Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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OLYMPIA — A bill that would have limited the number of rounds of ammunition a firearm magazine can hold is “dead” for this legislative session. Substitute House Bill 2240 was on the docket for a second reading in the House, but was did not receive a second vote prior to 5 p.m. today, Feb. 19. “The attempt to ban magazines in Washington state is dead,” Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, said from Olympia in a live broadcast on his personal social media feed shortly after 5 p.m. “We just got word we are done today and the mag...
The Lind-Ritzville Sprague boys and girls basketball teams both picked up wins in their first matchups of the district tournament on Thursday. The LRS girls won 46-42 over Kettle Falls in a back-and-forth game. They will play Colfax in the semi finals on Tuesday. The boys beat Jenkins (Chewelah) 49-43. They will play St. George's on Tuesday. More information on both games, as well as Tuesday's games, will be in next week's issue of The Journal....
By Jeremy Burnham The Journal RITZVILLE - Every seat was filled and some residents stood as more than 30 people squeezed into City Hall for a public meeting on turning the city into a train quiet zone last Thursday. The meeting was called for by Mayor Gary Cook, who said the purpose was to give everyone a chance to be heard. "It gave me the opportunity to let people have their say," Cook told The Journal after the meeting. Cook said he hoped the meeting would allow people to...
OLYMPIA — Four Western Washington senators apparently don’t want to hear what voters think of tax and fee increases approved by the Legislature. They are co-sponsoring a bill to do away with public advisory votes, also known as straw ballots. Under Senate Bill 6610 — co-sponsored by Sens. Patricia Kuderer of Bellevue, Sam Hunt of Olympia, Jamie Pederson of Seattle and Claire Wilson of Federal Way, all Democrats — advisory votes would be eliminated. The bill would create a task force to study how best to gather public opinion...
RITZVILLE - Lind-Ritzville High School students in Andy Williams' floral design class are creating roses made out of Hershey Kiss candies for an FFA fundraiser. Annika Holland, Iris Arrez, Madison Vlaske, Grace Fedie and Rosa Alfaro are the five students creating the gifts that blend flowers with candy. "We try to do arrangements for the different holidays across the seasons," Williams said. "We did Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Valentine's just kind of made sense....
RITZVILLE - Matt Carlson grew up here. But if you told him he'd be back working as a police officer, even he may be surprised, not about being a police officer though. He knew he was going to be in law enforcement since he was a teenager, but he never imagined it would be in his hometown. In fact, Carlson knows the moment he made the decision. "I was 16 and I went on a ride along with the Washington State Patrol here in Ritzville," Carlson said. "It made me want to be a...
SPANGLE - The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos wrestling team finished a distant fourth-place in the 1B/2B League-South wrestling tournament Thursday night, Feb. 6, at Liberty High School. Two gold medalists - Brandon Davis at 106 and Johnny Ryan at 113 - lead the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague team (153 points) that finished behind champion Liberty (Spangle) with 297 team points, runner-up Davenport with 246 and third-place Reardan with 168. The Broncos finished well ahead of...
LIND — Here are the Lind Gun Club scores for Feb. 9: 25: Carson Schlimmer and Garrett Schlimmer. 23: Pete Franz, Alan Schlimmer and Terry Utecht. 22: Anna Franz, Ayden Franz, Mike Gering and LeRoy Watson. 21: Brody Folk and Randy Franz. 20 & younger: Craig Cooper, Roger Hochstetler, Curt Franz, RIchard Kulm, Levi Cooper, Harold Folk, Debbie Kulm, Thomas Rosen and Taylor Utecht. High Overall: Carson Schlimmer and Garrett Schlimmer. High Handicap: Carson Schlimmer and Garrett Schlimmer. Miss & Out: Ayden Franz. Annie Oakley: G...
RITZVILLE — Both Lind-Ritzville/Sprague basketball squads will be the No. 2 seed of Northeast 2B-South division at the district tournament this week at West Valley High School in Spokane. More importantly, both teams earned a first-round bye. The boys and girls Broncos will open play on Thursday. . The boys will take on Jenkins High School (Chewelah) at 8 p.m. in the main gym. Jenkins, the north division’s No. 3 seed, opened play on Monday by beating Asotin 61-37. The Broncos have not faced Jenkins this season. Should the Bro...
RITZVILLE — Here are the Ritzville Gun Club scores for Feb. 9: 24: Wes Frederick 23: Scott Yaeger, Ryan Frederick, Ben Geschke, Gage Bauer 22: Jason Heider, Dave Breazeale, James Wahl, Travis Simonson, Travis Dewald, William Green, Jake Dewald, Garrett Frederick 21: Doug Wahl, Brian Kramer, Chris Steinmetz, Justin Simonson 20 and younger: Mike Stromberger, Adam Krause, Markham Nichols, Dennis Faechner, Tim Wellsandt, Scott Steinmetz, Mike Gust, Tyler Frederick, Randy Moore, Mike Geschke, Colby Schell, Grant Weber, Jeff K...
So what if... Well, up until a week ago last Sunday I watched all of the last 53 Super Bowls. This was a run that I was most proud of but more importantly it basically it says, "Hmm...you are getting old aren't you?" I had plans to watch Super Bowl LIV. That was until I had heard that Dish network and KAYU 28 were at an impasse. Depending on who you were listening to it was the other guys fault. Now I know that my bill was paid up because through an email we were told that...
KAHLOTUS — The recent Washington Interscholastic Activities Association sports classification list for schools for the next four years raised some questions about the local district. On the list, Kahlotus High School is listed as an independent Class 1B school. The list shows Lind-Ritzville/Sprague-Washtucna as a separate Class 2B cooperative. But that doesn’t mean Kahlotus will be going its own way. Kahlotus School District Superintendent Gregg Taylor said no decision has been made to split up the current cooperative ath...
The Library District is throwing on a party hat for 2020, a big year for celebration. It’s the centennial of women in the U.S. gaining the right to vote. The 19th Amendment was ratified Aug. 18, 1920, and added the words: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” to the constitution. As Washingtonians, our foremothers led that fight and secured our voting rights a decade before in 1910. The women’s fight to become enfranchised is...
RALSTON — For 2020, Ralston Grange will continue to sponsor activities, fundraisers and programs that they have provided in the past. Those activities include the Cribbage Tournament, a community Easter Egg Hunt, dinner and auction for the John Wayne Trai Riders group, breakfast at the Lind Combine Derby, booths and a food and bingo concession at the Wheat Land Communities Fair. Other events include the superintendents’ dinner at the fair, Fall Fest craft fair, Veteran’s Appreciation Dinner, community Christmas Party and s...
WASHTUCNA — Two local students have been selected for all-state music groups. High school senior Calby Van Hollebeke will play oboe in the All-State Wind Symphony. Meanwhile, fifth-grader Natahlia Rundquist was chosen for the Washington All-State Youth Honors Chorus. Both groups will perform in Yakima this weekend as part of the Washington Music Educators Association’s Honor Group Concert Series. Rundquist and the youth chorus will perform and the Saturday, Feb. 15 at the Capitol Theater at 4:30 p.m. Van Hollebeke and the...
Boys are boys and girls are girls. There's no in-between, at least when it comes to sports. I know it's not politically correct to say that in this day and age. But genetically (and generally) speaking, boys are stronger and faster than girls. As a result, we have separate sports for each gender. That is, unless your young athlete competes for a middle or high school, or a non-profit organization in Washington state. Here, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association...
When House Bill 1888 was proposed this year to help protect state employee unions from an ongoing battle with the Freedom Foundation, the media was strong in opposition against blowing a hole in the state's Public Records Act. Sadly, it looks like some in the "Fourth Estate" are now willing to play Solomon and cut access to public records in half by allowing some public records to be hidden from the public, as long as they are still able to receive them. The House State...
SPOKANE — Eastern Washington Verizon cellular customers were left without the possibility of calling 911 on Monday night, Feb. 10, due to a fiber issue that interrupted service. Service was eventually restored after a couple hours. According to the website Downdetector.com there were more than 2,600 reports of outages, with a map showing Eastern Washington and North Idaho being hit the hardest. Outages were also shown between Wenatchee and Yakima, the Puget Sound area centered on Seattle, north to Everett and south to T...
OLYMPIA — The deadline to comment on the 2019 Washington State Rail Plan has been extended until Tuesday, Feb. 18. Comments can be made online or via mail, state Department of Transportation officials said, noting new webpages offer background and details on the plan. Drop down menus on the state rail plan can be found on the Transportation website, www.wsdot.wa.gov. The agency prepares a new rail plan every five years on the future of freight and passenger rail service in the state. The plan includes information on rail p...
LIND — Work is set to start in March on the Rattlesnake Flat wind farm. The project is being developed by Clearway Energy Group. Project development director Nick Benjamin said recently that mobilization will begin around March 1, with trucks arriving before March 5. Rattlesnake Flat is a 16.45 megawatt wind project to be constructed near Phillips Road. Blattner Energy will build the project. It’s the third that Blattner is building for Clearway, Benjamin said. Avista and Clearway have agreed to a deal that will see Avi...
ODESSA — The Odessa Record is now part of the Free Press Publishing family. Terrie Schmidt-Crosby, the previous owner since June of 2008, is staying on as editor of the publication. Linda Goodman will remain the newspaper’s advertising representative. Together, they join the Free Press Publishing group’s other publications, The Ritzville Adams County Journal, the Cheney Free Press, Davenport Times, Fairchild Extra, Spokane Valley News Herald and West Plains Extra. The terms of the newspaper transaction were not made publi...