Kevin Taylor

A Sandpoint community group said two recent studies it commissioned show the proposed design for a highway bypass that sweeps along the city's waterfront is flawed. It has asked state and federal agencies to reconsider granting permission to construct the project. Liz Sedler, executive director for the North Idaho Community Action Network, said Thursday that studies commissioned by NICAN show two main concerns:

A young mother and her two children were trapped in a car that had landed upside down in the cold and fast-moving Spring Creek near Clark Fork, Idaho, on Saturday afternoon The accident took the lives of a 2-year-old boy and his 8-month-old brother.

A young mother and her two children were trapped in a car that had landed upside down in the cold and fast-moving Spring Creek near Clark Fork, Idaho, on Saturday afternoon The rollover wreck took the lives of a 2-year-old boy and his 8-month-old brother.

Searchers in Shoshone County on Friday discovered the body of a man who had been missing for two days, even as other efforts were still ongoing to determine the whereabouts of another missing man in North Idaho. In Sandpoint, family and friends of Dan Clune, a 29-year-old software programmer who has been missing since the weekend, are coming cross-country to help in the search.

Idaho State Police raided 13 bars across the state on Wednesday morning – including three in Coeur d'Alene – to seize illegal electronic gambling machines. Fifty of the electronic slot machines were seized, including 15 from the three Coeur d'Alene taverns. The local taverns raided include the 1210 Tavern, 1210 E. Sherman Ave., and the Time Out Tavern, 5785 N. Government Way. Owners or staffers reached by telephone declined to comment Wednesday evening.

Just two years after Elizabeth Goodwin was found dead in a bathtub, the woman who had been the autistic child's guardian has been released from the Kootenai County Jail on probation. Denise Whittle, 35, originally charged with manslaughter in the drowning of 6-year-old Elizabeth, had reached a deal last spring in which she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of felony injury to a child and was sentenced in May to 10 years in prison. She served about 15 months since her arrest in late February 2003.

A woman out walking her dog Saturday morning discovered the body of a man believed to be a transient near railroad tracks that slice between the Spokane River and busy Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d'Alene. Police said preliminary autopsy results Monday morning showed no obvious signs of trauma and the man – who has not yet been identified – most likely died of natural causes.

In cases that could affect soldiers locally and across the nation, soldiers suing the military over involuntary extensions of their active duty service had a mixed day in court Friday: A U.S. Army Reserve captain won an honorable discharge in New York, but a California National Guard soldier, currently stationed at Washington's Fort Lewis, had a request for a preliminary injunction tossed out by a federal judge in Sacramento. "We are disappointed by the ruling," said Joshua Sondheimer, a San Francisco attorney representing the Guard soldier, known in court papers only as John Doe. "We still believe the order that our client is being deployed under is an illegal order."

The crackling, three-way race for sheriff in Bonner County was tight right from the start, with Undersheriff Elaine Savage holding the early lead, and challengers Tony Lamanna and James "Bean" Johnston not far behind. With 10 of 33 precincts reporting, Savage was running in front with 1,313 votes to Lamanna's 1,201. Johnston was not far back with 1,086.

Accusations that Bonner County Sheriff Phil Jarvis and his top two administrators made vindictive criminal complaints against a search and rescue agency are "totally without merit," Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson said in a memo issued Monday. A week ago, Mike Nielsen, president of Priest Lake Search and Rescue Inc., presented a complaint to the Bonner County commissioners in which the search and rescue group's board of directors demanded the FBI investigate Jarvis, Undersheriff Elaine Savage and Capt. Jim Drake for criminal misuse of their powers under "color of law."

Workers at a Coeur d'Alene recycling yard made a gruesome discovery Friday morning when they found the body of a man who was crushed while taking shelter in a trash bin full of cardboard that was picked up by a garbage truck and compacted, police said. Preliminary autopsy results showed the 42-year-old man died from being crushed in a load of cardboard, Coeur d'Alene police officials said Friday afternoon.

A former North Idaho man was summoned to court on Wednesday on the felony criminal charge of having sexual intercourse and not disclosing that he is HIV-positive. The court filing by Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas charges Mark Arnold Crawford, 36, with "transfer of bodily fluids which may contain the HIV virus."

A former North Idaho man was summoned to court Wednesday on the felony criminal charge of having sexual intercourse and not disclosing that he is HIV-positive. The court filing by Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas charges Mark Arnold Crawford, 36, with "transfer of bodily fluids which may contain the HIV virus."

Judging by this year's races, running for county sheriff in North Idaho seems to be one of those things where the journey is at least as exciting as the destination. A quick review:

Here's a quick look at the candidates for Bonner County sheriff: