Briefs

• Wallet goes missing on New Year's Eve

COEUR d'ALENE - A Coeur d'Alene woman will be thinking twice the next time she offers to help her boyfriend pay for a meal.

When she tried to do so on New Year's Eve, it cost her more than $1,000.

According to a Coeur d'Alene Police Department incident report, the woman went to Red Robin with her boyfriend at 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 31. The couple stayed at the restaurant for approximately an hour.

The woman told law enforcement that when it came time to pay the bill, she got her wallet out and told her boyfriend she could help.

That was the last time she saw her wallet.

When she called the restaurant the next morning, employees told her they could not find a wallet matching the description she gave to them.

Inside the wallet, according to the woman, was $600 in cash, two checks equaling $400 and more than $100 in gift cards.

• Idaho to take over troubled privately-run prison

BOISE (AP) - Idaho will take over the operation of its largest prison from one of the nation's biggest corrections contractors, abruptly ending an experiment with privatization at a facility that has been plagued by understaffing, multiple lawsuits and allegations of contract fraud.

The state is expected to begin running the 2,080-bed Idaho Correctional Center, located just outside Boise, over the next several months, as its $29 million-a-year contract with the Corrections Corporation of America expires on June 30. Gov. Butch Otter made the announcement Friday, saying he is advising the state Board of Correction to shift focus from finding a new contractor to assuming control of the facility.

"In recognition of what's happened, what's happening, it's necessary. It's the right thing to do," said Otter, a longtime proponent of privatization who called the need to make the move "disappointing."

CCA said that while there were "challenges" at the prison, it has and will continue to respond to the state's concerns.