Scott Maben

Idaho voters approved school funding levies Tuesday in Kootenai and Shoshone counties and rejected one in Bonner County.

Four North Idaho school districts are asking voters today for help paying for basic needs, from staff costs to curriculum materials, as well as facility improvements and some extracurricular activities. Supplemental school levies totaling more than $22 million in property taxes are on the ballot in Kootenai, Shoshone and Bonner counties.

Kootenai Health will expand its Coeur d’Alene hospital starting later this year – a step toward its goal of becoming a regional player in health care. The 254-bed, community-owned hospital will build a three-story addition for a new family birthing center, neonatal intensive care unit, lobby and registration area. It also will have 50 new, single-patient rooms, although 32 existing rooms will be lost in the expansion.

A citizen proposal to add protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students and employees in Coeur d’Alene public schools has sparked controversy even before the school board has said if it will take on the debate. Coeur d’Alene attorney Susan Moss, a parent in the district, asked the board Monday to look at nine policies that list the basis on which discrimination and harassment are prohibited – race, sex and religion, for example – and consider adding sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.

While Idaho lawmakers mull a bill to loosen gun bans on college campuses, Coeur d’Alene police arrested a North Idaho College student Monday for taking a concealed handgun into a classroom. Authorities said another student told them that the man was upset, has used illegal drugs, had purchased 75 hollow-point rounds for the revolver and had talked about not being afraid to die.

Unless it turns exceptionally wet in the next few months, the Inland Northwest is in store for an abnormally dry year, with a moderate drought forecast for much of Eastern Washington. The latest snowpack measurements show the Spokane basin at 74 percent of average, the Newman Lake basin at 58 percent and the Okanogan basin at 89 percent, the Washington Snow Survey Office said Thursday. The Pend Oreille basin, including parts of Idaho and Montana, is the exception, with its snowpack at 101 percent of average.

It’s not news utility customers ever like to hear, especially not on one of the coldest days of the year. Yet Avista Corp. said Tuesday it wants to raise power and natural gas rates in Washington next winter, including a big jump in the basic charge for each service.

The Coeur d’Alene City Council voted Tuesday night in favor of changes in front of the Coeur d’Alene Resort, including cutting down street trees as a way to improve views of Lake Coeur d’Alene. The council voted 6-0 to approve Hagadone Hospitality Co.’s plans for about 2 acres of open space the resort must maintain for public use at its entrance.

Coeur d’Alene school leaders are getting a glimpse of how cruelly some students treat each other, including sexual harassment, racial bias, religious intolerance, gay-bashing and badgering kids who are overweight, poor or disabled. In a new report prefaced with a warning of offensive language, bullying expert Steve Wessler shares details of candid meetings he held with almost 300 middle school and high school students last fall.

More rides for young kids coming to Silverwood Theme Park

Coeur d’Alene Police Officer Spencer Mortensen ordered Eric Byron Johnston eight times to drop two knives before shooting him in a small apartment near downtown last summer, the officer’s body camera recording shows.