BOISE, Idaho

Bill to allow guns on campus goes to House despite outcry

A bill to allow students, staff and visitors to carry guns on Idaho’s college campuses passed out of a legislative committee Friday afternoon, despite objections from students, multiple police chiefs and leaders of all eight of the state’s public colleges.

The measure would allow retired law enforcement officers and those with Idaho’s new enhanced concealed carry permit to bring their firearms onto campus. Concealed weapons would still be barred from dormitories, stadiums and concert halls.

The 11-3 party-line vote sends the issue forward to debate on the House floor. The bill passed the Senate earlier this month.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

Professor plugs turbines as way to weaken hurricanes

After dozens of nonsensical proposals to kill hurricanes with everything from nuclear bombs to cat litter, finally an idea that might work: enormous wind turbines placed offshore from storm vulnerable cities.

But costs in the trillions and environmental considerations will blow away any chances of that happening – at least over the next several decades.

The proposal, published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, involves placing tens of thousands of turbines around the nation’s Gulf and Atlantic coastlines.

Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University professor of environmental engineering, says they could cut a hurricane’s destructive winds and storm surge by up to 80 percent. He estimates that Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach would need about 40,000 turbines apiece, which would “extract enough energy to prevent winds from getting up that high.”

– From news service reports