Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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How does an ice skater spin? What is friction and how does it work? What is the difference between regular ice and dry ice? LaCrosse fifth through eighth graders now have a better understanding of the answers to those questions after a visit to the Palouse Ice Rink in Moscow for a Science on Ice field trip. "We had a grand time," said Leanne Bafus, LaCrosse fifth grade teacher. Bafus has been wanting to take students on the science trip for years. She finally signed up through the ice rink's...
The Whitman Conservation District was awarded $33,861 by the Washington Department of Ecology to protect and improve water quality in Alkali Flat Creek. The funds cover the costs associated with fencing cattle from the creek and installing a riparian buffer. "We try and get everything paid for," said Brian Bell, WCD manager. This is the second round of funding for the district to help Dusty rancher Bryan Jones protect and improve Alkali Flat Creek. Jones runs 30 head of cattle on four paddocks,...
Some of the first information from the Palouse Regional Housing Needs Assessment was presented at the Inland Northwest Partners meeting March 27, covering housing availability and affordability in Whitman and Latah counties. "It was interesting," said Port of Whitman County Commissioner Tom Kammerzell, who reported on the INP meeting at the port's April 4 meeting. The Palouse Regional Housing Needs Assessment is a regional look at housing needs and is supported by multiple entities including...
While most public government meetings don’t usually draw a big crowd of spectators, there is a group of people who shoulder the responsibility of keeping government open, sitting through meetings as possibly the only representative of the citizenry and reporting back on the happenings of the elected officials in Whitman County and Pullman. These people are the Observers Corps of the League of Women Voters. “The League is all about open government,” said Judy Stone, the League of Women Voter...
New residents to Rosalia will soon be receiving a greeting from the town's Welcome Wagon program which is being taken over by a group of women who started meeting together weekly to work on their projects. Earlier this year, Rosalia Chamber of Commerce members were looking to resurrect the Welcome Wagon program, among others. Nan Konishi, owner of Pinewood Cottage Furniture, is also a member of the Mellow Monday Crew. The group started at least five years ago as a way to work on craft projects...
Lance Bishop, wife Alice and their three children rolled onto the Palouse from Mississippi Friday. Monday, Bishop went to his first day of work as the new Whitman County IT Director. The Whitman County position opened when former IT director Chris Nelson was elected county treasurer. "Technology is always changing, so you have to change with it," said Bishop from a seat at the county's IT building. Change is not a new thing to Bishop. He grew up in a military family, moving regularly. He served...
Colfax is about to get a lot more colorful. The Colfax Arts Council has announced two art projects that are set to bring a lot of art to the downtown area. One will spread murals on the sides of local business buildings while the other aims to spread art along the city’s chainlink fences. Three locations for murals have been secured by the arts council with a fourth in the works. Professional artists have already been selected for each building. “I know each of these artists could pull off a m...
Almost six years ago, Torry Shepherd stepped in as manager of the CHS Primeland store in St. John. He knew what changes needed to be made to make the business successful. However, the corporation's stringent rules hobbled him and Torry was never able to do what he felt was needed to make the business prosper. Until now. "Big corporation does not work in a small town," he said, sitting at the lawn table and chair on display in the store, wearing a brand new tan shirt. The pocket logo on the...
Truly You Clothing and More is set to have its grand opening April 13, providing shopping for ladies' clothing and accessories for multiple generations. "This is a little dream of mine," said Whitney Bond, business owner who has been working to transform the former Events on Main café into the clothing store. Bond plans to stock her store with the three Cs: comfortable, classy and casual. She described the clothes as classy casual and business casual for women. But where things go or what they...
Many of Whitman County's small schools struggle to provide students with exposure to the arts. One way of filling that gap is with a partnership with the Missoula Children's Theater, based out of Missoula, Mont., which arrives at the school and in one week auditions, rehearses and performs a theatrical production. "Our goal is to teach kids life skills through the arts," said Lindsey Wayne, half of the tour duo that put on "Blackbeard the Pirate" with the St. John/Endicott students last week....
Kari Rimbey was working at Events on Main Café when an old friend from her hometown came in and the two reconnected. The friend started coming in every day to write and started encouraging Kari to try her hand at the same. While Kari didn't have much experience writing, she gave it a try. That was in 2015. Since then, Kari has grown as a writer and recently released Six Houses Down. After initially self-publishing, the book was picked up by publishing house Morgan James and the hardback is set...
Picture an hourglass. You are the narrow point in the middle. One side is all your ancestors and the other is all your descendants. This is the example Carolyn Arnett would start with when teaching genealogy which she has done for more than 20 years. At 80 years old, Carolyn has eight children, three step-children, 34 grandchildren and 160 great-grandchildren (and counting); she sees both sides of her hourglass expanding. "Family is the most important thing to me. And all my ancestors are a...
From early on, Katey Schlomer wanted to live in the middle of nowhere with a driveway two miles long. "My grandparents were farmers, so that's where that connection and love comes in," said Katey. Ironically, that long driveway is exactly what her husband Mike Schlomer gave her with their home in Winona on his family's farm. Katey grew up in Moses Lake and then moved to Ellensburg which is where she was living when she met Mike. The farm scene in Whitman County had one thing that caught her by...
"There's a purpose and design for everything," said Mischa Gergen who has traveled a very rough road to come to that conclusion. Mischa moved to the area in 2000. She attended the University of Idaho and worked as a special ed preschool teacher for seven years. During that time, she married. After two years of marriage, they went to see a doctor because her husband had lost a lot of weight. What Mischa did not know at the time was he had also been having bloody stool, stomach cramping and a...
A mom with seven kids living under her roof―eight if you count her husband, Wade―Sheena Becker enjoys all the happiness and trials motherhood has brought her. "My kids are my world," said Sheena whose story of motherhood involves a few more trials and blessings than many others. Sheena became a mom in 2005 with the birth of her daughter Addisen. Sons Emerson and Waylon followed in 2008 and 2009, respectively. In 2011, another son, Tommy, was stillborn at 26 weeks. "We thought it was just a flu...
The Chinese have landed on the dark side of the moon, something never before accomplished. It is not a lucky break; they have been taking the necessary steps and setting up the critical pieces to communicate with the far side to bring about this feat. The example is fitting for the start of a new year when everyone thinks about resolutions - even though many of us think how we are NOT making them. The key to successfully keeping to those goals we set at the turn of the calendar is to follow the...
In the 1991 movie “City Slickers”, the old cowboy Curly tells the protagonist the secret to life is “one thing.” “Just that one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean sh**,” he says. What that one thing is is up to him and, as Billy Crystal's character learns, it can change in different situations. Most people agree global warming is a serious issue; perhaps THE issue most urgent in the world. If things don't change and the global temperature rises more than 1.5 degrees Cel...
During a recent visit to Colfax, my son asked about the pink X things. I told him it was to raise people's awareness of breast cancer and the people who pass through that ordeal. There sure are a lot of the pink ribbons; people must really be aware, then. Are they? For those who put a pink ribbon on their window, how are you more aware of breast cancer and what have you done about it? Some people spent money on buying a variety of pink decorations. How much money did they put toward cancer...
For those struggling with common core arithmetic, a reprieve is available at the Jones Schoolhouse at the Palouse Empire Fair this year. “We’re not teaching new math at the schoolhouse,” said Kathy Meyers, a long-time Whitman County Historical Society member and teacher at the schoolhouse. Instead, Meyers and her fellow teachers and docents teach more the history of math, including Roman numerals. “Some of them (visitors) have never had Roman numerals,” she noted. During the fair, the interior...
It can be hard to find activities to do with the kids while they are home for the summer that aren't expensive or take a lot of time; especially when you live in a rural Whitman County town already removed from so much. There are the staples: library programs, the pool, video games and playing in the yard. Our family discovered a new one this year: geocaching. I had heard chit-chat about it, but when my eldest came home from a Whitman County Parks program all excited about it, I decided to give...
A current trend sweeping social media is the police lip sync challenge. Law offices across the country are posting videos of anywhere from one person to the entire department―staff and support personnel included―mouthing along to songs from current hits to ones debuted on LP tracks. Different departments have different takes on the videos. For some it is a way to highlight their officers, resources, staff and toys. For others it is just pure fun. A few use it as a way to commemorate fallen com...
It seems the natural tendency and desire of the populace to find quick, simple answers and fixes to problems. Things are just so much easier when the answer is cut and dry and to the point. However, sometimes we can over-simplify things and forget there are often multiple factors to an issue that negate having one simple answer. When the family's German Shepherd was walking as though lame one day, the question of hip dysplasia came up. These big dogs with the unique gait are known for having a p...
Top: Marcia McNannay, center, with husband Rick, right, and Randall, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance employee who helped her every day of her treatment, after her graduation from treatment. Bottom: A Colfax Police patch honoring breast cancer awareness. Photos from SCCA Twitter courtesy McNannay. What’s worse than being diagnosed with cancer? Having cancer while fighting with your insurance company to get treatment is what Marcia McNannay of Palouse learned. “That time that you sit and wai...
Copies of the 14-page ‘The Palouse, Jewel of the Inland Northwest, A Photographers’s Guide’ by Otto Stevens are now available at the Whitman County Library in Colfax. Plans are for the guide to be located at all library branches as soon as volunteers get them stapled and folded. The guides were made available to the library by Stevens, a 34-year member of the Spokane Camera Club who led photography field trips for 12 years for the club, Photographic Society of America and Canadian Assoc... Full story
The Palouse Tables Project, a collaborative effort by Community Action Center, Backyard Harvest and others, has been meeting with residents in towns in Whitman and Latah counties to discover food needs and solutions. “We find people are pretty creative, even in places people shop,” said Joe Astorino, garden and nutrition specialist with the Community Action Center of Whitman County. Astorino and his team are at about the half-way mark in meeting with the various communities to find what is worki... Full story
