Julie Titone

A committee in the resort area of Priest Lake is surveying full- and part-time residents as well as vacationers, trying to gauge interest in building a community center. There are two visions for such a center, said Ken Rawlinson, secretary for the steering committee.

A report of mercury contamination at Mullan High School this month brought an overwhelming reaction. The problem, said Mullan's school superintendent, is that there wasn't a problem. "It was overkill," Robin Stanley said Monday of the response.

The winding, dangerous stretch of U.S. Highway 95 that climbs north from Bonners Ferry is about to be straightened. Scheduled to start next summer, that project will be the biggest one in an extraordinarily busy construction year for the Idaho Transportation Department's North Idaho district.

Helping hands. Lora Whalen of Lake City Health Care checks the blood pressure of Cheryl Finley as Finley's children wait. The clinic is open twice a week for those who cannot afford health-care coverage. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Roxy Hunt, a cancer survivor from Post Falls, wraps presents for the family of another cancer victim. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

1. Growing business. Lot manager Phillip Garcia takes the stands off of trees at Kevin Budig's Holiday Trees on Division Street in Spokane. Unsold trees are headed for wood chippers. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Grower Kitty Jenkins, left, and UI's Dan Barney.

Columbus Day will be a workday for Kootenai County employees in the future. County commissioners voted Tuesday to drop the October paid holiday. They replaced it with a floating holiday, which most of the county's 560 workers will take on the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe's $10 million plans to expand its casino near Worley have been put off for now. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

An initiation, a greeting, a thank you. Smoking serves many purposes in American Indian culture and has for a long time.

From a small building in Plummer, Idaho, Pete Mahoney sells discount cigarettes, candy and pop. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Would a priest lie? When is a line not a line? Such were the questions Friday raised in the final arguments of one of North Idaho's most historic civil trials.

For the birds Benewah County's newest body of water, compliments of flooding, is Lake Hepton. Photo by Julie Titone/The Spokesman-Review

A doctor who set up shop in Wallace this month stands accused of improper sexual conduct with four patients in Othello, Wash. As a result, Dr. Jimmie L. Hutchison could lose his license to practice medicine in Washington and potentially in Idaho. Officials at the East Shoshone Hospital District knew about the charges when they hired Hutchison, said administrator David Hughes.

Lin Rimple is building herself a home near Rathdrum. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Sherman Alexie's "Smoke Signals" was filmed on the Coeur d'Alene reservation and in Riverfront Park in Spokane. File/The Spokesman-Review

It's been a disappointing season for hunters and wildlife watchers in Shoshone County, and some people blame the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Hundreds signed a petition complaining that the agency didn't feed deer and elk in the Coeur d'Alene River basin last winter. The big scroll of taped-together notebook pages will be sent to Gov. Phil Batt.

1. Reaping and sowing. Marsha Semar has worked the land in North Idaho for decades, but is facing her first winter on her own after she and her husband separated and their grown sons have left home. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review 2. Marsha Semar's home nestled among the trees near Moyie Springs is her spiritual center. The 8-foot high fence protects her "market garden" from deer looking to scavenge vegetables. Photography by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review 3. Marsha Semar's main link to "the outside world" is the telephone, which rings with calls from friends and customers placing orders for vegetables. 4. Marsha finds spiritual centering during her weekly trip to Bonners Ferry for a yoga class. 5. Left: Marsha sells vegetables from her garden until weather or supply force her to stop. She spends the growing season coaxing as many different vegetables as possible from the soil during the short growing season. 6. Below: Marsha does as much of the work as she can but welcomes any help she can get with the more difficult tasks on the farm. She is still trying to clean up from ice storm while doing chores to keep the farm going.<

The death of Idaho prisoner No. 26889 this year was the closing scene in one of the Silver Valley's most publicized murder cases. David William Yon was a former Pinehurst police chief convicted of shooting his Kellogg housemate in the back of the head in January 1987. Interest in the trial was heightened by the men's gay relationship in a macho mining community and by the fact that both men were well-known in law enforcement circles. Victim Joe Bussell worked for the Shoshone County Sheriff's Department.

Jeff Wood of Washington State University, left, and Camp Larson caretaker Jim Sifford hope to make the camp a year-round, high-tech meeting place. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Dr. Ron Bell, North Idaho College president, addresses the crowd at the human rights rally Monday morning at the college. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Future visitors to McCroskey State Park will see the forest of the past, thanks to fire. Intentional burning is planned at the natural park for the first time, said Randall Butt of the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. The result should be more open stands of trees, like those that existed historically at the Benewah County site.

Erosion control along the Coeur d'Alene Parkway is the only flood-related project for which a promise of state funding was withdrawn. But it may not be the last, a spokesman for the Bureau of Disaster Services said Friday.

Eroding away. The bank along the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene along Lake Coeur d'Alene Parkway is inching closer to the popular Centennial Trail. Money the state had promised for repairs is not coming. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Sign language The massive billboard on the top of the Jameson Hotel dwarfs any other sign in town. It is the most prominent sign as seen from the I-90 viaduct. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review