Amy Cannata

People who think college football's "Civil War" week in mid-November can get heated should try stepping between committed studded snow tire users and their passionate opponents. It's neighbor versus neighbor as winter approaches in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.

For those who think that the wheels of government can't be turned once they're in motion, a Thursday afternoon meeting on right of way for a proposed Huetter Road freeway proved them wrong. After two hours of public comments opposing the plan, the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization decided to also study a new option proposed by people in the crowd.

One year after its creation, North Idaho's CityLink bus system has transported almost 153,000 passengers over 700,000 miles and is looking to expand. The system, run as a cooperative effort of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Idaho Department of Transportation, now services three routes. The first is an urban route in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Hayden, the second a rural route through Tensed/DeSmet, Plummer and Worley, and the third a link between the other two.

Motorists don't kill as many deer in Washington and Idaho as hunters do, but considering that roadkill incidents are accidental, the numbers are alarming to at least one insurance carrier. The 1,629 Washington drivers filing claims after crashing into deer during the year ending June 30 represented a 19 percent increase compared with the previous 12 months, according to State Farm Insurance. In Idaho, claims also rose – from 607 to 724.

In a season of hotly contested congressional and legislative races, two advisory ballot measures about light rail have garnered little attention. The outcome to light rail supporters and opponents alike, however, is great.

A U.S. Air Force project to modify air tankers will bring new jobs worth $2 million annually to the Spokane area. The safety work on the Air Force's KC-135 Stratotankers will create 13 new full-time Washington Air National Guard jobs and 15 Boeing/Triumph jobs starting next month, said Lt. Col. Nancy Reid, spokeswoman for the Air National Guard's 141st Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base.

Don't blame it all on transplanted Californians. Born-and-bred Inland Northwest residents are just as capable of causing winter road mayhem.

Tokens and transfers will soon be a thing of the past on Spokane Transit Authority buses. Come Dec. 4, they will be replaced with two-hour tickets and smart cards, when STA starts using new fare boxes on its buses after a Dec. 1-3 free ride.

So you lost a bunch of weight and can't stand that your driver's license still says you weigh (fill-in-the-blank) pounds. Maybe your picture looks like something that should be hanging on a post office wall.

Jennifer Paulsen was looking forward to returning to Texas and seeing her husband after a year apart. U.S. Army Cpl. Bryen Paulsen has been deployed to Iraq since November.

The Transportation Security Administration worries about how much shampoo a passenger carries onto an airplane, but the Federal Aviation Administration can't say what kinds or quantities of hazardous materials are shipped through Spokane International Airport. Or any other airport, for that matter.

A proposed Huetter Road freeway could carry 38,000 vehicles a day in 2030, easing traffic pressure on U.S. Highway 95 and state Highway 41. But building it would require significant right of way between Interstate 90 in Post Falls and state Highway 53 in Rathdrum, and could limit development along its length. Work is wrapping up on a study of how much right of way is needed for the Huetter corridor after several public meetings last month.

State lawmakers toured the locations of ongoing and proposed Spokane-area transportation projects last week, but they disagreed over why there isn't money to complete them all. The group, in town for legislative committee meetings, climbed aboard a chartered bus and visited North Spokane Corridor construction sites, U.S. Highway 195 just south of Interstate 90, the site of a future railroad overpass at Havana, and I-90 near the state line.

A fire on a U.S. Air Force tanker plane in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday was caused by a runway collision with a civilian passenger plane, a detail kept quiet Wednesday by Air Force officials at the request of the Kyrgyz government. No one on the KC-135 tanker or the Kyrgyz TU-154 passenger plane was injured in the crash, which occurred as the tanker taxied on a Manas International Airport runway after landing and the passenger plane prepared to take off.

Three Fairchild Air Force Base airmen were forced Tuesday to evacuate a KC-135 Stratotanker when it caught fire at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. U.S. Air Force firefighters put out the blaze at about 8 p.m. Kyrgyzstan time.

Half the Washington Army National Guard now stationed on the Arizona-Mexico border will soon start a yearlong stint assisting the U.S. Border Patrol. About 300 of Washington's citizen soldiers have been monitoring the border near Yuma, Ariz., since the beginning of the month.

Ay caramba. That's what thousands of would-be Mexico vacationers could be saying come January if they don't have U.S. passports.