Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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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. Tank cut to rescue victim Fire district volunteers, deputies and a MedStar helicopter crew were involved in the evacuation of man who was caught in an auger at the BNP Lentil Plant just north of Farmington Tuesday morning. Colfax Lt. Scott Kruse said a special saw from the Rosalia Rescue truck was used to cut a hole in the side of the grain... Full story
Colfax Parks Superintendent Steve Larkin hangs James Fitzgerald’s “Native” banner on the light standard outside of Hunter’s Furniture on Main Street Tuesday morning. Larkin used a city bucket truck to hang the Colfax Arts Council’s 2010 banner entries on light posts along Main Street in the early morning hours. Ballot buckets have been placed at various locations around town. Citizens can vote for their favorite banner in the youth and adult entry divisions....
Petition for Habeas Corpus filed on behalf of the teenage daughter, the “aggrieved party,” to compel the father, the “meanest man in the whole world,” to reverse his mandate of Cruel and Unusual Punishment, to wit: that the aggrieved party has to stay home and clean the garage when I promised I’d go with Whitney to the mall! The basis for this petition, which is like an emergency because Whitney is coming to pick me up in half an hour and I need to get ready, is first of all it’s against the Constitution. You can’t just announce on a Saturday... Full story
Too often, elected officials forget to connect the dots and do the math. Put another way, they fail to look at the complete picture and add up all the costs of government to taxpayers. It happened in 1993 when then Gov. Mike Lowry and state lawmakers increased taxes, enacted a pricey new health-care program, raised permit fees, and added more workers’ compensation and unemployment costs. In total, our state’s businesses faced $1.1 billion in new costs, half of which were tax increases. This year, Gov. Chris Gregoire and lawmakers are staring at... Full story
“THIS IS DON Benton,” said the voice on the telephone. I don’t know that I was expecting a call. State Sen. Don Benton of Vancouver was the subject of one of the two columns I sent out last week to the newspapers that buy them and I was far from supportive of his announcement he will run against U.S. Sen. Patty Murray this year. State Democratic chair Dwight Pelz was quoted as saying Benton “may be the strongest candidate in the race so far,” considering the six others are unknowns without political experience. I questioned that, recalling the...
#!*! The red light runners in Colfax. Can’t you see?? The Colfax community is engaged in determining school funding after a failed levy. No pet peeves or okeydokes will be accepted on this subject. Issues of this kind should be addressed in signed letters to the editor. Signed letters to the editor, of course, are always welcome. Please resubmit comments on this subject as a signed letter. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111... Full story
The conversation has started. Monday night residents, parents and school officials met at the high school over the failed school district levy and future efforts to restore necessary funding to the schools. Many asked questions. Some expressed opinions. The audience was a varied mix of ages, interests and associations with the school. Also varied was the degree of support for the last levy effort. Yet, all there were intensely interested in what the next levy request would entail. The meeting was headed by Kirby Dailey in the name of a new...
Colfax and Davenport boys will collide today, Thursday, for the NE District championship and the first of two tickets to the state 2B finals at Spokane next week. Game time at Mt. Spokane High is 5 p.m. Colfax advanced to the title game on a 72-50 win over St. George’s eight days ago in the NE semi-final round. The Gorillas advanced on a one-point upset, 40-39, over Northwest Christian in the other semi. The Crusaders, who came out of Reardan last week with the Bi-County title, were jolted again Saturday night when Lind/ Ritzville upset them 5...
Max Mueller of the Nighthawks clears a board with the help of Lance Lindgren in the elimination game at Colfax Saturday. Inexperience cost the boys of Garfield/Palouse Monday night when the Vikings fell 53-46 to Waitsburg/Prescott in the SE 2B semifinal at Whitman College. Coach Tim Coles said his young squad lost the game by thinking about the game instead of letting instincts take over. “We played defense fine, but offensively our kids just had that deer in the headlights look,” said Coles. Senior Gavin Burt topped GP with 20 points, but no o... Full story
Kayla Johnson of the Bulldog goes between NWC defenders for another two points in the semi-final win at Mt. Spokane Friday. Colfax and Reardan girls will mix it up for the fourth time this year when they collide tonight at Mt. Spokane for the first NE state ticket. The two clubs will collide after taking strong wins Saturday in the NE semi-final round. Colfax defeated Northwest Christian 52-32, and Reardan defeated Lind/Ritzville 61-37 in the all Bi-County semi-finals. Tonight’s NE title match will mark the third time Colfax and Reardan have p... Full story
Kaycie Adair attempts to drive the baseline against Waitsburg/Prescott's Kaitlyn Stringham in the 2B elimination round at Colfax Saturday. Tekoa/Oakesdale girls roared to an early lead over Liberty Christian Monday at in the 2B semi round at Whitman College, but the Patriots came charging back and took a 45-43 win to advance to the championship game and already guarantee a ticket to the state 2B show in Spokane next week. The semi loss left the `hawks at 1-1 in the SE run and up against DeSales in an elimination game Wednesday back at Whitman....
Justin Aldrich of LaCrosse works behind Cache Kirshenm of Ocosta on the way to a 10-4 decision. Jesse Nichols gets position on Stephen Talen of Tacoma Baptist in the first round at state. Justin Aldrich of LaCrosse and Pomeroy teammate Troy Knebel collided for the last time Saturday in Tacoma when they were battling for the third-place medal in the 160 class of the B division of the mat classic. Knebel, who topped Aldrich by two points when they collided in the sub-regional two weeks ago at Ritzville, prevailed again with a 3-0 decision to...
Rosalia's Nathan Richards stretches out to keep possession. Players on the deck in the championship game at Endicott, from the left, are Kaleb Simon, Flash Hodges, and Cole McCanna. The undefeated Spartan hoopsters waded through a sea of orange and black-clad fans Wednesday morning to begin a quest to bring the school back its first golden ball. Rosalia has never won a state title. Last year’s team brought back a fifth-place trophy from the first 1B show at Yakima’s SunDome. That was the school’s first hardware since 1981. Bringing back the s... Full story
Haley Moser of the Wildcats goes past Kaylea Newton Friday in the SE championship game. Alli Winters is at left for the Eagles. Will they meet again? Colton’s Wildcats and the SJE Eagles were booked into the first round of the state 1B girls tournament Wednesday after taking the two SE tickets out of the finals at Endicott last week. The two Whitman foes finished in the first 1B title game last year, and local fans who tracked them this year wonder if they will repeat the match in the title game at the SunDome Saturday. Colton Friday powered p... Full story
Three pawn shops have been ordered to appear in Whitman County Superior Court March 5 to prove why they should not return jewelry items originally sought in a suit filed against a Colfax couple, Anthony and Alicia Napier. The action was expanded to involve the pawn shops after Anthony Napier appeared in court, as ordered, Feb. 12. Napier told the court he no longer had the jewelry and was allowed two hours to inform Howard Neill, Pullman attorney, where the jewelry was located. Napier was allowed until the end of the day to provide Neill with... Full story
A legal hang-up has delayed the auction of an abandoned rock quarry in Palouse, from the planned Feb. 19 date to early March. The county discovered before the Feb. 19 auction their legal description of the land neglected to mention a paved road running through it; North River Road. The county is now waiting for county prosecutor Denis Tracy to rewrite the legal description of the land to include this road. “There will be some acknowledgment that there is a legal city road running through it,” said Kathy Lemon, county revenue officer. The sit...
A year long expansion of the Whitman Medical Group building will wrap up Feb. 28. Contractor Garco will put the finish on 11 new exam rooms, three physician offices, and the altering of their waiting room. The renovations extended the clinic into the former gap between the clinic building and the Whitman Hospital building. The added space is expected to cut down on patient waiting times, said clinic administrator Nathan Hymas. Total construction and architect fees ran to $1.1 million, according to Jim Heilsberg, chief clinical officer for... Full story
Whitman County taxpayers will receive the bill for their first-half property taxes late this year, as county officials work out the kinks in their new software system. Statements typically are sent to taxpayers around Valentine’s Day, but this year they will be delayed until at least mid-March “I hope by mid-March,” said Treasurer Bob Lothspeich. The new software system does not yet recognize all of the county’s individual levy codes. Until it does, the county will not be able to provide taxpayers with complete breakdowns of which distric...
A 2000 Colfax High School graduate made the cover of Eastern Washington University’s winter alumni magazine for his Peace Corps work in Botswana. Joe Lockridge, who graduated from EWU in 2005, is shown on the cover comforting an infant. Lockridge left Colfax for Cheney after high school and majored in social work. According to the story, written by Eastern staffer Kandi Carper, the 28-year-old left for Botswana in 2007 to work on educating the people on HIV, which has taken a high toll in Botswana and other African countries. Lockridge’s mot...
THURSDAY A federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay $1.25 billion to more than 13,000 black farmers for unjustly denying them farm loans because of their race. Disgruntled over problems with the federal tax agency, Joseph Andrew Stack flew his small plane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas. The crash set ablaze the seven-story building and hospitalized two people. Eight Idaho missionaries were flown out of Haiti after a judge ordered them freed after being charged with trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the...
Gazette editor Small books sometimes carry a big impact. Two new books now making the rounds this year provide amazing reports of long-ago events in Hells Canyon. R. Gregory Nokes, a retired reporter and editor for the Portland Oregonian, spent a decade researching “Massacred for Gold, The Chinese in Hells Canyon.” The book gives an account of how Chinese miners, who were mining gold along the Snake River in Hells Canyon, were shot and killed by a group of young men from in Inmaha area of Oregon in May of 1887. The shootings were done at Dee...
Four cars were involved in a chain collision Tuesday morning, Feb. 16, at the Colton city limits. Drivers were not hurt, according to the Washington State Patrol report. Jacob Hally, 20, Clarkston, was driving a 1997 Ford Mustang northbound on Highway 195 at 8:30 a.m. and stopped for traffic which was making a left turn in front of him. Sonja Fentmore, 50, Clarkston, slowed a 2005 Toyota Camry behind Hally, and Patty Lloyd, 51, Clarkston, slowed a 2000 Subaru Legacy behind Lloyd. Robyn M. Anderson, 20, Lewiston, was unable to stop in his 1998...
Colfax students got a sneak preview at the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Tuesday. Renowned guitarist Corey Christiansen instructed the youngsters accompanied by Richard Dozier on bass and Doty Dozier on piano, both of Moscow. Christiansen’s guitar stylings ranged from Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz to down home 12-bar blues. Students danced in their seats and snapped their fingers....
The fruits of a week of activism by four concerned Colfax residents culminated in a 130-plus crowd of Colfax citizens Monday, Feb. 22 (see story, page 1). The group, Future of Colfax Education, spontaneously banded together at a special board meeting Feb. 15 to see what could be done about informing the Colfax public about the status of the Colfax levy proposal which failed to get a 50 percent approval in the Feb. 9 special election. As the meeting wore on Monday night, Colfax resident Kirby Dailey asked questions of the board and eventually...
Crop dusters have begun flying overhead and plumes of dust are beginning to appear on the western horizon as Whitman County farmers begin one of the earliest planting seasons in recent memory. “It’s definitely unusual,” said Steve Van Vleet, Whitman County WSU extension agent. “We’re easily two to three weeks, or a month, ahead of schedule.” Many are trying to get a crop in the ground early to try and catch whatever rain will fall during the upcoming growing season. The El Nino weather system that staved off winter on the Palouse left little...
