Scott Maben

People who feel they were swindled by a North Idaho coin shop that took their payments for gold and silver but failed to deliver the goods finally got their day in court Thursday. Before the shop’s owner was sentenced to jail time, the victims spoke of how they had trusted CoiNuts with their savings – retirement funds, investments for their children – and were left wondering if they’d ever see any of the money again.

A former Coeur d’Alene coin shop owner was sentenced to six months in jail this morning for six counts of petty theft for failing to fulfill customers’ gold and silver orders.

Human remains found by a hiker near Bayview in early February are those of Billy Vaughn Davis, a Coeur d’Alene man whose family reported him missing last fall. The King County, Washington, medical examiner, working with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, identified the skeletal remains.

Eight months after a Coeur d’Alene police officer shot and killed a dog in a parked van, sparking criticism from across the nation, the city has agreed to pay the dog’s owner $80,000.

North Idaho voters were in a generous mood Tuesday, approving school tax measures from Bonners Ferry to St. Maries. The Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls school districts had strong voter support for replacing two-year supplemental operating levies, and Post Falls voters also passed a major school construction bond measure.

North Idaho voters were in a generous mood today, approving school tax measures from Bonners Ferry to St. Maries.

Former North Idaho College financial aid director Joseph M. Bekken could face additional charges, including lying to a federal agent and misusing federal funds, as investigators dig deeper into his alleged scheme to entice students to have sex in exchange for college aid. A Kootenai County judge lowered Bekken’s bond to $25,000 from $100,000 Tuesday morning, even as a prosecutor said Bekken is suspected of using federal financial aid to buy photographs from a woman. Bekken, 36, was released from the Kootenai County Jail later in the day.

A former economic development official for the state of Idaho will lead the effort to expand and diversify Kootenai County’s economy and employment base. Gynii Abracosa Gilliam, of Boise, is the new president of Jobs Plus Inc., the Coeur d’Alene-area economic development corporation.

North Idaho contractors say they feel vindicated by a state Supreme Court decision Thursday that found the city of Hayden failed to establish legal grounds for a steep fee increase to pay for future sewer expansion. The North Idaho Building Contractors Association sued the city in 2010, challenging a fee tacked onto building permits for new homes and businesses and certain commercial expansions. The city in 2007 tripled that “sewer capitalization fee” to $2,280 to fund about $20 million in sewer projects related to anticipated growth.

North Idaho contractors say they feel vindicated by a state Supreme Court decision Thursday that found the city of Hayden failed to establish legal grounds for a steep fee increase to pay for future sewer expansion.

Police were trying to persuade a suicidal man to come out of the frigid lake near the Coeur d’Alene Resort earlier this month when overhead a small drone darted about, distracting them. The unmanned aerial vehicle was about 75 feet in the air – “close enough that the noise from it was a problem while they were trying to talk to the victim,” Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Christie Wood said.

A former North Idaho College administrator in jail on charges of soliciting sex from students in exchange for scholarship money wants his bail lowered. Joseph M. Bekken, who was fired Feb. 2 as NIC’s financial aid director, is in the Kootenai County Jail on $100,000 bail. He has been charged with five felonies, including attempting to procure a prostitute, attempting to misuse public money and bribery.