FBI investigating ugly N. Idaho hate crime • Wilderness Week has implications for the Owyhees • Will Luna's pay-for-performance plan make the grade? • Sun Valley: Keeping the ski bums out with season pass prices • Hayden residents give council a scare • Considering Idaho’s driving age

FBI investigating ugly N. Idaho hate crime

The FBI is taking over a Post Falls assault case that's being labeled a hate crime.

Fifteen-year-old Rai Franklin woke up Monday to hear dogs barking outside her family's home. She says she went outside to find two men.

"The guys egged my parents car and put fliers up saying not nice things about black people. 'F' back people, you just go die or we'll help you. You don't belong here," Franklin told TV station KREM.

One of the men hit Franklin in the face before taking off. The crime is considered a federal offense.

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Wilderness Week has implications for the Owyhees

This week in Washington D.C. is Wilderness Week, a gathering of wilderness advocates and supporters from around the country aimed at raising awareness of the nation's public wild lands and the need to protect them for future generations to use and enjoy.

Officials from Colorado are there stumping for wilderness designation for northern Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park.

Wilderness designation would add a layer of protection to the Park but not necessarily change the way it is operated.

Seven wilderness measures are now included in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, a large public lands package pending in the Senate. This legislation would protect land across Oregon, Idaho (in the Owyhees), Colorado, Virginia and West Virginia.

Wilderness Week attendees will be urging Congress to pass this bill and to consider other wilderness bills this year.

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Will Luna's pay-for-performance plan make the grade?

The Times-News profiles Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna's proposed budget for fiscal year 2009-10 that includes $27 million for teacher raises and a pay-for-performance plan.

The proposal died in the Senate earlier this year.

For a new plan to be successful it would need to be equally and clearly available to all teachers, president of the Twin Falls Education Association David Gibson said. "If you can't guarantee it for all teachers, then it makes it highly unfair," he said.

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Sun Valley: Keeping the ski bums out with season pass prices

"It's hard to consider Sun Valley when it costs more than three times other quality resorts."

Those are the words of Baird Gourlay, owner of Paul Kenny's ski shop in Ketchum and a member of the City Council.

Gourlay is quoted in a Mtn. Express story about Sun Valley having one of the highest season pass prices among U.S. ski resorts.

Sun Valley Co. Marketing Director Jack Sibbach said the price of a season ticket is directly correlated to the resort's expenses.

"It's economics—as our costs go up, so do ticket prices," Sibbach said. "We have to take into consideration the cost of fuel and the power to run the mountain. Maybe if we dropped the price we would get a higher skier count, but it wouldn't be enough to make up for the drop in revenue."

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Hayden residents give council a scare

The Hayden City Council Tuesday night approved a request to annex 616 acres of land north of the city for an 1,800-home subdivision — a decision that caused several residents to angrily yell at the council following the meeting.

After the vote, the Coeur d'Alene Press says "dozens of residents erupted into cat-calls, threats and groans of dismay."

The paper reports the decision comes on the heels of several public hearings and hours of public testimony regarding the controversial, twice-defeated development project.

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Considering Idaho's driving age

A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety claims raising the driving age to 17 or even 18 could reduce the number of driving deaths.

According to the Idaho Transportation Department, last year Idaho teens ages 15 to 19 made up 6% of licensed drivers, but they accounted for nearly 15% of drivers involved deadly or serious injury crashes.

Boise's channel 2 says statistics show that drivers 19 and younger in Idaho are the most likely to crash.

New Jersey is the only state that requires drivers to be at least 17. Once the state made that change, according to 2, it saw a drop in deaths.