Becky Kramer

The embattled president of the Hayden Chamber of Commerce resigned Wednesday, following two weeks of infighting related to $130,000 still owed to creditors from a 2004 air show. "It's in the interest of the chamber for me personally to step down," Robbie Canfield said Wednesday afternoon. "Paying off the debts has been my agenda all year…as a result of trying to do something good, I've come under attack."

In North Idaho's labor market, job seekers continue to hold the competitive advantage. The region's unemployment rate sunk to 3.4 percent in April, with each of the five counties posting record or near-record low unemployment. In real terms, nearly 102,000 of North Idaho's residents have jobs and 3,500 are looking for work.

Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. announced plans Thursday for a $1.1 billion merger with an Australian and a Canadian firm to gain control of a Mexican silver mine. Ownership of the Palmarejoproperty, located about 260 miles south of Chihuahua, Mexico, would nearly double the company's current annual silver output, officials said. It would also give Coeur d'Alene Mines its first property in Mexico.

A controversial plan to pay off $130,000 the Hayden Chamber of Commerce still owes from a 2004 air show has apparently created trouble for Chamber President Robbie Canfield. On Tuesday, the chamber's board of directors will meet to discuss the unpaid volunteer's future with the chamber.

Wild Waters is adding a $1.5 million lazy river this summer as part of an effort to appeal to the parents who bring their kids to the Coeur d'Alene water park. "Our adult customers told us this is what they wanted," said Stacey Lavin, park consultant. "They'll be able to get a smoothie from the (non-alcoholic) float-up bar and take a tube ride."

Northwest Place, a new retail-office development, is getting a $118,000 boost from the Lake City Development Corp. Board members voted Wednesday to help pay demolition costs for former buildings on the site. LCDC is Coeur d'Alene's urban renewal agency.

The Berg Companies – makers of tents, trailers and other equipment for remote sites – have purchased 30 acres in Post Falls for a new facility. Berg is competing for several large military contracts, which could steer millions of dollars worth of work to the three affiliated companies over the next several years, said Andy Barrett, managing partner in The Berg Companies. The new plant is needed to accommodate an expanding workload, he said.

A Coeur d'Alene man used an Iraqi currency scam to swindle investors out of more than $600,000, according to the Idaho Department of Finance. Jack Lee Smiley told investors they could get a 33-fold return by giving him funds to buy up Iraqi dinars, court documents said.

A UPS truck driver from Charlotte, N.C., is trying to change the labor representation for 238,000 United Parcel Service Workers. For more than 40 years, the Teamsters union has represented UPS workers. But discontent with the Teamsters' pension plan management has led to a rival group: The Association of Parcel Workers of America.

Potlatch Corp. plans to sell its poplar tree farm in Boardman, Ore., and reinvest the money in Wisconsin forestlands. A group of private investors will purchase the tree farm for $65 million, company officials announced Friday. The sale is expected to close later this spring. At the request of the investors, they are not being identified at this time, said Mark Benson, Potlatch's vice president of public affairs.The poplars are a silvery-green landmark to motorists driving a dusty stretch of Interstate 84. When Potlatch established the 17,000-acre plantation in 1992, the company planned to produce wood chips for its pulp and paperboard operations in Lewiston.

Gold Reserve Inc.'s stock price shot up 50 percent Wednesday after the Spokane firm announced that it has received permits to build one of Venezuela's largest gold mines. The Brisas project would be the first operating mine in Gold Reserve's portfolio. The junior mining company's stock closed at $6.60 per share on the American Stock Exchange.

Schweitzer Mountain Resort is increasing its season pass prices by $100 or more next season — moving further away from the discount rates local resorts once embraced. Tom Chasse, Schweitzer's general manager, said the new rates more accurately reflect the cost of doing business at the Sandpoint ski hill, which recently announced $10 million worth of improvements for next season, including a new chair lift.

After 16 years of permitting battles, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. had hoped to open the $238 million Kensington gold mine in Alaska later this year. But the mine – located about 45 air miles north of Juneau – hit another legal setback late last week, when a federal appeals court indicated that it will overturn a permit for the mine's tailings facility.