Avalanche danger is considerable in the region's backcountry and only expected to increase as fresh snow is expected to be dumped tonight atop slippery, cold-hardened slopes. One avalanche has already been reported in the St. Joe River area near Prospector Creek, according to a report issued Friday by the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The slide happened Wednesday after a road grader passed under a steep slope. The grader was not hit by the snow and no one was injured.

Within hours of discovering a broken underground drain pipe at a Hauser, Idaho, railroad refueling depot, workers began excavating the surrounding diesel-sodden soil. About 200 cubic yards of earth – roughly a dozen heaping dump truck loads – was removed during the initial effort to chase the plume of contamination, according to a 110-page report on the spill made public earlier this week by the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. Although scientists with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality are continuing to sift through hundreds of pieces of data contained in the report, including soil and groundwater sample results, the document provides the best answer yet on how much diesel fuel was spilled into the ground above the Rathdrum-Spokane Valley aquifer. Chemical levels in 138 soil samples are being used to determine how much fuel-laden wastewater was spilled before the broken pipe was detected Dec. 10, said Marc Kalbaugh, DEQ's site remediation manager.

Leaked wastewater at a Hauser, Idaho, railroad refueling yard might not pose any immediate health threats to the region's drinking water, but local governments and regulatory agencies in Washington met last week to establish a network to keep a closer watch on the situation. Water users are concerned about the extent of the contamination and groups ranging from the city of Spokane to the town of Millwood and the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District are clamoring for the latest soil and water test results, said Jim Bellatty, manager of the Washington Department of Ecology's water quality office in Spokane.

Extra doses of flu vaccine will be available across the Panhandle beginning Friday to adults 50 years and older. The Panhandle Health District recently received 1,280 additional doses of the vaccine from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said Susan Cuff, spokeswoman for the health district. The doses will be distributed across the five counties of North Idaho, with 780 staying in Kootenai County.

More wolf sightings are being reported across North Idaho, including near Coeur d'Alene, according to the Idaho Fish and Game Department. From a distance gray wolves are often mistaken for large dogs or wolf-dog hybrids, but agency biologists believe the latest reports are probably true. Repeated wolf sightings have been reported near Priest Lake, Bonners Ferry and even in Lake Coeur d'Alene's Wolf Lodge Bay area east of Coeur d'Alene, said Jim Hayden, the Fish and Game Department's regional wildlife manager.

Two Canadian Mounties were rescued Friday night in the backcountry of Boundary County, Idaho, according to a statement from Boundary County Sheriff's Deputy Tim Day. The Royal Mounted Police officers were patrolling the border by snowmobile when they became stuck in deep, soft snow near the Grass Creek area. The creek is in a remote, heavily forested area north of Upper Priest Lake.

Mild, rainy weather is creating spring thaw-like conditions in the mountains of North Idaho. On Friday, a torrent of snowmelt and rain roared through downtown Spokane's river channel. The roiling blue and green water could be seen from the conference room where scientists, government officials and Avista Utilities executives gathered to discuss plans to boost summer river flows over waterfalls in downtown Spokane and Post Falls.

Investigators expect to know Monday if diesel fuel from a broken pipe at a railroad refueling facility reached the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer near Hauser, Idaho. The leaking wastewater pipe was detected a week ago at the newly constructed Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. refueling depot. A railroad spokesman said there's no evidence of danger to the region's drinking water supply – the aquifer is about 160 feet below the site – but a state official cautioned against drawing conclusions until soil test results are returned Monday.

Although Hayden businessman Christopher Close was convicted in July of defrauding the federal government and some of his elderly clients, the jury reconvened in Coeur d'Alene this week for an unusual sentencing trial. A pending U.S. Supreme Court case could require juries – not judges – to consider so-called sentencing enhancements, which can add additional jail time or fines to punishments, said Wendy Olson, the assistant U.S. Attorney who led the prosecution against Close. Sentencing enhancements are applied in weapons, drugs or fraud cases.

An unknown amount of wastewater, including diesel fuel and motor oil, has leaked from a broken pipe at a train refueling facility located over the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer near Hauser, Idaho. The leak was detected Friday and the pipe was immediately shut down, but an official with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. said the fracture could be more than three months old.

Conservation groups say they will fight for larger tracts of high country to be declared off-limits to snowmobiles to protect the region's endangered caribou. Representatives from groups on both sides of the United States-Canada border met Monday in Spokane with state, federal and provincial scientists to discuss caribou recovery efforts.

A pedestrian was struck and killed Sunday evening while trying to cross North Division Street, just north of Francis Avenue. The man had made it across five lanes of traffic but was hit by a pickup truck in the sixth lane just a few steps from the curb. He was struck at about 5 p.m. and was pronounced dead 15 minutes later at Sacred Heart Medical Center, said Spokane Police Cpl. Jon Strickland. Neither the victim's name nor the pickup truck driver's identity was released Sunday night. The victim was elderly, Strickland said.

Despite being surrounded by seemingly endless tracts of thick forest, a sawmill owner in Plummer, Idaho, says his mill can't find enough timber and is now hauling logs from as far away as the Washington coast. "We have to go where the wood is," said Todd Brinkmeyer, president of Plummer Forest Products, a three-year-old mill. "When we built the mill we never thought we would be struggling for the fiber as much as we are. Our resource issue has been 100 times more difficult than I ever contemplated."

The leader of a major forestry organization sent a message to the White House urging the president to send federal troops to fight forest fires. Not enough resources were being devoted to save the nation's forests as a series of severe fires grew in strength, the forester complained. "That was a telegraph sent in 1910," said Neil Smith, current leader of the group, the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, which is holding its annual meeting this week in Coeur d'Alene. "Here we are 100 years later. The controversy is still there."

Coeur d'Alene's City Council members and mayor did not violate Idaho's open meeting laws when they accepted invitations to meet one-on-one with developer Duane Hagadone, according to an investigation conducted by Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas. Hagadone met individually with each elected official on Oct. 21 at the Coeur d'Alene headquarters of his hotel and media corporation. Later that same day, he publicly unveiled a proposal to reroute downtown streets to make room for a new hotel and botanical garden.