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The government’s actions in a dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency and a husband and wife targeted by the agency when they bought a residential lot in Idaho and started building their dream home are both “outrageous” and “very strange.” There were comments today from justices on the U.S. Supreme Court about the Environmental Protection Agency’s actions in a fight with Mike and Chantell Sackett, of Priest Lake, Idaho. Their case began in 2005 when the Sacketts were working on their dream home. Their land, purchased for $23,000, is about two-thirds of an acre and is about 500 feet from...

Since 2007, Mike and Chantell Sackett have been fighting to build their dream home on the Idaho lot they bought years ago. The Sacketts say they had gotten local permits and spent thousands prepping the land for construction - then the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed up. The EPA told the Sacketts their property contained wetlands and issued a compliance order mandating that they return it to its original state or risk facing fines starting at $37,500 per day. The Sacketts say they were stunned, and asked the EPA for a hearing on the matter. The agency denied their request,...

WASHINGTON — Several Supreme Court justices are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for heavy-handed enforcement of rules affecting homeowners. The justices were considering whether to let a North Idaho couple challenge an EPA order identifying their land as “protected wetlands.” Mike and Chantell Sackett of Priest Lake wanted to build their house on the land. But the EPA says the Sacketts can’t challenge the order to restore the land to wetlands or face thousands of dollars in fines. Justice Samuel Alito called EPA’s actions “outrageous.” Justice Antonin Scalia noted the “high-handedness of the agency” in dealing with private property. Chief...

WASHINGTON – Sacramento attorney Damien Schiff will be carrying the conservative flame Monday when the Supreme Court considers what could become the year's hottest environmental case. For the 32-year-old Schiff, a senior staff attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, the hourlong oral argument marks a personal milestone. The Monday morning session will be his first appearance before the famously aggressive questioners of the nation's highest court. "There is a greater intensity of preparation," Schiff acknowledged Thursday, following a moot court session at Georgetown University Law Center. "Everyone knows that (an attorney) is lucky to have 30 seconds to make their...

WASHINGTON — An Idaho couple's dream home will be the center of a legal storm Monday at the Supreme Court. For homebuilders, farmers and major corporations, the case called Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency resonates well beyond one person's ambitions or even the wetlands protections specifically at issue. Business groups reckon the case can help roll back federal regulations along a broader front. "The Clean Water Act has, in short, become a tool for regulators to micromanage even the most routine decisions of farmers and ranchers," attorney Mark Stancil wrote in a brief filed for the American Farm Bureau Federation....

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The family of a U.S. soldier held captive by the Taliban for over two years said on Wednesday they were optimistic about the possibility of talks between the Afghan insurgent group and countries including the United States. They expressed hope that Bowe Bergdahl would be freed "as soon as possible" in a statement issued a day after the Taliban said they had reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office in the Gulf Arab country of Qatar. "We are optimistic about the possibility of diplomatic discussions between Taliban officials and government officials from other...

Mike and Chantell Sackett wanted to live on scenic Priest Lake in Idaho but couldn't afford it. So they bought a residential lot across the road that offered a distant view of the water, clearing the land and laying gravel. But instead of building their dream home, the Sacketts found themselves enmeshed in a four-year legal battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over whether their dry lot is a protected "wetlands" and possibly off-limits for building. Next week, the Supreme Court will take up the Sacketts' case, not to redefine wetlands but to decide whether landowners are entitled to a...

PRIEST LAKE, Idaho — Chantell and Mike Sackett’s dream house, if it is ever built, will have to be situated just so in order to minimize the view of neighboring homes and maximize the vista of pristine water and conifer-covered mountain. But their roughly half-acre lot in the Idaho Panhandle has proved to be the perfect staging ground for a conservative uproar over the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency. This month, the Supreme Court will review the Sacketts’s four-year-long effort to build on land that the EPA says contains environmentally sensitive wetlands. A decision in the couple’s favor could...

Idaho Power plans to cut off electricity on Tuesday to plant in Pocatello, Idaho, that makes material for solar energy, because the factory owes $1.9 million in unpaid utility bills. The dispute is with Honolulu-based Hoku Scientific, Inc., which is backed by Chinese financing and enjoys federal and state incentives. Officials for the utility said Idaho Power agreed to hold off until March on collecting the $1.8 million Hoku already owed, providing the company stayed current in its bills. It didn’t. That’s a telltale sign of trouble as thanks to hydroelectric plants and thermal energy, Idaho enjoys some of the...

Idaho Power Co. told a southeastern Idaho polysilicon manufacturer that the utility could turn off its power by Tuesday if it doesn’t pay an electricity bill from November. Honolulu-based Hoku Corp., which has survived so far with help from Chinese financiers, lodged a formal protest with Idaho Public Utilities Commission regulators after getting a termination of service notice on Dec. 22. When Hoku missed the Dec. 21 payment, Idaho Power sent a notice that power would be shut off on Jan. 3 — unless Hoku came up with the money. “The fact of the matter is, Hoku has missed a...

WASHINGTON - When Mike and Chantell Sackett purchased land for their dream home near Priest Lake, Idaho, they obtained all the permits required by the county. They even checked with the Army Corps of Engineers to make sure the federal government would okay their project. But as workers began laying in gravel in May 2007, Environmental Protection Agency officials showed up and demanded they stop, saying the property was in a protected wetlands zone. "They said it's in the wetland inventory," Chantell told CBN News. The Sacketts checked the EPA's coordinates and found their land wasn't really in that inventory....

UPDATE: A spokesperson for the Kootenai County Medical Center confirms with KHQ that there is one patient at their hospital. They cannot release a name but can tell us that he is a male patient and is in fair condition. This patient was transported to the facility in Coeur d'Alene via Med Star (life flight helicopter). Dr. Panos at Shoshone Medical Center confirms that 6 patients were transported to their facility via ground ambulance. Four of the miners have been released and 2 are still in the hospital for observation overnight. The Lucky Friday is closed as an authorities investigate....

BREAKING: An AMBER Alert has been issued for the state of Idaho. An investigation is in progress for an abducted child. The child is Brandon Xander Bearce; he is a white male, age 4, 2 feet 10 inches and 50 pounds. He has blond or strawberry blond hair and green eyes. Child is wearing red Cars pajamas. The suspect is Stefanie Marie Conteras; she is age 28, 5 feet 7 inches and 160 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. Suspect has a tattoo of stars across her chest and stars on her right calf. The suspect vehicle is...

A 75-year-old lawyer who fought private property rights battles alongside Idaho U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth and her Nevada rancher husband Wayne Hage in the 1990s is still cultivating the Sagebrush Rebellion's roots. Fred Kelly Grant has been slowed by age and heart surgery, but he's in demand from counties — and tea partyers who attend his $150-per-person seminars — as conservative elements in the West's continue to clash with the federal government. California's Siskiyou County is paying Grant $10,000 to help block removal of four Klamath River dams. Montana and Idaho counties have enlisted him to trim hated wolf populations...

Mine Collapse At The Lucky Friday Mine KHQ.COM - There's been a mine collapse at the Lucky Friday Mine. We're working on getting you more details. Check back for updates here on KHQ.Com, KHQ, Facebook and our Twitter news feed. You can also get the very latest on NewsBreak with Dave Cotton LIVE on KHQ.Com at 10am, noon at 2pm Monday through Friday. Watch www.khq.com and KHQ Local News for more information

BOISE - Triple murderer Paul Ezra Rhoades was executed this morning despite repeated last-minute appeals, in Idaho’s first execution since 1994 and only its second since 1957. “The time of death is 9:15,” Mountain time, Idaho Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Ray announced. “The procedures are complete.” In his final words, Rhoades took responsibility for one of the murders, but not the other two. A friend of the family of one of the victims, who was in the chamber witnessing the execution, said, “The devil has gone home.” Unlike the last person executed in Idaho, double murderer Keith Eugene Wells,...

A local man contacted us Wednesday to tell his side of a bizarre meeting he had in early July with suspected White House shooter Oscar Ortega-Hernandez. We canvassed two different neighborhoods connected to Ortega through an extensive background check we ran Wednesday. We knocked, but no one answered. Computer consultant Monte McCall called us after seeing Ortega-Hernandez's picture. "As soon as I clicked on the story on my iPad there was this picture and i was like 'uh oh,'" said McCall. McCall said the picture was Ortega-Hernandez, the same man who contacted him in July and asked to meet. McCall...

The Secret Service searched Occupy D.C. on Monday for a man suspected of firing bullets at the White House on Friday, one of which was stopped by the building’s ballistic glass. Protestor Ralph Wittenberg told TPM on Tuesday evening that authorities came through “searching for a so-called terrorist who shot at the White House, with no warrant, they went into everybody’s tents.” A person handling media requests for Occupy DC confirmed the searches and said they were led by the Secret Service. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Police have been trying to locate 21-year-old...

ABC News has learned authorities are increasingly concerned that a man sought in connection with a bizarre shooting incident on the Washington Mall last week may pose a threat to President Obama. The Secret Service now suspects that a bullet fired in this incident may have hit the White House after a bullet round was found in a White House window, though the round had not yet been conclusively linked to the incident. Police believe the suspect, Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho Falls, is mentally ill. Local News 8 broke Ortega's connection to Idaho Falls on Sunday night. Ortega has...

PRIEST LAKE, Idaho – Four years ago, Mike and Chantell Sackett cleared a lot to build a house overlooking one of North Idaho’s most scenic mountain lakes. They pictured a roomy A-frame, with a deck for entertaining. At the front of the house, windows would frame views of Priest Lake and the deep forest stretching down to the lake’s indigo water. From the back, the couple could watch the Selkirk Mountains change with the seasons. But instead of their dream home, the Sacketts got a bitter legal fight with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about whether they improperly filled in...