millennial and a Gen Xer or don't identify as a millennial at all.
Julie Plocher, the 37-year-old owner of Acadia Music in Rupert, straddles the line between Gen X and millennials, though she says she has a different world view than the latter. She described herself as traditional and conservative, a "color-within-the-lines" person. Yet, in addition to seeing Acadia flourish, she has dreams of one day working with the city to bring a big music festival to Rupert.
Mike Ramsey, the 31-year-old owner of Nifty Marketing in Burley, said he relates to both millennials and Gen X — especially the latter's love of entrepreneurship.
Magic Valley's millennial count
In the U.S., millennials — defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015 as ages 18-34 — numbered 75.4 million. Baby boomers, those 51-69, numbered just 74.9 million.
Does the Magic Valley have its share?
In sparsely populated, rural south-central Idaho, millennials make up 27.2 percent of the population — nearly identical with 27.3 percent in the U.S. as a whole. According to the Census Bureau's 2014 American Community Survey, with ages 15-34 set as millennials, the Magic Valley's were most numerous in Twin Falls and Jerome counties:
Jerome County: 6,210 people ages 15-34 out of 22,580 total, or 27.5 percent.
Twin Falls County: 21,470 out of 78,933, or 27.2 percent.
Lincoln County: 1,364 out of 5,246, or 26 percent.
Cassia County: 6,005 out of 23,275, or 25.8 percent.
Gooding County: 3,902 out of 15,241, or 25.6 percent.
Minidoka County: 5,169 out of 20,191, or 25.6 percent.
Camas County: 246 out of 1,156, or 21.3 percent.
Blaine County: 4,509 out of 21,269, or 21.2 percent.
By comparison, percentages were higher in the Northwest's big cities: 37.8 percent in Salt Lake City, 34.9 percent in Seattle, 31.4 percent in Portland, Oregon, and 30.5 percent in Boise.
Why are they leaving?
More millennials are leaving the Magic Valley than are moving in. Between 2010 and 2014, 592 millennials left Mini-Cassia, while only 442 moved in, according to the 2014 American Community Survey. In the Twin Falls area, defined as Twin Falls and Jerome counties, 1,169 moved out and 838 moved in.
The appeal of bigger bucks out of state is tempting for millennials, said Jeff Hough, executive director of the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization.
"The perception that a lot of millennials have, and it's not unfounded," he said, "is they can make more money in another state than they can in Idaho."
But, Hough said, that's only true to a point. While $100 in Idaho may be $110 in some other states, the cost of living has to be considered. Then, the pay gap between Idaho and other places isn't as big.
Another misconception: the kinds of jobs millennials can do in the Magic Valley.
"Challenging manual labor, long hours from agricultural and manufacturing jobs — the reality of it is all of our employers in the Magic Valley are high-tech," said Shawn Barigar, president and CEO of the Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and mayor of Twin Falls. Barigar cited the research and development at companies such as Chobani and Glanbia as examples of the automated nature of the region's employers — especially the food science ones.
Simple, youthful exploration, Hough and Barigar believe, is another reason millennials leave the Magic Valley.
"I think the younger millennials, the sub-25 crowd, are leaving because a lot of them think of Twin Falls as a small pond and want to go out and explore the world," Hough said.
Barigar said he's known a dozen or so millennials who have gone away for college, worked out of state for a few years and returned to the Magic Valley to start families.
"Anecdotally, I'd say it's in everyone's nature as a young person to want to escape their hometown and do something else," he said. "I think some of this is just human nature, but I think collectively, we as economic development organizations, cities and communities can do a better job showcasing the opportunities that are available here."
Selling millennials on the valley
For Hough, the value in employing millennials comes from their creativity and drive to innovate. They have the desire to do things faster and more efficiently, he said.
Ramsey echoed the same, adding that millennials grew up with the Internet and social media and have seen "a lot more than most people have at their ages."
"They tend to be able to come up with more creative solutions to problems that would be considered unorthodox by an older generation," he said.
Examples of those solutions? The ways millennials take on business marketing.
"Whereas an older generation might think that traditional forms of advertising is their only option," Ramsey said, "millennials might find a more creative, guerrilla-style marketing that would cause more people to talk (and) be more controversial or entertaining."
The sheer number of millennials comes into play. As baby boomers leave the work force in large numbers, there aren't as many Gen Xers who can take their place, Barigar said.
"So it's a natural thing to look at millennials," he said. "They're the next logical work age to look to."
Both SIEDO and the Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce are using work-life balance as a selling point for working in the Magic Valley as a millennial. Part of the sell is the outdoors.
"Southern Idaho has the ability to give you a great, well-paying job and great work-life balance," Hough said. Thirty minutes after work, you can go floating in the Snake River or be up in the mountains.
Barigar said millennials here can enjoy world-class rock climbing at City of Rocks National Reserve, whitewater rafting in Hagerman, golfing, BASE jumping, mountain biking in the South Hills and at Auger Falls and skiing in the winter.
"Those are the things we kind of showcase," he said. "At the chamber, we call it 'everything from the wild to the mild.'"
The chamber president said a large part of drawing millennials' interest is making them aware of "the whole spectrum of jobs."
"It's not just about, 'Can I get a job at Clif Bar? Can I get a job at Chobani?'" Barigar said. "We need bankers, doctors, nurses, people who run retail stores and restaurants. Those are jobs too. Those are opportunities."
For Hough, it's the high-tech and technically skilled jobs at companies such as Chobani and plastics manufacturer Fabri-Kal.
"The jobs that attract millennials are here," he said. "I think we have what they need. It's just a matter of getting the word out there."
Part of getting that word out is for business schools to make small businesses a bigger part of the discussion. Entrepreneurship is the biggest opportunity in the Magic Valley, said Ramsey, whose Burley shop is populated by young workers.
The Nifty owner said there are other things millennials look for in the workplace: good pay, flexibility and an environment where young employees feel valued and, as people who grew up openly expressing themselves, can continue to express themselves to some degree in their careers.
Local employers, he said, might do better looking for homegrown millennials than trying to recruit elsewhere.
"I think our area is quite conservative," Ramsey said. "I think we have the good side of millennials. You can find people who work hard and can be loyal."
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Information from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say they successfully rescued an injured logger who reportedly fell 500 feet down a ravine about 15 miles east of Newport.
The U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release one of their helicopter crews was called to assist in the rescue near Chitwood Friday morning. They were able to hoist the logger out and transport the person to waiting emergency personnel in Corvallis.
Officials say the logger had broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
Members of the Lincoln County rope rescue say transporting the logger out on foot would have taken hours as opposed to the helicopter.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park officials say a driver who suffered a heart attack collided head-on with a van in a crash that closed a portion of the park's main roadway during peak tourist season.
Park officials said in a statement Friday the driver of the pickup truck died, likely due to the heart attack. The van's occupants suffered minor injuries.
None of the people involved in the crash has been identified.
The collision happened on the Grand Loop Road near Craig Pass, about eight miles west of West Thumb.
Officials closed the roadway between West Thumb and Old Faithful, one of the most trafficked corridors in the park, for several hours.
July is Yellowstone's busiest month, with an average of 24,800 visitors a day.
DENVER (AP) — A suburban Denver baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case after a lower court ruled he must provide the service despite his Christian beliefs.
The Denver Post reports (http://goo.gl/ai9Cfh ) attorneys for Jack Phillips filed the petition Friday. The Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear the Lakewood baker's case after an administrative law judge and an appeals court ruled against him.
Attorney Jeremy Tedesco says no one should be forced to further a message they can't in good conscience promote.
In 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins were turned away by Phillips when they requested a custom wedding cake from Masterpiece Cakeshop. The couple planned to marry in Massachusetts and wanted a cake to celebrate in Colorado.
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Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com
STANLEY, Idaho (AP) — Idaho biologists say the first sockeye salmon has arrived in central Idaho.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game in a statement Friday says the fish arrived Tuesday after a 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean.
Officials say about 1,000 sockeye bound for Idaho have crossed Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, and more than 700 of those have crossed Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River on the way to Idaho's Salmon River and the Stanley area.
Last year, an estimated 4,000 sockeye entered the Columbia River in what managers expected would be one of the best-ever returns to high mountain lakes in central Idaho.
But 99 percent of the run died due to lethally hot water in the Columbia Basin.
BEND, Ore. (AP) — Officials with Oregon's Medicaid program are considering a policy that would reimburse providers for placing contraceptives immediately after women give birth or have abortions.
The Oregon Health Plan already covers intrauterine devices, contraceptives that providers place into the uterus, and contraceptive implants, but most providers don't place the devices until visits weeks or months after deliveries, leaving a chance that women could become pregnant before that time, The Bulletin reported (https://is.gd/DDVYhn ).
"It is hard to imagine why this would not be enacted," certified nurse midwife Olivia Kroening-Roche wrote in an email to Oregon Medical officials supporting the proposal.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent out a notice to states in April urging them to cover IUDs and implants immediately following births. Dr. Catherine Livingston, associate medical director of Oregon's Health Evidence Review Commission, said the policy was already under consideration when the notice came out.
Officials have received dozens of emails of support for the proposed change, which the Health Evidence Review Commission could approve as early as October.
Dr. Rita Sharshiner, an obstetrician with Oregon Health and Science University, wrote that she works with underserved populations and sees the effects of short interval pregnancies that can result when women do not have access to contraceptives.
"Unintended pregnancies can occur as early as 3 to 4 weeks postpartum, long before most women present for their postpartum clinic visit," she wrote.
She wrote that back-to-back pregnancies are associated with a higher risk of preterm birth and other complications.
The commission is still working on the proposal, but some providers are stressing the need for it to include women who rely on Citizen Alien Waived Emergent Medical, a program that provides health care for low-income, undocumented individuals in emergency situations, including pregnancy.
"Many of the CAWEM patients that I serve are recent immigrants who are fleeing violence and seeking a better life for their families," Holly Pranaat, a certified nurse midwife with Providence Columbia Women's Clinic, wrote in an email to the commission. "Family planning is a vital aspect of this as women strive to provide for their children and work out of poverty."
Oregon would not be the first state to cover contraceptives post-delivery. In 2012, South Carolina's Medicaid program adopted a policy to cover IUDs and implants immediately following delivery. Now 19 state Medicaid programs have adopted policies that reimburse for IUDs and implants immediately postpartum.
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Information from: The Bulletin, http://www.bendbulletin.com
SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico lawmaker is calling for the resignation of a district attorney who was allowed to leave without taking a field sobriety test despite police believing she was intoxicated.
Grant County District Attorney Francesca Estevez was pulled over on June 11 in Silver City on suspicion of drunken driving after someone reported a vehicle driving erratically. Police officers pulled Estevez over and let her go after a two hour traffic stop. The officers did not conduct a field sobriety test.
Silver City Democratic Senator Howie Morales is now asking for Estevez to step down and for the Attorney General's Office to investigate the incident.
An attorney for Estevez says her driving was erratic because of a flat tire.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man charged with murder told a judge he needed another court-appointed attorney because he "killed a woman" and therefore shouldn't be represented by a woman.
"If I'd have killed a man, this woman could have defended me," Howard Stull, 79, of Eugene said of Elizabeth JC Baker.
Stull was arrested a year ago after his landlady died from stab wounds. He pleaded not guilty after his arrest.
Baker acknowledged in court that Stull has been a difficult client, accusing her and a defense investigator of being police officers, The Register-Guard reported (http://bit.ly/29ORUYU ).
She took issue with a state hospital report that determined Stull is mentally fit to stand trial. Stull, however, described himself in court as a "normal cat" and said he's "not nuts."
Lane County Judge Charles Zennaché agreed to remove Baker from the case, though he told Stull that Baker is one of the most zealous advocates among Eugene defense lawyers.
Baker was assigned to Stull in December after the defendant kicked his original lawyer off the case. The judge said he's maintaining a list of attorneys in case Stull is unhappy with lawyer No. 3.
Stull's landlady, 59-year-old Kathy Kay Braun, was found dead inside the garage at her home last July. Braun's mother told police her daughter allowed Stull to rent a bedroom in her garage, but later, after learning details of his criminal past, had difficulty trying to get him to leave, according to court records.
Stull's record includes convictions for robbery, assault and other crimes.
Baker said she had been exploring potential trial defenses on Stull's behalf, and that a neurologist concluded from a review of medical records that Stull has a traumatic brain injury.
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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Police are searching for thieves who took about $65,000 worth of high-end wine from a Bay Area store.
KNTV-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2aieKpr ) that thieves last week broke into Beltramo's Wine and Spirits in Menlo Park, taking bottles of First Growth Bordeaux and collectible California Cabernet, each priced from $500 to $1,000 a bottle.
The liquor store is slated to permanently close this weekend. The owners had brought out the specialty wine from a locked library, hoping to showcase some of their high-end selection before shutting down.
The owners say the wine was insured and that they're working on a claim with the insurance companies.
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Information from: KNTV-TV.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — State wildlife officials may soon have to consider getting rid of beavers at an Anchorage park after recent violent encounters between the animals and dogs.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Dave Battle told KTVA-TV (http://bit.ly/29SlSa4) any more reports of beavers behaving aggressively will result in their removal from the University Lake park.
"It would mean killing them," Battle said. "That's what we do with beavers. It's not much good to try to relocate them. Presumably any habitat you would take them to that is good beaver habitat would already have beavers in it."
The department has been monitoring the problem for years and signs posted around the park warn visitors about "aggressive beavers" in the lake and urge them to keep dogs out of the water.
In the latest incident Sunday, Jennifer Minderlein said she had been walking her dog along a designated off-leash trail when a beaver slapped its tail in the water and her pet went after it. The dog suffered bite wounds and required stitches.
"She had two decent bite marks and one was really, really deep," Minderlein said. "I was really shocked at how deep her wounds actually were."
Staff at a pet treatment facility in the area said they have seen two other dogs bitten by beavers within the last two weeks.
Battle said only one of those was reported to Fish and Game. He encouraged others who have encountered problems with beavers to contact the agency.
"You can report it on social media, you can report it to the news, but one of those calls — it would be nice — if it was to us so we can use it in our decision-making process."
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Information from: KTVA-TV, http://www.ktva.com
- By MITCHELL BYARS The Times-Call
LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) — Walter Plywaski was only a 15-year-old boy in Nazi-occupied Poland when his mother died, taken to a gas chamber in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Plywaski doesn't have a photo of her, so for the past 70 years all he has had of her was an image in his mind.
"A boy losing his mom like that was maybe the most traumatic thing someone could go through," said Plywaski's daughter, Gabriella Armstrong. "Whenever he has spoken about his experience, he has a lot of sadness around the memory of his mom."
But now a sketch of Regina, dressed in pearls and a flapper dress with her black hair pulled back into a braid, sits in Plywaski's house in Boulder County; something that he can now show people when he talks about his mother, something he can look at to remember a time before the pain and the loss, reported The Times-Call (http://bit.ly/29vEfWr).
"That is important, because most people when they think of Holocaust survivors, they don't think of the fact that these were real people before the horror," Plywaski said. "You have to know what is before, before you can appreciate the horror of the after."
In the corner of the sketch is the signature of the man who drew the sketch, Steve Ainsworth. But even though Plywaski keeps saying he wants to buy Ainsworth a beret to mark his artistry, Ainsworth's actual job calls for a badge. A longtime detective with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, Ainsworth has investigated some of the county's most infamous murder cases.
But Ainsworth is also the department's sketch artist and — armed with only stories and memories — it was his hands that put Plywaski's memories onto paper.
"This is a once in a lifetime thing," Ainsworth said. "I was so grateful to not just to have the opportunity, but to be able to have the tools to do it for him. It's just one of those things you will cherish for the rest of your life.
"I'll never forget this."
'It brings that person alive'
The pairing of Plywaski and Ainsworth came about when Armstrong floated the idea on Facebook of getting a portrait of Plywaski's mother and someone recommended using a police sketch artist.
"I've always wondered what my grandma would have looked like," Armstrong said. "I had a generalized image of what she might have looked like in my brain. But my dad has a hard time talking about my mom."
Armstrong — who now lives in Portland — began calling around to local law enforcement agencies looking for a sketch artist. She eventually called the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, where she was put in touch with Ainsworth, who does composite sketches as well as working as a detective.
"Ever since I was a little kid I've been able to draw," Ainsworth said. "I wanted to have a job where I can draw pictures but I wanted to be a policeman."
Most of Ainsworth's drawings end up on wanted bulletins and not in frames, so when he heard about the chance to draw a portrait and help out Plywaski, he leapt at the chance.
"One of my sergeants doesn't think I can draw anything but suspects in crew neck T-shirts," Ainsworth said. "This was really a lot of fun for me to do."
Ainsworth and Plywaski met at the sheriff's office, where Plywaski gave a description of his mother for Ainsworth to start a sketch.
"Everybody has a picture in their mind of their mom, but if you had to sit down and describe what your mother looked like, imagine how tough that would be," Ainsworth said. "But because of the way he lost her, I think it's more deeply imprinted in him. The descriptions he gave me were just amazing."
But Ainsworth was aided by more than the descriptions. He asked Plywaski to tell him stories about his mother and what she liked to do. He decided to draw her in a flapper dress after hearing Plywaski talk about how she loved to go dancing.
"It brings that person alive to me," Ainsworth said. "You just have this image in your mind, and it's not just of a one-dimensional line drawing."
Plywaski said that it was at times painful to recall his mother.
"I had to reach into the happy memories behind the awful horror," Plywaski said. "That was difficult."
After a few hours, Ainsworth had the basic face done and showed it to Plywaski.
"Once I turned it around and showed it to him, he teared up and started to shake," Ainsworth said.
Ainsworth said it usually only takes an hour or so to do a composite sketch, but this time he wanted to really fine tune it. So for weeks, Ainsworth took time on his days off to work at the sketch, sending scanned images to Plywaski to get his opinion.
"I just kept refining it and refining it," Ainsworth said. "I just felt like I had to get this right."
Finally Ainsworth sent him an image a few weeks ago and Plywaski said, "Excellent, that's it." So Ainsworth sprayed it with a finish and framed it, created a few copies, and presented it to Plywaski in early July.
"Wow," was all Plywaski could say when asked to describe his reaction to seeing the final sketch. "It looks very much like her."
'We did it together'
Plywaski has spent the past two decades giving speeches at various schools and organizations about how he survived the horrors of the Holocaust, and was awarded Poland's Knight's Cross of Merit for what he has done.
So Ainsworth said he was eager to help Plywaski.
"His generation has been called the Greatest Generation for a reason," Ainsworth said. "This is one of those things you look at it and go, 'I must be in the right place and the right time to be able to try and do this for him.'"
But nevertheless, Armstrong said she and her family are grateful Ainsworth was able to do the sketch.
"I think it's a wonderful thing, for me to be able to show it to my daughter and say, 'This is what your great-grandmother looked like," Armstrong said. "I'm very grateful that Mr. Ainsworth just stopped and took the time out to do this. I know what it means to take time out of your life."
Added Plywaski, "It's extremely warm and touching."
When Plywaski chides Ainsworth for putting the sketch in a fancy frame for him, Ainsworth waves him off.
"Must have slipped my mind," Ainsworth said. "I'm 60, my memory is going."
"Ah, you're just a whippersnapper," Plywaski said.
Sitting at his dining room table, Plywaski and Ainsworth banter back and forth like that frequently, as if they've known each other for ages; a unique bond formed over the strangest of circumstances.
Grabbing a hold of Ainsworth's hand, Plywaski said, "You did very well," to which Ainsworth replied, "We did it together."
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Information from: Daily Times-Call, http://timescall.com/
- By ERIC QUITUGUA Times-News
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — In an episode of FX's "Louie," the titular character, played by comedian Louis CK, and his daughter Lilly attend a play set in the 1960s. As the dark drama unfolds, Louie is noticeably emotional during the climactic scene. But as he looks over, he sees his daughter glued to her phone and assumes she is texting.
Outside the theater, he asks her for the phone and calls her out.
"It's gross. It's really gross," he says. Lilly tells her dad she was Googling the play, and he asks how she can appreciate and Google the play at the same time.
"Because it's a great play," Lilly says, "and I wanted to know more about it while I was watching it."
Millennials. Deride them with sweeping generalizations of being coddled, self-absorbed and in need of safe spaces. Or laud them for their ability to quickly absorb information at the swipe of a thumb, reported The Times-News (http://bit.ly/29cRo2V).
Either way, as they've surpassed the population of baby boomers, millennials are sought after to fill jobs all over the country. Employers value them for their creativity and their fresh perspectives. But in the Magic Valley, they make up less than a third of the population — on par with the nation as a whole, but less than the Northwest's metropolitan areas.
How can south-central Idaho keep its talented millennials and attract more? By marketing its outdoor recreation and challenging misconceptions about its industries, economic development leaders say.
Who are the millennials?
Different sources define millennials differently, making categorizing America's largest generation pretty subjective and laborious.
Are they simply twenty-somethings in 2016, whose childhoods were book-ended by 9/11 and the echo chamber of social media as social understanding? Are they the people born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s, growing up with acid-washed family sitcoms and the original Nintendo?
How about the ones born in the late 1970s who happen to tweet, use Snapchat and swipe left and right — do they count?
Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe coined the term millennials in their 1991 book, "Generations: The History of America's Future." At that time, they considered these Generation X successors to be those born from 1982 to 2000. But after their 2000 book, "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation," the young generation described as "upbeat" and "engaged" with the potential to cause "seismic consequences for America" was extended to include people born as late as 2004.
The Pew Research Center has also changed its idea of what constitutes a millennial. In a 2010 study on internet uses among millennials and Gen Xers, it said the younger generation was born between 1977 and 1992. But its 2015 study that proclaimed the millennials taking over baby boomers as America's largest generation put the oldest ones at 34 — born in 1981.
It's not surprising that some born in quasi cusps either identify as both a millennial and a Gen Xer or don't identify as a millennial at all.
Julie Plocher, the 37-year-old owner of Acadia Music in Rupert, straddles the line between Gen X and millennials, though she says she has a different world view than the latter. She described herself as traditional and conservative, a "color-within-the-lines" person. Yet, in addition to seeing Acadia flourish, she has dreams of one day working with the city to bring a big music festival to Rupert.
Mike Ramsey, the 31-year-old owner of Nifty Marketing in Burley, said he relates to both millennials and Gen X — especially the latter's love of entrepreneurship.
Magic Valley's millennial count
In the U.S., millennials — defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015 as ages 18-34 — numbered 75.4 million. Baby boomers, those 51-69, numbered just 74.9 million.
Does the Magic Valley have its share?
In sparsely populated, rural south-central Idaho, millennials make up 27.2 percent of the population — nearly identical with 27.3 percent in the U.S. as a whole. According to the Census Bureau's 2014 American Community Survey, with ages 15-34 set as millennials, the Magic Valley's were most numerous in Twin Falls and Jerome counties:
Jerome County: 6,210 people ages 15-34 out of 22,580 total, or 27.5 percent.
Twin Falls County: 21,470 out of 78,933, or 27.2 percent.
Lincoln County: 1,364 out of 5,246, or 26 percent.
Cassia County: 6,005 out of 23,275, or 25.8 percent.
Gooding County: 3,902 out of 15,241, or 25.6 percent.
Minidoka County: 5,169 out of 20,191, or 25.6 percent.
Camas County: 246 out of 1,156, or 21.3 percent.
Blaine County: 4,509 out of 21,269, or 21.2 percent.
By comparison, percentages were higher in the Northwest's big cities: 37.8 percent in Salt Lake City, 34.9 percent in Seattle, 31.4 percent in Portland, Oregon, and 30.5 percent in Boise.
Why are they leaving?
More millennials are leaving the Magic Valley than are moving in. Between 2010 and 2014, 592 millennials left Mini-Cassia, while only 442 moved in, according to the 2014 American Community Survey. In the Twin Falls area, defined as Twin Falls and Jerome counties, 1,169 moved out and 838 moved in.
The appeal of bigger bucks out of state is tempting for millennials, said Jeff Hough, executive director of the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization.
"The perception that a lot of millennials have, and it's not unfounded," he said, "is they can make more money in another state than they can in Idaho."
But, Hough said, that's only true to a point. While $100 in Idaho may be $110 in some other states, the cost of living has to be considered. Then, the pay gap between Idaho and other places isn't as big.
Another misconception: the kinds of jobs millennials can do in the Magic Valley.
"Challenging manual labor, long hours from agricultural and manufacturing jobs — the reality of it is all of our employers in the Magic Valley are high-tech," said Shawn Barigar, president and CEO of the Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and mayor of Twin Falls. Barigar cited the research and development at companies such as Chobani and Glanbia as examples of the automated nature of the region's employers — especially the food science ones.
Simple, youthful exploration, Hough and Barigar believe, is another reason millennials leave the Magic Valley.
"I think the younger millennials, the sub-25 crowd, are leaving because a lot of them think of Twin Falls as a small pond and want to go out and explore the world," Hough said.
Barigar said he's known a dozen or so millennials who have gone away for college, worked out of state for a few years and returned to the Magic Valley to start families.
"Anecdotally, I'd say it's in everyone's nature as a young person to want to escape their hometown and do something else," he said. "I think some of this is just human nature, but I think collectively, we as economic development organizations, cities and communities can do a better job showcasing the opportunities that are available here."
Selling millennials on the valley
For Hough, the value in employing millennials comes from their creativity and drive to innovate. They have the desire to do things faster and more efficiently, he said.
Ramsey echoed the same, adding that millennials grew up with the Internet and social media and have seen "a lot more than most people have at their ages."
"They tend to be able to come up with more creative solutions to problems that would be considered unorthodox by an older generation," he said.
Examples of those solutions? The ways millennials take on business marketing.
"Whereas an older generation might think that traditional forms of advertising is their only option," Ramsey said, "millennials might find a more creative, guerrilla-style marketing that would cause more people to talk (and) be more controversial or entertaining."
The sheer number of millennials comes into play. As baby boomers leave the work force in large numbers, there aren't as many Gen Xers who can take their place, Barigar said.
"So it's a natural thing to look at millennials," he said. "They're the next logical work age to look to."
Both SIEDO and the Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce are using work-life balance as a selling point for working in the Magic Valley as a millennial. Part of the sell is the outdoors.
"Southern Idaho has the ability to give you a great, well-paying job and great work-life balance," Hough said. Thirty minutes after work, you can go floating in the Snake River or be up in the mountains.
Barigar said millennials here can enjoy world-class rock climbing at City of Rocks National Reserve, whitewater rafting in Hagerman, golfing, BASE jumping, mountain biking in the South Hills and at Auger Falls and skiing in the winter.
"Those are the things we kind of showcase," he said. "At the chamber, we call it 'everything from the wild to the mild.'"
The chamber president said a large part of drawing millennials' interest is making them aware of "the whole spectrum of jobs."
"It's not just about, 'Can I get a job at Clif Bar? Can I get a job at Chobani?'" Barigar said. "We need bankers, doctors, nurses, people who run retail stores and restaurants. Those are jobs too. Those are opportunities."
For Hough, it's the high-tech and technically skilled jobs at companies such as Chobani and plastics manufacturer Fabri-Kal.
"The jobs that attract millennials are here," he said. "I think we have what they need. It's just a matter of getting the word out there."
Part of getting that word out is for business schools to make small businesses a bigger part of the discussion. Entrepreneurship is the biggest opportunity in the Magic Valley, said Ramsey, whose Burley shop is populated by young workers.
The Nifty owner said there are other things millennials look for in the workplace: good pay, flexibility and an environment where young employees feel valued and, as people who grew up openly expressing themselves, can continue to express themselves to some degree in their careers.
Local employers, he said, might do better looking for homegrown millennials than trying to recruit elsewhere.
"I think our area is quite conservative," Ramsey said. "I think we have the good side of millennials. You can find people who work hard and can be loyal."
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Information from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com
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