Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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I’ve read that an average dog possesses a vocabulary of 200-300 words, which is enough for him to have his own Twitter account. Most people won’t buy their dogs a smartphone, though, so you don’t see too many canines tweeting their friends unless they have access to a computer. Probably from the dogs’ point of view there are a lot of words they would just as soon not know, the “N” word being the most obnoxious. Here’s an excerpt from a dog’s wiki-dictionary of known words: Sit (vb): A word that means if you sit down your owner will give you a...
Finding a job is the best substitute for an unemployment check, but as more and more Americans exhaust their jobless benefits, employment opportunities remain sparse. In July, the state unemployment rate was 8.6 percent, down from 9.5 percent a year ago; however, in parts of Washington it is in double-digits. The Portland-Vancouver metro area reports 13.3 percent unemployment, about the same as last year. Economists worry that it may take years for our economy to return to its peak of a couple of years ago. Ironically, the longer we experience...
THEY FORGOT someone in the news stories that listed prominent persons who died in plane crashes in Alaska following the loss of former Sen. Ted Stevens Aug. 9. Remember Joe Murphy? Joe, state Democratic party chair from 1978 to 1981, was aboard a float plane that disappeared Sept. 20, 2004, in Alaska, with five people on board, including Joe, who was from Bremerton, and his twin brother, Jim, from Sequim. No sign of the plane was ever found and having flown over Alaska I am aware of the vast stretches of dense forest and many bodies of water in...
#!*! Simple math: Poor leadership plus poor management equals poor Colfax. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St...
The Open Public Meetings Act has been in the news locally. Roger Whitten of Oakesdale used it as part of his recent recall effort against two county commissioners. He accused them of violating the law. That recall failed at the hearing level, and even though the open meetings act has been around since 1971, the judge misinterpreted elements of its requirements. As important and as established as it is, the act is often misunderstood. More often it still is considered an intrusion on the workings of government by officials subject to it....
8 years ago, August 28, 1885 Porak and Desserts Brewery at Sprague was partially destroyed by a fire which originated in the furnace room. Amount of loss was estimated at $8,000. They have several thousands of gallons of beer on hand and plan to continue business uninterrupted. Jo. Moore has decided to settle down and grow up with the country. He has purchased the Bowman residential property at Canyon and Mill and is making improvement before he sends for his family. 100 years ago, August 26, 1910 James Roberts, 18, is identified as the...
Despite a health scare that kept him out of the previous race on the sprint boat circuit, Jack Bright, the “King of the Slough,” will return to his kingdom at St. John Saturday. Five weeks ago, doctors performed an emergency operation to remove cancerous tumors from Bright’s colon, appendix and bladder. “Luckily they didn’t look in my head,” he said. “I don’t think they would have found anything.” Determined to return to racing by the St. John date, Bright continually bugged his doctors for clearance to return to the race track. “I’ve neve...
Drivers on Highway 27 can get a comparison view of the old and new bridge elevations across Pine Creek on Highway 27 just east of the Fairbanks-Seabury Road intersection. The new bridge will add eight feet of elevation to the span at one of the county's most frequent flood sites. The guardrail of the 73-year-old wooden bridge is in the foreground. Thompson Brothers Excavation, Vancouver, is contractor on the $2.3 million project. Crews are now working on the approach road to the new span which is 64 feet north of the present...
Colfax has booked DeSales for a Sept. 13 jayvee opener at home. The Irish jayvees will travel here on Monday after the two varsity teams clash in a season opener at DeSales Sept. 10, according to Coach Mike Morgan. After the opener, the Bulldog jayvees will play a league schedule with Liberty here Sept. 27, Reardan Oct. 4 and Lind/Ritzville Oct. 18. League road games will be at Davenport Sept. 20, and Springdale Oct. 23. Lakeside, the lone other non-league foe, will host the Colfax jayvees Oct. 11. Jason Cooper is head coach for the jayvees,...
Saturday’s car show at the Courtyard in Colfax will not require an advance entry. Owners are encouraged to bring cars, trucks, tractors etc. The show will be in the lot between the Courtyard and the Codger Pole Park. The show is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. and a free concert by the Snake River Six will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the courtyard....
The History Channel * On Aug. 30, 31 B.C., Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, takes her life following the defeat of her forces against Octavian, the future first emperor of Rome. Although Cleopatra had no Egyptian blood, she alone in her ruling house learned Egyptian. * On Aug. 31, 1888, Mary Ann Nichols, the first victim of London serial killer “Jack the Ripper,” is found murdered in Whitechapel’s Buck’s Row. On Nov. 7, after a month of silence, Jack took his fifth and final victim, Mary Kelly. In 1892, with...
Bicycle riders in Saturday’s Tour de Lentil made a stop at the Bank of Whitman lot here. The 100 K ride was part of the Lentil Festival in Pullman and sponsored by the WSU Cycling club. Riders departed Pullman on the Wawawai road, crossed Highway 195 and continued westbound on Highway 194. The first rest stop was at the Onecho Church. After the Colfax stop, riders started up the Palouse Highway grade for the third leg of the ride to Palouse. Club member Jacob Mooberry manned the Colfax rest stop. The event brought out 108 ri...
Pomeroy, one of the mainstay teams of the Southeast 2B league, will be the new kids on the block for the SE Eights this year. Declining enrollment at Pomeroy moved the Pirates down to the eights under the WIAA classifications which have changed league alignments around the state. Coach Scott McGee, who has headed the Pomeroy football program since 2005, said leaving the SE 2B was a little painful at first when he realized the Pirates won’t be making their traditional football stops this year. One of those matchups included a non-league game w...
Senior quarterback Alex Teade, left, and sophomore lineman Cole Neu take a turn at the water spouts Monday during the pre-season’s last two-a-day Colfax football practice. They are among 37 recruits who have been grinding out the long practices in the hot sun. Colfax football, which wrapped up the 2009 season in the Tacoma Dome 2B championship game last December, cranked up for the new season on the hot turf of the Colfax practice field. Coach Mike Morgan and crew are working with 37 recruits and expect to reel in three or four more when h...
THURSDAY The last U.S. combat troops staged in Kuwait after pulling out of Iraq Wednesday night, more than seven years after an invasion toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. An estimated 50,000 support troops will remain to train Iraqi military and police forces. A bull leapt out of the arena at a bullring in northern Spain and charged into a crowd of terrified spectators, injuring some 30 people. Most suffered cuts and bruises or shock, but one man was gored in the back and a 10-year-old boy was examined at a hospital in the nearby town of P...
Fire consumed the entire front end of a grain truck on Union Flat Creek Road last Thursday morning. The cab, engine and front wheels of the truck, owned by David Gilchrist, were melted and burned away. The fire spread from the truck to a field owned by Roger Miller. A small strip of stubble burned and was extinguished. Crews from rural Fire Districts 11 and 13 responded. The truck was carrying wheat to the Gilchrist farm grain bins on Union Flat. None of the grain in the back tank was burned. The fire also did not get to the fuel tank of the...
St. John is gearing up for a remodel of its water system. The town has received $2.2 million in funding from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development department to install new water mains and drill a new well. Mayor K.B. Trunkey said this will be the first major work done on the town’s waterworks since the 1970s. “Other than that, the only thing that’s been done to it is to fix it if it breaks,” said Trunkey. Major pipe replacement work will begin next summer. Mayor Trunkey said the town has planned for three different...
Lamont is seeking help to fight fires within town limits. With new hydrants all over town and a new water system that puts out 82 pounds per inch of pressure, the only thing keeping Washington’s second-smallest town from top shelf urban firefighting is a lack of hoses. “We have a million dollar-plus system that we’re trying to use and use effectively,” said Mayor Steve Lacey. “We have great hydrants, great pressure – the only thing we need is hoses.” Whitman County Rural Fire District No. 5 provides Lamont with fire protection services. Whi...
Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers tours the newly remodeled Colfax branch of the Whitman County Library. United States Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers got an up close view of federal stimulus dollars in action last Friday when she stopped by the newly remodeled Colfax branch of the Whitman County Library. McMorris Rodgers was very impressed with the new youth area and Hayden’s Corner, which features books and new computers centered around a sprawling rainforest tree. “This is fantastic,” she said, looking around at the new décor...
Mormons from all over the Palouse will travel to Wawawaii Park Saturday for a day of volunteer work. Members of the church from Troy, Potlatch, Pullman, Moscow, Rosalia and Colfax, up to 60 people, are expected to participate. They will tackle four basic maintenance projects at the county park along the Snake River. Spreading gravel around camp site fire pits, replacing sections of split rail fences, staining picnic tables and cleaning in general. Volunteer leader Harold Wilkinson said the group will be in step with a national service day...
This vintage tractor in Tekoa rates as one of the most unusual flower planters for the year for the county. Pat and Sarah Kane have the tractor in front of their place along the Tekoa-Tilma Highway segment. The tractor is a 1926 Fordson Model F which was originally owned by Sarah’s grandfather, Everett Stearns, who farmed in the Blue Mountains near Dayton. The flowers are not planted in the actual stock fuel tank of the Fordson. The tractor lacked its original tank when they brought it up from Dayton, and Kane made use of another non-vintage t...
Palouse is having a river clean up this Saturday, Aug. 28. The clean-up day was prompted after Palouse citizen Carie Saunders complained by letter to the city of Palouse that she had found debris in the river, as well as barbed wire and electric fencing across it. Palouse Conservation District is organizing one clean-up shift, which meets at the city park at 9 a.m. and runs to 2 p.m. Another group will be meeting at F Street at 4 p.m. Participants are asked to bring gloves and sturdy shoes....
Marriage Licenses Meng Wang, 27, Prosser, and Boying Liu, 23, Pullman, Aug. 17. Building Permits Colfax high School, pole sign, 1110 N. Morton, Aug. 17 Ken Hathaway, 1113 N. Morton, reroof residence, Aug. 19 Heide Koenig, 823 Valleyview, reroof residence, Aug. 220 Real Estate Sales Copper Basn Construction, Hayden, Idaho, to Rohana and Sandamali Dassanayake, Pullman, house on SW Selway Lane, Pullman, $184,000, Feb. 12. Copper Basin to Mathiewos Debassai and Edna Tesfay, Pullman, house on Lost Trail Drive, $209,397, Feb. 12. Willard Fairbanks,...
Whitman County Planner Alan Thomson officially determined Tuesday that First Wind’s proposed wind farm in north Whitman County would have a significant environmental impact. Thomson’s ruling under the State Environmental Policy Act kicks off a 21-day period in which the public can comment on the company’s proposal. First Wind has asked the county permission to erect up to 55 wind turbines on approximately 5,000 acres of land on Naff Ridge, west of Oakesdale and south of Rosalia. Thomson’s ruling means the company will have to prepare a detaile...
The job title of Colfax school activities director Mike Morgan was changed to athletics director with a vote by the school board Aug. 23. Over the past school year, a series of issues cropped up prompting the school administration to wonder if Morgan’s job duties as activities director were so big they were stretching his hours thin. In answer to the question of if his duties were too much for one job title, the board opted not to change that description. Mike Morgan has said he can handle the work load. A committee of school administrators r...
