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North Idaho school district plagued by bomb threats

The Boundary County School District has received three bomb threats in the last four weeks, nine threats since last May, and have teachers and students alike saying enough is enough.

The students look at these threats as a disruption; so do the faculty and staff, who are going to have to make up time lost because of the evacuation drills, something they will have to do on their days off.

Instead of leaving campus for lunch, Boundary County high school students now have to stay on school grounds.

"We're not going to take a chance. We just can't," Boundary County School District Superintendent Dick Conley said.

Nine bomb threats in the last year, three of those in the last four weeks prompted the change. For students it might have been funny once or twice. Not anymore.

"When they started climbing above three or four into five, seven, eight, it was pretty annoying actually," senior Jared Mendenhall said.

Mendenhall is getting used to the drills.

"We all just kinda get up and walk to the middle school. We've all got it down pretty good since we've all got a lot of practice at it," he said.

IDFG adopts 2013 seasons for deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, mountain lion, and gray wolves

IDFG adopts 2013 seasons for deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, mountain lion, and gray wolves

BOISE, ID - The Idaho Fish and Game Commission today adopted 2013 seasons for deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, mountain lion, and gray wolf, as proposed by Fish and Game biologists.

The new seasons include an increase in elk controlled hunt and pronghorn tags and expanded wolf hunting and trapping seasons.

From IDFG:
A summary of major changes include:

Bomb threat closes all Boundary County schools

For the ninth time this school year, a bomb threat has forced the closure of a school in Boundary County.

In the incident, confirmed Monday afternoon by the district superintendent, an unspecific bomb threat was called in; because it did not specify which school was involved, all five schools in the district were closed down as a precaution.

This was the ninth time a bomb threat has been reported in the district so far this school year.

County appeals N. Idaho judge's boat law ruling

Bonner County is appealing a northern Idaho magistrate court judge's ruling that the state's statute regarding the negligent operation of a vessel is unconstitutionally vague.

The Bonner County Daily Bee reports that Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Katie Murdock filed the appeal Wednesday asking a 1st District Court judge to determine if Magistrate Court Judge Debra Heise made the right decision in January.

The ruling ended up sinking two cases involving incidents law enforcement authorities say met the criteria for negligent operation of a vessel.

One involved a Seattle man whose powerboat collided with another vessel on Priest Lake in July. The other involved a Sandpoint man who crashed his powerboat into an unoccupied sailboat on Lake Pend Oreille in August.

Idaho man wanted in North Dakota homicide

Williston police have issued an arrest warrant for a man in the fatal shooting of another man outside a bar over the weekend.

Authorities say 28-year-old Derrick Siegel, of Williston, died at a hospital after the shooting about 1 a.m. Saturday. Police Detective Cory Collings tells KXMC-TV that 46-year-old Jonathan Horvath is wanted on warrants for reckless endangerment and murder.

Collings says Horvath recently moved to the Williston area from Sandpoint, Idaho. He is described as a 5-foot-9, 170-pound white male with brown hair and green eyes. He has a tattoo of a spider and web on the left side of his neck.

Idaho lawmakers urge Feds to keep air traffic control towers open

Idaho's Congressional members have sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in an effort to convince him not to close the state's five air traffic control towers that are targeted under sequestration, including the one at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration announced its intention to close a total of 173 towers on April 7th.

2nd-degree murder trial postponed

The 2nd-degree murder trial for a 29-year-old St. Maries man who allegedly shot his girlfriend in the head on Christmas morning of 2011 has been temporarily postponed.

According to Benewah County First District Court officials, the process got under way yesterday with jury selection for Joseph Herrera's trial, but they were "not able to come up with enough jurors to conduct the trial."

A status conference is scheduled for March 22nd. In the meantime, court officials will determine whether to put together a new jury summons pool or request a change of venue for the case.