Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 26 - 45 of 45
A four-team delegation from the SE Eights will go up against the four teams from District 7 this week in a crossover round which proved to be the end of the 2010 trail for the SE. Last year Colton, St. John/Endicott and Garfield/Palouse were all turned back by SE foes in the first round. This year, the SE league race ended in a close finish with Pomeroy, Touchet and Colton each cooking 5-1 records. The top three and Garfield/Palouse, which came close to tripping up Colton in the last round last Thursday, earned the slots for this week’s crossov...
In 1984, a gunman went on a killing spree at a San Diego area McDonalds restaurant. Patrons of the restaurant tried to hide under tables. Employees hid behind the counter and in the kitchen. No place was safe. Eventually, the restaurant was surrounded by police, and police sharpshooters killed the shooter. Twenty-one innocents died. Nineteen were wounded. Horrified survivors were traumatized. Psychiatrists and psychologists were called to help with their recovery. A concern was that they would forever suffer from the horrific experience...
A judge this week ruled the U.S. government can not require tobacco companies print pictures of diseased people or organs on packs of cigarettes. Should those images be on those packs? “Well, I don’t know. I think that might be a good idea. I think they need to be shown the truth.” “If people want to smoke it’s their business. If they want to kill themselves, let them kill themselves. I don’t know what good a picture’s gonna do.” “I think it’s a good graphic representation of the effects of smoking. I think people more easily can ignore t...
Rosalia Veterans events set at Rosalia Veteran’s Day assemblies are planned for this morning, Thursday, at Rosalia school and for Friday at the Veteran’s Memorial behind the town’s historic Texaco station. The school assembly will be at 9 a.m. in the high school gym. Friday’s ceremony will be at 10 a.m. Rosalia Boy Scouts are scheduled to go to Spokane Wednesday afternoon for a tour of the KHQ television studio. Under the direction of troop leaders Brad Hodges and Pat Brown, the scouts are sch...
If $19,000 could solve the problem, is it worth it? If too many kids in a classroom is the issue, could more parent volunteers lessen the problem? But then what about next year? These and other topics relating to increased class size and student schedules were discussed in a special meeting of the Palouse School board Monday night. Superintendent Bev Fox began the session by describing the situation. In an era of differentiated instruction, she said the school is trying to meet the needs of all...
Colfax Police Sunday morning responded to a report of a burglary at the St. Patrick’s Church parish hall the previous night. Glass in a display case and locked storage closets were forced open. Lock and hasps on the closet doors were pried off. In classrooms of the building, graffiti messages were left on the blackboards. Among items believed missing are a chalice, plate and possibly a ceremonial robe. Entry was made via the kitchen door on the south side of the building. The door might have been left unlocked....
Pullman engineering firm Munir Daud and Associates has been contracted by the Port of Whitman County to plan an extension of utilities to the port’s new industrial park in Pullman. Port commissioners, at their regular meeting Nov. 3, signed a $175,000 contract with Daud who will plan extension of Pullman city water and sewer services along State Route 27 to the new site which is located at the intersection of Highway 27 and the Albion Road. The site was annexed into the Pullman City Limits last year along with the Mader housing sites located s...
Next year’s budget hole may have been filled by Whitman County commissioners during a lunch meeting Monday. Spending was originally pegged at $1.5 million more than revenue in the initial draft of the county’s $13,193,216 budget, but sales tax revenues from construction at the Palouse Wind project and spending reductions dropped that gap to $541,115. Commissioners Monday discussed ways to eliminate that gap for the 2012 budget. “What are the capital expenses from current expense that we could take out of that?” asked Commissioner Michael Largen...
Pullman Regional Hospital’s board of commissioners voted Nov. 2 to approve the purchase of the da Vinci Si surgical system. The purchase will be made in November and surgeries using the da Vinci robotic system are expected begin in December, according to Laura Winbzler, community relations officer. Pullman Regional Hospital will be the first hospital in the region with this technology, which provides an alternative to both traditional open surgery and conventional laparoscopy. The system is valued at $2 million, and PRH plans to acquire it t...
Whitman County has closed off its seasonal roads for the winter, meaning construction on the Port of Whitman County’s $14 million fiber optic network will have to wait until spring. Debbie Snell, port properties and development manager, reported to port commissioners at their regular meeting last Thursday, Nov. 3, that remaining work to install conduit in about eight miles of county roadsides will have to be finished next year. The cable itself, said Snell, is scheduled to arrive Feb. 29. It will be blown by high pressure air systems through c...
Could the English Language be endangered? SCIENTISTS have come up with another study on creatures in the inland waters of Washington and British Columbia that need protection as threatened or endangered that has doubled what we listed only three years ago. When is someone going to do the same for the English language? It’s grating to watch our local television news shows any more as they drop their g’s and tell us about cams and temps and aves. Sure, I know or at least assume they mean cameras and temperatures and avenues but say it, damn it!...
Wind industry group asks commissioners to lobby legislature A major wind power developer has scrapped its plans for a wind farm south of Colton, citing low wind speeds and diminishing state mandates to develop wind energy. Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish wind farm firm, has held lease options on some 10,000 acres of land in the Rimrock area on the Snake River breaks south of Colton for the past five or six years. Brian Walsh, business developer for Iberdrola’s Portland branch, said measurements from meteorological towers on that land did not w...
GPS needs to control our skies too The next time you’re on a commercial airliner, think about this: The GPS navigation unit in your car is more advanced than the technology used by air traffic controllers. The radar-based air traffic control technology used today is almost 60 years old. While it worked well with fewer, slow-moving aircraft, today's modern jetliners can fly more than a mile and a half in the time it takes for a radar beam to sweep across the screen. Because of that, planes must be kept three to five miles apart. Airplanes forced...
Todd Vanek, 44, appears to be the first new Mayor of Colfax since the first George Bush presidency. Vanek scored 55 percent of the vote in the three-way race with former mayor Carol Stueckle and write-in candidate Jeff Didier as the three vied to replace 22-year mayor Norma Becker. Vanek, a manager at Decagon Devices in Pullman, was hesitant to claim victory after Tuesday night’s initial count. “I’m not Mr. Mayor, yet,” he said. “We have a long way to go and a lot of ballots left to count. Pacing is important.” “I’m excited for the politics to...
MOMENTS IN TIME The History Channel On Nov. 25, 1783, nearly three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution, the final British soldiers withdraw from New York City, the last British military position in the United States. The city had been in British hands since 1776. On Nov. 26, 1898, a powerful winter storm batters New England, killing at least 450 people in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Blizzard conditions caused 20-foot snowdrifts, some 100 ships were blown ashore in Boston and another 40 were...
Discussions are underway in Palouse on how to cover an estimated $40,000 shortfall for the 2012 budget without tapping reserve funds. The city council has been talking about a lot of options, and the finance committee will submit a list of recommendations to Mayor Michael Echanove Friday. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to reduce further, because we’re getting into critical services now – snow removal, etc.,” said Councilman Mike Milano who heads the finance committee. One suggestio...
Still stung after having their pumpkin patch destroyed by vicious vandals, young Mason and Brenna Gilchrist returned from their grandfather’s house Sunday to find a cash-filled plastic gourd on their front porch. “I was still at the truck when they came running up with the pumpkin,” said their father, Craig Gilchrist. “They were so excited.” Without any explanation of who or where it came from, the pumpkin, which had a slit cut in the top and the words ‘Gilchrist Kids Pumpkin Fund’ written around the Jack-o-Lantern’s face, sat on the family’s...
A matter regarding new software for the operation of Palouse Little Sprouts daycare by a non-profit group was tabled until the next meeting by the Palouse school board. In a meeting Oct. 27, Jens Hegg, president of the non-profit, appealed to the board for completion of a software purchase as agreed to last May. The daycare center is now operated by the school. It had been set to be taken over as a non-profit Oct. 1. Due to a licensing delay, the change-over date has been moved back to Jan. 1....
Colfax volleyball players will return to Yakima Friday for another round of state tournament action after pegging a 3-1 mark in the NE district playoffs last week. The Bulldogs will be the number-two entry after Reardan extended their league record with three tourney wins. The defending state champs, Reardan Saturday defeated Colfax in three games for the top ticket. Colfax came back in the last playoff round and stopped Northwest Christian, again in three games, for ticket number two. A qualifier in all state shows since 1991, Colfax will...
It’s time for the Sports Beautification Act. In 1965, Congress passed the Highway Beautification Act. It seems there were too many billboards blighting the landscape. As a result, thousands of them were removed across the country. If that proves that the inexorable march of marketing is not impossibly inexorable, then it’s time once again for Congress to convene. In the waning moments of the classic Game 6 of this year’s World Series, Fox Sports showed a short montage of other Game 6’s that ende...
