Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Sunset paints the western sky orange behind a grain loading spout at the railroad siding of Ritzville Warehouse’s LaCrosse plant at dusk Monday. The colors of the sunset are contrasted by the steely blue-grey clouds that hang in the approaching night sky...
Rep. Fagan reports on stance to keep LEA funding for schools As I have traveled around the 9th Legislative District, one common theme I have heard from constituents, including education advocates, parents, teachers and school administrators is proposed reductions in levy equalization (LEA) funding in the state budget will impact the quality of education in our region. As the assistant Republican leader on the House Education Appropriations and Oversight Committee, I have tirelessly reviewed how the governor’s proposed $152 million cut to LEA w...
A warm December may mean more summer maintenance on Whitman County’s roads. Public Works Director Mark Storey reported Tuesday morning the county had spent an estimated $100,000 of its $760,000 snow removal budget in 2011. The county typically budgets $760,000 for yearly snow plowing and sanding. Storey said that was based on a multi-year average. He said future snow removal budgets will likely increase when the heavy winter of 2008, in which the county spent in excess of $1 million to deal with winter roads, is factored in. Money for snow r...
The Colfax school board has approved District Business Manager Reece Jenkin to look into options for refinancing bonds from the 2005 remodeling project at the high school. At the board meeting Dec. 27, Jenkin told the members about the process of deciding when it pays to refinance. He said he thinks that now the circumstances are to a point where the savings would be worth pursuing. He said the school could save $200,000. Two companies which have been soliciting Jenkin with refinance options...
It’s a good time to look back on 2011 — much better than it would have been last January, anyway. 2011 was remarkable because it was the first year in the last decade where Britney Spears was not one of the top 10 searches on Yahoo. She fell to 13th, which probably is why California radio preacher Harold Camping predicted the world would end on May 21st. If people have so much ennui they can’t be bothered to check in to see who Britney is marrying, surely it is a sign of the end of times. Actually, the world almost did end on May 21st, but a...
For years, energy experts warned us that regulations and policies that reduce the supply of affordable conventional energy would result in higher prices for American families. Now it is clear the warnings were well-founded. The USA Today recently reported that electricity bills have skyrocketed. The newspaper reports that American families paid, on average, a record $1,419 a year for electricity in 2010. Demand for electricity remains high even as energy supplies shrink. In addition, prices are rising due to the cost of meeting excessive EPA...
These reports are from the previous four issues of the Daily Bulletin in Colfax. They are reprinted here for the benefit of Gazette readers who reside outside of Colfax. Some accounts have been updated. COURT DENIES CONTEMPT PETITION An order by the court Dec. 28 denied a petition by Christopher Jack Reid to find County Prosecutor Denis Tracy and Community Corrections Officer Kevin Vogeler in contempt of court for not correcting a pre-sentence investigation report on Reid. He is the former pornographic film star who was convicted of raping a...
NOT A WHOLE lot of good things happened to qualify for my usual list of favorite newspaper stories of the year but here’s No. I by Phil Ferolito which ran in the Yakima Herald-Republic in September. It’ll warm your heart. Noya Deats’ routine walk along the Roza Canal in Moxee turned disastrous when her two dogs, Fawn and Nia, decided to take a swim. Despite signs warning folks to stay out of the canal, she said, she’s let her dogs off their leashes before without any problems. But this time, once in the water, neither dog could get out because...
Years ago, Gary Larson created a particularly memorable Far Side cartoon. It shows a child’s slide. At the bottom of the slide two tiny spiders look over the web they had spun across it. One spider says to the other, “If this works, we’ll eat like kings.” It is a picture right out of the Whitman County Courthouse. County commissioners Greg Partch and Pat O’Neill have spun their web to capture the hotly debated Hawkins shopping center development at the state line outside Moscow. One difference from the cartoon is that Partch and O’Neill have no...
1. COMICS: What is the name of Hi and Lois’ youngest daughter? 2. HISTORY: Which Allied general defeated German field marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa during World War II? 3. POETRY: Who was the Greek creator of pastoral poetry? 4. ART: Which Early Renaissance artist painted “The Birth of Venus”? 5. TELEVISION: Who were the only witnesses to the shooting of Mr. Burns on “The Simpsons”? 6. EXPLORERS: What was the nationality of explorer Edmund Hillary? 7. MUSIC: Which actress/singer’s theme song was “Que Sera, Sera”? 8. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Who...
• It was 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who made the following sage observation: “One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to vanity, ordinary actions to habit, and mean actions to fear.” • Are you an agelast or an abderian? If you never laugh, you’re the latter; if you laugh too much, you’re the former. • There is one species of frog, found in the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia, that has no lungs; it breathes entirely through its skin. • You might be surprised to learn that the largest employer in the...
Colfax wrestlers will head to the big Warden invitational tournament Saturday after they placed 10th in team scoring at the Pullman tournament at Lincoln Middle School last Wednesday. Sixteen teams entered. Colfax heavyweight Daython Maltone booked another win, and Justin King placed third. Maltone took the title in the heavies with a first round pin over Ty Paul of Grangeville to cap a 3-0 day. King compiled a 3-1 record in the 170 class and placed third with a pin over Nick Muller in the second round. That reversed the result of a first...
St. John/Endicott wrestlers will travel to the Cheney invitational tourney Saturday for their next round of competition. Four of the Eagles competed last week in the Pullman tournament. 113-Rowdy Brown pinned by Trapper Askins-GP 1st; pinned by A.J. Burde, 2nd. 132-Thomas Newton pinned by Cheney Bradley, 1st; pinned Hyer-Pom, 2nd; to Todd Marshal-Potlatch, 1-8. 160 Micah Selk pinned by Ethan Melville-LRS, 2nd; over Thie-Mos, 15-5; pinned by Kevin Knauff-GP, 1st. 182-Gabe Davis pinned by Gabe Paul, 2nd; to Ray Compton-Cx, 2-4...
1. Who has hit the most career home runs in Detroit Tigers history? 2. Name the most recent Yankees starting pitcher to be elected to the Hall of Fame. 3. When was the last time the University of South Carolina won a conference championship in football? 4. Name the three NBA players who have finished a season shooting at least 50 percent from the field, 50 percent from the 3-point line and 80 percent from the free-throw line. 5. Entering the 2011-12 NHL campaign, how many consecutive seasons had the San Jose Sharks won the Pacific Division? 6....
Spartan cheerleaders Lynsey Eberle, Kelsey Lindhag, Josie Daniels, Joy Littleton, Maddi Shrode and Rachel Evans whip up support from the home gymcrowd at the Spartan Classic for the girls championship game Thursday at Rosalia....
A furious fourth quarter charge gave Davenport the title of Rosalia High School’s annual Spartan Holiday Classic basketball tournament. Down five at the half, the Gorillas rode the hot hand of Joey Gunning, who was doing just that in the second half, scoring the bulk of his tournament-high 31 points after the break and powering Davenport to a 66-55 championship game win over the host Spartans last Thursday night. David Nelson put up 22 for Rosalia, but it was not enough as Gorilla shooters scorched the final frame to a 27-16 advantage. Ryan Z...
After booking a split last week in Yakima’s SunDome shootout, Colfax girls Tuesday bumped their league string to 4-1 with a 50-42 win over Davenport Tuesday on the Gorillas’ home court. The league win bumped the Colfax season mark back over the .500 mark at 5 -4. Now 4-1 in league play, the Bulldogs Friday will host Northwest Christian, a team which remains in second place behind Reardan before the holiday break. A win by the Bulldogs will give them the number-two shot in the league as it nears the halfway mark. Northwest Christian moved the...
It will be another mid-winter “game on” Friday when the Northwest Christian Crusaders bring their hoop heavyweights to the Colfax gym with the NE league’s top slot on the line. The Crusaders will arrive with a 10-0 mark and at least of the two of the players who fueled their 1B power run last year. They are 6-0 in the league. Colfax, which dropped two games at the SunDome shootout last week in their sojourn to Yakima, will host with a 5-0 NE league record. The Bulldogs rolled past Davenport 63-55 in the Tuesday league round. They are a win n...
Rosalia’s Spartan girls last Thursday broke open a close game in the second half to defeat Davenport 55-41 and take the girls side of the Spartan holiday classic. The win over the Bi-County big-B club bumped the Spartan’s season string to 9-0 prior to their Friday trip south to face the undefeated Colton Wildcats. Colton girls upped the ante in their lone holiday outing Tuesday with a 66-23 win at Grangeville. Coach Clark Vining activated the bench while the Wildcats took off for a 31-16 lead at the half. Paige Vincent led the Wildcats 17 poi...
Colfax wrestlers will head to the big Warden invitational tournament Saturday after they placed 10th in team scoring at the Pullman tournament at Lincoln Middle School last Wednesday. Sixteen teams entered. Colfax heavyweight Daython Maltone booked another win, and Justin King placed third. Maltone took the title in the heavies with a first round pin over Ty Paul of Grangeville to cap a 3-0 day. King compiled a 3-1 record in the 170 class and placed third with a pin over Nick Muller in the second round. That reversed the result of a first...
St. John/Endicott wrestlers will travel to the Cheney invitational tourney Saturday for their next round of competition. Four of the Eagles competed last week in the Pullman tournament. 113-Rowdy Brown pinned by Trapper Askins-GP 1st; pinned by A.J. Burde, 2nd. 132-Thomas Newton pinned by Cheney Bradley, 1st; pinned Hyer-Pom, 2nd; to Todd Marshal-Potlatch, 1-8. 160 Micah Selk pinned by Ethan Melville-LRS, 2nd; over Thie-Mos, 15-5; pinned by Kevin Knauff-GP, 1st. 182-Gabe Davis pinned by Gabe Paul, 2nd; to Ray Compton-Cx, 2-4. SPORTS QUIZ By...
While nobody knows exactly how wild raptors celebrate the turning of a New Year, one could speculate this Cooper’s Hawk was burning off a touch of the New Year flu on an ancient fence post on Hammer Grade Road south of Hooper Monday afternoon....
Gazette Reporters After a semester of burning up the Lancaster and Winona roads, Gary Wargo seems to be receiving top grades from the three school districts for which he is serving as superintendent. “Everything seems to be working as good or better as before,” said Jim Rogers, St. John school board member. Wargo in September took over superintendent duties for the St. John and Endicott cooperative in addition to his post at LaCrosse. “It took a little while to get into the groove, but I think I’m getting a hold of it now,” said Wargo. “I...
Judge David Frazier Tuesday promised attorneys to give an oral opinion next Wednesday after an hour-plus hearing Tuesday on whether or not Scotts Seed can seek damages on a cross claim in the giant civil suit involving Kentucky Bluegrass production in the Tekoa and Pomeroy areas Pullman Attorney Tim Esser, representing Seeds, Inc., of Tekoa, and Matthew Turetsky of Seattle, representing the Scott Company, presented their arguments. The judge noted Tuesday’s hearing was similar to a session in November when the topic was first argued in c...
THURSDAY Verizon Wireless announces it will add a $2 surcharge to customers who pay their bills online or by phone. Friday, after receiving backlash from customers and federal regulators, the firm scrapped the fee. Greek tax officials began a 48-hour strike to protest salary cuts and other austerity measures as the government moves to meet budget targets demanded by international creditors. Two died and 61 other people were injured in a pre-dawn pilup of 40 cars, vans and trucks in a dense early morning fog on Interstate 10 in New Orleans. The...
