Monday
Monday, December 14, 2015 • A1 www.magicvalley.com • $1.50
• December 14, 2015
Hundreds Left Without Power after Crash Shears off Power Pole in TF • A2
TF Council to Hold Hearing on Liquor Sales NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com
STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS
Leo Martins at his home at the intersection of 1702 E 4200 N, the site of an accident in September that killed a 16-yearold girl, on Friday in Buhl.
Deadly Intersection Buhl Residents Want 4-Way Stop ALEX RIGGINS
If You Go
ariggins@magicvalley.com
UHL • Leo Martins can’t forget the B words Rachael Sosa spoke to him shortly before she died in September. “She was halfway conscious,” Martins said of their brief encounter. “She said, ‘I’m hurting real bad, can you please help me?’ That’s what bothered me right there, I couldn’t help her. I just told her, ‘help is on the way.’” Martins lives on the northeast corner of 1700 East and 4200 North, and in more than five decades has had to “cover up” five people killed in crashes at the intersection, he said. But none have had the sting of the Sep. 22 crash that killed Rachael. “She ended up here just 20 feet from my house,” Martins recalled last week. “I went out, because when you hear the sound, you know right then there’s a bad one out there. I went out there and got up to her.” The driver of the car, Rachael’s sister Candice Sosa-Redd, ran the stop sign while heading east on 4200 North, a sheriff’s report said. A semi driving north on 1700 East, which doesn’t have a stop sign at that intersection, hit the car on the passenger side where Rachael was sitting. The vehicle came to a rest in Martins’ yard near an apricot tree. Rachael was flown to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise where she died. “She was 16 years old, a junior in
What: Buhl Highway District Board Meeting Where: 1410 Main St, Buhl When: Monday, 2 p.m. high school,” Martins said. “That’s her prime.” But the crash that killed Rachael was just the latest deadly crash at the intersection. In May 2014, 20-year-old John Henry Towns Jr. failed to stop at the stop sign while heading west and crashed into Anthony Paul Madalena, 60, of Filer who was pronounced dead at the scene. With two deadly crashes within 17 months at the intersection, and decades of memories of other fatal crashes, Martins and others from the Buhl community are finally urging the city to act. “There are about five or six of us that are going to the Buhl Highway District board meeting Monday,” said Dorothy Morris, a member of Buhl’s Northview Ladies Club. “The club’s purpose is a little social club,” Morris said. “But we do things to help the community, usually it’s just financially, but occasionally it’s something like this.” Please see STOP, A5
Please see COUNCIL, A5
STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS
Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Miller teaches Buhl High School students defensive driving as part of the ‘Alive at 25’ program on Saturday in Buhl.
County Creates Driving Awareness Campaign MYCHEL MATTHEWS mmatthews@magicvalley.com
WIN FALLS • An alarming number of crashes occur at T country crossroads and the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office wants the trend stopped. The sheriff’s office is working on a campaign to raise drivers’ awareness of the road danger. “We’ve been concerned about the number of crashes at intersections and the highway department also expressed their concerns about needless deaths,” spokeswoman Lori Stewart said. “People need to slow down and pay Please see CAMPAIGN, A5
12 Days of Christmas Songs: ‘Star of Wonder, Star of Night’ MYCHEL MATTHEWS mmatthews@magicvalley.com
TWIN FALLS • Astronomers still debate the explanation of the “yonder star” that led those three kings of Orient to a manger in Bethlehem. Three Magi, according to Matthew in the New Testament, saw a star in the East that signaled the birth of a new king. Could the “Star of Bethlehem” have been a star, meteor, comet or supernova? “There is no universally a g re e d - u p o n a s t ro n o m i cal explanation for the Star of Bethlehem,” said Chris Anderson, coordinator of the Centennial Observatory at the College of Southern Idaho, “although there are a couple of perennial
candidates — both planetary conjunctions — that are frequently cited.” One of these candidates was a series of conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C. Another — Anderson’s favorite explanation — was an incredibly close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in 2 B.C. Several thousand years ago, astronomy and astrology were one and the same. Man depended on the skies to tell when to plant crops and when to harvest. Man also used signs in the nighttime sky to interpret events. The conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in 2 B.C., Anderson said, was surrounded by astrological symbolism and would have been Please see SONGS, A5
WIN FALLS • The City Council is T scheduled to hold a hearing Monday on whether to let bars stay open until 2 a.m. and whether to allow bars and restaurants serve liquor by the drink on Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and Election Day. Idaho bans the sale of alcohol on those days but lets cities and counties vote to allow it. Currently, patrons can order beer and wine at a restaurant or bar on those days, but not liquor. The latest closing time permitted under state law is 2 a.m., but some cities, including Twin Falls, have laws setting it at 1 a.m. The change would also allow gas stations and other stores to sell alcohol until 2 a.m. The agenda for the regular meeting, which comes before the public hearing, has only a few items but some weighty ones, including discussing the process of electing the mayor, renewing the city’s sanitation contract with PSI Environmental Systems and an update on the Main Avenue redesign. Now, City Council chooses the mayor from among its members. Mayor Don Hall’s term is up at the end of the year, and he has told the Times-News he doesn’t plan to seek another term. Last month, the Council decided to discuss the selection of the next mayor. It floated the idea of switching to a system where the mayor is chosen by the voters. Councilwoman Rebecca Mills Sojka, who narrowly lost her re-election bid,
3 Ways to Interact with ‘El Nuevo Jerome’ Join the conversation about “El Nuevo Jerome,” the special reporting project that concluded Sunday in the Times-News. POST COMMENTS: Find all the stories and photos at Magicvalley. com/jerome, where you can log on to post comments on the stories. The webpage also features the series’ first three installments, which published Aug. 30, Oct. 4 and Nov. 8. LIVE CHAT: From 11:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Magicvalley.com will host a live chat, where you can ask questions for reporters Nathan Brown and Julie Wootton, give your feedback and chat with other readers about the project. Participate in the web chat for free at the top of the Magicvalley.com homepage. SOCIAL MEDIA: Connect with the Times-News and its readers at Facebook.com/thetimesnews, or follow @twinfallstn on Twitter.
IF YOU DO ONE THING TODAY …
Buhl Schools’ music department presents its annual enchilada dinner at 5:30 p.m. followed by a Christmas concert at 7 p.m. at Buhl High School. Admission: $8 adults, $5 students. THE FORECAST
High Low
33° 22°
Snow Likely. Details on page B3.
THE INDEX DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Chris Anderson, Centennial Observatory coordinator at the College of Southern Idaho, on Wednesday runs a computer simulation of a 2 B.C. planetary conjunction, where Venus slipped out of sight behind Jupiter.
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