Betsy Z. Russell

Democrats filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission Tuesday over a $40,000 loan to U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth's campaign. Chenoweth, who said she took out the loan from West One Bank to cover expenses between the election and the start of her term, maintains that there was nothing improper about the loan. "I'm confident I'll be cleared," she said Tuesday.

1. Nothing fancy: The medium-security prison gives inmates a place to relax and exercise. Photo by Betsy Z. Russell/The Spokesman-Review 2. Warden Joe Klauser Photo by Betsy Z. Russell/The Spokesman-Review 3. Inmates put together a puzzle in the day room at the Idaho State Correctional Institution. Photo by Betsy Z. Russell/The Spokesman-Review

A skier plows through the powder at Whitewater Ski Area near Nelson, British Columbia. Photo by Larry W. Earl/The Spokesman-Review

Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton told a statewide audience this week that Idaho's counties are getting innovative because they must. "Taxpayers are mad as hell," Compton said. "And the feds aren't going to give us more money."

Gov. Phil Batt doesn't like impact fees or local-option taxes, but he said Wednesday he might support them if the Legislature makes a good case. "I'd like to see the impetus for that demonstrated in the Legislature," Batt told the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho annual conference. "I never see it. I'm willing to talk about it."

Gov. Phil Batt said Tuesday he's received half a dozen letters from Priest Lake cabin owners who oppose any move by the state to sell off or exchange the land their cabins occupy. "I haven't seen any favorable," Batt said.

Idaho will ban smoking in its prisons in one year, and all new prison buildings will be smoke-free immediately. The state Board of Corrections made that decision Nov. 3, sending ripples of dismay through Idaho's prison population.

To thousands of skiers across the country, his voice means winter's coming. Warren Miller has produced a major ski film every year for nearly 50 years, just in time to set snowflakes dancing in skiers' eyes as the autumn weather turns cool. Now 71, the sharp-witted, fun-loving Miller sold his film company to his son Kurt six years ago. But he still writes the script each year and serves as the movie's narrator.

Gov. Phil Batt said Tuesday he has received half a dozen letters from Priest Lake cabin owners who oppose any move by the state to sell or exchange the land their cabins occupy. "I haven't seen any favorable," Batt said.

North Idaho taxpayers will pay 3.1 percent less in property tax this year than last. A Spokesman-Review analysis of Idaho State Tax Commission figures shows that total taxes are falling in all five northern counties, despite substantial new growth. Some taxpayers still could see an increase, cautioned Henry Nagel, a Tax Commission division administrator. "It depends on what happened to their (property) value compared to the typical change in value for everyone else," he said.

Gov. Batt says hate groups "should consider moving elsewhere." Photo by Associated Press

Architects of Idaho's welfare reform plan decided Monday to stick with a 24-month limit for cash welfare benefits but added a break for teenage moms. The two-year clock wouldn't start ticking for teenage moms until they turn 18 - or 19 if they still are finishing high school.

(From For the Record, Wednesday, November 8, 1995): A story in Saturday's edition misstated the 1995 property tax revenue increases for Shoshone and Boundary county governments. Shoshone's revenue is up 9.3 percent, and Boundary's is up 7 percent. The Boundary County figure includes a voter-approved hospital bond levy. Without the bond levy, the increase would be 3.7 percent.

Dennis Reimer doesn't look like a big winner these days. Dressed in jail-issue orange coveralls, he was led into court in handcuffs this week. A girlfriend and niece sobbed in the hallway after officers told them they couldn't touch or hug him.

The tiny Kootenai Tribe's hopes to run a grocery story or other business in Bonners Ferry are fading. Members of the local business community have linked arms against the tribe's effort to win a sales tax exemption for a tribal business, saying the tribe would compete unfairly with their own businesses, driving them to ruin.

Marauding rodents with a taste for power cables? A single squirrel with the power to shut down all the area's TV stations and most of the radio stations for eight hours? Such are the headaches at Idaho Power, the major power company that serves southern Idaho.

Idaho's new get-tough approach to juvenile crime kicked into gear this month. By shifting the whole program out of the state Department of Health and Welfare and into a new Department of Juvenile Corrections, Idaho has moved away from viewing juvenile crime as an illness to be treated, said Michael Johnson, the new department's director.

Idaho's three-member Racing Commission voted Friday to adopt some of Gov. Phil Batt's suggestions for reforming the Coeur d'Alene Greyhound Park, and agreed to hold a public hearing in Coeur d'Alene to consider the others. About two dozen greyhound advocates told the commission the track has serious problems, ranging from mistreatment of animals to retaliation against those who speak out against it.

Minnick

Bayview's naval research center will build a two-story, 25,600-square-foot building over Lake Pend Oreille for its submarine research work, thanks to Gov. Phil Batt's agreement with the federal government on nuclear waste. Among the millions in federal dollars promised to Idaho as part of the agreement was $7 million in 1997 for the new facility at Bayview. Lt. Commander Rick Schulz said the project "significantly improves our ability to conduct our underwater acoustics mission."

Gritz

Should Idaho enact sweeping reforms of its welfare system, from limiting benefits to two years to making all recipients work? North Idaho residents will have their say Tuesday, when the Governor's Welfare Reform Advisory Council holds a public hearing in Coeur d'Alene.

Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, has won bipartisan support for his new version of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Kempthorne, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Drinking Water, Fisheries and Wildlife, has spent nine months rewriting the bill, which is up for reauthorization. His changes include exceptions for small water systems that cannot afford to meet large-system standards; $1 billion in federal grants for states, which can pass them on to local water systems as grants or loans; and a new process for setting drinking water standards that includes weighing the costs against the benefits.

More than 300 people who rent their Priest Lake cabin sites from the state of Idaho could get a chance at owning the land they lease. Idaho's Land Board on Tuesday gave approval to the idea of a three-way land swap that would allow a few Payette Lake cabin owners to buy their sites.