The wait for US passports is creating travel purgatory and snarling summer plans

A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy

Pollen a pox on allergy sufferers

COEUR d'ALENE - Allergy season will soon be in full sneeze.

Northwest Notes March 31, 2020

Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame 2020 nominations now open Boise State’s Alston to test NBA Draft; keeps option to return to school Pac-12 extends suspension of team activities through May 31

Sales tax solution

The Coeur d'Alene bookstore manager smiled grimly when asked about business over the holidays.

Business stockpiles jump in June

Choosing local makes a difference

COEUR d’ALENE — Shopping locally was the theme of the first Choose Local Fest at City Park Saturday.

Consumer wine trends

While the economics of the wine industry continue to greatly influence the behaviors of wineries, winemakers, growers and distributors there are also clear trends from the consumers of wines at the retail level. While all of us continue to choose those bottlings that we prefer based on what we like to drink and our own budgets, these trends are interesting as they do influence what we see in the market both at retail stores and restaurants.

Toy store offering v-shopping, curbside pickup

Downtown toy store offering virtual shopping, curbside pickup

Keep an eye out for coronavirus scams

It’s here. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know that the strand of coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19 has spread to the United States.

The right direction

Black Friday retail sales edge up only slightly

NEW YORK - Shoppers crowded stores on Black Friday but spent just a little more than last year on the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, according to data released Saturday by a research firm.

Official: Idaho revenue drop due to extended tax deadline

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho’s general fund revenue in April plummeted from initial forecasts, but officials said Thursday that’s because the deadline for paying state income taxes was moved from April 15 to June 15 due to the coronavirus.

Will NBC's Williams get promised second chance?

NEW YORK (AP) - In handing Brian Williams a six-month suspension for misleading viewers, NBC Universal chief Steve Burke said his chief anchor deserves a second chance. Whether he actually gets one is an open question.

Aerial attraction

Tree removal operation has residents looking up

Tree removal operation has residents looking up

Growing again

U.S. retail sales rise in April on cars, clothing

Senate approves insurance exchange

Measure goes to Gov. Butch Otter for his signature

The Idaho Senate approved a proposed state-based health insurance exchange on Thursday, after a debate in which it was alternately bashed as federal tyranny and praised as protecting Idaho's sovereignty.

Suppression of free speech

The Linotype

I wish the problem of free speech would go away. It has been around my entire lifetime. My grandfather, a job printer and newspaper publisher/owner in Chicago during my early years, was closed up repeatedly during World War II for his anti-FDR editorials. My father told me the print shop was padlocked by federal officials, Gramps was charged with sedition, and one day short of six months later was allowed to re-open. His shop was padlocked again the next day when he attempted to publish yet another anti-FDR editorial; he was silenced this way throughout the war. There is probably no way to verify the story but I suspect it was in the main true. He did not seem to be a seditious man, just a kindly grandfather.

Reputation celebration

Many years ago, there was a famous general known for his cunning strategy. At the end of one conflict, he stopped with a small battalion of soldiers to rest. One of his enemies heard of his refuge and marched his entire army toward the general's encampment.

Time to remove doubts

Romney's task: Learn from errors made in primaries

Mitt Romney's urgent assignment now is to learn the lessons of a Republican primary season where missteps cost time and money while reinforcing doubts about his presidential candidacy.

Psychology on order

How restaurants get you to spend more

NEW YORK - You may think you're immune to transparent sales pitches like "Do you want fries with that?" But the tactics restaurants use to nudge you into spending a little extra may be subtler than you realize.

CHEMTRAILS: Feds spraying public

To borrow a well-used phrase, “We have an elephant in the room,” or in this case, “an elephant in the sky above us.” There is a pattern being developed, a very sinister pattern, of high-altitude aerosol spraying that is being applied to the very air we breathe, dropped upon the fields from which we gather our sustenance and doused upon the heads of our children as they scamper through their recess.