Adult male’s body taken from lake

The Bonner County Sheriff’s Office recovered the body of an adult man from the waters of Lake Pend Oreille on Saturday, the office announced Monday in a news release.

The identification of the victim, a white male, was withheld pending notification of the next of kin.

It was unclear Monday if the victim was Bruce Hamilton, a 53-year-old Puyallup schoolteacher missing since June 29. Authorities had been searching for Hamilton’s body last week using sonar equipment but have provided no update on that effort.

Hamilton had been in a canoe-like boat that was later found empty about two miles from the launch site.

According to Monday’s news release, the unidentified body was found in about 175 feet of water and recovered by sheriff’s divers with the aid of a remote-operated vehicle.

Sheriff officials could not be reached for further comment Monday.

Suspect sought in Stateline holdup

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department is looking for a suspect in a Sunday evening robbery at a Stateline cigarette store.

A masked man came into Lew’s Smokeshop around 7:50 p.m., demanded cash and then bound the clerk before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of money, according to a press release.

Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said no weapon was displayed during the robbery and no vehicle description was available.

The suspect was described as a white male in his late 30s to early 40s, 6 feet 1 inches tall, weighing 240 pounds. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue shirt and a mask.

Anyone with information that could help with the investigation is asked to call the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department at (208) 446-1300.

Overweight children focus of hearing

The Idaho education department will hold a public hearing about K-12 physical education today at 7 p.m. in Coeur d’Alene.

The meeting is the first of six taking place around the state this month, sparked by concerns about overweight and inactive children. The sessions will outline proposed changes to the state’s physical education requirements for elementary, middle school and high school students.

For elementary school, the proposal calls for 30 minutes a day of physical education. Currently there’s a requirement for PE but no specific parameters. Middle school students would need to complete two years of PE, up from one year. High school students would have to do one year; currently they are not required to take PE.

The state Department of Education is seeking input from Idaho residents before they take their proposal to the Board of Education for a second time. The board preliminarily approved the proposal in June. The recommendations would then go to the Legislature.

The hearing will be held at the Coeur d’Alene Inn on 414 W. Appleway Ave. For more information, call (800) 432-4601.

Educators leaving Sandpoint system

Two Sandpoint school officials announced Monday they will leave the district, and a search will begin soon for their replacements.

Superintendent Mark Berryhill will retire in June 2006, and Sandpoint High School Principal Jim Soper will leave at the end of the school year.

Berryhill, who was with the Lake Pend Oreille School District for three years and has been involved in education for 35 years, said he doesn’t plan on sitting around until the end of his tenure.

“I want to make this school year the best ever for me and for the district,” he said. “Then I’ll think about retirement.”

Lake Pend Oreille School District Board Chair Vickie Pfeifer said Berryhill has overseen big changes.

“This is a different district today than it was just two years ago and much of the credit for that goes to Mark,” she said.

While principal at Sandpoint High School, Soper led the change to a new master schedule and privately funded a new German program, among other accomplishments, Pfeifer said.

Soper plans to move to Kansas, where he has bought a small farm, and said he may continue to teach in the military or in international education.

Former Letterman painter sentenced

Choteau, Mont. A former painter on David Letterman’s ranch near here was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday for overcharging the talk show host for painting work, as part of a plea agreement in which prosecutors dismissed more serious charges accusing Kelly Frank of plotting to kidnap Letterman’s young son and nanny.

Reading from a statement, Frank apologized in court Monday “for the grief that this has caused,” but again denied he ever intended to carry out the kidnapping.

“In no way, shape or form was (the allegation) true, but nevertheless, it was devastating,” he said.

Frank, a convicted felon, was arrested in March after investigators said he told an acquaintance of his plan to abduct Letterman’s then 16-month-old son, Harry Joseph, and the boy’s nanny and hold them for ransom. The acquaintance told authorities that Frank said he believed he could extort $5 million from Letterman by holding the two for 48 hours.

Under an agreement reached with prosecutors in July, Frank pleaded guilty to felony theft for overcharging Letterman for painting, and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction for lying to investigators who initially questioned him about the alleged kidnapping plot. In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors dropped charges of solicitation to kidnap.