17-year-old killed in Highway 12 crash

A 17-year-old woman from Weippe, Idaho, was killed Sunday when her car crashed into a trailer on U.S. Highway 12, the Idaho State Police reported.

Nicolette M.M. Litchfield was driving a Toyota Corolla eastbound on the highway about 36 miles from the Idaho-Washington border. Litchfield crossed the centerline at 4:47 p.m. and hit a westbound trailer loaded with two ATV four-wheelers, according to ISP.

The impact damaged the entire driver’s side of her Toyota.

Litchfield’s passenger, Samantha J. Bolon, 18, of Pierce, Idaho, was injured and taken to Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino, the ISP reported.

The driver of the pickup pulling the trailer, Kenneth S. Roughton of Peck, Idaho, was uninjured, as were his wife and 3-year-old son, who were also in the pickup, according to ISP.

History of BNSF depot presented at Gonzaga

“Oil and Water Don’t Mix,” a presentation on the history of BNSF Railway’s train refueling depot, will be presented Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Gonzaga Law School’s Barbieri Moot Courtroom, 721 N. Cincinnati St.

The free event is hosted by Stan Miller, an independent consultant and retired Spokane County Water Resources program manager, as well as Rachael Paschal Osborn, an attorney and adjunct faculty member at the law school.

The presentation will focus on the depot, where numerous fuel leaks have been reported in the last four months, and its impacts on the SpokaneValley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. Audience discussion will follow.

House endorses Patriot Act amendments

Boise House lawmakers on Monday unanimously endorsed U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s proposed amendments to the USA Patriot Act.

The House joint memorial, sponsored by GOP Reps. Tom Trail of Moscow and Phil Hart of Athol, is similar to a resolution that Trail and former Rep. Charles Eberle of Post Falls proposed last year. That memorial died without being introduced in the Legislature.

But this year’s measure has zipped through a committee and the full House without any objections.

“The timing is much better this time,” said Trail, who added that a huge amount of support last year from Republicans and Democrats wasn’t enough to convince leadership it warranted introduction.

Craig’s Security and Freedom Ensured, or SAFE, Act places limitations on the use of surveillance, calls for less intrusion into people’s library records and makes it more difficult for the FBI to get search warrants with a delayed notice to the person whose property is being searched.

“This protects our security but does not compromise essential liberties,” Trail said.

Hearing tonight on Canfield development plan

The Coeur d’Alene City Council will have a public hearing tonight on a proposal to build 40 homes on the lower reaches of Canfield Mountain.

The Planning Commission voted in January to recommend approval of Copper Ridge LLC, which would include nearly 24 acres of open space on the steepest section of the hillside.

The city had previously rejected two other proposals for the housing development on 49 acres at the end of Shadduck Lane. In January, the Planning Commission said the developers had resolved most of the concerns with the project that ranged from private, narrow streets to having the development gated. Neither of those items are included in the latest version.

Copper Ridge LLC is requesting a zone change on the lower portion of the land to allow for 40 homes. The 24 acres of open space, which is mostly steep hillside, would retain its current zoning that allows only one home per acre.

The city council will take up the zone change and an appeal for the subdivision.

The 6 p.m. meeting is at City Hall, 710 E. Mullan Ave. For more information, call 769-2300.

Fish and Game offers nesting boxes for $5

Bluebird nesting boxes are now available to North Idaho residents for a $5 donation, courtesy of the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

Each year, volunteers and Idaho Fish and Game Department reservists build upwards of 1,000 nesting boxes. This year, Stimson Lumber helped the effort by donating cedar lumber for the project.

Bluebirds live throughout Idaho, but like many other wildlife species, the birds have faced growing difficulty finding suitable nesting habitat because of the high rates of development in North Idaho, according to a statement from the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

The birds return to Idaho from their wintering grounds by late February or early March and the boxes should be placed no later than early April. Some bluebirds, however, will move into a nesting box as late as the middle of May.

Hundreds of boxes are now available at the Fish and Game Department office in Coeur d’Alene at 2750 Kathleen Ave. The agency will also supply free construction plans.