Readers Can Pick Top Stories From Floods To Fuhrman, Militias To Micron, Vote For The 10 Best

On New Year’s Eve, The Spokesman-Review will ring out 1995 with lists of the top stories of the year.

Picking the top stories of North Idaho and the Inland Northwest is always difficult, because one person’s big news can be another person’s big snooze.

That’s why the newspaper is once again asking you to help pick the area’s most important stories.

By calling, writing, faxing or e-mailing, you can tell us what were the 10 most important stories to you. You can vote for stories on the ballot prepared by the newspaper’s reporters and editors, or vote for your own choices.

Read the ballot - the stories are in no particular order - then follow the instructions in the box to the right.

Floods. Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers flood on President’s Day and again in November. A toddler is rescued after falling into February floodwaters, but dies six months later. Forest Service roads turn to slime and ooze down mountainsides in record numbers.

Micron. With its promise of thousands of clean, high-tech jobs, Micron Technology Inc. bosses decide not to move to Post Falls, despite being offered controversial tax-based financing. Wolves. The federal government reintroduces wolves to Idaho over some ranchers’ objections. One quickly wound up dead.

Mark Fuhrman. After house-hunting in Sandpoint, the famous LAPD detective roughed up a newspaper photographer at the Spokane airport. He eventually relocates to Sandpoint.

Festival. The Festival at Sandpoint considers moving. Key staffers quit. Conductor Gunther Schuller threatens to join them because of bickering.

Gulf. Gulf Resources’ bankruptcy case unveils years of fraud and greed that threatened pension checks for Bunker Hill mine workers and wasted millions of dollars without cleaning up the environment.

Lottery. To bring much-needed money to the reservation, the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe announces plans for the country’s first national telephone lottery and promptly ends up battling states and telephone companies over details.

GOP. Kootenai County’s new all-Republican commission makes a series of controversial environmental land-use calls, but holds to promises of tightening county financial belt.

Mayors. A tough year for mayors. Tensed recalls rambling, contentious Ed Dohrman. Harrison flips coin to oust mayor Dean Christensen, who drew fire for living with city clerk. Spirit Lake goes through four mayors in a year - the first resigning under fire and facing state investigation; the latest firing the city’s respected police chief.

Randy Weaver. The former Idaho separatist’s saga continues as four FBI officials are suspended, Senate holds hearings on the shootout and the federal government settles the family’s complaint for $3.1 million.

NIC sports. North Idaho College officials take heat for an increase in the athletic budget. The big jump was in tuition and fee waivers to recruit athletes, mostly men, many of whom are from out of state.

Assessments. Hundreds flood the Kootenai County courthouse to protest increases in property assessments.

Militia. The anti-government movement grows in the West and comes under national scrutiny in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Some members threaten public officials in Montana; others take potshots at helicopters in Washington and Idaho.

Sheriff pay. Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies quit volunteer duties over wage dissatisfaction. Compromise later returns deputies to these tasks.

Sawmill. Louisiana Pacific closes Post Falls sawmill while Bonners Ferry mills face temporary layoffs.

Hecla. The mining company loses $104 million on a gold mine and blames it on bad computer modeling.

Chenoweth. Acid-tongued U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, slams federal authorities, takes heat for supporting militias and defends against charges of favoritism in getting a $40,000 unsecured loan.

Dog track. In the wake of continuing scandal over mistreatment of animals, greyhound racing gets axed in Post Falls due to the track’s rising debt.

Ken Arrasmith is convicted of murdering Ron and Luella Bingham, who he said sexually assaulted his teenage daughter.

Endangered species. Idaho’s congressional delegation jumps to lead the fight to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, even holding hearings in Lewiston.

Zoo. Walk in the Wild announces plans to move to Silverwood after losing its lease in the Spokane Valley.

Ritalin. Educators and health professionals become concerned over rising use of the drug Ritalin in public schools to control children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. Idaho ranks No. 1 in the nation for per capita use of the drug.

Abuse. Authorities blame the death of two North Idaho kids and several Spokane children on abuse from their parents or guardians.

Meth. The illegal drug methamphetamine sweeps the Inland Northwest, sparking violence, arrests and backlogs at law enforcement crime labs.

Morale. In the wake of reorganization efforts that Forest Supervisor Dave Wright says were necessitated by mill closings, environmental appeals and the militia movement, morale at Panhandle National Forests hits bottom.

Siding. Area residents demand refunds on Louisiana-Pacific home siding that grows mushrooms and crumbles. L-P offers to settle most claims with few questions, but maintains the siding is a good deal.

Trout. Bull trout harvest ends on Lake Pend Oreille, the last legal bull trout fishing spot in the Inland Northwest.

Ron Stratton. Contractor Ron Stratton, accused of bilking dozens of families by charging for projects he never completed, pleads guilty in November and faces up to 14 years in prison.

Zach Mayo. Osburn Marine Zachary Mayo falls off an aircraft carrier into the North Arabian Sea and is rescued three days later.

Guardian. Silver Valley teenager Nicole Lea Cox marries 33-year-old guardian William Lee Garwood, who was accused of raping her.

Colombia. The family of Rathdrum’s Jack Baldwin mortgages a mobile home to get enough cash to convince Bogota hospital officials to release his body.

Nuke. Gov. Phil Batt cuts nuclear waste deal with feds, while ShoBans block trains going to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

Explode. Thousands are evacuated when a tiny fire at the Rimrock Explosives plant ignites fears of a massive explosion. The fire was extinguished without an explosion.

Salmon. Fighting continues over drawdowns and other methods of recovering endangered Snake River salmon while the “best of the last” of Idaho’s wild chinook head downstream.

Smelter. Polluted buildings topple as cleanup work finally begins at Bunker Hill.

Crowded schools. School officials in Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene consider double-shifting to battle crowding.

Economy. North Idaho’s economy slows as construction, timber and tourism dip.

Aquifer. Pollution, in the form of the solvent trichloroethylene, spreads through the aquifer years after a metal plating company dumps the degreaser into the ground.

Grass. Field-burning grass growers get burned with a record number of complaints. While Washington allows an extension to the burning season, clean air advocates hire attorneys and consider challenging an Idaho law that protects farmers from nuisance lawsuits.

, DataTimes