Becky Kramer

The Coeur d'Alene Resort and Lakeland School District are launching a two-year hospitality class that will introduce students to careers in Idaho's third largest industry. Between 15 and 20 juniors and seniors will be accepted into the program, which begins next fall. Students will spend two class periods per day, five days per week, at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. They'll follow a curriculum put out by the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute, meet regularly with resort managers, and take field trips to other tourism businesses.

Coeur d'Alene is home to three community banks. Sandpoint has one, and Post Falls could be next. Longtime local banker David Bobbitt is heading up efforts to open Community 1st Bank in Post Falls. A group of investors has purchased an old post office building at 707 N. Post, across the street from branches of U.S. Bank and Bank of America. Pending regulatory approval, Community 1st Bank could open for business in April or May.

If the laws of supply and demand govern residential real estate prices, homes in Spokane and Kootenai counties should be getting cheaper. Instead, the real estate markets, fed by home buyers from Southern California and Western Washington, wrapped up 2006 with more double-digit price increases.

When J.C. Penney closed its Kellogg store eight years ago, residents of Idaho's Silver Valley were left without a department store. Buying basics such as socks, jeans and underwear required a 100-mile round trip into Coeur d'Alene or Post Falls. Starting today, the valley's 13,000 residents will be able to spend their money closer to home.

Duffy Electric Boats are good for 10 hours of lake cruising on a recharge that uses less than $1 worth of electricity. But speed boats they are not. The electric boats run at a leisurely pace of 7 mph. "You don't have the option of pulling water skiers behind you," said Pat Hoon, a 30-year boater from Coeur d'Alene.

Post Falls could swell to 68,000 residents by 2028, Mayor Clay Larkin said Tuesday during his State of the City address. The projection is based on an annual growth rate of 5 percent. It's actually a conservative figure, Larkin told the crowd. If Post Falls grows faster – recent population growth is closer to 8 percent – or annexes more land for development, the city's population of 24,000 could quadruple over the next two decades, he said.

Bad news is often good news for gold and silver markets. If 2007 lives up to expectations as a year of political unrest and world strife, prices for both metals could rise substantially. "There are a tremendous number of problems that could scare investors into gold and silver," Jeffrey Christian, managing director of the New York-based CPM Group, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Litehouse Inc., a Sandpoint manufacturer of refrigerated salad dressing and dips, is on its way to becoming an employee-owned company. In December, the privately held family firm sold 30 percent of its stock to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP. The shares will be held in trust for workers, who will accrue them over time through vesting.

U.S. Products, a Coeur d'Alene manufacturer of commercial carpet-cleaning equipment, has been sold to a Danish firm – a move that will help the company sustain its rapid growth, officials said. The company makes high-end cleaners, retailing for $1,000 to $6,000 apiece. ServiceMaster, which cleans 10.5 million homes and businesses each year, is one of U.S. Products' customers. Company sales have quadrupled to $12 million in the past eight years, while the work force has nearly tripled. "Every place there's carpet, basically we're there," said Chuck Wilke, U.S. Products' chairman.

Silver Mountain Resort plans to transform part of the Bunker Hill Superfund site into an 18-hole golf course and residential community. Eagle Crest Inc., the ski area's parent company, received approval Tuesday night from the Kellogg City Council for a 565-acre development on the western edge of town. The land is located on a natural bench in the rolling hills above McKinley Avenue. It was once part of the Bunker Hill complex, a lead mining and smelting operation that employed 2,000 people.

Potlatch Corp. will cash in on the rising real estate value of its Idaho timberlands by selling off about 100,000 acres over the next decade. The land is more valuable for recreation cabins, trophy homes and hunting spreads than for growing trees, company officials said Monday. The Spokane company also plans to ramp up sales of "non-strategic" timberland in Minnesota and Arkansas.

The American dream of home ownership is fading for many Coeur d'Alene residents, according to a study released Friday. Families earning less than $50,000 per year – which represent about half the city's population – have difficulty finding a home they can afford in the current housing market, according to a study done by BBC Research & Consulting of Denver.