Scott Maben

A Coeur d’Alene man who contested his defeat in a 2009 City Council election, alleging numerous irregularities, has lost on appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision Friday, the justices rejected most arguments Jim Brannon made in his legal fight over a narrow election loss to Coeur d’Alene City Councilman Mike Kennedy.

The 70-year-old shooting range at Farragut State Park will reopen in the spring after a six-year closure prompted by protests from neighboring residents concerned about noise and errant bullets. In a victory for sport shooters, the Idaho Supreme Court on Thursday lifted an injunction that has kept the shooting range closed since early 2007.

In a victory for sport shooters, the Idaho Supreme Court today lifted a court injunction that has kept the Farragut State Park shooting range closed for almost six years.

Idaho on Tuesday revealed which schools made the cut under a pay-for-performance system rejected by voters a week earlier. The controversial merit pay law pushed by the state schools superintendent, and overturned in last week’s election, will be in effect this year only. The state will pay more than $5.5 million in bonuses in North Idaho, including $1.7 million in the Coeur d’Alene School District.

A Coeur d’Alene reptile dealer investigated for allegedly fraudulent business practices has agreed to pay $15,000 to former customers and change how it advertises its animals. The legal settlement announced Thursday concludes a yearlong investigation by the Idaho attorney general’s office, which had alleged that Timothy M. West and his sons, Michael B. West and Timothy J. West, made false, misleading or deceptive representations to consumers regarding the animals they sold.

A Coeur d’Alene reptile dealer investigated for allegedly fraudulent business practices has agreed to pay $15,000 to former customers and change how it advertises its animals.

Miners will return to the Lucky Friday Mine early next year, capping a yearlong shutdown at one of the Silver Valley’s largest private employers. Hecla Mining Co. said Tuesday it will resume mining in the first quarter of 2013 and anticipates producing more than 2 million ounces of silver there next year.

Shares of Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. sank today after the company reported a net loss following lower production and sales of silver and gold.

As expected, Avista Corp. today reported third-quarter results and a forecast for the fourth quarter that fall below expected performance for the Spokane-based energy company.

Hecla Mining Co. said today it expects to resume mining at the Lucky Friday Mine in the first quarter of 2013 and anticipates producing more than 2 million ounces of silver there next year.

A Spokane Valley company will need to secure a more detailed water quality permit to develop a silver and copper mine beneath Montana’s Cabinet Mountain Wilderness. The Montana Supreme Court on Monday voided a storm water permit for road improvements needed for the proposed Rock Creek Mine in the lower Clark Fork River drainage across the state line from Sandpoint.

A Spokane Valley company has been dealt a setback in its effort to open a silver and copper mine beneath Montana’s Cabinet Mountain Wilderness.

Avista Corp. brass sought to explain Tuesday why company profits are taking an unexpected dip this year, and they placed the blame largely on its non-utility operations, namely energy-services subsidiary Ecova. But with the help of customer rate hikes and some belt-tightening, the Spokane-based utility said it expects to improve its performance in 2013.

Idaho jobless rate falls to 7.1%

Defending herself against a libel suit, Linda Cook of Rathdrum says an anonymous comment she made earlier this year on a Spokesman-Review blog was a question about the accounting of GOP funds in Kootenai County, not an allegation of theft.

A Republican Party official in Kootenai County is pressing ahead with her defamation suit against a woman who posted online comments about missing GOP funds. Tina Jacobson, a Rathdrum resident and the former chairwoman of the Kootenai County Republican Party, has named Linda Cook in her suit over comments Cook made anonymously on The Spokesman-Review’s Huckleberries Online blog.

A Republican Party official in Kootenai County is pressing ahead with her defamation suit against a woman who posted online comments about missing GOP funds.