Missing children found with father

Four children listed as missing by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were found and turned over to state custody by Coeur d’Alene police Monday.

Officers Hank Dunham and Nick Lowry went to La Quinta Inn on Sherman Avenue, acting on a tip from a pastor at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls.

The pastor told police that members of his church had recognized the children from a missing poster. The father had been spending time at the church doing odd jobs and often had the children with him, the pastor told police. The children, ranging in age from 7 to 17, told police they left Bellingham two years ago with their father.

The father said the children were not in school because he was home-schooling them, police said. The father was detained but not arrested. A protective order had been filed in Washington against the father. The children are in the custody of the Department of Health and Welfare.

Alliance takes over, renames lab

Arco The Battelle Energy Alliance took over operations at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory on Tuesday, and the first thing it did was shorten the site’s name.

“Basically, the Energy Department consolidated Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory with Argonne National Laboratory West facilities,” said spokesman Tim Jackson. “The combination … forms the new Idaho National Laboratory.”