Man charged with hate crime at pow wow
COEUR D'ALENE -- Kootenai County prosecutors have filed felony charges against an Oregon man, accusing him of making racist threats at an Indian pow wow.
Craig Thomas Gregerson, 34 is charged with malicious harassment.
Authorities allege he made threats while he was outside the Julyamsh pow wow hosted by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe on Thursday. Gregerson was drunk outside the Coeur d'Alene Greyhound Park, they said.
An officer said he asked Gregerson to leave because vagrancy was illegal. Gregerson became belligerent and talked about how he had cooked methamphetamine and how his girlfriend was walking with another man, reports said.
Gregerson then said he would kill the tribal members inside if his girlfriend got hurt.
County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said this was the first hate crime charge in northern Idaho that he knew of involving Indians.
Since the law was created in 1987, Kootenai County prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against two other people. One was against a man who assaulted a black man, and another involving a Post Falls resident who threatened an Hispanic.
New F-22 Raptor fighter wing may come to Idaho
TWIN FALLS -- The country's newest fighter jet cruises at supersonic speed, and can shoot down enemy planes before it is seen.
Southern Idaho might become the first home for the F-22 Raptor.
The Mountain Home Air Force Base is one of five across the country under consideration for the first operational wing.
Air Force officials will consider the options for locating the new wing in an environmental impact statement. They plan a public hearing Wednesday at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, a Tuesday gathering in Boise and a Thursday one in Mountain Home.
Military officials expect to get 72 of the next-generation aircraft starting in 2004 and propose to establish an operational wing, split into three squadrons of 24 each.
In addition to Mountain Home, the Air Force is looking at four other locations: two bases in Florida, one in Alaska and the preferred alternative, Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
Mountain Home, with expanded supersonic airspace and a new practice bombing and electronic combat range under construction in eastern Owyhee County, would meet the requirements for the fast fighter. Skeptics say it is no coincidence.
Development of the F-22 began in the early 1980s. The first proposal to expand training facilities in Idaho began in 1984.
The new training complex would accommodate the F-22, but it was not designed specifically for it, said Air Force Capt. James Law, Mountain Home base spokesman.
Because of the F-22's stealth characteristics, the pilot can cruise at supersonic speed while remaining off radar and can shoot down enemy planes before the Raptor is even seen.
The new fighter is much faster than the nearly 30-year-old F-15, and eventually will replace the F-15.