Taryn Hecker

ATHOL – When Charlotte Hooper put in the grant application, she held her breath. The Athol city clerk didn't think her request for more than $25,000 in grant money to buy playground equipment for City Park would go anywhere.

The City of Spirit Lake is putting some bite behind its bark. Residents who let their dogs run loose will face stiffer fines under a resolution the City Council passed June 10. First-time offenders will be fined $50 – an increase of $25.

On the heels of a defeated school plant facilities levy, the Coeur d'Alene School District has a new set of problems: Special education spending went $1 million over budget this past year. Though the district has shifted funds from other areas of the budget to make up the difference, a new fiscal year is posing more challenges.

The possibility of Blackwater USA partnering with Idaho's law enforcement academy to provide training in North Idaho sparked a small protest outside a Coeur d'Alene hotel Thursday. Fewer than 10 people gathered outside the meeting room, opposed to Blackwater's presence in North Idaho based on its record in Iraq. Inside the meeting room, North Idaho's top cops also raised objections.

It looks more like a video game than a math assignment. Students who log on to Apangea Learning's SmartHelp online math program can win points by answering questions correctly and trade the points for gift cards and music downloads.

Big Wheel races, a Beatles cover band, a fishing derby, carnival and a parade are planned for this weekend's Post Falls Days celebration. The town's annual three-day party begins Friday and continues through Sunday evening at Q'emiln Park.

The Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene school districts will serve breakfast and lunch all summer long. The only thing children need to bring is an appetite.

A Bayview developer who demolished much of a cafe without a permit has been ordered by Kootenai County building officials to tear down the whole building. Vista Bay Cafe was built into the steep shoreline and extended over the water on Lake Pend Oreille. Current county codes, which require a 25-foot setback, won't allow for a new building at the site, according to Building and Planning Director Scott Clark.

Mary McCormick-Hughes used to sled down Spokane Street as a child. She didn't have to worry about cars.

SPIRIT LAKE – If money wasn't an issue, Spirit Lake residents would support many things: Downtown revitalization, building bike and pedestrian paths, improving roads and sewer and more economic development. That's the consensus among the 500 or so people surveyed in the parking lot outside Miller's Food City in front of Old West Hardware, as they pumped gas at the Conoco, sipped a cold brew at the local bars or at their own home by volunteers who went door-to-door seeking opinions.

SPIRIT LAKE – A California developer and pharmacist who helped plug Spirit Lake's once-leaky Mill Pond is seeking to annex an additional 160 acres into city limits. John Sempre already owns 306 acres in city limits, two-thirds of that annexed into Spirit Lake in 2001. He initially planned for a high-end residential development with 400 homes, a golf course, marina and ski hill on the west side of Spirit Lake.

A private education consultant and a man nicknamed "Super Fan" are trying to unseat two Coeur d'Alene School District trustees on Tuesday. Susan Francis, a consultant and former University of Idaho professor, is running against incumbent Diane Zipperer, a structural engineer, in Zone 4.