Craig Welch

The city of Mullan, Idaho, is facing a feline crisis courtesy of felis concolor - the mountain lion. A handful of the big cats - also called pumas or cougars - have been wandering this little city's downtown this summer, stalking their domestic counterparts and alarming residents.

Sheriff's deputies are investigating a Spokane River collision between a motorboat and a personal watercraft that injured four people Saturday night. The crash just west of Harbor Island sank the 18-foot Bayliner and heavily damaged the Polaris watercraft, authorities said.

1. Billy Washington of Spokane receives a treatment Sunday at the asthma camp at Camp Lutherhaven on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Vanessa Hoerner of Spokane, left, Crystal Schur of Rosalia, center, and April Johnson of Kentrick, Idaho, advance their trolleys during a game Sunday at Camp Champ. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Like it or not, cost is a factor prosecutors now weigh when deciding whether to try cases. And not always just for simple crimes like bounced checks.

The costs of crime fighting will gobble up more than half the property tax money collected by Kootenai County in 1997. That's an average of $148 per landowner - up about $35 from three years ago.

Macdonald

A nugget of truth 1. Treasure hunter Ron Wilson, above right, shows Rich Scales, 12, of Edmonds, Wash., the color of gold at the panning pond in front of the Old Gold Shop in Murray. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Ron Wilson's panning results: several gold flakes. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Police are investigating an apparent bomb explosion that shattered a window and damaged a home here early Tuesday morning. No one was injured in the 1 a.m. blast that occurred when someone dropped a gun powder-based explosive in an aluminum well surrounding a basement window at 12th and Birch Avenue.

Idaho Democrats asked Tuesday for an investigation into a 1994 land sale that gave U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth's campaign a needed boost before her first primary victory. The freshman Republican's campaign, however, maintains the sale was routine.

Caving in to complaints from area residents, state highway officials lowered speed limits on busy Highway 41 near Rathdrum. The Idaho Transportation Board on Monday returned the speed limit to 55 mph between Rathdrum and Spirit Lake and lowered it to 45 mph for two miles south of Rathdrum.

A bizarre two-car wreck that left a bride-to-be, her fiance and their infant daughter hospitalized has rattled residents of two adjacent North Idaho towns. "It was a crazy accident. A fluke," said Oldtown, Idaho, resident Louise Ells. "How does something like this happen to one family?" Her grandson, Benjamin Ells, was seriously injured late Thursday when his Toyota Camry was struck by another car as he drove west along a rural highway between Oldtown and Priest River. The other driver: his fiancee, 19-year-old Amanda Jones, of Priest River. Idaho State Police said Jones was eastbound on Old Priest River Road about 4:30 p.m. with the couple's infant daughter, Ski, in the car. Witnesses told police that Jones tried to pass a truck around a curve. Ells, meanwhile, was headed west when Jones suddenly appeared in his lane. "He didn't know who it was," Louise Ells said. "He just tried to get out of the way." Both drivers slammed on their brakes and swerved, but turned in the same direction. They skidded and then collided head-on. Ells, 20, eventually recognized the car, police said, and asked witnesses if it had a temporary license sticker in the window. "When they said yes, he said 'I think that's my wife,"' said Idaho State Police Cpl. Teresa Huckabay. Later, at the hospital, relatives explained that the pair were in fact engaged. Ells suffered a broken leg, ribs and arm and injured his hip, his grandmother said. He was listed in stable condition at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane Friday. Jones suffered more serious internal injuries and was listed in critical condition in the same hospital's intensive care unit. The baby also remained in ICU late Friday, but family members said she appeared to be recovering from minor bruises. She was riding in a restraining seat. "We're devastated," Ells said. "Everyone's in shock." Word of the accident spread quickly Friday among the 2,500 residents who live in the two communities along the Idaho-Washington border. "It's terrible and kind of weird," said Lance Clark, who graduated from high school with Jones in 1995. "I hope they're OK." The accident reminded Clark's uncle, Randy Butler, of the time he smashed into his own girlfriend's car nearly 27 years ago. After an argument, the couple sped off in the same direction in separate cars along Highway 2 - across the river from the site of Thursday's accident. Butler tried to pass her just as she turned left for a U-turn. "It was a dumb accident and nobody was hurt," he said. The couple soon was engaged and have now been married 25 years. Police on Friday said it's unclear where Jones or Ells had been headed, but said it was unlikely the wreck was anything more than a coincidence. "I worked Los Angeles 21 years and have been here for eight and I've never seen anything like it," said Sgt. Leroy Rasmussen, with Priest River's three-man police department. Cpl. Huckabay, with ISP, said the accident "is probably one I will always remember."

A farmer lights a field along Idaho Road north of Post Falls on Thursday. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Kootenai County officials Wednesday decided not to ask voters to raise sales taxes - five months after persuading state lawmakers for the right to do so. A proposed optional 1 percent sales tax will not go before voters this November - in part, county and city leaders admitted, because the political climate is not right.

A Twin Lakes Village developer is expected to withdraw plans for a monumental sewage drain field which has drawn criticism from both sides of the state line. State environmental watchdogs have given developer Charlie Potts conceptual approval to spray-irrigate treated waste onto the Twin Lakes Golf Course for six months of the year instead.

Now, traffic on state Highway 41 north of Rathdrum is moving faster. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

With an apologetic letter and better math, Bob Macdonald on Thursday attempted once and for all to explain how he paid for his failed re-election bid. The Kootenai County commissioner filed a third amended campaign disclosure report that both he and County Clerk Dan English said should lay the brief controversy to rest.

A proposal to protect Kootenai County lakes could prevent some landowners from building shoreline-hugging dream homes, critics said Wednesday. A new county plan sets guidelines on how and where developers can use heavy equipment when building homes along lakeshores. It prohibits digging closer than 75 feet from the water, with some exceptions.

City leaders may not act on a recommendation urging them to lease or purchase controversial Sanders Beach. City planning commissioner Steve Badraun said last week that population growth and overcrowding at area waterways mean conflicts between East Lakeshore Drive homeowners and Sanders Beach users may "fester and fester and fester."

Alexander Haig addressed 300 people Friday at the Coeur d'Alene Inn. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Kootenai County officials are courting a state juvenile work center that would house underage criminals north of Hayden near the airport. A similar effort in Shoshone County was abandoned last year after dozens of residents there expressed fear that juveniles would escape and steal knives and rifles from a popular nearby hunting area.

Federal money will be available to repair, but probably not improve, North Idaho's flood-damaged dikes. That's the word from the office of Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, who helped push a budget amendment through Congress last spring setting aside $18 million to fix leaky levees.

North Idaho disaster officials fear they are running out of time to fix damaged river dikes before the next flood season. Holes carved in the walls holding back the St. Joe and Coeur d'Alene rivers during last winter's floods have not been repaired because millions of dollars in federal aid are in limbo, said Bill Schwartz, Kootenai County disaster services director.

Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth finally is wresting campaign cash from supporters, but her pocketbook, to some, seems unseasonably light. The Idaho Republican's bankbook now boasts $139,000, according to new federal election reports. That's seven times more than three months ago, but still $2,000 shy of her opponent, Democrat Dan Williams. Non-partisan campaign finance gurus say that's surprising for Chenoweth, who should easily raise more cash than the lesser-known Williams.

Health workers still are struggling to explain what made dozens of Girl Scouts and adult volunteers sick this month at a Scout camp along Lake Coeur d'Alene. Officials at the Girl Scout Inland Empire Council are convinced the rash of stomach illnesses - which struck nearly half of the 90-or-so girls and about 15 counselors at the camp - was merely a 24-hour flu.