NEW THIS MORNING: Saturday, Oct. 5

1. Prairie Home Farm to host 20th anniversary party Sunday

Festive fall Saturday and Wednesday mornings at Prairie Home Farm come complete with the laughter of little ones, whinnies, brays, oinks and bleats from the livestock yard and an atmospheric aroma of spiced apples on the air. Daisy, a persuasive basset hound, successfully solicits for belly rubs and customers come and go as they pick up handmade Lil' Punkin Pie Co. creations.

Surrounded by housing developments near the Coeur d'Alene/Hayden border, the 1920 5-acre Prairie Home farmstead at 7790 N. Atlas Road offers agritourism and nostalgia through its activities, products and decor.

At the heart of it all is owner, operator, baker, Master Gardener, farmer and former critical care nurse Linda Swenson, who is throwing Prairie Home Farm's 20th birthday party from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

“I’m really very sentimental this year because of the 20 years," Swenson said. "I’m doing a ton of reflecting.”

2. Ahead of hunting season, wild game processors adapt to CWD's spread

This year’s deer hunting season will look a little different for North Idaho wild game processors after cases of chronic wasting disease were confirmed in the Bonners Ferry deer population.  

CWD is a neurological disease found in deer, elk and moose that causes degeneration of the animal’s brain, resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily function and eventually death.  

Woods Meat Processing in Sandpoint still plans to process wild game — however, the shop will not accept any carcasses from CWD zones, which are designated by Idaho Fish and Game. Additionally, a negative CWD test is required for harvested, boneless meat.  

“If anybody tells you they’re not doing anything different, that’s not a good thing,” said Jody Russell, co-owner of Woods Meat Processing.  

3. Police: Coeur d’Alene man pointed BB gun at children

A man accused of threatening three children with a BB gun is in jail.

Ekko V. Okey, 51, of Coeur d’Alene, is charged with aggravated assault, a felony. 

The charge stems from March, when police responded to a report of an incident involving a suspicious person in the Post Falls Library parking lot, according to court records. 

Three children, who were between the ages of 12 and 14, told police they were preparing to ride their bicycles home from the library when a man in a vehicle, later identified by police as Okey, called out to them and offered to give them a remote-controlled car. 

Okey allegedly gave the toy to the children, court records said, then pulled out what appeared to be a black handgun and pointed it at them. The children said they fled on their bicycles. 

4. Local students' innovation set to save Idaho company $300,000 annually

Three University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene/North Idaho College students have designed an automated machine that will save a local company $300,000 annually.

James Lasso, Jordan Reed and Dan Blanchette all started their education in NIC’s computer science program before transferring to U of I Coeur d’Alene’s computer science undergraduate program. Their College of Engineering capstone design is called Project S.P.L.I.N.T.E.R. — Smart Plank Inspection for Navigation for Timber Evaluation and Recognition.

“The idea of the project is there’s this company that makes salmon grilling planks, and they have a team of graders that stand around and look at the planks to make sure there’s no defects,” team lead James Lasso said. “They look for knots, rot, cracks and metal, just everything.”