Trustees increase school activities fees
Students in the Coeur d’Alene School District will pay more to participate in and attend extracurricular activities under fee changes approved Monday night by the district’s board of trustees.
Participants will be required to pay $25 per activity beginning this fall, with each student paying no more than $50 per year and families paying no more than $100 per year. Students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches will be exempt.
The money will help offset the increased cost of gas and other transportation-related expenses, school officials said.
“It’d be my desire that this fee be as short-lived as possible,” said Vern Newby, chairman of the Coeur d’Alene board of trustees.
The price of a student body card, which provides free admission to school activities, will increase from $30 to $35 for high school students and from $12 to $15 for middle school students. Individual admission prices will increase $1, rising to $3 for adults and $2 for students and senior citizens.
– Meghann M. Cuniff
Motorcycle hits deer, killing CdA woman
A 38-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman died Friday when her motorcycle struck a deer south of Hamilton, Mont., authorities said Monday.
Stephani Bush was killed when the motorcycle she was riding hit a fawn on U.S. Highway 93. The driver of the motorcycle, 50-year-old Mark Choquette of Hayden, was listed in stable condition Monday at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula.
Both were employed by the city of Coeur d’Alene. Bush had worked as a secretary in the criminal division of the city attorney’s office since 1999. Choquette is an equipment operator with the street department.
The state patrol said both riders were wearing helmets, but Bush’s apparently came off in the crash and she struck her head on the pavement.
Associated Press and staff reports
Spokane
Prosecutor received all four Zehm tapes
Contrary to earlier reports, Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said Monday that he had received all four camera angles of a convenience-store surveillance tape that recorded much of the fatal confrontation between Otto Zehm and several Spokane police officers.
City spokeswoman Marlene Feist said Monday that in late March or early April, Police Department technicians condensed what they thought were the most relevant portions of the tapes, taken at the Zip-Trip at 1712 N. Division St., for release to the media on July 13.
However, Feist said, the technicians apparently overlooked the portion showing Zehm with a plastic soda bottle in his hands, which officer Karl Thompson contends gave Zehm a “significant weapon” against the baton-wielding officer.
It wasn’t until the city received records requests last week that officials saw the fourth-camera angle, which shows Zehm on his back holding the bottle in front of his face just before Thompson shot him with his Taser.
– Thomas Clouse