Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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My father is worried my mother might fall down in the yard while he’s watching TV because there’s no way to guarantee it would happen during a commercial. My mother isn’t as concerned, because she has fallen a couple of times before and didn’t like it. Apparently, she believes she has developed an aversion. A dutiful and caring son, I’m worried, too — and my solution is that they should both go live with my sister. My sister says this is fine as long as she can simultaneously move in with me. Otherwise, she doesn’t think it makes sense for my p...
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. FFA will mount flags Colfax FFA members today (Thursday) after school will go to the cemetery and mount 219 veterans’ burial flags for the Memorial Day weekend. The collection of flags has grown by seven over the past year. Family members donate the flags which are used during funeral services for veterans. The flag mounts list the name of t...
Work on wiring the nine light standards at McDonald Park to allow night games is now underway after negotiations on a $79,000-plus lone bid from M & M Harrison Electric. The bid amount at the time was considered over the funds available for the project. The light standards have been erected at the park but the wiring part of the project was not completed under prior funding rounds. Supt. Michael Morgan said the McDonald committee opted to use the less expensive aluminum wiring. Actual bid from Harrison was $79,669 for copper wiring and $62,599...
Frustrated by rising workers’ compensation premiums and a political stalemate in Olympia, the people who provide the jobs in our state want change. Those employers, whether they run hospitals, schools, small businesses, nonprofits like Goodwill, local governments or large corporations pay the lion’s share of the premiums for workers’ compensation insurance. Those premiums cover medical costs and lost wages due to workplace injuries and pensions for those who are permanently injured and cannot return to work. Washington has one of the most expen...
ITEM—Researchers from Washington State are in the second of a four-year project to develop a mechanical harvester that will remove the stems from cherries as they are picked. The stems sometimes dent the fruit as it’s shipped, say the researchers. COMMENT—Then I’d say they’re piling them too deep in the shipping boxes. This appears to threaten an end to one of life’s little pleasures, pulling a maraschino cherry out of its jar of syrup or your drink by its stem and popping it into your mouth. Dipping in with your fingers to get the cherry won...
It is unknown for sure just how Memorial Day started. There are many claims. Some say it was started by freed slaves, a druggist in Waterloo, New York, or a group of Confederate women. In any case, soon after the Civil War, celebrations honoring fallen soldiers were conducted in a variety of places. In 1868, the holiday was officially proclaimed and a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery included decorating grave sites with flowers. It was called Decoration Day. Early official ceremonies were primarily for Union soldiers. Former Confederate...
8 years ago, May 29, 1885 On Saturday last an affair occurred in Palouse City which might have terminated very seriously – not to say fatally. It appears several of the small fry were engaged in the interesting occupation of shooting at a mark, but when the firearm – a .22 caliber revolver – was in possession of Master Clough the ball, by some mismanagement or other, entered the body of Georgie Baldwin, inflicting a severe flesh wound. The little patient, under the supervision of Drs. Williams and Whittaker, was at last accounts progr...
A dead-eye eight iron shot for a hole-in-one helped keep Bulldog Caleb Bravard in the running for the state B golf championship. Bravard stepped to the tee box of the 145-yard par 3 eighth hole at the Tri-City Country Club Tuesday afternoon and plunked the ball into the cup. “What a time to get a hole-in-one, huh?” Colfax Coach Chris Gorton told the Gazette Tuesday over the phone. No word on what the clubhouse penalty was for a state championship ace. Bravard ended Tuesday’s opening round two strokes off the lead. Bravard booked a 70 on the p...
Top three finishers in the SE finals will roll to Cheney Friday to start two days of state finals on EWU’s Woodward Field. Events start Friday with prelims and distance races. The entrants landed tickets to state by booking top three finishes in the two-day SE qualifier at Clarkston. All Whitman entrants in this year’s combo lineup will be in the 2B finals. St. John/Endicott and LaCrosse/ Washtucna competed as one team this year, and Garfield/Palouse has picked up Colton tracksters. SJE senior Warren Miller won the high jump and triple jum...
Colton’s baseball team picked up two more wins in their late season charge to advance to the state 1B title game at Yakima. The Wildcats hammered Lummi 22-3 and nipped Lake Quinault 2-1 to return to the final round at Yakima. Colton will face Almira-Coulee-Hartline in the championship game at Yakima Valley College’s Parker Field Saturday at 7 p.m. The Wildcats, who derailed Touchet last week at McDonald Field in Colfax, head for state with a 12-12 record. ACH advanced to the showdown with a 6-4 win over neighboring Wilbur/Creston in the oth...
Colfax school board members Monday night received a report on a pending eligibility issue involving a player who did not live in the district. In a ruling last week, the league decided Colfax would not be required to forfeit the seven games in which the player participated at the varsity level. Supt. Michael Morgan said the district self-reported the ineligibility after learning the player had not met residency requirements. Under WIAA rules, students cannot play on the varsity level if the same sport is offered in their home district. Supt. Mo...
Anglers can pull fish out of Washington waters for free during the state department of fish and wildlife’s annual Free Fishing Weekend June 12-13. No license will be required to fish and vehicle use permits will not be needed to park in state water access sites. Also, fishers will not need an endorsement to fish with two poles. The free fishing weekend is open to trout and bass fishing in state lakes and rivers, and to spring chinook salmon on Columbia River tributaries. Other rules such as size limits, bag limits and closures will still be i...
Stan and Nancy Goodell have announced plans to close out their Ski Bluewood operation after 26 years. Saying they can no longer afford to keep the resort in operation, the Goodells said it will close unless someone else can take up the operation, according to a report in the May 13 Waitsburg Times by Imbert Matthee. The Goodells met with a group of government, college and business leaders in the southwest Washington area to explore ways of keeping the ski resort open. Ski Bluewood, the ski resort closest to most Whitman County towns, draws a...
A young Tekoa-Oakesdale-Rosalia team, which faced a four-way tie to start the playoffs two weeks ago, rattled the SE ranks Friday at the TRAC softball complex in Pasco when they dethroned DeSales with a five-run charge in the last inning. The result was a 6-4 Nighthawk win which ended the Irish string in the SE. The Nighthawks then clipped Waitsburg/Prescott 4-3 to get the top SE seed into the 16-tourney at Gateway Park in Yakima. The ‘hawks Friday will start the 2B show against Davenport at 11 a.m. First-year Coach Adrienne Madison said the a...
Bulldog sophomore Amy Hickman steps out against Republic in the first game Saturday at Franklin Field in Spokane. Hickman pitched all but two innings in the three-game title run by the Bulldogs. Colfax girls booked a return to the 2B state tourney in Yakima Saturday with a sweep of the NE finals at Franklin Field in North Spokane. The Bulldogs will depart Thursday and open the tourney run at Gateway Park against Waitsburg-Prescott at 9 a.m. Friday. Sixteen 2B teams will be after trophies in the big Gateway show. Colfax will return after being...
Colton senior Kelsey Moser serves up one of her power pitches with Medical Lake in the background. Moser dominated the Cusick batters in the first game of the qualifier. Colton’s softball team will return to Gateway Park in Yakima Friday to defend the state title they bagged last year in a dominating run at the same location. The Wildcats booked the top ticket after another showdown battle with Touchet Saturday at Lakeside Park in Medical Lake. Colton clipped their SE rivals 7-6 in the final round after taking the game into the extra eighth i...
Coach Mike Parrish congratulates the Bulldogs after they took the regional title Saturday at Jackson Field in Spokane. The Bulldogs will make their first trip to the state final four since 2003 when they won the second of two consecutive state titles in the A division. Colfax baseball players Saturday booked two wins at the 2B regional in Spokane to advance to the final four at Yakima Friday and Saturday. Coach Mike Parrish will be leading the crew back to Yakima after Bulldog teams took the 1A titles in 2002 and 2003. The four 2B games will be...
Four Colfax school employees chose to resign this year, a shift that could help the district come up with the more than $220,000 needed in cuts to the school budget. The state’s troubled economy meant slashes to education funding for hundreds of districts around the state. Levy equalization, a major supplement to many rural schools, saw changes along with I-728 funds, money that helped keep class sizes small. No layoffs are planned for either certified or classified staff, according to Superintendent Michael Morgan. “We’re not antic...
Two surveys are now in the works to evaluate the Colfax school board and administration. The first survey was e-mailed May 21 to all 98 school staff members. The second, a longer, 61-question survey, will be distributed to the school staff May 28. At a workshop session before the school board meeting May 24, the board was presented with a selection of surveys which Superintendent Michael Morgan detailed to them. The board later made a motion to approve a nationally researched survey with 61 questions. Staff has nine days to complete it,...
After massive flooding wiped out most of Colfax in 1910, the city rebuilt, following a “Forward March” slogan that promised a greater city than the one washed downriver. Skow when he lived in Colfax. Ely and Marra, from left, stand before their Skow-built home with the Bentleys. One man chiefly responsible for marching Colfax forward was Nis Skow, a Danish immigrant born with a unique talent for carpentry. Skow built many of the houses that cropped up in Colfax in the years following the 1910 flood. Today, Ann Marra and Tim Ely live in a Sko...
THURSDAY Scientists at the Venter Institute in suburban Washington, D.C. created an artificial genome on a computer and used it to bring a hollowed-out bacterium back to life, creating an entirely new species. A blanket of heavy oil has washed ashore in Louisiana’s fragile marshlands, in the first significant heavy oil landfall from the Gulf of Mexico spill. A book checked out by George Washington on Oct. 5, 1789, is returned to the New York Society Library. A register from the city’s oldest library showed Emer de Vattel’s “The Law of Nations...
Anthony J. Bottoni, 24, Buckley, was unhurt May 18 at 10:24 a.m. when he lost control of a 1990 Acura Integra on Highway 26 near LaCrosse. According to the Washington State Patrol report, the westbound Integra crossed the highway, went through an intersection, flew across a ditch and struck a bank near mile marker 104....
Filing for elected offices in Whitman County will for the first time be a paperless experience this year, Auditor Eunice Coker said Monday. Historically, candidates have lined the counter in the county auditor’s office while they fill out their candidacy forms. Now, those candidates can either crowd around a laptop on that same counter or follow up on their intentions to run for public office from the comfort of their home computers. “This is a really cool change that will make the whole candidate process go a lot faster,” said Coker. Infor...
Rio the hawk takes flight as vet students and media watch. High atop Steptoe Butte, Rio, a wounded hawk clung to the inside of his cage before finally soaring off Whitman County’s highest peak and back to the wild Friday afternoon. Rio has been in the care of Washington State University veterinary students for the past two years. The bird, a Swainson’s Hawk, was found near Oakesdale with buckshot in his wing. “We honestly never thought he would fly again,” said WSU Vet Dr. Nickol Finch. “Our biggest concern was that he would have severe arthrit...
Now that the fecal coliform bacteria polluting the Palouse River has been attributed to pigeons and infiltration from storm water drains, the state is coming up with a plan of attack. The state Department of Ecology is putting together a plan which calls on different agencies around the Palouse to do their part in cleaning up the river. Within 10 years, the DOE wants the levels of bacteria in the river to meet state water quality standards; about 100 count of fecal coliform bacteria per three ounces of water. “We definitely want to address i...
