Becky Kramer

Stock awards — best known as perks given to top managers — are coming to hourly employees at the Galena silver mine. A new contract signed by the Steelworkers and the mine's owners makes employees eligible for 50 shares of company stock for each month they work.

A Spokane company that puts the sneezing-scratching-wheezing agents into allergy shots plans to consolidate its operations in Idaho. Biopol Laboratory Inc. has purchased 12 ½ acres in the Riverbend Commerce Park in Post Falls, where it plans to open a new facility in late 2008 or early 2009.

Life Care Centers of America will break ground Friday on a $40 million campus in Post Falls. The facility will be the second in Kootenai County for the Tennessee-based firm, which is one of the nation's largest providers of nursing home and assisted living facilities.

An itinerant preacher from Post Falls used his status as a man of God to swindle investors out of $100,000, according to the Idaho Department of Finance. Michael R. Shaw visited evangelical congregations all over the country, encouraging the pastors and parishioners to invest in "Shattered Dreams and Broken Hearts," a book he purportedly wrote in the mid-1990s and planned to re-release. More than 20 people ponied up cash, lured by promises of a fourfold return within 12 months.

Vaagen Bros. Lumber Inc. has purchased a competing sawmill in Usk, Wash., a move that will help both mills weather a period of low lumber prices, the companies' officials said Tuesday. Ponderay Valley Fibre Inc. sold to Vaagen Bros. in early October. Though the parties declined to discuss the purchase price, citing confidentiality agreements, county records listed the sale of the mill and additional acreage at $20.4 million.

PRICHARD, Idaho – Three years ago, two neighbors found themselves commiserating about trash along the banks of the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. Peg Hammeren was disgusted by the broken bottles and cans she found in the blue-ribbon trout stream, which draws anglers and rafters from all over the Inland Northwest. Her friend Terrann Tester, a fire prevention technician for the U.S. Forest Service, told her about finding abandoned campfires on the shore, smoldering with wet garbage.

Federal authorities have given a green light to a controversial mine in the Cabinet Mountains of Montana, saying a struggling grizzly population of 10 to 15 bears will be protected from the mine's negative impacts through extensive mitigation. On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a "non-jeopardy" biological opinion for the Rock Creek Mine proposed by Revett Silver Co. of Spokane Valley.

New bargains appear almost daily in the lumber and plywood aisles of local hardware stores. Prices are dropping so rapidly for some items that consumers can find multiple markdowns in the same week.

Kohl's, a fast-growing Midwestern department store chain, is planning to build a store in Coeur d'Alene north of Silver Lake Mall. Kohl's sells mid-priced apparel and household items, competing with retailers such as JC Penney, Target and Macy's. The Menomonee, Wis., company is in the midst of rapid expansion, with plans to open 80 to 85 stores this year. One of its target growth areas is the Northwest.

Forty-five minutes from his home amid the wheat fields of the Palouse, Steve Broemeling can lose himself in trees. For nearly 30 years, he's ridden his motorcycle over remote trails that stretch deep into the forested interior of north-central Idaho. Sometimes, Broemeling's wife rides with him. Sometimes, he takes his 16-year-old son, the family dog and two fishing rods. "You can ride for days," said Broemeling, a 47-year-old resident of Genesee, Idaho.

Call it the showdown over handbags: A Beverly Hills firm fired off a letter to Coldwater Creek last month, accusing the Sandpoint-based retailer of producing inexpensive knockoffs of its chi chi leather handbags. Brighton Collectibles Inc. designs and sells purses, wallets and iPod covers, some with price tags of $300 or more. The firm's product's have a distinctive style, according to the letter sent by Brighton's attorney, characterized by costly leather, brocaded fabrics, filigreed metal parts, and the "prominent use of a heart emblem."

Sportsman's Warehouse, which competes with Cabela's for sales of outdoor gear, is building a store in Coeur d'Alene. The 49,000-square-foot store is slated to open in May. It will employ about 65 people. The fast-growing chain also operates a store at the Spokane Valley Mall and is considering building another on Spokane's North Side, said Stu Utgaard, chairman and CEO of the Salt Lake City-based company.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe is suing the former chief executive officer of its casino in Worley, Idaho, alleging breach of fiduciary duties. David Matheson, who ran the casino for 13 years, was fired in late May. According to the suit, Matheson paid out a $684,000 severance package to another casino executive who was forced to resign after racking up more than $100,000 in undocumented casino credit card expenses. The suit said Matheson tried to hide the severance payout from members of the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Council.