Avalanche victim’s body recovered

The body of a 50-year-old Spokane man swept away by a snowslide near Stevens Peak in Shoshone County was recovered Sunday.

Mark Davidson Tuggle was reported missing about 3:30 p.m. Saturday after a friend saw him caught in an avalanche in steep terrain, the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office said. The friend searched for Tuggle until dark, then hiked back to his car to report the slide.

Because of darkness and hazardous conditions, rescue crews waited until Sunday morning to begin searching for Tuggle.

Tuggle was found about 9:30 a.m. Sunday. His death appears to have been caused by striking trees or rocks while caught in the avalanche, the Sheriff’s Office said.

– Sara Leaming

Boise

Online charter school plans to expand

A Boise-based virtual charter school will add 10th grade to its kindergarten-through-ninth-grade courses next year.

Idaho Connections Academy plans to add 11th grade the following year and 12th grade the year after that.

The academy, part of a national chain of online schools, was founded in 2002. It has partnered with Boise State University, which helps with teacher training, curriculum development, and research and evaluation.

The school serves students across the state free of charge because it is a public school. It provides Internet lessons, textbooks and a desktop computer and printer.

Students enrolled at virtual schools still are required to take state-mandated standardized tests; they do so at local schools.

Connections Academy will hold an information session in Coeur d’Alene on Friday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Shilo Inn, 702 W. Appleway Ave. For more information, call (800) 382-6010.

– Rasha Madkour

Coeur d’Alene

Tibetan nuns to speak on persecution, peace

Tibetan Buddhist nuns will give two very different public talks at North Idaho College. One is about persecution; the other is about peace.

On Saturday at 2 p.m., the Venerable Lobsand Dechen and Elizabeth Napper will speak about nuns who face imprisonment and torture by the Chinese government in Tibet and flee to neighboring India.

The women are co-directors of the Tibetan Nuns Project, founded in 1987 to provide humanitarian aid to refugee nuns.

For more information, call (208) 769-3355.

On May 12 at 7 p.m., the Venerable Thubten Chodron will speak about how to contribute to a more peaceful world by dealing with anger in the right way and developing compassion. Workshops on those issues will be held the following day.

Chodron, a nun since 1977, has practiced under the guidance of the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan masters in India and Nepal. In 2003, she founded one of the few Buddhist monasteries in the United States: Sravasti Abbey near Newport, Wash.

For more information, call (208) 769-3397.

Both events will be in the Molstead Library on NIC’s Coeur d’Alene campus.

– Rasha Madkour