Idaho

The Statler Brothers appear in this 1992 file photo.

Story Published: Jun 28, 2008 at 12:54 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jun 28, 2008 at 12:54 PM MDT

By Associated Press STAUNTON, Va. (AP) - Brothers Harold and Don Reid of the country and gospel group the Statler Brothers are coming clean about which career award meant the most.

“This one has knocked us on our behinds,” Don Reid told The Associated Press about the group’s induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. “The Hall of Fame is the capper to a career that we are proud of.”

Harold Reid says the honor, to be bestowed Sunday in Nashville, makes their career worthwhile.

“It wraps up everything you did,” he said. (Read the full post about ‘Statler Brothers: Hall of Fame honor is tops’…)

Britney Spears performs at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in this file photo.

Story Published: Jun 27, 2008 at 6:16 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jun 27, 2008 at 6:16 PM MDT

By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - MTV isn’t ruling out giving viewers more Britney Spears at this year’s Video Music Awards.

”Everyone deserves a second or third chance, right?” Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music Group, playfully told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Friday. When asked if he was just joking, Toffler said ‘’sorta.”

”Who knows?” he said.

Spears’ out-of-it ”Gimme More” comeback performance during last year’s MTV Video Music Awards at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas was one of the most-talked televised moments of 2007. (Read the full post about ‘VMAs would consider second chance for Spears’…)

Verne Troyer

Story Published: Jun 27, 2008 at 6:10 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jun 27, 2008 at 6:10 PM MDT

By Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 25-second snippet of video showing Verne Troyer and a former girlfriend having sex that was available online over the past couple of days is all the world will see of the tape - for now.

A federal judge on Friday granted a temporary restraining order requested by Troyer’s attorneys that prevents porn distributors from taking orders for the full-length video, and prevents TMZ from broadcasting any more clips.

The celebrity Web site posted the short segment on its site on Wednesday; Troyer sued the site and porn distributors on Thursday for $20 million in damages.

U.S. (Read the full post about ‘Judge halts release of Verne Troyer sex tape’…)

Michael Lohan

Story Published: Jun 27, 2008 at 6:02 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jun 27, 2008 at 6:02 PM MDT

By Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - Another chapter has been added to the Lohan family saga - and this time, it may be another Lohan.

Michael Lohan, father of actress Lindsay, said in a statement Friday that he’s looking into a woman’s claim that she had a daughter by him.

Lohan said he once had a relationship with a woman named Kristy, whose last name he did not provide, and that he hadn’t seen her in 12 years. (Read the full post about ‘Lindsay Lohan’s dad may have another daughter’…)

Story Published: Jun 27, 2008 at 9:28 AM MDT

Story Updated: Jun 27, 2008 at 9:28 AM MDT

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - The buzz over Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” for the last several months was justified. With his final full film role, Ledger delivers what may be remembered as the finest performance of his career.

A press screening of the “Batman Begins” sequel Thursday night had the audience cackling along with Ledger’s Joker, a depraved creature utterly without conscience whom the late actor played with gleeful anarchy.

At times sounding like a cross between tough guy James Cagney in a gangster flick and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s fastidious Truman Capote, Ledger elevates Batman’s No. (Read the full post about ‘Heath Ledger delivers brilliantly as the Joker’…)

KREM 2 News

Fred Russell

COLFAX, Wash — Lawyers for a man who fled to Ireland to avoid prosecution for a 2001 drunken driving crash that killed three college students have lost again in their effort to get Fred Russell credit for time served in an Irish prison following his arrest there.

Russell spent 384 days in Cloverhill Prison near Dublin while fighting extradition back to the United States.

That effort failed and Russell was convicted last fall of three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault.

The chain reaction collision took place on State Route 270 — the winding road between the college towns of Pullman, Wash., and Moscow, Idaho.

(Read the full post about ‘Fred Russell denied credit for Irish prison time’…)

SALEM, Ore. — If you lose your job this summer, the Oregon Employment Department has at least a bit of compensating news.

(kgw.com graphic)

As of Sunday, the state will raise the minimum and maximums for unemployment benefits.

The department calculates those limits each year.

The actual benefit depends on how much you’ve made and is determined by a formula.

The maximum weekly benefit is scheduled to rise by $19, to $482, 64 percent of the average weekly wage in Oregon.

The minimum weekly benefit is scheduled to rise by $5, to $113. That’s 15 percent of the average weekly wage.

(Read the full post about ‘Oregon raises minimum, maximum jobless benefits’…)

HELENA, Mont. — State veterinarians from Montana, Idaho and Wyoming say cattle will continue to be plagued by a livestock disease as long as it remains prevalent in regional wildlife.

The officials are meeting in Helena to discuss ways of jointly dealing with brucellosis outbreaks.

Montana and Wyoming are in the midst of investigations to determine the cause of recent infections in those states.

Montana is losing its prized brucellosis-free status and Wyoming would again with a second outbreak.

The veterinarians say cattle in a danger zone around Yellowstone National Park will continue to get the disease as long as it remains in the park’s bison and elk herds.

(Read the full post about ‘States say Yellowstone must eradicate livestock disease’…)

Brucellosis eradication from Greater Yellowstone currently impossible says Terry Cleveland. By Chris Merrill. Casper Star Tribune.

He doesn’t agree with conservation organizations either — closing elk feedlots won’t work.

Endangered sockeye salmon beat projections in Columbia River. AP. Idaho Statesman.

After the collapse of the spring chinook salmon run into the Sacramento River this year, there was fear it would be general; but the sockeye salmon run bound for interior Oregon, Washington, and Idaho is 6 times that of last year.

There are numerous species of salmon and runs of those species.  In many years some do well and others not. In others almost all are up or down.