Last week I included a little local mystery for Main Street readers to help Joni McCoury solve ... and boy did you hit it out of the park. She was wondering about the origin of a painting done on a Runge Furniture cardboard box. By 9 a.m. on Wednesday, among several others, Kathy Hughes contacted me, convinced it was painted by her late father, Elmer Johnson. Since then, Kathy and Joni have met and compared work done by Elmer.

Stay tuned - this mystery is turning into much more than expected and will culminate in a special showcase for the man who painted on cardboard boxes at the Athletic Roundtable in Coeur d'Alene.***

Senator Jim Risch has announced his nominations to the United States Military Academies for the 2011 school year. The nominees were selected from dozens of applicants and will now be considered by each of the academies for final selection. Congratulations to these local students on their nominations!U.S. Military Academy at West Point: Steven Hallgren, Rathdrum, Sarah Hill, Post Falls and Devin Olmstea, Spirit Lake; U.S. Naval Academy: James George and Rebecca Winzer, Coeur d'Alene.

***Former Post Falls Tribune correspondent Joyce Nowacki has written a wonderful novel with no small amount of research into the history of the Chinese immigrants who helped build the railroad through Rathdrum. She's signing her book, The Other Side of the Fence, at Hastings in Coeur d'Alene on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

***Facebook Status of the Week by Chef Jon Ashton: "What was the best thing before sliced bread?"

***Happy birthday today to Donna Wemple, Barbara Swehosky and Paula Davenport. Tomorrow's birthday girls are Leslie Damiano, Cindy Spence, Jackie Jameson and Donna Armbruster. On Friday Gene Reed, Charisse Gross and Cindy Mead are celebrating another year. Connie Johnson and Ken Gimble will blow out their birthday candles on Saturday. Sunday birthdays will be marked by Susan Jacobson and Ray Murphy and Brady Sutich celebrates his very first birthday that day, too. Randy Oaks, Rich Morrow, Carole Fredekind, Cris Burnham, Rick Altman and Mike Grabenstein were born on Feb. 6.

***THERE'S MORE ... at More Main Street see photos of people and places. Add your birthday to the Main Street Birthday Club, too. Access More Main Street under the columns tab at www.cdapress.com. Listen to Main Street Monday on KVNI AM1080.

***Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press. More Main Street blog is at http://moremainstreet.blogspot.com. Kerri can be reached at mainstreet@cdapress.com