Susan Drumheller

Managers at Silver Mountain really didn't expect skiers to keep showing up for long after the ski season officially closed April 6. But Saturday - as May temperatures hover near 70 degrees - the gondola and lifts will still be running. "This is a record, as far as Silver Mountain is concerned," said mountain manager Terry Turnbow. "We really didn't think it would have this popularity." Blessed with a record snowpack of 508 inches last winter, Silver Mountain put out a challenge to skiers: As long as 1,000 customers showed up each Saturday, the ski hill would stay open. Other ski areas in the region closed in early April, although Schweitzer Mountain Resort extended its season one weekend. Now the closest ski areas still operating are Big Sky in Montana, Blackcomb in British Columbia, and Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood in Oregon. "We're the only game in town in Washington and Idaho," Turnbow said. The extended season has resulted in spillover business for area retailers, too. Vertical Earth in Coeur d'Alene is still renting snowboards and tuning some skis. "The telemarkers are still very adamant about being out there," said owner Mark Beattie. "Especially with the possibility of good weather this weekend, it's been very, very well-received and people are pretty stoked about it." On a couple Saturdays, the mountain drew close to 1,400 skiers. Last weekend, however, only 900 showed up. Turnbow figured that was because of Bloomsday and the weather.

Rev up the ski lift, and they will come. That's the adage this season for Silver Mountain. Mountain managers really didn't expect skiers to keep showing up more than two weekends after the ski season officially closed April 6. But this Saturday - as May temperatures hover around 70 degrees - the gondola and lifts will still be running.

Illegal discharges from the Sunshine Mine represent a tiny fraction of the pollution in the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. In fact, legal and illegal discharges from the mine are less than 1/100th of 1 percent of the total amount of zinc, lead and cadmium in the South Fork, according to the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality.

Rivers and lakes are on the rise again after cool, dry weather gave waterways a chance to stabilize in the past week. A flood warning remains for the St. Joe River in St. Maries, while the Coeur d'Alene River began creeping back up toward flood stage Wednesday.

Listeners of KZZU got an earful Tuesday when a crude pirate raided the airways to sling insults at the radio station and its fans. The saboteur first broke into the Spokane radio station's frequency Monday evening and returned intermittently Tuesday to the consternation of listeners and radio managers. "They're saying a lot of bad things," said KZZU operations manager Brian Paul. "They're saying things that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) won't allow us to say on the air." Station managers don't know who's doing it or exactly how. Listeners in the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane Valley areas have heard the pirate, but no one at KZZU's Spokane offices has. That leads Paul to believe that the pirate is based in the Post Falls area. "It's someone who knows what they're doing to get that kind of power and cut into our signal on purpose," Paul said. KZZU, which is broadcast on the 92.2 FM frequency, has not acknowledged the problem on the air for fear it might only encourage the airways marauder. "A couple of people who called are upset, thinking we're doing it," said Mike Ellis, KZZU promotions and marketing director. "We'd be absolutely insane to use that kind of language on a radio station." KZZU is a Top 40, contemporary hit radio station that considers itself a source of entertainment and information for families. The station filed a complaint Tuesday with the FCC in Seattle. FCC electronics engineer Don Roberson said the complaint would be investigated. Pirate broadcasters aren't too difficult to track down, he said. Once caught, the culprit could face an administrative fine of $10,000 a day for violating the Communications Act of 1934, or $75,000 for continuing violations. If the piracy was done knowingly, the FCC can file criminal charges that could result in a $10,000 fine or one year in jail.

Unpublished correction: The name of Higgens Point is misspelled in this story. This information is from the Idaho Department of Parks & Recreation. Scott Robinson of Coeur d'Alene launches his boat at no cost - for now - at the Third Street ramp. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Owners of lakeside cabins or summer homes should visit their property and make flood preparations, emergency officials said Friday. "If you own a lake cabin, you need to take a look at it...to take necessary precautions," said Sandy Von Behren, operations coordinator for Kootenai County Disaster Services.

A lull in rising waters will give disaster workers a chance to bolster levees in St. Maries this weekend. Lake Coeur d'Alene and the St. Joe and Coeur d'Alene rivers were holding steady below flood stage Thursday, and flood forecasters said they don't expect them to rise until next week.

So far, so good. That's what disaster officials in North Idaho were saying Wednesday.

Eight more cases of whooping cough were confirmed in North Idaho Wednesday, bringing the total to 172. The last severe outbreak in North Idaho was 170 cases, and they took three months to surface. This outbreak is only three weeks old.

Two-year-old Kaylee Hatch keeps her eye on the needle as she, like many in the region, was vaccinated for pertussis last week. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

The warmer weather has yet to bring a surge of floodwaters from the record mountain snowpack. "Things have been quiet so far," said Sandy Von Behren, Kootenai County disaster services coordinator. But county disaster workers will be filling sandbags today in preparation for high water.

Nearly 1 in 10 people tested for pertussis in North Idaho has been found to have the highly contagious disease. Of the more than 800 people who have been tested for pertussis - commonly called whooping cough - 84 have the illness, according to health officials. "We have an unusually high infection rate," said Larry Belmont, director of the Panhandle Health District. "It's just overwhelming."

As big and ferocious as they are, grizzly bears aren't looking for trouble. In fact, grizzly bears try to avoid roads and trails that get human use, according to recent research by wildlife biologists in the region.

An ongoing investigation of the region's whooping cough outbreak confirmed the first cases in Spokane and Benewah counties on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Panhandle Health District is struggling to find enough nurses, phones and affordable medication to handle the outbreak that's climbed to 75 cases in North Idaho.

The pleasant weather lately has been giving folks in North Idaho an uneasy feeling. "I don't like it 'cause it's just delaying the melt," said George Currier, Benewah County's civil defense director. "The rivers are running real clear yet. I'd be happier if they were running a little dirtier."

Whooping cough has spread to Shoshone County. Panhandle Health District officials announced Thursday four new cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. The latest cases include two toddlers, one 20 months old and the other 18 months old, both from Kellogg. The 18-month-old boy attends the Silver Valley High School Day Care Center in Wallace.

Rosen

The Frisco Mill, once dynamited by union activists, is soon to be targeted by bulldozers. The historic mill site north of Wallace is part of an estimated $1 million, mile-long cleanup project slated for this summer.

Washdown. Monty Brown, of Arrow Power Vac of Missoula, douses the Huetter overpass along I-90 to clear winter traction sand from the road. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

The whooping cough outbreak in Kootenai County is hardly the biggest in the state's recent history, but it is the only one that has proved deadly. Health officials have tested 100 or more people for pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, since they learned that a 2-month-old Post Falls boy who died two weeks ago had the disease.

Two big ifs stand in the way of Coeur d'Alene's community center. If supporters can raise $1.5 million in donations and if they can get 2,000 people to pledge to buy annual memberships, then the center can be built.

The 1995 Aryan Nations World Congress at Hayden Lake, Idaho, drew national attention when attendees gathered en masse, responding to a television film crew. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

In a recent letter to North Idaho business leader Duane Hagadone, Bill Wassmuth of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment urged him not to overlook the reality "that racist and extremist groups/individuals are making this area their home." Wassmuth listed 21 examples, including: The continued activities of the Aryan Nations.