Jessica Robinson

A new Liam Neeson action thriller opening Friday is receiving howls of protest from wolf advocates. They say “The Grey” wrongly portrays wolves as massive, bloodthirsty beasts. And some wildlife groups are organizing a boycott.

While cities west of the Cascades recover from the ice storm, flooding and mudslides, the Inland Northwest is getting more of what residents have been expecting for a while: a wintry white layer of snow. And forecasters say there's another round on the way.

Federal investigators say an accident that exposed 16 people to radiation at the Idaho National Lab was "preventable." A report out Wednesday says the Department of Energy and one of its contractors underestimated the risk of opening decades-old packages that hold plutonium plates.

The 16 workers were preparing 1980s-era containers of plutonium to be moved out of an old research facility. Two containers had "atypical labels," so the workers contacted their supervisors. According to the federal report, they were directed to cut the plastic around the plutonium anyway.

SPOKANE, Wash. - It's been a year since a white supremacist from rural eastern Washington planted a bomb along Spokane's Martin Luther King Day parade route. Thirty-seven-year-old Kevin Harpham now awaits a 32-year prison sentence. But the cloud of the incident still looms as Spokane prepares for this year's event.

Ivan Bush stands in the sun outside the Spokane Convention Center. Hundreds of people gathered here a year ago to listen to a recitation of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - The gray wolf is making its way deeper into Oregon, Washington, and now for the first time in almost 90 years, California. But where the wolf goes, emotions run high. Seventeen years after the re-introduction of gray wolves into Idaho, the subject continues to stir strong feelings in the state. Monday, wolf advocates in Coeur d'Alene held a full moon vigil to remember wolves killed by hunters.

"Do you have a candle yet?"

Federal inspectors have shut down the primary shaft into a troubled silver mine in north Idaho. The order comes on the heels of three tragic accidents that led the owners of the Lucky Friday Mine to take a two-month hiatus from mining to make safety improvements.

A north Idaho couple is in the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court Monday for a case that could affect environmental regulation across the country.

The nine justices are hearing oral arguments in a case Mike and Chantell Sackett brought against the EPA over the couple’s still un-built home.

Mount Rainier will remain closed through Thursday after the fatal shooting of ranger Margaret Anderson on Sunday.

The tragedy underscores a little-known fact about the country's most beautiful landscapes: They're also home to some of the highest rates of assault on law enforcement.

2011 saw modest signs of economic recovery in the Northwest. Washington, Oregon and Idaho all had slight dips in unemployment rates. But another economic indicator reveals it’s been a hard year for many families in all three states. That is, the number of people on food stamps.

Let's go back to January. “True Grit” was leading at the box office, the fledgling Arab Spring had not yet taken off, and in the Northwest, about 2 million people were on food stamps.

The panel has a January 1st deadline.]

Washington's Latino population grew by 70 percent between 2000 and 2010. But commissioners are split over how to reflect that change in the legislative map -– particularly in the Yakima Valley.

"What is on the table here is one district that is a higher percentage Hispanic and minority or two districts that are a little bit lower Hispanic percentages," says Dean Foster, the Democrat who's been working on the map. "Maybe not even 50 percent."

Washington’s political redistricting commission has its first Congressional map that at least one Democrat and one Republican can agree on. The two have not released details yet.

Members of the Washington Redistricting Commission plan to release a map Wednesday that could demarcate the state's Congressional boundaries for the next 10 years.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho - At an intersection in the the quaint resort town of Coeur d'Alene, there are two signs for cupcakes. And each one points in a different direction. Downtown Coeur d’Alene is not very big yet it has two cupcake shops. It’s an example of an economic phenomenon that’s actually not that strange -- in fact, we see it everywhere.

Shawna Leonard owns Sweet B cupcakes.

“We have many flavors," she says. "Like red velvet, chocolate, white chocolate raspberry. Candied sweet potato.”

There’s a Mexican Christmas tradition called a “pastorela.” And it’s getting a new twist in Yakima.

A pastorela is a play about the shepherds’ search for the baby Jesus. This weekend members of the community will perform a pastorela that draws on the real-life experiences of Latinos in the Northwest.

SPOKANE, Wash. – The white supremacist who planted a bomb along Spokane's Martin Luther King Day parade has been sentenced to 32 years in prison. It's the maximum sentence the federal judge was allowed to hand down under the terms of a plea deal between Kevin Harpham and federal prosecutors.

The rockburst that injured seven miners in north Idaho last week registered as a 2.2 seismic event according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That contradicts earlier reports about what could have caused the collapse. The mine remains closed while federal officials investigate the incident.

It's a matter of cause and effect. Did an earthquake trigger the rockburst at the Lucky Friday Mine ... or was the shaking caused by the collapse a mile underground?