Winda Benedetti

A man accused of carrying two small bombs in his car was charged Wednesday with a misdemeanor. But the Kootenai County prosecutor said James D. Dove, 30, should have been charged with a more serious crime.

Friends and admirers of artist Stephen Lyman are invited to attend a memorial celebration at 1 p.m. Sunday at Sam Owen Park in Sandpoint. The nationally known artist and Sandpoint resident died last month while hiking in Yosemite National Park.

A Spokane man was arrested on 25 counts of grand theft and 24 counts of burglary for allegedly taking more than $41,000 from a Spokane wholesale distributor. But John C. Nelson Jr., 35, was officially charged with only five counts of grand theft on Tuesday.

The 12 jurors looked shaken, pale and physically ill as they handed down their guilty verdict. They had just spent a week looking at photographs of a dead 2-year-old boy - his curly blond hair hiding the fatal injury to his brain.

Ducking their duty Kootenai County jury commissioner Gomer Davis says a "wonderful right" is being abdicated. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

An Idaho Department of Health and Welfare employee was charged Thursday with seven counts of grand theft after more than $24,000 in child-support payments turned up missing. But Janine S. Edwards, 41-year-old mother from Coeur d'Alene, insists she hasn't stolen a penny.

Robert Landrum admits he urged an armed man to shoot at him Wednesday night. But "I didn't think he would do it," Landrum, 19, of Coeur d'Alene, said.

Kevin Merwin stood in the center of a human storm Saturday, a guilty man. A jury of seven women and five men, their faces pale and drawn, had just found the 24-year-old computer repairman guilty of the abuse that led to the death of his wife's child.

"He just fell over," says Kevin Merwin, recounting the day Alexander Buss, 2, wa injured while in his care. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Urbano Herrera-Brito stalked and tried to kill a man who had assaulted him, a jury decided Wednesday. After a three-day trial and almost five hours of deliberation, jurors found Herrera-Brito, 37, guilty of attempted second-degree murder in the shooting of Martin Nunez.

A man accused of molesting two teenage boys while posing as a psychiatrist pleaded guilty to lewd conduct Wednesday. Larry Leombruno, 46, of Harrison, Idaho, was charged with two counts of sexual battery in August after two 17-year-old boys told investigators he molested them while pretending to give them "brain wave synchronizing" therapy.

A Silver Valley man who tried to be a Good Samaritan became a crime victim instead. Jesse Milsap, 36, was tied up, robbed and beaten Tuesday night after letting a stranger into his home to use the telephone, according to Shoshone County sheriff's officials. "He's really in shock," said Cpl. Mitch Alexander.

A woman is in a wheelchair, and now the man who put her there will be in prison. First District Judge Gary Haman on Monday ordered Robert A. Thomas, 30, of Coeur d'Alene to spend up to five years in prison for two counts of aggravated drunken driving.

1. Child abuse or tragic accident? Michelle Buss-Merwin responds Monday to questioning by defense attorney Frederick Loats in the trial of her new husband, who is accused of causing the death of her 2-1/2-year-old son. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review 2. Kevin Merwin 3. Deputy Prosecutor Lansing Haynes tells jury in Kevin Merwin's trial that bleeding around the eyes is a classic sign of shaken baby syndrome. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Trains carrying toxic chemicals pass through downtown Rathdrum several times a day, prompting the town's fears of a disaster. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Drivers passing through the Idaho Panhandle soon will be allowed to drive faster on Interstate 90. The Idaho Transportation Board on Thursday voted to raise the speed limit along two sections of the interstate.

Shifting gears Interstate 90 traffic may move along a little more quickly if the Idaho Transportation Board approves recommended speed limits. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

A woman accused of allowing her 5-month-old baby to drown in the bathtub was sentenced Tuesday to two years of probation. Both the defense attorney and prosecutor were near tears as a distraught Kelli R. O'Neill pleaded guilty to injury to a child.

Tom Beal paces his Coeur d'Alene office with the unspent energy of a caged animal. His work is not here in this tidy room with no windows. It's out on the road, in the hundreds of bars, liquor stores and other places that sell alcohol in North Idaho.

Hundreds of North Idaho and Spokane residents may have been exposed to whooping cough, health officials warned Saturday. Panhandle Health District officials said that an adult woman is suspected of having the disease and those who came in close contact with her should notify their doctors. Those groups being warned are: The Theater for Youth students in Coeur d'Alene. The Theater for Youth students in Sandpoint. The Theater for Youth students in Spokane. Lakes Middle School Sixth Grade students in Coeur d'Alene. The cast of "The Choice" at New Life Community Church in Rathdrum. Contact with the person may have occurred beginning March 11, said Marie Rou, public health nursing supervisor for Panhandle Health. In the past week, two children at Discovery Day Care, two children at Fernan Elementary School and one child in the sixth grade at Canfield Middle School in Coeur d'Alene have been diagnosed with pertussis, the medical name for whooping cough.

You are what you drive. Sean Buck, left, and Mike Lykins give the third degree to a Chevy at Royal Car Wash in Coeur d'Alene on Thursday. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

A firefighter inflates a tire on a pickup driven by Kevin Mylan of Coeur d'Alene after it was struck by a train in downtown Rathdrum. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

When the Sunset Bowling Center was robbed, Derrick Kidder seemed like the perfect suspect. The 24-year-old Coeur d'Alene man had previously been convicted of burglarizing a bowling alley. He was a convicted robber. And an eyewitness identified him in a photo line-up as the robber of the bowling center.

Inmates love their prison law libraries. It is there that many of them spend countless hours culling law books and legal documents, researching lawsuits against their jailers, judges and other government officials.