Craig Welch

Washington and Idaho lost 3,500 licensed firearms dealers in the past 30 months. While surviving gun shop owners admit the change is good for business, not all are grateful for the plummeting competition.

Realtor Patrick Hall thought he had a good deal, paying $165,000 for a rural, 10-acre waterfront tract. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

For years, Sue Fall fought with neighbors who wanted to dredge out land under Kidd Island Bay - land she insisted was hers. A court ruling last week reinforces Fall's ownership of the land and could effectively kill a multimillion-dollar plan to dredge the bay for better fishing, swimming and boating.

Ormesher

FOR THE RECORD: April 23, 1996 CORRECTION: Lonny Duce is the manager of Shoshone Funeral Services. His position with the company was incorrectly stated in an article in Sunday's newspaper.

After brawling with a man at a bar last year, Urbano Brito-Herrera either stalked and tried to kill the man or simply walked away after the possibly racially motivated fight. That's the two versions prosecutors and defense attorneys told a Kootenai County jury Monday at the start of Brito-Herrera's trial on charges of first-degree attempted murder.

In 1992, Realtor Don "Pepper" Smock thought little about property taxes and even less about tax activist Ron Rankin. He listened as Rankin pleaded the case for a 1 percent property tax cap. Like most voters that year - almost two-thirds, in fact - Smock wasn't interested.

As this year's election season neared, Kootenai County Democrats thought they'd been infused with healthy new blood. Instead, they struggled with candidate anemia.

Lambert

Inveterate tax activist Ron Rankin formally jumped into the race for Kootenai County commissioner Thursday. This time, he said, he is in it to win.

Sixty years ago, Marrianne Jones went to first grade in a one-room schoolhouse in a field a few miles northwest of Harrison, Idaho. By the turn of the millennium, that site could be buried under a 9-hole golf course, the centerpiece of a development which could more than double the size of her tiny lakeside town. Developers plan to build a gated subdivision with 220 home sites along Powderhorn Bay with lots priced from $60,000 to $140,000. It would include a golf course, tennis courts and possibly a tram to ferry people from the lake to the golf course.

Dozens of Forest Service roads in central Idaho are closed and expected to impede outdoor enthusiasts' summer recreation plans. Heavy rains and floods in December and January washed roads down hillsides, or, in some cases, washed hillsides on top of roadways.

In an effort to reduce the amount of floodwater still plaguing the Riverdale area, six pumps have been running around the clock since February. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

A woman responsible for a nasty, unsigned 1994 campaign flier has paid $800 to settle charges of election law violations. Political unknown Margaret H. Eddy this month paid $400 to Kootenai County and $400 to Kids Voting but admitted no wrongdoing, according to the settlement with the Idaho Attorney General's office.

About 60 Kootenai County employees are moving to form a countywide association to campaign for better wages and benefits. Frustrated by recent efforts to change their sick leave policy, the workers met Thursday night with some members of the deputy sheriff's association.

Reed Simpson, the force behind establishment of the East Side Fire District, will challenge Kootenai County Commissioner Bob Macdonald in May's Republican primary. Simpson, 54, filed Wednesday for the two-year term.

Freemen throughout the West and Midwest are snubbing courts, baffling attorneys and trying to govern themselves based on common law. Common-law courts that recognize only the U.S. Constitution, state constitutions and the Bible have surfaced in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and other states, according to law enforcement officials.

Harpers Inc. furniture plant won't face a penalty for paying a quarter-million dollars in property taxes a month late - for the second year in a row. Some homeowners see the reprieve as preferential treatment for business - something they might not get in the same situation.

Piling it on. Todd Howe and Susan Woods are among thousands of Kootenai County residents with spring fever making a trip to the dump. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Karen Davisson has her septic tank pumped out so often she leaves the tank exposed to make pumping easier. Replacing her system would cost $12,000, and experts say even that may not solve her problem. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

More than 200 apartments are under construction in Kootenai County at a time when market watchers say vacancy rates are the highest in years. What gives? The answer: Nearly half of those units will be priced for low-income families, a need so profound more than 500 people have signed a waiting list.

There's nothing like Super Tuesday to make an Idahoan feel disfranchised. While voters in seven states, including neighboring Oregon, helped Bob Dole continue his steamroller toward the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, Idahoans could do nothing but watch.

Taxpayers shouldn't pay to keep poor patients on life support that doctors believe artificially postpones death, the Idaho Senate has decided. The Senate passed a bill last week that would add life support and incurable cancer care to the list of high-cost medical treatment the state no longer would cover under its catastrophic health care program.

1. CdA travel agent Rhonda Sand. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Stoddard