Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 26
SPOKANE COUNTY – Local fire chiefs and officials with American Medical Response have reached an 11th-hour agreement keeping ambulance service in place for all jurisdictions except the city of Spokane. If an agreement had not been reached, AMR’s five-year contract would have terminated at midnight Nov. 13, meaning the ambulance service provider would have been operating “ungoverned” in the county, Cheney Fire Chief Tom Jenkins told the City Council at its Nov. 10 meeting. At the time, negotiations had ceased between the com...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS—The Kalispel Tribe announced an expansion project that includes a new hotel wing with nearly 200 new rooms at Northern Quest Resort & Casino today, Nov. 23. Completion on the project is scheduled for 2023, according to a press release from the casino. The tribe plans to break ground in March 2021. “For the past several years, we’ve been running at consistently high occupancy in our hotel,” Northern Quest general manager Nick Pierre said in the press release. “While meetings and events business has taken a b...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – When Mable Dunbar received a call from manager Jimmy Suckow that the purple 1994 Chevy pickup truck Cleone’s Closet Food Pantry uses to transport food was stolen on Oct. 20, she wasn’t happy. After all, the truck was the food pantry’s primary means of getting goods from Second Harvest Food Bank and grocery stores that donate food, such as Yoke’s and Walmart. The truck was also, on occasion, used to deliver food to needy people in the community. Suckow no...
SPOKANE VALLEY -- A man was shot and killed by police deputies after a vehicle pursuit that ended at Sprague and University Sunday night. According to a Spokane Valley Police Department news release, a deputy attempted to conduct a traffic stop of a reckless and erratically driven vehicle at approximately 6:45 p.m. Nov. 22 near Valleyway and Mullan Road. The adult male failed to stop, initiating a pursuit, hitting parked cars, going into opposing lanes of travel and swerving at high speeds in the process. Officers attempted...
SPOKANE VALLEY – The FBI and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office are asking for the public's assistance in identifying the individual or individuals responsible for nearly $20,000 in politically-oriented damage that took place in the southern portion of the city in September. Additionally, the FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information "leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible." Five properties were damaged in the incidents t...
FAIRCHILD AFB-Nov. 17 was the 92nd Air Bombardment Wing's 73rd birthday at Fairchild Air Force Base. To celebrate, the base hosted members of the media, including reporter Drew Lawson and publisher Roger Harnack of the Cheney Free Press, on a refueling flight on a KC-135 Stratotanker. The 92nd Air Bombardment Wing became the 92nd Air Refueling Wing in 1994 after several name changes to reflect the base's changing missions and remains so in present day. The experience began as...
CHENEY – Want to show off your holiday outdoor home decorating prowess? Here’s your chance to be included on the map for the Cheney Merchant Association’s Holiday Hoopla Light & Decor Contest, happening December 4. All you have to do is send your address and decorate your home by or before Dec. 4 and you will be on the map participants will follow to view local lights and be a part of CMA’s Holiday Hoopla event, along with eligibility to win one of three cash prizes. Send your address no later than Sunday, Nov. 22, if you...
OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has begun recruiting for 550 temporary firefighters to serve with the state’s largest wildland firefighting department for next year’s fire season. “Firefighters do important work that protects our communities and natural resources. We are looking for motivated and capable individuals who can do strenuous outdoor work and has the desire to serve our state to apply to be part of our firefighting team,” Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, said in a...
OLYMPIA – More than 1,100 statewide transportation projects using $3.7 billion in federal funds are included in the draft 2021-2024 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, called STIP for short. This compilation of prioritized transportation improvement projects is now ready for public review and comment. The Washington State Department of Transportation annually develops the STIP from local agency, metropolitan and regional transportation improvement programs. The draft 2021-2024 STIP is a four-year program of m...
CHENEY Nov. 9 Harassment was reported on the 1000 block of Betz Road. Financial fraud/forgery was reported on the zero hundred block of 1st Street. A welfare check was reported on the 2200 block of 1st Street. Domestic violence/verbal dispute was reported on the 800 block of 2nd Street. Civil problems were reported on the 700 block of West 1st Street. A civil dispute was reported on the 1500 block of 2nd Street. Nov. 10 Eric L. Puentes, 35, was arrested for violation of a court order on the 1200 block of 1st Street. Police...
CHENEY – The Eastern Washington University women’s basketball team only has 16 more days to wait until the first highly-anticipated game day since March 2020, as the 2020-21 schedule was announced Nov. 9 by head coach Wendy Schuller, who begins her 20th season at the Eagles helm. Due to the delayed start to the season, Eastern Washington will play only five non-conference games with three on the road and two at home at Reese Court. Big Sky Conference play will also look dif...
CHENEY – The start of the season comes five months later than expected, but the Eastern Washington University volleyball team is now preparing for a 16-match Big Sky Conference schedule that includes everyone except Idaho State and Montana State, as announced Nov. 5. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 winter/spring schedule looks a little different for the conference. Eastern Washington plays on back-to-back nights, Sunday and Monday, and face the same opponent at the same site. Eight games will be played at R...
CHENEY – Eastern Washington University has emerged as a clear favorite to repeat as Big Sky Conference men’s basketball regular-season champions in 2021. According to a Nov. 11 news release, the Eagles garnered nine of 11 first-place votes cast by the coaches and 24 of 28 by the media in the preseason polls announced by the league office — a total of 33 of 39 ballots, or 85 percent, that had the Eagles as No. 1. The league season is scheduled to begin Dec. 3. “Our team is being picked as the favorite to win the Big Sky thi...
Cheney Congregational Church We have made the decision to suspend in-person Sunday morning worship for the time being, as Covid cases continue to rise in the county. This is a difficult decision, and we make it with the whole Cheney community in mind. We will continue to host live Sunday morning services on Zoom at 10am. You can request a Zoom link through our website, www.cheneycongregational.org. These are difficult times for many of us. Our prayers go out to you all. May you know God’s love and God’s peace during this sea...
Terry Richard Beckwith 8 Feb. 1957 - 6 Nov. 2020 After several years of suffering from multiple myeloma, his suffering ended in this rare and precious human lifetime. May he come to know the causes of suffering, and the path to become free of suffering In others. He passed away in hospice care in his home in Medical Lake, the house which his grandmother Inez Watson once lived in. Terry was the son of Alan R. and Rose Mary (Watson) Beckwith, of Cheney, both now deceased. He...
Steven Blakely, 68, entered into eternal rest on Nov. 12, 2020. Steven was born on July 23, 1952 and was a long time resident of Cheney, Wash., where he raised his family. Steven was in the U.S. Air Force, attended Culinary School at Spokane Community College, and retired from Eastern State Hospital in 2006. Steven was a devoted Catholic, son, brother father, grandfather and friend. Steven could always be heard telling stories of fishing, hunting, poker games or riding his...
With only a few months left in his first term, President Trump is trying to make good on his campaign promise to lower drug prices. He has signed an executive order directing Medicare to tie reimbursements for most medicines to the lowest prices paid in other developed countries. This “foreign reference pricing,” if implemented, would purportedly give Americans cheaper drugs. But it would stifle biomedical research, leaving valuable new therapies undiscovered and dashing the hopes of patients whose conditions lack an eff...
It’s no secret that airlines and airplane manufacturers have been clobbered by the coronavirus pandemic. Particularly hard hit are international flights traditionally flown by jumbo jets. Borders are closed and people aren’t flying. There is a small silver-lining. Just as restaurants started take-out service to survive, airlines are filling planes with freight. U.S. airlines are reeling from the pandemic and have lost more than $20 billion combined in the last two quarters. Ev...
MEDICAL LAKE—When 15-year-old Samuel Russell took up skating about 18 months ago, he realized there wasn’t a skate park in town where he and his skateboarding-inclined friends could safely recreate. So, the sophomore studying at Medical Lake High School decided to reach out and see if one could be built. “I talked to my dad, and he said that there used to be a skate park here, but it got shut down for different reasons,” Russell said. “I was thinking about it, and I was like, ‘well, there’s solutions to all of those (problems...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – After a request for funding to help sponsor a roundabout at Highway 2 and Lawson Street was removed last week per council’s desire, the 2021 state legislative agenda was approved Nov. 16 at council’s legislative session. Council requested that the Highway 2 and Lawson Street roundabout request be removed out of concern that roundabouts weren’t the best solution to facilitate north/south vehicle flow at its Nov. 9 study session. The legislative agenda that was approved features five priorities, chief among w...
SPOKANE COUNTY -- The Library district has announced that all county libraries will close their buildings to the public and are returning to curbside pickup services only. The move was effective beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 18, pausing all in-library services until Tuesday, Dec. 15, with this date subject to change. Curbside pickup hours will remain the same, Monday – Saturday, noon – 6 p.m. on days when a library would normally be open. Days and locations can be found online at www.scld.org. Digital services and res...
SPOKANE VALLEY – Northwest Flight Services announced on Nov. 10 that it has entered into an agreement with a development group, CRISTALL Holdings LLC, to be the sole tenant of a new 15,000-square-foot hangar building at Felts Field. The site is east of the Federal Aviation Administration's control tower and was the previous location of the FFA Flight Standards District Office, which was demolished in January 2019. Northwest Flight currently operates out of three locations a...
OLYMPIA – In what was probably one of the worst kept secrets of 2020, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a new set of restrictions on Sunday, Nov. 15, that officials hope will lead to a reduction in the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the state. According to a Nov. 15 news release, the four-week restrictions, most amounting to rollbacks of ongoing restrictions and most of which went into effect Monday, Nov. 16, come as Washington is seeing “consistent increasing daily case counts” that have led to over 2,000 cases per day o...
CHENEY – Apparently, the city’s “permanent” general fund levy lid lift to help public safety needs wasn’t so permanent after all. Passed by 59.32 % of voters in 2015, the lift was to dedicate the difference between the then-current general fund levy amount of $2.40 per $1,000 of assessed valuation and the proposed increase to $3.10 / $1,000 to “provide for continual public safety (police, fire)” and other governmental services needs. Since then, $2,137,100 of the $2.207 million raised has gone to things such as new police of...
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