James Hagengruber

Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession said he plans to sign a mini-version of the Kyoto Protocol in coming days. By signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, the city pledges to cut its global warming pollution over the next six years to 7 percent below 1990 levels. The pledge is largely symbolic – it is not enforceable and has no bearing on private businesses.

John Eminger, owner of 49 Degrees North ski area, remains a bit skeptical over exactly how much influence man has on the planet's changing climate. But just to be safe, he made sure his newest set of chairlifts was installed 300 feet higher up the mountainside. This might insulate his business from one extra degree of increased temperature, which is about how fast the Earth is expected to warm over the next 20 years, according to climate scientists.

The state of Washington will move forward with a plan to dump a fish-killing chemical into Park Lake today, despite protests of some residents living on the lake. Last month, the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board temporarily halted the use of rotenone in the lake until it could further consider the issue, said Jani Gilbert, spokeswoman for the state's Department of Ecology. Late last week, the board lifted its stay and gave the green light for the treatments to proceed.

Last week's downpours caused $2 million in damage to roads in the national forest near Sandpoint, according to a preliminary estimate released Wednesday by the U.S. Forest Service. The total bill could be much higher, but the damaged roads and weather conditions are making it nearly impossible to access certain areas, according to Forest Service officials.

Idaho conservation officers worked undercover last month to track five hunters suspected of illegally killing elk deep in the St. Joe River backcountry. The work involved everything from spying on the hunters from high ridgetops to keeping a close watch on a house in Avery where the hunters were suspected of storing their quarry, said Jerry Hugo, the senior conservation officer who organized the effort, dubbed "Operation Snowball."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has acknowledged it could have done a better job managing – and perhaps preventing altogether – a June flood of the Kootenai River near Bonners Ferry, according to results from the agency's internal investigation. A report detailing the corps' actions during the weeks leading up to the flood was posted on the agency's Web site Friday afternoon.

A powerful fall storm Sunday night brought ankle-deep snow to the mountains, and more moisture could be coming soon. But trick-or-treaters should be in the clear (and cold) tonight, according to the National Weather Service. The storm brought icy, dry air from Canada, which should linger through the middle of the week, said Todd Carter, a forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Spokane.

Environmental groups from across the Northwest are protesting cutbacks and changes taking place in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional Office of Civil Rights and Environmental Justice. Programs operated by the office help ensure fair treatment for people who are often most affected by pollution, namely low-income residents and minorities. The office responsible for Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Alaska is already the smallest of EPA's 10 regional offices, according to research conducted by Yalonda Sinde, with the Seattle-based Community Coalition for Environmental Justice.

Idaho Gov. Jim Risch wasn't about to let a federal judge throw out an entire summer's worth of work. Risch has been crisscrossing the state in recent months, often with a bundle of map tubes in his vehicle. Whenever he had a spare minute, the governor would pore over the maps, trying to figure out if the state's 275 parcels of inventoried roadless forest really ought to be kept off-limits to new development or roads.

In 1977, Doug Scott was hanged in effigy in central Idaho for his work to create the Gospel-Hump Wilderness. Burning beside him was a mannequin of the now-deceased Idaho senator, Frank Church. Wilderness was a dirty word back then, said Scott, who has helped organize efforts behind the creation of "hundreds" of the nation's 638 congressionally designated wilderness areas, including several in Idaho.

Although they were once hailed as wonder compounds and used in everything from newspaper ink to hydraulic fluid and house paints, PCBs have since become known as chemical Frankensteins. This week, the state of Washington started a massive cleanup project in the Spokane River aimed at neutralizing the threat posed by high levels of PCBs deposited along the bottom and banks of the river.

The clashes between old and new Idaho aren't hard to find in Bonner County, where massive new mansions and expensive coffee shops have all but elbowed out the backwoods shacks and beer joints. Some of the tensions between old and new are surfacing in the increasingly heated race for control of the county's board of commissioners.