Scott Maben

At Lakes Magnet Middle School north of downtown Coeur d’Alene, a small room inside the main office is piled high with obsolete textbooks. A larger room one floor up is stacked with hundreds more, some more than 10 years old. New, relevant instructional materials that align to the latest educational standards and curricula are one of the priorities of a $15 million-a-year school levy the Coeur d’Alene School District has on the March 10 ballot.

Investigators want to know how far back a recently fired North Idaho College administrator had been offering students scholarship money in exchange for sex and if there are any victims of the alleged scheme. “The allegations in this case are very, very serious,” Kootenai County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jedediah Whitaker told a judge Thursday.

A former North Idaho College official accused of offering students scholarship money in exchange for sex was ordered held in jail on $100,000 bond.

A North Idaho College administrator accused of offering scholarship money to students in exchange for sex told police he had made the solicitations on Craigslist for several semesters. In January, Joseph M. Bekken found a willing participant by the name of Sheryl Roberts, who asked what he was looking for.

A North Idaho College administrator accused of offering scholarship money to students in exchange for sex told police he had made the solicitations on Craigslist for several semesters.

Japanese firm Setouchi Holdings Inc. has acquired Sandpoint-based Quest Aircraft Co., which builds the Kodiak single-engine turboprop airplane. Quest, which has 184 employees, will remain in Sandpoint with its leadership team and use new capital from Setouchi to ramp up production and expand its workforce, the company said Tuesday.

Spokane sculptor and aviator Dorothy Fowler, widely known for her bronze statues and cathedral door reliefs, died Saturday. She was 88. Fowler, whose late husband, Jack, was the founding father of Schweitzer Mountain Resort near Sandpoint, took up sculpting in her 50s and created some of the best-known pieces of public art in the Inland Northwest.

Japanese firm Setouchi Holdings Inc. has acquired Sandpoint-based Quest Aircraft Company, which builds the KODIAK single-engine turboprop airplane.

Spokane sculptor and aviator Dorothy Fowler, whose bronze statues and striking cathedral doors can be found near and far, died Saturday. She was 88.

On the south edge of Rathdrum where farm fields are giving way to development, North Idaho College will start construction in the spring on a new home for trades and industry programs such as welding, machining and diesel technology. The school’s professional-technical programs are scattered throughout the Coeur d’Alene area in tight quarters and some temporary spaces. When the new 110,000-square-foot building opens on Lancaster Road in July 2016, NIC’s core programs all will be there.

Apartment buildings are popping up like early-spring bulbs across the Coeur d’Alene-Post Falls landscape as builders feed strong demand for rental housing, particularly affordable units for students, seniors and low-income workers. “Seemingly, new apartments are coming out of the ground all over the place,” Coldwell Banker Commercial real estate broker Glenn Sather said Thursday at the Kootenai County Commercial Real Estate Forum in Coeur d’Alene.

The tactless, self-centered zombie, ever an easy target, is the perfect antagonist in a series of new TV spots about the best ways to interact with people with disabilities. Four 30-second public service announcements produced by Disability Action Center Northwest and featuring an ill-mannered zombie shedding body parts will be provided to television stations and movie theaters in the Northwest.

Greg Delavan has his old job back as manager of the Coeur d’Alene Airport.

The murder trial of a Coeur d’Alene 15-year-old accused of killing his father and brother has been rescheduled for this summer to give his defense team more time to prepare.

All 12 police officers who fired their weapons in a freeway shootout with a heavily armed suspect in Post Falls last summer were justified in their actions, a North Idaho prosecutor has found.

It’s the moments you remember, not the days. That was the premise of the last task the Spokane Lilac Festival candidates performed in their quest for the crown. Onstage for Sunday night’s coronation at the Bing Crosby Theater, the 14 finalists each gave a two-minute memorized speech about the moments that inspired them in their lives.

Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said he is optimistic one of his deputies will recover and return to work after a collision with a semitruck Tuesday left the deputy with critical injuries. “He will survive and heal up from this, but it’s just going to be a long haul,” Wheeler said Thursday.

Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said he is optimistic one of his deputies will recover and one day return to work after a collision with a semi truck Tuesday left the deputy with critical injuries.

Litehouse Inc., the Sandpoint manufacturer of salad dressings and dips, has been family-owned for more than 50 years. That ended last month when Litehouse sold 100 percent of company stock to employees.