Andrea Vogt

Schweitzer Engineering Labs announced Monday it is opening three new international offices and adding 59 jobs - 55 of them in Pullman. "There are cities all over the country that would be delighted to have a clean, high-tech company like this," said Pullman Chamber of Commerce President Jan Koal at an afternoon press conference. "This is really quite a privilege we have."

1. WSU veterinary pathologist Tom Baldwin, left, works with a grad student to check fish pathology slides. Baldwin's lab is one of only four fish inspection labs in the country. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Veterinary pathologist and USDA fish inspector Tom Baldwin holds a thinly sliced section of a fish's head used for testing. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

David C. Pettit

If the birthday check Sandra Shallbetter sent to her son's new wife bounces, she'll be one red-faced mother-in-law. Shallbetter was one of 7,000 Washington State University employees statewide who didn't receive their paychecks via direct deposit Wednesday because of a computer glitch. "You aren't supposed to postdate checks, but this has never happened before," said Shallbetter, counseling center program coordinator. "It's their first year of marriage, so I hope it clears."

Filmmaker Lauren Fins has produced a documentary on the role of women in the management of North Idaho forests. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Mike Owen, left, leads a group of students through a back alley of Pullman looking for spots to include in a mystery. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

A rash of rural hate crimes is bolstering a drive to fight prejudice in Whitman County. "They are tragic for our community, just as for any community that has to endure this nonsense," Whitman County Prosecutor James Kaufmann said Tuesday.

Three University of Idaho freshmen face felony kidnapping charges after allegedly forcing a fellow dorm resident to a nearby field and beating him up. Police still are searching for two of the suspects, David McKenna and Joshua Schorzman, both 18.

Cursing restrictions they say threaten a way of life, jet boaters vowed Tuesday to keep fighting new rules limiting access into Hells Canyon. More than 100 people packed the Snake River Forum in Lewiston Tuesday night to comment on U.S. Forest Service regulations going into effect this year. "We in the Northwest have experienced the Forest Service, the BLM and other management agencies, and their will upon us has been adverse at least. We didn't have a problem here until we were managed," said Lewiston resident Dave Beuke.

Anxiety is spreading at Washington State University as a deadline nears for budget cuts. Several colleges at WSU are considering eliminating vacant positions in the ranks of faculty, teaching assistants and staff to make budget reductions requested last December.

James Austin, a neurologist and respected Zen scholar, will lecture at WSU. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Washington State University contributed $730 million to the state economy in fiscal year 1996. That makes the university's statewide economic impact more than triple the $226 million legislators appropriated in state funding, according to a WSU report released Friday.

Post Falls Middle School students gather around the ruler as teacher Kaye Kamp explains the difference between inches and centimeters. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Idaho no longer can afford to ignore its needy children, Kootenai County children's advocates said Thursday. Four years after Head Start officials pleaded with state lawmakers to pitch in to expand the program, waiting lists still are growing. With lower than average immunization rates and too many uninsured children, Idaho's poor national reputation for child care isn't getting any rosier.

High school students in the Educational Talent Search program listen Tuesday to Desiree Newsom of the Prohaska law firm talk about working in the legal and financial fields. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

1. On the fly. About 15 people came out Sunday in Post Falls to see Russ the golden eagle take flight after more than a month of rehabilitation. Photos by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Farragut State Park ranger Tami Johnson, left, and volunteer Kristen Philbrook carry a crate holding Russ the golden eagle before releasing him Sunday.

Panhandle employers are finding it's taking twice as long to fill jobs compared with a year ago. There are more - and better - jobs for blue-collar and white-collar workers, and fewer people to apply for them.

To block or not to block? That's just one of the questions the Coeur d'Alene School Board will be pondering over the coming weeks. Two controversial proposals will be presented to the board at its regular meeting at 6 p.m. today at Hayden Meadows Elementary School. A one-year pilot program that would introduce block scheduling at Lake City High School is one of the proposals. The district's Graduation Requirements Committee also is expected to submit a plan recommending world geography, reading and computers be eliminated from the list of required high school courses. The district had considered dropping world history as a requirement, but the committee voted Wednesday to put the class back on the requirements list, according to Janet Feiler, district spokeswoman. Community outcry forced the committee to rethink eliminating the history requirement. Parents are equally concerned about the block-scheduling proposal. Skeptics worry that decreasing instruction time per semester from 4,950 to 4,050 minutes might mean lost content. "The academic and core curriculum is going to suffer. How can it not if you are losing 20 percent of classroom time?" said Lana Campbell, Lakes Middle School's booster club president. Campbell, mother of a Lakes eighth-grader and a Lake City High sophomore, said she is one of several parents still undecided about block scheduling. "I just hope they look at it objectively and really weigh it before making the decision," she said. The program is proposed just for Lake City High; if it's successful, administrators may look at implementing it at Coeur d'Alene High School as well. Proponents say the new schedule would curb discipline problems, improve depth of learning and increase course offerings, boosting the number of courses students can take over four years. Public and private high schools nationwide are turning away from traditional schedules and toward longer blocks of time in each subject. The goal is to combat crowding and meet graduation requirements while still meeting student demands for electives. Block scheduling is being used in Missoula and Spokane high schools.

North Idaho College trustees plan to visit the campuses of the top two candidates for the presidential post. But they're not saying who or where.

Ely

Kootenai County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to raise taxes for solid waste disposal. The across-the-board 5 percent fee increase will apply to all waste items, from dead animals to commercial wood waste and regular household garbage.

Lake City High School teacher Chad Odenthal lectures on European explorers. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

1. Burke 2. Forrester

1. Presidential interview week at NIC. Director of Campus Recreation Dean Bennett, right, talks with North Idaho College presidential candidate Kae Hutchion on Monday after her group interview wiht NIC students. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Eric Reno is one of four NIC presidential candidates interviewing on campus this week.