The Sunshine Mine in northern Idaho’s Silver Valley is changing hands, as Canadian mining company Minco Silver Corporation says it will pay $62.3 million to Sterling Mining Company.
Sterling disclosed last month that financial problems had forced it to consider unloading assets or finding a partner. Sterling bought the dormant Sunshine Mine in 2003 and began initial production last December after the construction of a 5,000-foot tunnel that allowed miners a second escape route and to bring in more machinery.
However in June, Sterling said cash flow had been impaired by delays in production due to extreme weather, safety inspections, equipment failures and other problems, forcing it to seek “strategic alliances.”
Sterling CEO Ken Berscht says the package, including a $15 million line of credit from Minco will help keep the Sunshine Mine’s operations afloat. (AP)

Ten Lewis-Clark State College athletic teams have earned NAIA scholar-team awards for carrying a team grade point average of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale.
All LCSC teams finished either first or second this year in the Frontier Conference standings. The Warrior baseball team earned its 16th NAIA World Series title during the spring, while the women’s volleyball team, the men’s and women’s cross country teams, and the men’s and women’s basketball teams all won conference regular season and postseason titles. Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams finished as the highest ranked Region I teams and earned automatic berths to nationals, while both the men’s and women’s golf teams finished second in the conference standings.
In all, LCSC had nine of its 11 teams qualify for national tournaments, while a 10th sport, women’s outdoor track, qualified an individual to the national meet. In the classroom, 10 LC teams were among the 750 honored by the NAIA for having at least a 3.0 team GPA for the academic year.
The women’s indoor and outdoor track programs led the way with a 3.63 GPA, followed by the women’s golf team at 3.48. The women’s cross country team had a 3.45 GPA, while the women’s basketball team, along with both the men’s and women’s tennis teams, had 3.41 GPAs. The men’s indoor and outdoor track programs both had 3.28 GPAs, while the men’s cross country team had a 3.18 GPA.

A series of mudslides has forced the closure of the road to the remote Idaho mountain town of Yellow Pine.

The Valley County Sheriff Department says heavy rain from thunderstorms that moved across central Idaho on Tuesday loosened boulders and triggered at least seven mudslides along the road. The slides washed out some sections of the road, forcing authorities to close the road for at least seven days to clear debris and make repairs.

The mudslides were helped in part by wildfires that burned through the area last summer, which forced some residents to evacuate the town.

Officials say the slides that began Tuesday afternoon stranded at least one motorist, who then waited several hours for road crews to remove debris from the road. (AP)

An Idaho-based off-road vehicle group is asking the Forest Service to withdraw a public service ad featuring Smokey Bear.

The BlueRibbon Coalition says the ad is misleading and unfair, and sends the message that off-road vehicles are to blame for starting forest fires even when operated properly. In the ad, Smokey Bear tells two all-terrain vehicle riders not to start their vehicles in a national forest because the ATVs give off sparks that could start a wildfire.

The coalition has written letters urging the Forest Service and the Ad Council, which produced the 30-second spot, to withdraw the ad. The Forest Service says the ad is under review. (AP)

The National Weather Service says a tornado was part of a storm system that moved across Idaho’s Magic Valley on Tuesday.

However, meteorologists for the National Weather Service say there is no evidence that the tornado spotted on radar touched down during storms that brought high winds and rain to the region. The agency had difficulty finding spotters close enough to the storm to accurately record tornado activity.

The last tornado in southwest Idaho occurred two years ago. (AP)

The state of Wyoming will continue to compensate ranchers for livestock losses to wolves even though a federal judge has stripped the state of control over the predators.

A U.S. District Judge in Missoula last week entered an injunction blocking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from removing federal Endangered Species Act protections from wolves in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

A spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department says that state law calls for spending $540,000 over the next two years to compensate ranchers in the northwestern area of the state for livestock lost to wolves. The state will continue with the compensation program unless the law is changed. (AP)

A Clarkston man has been sentenced to nine months in jail for robbing Wasem’s Drug Store earlier this month.

Daniel Rathbone, 32, pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery and possession of morphine in Asotin County Superior Court.

During the robbery, Rathbone indicated he had a weapon and gave a pharmacist a handwritten note demanding narcotics, though no weapon was displayed.

Thousands of Idaho workers are getting ready for a pay raise. The federal minimum wage is expected to increase 70 cents per hour on Thursday to $6.55 per hour.

It’s the second in a three-phase hike that will increase the minimum federal pay rate to $7.25 per hour. The Idaho Legislature passed a bill that requires the state’s minimum wage to mirror that of federal levels.

The Idaho Department of Labor anticipates the higher wage will boost paychecks for nearly 22,000 jobs across the state, and that this year’s increase will cost Idaho employers about $24.6 million over the next 12 months.

More than one-third of the jobs affected by the salary hike are in the food service sector and another 14 percent in retail.

The increase was approved by Congress last year and was the first hike in minimum wage in more than a decade. (AP)