College offers advising services at Sandpoint, Silver Valley centers

North Idaho College is offering advising services next week for students and prospective students at the college’s Sandpoint and Silver Valley centers.

Advisers will be available from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at NIC’s Sandpoint Center, 101 N. Second St., and from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday at NIC’s Silver Valley Center at 323 Main St. in Kellogg.

The advisers can help with the admissions process and registration for fall semester.

Walk-ins are welcome, the college said in a press release, but 30-minute appointments are recommended.

To make an appointment, call (208) 783-1254 in the Silver Valley or (208) 263-4594 in Sandpoint.

Two offenders arrested on new abuse charges

Coeur d’Alene police arrested two registered sex offenders Thursday on suspicion of committing new sex crimes with girls.

Anthony Lorn Stebbins, 36, of Coeur d’Alene, was arrested about 9 a.m. on charges of inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl while she slept in a house in the 1000 block of C Street.

He was charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

Sgt. Christie Wood said Stebbins, a friend of the girl’s mother’s boyfriend, was staying at the mother’s house.

Wood said the girl woke up about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and Stebbins was touching her inappropriately.

In a separate incident, police arrested Raymundo Martinez, 40, of Coeur d’Alene, on suspicion of handcuffing a naked 14-year-old girl to a bed July 23 and whipping her.

Martinez was charged with lewd conduct with a minor.

Both men are on the Idaho sex offender registry.

Martinez was convicted in August 1996 in Kootenai County for lewd conduct with a minor.

His address is listed as 1305 Best Ave., where the whipping incident is alleged to have occurred.

The registry shows that Stebbins was convicted May 2004 in Kootenai County for sexual abuse of a child under 16.

His address is listed as 1709 E. Lunceford Lane, No. 43.

Long Bridge Swim registration Saturday

Sandpoint Registration for the 11th annual Long Bridge Swim on Saturday is still open, but anyone not signed up already must register the day of the swim at the north end of the Lake Pend Oreille bridge, swim organizer Eric Ridgway said Thursday.

This year’s 1.76-mile swim from the south end of the bridge to Dog Beach on the north has attracted a record 500 swimmers.

“It’s the Bloomsday of open-water swims,” Ridgway said.

The swim is open to all levels of swimmers. Safety boats guide swimmers and help when swimmers tire.

Participants may wear wetsuits, fins and even life jackets.

However, only swimmers in swimsuits or wetsuits only are eligible for race awards.

Race day registration will be in the parking lot on the bridge’s north end, 6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. Cost is $20. The swim starts at 9 a.m.

Passenger volume rising at Boise Airport

Boise Boise Airport officials expect more than 3 million passengers this year, the first time passenger volume has returned to levels seen before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Airport Director John Anderson said the facility is benefiting from a national resurgence in travel and an expanding local economy.

During the first six months of the year, 1.5 million passengers have passed through the airport, a 10 percent increase from a year earlier, officials said.