Susan Drumheller

Sandpoint's former economic development director filed a tort claim against the city Friday demanding $225,000 for wrongful termination. Susan K. Johnson lost her job in March after the City Council voted to eliminate her position, citing financial troubles.

The results of a study on the health of 108 women who worked at the Bunker Hill lead smelter is scheduled to be released during a public meeting Wednesday in Kellogg. Draft copies of the study will be distributed to local libraries and the Panhandle Health District on Thursday.

Color photo The zinc plant, the last large building on the Bunker Hill site, begins to collapse Thursday evening. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

A 9-year-old Post Falls boy is suspected of starting a fire on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille that has burned almost 270 acres of forest, injured one firefighter, threatened bald eagle and bull trout habitat and may have damaged part of a timber sale worth thousands of dollars.

Lake Coeur d'Alene Parkway. Phyllis Deswarte's golden retriever seems to forget she is already on a walk, her first along the Centennial Trail in Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Like a recurring bad trip, an alarmist flier has resurfaced in the Inland Northwest, warning that a dangerous form of LSD is being peddled to schoolchildren. This week, the warning appeared among incident reports at the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department. The problem is, no one seems to have any evidence that it's true.

Forest Service employees visiting Squaw Creek campground Wednesday along the St. Joe River came across a campfire at an abandoned campsite. "Someone had gone and left their fire going," said Charley Miller, recreation specialist with the Panhandle Forest. "We carried water in our hard-hats and put it out."

A huge mudslide in February closed access to the upper St. Joe River 13 miles east of Avery, Idaho. File/The Spokesman-Review

The poacher who snagged one of the few spawning wild chinook salmon near Stanley, Idaho, recently had to know it was a federal offense, fish experts say. "This would be like catching a battleship compared to a toy boat in a bathtub," said Roger Elmore, a fish culturist at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery. The chinook, 75 centimeters long, was caught on July 30, Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists believe.

Lakeland school officials have modified building plans in the wake of last spring's failed bond issue. Instead of building a junior high at Spirit Lake, the school district is proposing building a combined junior and senior high there.

An increase in boats on Lake Coeur d'Alene means slips are harder to find, and more expensive to rent. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Charlie Ault takes careful aim during the Idaho state horseshoe championships in Kellogg. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Environmental activists will go door-to-door and paddle canoes dock-to-dock Saturday to deliver 5,000 videos warning of pollution problems in Lake Coeur d'Alene caused by upstream mining. The video is the offspring of a similar video distributed in the Spokane area earlier this summer that raised the ire of Sen. Larry Craig.

An 18-year-old Coeur d'Alene woman was raped by two acquaintances who took advantage of her drunkenness Wednesday night, according to a Coeur d'Alene police report. Police have physical evidence and witnesses but still are searching for the two suspects, according to Capt. Carl Bergh. The woman reported the rape at about 1 a.m. Thursday after going to Kootenai Medical Center.

Almost $3 million of flood prevention work is on hold while North Idaho counties wait for Federal Emergency Management Agency approval. Out of more than 50 requests for help from public agencies, the state has recommended that 22 projects get federal funds from FEMA.

Richard Russell burned his bridges with the U.S. Forest Service, so the Forest Service burned down his summer cabin. Now the agency is billing him for the cleanup.

Lisa Weyland gets some pointers on gold panning while Phillip Weyland and Rabad Nemri examine the contents of their pan Saturday at the Festival of the Falls in Post Falls. The festival concludes today. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Austere times have arrived for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. "We're broke. We'd better start acting like we're broke," said Fish and Game Commissioner Fred Wood at Thursday's commission meeting here. Under fire for being millions of dollars in the hole and having more vehicles than full-time employees, the commission voted to cut $2.6 million from the department's current budget and find ways to trim for long-term savings.

A growing pile of heavy metals has become an expensive problem for the custodians of the Bunker Hill Superfund site. The Environmental Protection Agency originally estimated that it would accumulate about 20,000 cubic yards of arsenic, antimony, cadmium, lead and mercury as it dismantled the old lead smelter in Kellogg.

Daniel J. Bonin wasn't the victim of any run-of-the-mill car accident. Perhaps it was a car ride that went awry. A drug deal or a robbery. Or a deadly gay-bashing incident.

Sun seekers kept the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene full Thursday. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Some wary residents of Cougar Bay are worried that their efforts to save 11 acres of waterfront property will be undermined by a narrow easement across it. The 15-foot wide easement, which runs from U.S. Highway 95 across the Bureau of Land Management property to the lake, could be the first breach of the wildlife sanctuary, they say, and could lead to the roar of personal watercraft and power boats in the sensitive wetland area.

Hygiene on Lake Coeur d'Alene has come a long way since the lake's floating restrooms were torched one Fourth of July years ago. The restrooms were an enclosed place to sit over the water, as if the lake were just a giant toilet bowl.

Despite their watchful eye, Herb and Jan Severtson didn't spot any loons at Cougar Bay on Saturday. They were participating in the loon count held by the Audubon Society. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review