Kevin Keating

Conservation officer Greg Johnson sees it too often. A massive moose lying helpless in the woods, its back broken by a different and deadly predator. A freight train. "It's an ugly thing," said Johnson who works for the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Last winter three moose were hit at once. All had their backs broken and lay there for days before being killed. The same thing happened to five elk.

A Boundary County teenager was spared a death sentence, but will possibly spend his life in prison for luring a 15-year-old boy into the woods and shooting him. A judge sentenced Wayne Thurman, 19, to life in prison Wednesday, ordering him to serve a minimum of 30 years. Boundary County prosecutors wanted Thurman put to death, saying he had shown no remorse and had an "utter disregard for human life."

The tiny clothes, toys and baby photos of Rochelle Jeppe sen's first child, 20-month-old Casey, are lost forever. The items, along with nearly everything else owned by Jeppesen and her husband, Alan, went up in a house fire Sunday. The Boundary County couple had gone to Spokane for the weekend to visit relatives and shop. While they were gone, a fire - possibly caused by a wood stove - destroyed their home and killed their cat.

Schweitzer Mountain Resort is $28 million in debt, in bankruptcy and for sale. But what worries resort workers and Sandpoint businesses right now isn't the lack of cash. It's the lack of snow.

Teachers have quit. A physician and his family decided not to move here. And an international mail-order catalog company has trouble luring executives to its headquarters in Sandpoint.

The state fire marshal and Bonner County detectives picked through ashes Thursday, looking for the cause of a house fire that killed an 8-year-old girl and her mother. The two-story home on Riley Creek Road burned to the ground Wednesday. The owner, Todd Shoemaker, escaped the flames, but Sandra Peak, 31, and her daughter, Tanna Marquardt, died inside.

Neighbor Stan Urmann tells detective Howard Burke what he saw of a house fire that killed two in Bonner County. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Athletes in Priest River will be guinea pigs of sorts for the Bonner County School District's new mandatory drug-testing policy. After months of debate, school trustees have approved a pilot program to try to curb student drug use. The test site will be Priest River Lamanna High School, where parents and teachers pushed to have the program put in place.

A Post Falls man could face criminal charges for allegedly shooting and seriously wounding another hunter he mistook for a deer. The hunting accident occurred on Thanksgiving Day near Kelso Lake, south of Sandpoint.

Jean Brown, right, and her daughter Bobbie Huguenin are trying to cling to the last of the Brown family fortune. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Schweitzer founder Jack Fowler, third from left, is shown in this 1964 photo with, from left, Sam Wormington, then-manager of Schweitzer; Stein Erickson, director of a Vermont ski resort; and Heli Schaller, a Minnesota ski instructor. File/The Spokesman-Review

The Bonner County School District is taking a King Solomon approach to its problems. It wants to split itself in half. The school board approved a plan Tuesday to divide this huge district into an east and west side. The move must be approved by voters and would make Sandpoint and Priest River, about 25 miles to the west, two separate districts. Each area would have its own trustees, superintendent, and budget The goal is to give residents more control over how their schools are run and stop tension between communities. Residents in Priest River often feel shortchanged, saying trustees lavish more attention and money on schools in Sandpoint.

Thousands of Canadians are crossing the U.S. border, carrying their letters and packages and searching for an open post office. Canada's postal workers are on strike. The only way to ensure packages and Christmas cards will reach relatives overseas is to ship them via the U.S. Postal Service.

The cash Schweitzer Mountain Resort needs to open and pay employees was freed up Thursday when a judge refused to turn the ski hill over to family members who put it millions of dollars in debt.

The Bonnie Raitt concerts are Dec. 12 in Helena and Dec. 14 in Missoula. File/Capitol Records

Students in Bonner County schools use drugs. That's no secret. What school officials want to know is whether a mandatory drug testing policy will help curb the problem. About 70 residents turned out Wednesday to debate a program that would require only athletes to give urine samples and be screened for drug use. Students in grades seven through 12 would be tested.

Just weeks before Schweitzer Mountain Resort is slated to open, its owners have thrown a wrench into winter operations and a pending sale of the debt-ridden ski hill. To regain control of the resort, Sandpoint's Brown family has placed Schweitzer into bankruptcy protection.

To help prosecute FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi, Boundary County officials have paid $1 to hire a Los Angeles lawyer who specializes in police brutality cases. Stephen Yagman was sworn in Wednesday as a special prosecutor to assist Boundary County Prosecutor Denise Woodbury.

After complaints from teachers went unheeded, a group of Bonner County businessmen have stepped up to decry how the school district here is being run. "The overall health of the educational system in Bonner County has become a great concern," Curt Hecker, president of Panhandle State Bank, told trustees Tuesday night. "Opportunities for economic development are often forestalled by fears over the quality of our schools."

A failing, outdated sewage lagoon at the fairgrounds has Bonner County commissioners in a bind. State environmental officials said the system leaks and could overflow, sending raw sewage onto the ground. The lagoon does not meet state standards and needs to be replaced or tied into a waste treatment plant.

A special closed-door meeting in Sun Valley - far away from school district patrons here - has Bonner County trustees under fire. All but one of the district's board members went to Sun Valley for a convention this week. Trustees met in executive session there Friday to discuss a personnel matter. The meeting, which was legal, prompted complaints to the district office. It also has residents and the one absent trustee curious about what was so critical that the meeting had to conducted out of the county. "It is legal but is it ethical? That really bothers me," said trustee Teresa Asbill. She had the flu and could not attend. But Asbill said she was not notified of the meeting. She found out when a resident called questioning the executive session. "If there is such a critical issue they have to deal with it outside our county it's important all board members be notified," Asbill said, adding she could have been included via telephone. "I'm concerned there would be such a need for this when we have a board workshop scheduled (Sunday)." Trustees reportedly invited some officials from the State Department of Education to attend the executive session. Members of the Sandpoint business community, including Mayor David Sawyer, also may have been invited. "I've heard rumors about business people being invited but I don't know anything about it other than the rumors," Asbill said. City officials said Sawyer was out of town Friday but could not confirm if he was at the Sun Valley meeting. According to several sources, the trustees wanted to discuss Superintendent Max Harrell's performance as head of the district. Asbill heard that item was possibly on the agenda, but did not know for sure. Harrell was unavailable for comment. "Everybody wants to know what is going on," Asbill said. "I'm very upset I wasn't informed." She spoke with Harrell on Friday, and he said he did not know what the meeting was about. There were two resignations in the Central Office this week, but Asbill doubted that is why the meeting was called. Jane May, director of human resources quit, as did Christy Whittaker, Harrell's secretary. Harrell's performance has been under scrutiny since the state Department of Education criticized district operations in July. An audit report released last week also said the district suffered from a lack of supervision and communication. The Bonner County teacher's union cast a vote of no confidence in Harrell last year. Union members were trying to reach board members in Sun Valley on Friday to question the special meeting. "It is legal but it certainly stretches the intent of the Open Meetings Law," said Rob Nicholson, research director for the Idaho Education Association. "It's not a proper way to operate the district even if they were entitled to go into executive session." Nicholson said he's never encountered a school board that's held a formal meeting while at a convention. "To be somewhere where the general populace can't attend doesn't make sense. It's just unbelievable."

The roads around the Boundary Creek area are sparsely traveled but poular with hunters, berry pickers and sightseers. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Residents who want to stop a U.S. Highway 95 bypass along Sand Creek waged a surprising but unsuccessful last minute write-in campaign for three City Council seats. Organizers hoped low voter turnout would allow at least one write-in candidate to land a council post.

Lawyers for FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi have set the stage to ask that an involuntary manslaughter charge against him be dismissed. At Ruby Ridge, Horiuchi was doing his duty as a government agent when he fired a shot that killed Vicki Weaver, wife of white separatist Randy Weaver, according to court documents filed Friday. "Special Agent Horiuchi cannot be prosecuted for a crime under Idaho law for an act he performed as a federal officer..." the court filing said. The U.S. Constitution has a "supremacy clause" that allows federal officers immunity for acts committed in the line of duty, Horiuchi's attorneys said.