Winda Benedetti

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.

Montana officer Roman Zylawy gives Jason Anresen a speeding ticket. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

1. Loss shocks community. Nan Hansen's friends were outraged by her death. From left are, Jerry Sparrick, his wife, Kim, and Shelley Auger. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review 2. Nan and Chris Hansen at The Riverside Inn. Chris and his som face homicide charges. 3. This remote barn near DeBorgia, Mont., is where Nanette Hansen was found dead in November, 1995. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review 4. Chris Hansen 5. Scott Abe

Last year, 14-year-old Clay Tucker watched his father pull out a gun and shoot at him. On Thursday, the high school freshman watched a bailiff haul his dad away in handcuffs - a convicted man.

Kootenai County Jail officials are scrambling. There are hundreds of meals to be served, tons of clothes to be washed, floors to be scrubbed and cars to be repaired.

An 86-year-old Post Falls woman was found frozen to death Tuesday after she fell on the steps of her home, according to county officials. Katherine M. Kea was found dead by her son-in-law who had come for a visit at about noon, according to a Kootenai County sheriff's report.

Clay Tucker looked into his father's eyes. Then the 14-year-old boy watched as his father got out of a truck, pulled out a gun and shot at him, said Lansing Haynes, Kootenai County deputy prosecutor.

In like a lion. Winter strikes again, slowing traffic and pedestrians in North Idaho. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review<

Police sketch

Joani Maine, whose son ran away when he was a teen, applauds the new ordinance. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

An armed robber had to pay for a pack of gum twice Tuesday night while he was trying to rob a department store. Coeur d'Alene police still are looking for the robber, who made off with an unspecified amount of cash from the Target store on Canfield Avenue.

They're crammed two or three at a time in small rooms, sleeping on floors and next to toilets. Their showers often are cold, and tempers flare easily under the pressure of close quarters.

Cpl. Sean Daly with the truck involved in Sunday's accident. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Donohoe

A Plummer, Idaho, man was charged with second-degree murder Monday for allegedly stabbing his cousin at least three times with a filet knife. Frankie L. SiJohn, 25, also of Plummer, died Saturday night after he and his cousin Michael A. Samuels got into a fight at the Log Dog Bar in Plummer. The men were best friends.

Idaho law has a loophole so large you could slip a van filled with explosives right through it.