In brief: Deaconess ER gets renovation

Deaconess Hospital is undertaking a $6.8 million renovation of its emergency room.

The project will increase the ER’s size by 2,512 square feet and include a new entry canopy. Construction is expected to be finished in spring 2015.

The hospital held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday morning.

The new ER will feature private rooms, upgraded security and new entrances for the public and ambulances. Other changes include larger waiting rooms.

The Deaconess ER receives about 30,000 patients a year.

Like now, the renovated ER will not be set up as a higher-level trauma center to treat people with catastrophic, life-threatening injuries, though it will continue to treat patients with a wide range of illness and injuries.

Authorities thwart underage keg party

A senior kegger organized by Coeur d’Alene School District students was busted before it even began once the Idaho State Police learned of the party’s location deep in the Coeur d’Alene National Forest.

Police learned that the party, which was expected to attract 300 high school students, was planned near the intersection of Forest Service Road 413 and Murray Draw Road on Wednesday. The person who arrived at the party site with two kegs of beer was cited – before guests arrived – for being a minor in possession of alcohol, the state police said in a news release. The adult who purchased the kegs, whose identity was not released by police, will be charged with providing alcohol to a minor.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department, U.S. Forest Service and Shoshone County Sheriff’s Department assisted in the investigation.

Cause sought after BNSF train derails

BONNERS FERRY – A freight train derailed early Thursday in North Idaho near the Kootenai River. But BNSF officials said nothing spilled into the waterway and no hazardous materials were involved.

BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said the train with three locomotives derailed at 1:55 a.m. Thursday 5 miles east of Bonners Ferry. The train, which originated in Great Falls and was heading to Pasco, carried 116 loads of general merchandise, including beer products and grain.

Melonas said 19 cars containing a powder form of clay derailed.

He said crews planned to work through the night in hopes of reopening the line this morning.

Cause of the derailment is under investigation.

Police seek man after package found

A suspicious package left Thursday inside the Idaho State Police regional office in Coeur d’Alene prompted an evacuation of the building and several surrounding streets.

The Spokane bomb squad was sent to assess and dispose of the device. An ISP officer about noon reported the package was a paper grocery bag that had a cellphone and remote with blinking lights. Someone also had left a handwritten note on the front counter at the office, 615 W. Wilbur Ave., on the city’s north end.

The bomb squad determined that the bag contained two cellphones, handwritten statements that were “gibberish” and some garbage, Coeur d’Alene Police said in a news release. The man who left the device is described as 5-foot-9, medium build and in his late 20s to early 30s. He was wearing a black T-shirt, tan shorts, black baseball hat, black bandanna and dark sunglasses. After leaving the office, the man was seen on a City Link bus, getting off at Riverstone.

Investigators are asking anyone with information to call (208) 769-2320.

Another body found in area of Oso slide

EVERETT – Officials say another body has been recovered from the debris of a landslide that killed dozens of people in Western Washington.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that it’s not clear if the body is that of either of the two people who remain missing after the March 22 slide.

The remains of 42 people have been recovered. Authorities ended the active search for bodies late last month, but work continues to rebuild a highway through the area.

The slide occurred when a rain-soaked hillside above the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River gave way, obliterating a neighborhood in Oso, about an hour northeast of Seattle.

Still missing are 53-year-old Steven Hadaway, who had been installing a satellite TV dish at a home, and 44-year-old Kris Regelbrugge, whose husband also died.

Three area cities add population

Post Falls added a little more than 700 residents last year for a growth rate of 2.5 percent, outpacing Sandpoint (2.2 percent) and Coeur d’Alene (1.8 percent).

Among Idaho’s larger cities, Meridian grew 4 percent, Nampa grew 3.1 percent, Caldwell grew 2.7 percent and Boise grew 1 percent from mid-2012 to mid-2013, U.S. Census figures released Thursday indicate.

Some North Idaho communities lost population last year, including Bonners Ferry, Hauser, Plummer and St. Maries.