Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 26 - 47 of 47
The Kremlin knows a bargain when it sees it. We are supposed to believe that it bought the American presidential election last year with $100,000 in Facebook ads and some other digital activity. Frankly, if American democracy can be purchased this cheap -- a tiny fraction of the $7.2 million William Seward paid to buy Alaska from the Russians back in 1867 -- it's probably not worth having. The latest obsession in the Russian collusion story, the Kremlin's digital activity has generated headlines and put Facebook and all of Silicon Valley on...
Few in media have disparaged President Donald Trump more harshly than I have. But I and the rest of his critics need to be careful. If we want credibility, particularly with Trump always attacking us for "fake news," we must be painstaking as we do our jobs, particularly when a story seems too grotesque to be true. A case in point is the controversy over the call he made to Myeshia Johnson, the grieving widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four special operations troops killed by ISIS forces while on patrol in Niger. Prodded by...
Special prosecutor Robert Mueller is mandated to investigate the alleged ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia. The investigation has been underway for sometime, but it was completely secret until Monday. That is when Mueller brought indictments against Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager, and Rick Gates, Trump advisor and Manafort associate. Both men have been charged with multiple crimes. They have been placed on house arrest in lieu of multi-million dollar bail. Prior to Monday, speculation about Mueller’s first move w... Full story
Daylight Savings will come to an end for the year Nov. 5. Citizens are reminded to set their clocks back one hour after midnight to return to local standard time....
In the struggle to draw student attention away from cell phones, Colfax Schools has found a strategy that has invoked little to no resistance from the students. “They don’t really balk at me,” said high school English teacher Cathy Landers. At the beginning of the school year, Colfax High School implemented a new policy. When students walk into the classroom, they place their cell phone in a numbered pocket, and there it stays until the end of class. Each room has its own hanging cell phone... Full story
Pomeroy and Oakesdale, top two finishers in the SE volleyball race, hosted the first round of the playoffs to determine entries to state. Pomeroy finished on top of the league at 8-0, and Oakesdale finished second at 7-1 after a showdown loss to the Pirates. Action Wednesday started with Colton and Garfield , third and sixth in the league playing at Oakesdale, and St. John/Endicott and LWK, fourth and fifth playing at Pomeory. Winners of the first two matches advanced to play the hosts at each site. The tournament will continue Saturday at... Full story
Colfax senior Madi Cox of Colfax hit 14 of 16 serves in the first playoff round. Colfax volleyball players will face Lind/Ritzville/Sprague today in a semi-final match when the NE contenders move the final playoff action to St. George’s. The semi-final matchups emerged from the first round of actions last Thursday at Davenport and Reardan. Top-seeded Colfax extended their win string by rolling with a sweep over the Springdale Chargers, and LRS advanced with a win over Wilbur/ Creston in the f...
Marcello Mendez, top ground gainer for Kettle Falls, struggles for more yards while Dakota Hall puts on the stop for Colfax. Will the Colfax football season end where it ended for the last two years, on the Asotin football field with a loss to the Panthers who pick up a ticket to the state’s 16-team round of the state playoffs? The Bulldogs and the Panthers will collide on the Asotin turf for the third straight year Friday in the NE League crossover round. The crossover matches the top six f... Full story
The yellow grid of an 18-wheeler on the dark highway, the red and white markers of a car, the white backs of the cleats of Evan Weagraff. The Gar-Pal quarterback repeatedly broke loose into open field Oct. 27 at Colton, running as if parallel with vehicles on Highway 195 passing the school. In an 82-40 win, Weagraff ran for 343 yards on 26 carries with six touchdowns. Daniel Orfe added another 152 yards on 16 rushes. For Colton, Parker Druffel had 14 carries for 169 yards and Reece Chadwick...
Rose Melville of Lamont, running for the LRS Broncos, places second overall with a 19:39. Left: Gavin Merritt of Tekoa/Rosalia stretches for the finish line in an attempt to close the gap with Garret Willey of Mary Walker. Above: A total of 51 girls start the regional run Saturday at the Colfax Golf course. A total of 138 runners converged on the Colfax Golf Course in ideal conditions Saturday to compete for entry in the state run next Saturday at Pasco. The meet offered 28 state tickets each... Full story
Northwest Public Radio/Television hosts Greg Mills and Sueann Ramella, left, listen across from retired Marine colonel Bob Wakefield, middle, and former Army green beret George Stockton at the Center in Colfax Veterans in attendance stand near the conclusion of the event, telling where and when they served. A large crowd gathered in the Center in Colfax Thursday night, Oct. 26, for “Vietnam: Sharing & Preserving the Stories of Local Veterans.” Put on by Northwest Public Radio and NWPTV, in con...
The annual Garfield Veterans Day assembly will be Thursday, Nov. 9, at 9:30 a.m. at the Garfield/Palouse Middle School gym. The program will include songs by Garfield/Palouse/Oakesdale elementary singers, introduction of veterans and speakers, including keynote speaker James Woomack, AMSC (Aircraft Structural Mechanics’ Corps) and a special presentation by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral John Love, retired, to U.S. Navy Captain Joan Bagott Glass, retired. Dave Irving, VFW Post 10300 commander, will present the Patriot’s Pen Award and Hannah May of the...
The 50-person Whitman County road department will switch back to a regular five-day work week after running on a four-day, 10-hour per day schedule beginning in March when clocks were set forward an hour for daylight savings. The department’s schedule switches twice per year at daylight savings time. “We believe we might be sending sanders out this weekend,” said Public Works Director Mark Storey, reporting to county commissioners Monday.... Full story
A trail of research, construction, writing and recording leads to a performance Saturday at the Dahmen Barn by Paul Smith of Palouse, whose album, “American Akonting” came out last year, the culmination of a study of the West African instrument understood to be the precursor to the banjo. Smith, a Palouse resident since 1991 and former instructor of world music and world history at WSU, first considered the akonting in 1992 as a graduate student at the University of San Diego. With the fir...
Steptoe grade school Veteran’s Day program will be Thursday, Nov. 9, at 10:30 a.m. in the gym, featuring songs, student speeches and acknowledging veterans. The annual event is organized by Steptoe students, grades K-8, advised by Mrs. Sheer. Also, a collection of approximately 100 uniforms from World War I will be on display, along with helmets and other items....
Future fishing at Rock Lake has been perpetuated with 27,000 new rainbow trout stocked in the 2,147 acre lake Oct. 11. “Hopefully, they’ll continue to grow through the fall,” said Steve Thiesfeld, inland fish program manager with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The trout, estimated to weigh one-third of a pound, came from the Lyons Ferry Hatchery. The Rock Lake trout make up almost 25 percent of the total number of fish WDFW expects to plant this fall. Thiesfeld noted the amoun... Full story
The St. John/Endicott school districts are working to better their procedures for lockdowns with help from Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Pelissier who lives in Endicott. “They told me what their policies were, and I made suggestions how to make that work better,” said Pelissier. After being approached by the schools, Pelissier met with staff of the SJE schools and discussed lockdown procedures and what could happen. He made some suggestions on how to make some things a little safer. “In some areas i...
The town of Rosalia is working on an ordinance to keep unsuitable items from being flushed down local drains. The no FOG (fats, oils, grease) ordinance is timely given the new lines the town has installed, but the council has been researching it for a while, checking with other towns and how their ordinances are worded. “We don’t have to entirely re-invent the wheel, thankfully,” said Nan Konishi, Rosalia mayor. This past spring, the town pulled out a “grease log” from the pipes of a resident... Full story
It is down to McCown and Pfaff for mayor in Garfield, the incumbent and the former. “I have no idea what’s going to happen,” said Ray McCown, mayor since 2014. “It’s up to the citizens.” He seeks re-election to his second term of his current office, a third chapter after McCown served as Garfield mayor from 1972-1987, followed by another term in the early 2000s. Jarrod Pfaff held office from 2006 to 2013. In the Aug. 1 primary, Pfaff received 89 votes, McCown 74 and Terri Linderman was elimina...
It was hard to miss the barrage of pink down the streets and on store fronts during October for Colfax’s Paint the Town Pink event. The decorations were only part of the move to raise awareness of breast cancer; more meaningful was the kickoff and initial building of a fund to help with mammogram screening and testing for breast cancer. “It’s designed to help our local community members who may need help,” said Laurie Gronning, public relations specialist at Whitman Hospital and Medical Center....
Batman (Alex Griswold) drops a line to the Invisible Man (Doug Stach) in the hope of a sweet return at the Endicott PTO Halloween Carnival Saturday. For more costumes and candy coverage, see page 10A....
Mark Lewis, Columbia Pulp chief technology officer, at the August ground-breaking for the new facility. Whitman County farmers may have a new way to deal with straw. Columbia Pulp broke ground on its 40-acre mill at Lyons Ferry in August. The mill will create pulp from straw which can be used to produce a variety of products like tissues, paper plates and take-out containers. The construction project is forecast to cost $184 million. “Their construction has been pretty unreal,” said Whitman Cou...
