Food bank reports influx of donations

Donations have been pouring in to the Post Falls Food Bank, weeks after its board predicted it might have to close.

“We have a long ways to go, but it’s definitely looking a lot stronger,” Tony Vandever said Friday after coming out of the food bank’s board meeting.

Food bank officials had previously said they had about two months worth of money left. Now, though, Vandever said, “it’s enough coming in so we’re not constantly drawing from our reserves.”

Just Thursday, various donors gave a total of $2,000, almost a third of what the food bank needs for a month. Vandever didn’t have a total figure on donations given this month.

The food bank serves about 4,000 people. Though it receives food donations from local grocery stores, the organization needs money to pay rent, utilities and fuel for vehicles.

The food bank isn’t in the clear yet. It will hold fund-raisers in coming weeks, including a spaghetti feed at the Post Falls Senior Center on Nov. 2.

Food bank officials recently created a Web site, www.postfallsfoodbank.org, to increase its visibility, explain its services and make it easier for people make donations.

I-90 on-ramp at Pines to close for lane marking

The Interstate 90 Pines westbound on-ramp will be closed from 7 a.m. to noon today for construction work.

In addition, eastbound I-90 traffic will be reduced to one lane today from Broadway to Argonne and between Evergreen and Sullivan so that crews can install permanent lane markings.

The work is part of the Department of Transportation’s project to widen I-90 to three lanes from Argonne to Sullivan. The project is scheduled to be completed in November.

Residents joining call for suspension of gas tax

Nampa, Idaho More than a thousand people have signed state Rep. Bill Sali’s online petition demanding that Idaho suspend its 25-cent-per-gallon gas tax for three months.

Sali, a Kuna Republican running for Congress, told the Idaho Press-Tribune on Thursday that his idea to temporarily suspend the state levy would help Idahoans cope with prices that have risen by 50 percent to about $3 a gallon. Sali faces several opponents in his bid for the GOP nomination in the 1st District race, including Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez.

Passing such a measure in the immediate future would require Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to call a special legislative session, something Kempthorne spokesman Mike Journee said there are no plans for at this point.

Sali estimated that suspending the tax would cost the state about $40 million. He said Idaho could use money from its $214 million budget surplus, historically used to cover increasing costs of government services.

Police say bus bomb threat was a hoax

Hazelton, Idaho Idaho State Police say a bomb threat that prompted authorities to stop two buses in southern Idaho was a hoax.

Incident Cmdr. Kevin Haight said Friday that investigators did not find any bombs Thursday on the buses, which were bound for destinations in California via Salt Lake City.

One of the buses belonged to Dallas-based Greyhound Lines and was stopped near Hazelton for a search.

The other, belonging to Rimrock Stages Trailways of Billings, was stopped near Malad.

Searching the buses disrupted traffic on Interstate 84 for more than three hours. Police are investigating the possibility the threat may have been a prank call from a disgruntled passenger who was removed from one of the buses because he was allegedly drunk and disorderly.