Whitman County Gazette - Serving Whitman County since 1877

A workshop on government contracting will be Wednesday, Feb. 20, from noon until 3 p.m., at Umpqua Bank, 225 N Grand Ave. in Pullman. The meeting is free to Pullman Chamber members, and $10 for non-members. Please reserve by Friday, Feb. 15. The...

The local chapter of Habitat for Humanity will build its 2019 house in Palouse, its third there since the chapter formed in 1992. It has also bought land in Uniontown for its 2020 project. In Palouse this spring, volunteers will break ground on...

In a landmark election, Whitman County voters approved levies violating the state’s legal limit, continuing a precedent set by other school districts. School districts in Oakesdale and Colton each asked for programs and operations levies that are...

Assault charges filed Monday against a Whitman County jail inmate included a detailed account of an alleged assault that took place in the women's section of the Whitman County jail Jan. 24. Randi Keene, 35, was charged with assaulting inmate...

The third annual Mardi Bras fundraiser will be March 3 in Pullman at Banyans on the Ridge. It is a fundraiser to help raise donations in regards to women’s needs such as feminine products, underwear, bras, hygiene needs, etc. Donation bin...

Colfax Public Works Director Matt Hammer urged residents to allow a small dribble of water to run to keep the system running. Hammer said the water should be allowed to run any time temperatures drop below 10 degrees. Hammer noted downtown...

The Colfax School board met Monday night with a modified agenda due to snow, postponing a Jennings Elementary board appreciation event at the school library. Board members instead gathered in their regular meeting room and Superintendent Jerry Pugh...

Garfield/Palouse and Oakesdale have been the class of Whitman County 1B boys basketball for the past two years. Last season, the Vikings beat Oakesdale at Oakesdale in the district playoffs to send the Nighthawks into the loser’s bracket where...

The No. 1 seed Colton girls advanced to meet No. 2 Pomeroy for the Southeast 1B league/District Nine championship game Wednesday night in Colfax, with the winner going to regionals. The two teams have been first and second all season in the league...

A new league/district tournament format began this week for county 1B basketball. The four-team tournament for the Southeast 1B league opened at home sites Friday and concludes Saturday at Colfax, with two boys teams and two girls teams advancing...

Davenport’s Gorillas booked a 60-53 win over Tekoa /Rosalia Tuesday at West Valley to end a strong hoop season for the Timberwolves. The two teams hooked up after the elimination game was stopped twice by snowstorms. They had been booked to play...

Snow storms across the state last week wound up knocking out the normal regional round of the state finals for the wrestling campaign. Facing reports of bad roads and school closures, WIAA last week called off the regional eliminations and...

It is still up in the air. The long awaited compromise to avoid another government shutdown is in the works. It is being cautiously called an agreement “in principle.” A tentative agreement may be a better description. As of this writing,...

Okeydokes Palouse mayor should school Colfax! The county commissioners, who trekked out to meet constituents at the Steptoe school, came to listen and not to direct. It was a very good meeting. Our lovely friend who gave us the beautiful copper...

America’s drift away from our market-based economic system is perplexing. Equally, mystifying is the new push to replace entrepreneurs with government bureaucrats in planning and controlling services and products offered to us--the consumers....

Sen. Kamala Harris committed a most unusual gaffe at her recent CNN town hall -- not by misspeaking about one of her central policy proposals, but by describing it accurately. Asked if the "Medicare-for-all" plan she's co-sponsoring with Sen....

I know that the suspense has been unbearable, but I'm finally ready to make my announcement: I am not running for president. I realize that by doing so, I have aligned myself with 328,113,170 or so other Americans who also have decided not to run...

Along with millions of other Americans, I watched last week’s State of the Union Address. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. The President was uncharacteristically subdued. He didn’t pick any fights nor call anyone...

Although others have written about the importance of vaccination in light of the measles outbreak in Southwestern Washington, our representative Joe Schmick believes that decision is best left up to parents and their doctors! He is known as the...

Receiving degrees from Whitworth University in Spokane after the first semester were Yelena Hinton, Colfax, Bachelor of Arts in organizational management, and Rayna Charles, Rosalia, Bachelor of Arts in elementary education, Cum...

At Pullman Regional Hospital Zorb, David Dee, born Jan. 28 at eight pounds, 15 ounces, to Rebecca Terrell and Daniel Zorb, Colfax. Paternal grandparents are Nancy and Russ Shorten, Dayton, Wash. Maternal grandparents are Ron and Stephanie Terrell,... Full story

Mark and Kathy Vogler returned from eight days on Maui, snorkeling, swimming, going to luaus and spending time with their son and his family. Two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Sam Vogler, was taught the finer points of whale watching from the lanai...

LaCrosse native Grant Traynor, a graduate of Hermiston High School, earned academic distinction for the last semester at Whitman College by earning a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher on at least 12...

125 years ago The Commoner, Feb. 2, 1894 The entertainment given by the ladies of the Episcopal church last Friday evening at the Pioneer hall, was equal to all anticipations of its excellence. Fully 200 people attended, and every one of them was...

The Endicott Gun Club shot on Sunday. The weather was bad, and the shooting stands had to be continually shoveled. The scores are as follows: Open-Jessica Pelissier 24, Connor Pelissier 24, Larry Garrett 23, Eric Johnson 23, Trevor Johnson 23;...