Spelunking in Idaho's lava tubes • Drafters beware • Twin residents to get an earful about digital TV transition • College of Idaho pres behind proposal to lower drinking age • N. Idaho construction follows trend • For sale in Salmon: One rare Rolls-Royce

Spelunking in Idaho's lava tubes

A reporter with the Mtn. Express explores the second-longest lava tube in the United States outside Hawaii in the southern Idaho desert near Shoshone.

The cave extends on three levels for a total of two and a half miles. It's the longest of the approximately 300 lava tubes so far discovered along the Snake River Plain.

Members of the Silver Sage Grotto, a caving group in Twin Falls affiliated with the National Speleological Society, took the reporter on the tour.

The story explains the geology behind lava caves.

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Drafters beware

Idaho State Police have publicly made it known that the danger of traveling at highway speeds behind semi trucks far outweighs any benefit of conserving gasoline.

Drafting behind semis is a typical technique for hypermilers trying to save gasoline.

Idaho State Police Captain Kendrick Wells told TV station KMVT, "At 60 miles an hour, you're traveling 88 feet per second down the road. If you're only ten feet behind a semi, and he was to apply his brakes, you're going to travel 88 feet before you can even start to apply your brakes."

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Twin residents to get an earful about digital TV transition

The Federal Communications Commission has a nationwide strategy to increase awareness of the shift to digital television signal, a move scheduled for February 17, 2009.

The strategy involves larger markets like New York and Chicago but also smaller markets like Twin Falls.

Twin Falls, obviously a rabbit ears capitol, is among 80 markets nationwide chosen by the FCC to increase awareness of the transition.

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College of Idaho pres behind proposal to lower drinking age

Lowering the drinking age is a hot topic for college presidents across the U.S. right now. College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

College of Idaho president Robert Hoover is among the presidents supporting the idea.

"It's time for us to have a discussion, to have good research about what alternatives might be," Hoover said Tuesday from Coeur d'Alene. "The system is broke. It's broken and its time for us to have a discussion about how we might better fix it."

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N. Idaho construction follows trend

Construction in Kootenai County is following the national trend of slowing down according to the Coeur d'Alene Press.

"(Construction activity is) running about 10 percent below what it was last year," Kathryn Tacke, Idaho Department of Labor, said of the Panhandle region. "That's about 730 fewer jobs than we had last year in construction."

Coeur d'Alene issued 155 building permits for single-family homes through July 31. That's the lowest number since at least 2004.

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For sale in Salmon: One rare Rolls-Royce

A Salmon man has decided to sell his extremely rare 1950 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith.

The Wraith has been a favorite in film, according to the Post Register, with such big-screen heroes as James Bond and Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) riding in the Wraith.

It was the first of Rolls-Royce's models to go into production after World War II, with a mere 1,300 of them turned out from 1946 to 1959.

Dick Corbett of Salmon began collecting cars when he was stationed in England in the 1950s. Over the years, he has owned several Jaguars, a Le Mans-replica Aston Martin and an MG, a sports car manufactured in Great Britain.

"I've got four other cars, and I haven't had a reason to license this one for four years," he said of the Wraith.

Asking price: $20,000.

Read more at the Post Register's Web site (Subscription required).