North Idaho Briefs September 6, 2013

Avista work to cause outage in Spirit Lake

SPIRIT LAKE - More than 1,500 Avista customers in Spirit Lake will experience a power outage on Sunday from 5 a.m. until 10 a.m.

The outage is necessary to create a safe working environment for crews to install a new switch in the transmission line serving the area which will improve service reliability.

"We apologize for any inconvenience this outage will have on customers," said Greg Gfeller, Avista's director of operation for the Coeur d'Alene area. "Our crew will work as quickly and safely as possible to complete the work and return customers to service."

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Security Investment Corp donates $5,000

Secured Investment Corp., a Coeur d'Alene-based private money lender, has donated $5,000 to Epilepsy Foundation Northwest.

The donation was made Thursday following the success of Secured Investment Corp's sixth annual charity golf classic held in August at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

"Described as the 'stealth disease,' epilepsy affects more than three million Americans of all ages - which is more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson's disease combined," said Secured Investment Corp. CEO Lee Arnold, in a press release. "These startling statistics, and the fact that my own daughter was diagnosed with it in 2009, are the reasons we chose to have an annual Secured Investment Corp Charity Golf Tournament...It is our fervent prayer and hope that one day, a cure will be found for this very challenging disease."

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Idaho police capture unusual backyard intruder

LEWISTON (AP) - Police departments get calls about proverbial snakes in the grass all the time. But officers in Lewiston recently responded to such a call to find it was literal - a 6-foot-long python was loitering in someone's backyard.

Police Captain Roger Lanier told the Lewiston Tribune that Thomas Watts called police Tuesday to report the intruder in a garden behind his apartment complex. Lanier said officers were able to wrangle the reptile into two recycle bins, which they zip-tied together before bringing the snake to Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine in Pullman.

College spokesman Charlie Powell says the snake is a female red-tailed python and is likely someone's pet because it's used to being handled. Lanier says no one has come forward to claim the snake yet.