Susan Drumheller

CRESTON, B.C. – Shortly after Christmas, things got a lot less comfortable for the people of Bountiful, a polygamist community just south of here near the Idaho border. The book "Keep Sweet," co-authored by a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, had just been published, full of tales of sexual abuse and oppression as a woman growing up in Bountiful.

A Coeur d'Alene man is being held on a $100,000 bond and a charge of attempted second-degree murder after turning himself in to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department Monday morning. Sheriff's deputies had a warrant for the arrest of Jackson James Purdie, 19, after a fight early Sunday that left 19-year-old Jeffrey Michael Crump seriously injured with multiple stab wounds.

Thirty years ago this month the Vietnam War ended, but the soldiers from that war are still invited to "stand down" at gatherings around the region to find safety and comfort in each other's company and take care of their basic needs. "Stand down" is a term used during war for when exhausted combat soldiers on the front lines were removed to a place of relative security where they could get cleaned up, receive medical care, get clean uniforms, and enjoy warm meals and the camaraderie of friends.

Coeur d'Alene Police Officer Michael Kralicek is making gradual progress at a rehabilitation center in Colorado, his wife said at a news conference Friday afternoon. Carrie Kralicek appeared with daughter Alexis at the Coeur d'Alene Police Department to update the public on the condition of her husband, who was shot in the neck in late December while on duty, and to accept an honor and gifts on behalf of her husband by the Kootenai County Eagles, a football team with the Inland Northwest Football League.

Chris Arvas will never forget the last train-car collision he personally experienced. An engineer for 32 years, he'd been at the controls of trains 15 times when they slammed into cars or trucks at railroad crossings, sometimes killing the occupants.

The biggest lender and secured creditor in the CEDU Educational Services bankruptcy case is now financing temporary operations until the private North Idaho behavioral schools can be sold and possibly reopened. But the temporary financing came too late to keep students on campus.

BONNERS FERRY, Idaho – Employees of CEDU Educational Services' three schools in Boundary County filled out unemployment forms in droves Monday while a straggling handful of students packed their things to leave Idaho. Brown Schools Inc., CEDU's parent corporation, filed for bankruptcy Friday, the same day employees learned they were losing their jobs. About 300 people in North Idaho are out of work, and about 300 students in CEDU's seven schools across the country were abruptly sent home.

Nine years ago, Faron Lovelace just wanted to be put to death. A federal fugitive captured by the FBI near Priest River, Idaho, in 1996, Lovelace couldn't stomach the thought of more prison time. He'd spent much of his adult life behind bars for a variety of crimes – stealing cars, armed robbery and escaping from prison.

Portions of the controversial Patriot Act are set to expire next year, but debate over the act and its implications are far from finished. One of the act's chief critics, U.S. Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, spoke to an audience at North Idaho College from a video address projected onto the two-story wall of Boswell Auditorium on Monday, in the opening act for this spring's Popcorn Forum. This year's theme is "Hot Talk: Passionate Debate for A New Age."