April 20, 2024
April 20, 2024
RITZVILLE — Sen. Mark Schoesler is following a gun case in Western Washington closely. On Monday, April 8, Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor ruled that the 2022 state law banning high-capacity magazines is unconstitutional. “As you might guess, Attorney General Bob Ferguson did not take this news well,” Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said in an email. The case involves Gator Custom Guns in Kelso, which was sued by the state in an effort to stop the business from selling magazines capable of holding more than 10...
With a little patience and a high-density filter, Eastern Washington residents were able to catch a glimpse of the Monday, April 8, solar eclipse. In our region, at about 11:35 a.m., the moon covered from 26.1-28.5% of the sun. The partial eclipse began here at 10:39 a.m. and ended at 12:31...
WENATCHEE — A Chelan County gubernatorial hopeful and former King County Sheriff has the most support in a poll on who should replace Gov. Jay Inslee. In an Echelon Insights poll on behalf of Concerned Taxpayers of Washington, former Rep. Dave Reichert, a Republican, leads Robert “Bob” Ferguson, the Democrat state attorney general by 9 points. The candidates are the Top 2 in the race to replace Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island. They will be on the Aug. 6 primary election ballot; both are expected to advance to the...
Humans have been looking to the sky to make sense of the world around us for thousands of years. Ancient cave paintings seem to show humans began using the position of the stars to keep track of time as early as 40,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence also indicates astronomy was one of the first natural sciences developed by many ancient civilizations. Based on the earliest recorded history, humans have long tried to assign scientific, philosophical, and spiritual meaning...
CONNELL — The city has received a state Transportation Improvement Board grant to upgrade signage for school zones. The grant will allow the city to replace temporary signs with flashing signs, officials said. The flashing signs are programable and include radar to tell drivers how fast they are going in the school zone. As the signs are upgraded, the city will also repaint the crosswalks in front of the school zone. City officials hope to have the updates in place late this summer, just prior to the start of the 2024-25...
PASCO- A second man has been arrested in connection with an odometer fraud case out of Othello. Terry Ryan Cissne, 49, of Pasco, was arrested Thursday, April 4, and booked into the Franklin County Jail on charges of second-degree theft and driving under the influence. Additional charges are expected to be filed in connection with the odometer fraud case out of Adams County. Cissne is the second to be arrested in the case being investigated by the Adams County Sheriff's...
If it feels like GPS has been around forever, that's because it has. Well, at least the human brain-powered version. People have been making their way around the world—with and without maps—for ages. It is a true survival instinct. It has been just a few decades since humans outsourced their wayfinding to global navigation satellite systems. The United States only completed its global positioning system in 1993. Perhaps because superpowers don't want to rely on something...
PASCO — A teenage boy was booked into the Benton Franklin Juvenile Justice Center after being caught driving a stolen vehicle here March 28. The boy, whose name has yet to be released, was speeding on Pasco-Kahlotus Road when Franklin County Sheriff’s Office deputies spotted him, records show. A deputy ran the vehicle license and learned it had been reported stolen from Kennewick, records show. As the teenager raced toward Pasco pursued by a deputy, city police were called in to assist. Pasco police stopped the vehicle...
The 2024 presidential election is underway, and voters are getting ready to choose between two familiar candidates. President Joe Biden is once again set to face former president Donald J. Trump, and both teams are fighting for every available vote—and every campaign dollar. So far this year, Trump has raised $403,415 from individual donors. The amount is a far cry from the more than $75 million he received before the 2016 general election; however, that's mostly due to...
OLYMPIA - A bill sponsored by Sen. Nikki Torres to help improve public defenders and prosecuting attorneys has been signed into law. Senate Bill 5780 was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee on March 26. "Our state has a public-safety crisis, and reducing the lawlessness in our communities must be one of the Legislature's top priorities," Torres, R-Pasco, said after the signing. "My measure to increase training for public defenders and prosecutors will go a long way toward...
RITZVILLE — For the past decade, the courthouse has been the site of all Adams County Superior Court cases, including adult and juvenile dockets. Newly appointed Superior Court Judge Peter Palubicki is changing that. “We will be holding once-a-month dockets in Othello,” he said. “Juvenile cases will be heard at 10 a.m.; truancy cases, at 11 a.m.; civil cases, at 1 p.m.” Dockets will be scheduled for the first Thursday of every month in the Othello courtroom of Adams County District Court Judge Carolyn Benzel. Why...
PASCO – The state lowland lake fishing season is set to open Saturday, April 27. And if fishing isn’t enough, the state has tagged more than 800 trout and released them into lakes around the state. Fishermen landing a tagged trout will be eligible for prizes in the state’s derby. While none of the lakes in Adams or Grant counties were stocked this year, a couple nearby Franklin County lakes have received fish from the Lyons Ferry Hatchery. Dalton Lake and Marmes Pond both have been stocked multiple times from Feb. 26...
There have been a lot of changes in NCAA basketball. UConn won its second championship in a row — in case you forgot. Coaches moved to different challenges, replacing coaches who were fired or took a successful season and received a bigger paycheck somewhere else. I guess we could call it the coaching transfer portal. Eastern Washington University head Coach David Riley moved onto WSU. I like Riley, but I wish he hadn’t said this was his dream job because a lot of dream...
By the time you read this you will know who the men’s NCAA basketball champion is. All I can say is that the two best teams are playing for the crown. I’ll watch as I always do because it’s the right thing to do. It was a great season and an interesting one. Whereas the women’s champion was undefeated the men’s’ teams stubbed their toes a few times, Purdue 4 times and UConn 3. It has been a long time since the men had an undefeated champion mainly due to talented...
I’ve always maintained that timing is everything. I wrote last week’s column and sent it off a few hours before WSU basketball coach Kyle Smith announced that he would be the next Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball coach. When I found out I thought that it wasn’t a step up as Stanford has had trouble winning and now they are going to the ACC to play the likes of North Carolina, Duke and this year’s tournament upstart North Carolina State. A few hours later when I...
SPOKANE — The Burbank Wrestling Club brought home four bronze medals March 30 from the annual Jason Crawford Memorial Tournament in Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. More than 2,100 wrestlers competed in the event billed as "state" for youth grapplers in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Burbank's four bronze medalists include three boys — Leon Avalos, Ashton Miller and Cody Sloan — and one girl — Amy Sloan. In addition to the Top 3 finishers, Ryker Ricard finished fourth. Here are the individual results for...
SPOKANE - The Connell Little Guy wrestling club brought home several gold medals from the Jason Crawford Memorial Tournament on Saturday, April 30, in Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. More than 2,100 wrestlers competed in the tournament that features youngsters from ages 5-14 from across Eastern Washington and North Idaho. In the 5/6 age division, Liam Rodriguez won gold at 46-47 pounds and in the 9/10 division, Romeo Cortez was first at 80-82 pounds. In the 11/12 division,...
TOWN OF HATTON, WA 2024 OTTA SEAL PROJECT INVITATION TO BID The Town of Hatton, Washington (Owner) is requesting bids for the 2024 Otta Seal Project. Bids will be received via electronic submission only, through the Horrocks Planroom at www.horrocksplanroom. com, until 2:00 p.m. local time on Thursday, April 18, 2024. That same day, all received bids will be opened virtually and read aloud at 2:15 p.m. via Microsoft Teams. Bid opening information will be sent out to all Contractors on the plan holders list by Wednesday,...
It can be hard to visualize the amount of water it takes to produce a single pound of almonds or the meat used to make a cheeseburger. Every food product goes through a long life cycle before ending up on grocery store shelves. Livestock products start at the farms that grow alfalfa, hay, and other types of feed. Tree fruits and nuts begin with the young saplings that take years to mature and produce fruit. Meanwhile, products such as radishes mature from seed as quickly as...
TOWN OF HATTON, WA 2024 OTTA SEAL PROJECT INVITATION TO BID The Town of Hatton, Washington (Owner) is requesting bids for the 2024 Otta Seal Project. Bids will be received via electronic submission only, through the Horrocks Planroom at www.horrocksplanroom. com, until 2:00 p.m. local time on Thursday, April 18, 2024. That same day, all received bids will be opened virtually and read aloud at 2:15 p.m. via Microsoft Teams. Bid opening information will be sent out to all Contractors on the plan holders list by Wednesday,...
As luxury-brand vehicles continue to swell the market, the average price for a new car in the U.S. has modestly declined, signaling an increased desire for consumer affordability after average vehicle prices hit record highs in 2022. Only 9 out of 275 new car models had an average transaction price below $25,000 in February 2024, according to Kelley Blue Book. This is a sharp contrast to three years ago when 29 different vehicles routinely held average transaction prices...
You may have seen them precariously parked alongside highway ramps or clustered in big-box store parking lots. There are millions of big-rig trucks on United States roadways daily, and often, there is nowhere to park them overnight or during mandated driver breaks. In a Federal Highway Administration survey of more than 11,000 drivers, almost every (98%) driver responded that they have problems finding safe parking, with nearly 3 in 4 drivers reporting it is a regular problem...
In a backwards approach to helping tenants, the Federal Government is capping rent increases on subsidized housing at 10% in a bid to reduce the cost of rental properties. The result, should the measures be adopted, will be exactly the opposite and rents will go up. When you place caps on rent, instead of letting the market drive the pricing, the supply of rental property declines and the result is higher demand and higher prices for rent. There is a short-term impact to...
Carmela Conroy gives Eastern Washington voters the unusual, important opportunity to elect a foreign policy expert as their U.S. Representative. As a foreign service officer for 24 years, she served in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Norway, New Zealand and Tom Foley’s Japan office. Voters must weigh foreign policy experience much more than usual in their 2024 voting decisions. Foreign policy expertise is also prerequisite for ending the tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict that Trump has accepted uncaringly. Like retiring Rep....
A state public-relations campaign is underway suggesting that because the state Legislature passed a bill allowing people to use a WA Cares Fund benefit to receive long-term care outside of the state, it’s a sure thing you’ll benefit. That’s not a sure thing. I received an email from the state about the legislation Friday. It read, “Planning to leave Washington in the future? Now you can take your WA Cares benefit with you, thanks to a new law passed last month and...
While wind and solar farms generate “greenhouse gas free” electricity, there are ongoing concerns over their impacts on our environment especially as a rapidly growing number of worn-out blades and panels are landing in landfills. Those blades, housed on giant wind towers reaching over 250-feet in the sky, are starting to reach the end of their useful lives (15 to 20 years) and are being taken down, cut up and hauled to burial sites. Even though over 90 percent of the...
Let’s have a look at the benefits of dams to human life with a special focus on Grand Coulee Dam. It is the largest hydroelectric producing facility in the U.S. and provides enough electricity to power about 2 million households every year, 68% of all Washington state households. Please keep in mind too, that it is just one of 145 hydroelectric dams in the state. Grand Coulee dam prompted the creation of the “U.S. Bureau of Reclamations Columbia Basin Project” which converted 670,000 acres (over 1,000 square-miles) of...
Each year, for a session lasting either 105 days (in odd-numbered years) or 60 days (in even-numbered years), legislators gather in Olympia to introduce, debate and vote on bills. While many people focus their attention on what the Legislature does each year, there is one final and crucial step in the legislative process that happens – the governor decides whether to veto part or all of a bill, or let it become law. Since this year’s legislative session ended March 7,...
Farm numbers across the U.S. are dwindling and the mountain states are no exception. Our country lost 7% of farms from 2017-2022, and all of the mountain states were above the national average. As a farmer in the region, I understand the stress of this profession, and if our country continues on its current trajectory our region's agricultural future looks bleak – more consolidation and less food security. From 2017-2022, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming all experienced a decrease in the total number of farms....
“Polluters pay. People get a carbon cashback” sums up the impact that the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act would have. The EICDA was re-introduced in the House of Representatives last September and is currently languishing in committees. Briefly, the EICDA puts a price on carbon at the source of the fossil fuels – the well, mine, or imported tanker – therefore making it simple to administer and uniform across sources of greenhouse gases. It would take the revenue from the price on carbon and distribute it...
LIND — The following residents will are celebrating birthdays from April 17-24: Birthdays April 18 — Vernon Shepard April 19 — Dick Davis April 20 — Shannon Davis April 21 — Hadyn Suchland Reynolds and Hailey Morgan Ecker April 22 — Melissa Knodel and Theresa Longmeier April 23 — Cassandra Branson, Dale Stevenson, Bradley Wills, Yumi Branson, Lance Williamson, Abigail Reid, Sean Crow and Oliver Greenwalt. April 24 — Tammy...
LIND — The annual Lind Alumni Association banquet will take place Saturday, May 4, in the Lind-Ritzville Middle School gymnasium, formerly Lind High School. This year, the organization is planning a 1 p.m. luncheon, rather than an evening dinner, organizers said. Beginning at 12:30 p.m., photos of honored classes will be taken in the gymnasium of the school, 507 N. E St. This year’s honored classes are: • 60 years – Class of 1964 • 50 years – Class of 1974 • 40 years – Class of 1984 • 30 years – Class of...
People have always been stymied about the origins of April Fools' Day, dating all the way back to the late Middle Ages (as far as academics could confidently say). In 1760, the parody periodical Poor Robin's Almanac astutely asked a question on everyone's mind, including the line: "The First of April some do say/ Is set apart for all Fool's Day/ But why the people call it so/ Nor I nor they themselves do know." From its origins—whether in Ancient Rome, medieval England, or...
William "Billy" George Harder, Jr. William "Billy/Bill Jr." George Harder Jr., 62, died April 1, 2024, in Kahlotus, Wash. Billy was the first child born to Bill Harder Sr. and Vivian (Hamilton) Harder, on Dec. 16, 1961. He was joined by his brothers Kurt and Eric in 1964 and 1969. The boys were raised on their family's Kahlotus wheat and cattle ranch, partaking in chores and taking on responsibilities from an early age. Billy proved his toughness in his youth getting bucked...
