When the members of Amuma (uh-MOO-mah) Says No were trying to come up with a name for their new band, several slightly risque Basque phrases were written down and passed around the table. Read the latest news, schedules and more about Jaialdi Festa'ra at the Morrison Center Sports Night at Qwest Arena in Boise Jaialdi block party
Cell users can't get on the emergency list after all. Ada County's geocast system - a telephone warning system used this week to tell Eagle homeowners to evacuate during the Highway 16 Fire - only works with land lines.
The gift will create a new program called "Freddy's Fridays," which will offer free admission to the Center on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 6 through Nov. 19.
BOISE -- The smoke has cleared but stories of bravery and selflessness continue to surface despite the devastation the fire left behind. Wednesday's wildfire raced through the Eagle Foothills and many people were forced to make the decision of whether to flee or stay with their homes.
Brenna Hertux says she owes a lot to a man she just met Wednesday, while she and her family were evacuating. He is a complete stranger who appeared offering to help.
“It came like that,” said Hertux.
Hertux explains the terrifying moments after she and her family began to evacuate after the fire quickly surrounded her home.
“Everything disappeared in smoke,” she said.
Hertux's husband loaded their grandchildren and two of their horses in a trailer and left. Hertux was going to follow, but by time she turned around to leave the smoke was too thick to see her car. She returned back to the barn, and that's when she was surprised by a man crawling inside.
“This kid appears under my back door, under the overhead barn door crawling in saying, 'What do you need me to do? Let me help,’ said Hertux.
She says the young man introduced himself as Dakota, and together they hosed down trees and hoped for the best.
“He and I watched the flames come up to the edge and everything else was gone it was just all smoke,” said Hertux.
Hertux says she was overwhelmed by the young man's willingness to help someone he didn't know.
“It was really comforting to have somebody in there with me and he didn't have to put himself in danger and he did that for total strangers,” said Hertux.
In the aftermath of the fire, Hertux said she lost contact with the man who helped her.
“He is, I just don't know who he is, Dakota, we owe a lot to him,” said Hertux.
On Friday we were able to track down Dakota and reunite him with the Hertux.
“You don't know how much you being there with me in that almost inferno, you remember how hot and smoky it was in there? It was scary breathing it, but to know there was somebody else there with me it was a bit of reassurance, reassurance to me it's going to be OK, it's going to be OK, that we've done the right thing choosing to stay here,” Hertux said to Dakota.
“Second nature, it wasn't a second thought, I just kind of went for it,” said Dakota Essman.
“I hope there are a lot more kids out there like him. He's an example of what our youth should and could be. He offered up whatever he could to total strangers and put himself literally in the line of the fire to help us,” said Hertux.
Dakota says he will be going into the Marines this winter. He says he doesn't consider himself a hero and says anyone in his situation would have done the same.
MERIDIAN - A cyclist died after an accident with an SUV in Ada County early Saturday morning.
A sergeant with the Ada County Sheriff's Office tells us the accident happened just after midnight, on Chinden Boulevard and Star.
He also said a man riding the bike died.
Chinden Boulevard was closed for about four hours Saturday morning near the crash site while the sheriff's office investigated.
The sheriff's office tells us it does not appear that alcohol was involved.
EAGLE -- There are a number of incredible stories from Wednesday's fire and many of them have to do with the firefighters who risked their lives to save people and property.
Over 350 firefighters from several different agencies worked on the Highway 16 Fire.
With that, there's a lot of coordination involved in order to get ahead of the fire and put it out.
"The simplest way to take a fire is to divide it and conquer it," said Eagle Fire Deputy Chief Mark Rabdau.
That's the 50,000-foot view on how to fight a fire. But that's not the view that fires are always fought from.
"What you try to do is, as fire is you try to look at where is it going to go. Worst case scenario, where is it going to go? So we try to plan ahead. We came down and looked at this area, we got what resources we had on hand and we pre-staged them," said Rabdau.
And that involves planning.
"It's short term planning. It's kind of spur of the moment, because you don't have an option to plan for this," said Rabdau.
The Highway 16 Fire moved west to east. Homes dotted the foothills in between rolling hills and dry weeds. Fire destroyed some homes and hills, while avoiding others.
"It's the weather, it's the wind, it's the topography. Everything just kind of comes together or works to your advantage or against you, and sometimes it's luck," said Rabdau.
And sometimes the right equipment proves to be the difference.
Helicopters and air tankers dropping water and retardant were key in fighting this fire.
"The helicopters, they are very accurate with their buckets, and you can work with them directly, in close proximity to your crews, because they can control them better, so hand crews work with them directly and call in the bucket strikes," said Rabdau.
While there were a few homes destroyed, the majority were saved. Homes like Rick Green's.
"They saved these two houses up here, I can't say enough, and they were here all night," said Green.
"Best we could do at the time with what we had," said Rabdau.
Rabdau said that law enforcement played a key role in helping the fire efforts.
Even though they didn't fight the fire he said they made it really easy for crews to get around and in front of the fire.
BOISE -- The Idaho Department of Correction says an inmate who escaped from a community work center in Idaho Falls earlier this month is now a person of interest in a bank robbery in Salt Lake City.
Joe Dee Stang, 45, escaped on July 3, and is suspected of burglarizing an Idaho Falls business and stealing a van and a handgun.
The van was recovered in Salt Lake City on July 22.
Stang appears to be the man seen on surveillance video robbing a Zions Bank around 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
The FBI says he had what appeared to be a gun in his waist band during the robbery.
After the robbery, the suspect used a taxi cab as a getaway vehicle.
Stang is a white male, 5-foot-11, 220 pounds with brown eyes and light brown and gray hair. He has several tattoos including the image of a dragon on his left forearm.
He should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone who sees Stang should call police immediately.
The Idaho Department of Correction reports Stang was serving time for burglary and malicious injury to property in Bonneville, Bannock and Bingham counties.
EAGLE -- Some families in Eagle came very close to also losing everything in Wednesday’s Highway 16 fire.
Some amazing stories have emerged about the lengths some people went to to protect property and even lives.
Former firefighter Jeff Smith just happened to be at the right place at the right time with the right tool.
He almost didn't make it through the heavy police perimeter, but when some officials saw his front-end loader, they knew it could be put to good use.
While many people tried to get away from the fire, Smith forged toward it.
"I just think it was what you should do if you happen to be the one that has the front-end loader in the neighborhood and I happen to have it," Smith said.
The front-end loader, left over from his days as the owner of a local stone company, was put into motion.
While firefighters attacked the fire on the west end, Smith worked to the east, predicting correctly it would eventually come that way.
"If we couldn't stop it where it was, my home and the ones behind me were the next to go," he said.
For several hours, the former firefighter made dirt paths through the hills to prevent flames from crossing over and burning more.
At one point, he noticed flames at the home of his friend Ed Camp.
"The smoke was so thick. I literally, I couldn't see, and I barely made it back into that door," said Camp.
Camp's daughter's car, which was bought just two weeks ago, was engulfed by flames.
And Smith knew if he didn't do something about it those flames would consume Camp's home.
"The car was burning and blew up, and the paint was bubbling on the house just burst into those flames that start rolling just as I got there. So the loader I was able to push the cars away from the house and put dirt on the house," said Smith.
Camp says no doubt about it -- Smith came to his rescue.
"This was after it pretty much swept through, but it was still burning, and he came up, because the car was on fire, and the shed. You can see, by him pushing that over he kept that fire away from the house," said Camp.
"You can replace your car, you can replace your barn, but try and replace your household and everything inside of it? The photo albums, you know, you can't ever replace that," said Smith.
"I think, pretty lucky. When I was running down that hallway, and all our family pictures are on the wall, I thought, this is close, but the house is still standing. It's remarkable. I mean, honestly I thought it was gone. I told my wife it's all gone, and as the smoke started clearing, there's the roof line. It's remarkable really to me," said Camp.
"A machine like this could do a lot of good in a very short time, which it did," said Smith.
There were times when Smith felt like he was in danger, like when parts on his front end loader would start to smoke, but he kept going.
And Smith was supposed to be out of town Wednesday. He just happened to miss his flight.
EAGLE -- Families in Eagle surveyed the damage today from Wednesday's devastating wildfire and reacted to what was left behind.
The so called Highway 16 wildfire charred nearly 5,000 acres north of Eagle and left three families homeless.
The flames came very close to many of the homes, in some case stopping just a matter of feet from them.
Unfortunately, three homes were destroyed by the fire.
Seventeen-year-old Makenzie Baker and 11-year-old Jennifer Kitzberger surveyed the damage of where their home once stood.
"Right here would be like our deck, where the barbecue, chairs , table and the front door would be where the cemented part. I never thought it could happen," said Baker.
Both girls were not at home at the time of the fire, but saw the smoke and were worried.
"I got a call from her and said that houses were starting to catch on fire and I was like, 'holy cow that could be my house,' and once I found it was, I like broke down," said Baker.
The family says the lost most of their belongings in the fire, including memorabilia, pictures, documents, clothes and toys.
"This morning when I woke up, it just look like an atomic bomb went off, it's just incredible," said Glida Bothwell.
Bothwell lives one street over from this family and says by the time they arrived home after being evacuated Wednesday it was dark. It was until this morning that she realized how lucky her family was.
"I thought our house was gone," she said.
"You know you never are prepared for it. And we're not the homeowner, we're just the firefighter, but you're not prepared to see it and not be able to do anything about it at the time because the conditions are beyond your capability," said Eagle Fire Division Chief Mark Rabdau.
Rabdau says it was a difficult fire to fight, but even more difficult is watching families try to pick up what's left.
"I keep telling myself it goes on, I mean it's here one day probably will be gone the next. We have other things that we need to worry about, other than this. It's just life," said Baker.
The family that we interviewed that lost their home say they were just renting and did not have renters insurance.
Two other homes in the foothills were completely leveled by the fire.
Those homes were located right next door to each other on Skyline Drive, which is the street adjacent to where the other home burned down.
BOISE -- The owner of a popular hangout for University of Idaho supporters in Moscow is looking to cash in on the latest Bronco-Vandal rivalry talk -- using Boise State President Bob Kustra's own words.
On Tuesday, Kustra called Vandal culture "nasty" and "inebriated."
He later said those remarks came across harsher than he intended, but they've inspired a new T-shirt design from the owner of Moscow's Corner Club.
Marc Trivelpiece is taking advance orders for the shirts.
He told us that he thought Kustra, as a state employee, used bad form -- but he also said the BSU president made his week a lot less boring, and he'd like to buy Kustra a beer.
POCATELLO, Idaho -- A Bear Lake County man paralyzed from the waist down after being hit from behind in southeast Idaho by a fleeing suspect pursued across three states by a Utah sheriff has been awarded $3.7 million by a Pocatello jury.
The nine-member jury earlier this week found Rich County Sheriff Dale Stacy 30 percent at fault and the person he was pursuing, Darrell Ervin, 70 percent responsible.
It's unclear how much money Kyle Athay will collect because Ervin has no assets and Idaho has a cap on awards for pain and suffering that could limit how much Rich County will pay.
The crash happened on June 10, 1999. The lawsuit was dismissed in Bear Lake County before an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court, then sent to Bannock County.
POST FALLS, Idaho -- Tense moments Thursday afternoon as police and SWAT surrounded a home for hours. They were looking for a suspect, 28-year-old Joshua Moses, who is accused of kidnapping and extortion.
Police arrested Moses at the Falls Club after a chase that spanned many miles and many hours. Police finally tracked him down hiding in a back room.
The twisted story started on Saturday at a home on 18th and Compton. Police say Moses allegedly kidnapped another man, Joshua Benham, and held him for ransom. Police say Benham was forced into the basement where he was tied to a chair with duct tape. After a few days, investigators say his family came up with $2,500 and Benham went free.
On Thursday Post Falls police came back to investigate. They were told Moses was still there and armed with a handgun. They called the SWAT team. After six hours with SWAT waiting outside, police got another tip that Moses was already gone. Police tracked him for miles, finally finding him inside the Falls Club Bar near the Spokane River on Seltice Way.
Moses was unarmed when he was arrested. Police did not find a gun in the house either. Moses is charged with three counts of kidnapping, extortion, and aggravated battery.
BOISE -- Firefighters working in the Boise National Forest have responded to 16 fires since the lightning storms that began Monday night.
The Forest Service says the largest is the 16-acre Little Beaver Fire, which started Wednesday about 25 miles north of Lowman.
The five-acre Clear Creek Fire started Thursday in an unpopulated area about 15 miles northeast of Lowman.
The Forest Service says there haven't been any significant containment problems.
Meanwhile, officials with the Payette National Forest say seven small fire have been reported over the past three days from lightning storms that moved through the area.
Most of the new fires are in the New Meadows-McCall area. All of the fires are less than one acre.
One fire, the Pup Creek Fire, is in monitor status and is burning in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness near Chamberlain. All of the other fires are contained or will be shortly. Demobilization has started on many of the fires.
Firefighter patrols and airplane detection flights continue to search for additional new fire starts. More fires are anticipated.
Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson issued a statement Friday in regard to the Boise State-Idaho football flap, but stopped short of saying what action he took, if any, against Boise State President Bob Kustra.
I grew up here in Idaho and watched as the spoiled kids at my school went to college at Moscow on their elitist parents' money. My town is still controlled by these "holier than thou" jerks. I suspect most Idaho towns are. (They are the ones that were born into money). I think that the University of Idaho's elitist mentality has a lot to do with Boise State's fans and president not caring to play them again. Coach Pete called it right on! Go Broncos!
The Boise Gems rallied in the bottom of the 12th inning to defeat the Boise Capitals 13-12 and earn a spot in the AA American Legion state championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Timberline High.
Former Idaho Vandals offensive lineman Mike Iupati signed with San Francisco on Friday. Iupati, the 17th pick in the NFL Draft, reportedly received a five-year contract worth $18.25 million with $10.8 million guaranteed.
Cali Hipp, who will be a senior at Middleton High this fall, finished tied for fourth at the 42nd annual Trusted Choice Big "I" National Championship with rounds of 78, 77, 75 and 70 for a 12-over 300 tournament total.
Former Idaho Vandals offensive lineman Mike Iupati signed with the San Francisco 49ers on Friday. The New York Post reports that Kyle Wilson is expected to sign with the New York Jets in time to report to camp with his teammates Saturday.
The Boise Hawks are on the verge of the wrong kind of history. Boise lost to Vancouver on Friday night, 3-2, running their losing streak to 8-in-a-row. That equals their longest single-season losing streak in team history.
A pair of unearned runs in the sixth inning were the difference, as the Canadians won their 6th-in-a-row.
Game 4 of the series is Saturday night.
Local baseball phenom Alyssa Freeman is headed to Cooperstown.
The youngster from West Boise little league will play on a team comprised of the best 13-year-old girls from around the Nation. They'll face any number of boys' teams from all corners of the U.S..
Alyssa will also be inducted into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, and get a ring.
The tournament starts August 13th. Alyssa will be leaving on the 12th, but will need a little help to get there. So, if you want to donate a little something, please call 775-622-6205.
We caught up with Boise State Head Coach Chris Petersen and hard-hitting safety Jeron Johnson this week at WAC Media Days. They talked about getting Fall Camp started, and living up to the high expectations of the season ahead. Click above for the un-cut interviews.
This is uncut video from a conversation with Colin Kaepernick. Nevada's star quarterback talks about Nevada bouncing back from their bowl game debacle, and what it might take to knock-off the Boise State Broncos.
Idaho Steelheads Head Coach Hardy Sauter is in just his fourth day on the job, and he's already signed two players.
Friday, Sauter announced that defenseman Weston Tardy and forward Geoff Irwin have inked deals with the defending National Conference Champions.
Tardy, 27, played with the Steelheads last season, and was voted the team's defenseman of the year. He scored one goal and handed out 18 assists in 50 games in the regular season. Tardy finished the playoffs with a plus-four rating.
Irwin, 25, made his professional debut with Idaho late last season. He played just eight games, but tallied two assists.
There are so many events going on at Jaialdi 2010, but the event sports fans were certain to love was the Basque Games.
Teams from the Basque Country competed for an opportunity to come to Boise and perform in front of one of the biggest Basque populations outside of the Basque Country.
The games opened up with singing and sing-along songs, then the athletes were introduced with even more music and applause.
From there the competition was underway.
The first event involved two athletes from each team placing 15, 8-inch cylinders of wood or wood pegs on the floor in marked spots and then they had to go pick them up. The teams raced and the first one to finish won the game.
The second game featured a 200 pound rock and a rope. One athlete from each team pulled the rock up on a pulley as many times as they could.
What made this event look so cool was that the athletes would raise the rock to the top of the pulley, then time their jump with the rope so they could use all of their body weight to try to pull the rock back up.
The winner pulled the rock up 17 times in a minute and a half.
Another event that was very interesting was the wagon wheel. One participant picks up a wagon, weighing approximately 450 pounds. The athletes would then turn the wagon in a circle as many times as they could. This appeared to be one of the most difficult events of the evening.
There were other unique events that involved cutting wood with an axe and a saw, and there were more challenges that involved carrying weights.
It was certainly a different kind of competition, but one any sports fan could cheer for.
BOISE -- The Boise Hawks struggles continued on Thursday night as they dropped their seventh straight game and their second in a row to the Vancouver Canadians, 3-1.
The Hawks got their one and only run in the first inning when Richard Jones' RBI single brought in Jesus Morelli.
Vancouver came right back in the top of the second as A.J. Kirby-Jones evened the score with a solo home run. The C's added two more in the sixth inning and that was all the offense they would need.
Boise wasted an outstanding performance by starter Dustin Fitzgerald who went five innings and allowed just one run and two hits.
Eric Jokisch takes the loss in three innings of work. He allowed three hits and two runs in the sixth inning.
The Hawks managed just six hits in the game and are now 0-2 to open the second half of the season.
Vancouver and the Hawks return to the field at Memorial Stadium on Friday night at 7:15.
SAMMAMISH, Washington -- The U.S. Senior Open at Sahallee Golf Course started Thursday morning and a couple of Idahoans are among the field.
Jeff Thomsen who works out at Indian Lakes and former longtime head pro at Plantation Country Club in Garden City, and Ron Ptachek both won qualifying tournaments to compete alongside greats such as Fred Couple and Tom Watson.
And for Ptachek the experience was overwhelming.
"It almost makes you speechless, for me. You know I have been a club pro for 35 years and I have played in club professionals, but nothing like a US Open or a Senior US Open or anything this big. You know you get the nice Lexus when you get here, so that's nice too, but being here and getting a chance to be a part of this makes me want to go work more on my game and do it when I am 57."
Ptachek shot a two over 72 and Thomsen five over 75. The second round is Friday. Ptachek will tee off at 3:10 p.m. and Thomsen at 9:35 p.m.
Back in August of 2008 Boise State head coach Chris Petersen was forced to make a decision on who would be his starting quarterback. Go with the wise senior, the obvious leader of the team in Bush Hamden, or go with the unproven but certainly very talented red-shirt freshman from Prosser, Washington, Kellen Moore. Petersen, as we obvisouly know now, went with Moore in what was looked upon as one of the most surprising coaching decisions he's ever made.
But why did we doubt Pete? Or did we?
What would this decision do to the lockerroom? Bush was the clear leader and now he'd be on the sidelines?
Could the team rally around a red-shirt freshman like Moore? Could Bronco Nation really get behind this kid? I mean at that point, back in 2008, all Broncos fans knew was he'd thrown 67 touchdowns during his senior season at Prosser High School in Prosser, Washington.
Fortunately, the BSU players as well as their fans found out fairly quickly what this kid was made of. In his first start Moore threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns in a 49-7 win over the Idaho State Bengals. Not bad, but it was against ISU who doesn't exactly light up the FCS Big Sky Conference.
The world would truly meet Moore a few weeks later when the red-shirt freshman helped the Broncos to a 37-32 victory over the then 17th ranked Oregon Ducks. Kellen threw for 386 yards and 3 touchdowns and Boise State was back on the map and so was he. Moore earned national player of the week and Western Athletic Conference honors. A star was born. Moore went on to lead BSU to an undefeated regular season and a one point loss in the Poinsettia Bowl to TCU, 17-16.
But I don't think anyone could have imagined what the 2009 season would bring. He helped BSU to 14 more wins, 39 touchdown passes, 14 more than in 2008 and he threw just 3 interceptions. Moore finished 7th in the Heisman Trophy voting, the best finish by any Bronco ever, but more importantly he helped the Broncos to a 17-10 Fiesta Bowl win to cap a perfect season.
Over the past two seasons the Broncos have gone the way of Moore and as long as he's under center BSU is in very capable hands. The entire college football world thinks so as well. To go along with his WAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year honors, Moore is being talked about as a Heisman candidate and the season is still a month away. Kellen is also on the Davey O'Brien watch list, which means he listed as one of the top 30 quarterbacks in the nation and could be named college football's best in December.
But if Moore's first two seasons are any indication of what's to come I think 2010 could be even 'Moore' magical than 2008 and 2009.
The best part about all this Moore talk is that he is about the greatest person fans and opposing players could ever meet and when I talked with his parents last November they said he could be the best quarterback in the world, but if he wasn't the best man he could be then football didn't matter. That's most likely the reason he's been able to help this team go 26-1 in games he started. Kellen isn't just a jock in pads, he cares for his teammates and the community he represents and makes you wish there were more athletes just like him, everywhere.
Boise golfer Ron Ptacek has been playing golf his entire life and at the age of 56 he qualified for his biggest tournament ever, the U.S. Senior Open.
Ron, who was the pro at Plantation Country Club for over 20 years has been trying to make the U.S. Open for the last 20 years, but has fallen short. In order to make the open he had to play and win a local qualifier and then win at least one section qualifier to make it to the U.S. Open. Ron qualified at the sectional in Utah back in early June and finally got his opportunity to play on one of golf's largest stages on Thursday when he teed off on the first hole at Sahallee Golf Course in Samamish, Washington.
This is the entire interview he did following his first round 72 (+2). Ptacek is tied for 20th after one day of play in the tournament and will start his second round a little after 3pm mountain time on Friday.
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