In brief: Plan on closed roads for holiday

Anyone planning to drive to today’s Fourth of July festivities in downtown Coeur d’Alene should be prepared to get there early and face plenty of road closures.

Sherman Avenue will be completely closed from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. for a parade, then closed between Second and Fourth streets and Fourth and Seventh streets the rest of the day. Lakeside Avenue will be closed between Third and Fourth, Fourth and Fifth, and Seventh and Eighth streets. Fourth and Seventh streets will be open for northbound traffic.

Motorists are advised to use Third and 15th streets for access to downtown. Travelers coming to the city from Interstate 90 should take the Lake Coeur d’Alene Drive, 15th Street or Fourth Street exits.

Northwest Boulevard will be closed to southbound traffic from Interstate 90 and Highway 95 beginning at 4 p.m.

All streets north of Lakeside will remain open, but southbound access to downtown will end when Northwest closes at 4 p.m.

Northwest Boulevard will be open only to northbound motorists after the fireworks end. Northwest, Fourth, Seventh and 15th will be the main roads out of town.

Spokane

Woman’s condition critical after crash

An 82-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman was in critical condition late Tuesday after a semitruck crashed into the car she was riding in near Loon Lake, Wash.

About 4:30 p.m., Florance L. Westgaard was riding in a Toyota Echo on Garden Spot Road at U.S. Highway 395, according to a Washington State Patrol report. The driver was 65-year-old Donald H. Hodge, of Otis Orchards.

In the southbound lane of U.S. 395, a semitruck crushed the Toyota and rammed it into a Subaru Impreza driven by 16-year-old Lindsey L. Buffington, of Loon Lake, the report states.

Westgaard was airlifted to Sacred Heart Medical Center. Hodge was taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart, was treated and released.

Buffington and the truck driver, 60-year-old Kenneth M. Comstock, of Vancouver, Wash., suffered minor injuries, and neither was transported.

Authorities closed U.S. 395 in both directions for about two hours while crews cleared the scene, and the highway was completely open by 8:20 p.m.

The state patrol report was unclear as to how the crash occurred.

OLYMPIA

Logging slowed on state trust lands

Regulators have agreed to slow the rate of logging in Western Washington state forests by about 8 percent under a revised 10-year plan.

Tuesday’s decision by the state Board of Natural Resources sets the annual harvest on the region’s state trust lands at about 550 million board feet – down from the previous target of about 600 million board feet per year.

Some 1.4 million acres of state trust lands on the west side of the Cascade Mountains are affected by the plan.

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont.

Crews contain, clean up blaze

The wildfire near this national park gateway town is 100 percent contained, fire officials said Tuesday evening.

“We’re down to 226 people still on the fire,” fire information officer David Early said.

At the height of the staffing, nearly 500 people were assigned to the Madison Arm fire, which has burned an estimated 3,660 acres, or nearly 6 square miles, in the Gallatin National Forest.

Early said more crews will be leaving today, and the local U.S. Forest Service district will take over management of the fire on Thursday.

Evacuation orders have been lifted for all areas