Scott Maben

Recognizing the growing interest in short-term home rentals, the city of Coeur d’Alene will consider legalizing the practice and requiring a permit to operate a vacation rental.

A major new addition to Coeur d’Alene’s hospital will open within weeks, catering to patient needs and expectations from births through procedures for an aging population. “We have the babies coming in and then the baby boomers going out, if you will, that all require the additional services,” said Liese Razzeto, who chairs the Kootenai Hospital District Board of Trustees.

Three of the four Kootenai County elected leaders whose terms are up next January are running for re-election in the May 17 primary.

Fans turned out in big numbers for this weekend’s Spokane performances by the Bengals, the Ragdolls and the Pixiebobs. And while that sounds reminiscent of a 1980s rock music reboot, the stars of this show were largely indifferent to the adoring crowd. The “On Safari” Cat Show, sanctioned by The International Cat Association Inc. and hosted by the Seattle-area Evergreen Cat Fanciers club, concluded its three-day run Sunday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Spokane City Center.

The copier in his office building sat by a window with a view, and Tom Wobker found inspiration watching the brainless birds on the other side of the glass. The pigeon’s works

A North Idaho man pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing a Spokane woman and dumping her body in a slough near Hauser Lake last year.

A visit to Mars is still the stuff of best-selling fiction and big-budget Hollywood movies. But a North Idaho woman has played a real role in imagining the human experience on the fourth planet from the sun. University of Idaho graduate Sophie Milam participated in a NASA-funded project that simulated a Mars mission and studied the biological, social and psychological challenges of being isolated and confined for a prolonged period. She and five others spent eight months living in a small dome on the slope of Mauna Loa, a volcano on the Island of Hawaii.

A judge handed down a penalty Friday for a North Idaho teenager who shot and killed a federally protected grizzly bear last fall north of Wallace. The 14-year-old boy was charged with the unlawful killing of a grizzly, an endangered species, and hunting without a bear tag. Because he is a juvenile, his case is sealed and the penalty was not disclosed.

A Coeur d’Alene doctor indicted as part of an alleged multistate drug trafficking ring surrendered his passport Monday and was released from federal custody. Dr. Stanley Alvin Toelle, 61, a gastroenterologist for Kootenai Health, is charged in U.S. District Court with conspiracy to launder money in a case allegedly involving at least $1.3 million in drug proceeds since 2009.

A rundown RV park and motel where residents complain about pools of raw sewage has a prominent new owner in Coeur d’Alene - Duane Hagadone. The several dozen low-income residents must leave by May 1.

Dawna McCallum of Cheney wins $100,000 in an Idaho Lottery scratch game called Big Timber. It’s her second big win in the lottery.

Megan Paternoster listened to 13 poignant, funny, inspiring speeches before she rose Sunday to deliver the final one from the Spokane Lilac Festival royalty candidates. The “Fab 14” representing Spokane-area high schools were asked to recite their 2-minute compositions on the question, “Who are you?”

A jury on Friday began deliberating whether to find 16-year-old Eldon Gale Samuel III guilty of murdering his younger brother and father in Coeur d’Alene almost two years ago. Samuel is charged with first-degree murder for killing 13-year-old Jonathan Samuel and second-degree murder for killing Eldon Samuel Jr., 46.

A jury is about to decide what kind of killer Eldon Gale Samuel III was the night he shot his father and then attacked his younger brother with guns, a knife and a machete in their tiny house in Coeur d’Alene.

A judge in Coeur d’Alene imposed a sentence Monday of life in prison for a Mexican man who admitted killing his wife and stepdaughter a year and a half ago. Angel Albertico Morales-Larranaga, 26, will serve two consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole for the strangling deaths of Facunda Velenzuelaleon, 24, and Dyanna M. Valencia, 6, inside a Post Falls apartment on July 8, 2014.

Community Action Partnership - Kootenai County’s food bank - needs new cargo vans to help collect food from grocery stores and restaurants for distribution to low-income county residents.