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Temperature: 40.3°F | Humidity: 72% | Pressure: 30.43in ( Falling) | Conditions: Clear | Wind Direction: ESE | Wind Speed: 1.0mph

A battle is raging between preserving wildlife and a way life. US Fish and Wildlife wants to designate nearly 400,000 acres in Idaho and Washington as critical habitat for the Woodland Caribou. Many are concerned it will have a crippling effect on the local economy.

Dozens of families in a north Idaho mobile home park are looking for a new place to live after the land owners handed out eviction notices, blaming poor infrastructure.

Temperature: 27.9°F | Humidity: 96% | Pressure: 30.48in (Steady) | Conditions: Clear | Wind Direction: NNE | Wind Speed: 0.0mph

Temperature: 26.5°F | Humidity: 96% | Pressure: 30.45in ( Falling) | Conditions: Clear | Wind Direction: NNE | Wind Speed: 0.0mph

Today - Sunny. Patchy valley fog in the morning. Highs in the lower 40s. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight - Clear. Patchy fog overnight. Lows in the lower to mid 20s. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph in the evening...becoming light overnight.

Sunday - Sunny. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the lower 40s. Light wind.

COEUR d'ALENE - The second shot is the one going on the wall.

COEUR d'ALENE - Postseason tournaments are a time for players to make a name for themselves.

A Coeur d'Alene boy and his mother are suing Coeur d'Alene School District 271 over a hip injury he sustained during recess in 2008.

COEUR d'ALENE (AP) - Some shareholders have sued Hecla Mining Co. for stock losses they endured after the federal government shut down the Lucky Friday Mine for safety violations.

I still haven't decided how much of the Super Bowl I'm going to watch Sunday. I can't think of a way I'd be less excited about the two Eastern teams playing. New England? New York? C'mon. Madonna at halftme. Meh. Mebbe the E*Trade baby will provide a few chuckles along the way. Oh well, the sun will be out this weekend. Might be a good time to take a long bike ride instead. Here's your Weekend Wild Card ...

A male walrus pokes his tongue out at his trainer during a practice at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Japan, earlier today. You write the cutline. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

A tax on Internet sales? In Idaho? Who'da thunk it? It has long seemed inevitable that someday, sales taxes would be extended to Internet sales. Indeed, California made huge waves recently and did itself significant fiscal and economic violence through its predictably oafish attempt to impose taxes on in-state Internet retailers. Rather than allow itself to become the tax collector for the state of California, eBay responded by closing the accounts of tens of thousands of California-based Internet businesses that had been marketing their wares using eBay's services. California and eBay have reached some sort of temporary truce in the matter, but the episode exposed just how carefully states must tread here/Michael Costello, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: Do you suppose Gov. Butch Otter looks at polls to find wildly unpopular ideas like this one to try to push into public policy?

Item: Contraception mandate outrages religious groups: Religious groups that oppose the new contraception mandate say it forces people of faith to choose between upholding church doctrine and serving the broader society/Associated Press

More Info: The Obama administration's decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception. The regulation, finalized a week ago, raises a complex and sensitive legal question: Which institutions qualify as religious and can be exempt from the mandate? For a church, mosque or synagogue, the answer is mostly straightforward. But for the massive network of religious-run social-service agencies, there is no simple solution.

Question: Did President Obama make a serious misstep in his bid to win re-election by forcing this contraception mandate on religious groups like the nation's Roman Catholics?

Bubblehead: Yes, an individual is a Democrat. Used as an adjective, however, the correct form is “Democratic”. It’s like “robot”; you don’t say “The robot moved in a robot manner”, it’s a “robotic” manner. Likewise, a Democrat belongs to the Democratic Party, and the Senate, having more Democrats than Republicans, has a Democratic majority. I know… English is a confusing language. If you get confused about if it’s the “Democrat Party” or “Democratic Party”, you can just refer to their website. It has several examples of the proper usage of “Democrat” and “Democratic” in the Official English Language.

Question: Anyone out there confuse these two terms?

Temperature: 26.7°F | Humidity: 95% | Pressure: 30.43in (Steady) | Conditions: Clear | Wind Direction: NNE | Wind Speed: 0.0mph

RE: Micron CEO Steve Appleton's last flight lasted 80 seconds/Patrick Orr, Statesman

Idaho Dad: I met Appleton a few times when I worked at Micron. Most driven individual I’ve ever known. He started off at the very bottom and made his way to the top in a short time. It probably helped that he only slept a few hours each night. I always thought he’d die of some neurological disease brought on by lack of sleep.

Question: Anyone else meet Steve Appleton? Care to tell us about it?

Stebbijo: I like smokers, they are fun people. My mother was a smoker and suffered from emphysema. She finally quit to prolong her life and I swear she would have been a happier woman with a smoke or two during her last days. She absolutely hated the grass burners and blamed them for everything. My Dad smoked and quit. My husband is a smoker, and began his addiction at the age of eleven which takes over 40 years of his life. I love him, dearly. He has tried and tried to quit, came close and then failed again. He hates the smell, the ball and chain effect, ect. more than anyone. He smokes outside, but if we are in the car, he rolls down the window and I still gag. However,my lungs are still the best part of me. I just have to work on that deep fat frying addiction.

Question: Have you ever beaten an addiction -- smoking, fat-frying, reading HucksOnline? Anything?