Becky Kramer

Eric Louis pays out about $600 each year on union dues, money the Coeur d'Alene High School English teacher considers well spent. "I can't imagine not being a member of a union," he said Friday from his classroom, where he was supervising an after-school meeting of the yearbook staff. "The union backs me up."

Buying a home in Kootenai County cost about $40,000 more in 2005 than it did the previous year, according to figures from the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors. In a year characterized by scarce inventories and bidding wars, home values shot up nearly 30 percent. The average sales price for a Kootenai County home rose to $210,913.

Schweitzer Mountain Resort is teaming up with North Idaho College to offer an accredited class on terrain park management. In addition to classroom instruction, students will put in 30 hours of fieldwork, including building half-pipes and logging time on Snowcats.

Potlatch Corp. is looking into the possibility of building a refinery at its Arkansas pulp and paper mill to turn agricultural waste and wood scraps into synthetic crude oil. The refinery, if successful, could provide 80 percent of the energy needed to run the Cypress Bend mill.

A pedicure to go with that party dress, anyone? Coldwater Creek Inc. plans to give the idea a test run. The women's apparel chain will open six day spas in targeted locations later this year. Officials at the Sandpoint-based retailer think that facials, manicures and massages could be the perfect complement to a day of shopping.

A Spokane company plans to build a gold-and-silver mine on the wind-swept plains of Patagonia. Minera Andes Inc. secured the mineral rights to the San Jose deposit, located in southern Argentina, in the late 1990s. After eight years of hard work, several key pieces recently slipped into place, allowing the firm to target an opening date in early 2007, said Allen Ambrose, company president.

Penn Siegel will step down as president and chief executive officer of Potlatch Corp. in February, officials announced Monday. He will be succeeded by Mike Covey, who is currently an executive vice president at Plum Creek Timber Co. Siegel, 63, said he is looking forward to retirement after completing several key initiatives at the forest products company, which is headquartered in Spokane. He was appointed to the post in 1999, and will continue in his role as board chairman through the end of 2006.

If Coeur d'Alene's sidewalks, shops and streets feel a little congested during the day – like maybe more than the city's official populace of 35,000 is scurrying about – it isn't an illusion. Commuters heading into town for work increase the city's daytime population by 20 percent, according to U.S. Census estimates. The net gain of population during the 9-to-5 period is a distinction Coeur d'Alene shares with the cities of Spokane, Sandpoint, Cheney and Colville.

No Christmas trees, Laura Skaer told the staff at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park. No festive decorations, either, she added.

One of every nine Idaho residents earns a paycheck from the tourism industry, according to a new state study commissioned by Idaho's Commerce & Labor Department. And in some rural counties, one in four jobs is tourism-related. The study sheds light on the rapid growth of the travel industry, said Carl Wilgus, head of the state's tourism division.

A locally produced software program to help mining companies comply with federal rules for hazardous chemicals has proved so popular that the Spokane Research Laboratory has issued a new version for other industries. The "Haz-Com Helper" first debuted in 2003. The free software was initially designed to help small mining companies comply with new federal rules for chemicals, said Doug Scott, a research physical scientist at the Spokane Research Lab. When lab employees noticed that half the requests were coming from other types of industries, they developed a new version, which was released this year.

Employment at Hecla Mining Co.'s Lucky Friday Mine has shot up 24 percent this year, as workers tapped into a new, deeper area of silver ore. The mine, already one of the deepest hardrock mines in North America, is adding 1,000 feet to its depth.