Alison Boggs

Homeless people in North Idaho now have a place to stay warm every night of the week. Ground Force Manufacturing, a Post Falls company, is offering an unused warehouse as a warming center through the end of February. In response, St. Vincent de Paul of North Idaho closed its Post Falls warming center and shifted its resources to the warehouse at 6001 E. Seltice Way. St. Vincent worked with other agencies, including Dirne Clinic and the state Department of Labor, to spread the word about the new warming center and collect sleeping bags, food and clothing for the guests.

Alligator Diesel Performance in Coeur d’Alene increased its sales more than 1,200 percent over the past three years, enough to hit Inc. Magazine’s list of the country’s 500 fastest-growing private companies. But earnings reports alone do not tell Alligator’s story. This company’s success is about more than how to sell high-performance parts for light diesel trucks. Or how to manufacture them. Or how to install them, all of which Alligator does.

Joy Richards has helped out with Kootenai Health Foundation’s signature fundraising event, the Festival of Trees, every year since its inception in 1989. But this year, the event took on added significance after her brother-in-law, Tom Richards, had open heart surgery a few months ago. This year’s event will raise money to add cardiac care services at Kootenai Medical Center.

Lines were 10 deep at the ticket window and every chair was full as Lookout Pass opened for skiing and snowboarding Friday morning, maintaining its tradition of being first among the Inland Northwest’s five resorts to launch the season. “I’m here to get my shred on,” said Tanner Puyleart, 22, a snowboarder who came up from Coeur d’Alene with three friends, all North Idaho College students.

Generous snowfalls have ski slopes throughout the region opening early -- much to the delight of skiers, snowboarders and operators.

Braydon Rimpau put extra effort into making a Christmas ornament at Coeur d’Alene’s Kroc Center this week. After all, his snowman, with its red felt scarf and black top hat, would be seen by thousands of people.  “When I heard this was going to go to Washington, D.C., and the White House, I couldn’t believe it,” said Braydon, who attends Woodland Middle School in Coeur d’Alene. “It made me really want to do it.” When the 89th National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony launches a month’s worth of holiday events in Washington, D.C., next month, two dozen ornaments, created by the youth and staff of the Kroc Center, will adorn Idaho’s tree. One of them will be part of the national Christmas tree in the White House Visitor Center.

The transformation of a former lumber mill site into landscaped roadways and a new intersection was celebrated Tuesday as the first step toward a long-envisioned education corridor in Coeur d’Alene. “In 10 to 20 years, I don’t think we’ll believe what this place will look like,” Mayor Sandi Bloem said. “It will be a legacy for the future.”

Amanda Duke stopped by the Fresh Start homeless drop-in center in Coeur d’Alene on Monday afternoon, glad to find a place she could feel warm and safe for the night. Monday was the first night the center was planning to offer its warming shelter to house people overnight, with temperatures forecast to drop into the low 20s, said Howard Martinson, the executive director. Ordinarily, temperatures below 20 will trigger the center’s opening, he said.

A Chicago company this week began tearing out about three miles of a BNSF Railway Co. line that has run through Coeur d’Alene for 100 years. On Wednesday, heavy equipment operators from C&C Track Works pulled up the steel rails and crews followed with long crowbars wrenching up the spikes. When they’re done, said worker Jose Lopez, the rail line will be left a gravel trail.

Temple Grandin was diagnosed with autism in 1950 and didn’t speak until she was about 4 years old. But Grandin went on to earn a doctoral degree and to transform the livestock industry with her research on animal behavior. Half the cattle in the U.S. and Canada are handled in equipment Grandin designed for meat plants. She became a college professor, a best-selling author and a sought-after speaker on both animal science and autism. An Emmy-winning HBO feature film was made about her life.

An 18-year-old Coeur d’Alene High School graduate is fighting for his life in a Missoula hospital after his car flipped on Lolo Pass on the Montana-Idaho border two weeks ago. Brenden Nichols, salutatorian of the 2011 class, Eagle Scout, church youth leader, track team member and accomplished photographer, has been in a coma since the Oct. 15 accident. His neck also was broken and a lung collapsed, said his mother, Jodie Nichols. The family is researching moving him to a neurological rehabilitation center closer to home, she said.

Jim Smith returned to his Post Falls home late one night last week to find his side door ajar. In the bedroom, he found jewelry scattered on the floor and several Black Hills gold rings missing. He and his late wife, who died 10 years ago from cancer, had collected them together over several years.