Alison Boggs

Instead of tending his backyard garden this spring, Bob Carver is kayaking through 3 to 4 feet of water lapping up against his Rose Lake home. The standing water surrounding his four acres has delivered an early mosquito season and attracted a moose, which is feasting on his apple trees.

The cool, rainy spring is complicating street paving projects planned for downtown Coeur d’Alene, with contractors trying to squeeze work in around the city’s busy schedule of summer events. Paving Sherman Avenue through the heart of downtown was due to begin today but now has been put off until at least next week due to cold and rainy weather, said Rusty Price, project manager for the contractor, Poe Asphalt Paving of Post Falls.

Tom Aylward speeds off on his bike into the Rathdrum Prairie wind, accelerating quickly, determined not to let his training partners catch him. In the past month, the 62-year-old’s biking has improved so much it could become his saving grace when the Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene hits June 26.

In the end, it was a simple case of self-defense. Although the defendants did not dispute sending the plaintiff to the hospital with compound fractures in both legs, the jury voted 8-4 to acquit them on trespassing and assault charges.

For white supremacists who have made North Idaho home over the years hoping the region would one day become a white homeland, Tony Stewart has this message: Sorry, but just the opposite is happening. When Idaho’s most recent U.S. Census numbers came out, Stewart, a retired North Idaho College political science instructor, crunched the numbers dating back to 1990. He came up with results that bolster his greatest passion – human rights. The co-founder of the 30-year-old Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations says his results show the increasing diversification of one of the country’s whitest regions.

Groups of Idaho students walked through the forest in Careywood on Thursday identifying damage done to trees by animals, insects and parasitic plants. One birch tree had mushroom-like growths called heart rot protruding from the bark. A small grand fir had been rubbed raw by a bull elk. Other trees had been damaged by wood bores, root disease and dwarf mistletoe.

North Idaho is going gray faster than the rest of the state, numbers released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau show. The median age in each of Idaho’s five northern counties rose much more over the past 10 years than did the statewide average.

The North Idaho AIDS Coalition recently received one of the largest grants in the nonprofit organization’s history, a $72,000 award through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program that’s likely to be repeated annually for four years. It’s double what the organization has received from the grant program in the past, said Amy Dreps, the coalition’s executive director. Dreps, who took over two months ago, said that money will translate into better services for the organization’s 52 clients living with HIV and AIDS in Idaho’s five northern counties. Of those clients, 13 are female, 39 are male and most are in their 40s. An estimated 147 people are living with HIV and AIDS in the five northern counties, out of 1,254 statewide.

The North Idaho AIDS Coalition recently received one of the largest grants in the nonprofit organization’s history, a $72,000 award through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program that’s likely to be repeated annually for four years. It’s double what the organization has received from the grant program in the past, said Amy Dreps, the coalition’s executive director.

Inland Northwest skiers knew it would be a good day if they woke to hear Sam Wormington yodeling on the radio during his regular ski reports. “Schweitzer Sam” Wormington, the first general manager of Schweitzer Basin ski area, now Schweitzer Mountain Resort, died April 5 at age 90.

Lisa Fehling’s second-graders were practically quivering with excitement Thursday as they tried to listen patiently to instructions before dashing to their desks to begin poking, prodding and squishing octopi through their hands. Giggling, the students picked up the small, slimy cephalopods by their round heads, called “mantles,” and stretched out their long tentacles to measure them.

No docks will be built on Sanders Beach. That’s part of the resolution of six lawsuits dating back to 1998 between the city of Coeur d’Alene and the owners of eight homes on a Lake Coeur d’Alene beach that also offers public access.

No docks will be built on Sanders Beach. That’s part of the resolution of six lawsuits dating back to 1998 between the city of Coeur d’Alene and the owners of eight homes on a Lake Coeur d’Alene beach that also offers public access. “For the first time, there’s some certainty among the homeowners and the public about public access on Sanders Beach,” said Mike Haman, an attorney for the city. “That’s important because summer is coming and the public will know what they can and can’t do.”