Top local stories of 2015

The slaying of Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore didn’t make international headlines or set every readership record for cdapress.com. But the tragedy left the community reeling, then slowly healing like few other events in our region’s history.That profound local impact is why the death of Sgt. Moore is the Story of the Year for The Press.

The newspaper’s reporters and editors also concluded that despite breaking the news of Rachel Dolezal’s white-hot secret, The Press story’s impact locally was fascinating, but maybe not enduring.

Fires that scorched thousands of acres, destroyed homes and filled our normally friendly summer skies with acrid smoke into November singed their way past Dolezal’s uncovering, too.

Never an exact science, these year-end Top 10 Stories and Photos lists are always up for debate. What was most interesting, and how should that stack up against what’s most important? And in whose opinion, exactly?

These lists represent the consensus of our newsroom. Please share your list with us. Write to me at mpatrick@cdapress.com so your list can become part of the community conversation.

Meantime, on with the show.

— Mike Patrick, Managing Editor

K27, rest in peace

The shooting death of Coeur d'Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore while in the line of duty on May 5 left the community saddened, but also brought police and the public from throughout the region together to mourn his death and honor his service.

At a memorial service days after his murder, more than 4,000 civilians, law enforcement personnel and first responders gathered at Lake City High School to honor Moore, 43.

"I came to know Greg as a fearless police officer, an outstanding supervisor, a leader of men, a common-sense thinker and a problem solver, and most importantly, I came to know him as my dear, dear friend, and I loved him," Coeur d'Alene Police Detective Johann Schmitz said at the service.

Moore's call number "K27" can be seen throughout the community on cars, doors, and just about everywhere else, showing how many people honor his service and mourn his loss.

At the memorial service, Police Chief Lee White said Moore was not satisfied sitting at a desk.

"In the end, and the reason that we are here today, is that he personified the oath that we take when we raise our hands and are sworn in," White said.

The man charged with killing him, 27-year-old Jonathan Renfro, is waiting for a decision from the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office whether the death penalty will be sought. Renfro allegedly admitted shooting Moore in the face in a Coeur d'Alene neighborhood after Moore had stopped Renfro, who was walking down a sidewalk in the middle of the night. Moore ran Renfro's driver's license information into central dispatch moments before the shooting.

Renfro allegedly stole Moore's patrol car and fled. He was caught later hiding under a trailer at a Walmart Supercenter near the Idaho-Washington state line.

Fires and smoke

An extremely dry, warm winter turned the region’s landscape into a tinderbox, ready to ignite at any time.

Small groundfires began erupting early in the year and continued throughout the spring, occurring with increasing frequency as summer approached.

Fire and forest officials issued warnings and fire restrictions were put in place. But that wasn’t enough to keep the unimaginable from happening.

The first large fire in the area was discovered July 5 on Cape Horn near Bayview. It grew to 1,326 acres and claimed several homes before it was fully contained.

Throughout the rest of the summer, similar fires ignited throughout the region and in neighboring Washington. The Grizzly Complex fires, started by lightning in August, consumed nearly 24,000 acres of forest land in the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River drainage area.

Where there’s fire, there’s smoke, and in North Idaho in August there were some dark days when a veil of haze nearly obscured the sun. Smoke from out-of-state fires blew into the area as well. Kootenai County residents coughed and choked under the blackened skies, and health agencies urged people to remain indoors.

Conditions improved in September with the arrival of cooler temperatures and some rain.

Dolezal exposed

The Press broke the news in June that — according to her parents and her birth certificate — Rachel Dolezal, a self-described black woman, is white. A longtime human rights activist in Coeur d’Alene, Dolezal had risen to positions of power in Spokane.

In less than 24 hours after The Press published the story, Dolezal became the No. 1 topic trending worldwide on Twitter, and the story was being followed by the largest media outlets in the U.S. and Europe.

Within a week, Dolezal resigned from her position as director of the local NAACP chapter, and she was no longer employed as a university instructor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University. Soon, Spokane city officials ousted Dolezal from her position on the city’s police oversight commission.

Dolezal said she identifies as black, despite being born to two white parents and being raised by them in rural Troy, Mont.

The story ignited a continuing national dialogue about race and ethnic identity, but it also turned Dolezal into a frequent punchline in late-night television talk show monologues. References to Dolezal continue to pop up in comedy skits on Saturday Night Live.

Here are a few other end-of-year lists the Dolezal story made it onto:

• USA Today’s editors deemed it one of the top scandals of 2015, along with “deflategate” and news anchor Brian Williams’ fall from grace.

• Business Insider magazine listed Dolezal’s employment descent as one of the top 15 career crashes of the year, placing her between disgraced Subway spokesman Jared Fogle and Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical company CEO who jacked up the price of a critical medication by 5,000 percent and is now facing charges of securities fraud.

• Dolezal is included in the Kansas City Star’s list of the 10 most divisive and annoying newsmakers of 2015.

• When referring to Dolezal in his review of the year’s newsmakers, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Steve Young quoted magician Teller of the Penn and Teller comedy team: “Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself.”

Greensferry overpass

Twenty years in the making, the Greensferry overpass along Interstate 90 in Post Falls opened on Nov. 12.

More than 500 citizens, government officials, business leaders, construction workers and students attended a patriotic dedication ceremony in which American flags were raised on both sides of the structure and now fly daily.

The $15 million overpass was funded by the Post Falls Urban Renewal Agency. It is now owned by the city of Post Falls and the Idaho Transportation Department.

The overpass took about a year to build and involved purchasing rights of way from homeowners and businesses in the corridor.

The structure is intended to to improve emergency response between the north and south sides of the freeway, reduce traffic congestion on Highway 41 and Idaho Street and create economic development.

Wind storm 2015

The windstorm that hit North Idaho and Eastern Washington on Nov. 17 was historic, and left people dead, homes and building damaged and trees uprooted and broken.

Avista Utilities said it was the largest crisis the utility experienced in its 126-year history, with power outages surpassing numbers seen in the 1996 Ice Storm. At the storm's height, approximately 180,000 Avista customers were without power.

"It's the strongest windstorm of its type we've ever recorded in our region," National Weather Service meteorologist John Livingston told The Press.

The near-hurricane force winds reached 67 mph in Kootenai County, and 71 mph at Spokane International Airport.

Community leaders pass

The community lost three of its best known and loved leaders in the course of one week.

Gladys Schneidmiller, 97, of Post Falls, died April 26. She served on several boards, including the Post Falls School Board for 18 years, and was a philanthropist.

Frank Henderson, 92, of Post Falls, died April 27. He was a state legislator, county commissioner, Post Falls mayor, and a newspaper publisher.

Scott Reed, 87, of Coeur d'Alene, died May 2. He was a conservation lawyer whose career spanned 60 years, and he helped found the Kootenai Environmental Alliance and Friends of Tubbs Hill.

Over the course of the year the community would lose other community leaders.

Hagadone Boys and Girls Club

It was a spectacular 2015 for the Boys and Girls Club of Kootenai County.

The club's capital campaign, launched April 9, surpassed the initial amount needed for a new facility, with a big boost generously contributed May 28 by Duane and Lola Hagadone. The Hagadones donated $1 million in cash and another $1 million in a challenge for the community to match.

The nonprofit youth organization raised $3.65 million to cover 100 percent of construction costs, fixtures and necessities as well as an entire year's operating expenses.

The Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees worked with the Boys and Girls Club in April to lease a half-acre of land on the south side of the Lakes Magnet Middle School campus for $1 a year. The final location for the club was approved in September.

The new club's official name — the Lola and Duane Hagadone Boys and Girls Club — was announced Dec. 9 during a celebration at the Hagadone Event Center. Workers broke ground on the site Dec. 10.

The 20,000-plus square-foot facility will serve about 400 youths a day while the Jordan Johnson Center in Post Falls will continue to serve about 225 kids a day.

The Lola and Duane Hagadone Boys and Girls Club is scheduled to open its doors in September 2016.

Mental Health Crisis Center

The Northern Idaho Crisis Center opened and started accepting patients in early December.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter spoke at the grand opening on the Kootenai Health campus. The facility serves adult men and women struggling with behavioral health and substance-abuse issues in Idaho's 10 northern counties.

"This is the portal through which folks are going to come" in mental health crises, Otter said. "Through which their lives are going to be saved, but their lives are also going to be changed."

The Idaho Legislature budgeted $200,000 for the initial startup in Coeur d'Alene. The center's funding is a little more than $1.5 million annually for two years.

Three legislators voted against funding it: Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d’Alene; Rep. Ron Mendive, R-Post Falls; and Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens.

Wildlife justice

The wolf

A man was convicted by a jury in June of misdemeanor possession of a wolf without a tag in connection with his shooting of the animal on Rathdrum Mountain.

Forrest Mize's defense was that he shot what he initially thought was a coyote about to attack his dogs. He purchased a tag once he realized it was a wolf, hoping he could keep the pelt.

The falcon

On Jan. 7, falconer Scott Dinger was hunting with his two falcons near a corn maze attraction in Hauser.

One of his raptors, Hornet, was attempting to complete a lawful kill of a duck when Patti MacDonald of Hauser stopped her vehicle and confronted the bird in an effort to save the duck.

Dinger found Hornet dead about an hour later and, during the trial, two expert witnesses confirmed the bird had suffered a broken skull and fractured leg.

MacDonald was charged with two misdemeanor offenses, pursuing a protected bird and beating or harassing an animal. On July 2, she was found guilty of pursuing a protected bird and ordered to complete 20 hours of community service and pay $500 in court fees.

Technical Education Facility

North Idaho College started construction on its $15 million, 110-square-foot Career and Technical Education Facility on Lancaster Road in Rathdrum on June 17.

The facility, which will house eight professional-technical programs that are currently in tight quarters in Coeur d’Alene, is expected to be completed in the spring and open for classes in fall 2016.

After debating whether to build the facility in Post Falls or Rathdrum, the NIC board decided on 40 acres owned by NIC on the west side of the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC), which offers professional-technical programs to high school juniors and seniors. A portion of the site was donated to the college by the Meyer family of Rathdrum.

Programs to be located at the facility include automotive technology, collision repair, computer-aided design technology (architectural and mechanical), diesel technology, industrial mechanic/millwright, machining and welding technology.