Julie Titone

1. Wet and wild. Al Bruner, co-owner of St. Maries Wild Rice Inc., uses an airboat to harvest this year's wild rice crop from Benewah Lake, Idaho. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 2. Don McPherson bags up harvested rice from the catcher mounted on the front of an airboat, which can collect 250 pounds at a time.

Cash from the past. Mullan City Councilman Chuck Reitz holds a 1913 document signed by President Woodrow Wilson granting the towm land it didn't know it had. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Most people have heard how Japanese Americans were torn from their homes by their own government and herded into camps during World War II. But few in the Inland Northwest know about the Japanese men who helped build a highway through Idaho's Bitterroot mountains.

Next month, planners will seek ways to make cellular phone towers, such as this one erected last spring in Post Falls, more attractive. File/The Spokesman-Review

Heading off trouble. Heavy equipment digs into the hillside Wednesday along Meadowhurst Road as work on levees continues near St. Maries. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

1. The former Blue Lake Resort is on the market for $6.9 million. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Harrison resident Chet Blessing, a consultant for the seller of the Blue Lake Resort property, remembers having to drag an ornery Patty Hearst into dinner. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Cathy Walter's daughter, 15-month-old Cassidy, wears a hearing aid after months of delays and examinations. Like most babies in the Inland Northwest, Cassidy was not tested for hearing when born. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

David Matheson of the Coeur d'Alenes, in suit, is among the new generation of leaders for Inland Northwest tribes. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Jeannie Claassen, a senior at Rogers High, will work this year at Washington Water Power with Charlene Abrahamson, the utility's American Indian relations specialist. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

"Do you like green beans?" volunteer Dave Brown asks as he hands a client canned goods at the temporary food bank run by St. Vincent de Paul. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Larry Belmont, the Panhandle Health District's founding director, announced Thursday his plans to retire at the end of the year. "I want to retire while I'm still in good health and reasonably young," said Belmont, who's 61. "I plan to take it easy for a while and reassess my options."

Tracy Tuck adjusts rock in a gabion along the Thompson Pass Road. The scenic road between Murray, Idaho, and Thompson Falls, Mont., won't be completed until next summer - nearly a year later than scheduled - but will be open for traffic on a limited basis after Labor Day. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Tuesday, August 19, 1997): Correction: School wrong: Two children of Loel and Olson Fenwick of Coolin attend the sixth and seventh grades in Moscow. The place of schooling was inaccurate in Monday's paper. Loel Fenwick has created a refuge for wildlife at Priest Lake. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

1. Sacred ceremony. George Torpey takes part in Friday's Feast of the Assumption observance at the Cataldo Mission in honor of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's Catholic heritage. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review 2. An honor guard passes by the Cataldo Mission. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

(From for the Record, August 14, 1997, Idaho edition) Vote tally: The Coeur d'Alene School District board of trustees voted 3 to 2 to appoint businessman John Goedde to the board. A Wednesday article on B2 incorrectly stated the vote tally.

Sniffing out trouble. Dave Moelli, known as the Critter Catcher, gingerly approaches a skunk trap to make sure the malodorous mammal is asleep before he moves the trap away from a client's home. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

1. Step at a time. Ivan and Margo Linscott decided against widening the narrow staircases to stay true to the original design of the pioneer houses they are restoring. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. The Linscotts are looking into repairing the old wood stove that came with the original cabin.

Two popular and dangerous routes into the national forest are scheduled for improvement. They are Fernan Road, which heads east out of Coeur d'Alene; and Bunco Road, which is north of Coeur d'Alene and east of U.S. Highway 95. The narrow, twisting road along Fernan Lake is especially busy. Fishermen park along the shore. Bicyclists compete with cars for space. There's not enough room for a snowplow and a school bus to pass each other. "People leave the road and go into the lake, they hit each other on blind corners," Fernan District Ranger Susan Matthews said Monday.

"Bizarre" is the way a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman responded to news of last week's raid on a Clearwater County disaster office. Morrie Goodman, FEMA's communications director, had not heard of the raid until Friday. Nor had he seen a Thursday letter from Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth objecting to the raid and its aftermath. The letter was directed to James Lee Witt, director of the agency best known for its humanitarian mission of helping disaster victims. Chenoweth reviewed the July 19 confiscation of records, which was carried out by agents wearing bulletproof vests and accompanied by state police.

A scratch-ticket game featuring the Coeur d'Alene Resort's golf course may have been a stroke of marketing genius. "Go for the Green" is giving the resort advertising that money alone couldn't buy. And, in its first week, it's brought the Idaho Lottery a windfall of sales.

Work goes on along Orofino Creek where damage from the 1996 floods is being repaired. Photo by Julie Titone/The Spokesman-Review

North Idaho College is inviting people to participate in the search for its next president. School trustees, who will make the choice, are setting up a search committee co-chaired by trustees Jeanne Givens and Sheila Wood. The group's 30 members will represent a cross-section of the community. Participants will be required to attend at least four meetings over six months before candidate interviews take place.

Boundary County hasn't had a stoplight for decades. That's about to change. At Friday's meeting of the Idaho Transportation Board, Bonners Ferry city officials got confirmation that the light will be installed.

The vitality of Post Falls depends on getting improvements to I-90 exits like this congested Highway 41 intersection. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review