JoNel Aleccia

For some convicted batterers in Kootenai County, a year of domestic violence treatment isn't enough. After 52 weeks of required regular meetings, some offenders are leaving group counseling – only to be arrested soon after for new crimes against their intimate partners, experts said.

For nearly 5,000 parents in Idaho and Washington last year, failure to keep up with state-mandated child support payments cost them more than just the respect of their kids. They also lost their legal right to hunt and fish through state license suspension programs aimed at hitting child-support scofflaws where it hurts, officials said.

A North Idaho United Way director credited with expanding donations, participation and allocations to local agencies has resigned to take a position with a for-profit adolescent treatment center. Jeff Conroy, executive director of the United Way of Kootenai County, told board members Wednesday he plans to leave the agency May 17. He has accepted a position as administrative director of Innercept, a residential school and center in Coeur d'Alene.

At least a dozen patients of Tarek L. Haw plan to seek criminal charges against the former Coeur d'Alene doctor poised to lose his medical license for actions that include misuse of prescription drugs, insurance fraud and sexual misconduct, a lawyer representing the women said Friday. Rami Amaro, a Coeur d'Alene lawyer, said she initiated a police complaint that could lead to felony charges of sexual exploitation by a medical care provider. Ron Clark, a Coeur d'Alene Police Department detective, confirmed that an investigation has been opened but said he could not discuss the ongoing case.

It's been a year since Dr. Tarek Haw last injected Ed Whidden with massive doses of testosterone, but the Coeur d'Alene man said he's still coping with the aftermath. The powerful hormone was supposed to correct a testosterone deficiency sparked by surgery. Instead, it propelled Whidden into a second puberty, complete with severe acne and wild mood swings that the 39-year-old said cost him his marriage.

Several city streets and a public parking lot will close next week as construction of Coeur d'Alene's new $7.2 million public library project begins. Starting Monday, city workers will permanently close Seventh Street between Front and Mullan avenues. The upper parking lot at the Coeur d'Alene City Hall also will close during construction, which is expected to last about a year.

Hopes of providing one-stop services for Medicare clients in North Idaho moved closer to reality this week, when a Coeur d'Alene doctor merged her private practice with the Dirne Community Health Center. Susan Melchiore, an internist who specializes in geriatrics, said creation of the SAGE Center Medicare Clinic realizes a dream of providing comprehensive medical, social and prevention services for up to 3,000 patients.

A Coeur d'Alene mother has been cited for negligent driving and not properly restraining her children in connection with a March car accident that critically injured her 4-month-old daughter, Spokane police said Friday. Eileen Jensen, 21, will face fines of nearly $640 for the infractions, police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee said – $101 for the restraint violation and $538 for negligent driving.

Concerns about faulty airplane parts linked to a 2004 crash that killed a Coeur d'Alene man didn't rise to the level of mandatory replacement, a Federal Aviation Administration official said this week. But parents of Eric Dvoracek, the 28-year-old pilot who died in the Arizona crash, vowed to press the agency to issue a directive that would force owners to fix the problem on as many as 16,000 small planes.

Want to understand the poverty problem in North Idaho? Take a right on Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive, suggested Mark Haberman.

Coeur d'Alene's urban renewal agency agreed Wednesday to borrow up to $500,000 to grade and level the former gravel pit designated as the site for the proposed Salvation Army Kroc Community Center. The move is the latest effort to woo decision-makers in charge of choosing where to locate the proposed $65 million project.

The Coeur d'Alene community has deep pockets and plenty of them, more than enough to build and sustain a $65 million Salvation Army Kroc Center, a consultant's report released Tuesday revealed. But if project backers want to raise the $5 million in community contributions needed to clinch the deal, they'll have to come up with about 140 donors – including three willing to part with nearly $1 million apiece.

You think you're so clever. You, with the yen for the personalized vehicle license plate. The one that's mean or insulting or just plain nasty.

A Coeur d'Alene doctor who abruptly closed his practice last fall could lose his medical license after more than 20 new complaints of actions ranging from improper prescriptions and fraudulent insurance billings to sexual misconduct, documents showed. Dr. Tarek L. Haw did not appear at a February hearing called by Idaho Board of Medicine officials to consider whether his already restricted license should be revoked, suspended or further curtailed because of new allegations. A hearings officer is expected to rule on the matter by the end of March, according to Nancy Kerr, the medical board's executive director.