Entertainment Calendar

"Wit!:" 7:30 p.m. Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A renowned professor of English has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. During the course of her illness, Vivian comes to reassess her life and her work with profundity and humor. Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave., Coeur d'Alene. $11-$17. Buy online: www.lakecityplayhouse.org or call: (208) 667-1323.

USDA targets stores in food stamp trafficking

Retailers suspected of trading deals with customers

Spring dashes into summer; get ready

Only one week until Spring Break arrives at most area schools, and many a parent is at least somewhat prepared.

Piping hot pastries, had-made are the perfect summer morning food

hand-made, are the perfect summer morning food

Udall swipes at opponent's birth-control plan

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Democratic Sen. Mark Udall went after his opponent's proposal for over-the-counter birth control Friday, bringing big names to a suburban Denver battleground to argue that Rep. Cory Gardner's plan doesn't make him the "new kind of Republican" he has been claiming to be in ads.

LaPriel Myrtle Marks Johnson, 97

LaPriel Myrtle Marks Johnson, 97, passed away

Buy or rent?

Realtors will be quick to reply that you should buy, but let’s face it, we’re biased. If you want an objective opinion do some research online. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is a great resource for those of you who want to educate yourselves on how the advantages of Buying vs. Renting a home apply to your situation. In addition to the step-by-step process outlined on their website: http://www.hud.gov/buying/index.cfm there is a handy little calculator on realtor.com that will help you decide whether or not it makes sense to buy a home: https://www.realtor.com/mortgage/tools/rent-or-buy-calculator/ Click on advanced options. There you can enter in your current rent, let’s say $750 per month. Enter in the purchase price of a home, for this example we will use $200,000. Enter the percent down from your lender, but don’t forget about Idaho Housing, FHA, Rural Development and USDA loans that offer lower down payment loans. Then put in the number of years you plan to stay in your home. The default for this field is 30 years, but you can put in whatever you like. The yearly property tax rate is defaulted at 1 percent, so you may want to check with the Assessor or your Realtor to get a rate for the home you are considering buying. The calculator also projects a modest appreciation of 2 percent per year for the time you are in your home.

Say goodbye to tax-free internet purchases

COEUR d’ALENE — Idahoans buying products over the internet will now have sales tax collected on most purchases, thanks to a bill Gov. Butch Otter signed into law Thursday.

REFORM: Beware many online pitfalls

I am disturbed that the Idaho Legislature recently passed the education reform bill SB1184 which diverts money from teachers' pay in order to buy laptops and require online courses. As a pediatrician I frequently counsel parents and students about the need to limit "screen time" that can consume hours each day as kids log-on to the Internet, play video games or watch TV. Consequently, vital communication and social skills are often not well developed. Of course, our students need to be computer competent but to suggest that online courses replace real time, live instruction and classroom discussion is negligent and doomed to fail.

Fish and Game computers breached

Idaho hunters’ and anglers’ info potentially compromised

Idaho Fish and Game learned Friday personal information for license buyers who began purchasing hunting and fishing licenses and tags prior to 2008 was potentially accessed by a breach of the online computer license sales system owned and operated by Active Network, a Texas-based company.

Silverwood will slide into new season on Saturday

Silverwood Theme Park will open its gates Saturday for its 29th season of family fun and memories.

ISENBERG CAUSE OF DEATH: DIPHENHYDRAMINE TOXICITY

Larry Isenberg’s death was not due to drowning. The cause of death was due to “diphenhydramine toxicity,” according to this single page received by The Press today from the Kootenai County coroner’s office. The report of findings was not provided. Diphenhydramine is the over-the-counter drug known as Benadryl.

Police: Buffalo gunman aimed to keep killing if he got away

Gendron, 18, traveled about 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, to commit the attack

Hunting passports give young hunters a chance to bag game

Kids as young as 8 years old can participate in turkey hunts beginning next week.

No blues on Black Friday

By CRAIG NORTHRUP

Wish granted: Same day delivery for the holidays

Exchange started with bang, now just a whisper

BOISE (AP) — To start the 2012 Legislature, many predicted an Idaho insurance exchange would be a key issue to be resolved before lawmakers left Boise.

Review: Apps to make holiday shopping easier

School reform moves forward

Senate Education Committee sends bills to full Senate

BOISE - Lawmakers started to weigh in on a plan to overhaul Idaho's public schools, moving the legislation forward despite strong opposition from the state teachers union and other groups.

Airlines collect $3.4B in bag fees in 2010

NEW YORK - Passengers hate them, but airlines can't afford to give them up - those aggravating bag fees.