In brief: Early opening set for Schweitzer Mountain

Schweitzer Mountain Resort announced it will open for the season on Saturday, the earliest opening for the resort since 1984.

About 20 inches of snow was reported at the resort Thursday morning. That combined with man-made snow will allow two chairlifts to open.

Reduced prices will be in effect and mountain parking will be free.

Schweitzer joins Lookout Pass ski area, which announced earlier this week that it will open today.

Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park has announced on its website that it will open on Dec. 3.

Silver Mountain Resort and 49 Degrees North have not set dates for opening.

Rhoades execution scheduled for today

BOISE – Twenty-four years after Idaho sentenced him to death, Paul Ezra Rhoades is expected to be executed this morning.

Barring any last-minute intervention by the courts or state leaders, Rhoades is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 8 a.m., making him the first person executed in Idaho since 1994 and the only person to be involuntarily put to death in the state since 1957 – the year Rhoades was born.

Rhoades was sentenced to death for the 1987 kidnappings and murders of 34-year-old Susan Michelbacher and 21-year-old Stacy Dawn Baldwin. He also was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 1987 murder of 20-year-old Nolan Haddon.

Now 54, Rhoades has admitted committing the murders but has vigorously appealed his convictions and Idaho’s execution protocol. He lost the last of his criminal appeals in October, and this week he lost his bids to have the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court consider whether Idaho’s lethal injection protocol amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Rhodes contends that if the executioners make a mistake and he isn’t adequately anesthetized, he will feel excruciating pain during the rest of the execution.