Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 76
STEPTOE – A three-road, 1/2-mile of paving work is set for Steptoe July 28. The overlay work, to be reinforced with fiberglass fibers, will include stretches of Steptoe Street, McMeekin Road and Scholz Road. The fiberglass-fibers addition has not been used before in Whitman County. A revised technology of the past 10 years, it contributes to less cracking over time....
COLFAX – The drop in state gas taxes coming to Whitman County because of less driving during the virus shutdowns appears to be lower than previously thought. Citing a monthly report from the state CRAB (County Road Administration) board, Mark Storey, Public Works Director, estimates the local shortfall at $800,000, compared to the previous $1.2 million. The estimates, drawn from traffic counts in the Puget Sound area, turned out less than the actual driving that took place. Overall, statewide gas taxes provide about $4.5 million per year to W...
COLFAX – After about three hours of deliberation, a Whitman County jury Thursday found Phillip Hayes guilty of one count of Drive-By Shooting, a class B felony; one count of Reckless Endangerment, a gross misdemeanor, and one count of Reckless Driving, also a gross misdemeanor. Hayes, who lives outside Lamont, was alleged to have drove past a farm shop and recklessly fired a .44 handgun, striking a pickup near the shop. The farmer, Rowdy Brown, stood 15 feet away from the truck when it was h...
PULLMAN – A former employee of The Bookie has been sentenced in District Court for two counts of theft third degree. Melissa Abrams was originally charged in Superior Court with two counts of unlawful issuance of checks or drafts, a Class C felony, for two of the checks which were each over $750. Abrams was accused of writing numerous bad checks to The Bookie. The police report stated the problem was discovered by another employee who had seen the unpaid check report and noticed Abrams’ name on the list multiple times. Abrams was the gen...
Goff, Damon, for criminal trespass first degree. Sentenced to 364 days in jail with 362 suspended. Ordered to pay $1,243 in fines and fees. Abrams, Melissa, two counts theft third degree, Sentenced to 364 days in jail with 360 suspended. Ordered to pay $7,743 in fines and fees including $6,000 restitution to The Bookie. Veleta, Brissa, for theft third degree. Sentenced to 364 days in jail with 354 days suspended. Ordered to pay $3,743 in fines and fees including $2,000 restitution to Walmart. Scalfaro, Victoria, for theft third degree....
TEKOA – The Whitman County Sheriff's Office has credited the assistance of landowners and citizens in bringing a quick resolution to a recent alleged crime. Sunday evening Whitman County Deputies received a report of a stolen side-by-side Utility Type Vehicle (UTV) near Tekoa. Deputies responded to the area of the UTV’s last known location and observed tire tracks headed in the direction of Tekoa Mountain, north of town. With assistance from local landowners and the use of private off road vehicles, deputies began to follow the tracks into adj...
PULLMAN – A Pullman man was arrested after Pullman Police responded July 16 to a report of an assault. According to the arrest report, Pullman Police contacted a man who claimed he had been assaulted with a golf club wielded by Justin Jorgens. Allegedly, Jorgens had told the man to be quiet and then struck him several times with a metal driver when he continued his conversation. When interviewed by police, Jorgens claimed the man hit him first, but he did not want to press charges, states the report. Jorgens was arrested and booked for s...
COLFAX – Renee Robertson, 60, Amboy, Wash., was booked into Whitman County jail July 18 on charges of DUI and possession of methamphetamine. According to the arrest report, Whitman County Sheriff's Sergeant Michael Jordan pulled over Robertson's vehicle after he observed her swerving and driving 20 miles below the speed limit. After conducting field sobriety tests, Sgt. Jordan arrested her for driving under the influence. According to the report, Robertson admitted she had methamphetamine in the vehicle. After being granted a warrant, Sgt. J...
COLFAX – Ashley Justice, 30, Desmet, Idaho, was booked July 15 on a bench warrant issued for failure to appear to a show cause hearing June 5. Justice has been charged with possession of heroin after a Jan. 27 traffic stop resulted in the alleged discovery of heroin. According to the arrest report, Justice told the arresting officer she was going to Spokane to buy more heroin. Justice was booked after being arrested by Kootenai County. She was initially held on bail of $10,000 surety and was released on her own recognizance with preliminary h...
PULLMAN – Jason Arnold, 37, was booked July 14 for robbery, vehicle prowl and driving with a suspended license after Pullman Police responded to a report of a verbal domestic dispute. According to the police report, Arnold's wife had been inside a minivan in a car port when Arnold proceeded to "jump" in her open passenger front window, grabbing things in the vehicle. He then allegedly pulled her purse from her hand, removed a key for another vehicle and threw the purse away. The second vehicle was owned and registered to the wife. Arnold d...
COLFAX – The Fonk’s fire investigation has entered a new phase as items from the building are now being analyzed in a private forensic laboratory in Seattle. These include wiring, an oven, a dishwasher and a meat slicer from the back of the ground floor of the building, where the March 17 fire is suspected to have started. The partially-taken down structure was turned back over to its owners Tuesday. The current investigation is being conducted by representatives of insurance companies which hav...
DUSTY – The Whitman County Gazette has received word from Dusty correspondent Karen Broeckel that combines began rolling last week south of Dusty. They started earlier along the Snake River and in Hay. The pile is growing at the PNW grain pad at Dusty which received its first kernels of the new crop July 14. Harvest at Pampa started July 20 with LaCrosse farmers expected to start cutting this week....
COLFAX – The Port of Whitman County commissioners July 16 approved a donation of $50,000 to LaCrosse Community Pride for its rock house project. The non-profit plans to restore the deteriorating structures built during the Great Depression, to convert them into bunkhouses, along with converting a service station to a heritage museum and an Ice Age Flood Center. Total cost is estimated at $392,000. At the Port's July 2, meeting Alex McGregor and Peggy Bryan from LaCrosse Community Pride joined b...
COLFAX – A petition with 176 signatures from Whitman County residents was submitted to county commissioners by the Whitman County Liberty State Group. The petition requests an advisory vote be placed on the next general election ballot on whether or not to create Liberty State. The proposed Liberty State would consist of 20 Washington State counties located east of the Cascade Mountain Range. According to Kevin Akesson, local group president, the request for a county-wide advisory vote would need to be approved by county commissioners before A...
Out-of-town bottle hunters were spotted behind the Colfax Post Office Saturday, July 18, probing a specific spot along the alley by a residential flower garden. Referring to 1880s fire insurance maps, the two men deciphered that an outhouse for a saloon/brothel was once there. By the late afternoon, they had pulled out nearly 300 bottles, all from the 1880s – mostly the less-prized unembossed bottles, along with five to ten embossed bottles. One of which was a cracked receptacle from "...
Dark skies over rural Eastern Washington offer a perfect opportunity to view the comet Neowise each night low on the horizon. Photographer Bob Juarez captured this image of the aurora borealis and comet last week in Lincoln County near Odessa. The comet, last visible from Earth about 6,800 years ago, is best seen between 3:30-4:30 a.m. below the Big Dipper constellation. Photo by Bob Juarez / https://bob-juarez.pixels.com/...
COLFAX – The Palouse Coyotes 17 & under independent baseball team played a team named Northwest Natural at McDonald Park in Colfax Saturday, July 20, losing 4-2. The Coyotes' Brady Wells hit a double to lead Palouse batters, while Carson Coulter, Ryan Bickelhaupt and Kolby Sisk each had base hits. A second game was played against the Kirkland Merchants on Sunday, the Coyotes winning 3-2 in nine innings. Braden Wells led with three hits and Mitch Lavier and Coulter each had two hits. On July 15,...
Air Force Master Sergeant Mitch Kriebel of Oakesdale, right, and his sister-in-law Sarah McKnight of Colfax “ruck” through Colfax July 17 as part of Kriebel's 117-mile walk through parts of Whitman County last week -- with a weighted “ruck” on his back. Kriebel is a leader of Ruck for the Fallen – an organization that aims to honor fallen first responders, military, firefighters and police. The black-and-white American flags Kriebel and McKnight carry with one red stripe (Kriebel) is meant to...
RENTON -- Fall is usually synonymous with prep football and volleyball in rural Eastern Washington. Not this year. Due to the coronavirus scare, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association is moving those sports and boys soccer to 2021. The scholastic sports group announced the change this evening, July 21. The decision comes as school districts are trying to decide to open campuses this fall. Middle and high school athletes will be still be allowed to compete in cross country,...
The Whitman County Sheriff’s Office is currently looking for an overdue motorist/missing person from the Hay area. Law enforcement is attempting to locate William “Bill” Betcher who is an 81-year-old white male approximately 6’2 and 270 lbs. Betcher may be wearing a large straw sombrero type hat and shorts. Betcher left Hay July 21 at approximately 4 p.m. He said he was going to buy a horse in the Ford, Wash., area which is located between Reardan and Springdale. He was seen driving eastbound on Highway 26 east of Hooper. On July 22 he was see...
COAST was informed yesterday that all its funding from the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Public Transportation Division was being cut, a loss of $266,000. “We are still just catching our breath on this. It means a very dramatic change in our business, and a loss of rides for many, many people,” Paige Collins, Council on Aging & Human Services executive director said after the announcement. COAST is the transportation division of the Council on Aging. Craig VanTine, contr...
Microenterprise grants totaling $65,000 have been awarded by Community Action Center to 13 eligible small businesses that have been affected by the pandemic and Washington Stay Home restrictions. The businesses include one each in St. John and Palouse, five in Colfax and seven in Pullman, including such businesses as a small convenience store, a microbrewery and a consignment clothing store. “It seems appropriate to see these grants go to business owners who are having the most difficult time in our area. For some, this will be the d...
The drop in state gas taxes coming to Whitman County because of less driving during the virus shutdowns appears to be lower than previously thought. Citing a monthly report from the state CRAB (County Road Administration) board, Mark Storey, Public Works Director, estimates the local shortfall at $800,000, compared to the previous $1.2 million. The estimates, drawn from traffic counts in the Puget Sound area, turned out less than the actual driving that took place. Overall, statewide gas taxes...
COLFAX — The National Weather Service says critical fire weather conditions will exist across most of Eastern Washington today. The agency issued a Red Flag Warning that continues through 8 p.m. The Northern Columbia basin can expect breezy conditions and low humidity. "Breezy to windy conditions will continue this afternoon with a second cold front reinforcing the winds," the Red Flag Warning said. "Rapid fire spread will be possible with any new or ongoing fires" in Eastern Washington, the P...
CHENEY – Eastern Washington University’s Board of Trustees have approved using more cash reserves and an allocation of reduction targets in order to close a $22.54 million operating budget shortfall. At a special meeting today (July 24) held via Zoom, the board voted 8-0 in approving expense reduction targets of 13.5 percent for all university areas except Diversity and Inclusion and Academic Affairs. The latter will look for ways to come up with a 22.3 percent reductions in expenses while the former will be exempt from reductions. The mov...
