Stories from Monday, July 23, 2007

With southwestern Idaho temperatures remaining steady in the high 90s and low 100s this July , the dog days of summer are here and the glistening waters of Elmore County's many lakes and rivers beckon to heat weary local residents and others looking for a place to cool down and have some fun...

A preliminary hearing date of August 3 has been set for Gregory Scott Muller, who was arrested July 4 in Meridian on child molestation charges. Muller, who resides in Meridian, is accused of molesting a 10-year old "family friend", who had been visiting from out of town over the Independence Day holiday...

Everything seems calm -- the water is still, the sun is shining, but a rumbling in the distance is soon detected by the rafters who can just make out the first waves. For about half the people on the trip, this will be their first whitewater rapid, and they aren't quite sure what to expect. As the rumbling increases and the butterflies begin, the boatmen give their first commands...

Close to 500 wildland firefighters in southwest Idaho continue struggling to contain a huge wildfire burning erratically in south Owyhee County and northern Nevada. Two fires, the Rowland and Elk Mountain fires have burned together over the last several days and are now known as the Murphy Complex Fire; by Sunday the fire had torched about 400,000 acres of mostly brush and juniper in sparsely populated areas...