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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Becky Kramer

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News >  Idaho

Shoreline violations warrant $30,000 fine, court rules

Washington’s Court of Appeals has upheld a $30,000 state fine against a Liberty Lake homeowner who built a concrete pier, a covered deck, retaining walls and other unauthorized structures on the lake’s shoreline. As part of the ruling, Lloyd Herman must remove some of the structures built without permits at 24603 E. Tum Tum Drive, or make them smaller to comply with earlier court rulings, said Brian Farmer, a section manager for the Washington Department of Ecology’s shoreline program.
News >  Idaho

Idaho cities look to irrigation to keep sewage out of river

Ken Windram frequently hears flattering remarks about the 55-acre grove of hybrid poplar trees grown by the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board. During the summer, the trees provide a green oasis on the windswept Rathdrum Prairie. In fall, they shed showers of gold leaves.
News >  Idaho

More struggle with heating bills

More Idaho households are having trouble paying their heating bills, according to the state’s Public Utilities Commission, which says that some poor families spend up to half of their income on electricity and natural gas. “With the way the economy is and the potential for future rate increases, we’re searching for ways to make energy more affordable for people,” said Gene Fadness, utilities commission spokesman.
News >  Idaho

Woman will fight the power behind the bills

A Spokane woman is organizing a peaceful protest outside of Avista Corp.’s headquarters on Saturday to draw attention to families’ struggles to pay their power bills. Jenna Cassidy said she was stunned when she opened her January bill and saw the $163 total – a jump of $70 from the December bill.
News >  Spokane

Avista customer organizes bill protest

A Spokane woman is organizing a peaceful protest outside of Avista Corp.’s headquarters on Saturday to draw attention to families’ struggles to pay their power bills.
News >  Idaho

Corrosive impact

METALINE FALLS, Wash. – Michigan’s automobile factories are more than 2,000 miles from the Pend Oreille Mine’s assay lab where Sally Dunn prepares zinc samples for testing. Yet Detroit’s pain is hers, too.

With mine closure, town’s future uncertain

Zinc from the Teck's mine in Metaline Falls, Wash., is used to rust-proof steel, much of which ends up in new cars and trucks. Over the past year, sharp declines in auto sales have sent zinc prices falling faster than a rock tumbling down a mine shaft. The Pend Oreille Mine, which employs 217 workers near the Canadian border, will close indefinitely as a result.
News >  Idaho

Creditors file claims against Sterling

Creditors have filed a flurry of lawsuits against Sterling Mining Co., saying the operators of the historic Sunshine Mine near Big Creek, Idaho, have run up nearly $2 million in debts. Sterling defaulted on a “bridge loan” and owes $1.5 million to the Utah company that arranged the temporary financing, according to a suit recently filed by the firm, Private Capital Group Inc. Other claims are flowing in from contractors, attorneys and suppliers of mining equipment.
News >  Idaho

Geographer proposes study of Spokane River

Everyone wants their gallon’s worth from the Spokane River. The river and its connecting aquifer slake the thirst of a region of 500,000 people. They provide flows for electrical generation, habitat for 18 native fish species and water for local tribes’ ceremonial use. They also support a fledgling rafting industry and provide a waste receptacle for millions of gallons of treated sewage from local cities.
News >  Pacific NW

Spokane River is ripe for study

Everyone wants their gallon’s worth from the Spokane River. The river and its connecting aquifer slake the thirst of a region of 500,000 people. They provide flows for electrical generation, habitat for 18 native fish species and water for local tribes’ ceremonial use. They also support a fledgling rafting industry and provide a waste receptacle for millions of gallons of treated sewage from local cities. Researchers say all those competing interests make it a prime candidate for a new kind of study.
News >  Idaho

Toxic flame retardants to be banned

Following the lead of European nations, Washington state will ban the use of toxic flame retardants in TVs, computers and other household products by 2011. State officials say alternatives have become available to flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs. Several other chemical flame retardants meet Washington’s standards for reducing flammability but are safer for human health, according to State Fire Marshal Mike Matlick.
News >  Idaho

Mackinaw harvest gives kokanee shot at comeback

At the Bonner County Food Bank, director Alice Wallace sets no limits on mackinaw. During spring and late summer, needy families help themselves to packages of fish from a freezer in the food bank’s lobby. Last year, Wallace and her staff gave away 4,700 pounds of the orange-fleshed, mild-tasting fish also known as lake trout.
News >  Idaho

Kokanee on the rise in Lake Pend Oreille

After decades of efforts to curb mackinaw populations and boost kokanee survival in Lake Coeur d'Alene, there's finally some encouraging news. A program to pay commercial fishermen to pull mackinaw from the lake has boosted the survival rate for young kokanee to 30 percent, from single digits.
News >  Idaho

Snowmobilers get avalanche of tips

FOURTH OF JULY PASS, Idaho – Ninety-two percent of people caught in avalanches will survive if they’re dug out of the snow within 15 minutes. So time was critical Saturday at Idaho’s Fourth of July Pass, where two dozen snowmobile enthusiasts gathered to practice their rescue skills.
News >  Idaho

Lawsuit filed to protect caribou

Editor’s note: Part of this article was cut off in some editions of Friday’s newspaper because of a production error. Here is the story in its entirety. Woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains are so imperiled that they could vanish within the next 20 years, extinguishing the last caribou herd in the Lower 48 states, environmental groups say.
News >  Idaho

Lawsuit filed to protect caribou

Woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains are so imperiled that they could vanish within the next 20 years, extinguishing the last caribou herd in the Lower 48 states, environmental groups say. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, four environmental groups blamed the Bush administration for the caribou’s shrinking numbers, saying it hasn’t done enough to keep snowmobiles out of prime habitat.
News >  Business

CdA Mines in high court

A dispute over a local mining company’s plans to dump waste into a lake in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest has reached the nation’s highest court. An attorney for Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that the company should be allowed to dump tailings from its Kensington gold mine into a small, subalpine lake. Environmental groups argued that the practice would violate the federal Clean Water Act, turning back the clock to the days of dirty mining practices.
News >  Idaho

Tribe gets OK for radio station

PLUMMER, Idaho – In the not-too-distant future, Valerie Fast Horse could wake up to the sound of drumming from a radio station that plays Indian artists. By tuning in to KWIS FM 88.3, she could also check winter road conditions on the 345,000-acre Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation. Or listen to a broadcast in Snchitsu’umshtsn, the Coeur d’Alene language. Or catch a recap of the latest tribal council meeting.
News >  Spokane

Buildings under the weather

The weight of accumulating snow continued to take its toll on Inland Northwest businesses Friday with a series of roof collapses apparently triggered by 4 to 6 inches of new snow that fell early in the day. Fire officials said they are worried that additional snow this weekend could set off more collapses.
News >  Idaho

Cold moose finds warm hearts

When a moose crashed through the ice at Priest Lake on New Year’s Day, residents of Coolin, Idaho, banded together to save it. About 30 volunteers took part in the rescue, which involved snowshoes, lots of rope, and some massage therapy for the hypothermic female.
News >  Idaho

Avista asks to pass on its savings

With wholesale prices for natural gas in a steady decline, Avista Corp. is paying out less for the commodity and says it will pass the savings on to utility customers.
News >  Idaho

Ecology cracks down on unpermitted dams

An earthen dam built without permits by the Hutterite Brethren near Reardan poses a potential threat to eight downstream homeowners, according to Washington Department of Ecology officials, who have labeled the dam as “hazardous.” The 30-foot high dam, on a tributary of Deep Creek, 14 miles west of Spokane, needs an engineering inspection and a better spillway, said Doug Johnson, Ecology’s supervisor of dam safety.