Another home run for Kidsports

Kalispell's Kidsports complex serves 2,500 to 3,000 youths for baseball, softball, football and soccer on an array of fields at the north end of town.

Soon there will be more fields to play on, with seven new baseball and softball diamonds to be built this summer. Work also will begin this year on an eighth field that will be geared toward people with mental or physical disabilities.

A major donation from longtime summer residents Robert and Lillian Howard is helping finance the $700,000 expansion in a corner of Kidsports. The new fields will represent another step forward for the 10-year-old Kidsports complex that is an oasis of play in an increasingly busy part of Kalispell.

This summer's projects will bring the total investment in the sports complex (a cooperative effort among five youth sports organizations, the city of Kalispell and the state agency from which the land is leased) to about $2.5 million.

It's an investment whose payoff is evident on spring and fall evenings and weekends when the fields and parking lots are overflowing.

The state Motor Vehicle Division is offering a couple of new online services that are welcome additions for Montanans.

One new system lets drivers check their accident and ticket records on the Internet; the other allows people to research the ownership histories of used cars.

The driving-records search used to take more than a week. Now it's instant.

And the vehicle-history search used to be available only to registered users of Montana e-government services. Now the public can use it.

Both new services require small fees but are commendable ways for state government to offer more information to citizens.

It is worth noting in this space that the Duke University lacrosse rape case is officially over.

It took more than a year for justice to be done, but it should be said that North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper showed uncommon common sense in coming right out and saying this week that the three players accused of rape had been the victims of "overreaching" by a "rogue prosecutor."

Those three young men have a chance now of getting on with their lives and making the most of a bad situation. They have been declared "innocent" and that is important.

What happens to the woman who made the false accusations is probably going to be a matter of some interest in the coming months, but everyone agrees that the would-be victim suffers from mental problems that colored her story.

The same cannot be said for Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who apparently brought the charges without evidence and then proceeded to vilify these three "suspects" even when he knew there was no chance they were guilty.

Nifong faces ethics charges that could get him disbarred, but he should also face a criminal investigation. If it can be proved that he arrested or held the lacrosse players without evidence, then he should go to jail. Abuse of power is a crime that no free society can tolerate.