Top stories of 2010

1. A shooter's charges are dismissed; Cd'A reins in downtown

On Jan. 8 aggravated battery and attempted murder charges against Adam M. Johnson, who had been arrested weeks before for shooting two Moses Lake men on Sherman Avenue, were dismissed.

Less than one month later, a 22-year-old man was arrested for wielding a gun downtown while intoxicated.

The two high profile incidents, combined with complaints City Hall had been receiving regarding wild behavior downtown at night, prompted city officials to crack down.

They said they feared the downtown's reputation was a new, "Wild West."

The city increased police foot patrols along Sherman Avenue, and began regular meetings with law enforcement agencies and business owners. New rules also scaled back the outdoor drinking cutoff from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tables and seating were designated to stay against storefronts, and businesses had to have their storefronts cleaned by 7 a.m.

A pair of downtown establishments had metal detectors at the door on busier nights.

Police responded to fewer calls downtown through the summer compared to years past.

The city gave the hour back for 11 p.m. outdoor cutoff recently, but it's also moving forward making a new rule that bartenders and servers must pass a certified safety course if they want to dispense drinks. The city also wants to designate heading into 2011 a taxi area on Fourth Street to prevent clusters of people and traffic from gathering in front of establishments.

2. Incumbents out: November says hello

to new faces

Two longtime Kootenai County commissioners were shown the door in November.

So was three-term Sen. Mike Jorgenson, of Hayden Lake.

Dan English, 15-year county clerk, also lost.

November's elections saw a rash of new faces as voters said they wanted change heading into 2011.

Not that incumbents went quietly.

Rick Currie, eight year Republican county commissioner, lost in the May primaries but waged a write in campaign against first-time candidate Jai Nelson. Currie only snagged 15 percent of the vote, however, and Nelson celebrated her victory. Fellow County Commissioner Rich Piazza, who held a seat since 2006, also lost.

Newcomer Dan Green took Piazza's spot with 55 percent of the vote in the primary, and coasted unopposed in November.

English lost to another first-timer, Republican Cliff Hayes.

Jorgenson publicly blamed a political conservative group, Rally Right, for his loss.

He said the local Republican party is heading toward a Constitution party platform. But the winners, such as Steve Vick - who uprooted Jorgenson - said it was politics as usual, and nothing but sour grapes from the former senator.

3. City election challenge: Narrow victory slims over nearly a year of litigation

City Council incumbent Mike Kennedy's 5-vote victory in the 2009 general election was trimmed to three votes in September, wrapping up nearly a year of litigation filed by his challenger, Jim Brannon.

Brannon had challenged the City Council election on grounds that illegal votes had contributed to the difference in the seat 2 race, and the courtroom proved every bit as contentious as the heated campaign trail between the two camps.

It took four judge assignments before retired 1st District Judge Charles Hosack took the case. He tossed out four illegal votes, (one for Brannon) but allowed ballots cast from abroad voters to count. The ruling sealed Kennedy's spot as the Seat 2 chair, but the courtroom saw its moments of back and forth between the two camps and counsels, causing the judge to interrupt the spats more than once for the sake of the proceedings.

Afterward, Brannon motioned for a trial only to be turned down. He also appealed the ruling to the Idaho Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the city agreed to pay Kennedy's legal fees, nearly $70,000. Kennedy was sued personally for his win per 1890 statute, and talk of changing the rule is expected to be an 2011 legislative topic.

4. Triple yes: Down economy? No matter

August's successful KTEC levy election was called by some, a "technical knockout."

Voters in three Kootenai County school districts simultaneously agreed to a property tax increase to finance the construction of a $9.5 million professional-technical high school on the Rathdrum Prairie.

The school, aiming for a 2012 opening, will offer classes in skilled trades such as health occupations, welding and construction to juniors and seniors in the three school districts.

Successful passage for the taxpayer-funded school required 55 percent voter approval in each of the districts: Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland.

Which it got.

One, two, three - like a technical knockout in boxing, which is putting the opponent on the floor three times in one round.

"It amazes and gratifies me to see that in difficult financial times, every school district would support such a wonderful endeavor," Jobs Plus director Steve Griffitts said on election night.

The 50,000-square-foot Kootenai Technical Education Campus high school will also offer classes in automotive trades.

"What an awesome experience this has been, to see a community come together like this for the kids," said Ron Nilson, CEO of Ground Force Manufacturing and member of executive committee governing the KTEC high school.

5. Neglected twins: Saga breaks hearts

Twin 2-year-old girls were found Dec. 5 living in the filthiest conditions police here have ever witnessed at an apartment on the 1200 block of North Lincoln Way in Coeur d'Alene.

The girls' mother, 26-year-old Elisabeth C. Crossley, was arrested after the girls were found sealed off in a bedroom, with no clothes, bedding or furniture. The girls were covered in fecal matter, as were the walls and floor.

The girls had bruising on various parts of their bodies and open sores.

Officers vomited after entering the room.

Crossley and her mother, Ruth K. Cassidy, have been charged with felony injury to a child and are being held at the Kootenai County jail.

The twins were taken into state custody.

Crossley and Cassidy are likely to be arraigned in about three to four weeks in 1st District Court.

Charities were set up on the children's behalf, and letters to the editor in the newspaper expressed outrage, and support, for the young girls.

6. Hart Headlines: Athol Rep. caught up in taxing,timber crosshairs

Idaho Rep. Phil Hart faces myriad challenges, including a battle over unpaid taxes, an accusation he took timber from state school endowment land, faced ethics complaints and being removed from the House Revenue and Taxation Committee, as the legislator requested in a letter.

Still, he was re-elected easily in November, running against a write-in candidate.

Hart lost his bid to appeal a State Tax Commission order that he pay $53,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest

Hart was the object of much public outcry in serving on the tax committee after boycotting income taxes from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, when he also sued the federal government over the legality of income taxes.

Hart, whose suit against the federal government was unsuccessful, is still trying to settle his debt.

Hart said he has paid $125,000 to the IRS since 2005. The federal government has filed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of liens against him this year.

He faced more troubles when the state attorney general accused him of taking timber from state endowment land intended to benefit schoolchildren.

Hart later sent a $2,450 check to the state, trying to clear up the 1996 case.

The Idaho Department of Lands in 1996 determined that the trees Hart cut illegally from the property near Spirit Lake were worth $2,443, but Hart was ordered to pay $7,328 because the penalty for stealing such timber is three times the value.

Hart, believing at the time that he had the right to cut the logs, appealed, but lost three times in what the court called "frivolous" moves. With the costs for his appeals, the state filed a lien against Hart for $22,827. Although the lien is outstanding, it's no longer enforceable since more than five years have passed since the judgment.

7. Goodbye, Vernon Baker: Hero passes

Vernon Baker, who was the last surviving African-American Medal of Honor recipient from World War II and lived near St. Maries, died at 90 in July after a six-year battle with cancer.

He was buried with military honors in September at Arlington National Cemetery.

Locals remembered Baker as a kind man who did not like to boast of his military honors, or the book written about him. They remembered him as a regular guy who liked to chat with neighbors, and had impeccable penmanship if he did sign their book for them.

After the funeral, Baker's family was denied access to the White House for a tour. The White House apologized and invited the family back for a Halloween party.

The community supported the Baker family in different ways after Vernon's death. About $25,000 was raised to repair the family's home and build a wood shed. Others helped out by donating wood, gravel and equipment for the home project, which was recognized by Sen. Mike Crapo with a Spirit of Idaho Award.

The family's trip to Washington, D.C., for the funeral was paid for. The latest gesture in Baker's honor was having a road north of Hayden that runs parallel to U.S. 95 named after him, called Vernon J. Baker Boulevard.

"It is something that we wanted to accomplish," Commissioner Rick Currie said at the road naming. "My only problem with it is, 'Why do we always wait until they've passed away when we do these things?' He's very deserving, and it should have been done while he was still with us."

8. Alleged

embezzlement: Possible in-house stealing by

county employee

Coeur d'Alene police investigated a suspected case of embezzlement by a former longtime and senior Kootenai County employee, and determined that about $139,000 is unaccounted for from a 10-year period.

Coeur d'Alene detectives received a report Dec. 7 from Kootenai County Clerk-Auditor Dan English of an employee - named by English as chief deputy clerk Sandy Martinson, a Post Falls resident - possibly embezzling money.

County auditors undertook a routine review of Martinson's records after her late-November retirement and discovered "irregularities."

Detectives received financial records dating from January 2000 to Oct. 31 for review.

The Bonner County prosecutor is looking at the results of the police investigation and plans to make a charging decision soon. Martinson has not been charged or arrested.

Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie said, "There is a definite realization of betrayal."

Martinson was a respected employee for the county for more than 30 years.

"Even the possibility that these allegations are true leaves me with a profound and deep sense of shock and violation," English said. "These acts represent a staggering breach of trust towards the public, other employees, and me by this former employee."

The county announced Tuesday, Dec. 28, that they suspect Martinson.

9. Attorney

allegedly hires hitman to kill wife

Former Aryan Nations lawyer Edgar J. Steele was accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife, Cyndi Steele, and he's set to be tried March 7 in U.S. District Court.

The alleged hitman, Sagle resident Larry Fairfax, pleaded guilty to two firearms charges for making and possessing a pipe bomb that he said he attached to Cyndi Steele's sport utility vehicle.

Edgar Steele, 65, has been charged with murder-for-hire and other related charges, but has pleaded not guilty to all of them.

A massive pipe bomb was discovered under Cyndi Steele's SUV during an oil change in Coeur d'Alene on June 15, just as her husband was being indicted by a grand jury for trying to have her killed.

A bomb squad unit from Spokane was called out and the discovery of the device caused U.S. 95 to be shut down as a safety precaution.

But Cyndi Steele called a press conference in September at the Silver Lake Motel conference room to tell the public that the murder-for-hire charges are bogus.

"The FBI says that my husband hired Larry Fairfax to kill me and my mother," Cyndi Steele said. "That is not true. We have been married for 25 years. Ed loves me, I love him."

She blames Fairfax alone for the plot.

At the press conference she claimed in a prepared statement that Fairfax - a handyman who had often worked on her property - stole $45,000 worth of silver coins from the Steeles, thus giving him a motive to "scheme up the murder-for-hire plot."

Prosecutors have said they have recordings of Edgar Steele and Fairfax, who had come forward to the FBI and agreed to wear a hidden recording device, discussing the hit on Cyndi Steele and her mother.

10. Kroc Center turns 1: Time to add parking

On May 11, the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center in Coeur d'Alene turned 1.

What did it do in its first year?

It saw 18,000 members join (2,000 had been anticipated), entertained around 630,000 visitors and increased staff to 272 employees compared to around 70 when it opened.

A television news crew from Quincy, Ill, was on hand for the May celebration to show its audience in the Midwest what all the fuss is about. The city of 40,000-plus on the Mississippi River is about to build its own Kroc Center.

The Coeur d'Alene center also was the model for a dozen other cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago and Honolulu, which toured the Golf Course Road campus as a guide for their future hometown sites.

Let up isn't in sight, either.

The center is planning on building a $1 million-plus upper level parking structure with around 120 additional spaces, hoping to send that project out to bid by February.