Idaho Voices

ABC/ESPN sportscaster Brent Musburger, who was raised near Billings, had high words of praise for the Coeur d’Alene area during No. 5 Boise State’s ha-huge televised victory over No. 6 Virginia Tech in Washington, D.C., last Monday. After Bronco linebacker Byron Hout made a tackle in the second half, Musburger mentioned to his broadcast partner, Kirk Herbstreit, that Hout hailed from Coeur d’Alene (Lake City High). Then, Musburger urged Herbstreit to visit Idaho in general and Coeur d’Alene in particular. “It’s one of the most beautiful spots in the world – with all those lakes,” Musburger said. Herbstreit responded that Musberger had piqued his interest in our area. Ditto for millions of others in ESPN’s audience that night. Alas. Criss-cuts are back

SANDPOINT – Forest Service officials in the Sandpoint Ranger District announced they will allow qualifying disabled hunters to hunt behind gates at Jeru Lindsey Road 2748, in the Pack River Drainage; Johnson Creek Spur Road 278F, in the Clark Fork area; and Grouse Mountain Sagle Road 1051, in the Sagle area. The program allows hunters with disabilities to use a motorized vehicle on the designated roads, which are usually closed to motorized use year-round. Sandpoint District Ranger Dick Kramer said the program is available to hunters who hold both a Disabled Hunting License and an Idaho Handicapped Vehicle Hunting Permit.

COEUR D’ALENE – The Panhandle Autism Society will have a daylong training conference, “Supporting Diversity in the Classroom,” on Oct. 1 at the Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Road in Coeur d’Alene, appropriate for teachers, therapists, parents, counselors and developmental agency staff. Tyler Whitney, clinical director for Intermountain Center for Autism and Child Development in Meridian, Idaho, will speak in the morning on “Understanding and Supporting Older Teens with Asperger’s Disorder/Higher Functioning Autism.” Participants will have the opportunity to improve their recognition of student differences, increase their understanding for instruction in the student’s strengths, of needs based programming and individualized instructional adaptations.

Today Carl Rey & the Blues Gators (Blues) – 1 p.m., Pend d’Oreille Winery, 220 Cedar St., Sandpoint, (208) 265-8545.

Ready. Set. Text ... “NIC and Phones + partner together to raise $ for the NIC scholarship foundation! NIC and Phones Plus; keepin’ it local!”

Most people associate the fall season with things like “back-to-school” and college football. Seeing as we’re in the midst of these things, the cloudy skies and cooler temperatures might seem right on track. But summer is not officially over yet, and we typically don’t see the most dramatic cascade into cooler, wetter weather until about the first week of October.

How much hard-earned cash would you reasonably want to spend on a steak sandwich? Let’s say you were dining at a charming alpine ski lodge which touts itself as “quickly rising in the ranks of the nation’s top destination resorts” and having a “passion for the mountains, infectious zest for life, and top-notch service.” How much is a pile of sliced beef with a little cheese on a roll ultimately worth, especially when served with a side of apathy and inattentiveness?

Locals attending the Aug. 25 Bayview Community Council meeting were startled to hear Timberlake Fire Protection District President Rudy Rudebaugh issue a blatant, if unintentional, confession to the allegations which have inspired a district-wide recall movement against himself and Commissioner Marty Fish.

When they first established a foundation in honor of their son who is fighting a rare genetic disease, Brian and Tricia Sturgis never imagined their efforts would not only raise the money the foundation has, but draw so many people together to find a cure for cystinosis – a fatal disease that destroys the organs in the body including the kidneys, liver, eyes, muscles and brain. According to Tricia Sturgis, cystinosis affects only 500 children and young adults in the entire country, or just one in 600,000 Americans.

Filings from July 23-27. Chapter 7

The screensaver on Ben and Maxine Byers’ home computer is a daily reminder of a fantasy lifestyle. Pictures of a 43-foot Gulfstar sailboat roll across the screen. The white and red ship sits dry-docked on metal frames in one image. A wood-lined living area, complete with a couch and La-Z-Boy, awaits decoration in another. A master bedroom with a series of ocean-view windows above the bed appears in the next.

My husband wants us to purchase a snowblower. Normally, one wouldn’t be thinking about such purchases during the last month of summer, but a few events have pushed the idea to the forefront.

I love this time of year. All of you are out there playing in the dirt, or trying to, and end up e-mailing lots of great questions that everyone is interested in. The first question has to do with when is a good time to cut back watering on tomatoes. With the wacky summer we’ve been having, that is a little complicated. If you have lots of red tomatoes, you want to back off on the water so they don’t get too much and split. Conversely, if there are still a lot of green ones mixed in, consider watering them by hand. Whatever you do, be consistent with the water. Tomatoes that have a feast or famine of water tend to get blossom end rot and/or crack around the top.

A wide variety of items at as little as half the retail prices will be available at Coeur d’Alene Discount when it opens in mid-September at 1515 Northwest Blvd. The attractive 5,500-square-foot store with a railed balcony housed Von Nash Interiors before it moved to Fourth Street and originally was the home of a Budweiser distributorship.

COEUR D’ALENE – The Lake City Playhouse will hold auditions for “The Elephant Man” on Monday and Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Harding Family Center, 411 N. 15th St. in Coeur d’Alene. Call backs will be on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The cast is in need of nine men and five women, between the ages of 20 to 65. Auditioners will be required to do cold readings from the script and should wear appropriate clothing for movement.

COEUR D’ALENE – The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre will present special readings of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” performed by Jack Bannon and Roger Welch, on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Todd Hall in North Idaho College’s Molstead Library, 1000 W. Garden Ave. The readings are of the script based on the novel by Mitch Albom, written about how a young man’s mentor helps him to see “the world as a more profound place.”

On Saturday, the following Christian service projects sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are planned in North Idaho and other local communities in conjunction with the Sept. 11 World Wide Service Day. Members from the Sandpoint, Sunnyside and Westmond wards will paint 91 newly constructed curbs in Sandpoint.