Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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It has happened again. A school–this time in Texas–was attacked by a killer. Eight students and two adults are dead as a result. More are in hospitals. The shooter was a student at the school. Indications are that he targeted certain students and intentionally saved others. He gave up after what was variously described as 25-minutes of negotiations and gunfire with police. He is now in custody. It is a familiar story. Also familiar is the response. Public figures declare that something must be done. They offer condolences and prayers. They say...
Lauren Stubbs of SJEL qualified for state action with a third-place finish in the 3200. Oakdale senior Anne Hockett, a four-event winner, breaks to an early lead in the 100 hurdles. Dane Hall launches on the way to a third-place finish in the triple jump. Oakesdale’s Annie Hockett takes a win in the 200 meter with Lauryn Rawls, left of Hockett, taking fourth. Genevieve McGregor hands off to Autum Meyers for SJEL in the girls 4x100 relay. Griffin Parrish of the Eagles took the high jump with a p...
Bryen Warren, a third-grader at Garfield Elementary School, wears his winning t-shirt design for this year's Garfield May Day color run May 19. The theme was “Spring into Color....
Tommie Sue Swannack of Sprague competes in roping at the Northwest Regional College Rodeo Finals. Tommi Sue Swannack, a graduate of Sprague High School, won the goat tying championship to claim a saddle at the Northwest Regional College Rodeo Finals which were recently held in Hermiston, Ore., April 27-28. She also placed third in the breakaway roping to qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo this June at Casper, Wyo. More than 400 cowboys and cowgirls from more than 100 universities and...
Cal Gregory gets a rap for the Bulldogs. Junior outfielder Kelan Becker makes a catch for the Bulldogs Photos courtesy Goldie Akesson....
Tekoa/Rosalia golfers Dawson Strobel and Michaela Tee collected honors at the second round of the district playoffs May 14 in Chewelah. Strobel was named NE Player of the Year on the basis of his scores over the four league meets and the two playoff rounds. He placed second in the district meet. Tee received all-league honors. Both advanced to the 2B state finals at Hangman....
The Colton softball team opens the state tournament at 1 p.m. Friday against Wishkah Valley at Gateway Complex in Yakima. A first round win would advance them to play the winner of Rainier Christian and Almira/Coulee/Hartline. The Wildcats earned the no. 3 seed Monday. With two state-seeding games set for last Saturday, May 19, in Medical Lake, the Colton team never got on the bus. Rained out, the games were rescheduled for Monday afternoon. The Wildcats opened against Selkirk and dominated,...
-G. Akesson photo Junior outfielder Kelan Becker makes a catch for the Bulldogs Colfax baseball season came to an end Saturday in the second regional round at Wenatchee when Tri-City Prep booked a 5-1 win over the Bulldogs to get one of four tickets to the state finals at Wheeler Field. The win by TCP ended a Colfax undefeated run through the NE league and wins the prior week at the district finals in Medical Lake. Colfax took the opener at Wenatchee on a 3-1 win over Kittitas/Thorp. Cal...
With wins in the state quarterfinals and semifinals on the same day, May 19, Colton advanced to the 1B state baseball championship game Saturday in Centralia. Gametime is 4 p.m. at Wheeler Field for Colton vs. Almira/Coulee/Hartline. Last weekend at Winlock, Wash., the Wildcats beat Naselle 9-6 and Evergreen Lutheran 2-1 to make it to the title game. Against Naselle, senior pitcher Cameron Bean first got a save and then threw six innings in the state semifinal against Evergreen Lutheran, for one...
Carmen Gfeller launches on the way to a win in the girls 100 hurdles. Colfax and Tekoa/Rosalia tracksters nailed down tickets to this week’s 2B state meet in the regional rounds Friday and Saturday at Central Valley. The regional shaped up as a round-two version of the NE league’s district meet. Top three finishers in the boys and girls side won tickets to the state at Cheney which will wind up the track season. Both Colfax teams placed third in the team totals. The Bulldog boys finished wit...
Whitman County Public Works picked up its annual Certificate of Good Practices from the Washington State County Road Administration Board (CRAB) two weeks ago. Certification allows the county to continue to receive gas tax revenue. “This is a big deal,” said Mark Storey, Public Works director, who is a member of the board. “If we tried to run on local money, we’d be done in about February.” Storey recuses himself from any board votes regarding Whitman County, as do other county engineers...
Elizabeth and Emma Perry cross the finish line in a 1-2 finish for Oakedale in the 800. Oakesdale girls stacked up an impressive 186.33 team points Friday and Saturday during the 1B regional meet at Central Valley to build up momentum for a return to the state meet at Cheney. Oakesdale will be defending the 1B title which they took last year in a showdown finish with Mt. Vernon Christian. Mt. Vernon Christian girls Thursday at rolled up a team win with 93 points in the Tri-County qualifier meet...
Whitman County commissioners Monday approved a public hearing for June 4 at 11 a.m. on a proposed zone change for seven commercial grain operations on State Route 23 between Steptoe and St. John. The sites, owned by Whitgro and Inland Empire Milling, would go from agricultural zoning to heavy industrial. The change would make it so the two companies would not be required to get a conditional use permit each time they alter their property....
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...
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife seeks public comment on its recommendations for the management of “riparian ecosystems” along the banks of rivers and streams throughout the state. Terra Rentz, the department’s ecosystem services manager, said WDFW will accept written comments through mid-July on the recommendations contained in Riparian Ecosystems, Volume 2: Management Recommendations, available online at https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01988. WDFW also recently completed the first volume of the set, which summarizes current scien...
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...
Colfax Chamber of Commerce is starting an Adopt a Block program to try and spruce up the downtown area. Businesses, church groups or individuals can adopt a section or corner of the street. The Chamber adopted the corner in front of PNW warehouse by FIT. They added a bench and flowers and will make sure it is clean and the flowers watered. Residents can contact the Chamber about what corner or section of street they would like to adopt. They are making sponsor signs that will list the business...
Thirteen members of the Lewis-Clark Antique Power Club drove vintage tractors some 34 miles along county roads in south Whitman County Saturday. Participants of the third annual tractor drive began and ended their four-hour ride in Johnson, waving to families as they passed by at a leisurely 10 miles per hour. At 70 years or older, many of the vintage tractors have been around longer than those driving them. “A lot of us grew up with these tractors,” said former LCAPC president Everett Martin, w...
Whitman County commissioners approved the closure of four miles of Sand Road from Brown Road east of Pullman to the Idaho State line for a two-day period in June for paving. The closure will be sometime between June 12-20, at the discretion of the county road department. The current Sand Road Project refers to putting a paved surface on four miles of road which crews worked on last year to lessen angles on a stretch of S-curves and put in guardrail. For this year, the county road department first intended to put hot-mix asphalt on the gravel...
Kimberly DeHart, a longtime member of the Colfax Downtown Association, was one of 12 volunteers in Washington state to receive the Excellence on Main Street award at the Main Street USA conference at Port Townsend. DeHart submitted the application and Colfax was eventually selected for the program. She is a past board president of the association and remains a volunteer leader. For more information about the associations, B & O Tax Incentive that keeps tax dollars in Colfax or the storefront program, contact Val Gregory at 5...
On Sunday, the Garfield Methodist Church will hold a service for the last time. Founded in 1881 with a circuit preacher visiting private homes, the Garfield church got its first pastor six years later. The congregation bought land and the current church on Second Street was built in 1906. Peggy Ray, its 63rd pastor, will lead the final service at 10:30 a.m. May 27. Afterwards, the church will close with religious items removed and a de-consecration performed. The Town of Garfield has agreed to b...
Lock boxes for gun storage will soon be installed at the Whitman County courthouse to comply with a state requirement. Facilities Management Director Bill Tensfeld expects to have the boxes installed within a month. The boxes will have two lockers, each just big enough for a pistol. Weapon-owners will be able to lock their weapons in the boxes and keep the key with them while transacting courthouse business and then retrieve their weapons as they exit. Although the courthouse is a designated gun-free zone, the state requires either locked...
Paved roads in Whitman County have improved significantly in the past 10 years, according to a report compiled by the Washington State County Road Administration Board. From a 58 percent rating in 2009 to 82 percent for 2017 for all roads combined, the rating is based on conditions such as cracks, oil, surface, rises and other factors. In 2009, Public Works Director Mark Storey began to push more money to overlays, pavement patches and spot seal-work instead of new road construction. The change...
The Junior Livestock Show of Spokane during the first week of May saw almost 500 animals sold by youth from across four states. “Whitman County kids did well, especially when you look at how many animals were sold there and the fact that we had exhibitors from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana there,” said Lisa Baser, LaCrosse FFA advisor who also serves as junior show second vice president of the board of directors. In the beef barn Ainslee Imler of Colfax won Reserve Grand Champion Junior 4H Showman and Perry Imler of Colfax won Gra...
