Becky Kramer

Duffy Electric Boats are good for 10 hours of lake cruising on a recharge that uses less than $1 worth of electricity. But speed boats they are not. The electric boats run at a leisurely pace of 7 mph. "You don't have the option of pulling water skiers behind you," said Pat Hoon, a 30-year boater from Coeur d'Alene.

Post Falls could swell to 68,000 residents by 2028, Mayor Clay Larkin said Tuesday during his State of the City address. The projection is based on an annual growth rate of 5 percent. It's actually a conservative figure, Larkin told the crowd. If Post Falls grows faster – recent population growth is closer to 8 percent – or annexes more land for development, the city's population of 24,000 could quadruple over the next two decades, he said.

Bad news is often good news for gold and silver markets. If 2007 lives up to expectations as a year of political unrest and world strife, prices for both metals could rise substantially. "There are a tremendous number of problems that could scare investors into gold and silver," Jeffrey Christian, managing director of the New York-based CPM Group, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Litehouse Inc., a Sandpoint manufacturer of refrigerated salad dressing and dips, is on its way to becoming an employee-owned company. In December, the privately held family firm sold 30 percent of its stock to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP. The shares will be held in trust for workers, who will accrue them over time through vesting.

U.S. Products, a Coeur d'Alene manufacturer of commercial carpet-cleaning equipment, has been sold to a Danish firm – a move that will help the company sustain its rapid growth, officials said. The company makes high-end cleaners, retailing for $1,000 to $6,000 apiece. ServiceMaster, which cleans 10.5 million homes and businesses each year, is one of U.S. Products' customers. Company sales have quadrupled to $12 million in the past eight years, while the work force has nearly tripled. "Every place there's carpet, basically we're there," said Chuck Wilke, U.S. Products' chairman.

Silver Mountain Resort plans to transform part of the Bunker Hill Superfund site into an 18-hole golf course and residential community. Eagle Crest Inc., the ski area's parent company, received approval Tuesday night from the Kellogg City Council for a 565-acre development on the western edge of town. The land is located on a natural bench in the rolling hills above McKinley Avenue. It was once part of the Bunker Hill complex, a lead mining and smelting operation that employed 2,000 people.

Potlatch Corp. will cash in on the rising real estate value of its Idaho timberlands by selling off about 100,000 acres over the next decade. The land is more valuable for recreation cabins, trophy homes and hunting spreads than for growing trees, company officials said Monday. The Spokane company also plans to ramp up sales of "non-strategic" timberland in Minnesota and Arkansas.

The American dream of home ownership is fading for many Coeur d'Alene residents, according to a study released Friday. Families earning less than $50,000 per year – which represent about half the city's population – have difficulty finding a home they can afford in the current housing market, according to a study done by BBC Research & Consulting of Denver.

The University of Idaho wants to bring an executive MBA program to Sandpoint to help busy professionals earn graduate degrees. University officials are pitching the concept to local companies to gauge the level of support.

As an escalator whisked Marlene Dreher toward Nordstrom's third floor, she flung out her arm and cried "Focus, girls, focus!" Her two daughters and a daughter-in-law – momentarily sidetracked by a display of dress boots a floor below – fell into step. The women, all Canadians, were on a carefully scripted shopping trip to Spokane. In four days, they planned to hit up to 100 stores. It fell to Dreher, a twinkly-eyed grandma, to get the troops to their first agreed upon stop: Nordstrom's children's department.

A retail and office complex covering more than four acres and featuring a new financial center is planned for southwest Sandpoint. Ron Robinson owns the land and is developing the project, which includes a three-story, 18,388-square-foot building that will be anchored by Mountain West Financial Center.

Post Falls appears to have hooked Cabela's. After months of playing coy, company officials confirmed that final negotiations are under way for a mega sporting goods store that could open by fall 2007.