Articles from the April 10, 2014 edition


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  • Beyond Coal hosts Cheney meeting on coal and oil trains

    John McCallum, Editor|Updated Apr 11, 2014

    The issue of increased coal - and now oil - train traffic through Cheney is back. The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign is holding a public meeting Wednesday morning, April 16, from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. to present new information on coal and oil traffic through the region. The meeting takes place at the Cheney Library's resource room, and features Terry Whiteside, one of the author's of a 2012 report, "Heavy Traffic Ahead," detailing the impacts increased coal shipments...

  • Cheney council passes on depot offer

    John McCallum, Editor|Updated Apr 11, 2014

    The Cheney City Council has said “thanks, but we’ll pass” to an 11th-hour offer that might save the historic Northern Pacific train depot from the wrecking ball. At its April 8 meeting Tuesday night, the council was presented with a proposal for donation of three lots along First Street for relocation of the depot from its current location directly east of the lots along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks. The offer was made by Dr. Peter Hansen, who negotiated a purchase of the lots for the purpose of relocating the d...

  • Blackhawks down Pullman in battle for first-place

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    By JOHN McCALLUM Editor The Cheney boys’ soccer team survived their longest road trips of the season last week, emerging with a pair of wins at Clarkston and Pullman that gave them sole possession of first place in the Great Northern League. Tuesday the Blackhawks overcame a scrappy, physical Clarkston team and a narrow, scraped up field for a 3-0 win. Cheney head coach Mark Kiver said the Bantams field has parts without grass, and parts covered in sand which, combined with the pitch being just 50 yards wide, created some u...

  • Carol Prentice

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Carol Prentice, a resident of Cheney since 1972, passed away at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane on March 28, following a scheduled hip replacement. She was 68 years old. Between 1972 and 1989, she was a stay-at-home mom and took her job seriously, raising three children of her own and many of her children's friends. She began working at Eastern Washington University in 1989. She held many different positions, with her longest time at the communications office before retiring... Full story

  • Daniel Thomas Maggs

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Daniel Thomas Maggs passed away Sunday, March 30, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 80. Dan was born in Roslyn, and at an early age moved to Renton where he attended high school. After graduation, he joined the Navy during the Korean War before attending Eastern Washington College of Education. Eastern was also where he met his wife Adele. They married in 1956 and were to spend the next 50 years happily in Cheney. Dan's early career was spent working for the Internal Revenue... Full story

  • Looking Back

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    1 Years Ago April 15, 2004 The second phase of developer Rob Brewster's building plans in downtown Cheney, a 108-bed dorm similar to one completed two years earlier, received a conditional use permit from the Cheney Planning Commission. Even with recent changes to the Pioneer Park skate park in Medical Lake, city officials are still grappling with noise issues and how to appease neighbors. Cheney High School hoped to use approximately $1.1 million left over from its $3.2...

  • What's Happening on the West Plains

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    City of Cheney • April 10, Preschool Play and Learn Storytime (ages 3 – 5), community library, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. • April 11, Baby Play and Learn Storytime (ages 0 – 18 months), community library, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. • April 14, Planning Commission, City Council chambers, 5:30 p.m. • April 14, Gardeners of Cheney meeting, guest speaker Doreen Harter, “Gardening for Life-adaptive Gardening,” Sessions Village Center at Cheney Care Center, 6:30 p.m. • April 16, Toddler Play and Learn Storytime (ages 1 1/2 – 3), community lib... Full story

  • The Boormans hide from spies in the colonies

    LUELLA DOW, Contributor|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    When my 17-year-old granddaughter, Kindsay Dow, studied genealogy, she showed me what she had discovered about our ancestry, and I became interested. I discovered all authorities did not always agree on specifics. What you are reading shall be called a story, until found otherwise. William and Sarah Boorman lived on a farm in Biddendend, Kent, England around 1700. William could fix a broken wheel, shoe a neighbor’s horse, fix a leaky roof, among many other things. One thing he could not do was keep his secrets to himself. H...

  • Churches

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Emmanuel Lutheran Church This Sunday, April 13, Palm Sunday is about making an entrance. We wave palm branches and sing “Hosanna.” This Sunday is not only about entrances, but it is also the Sunday of the Passion, when we tell the story of what happens after Jesus gets to Jerusalem. Jesus was arrested, tortured, crucified and buried in Jerusalem. For this reason the focus of today’s readings is not on entrance but of emptying. Jesus “emptied himself… and became obedient to the point of death – event death on a cross” (Phi...

  • HOPE School prepares local hearing impaired students for the hearing world

    KELSEY LAVELLE, Staff Intern|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    There has been a growing habit among travelers of checking for any fussy infants before boarding a flight, or overhearing a conversation of someone talking loudly on a cell phone in line for coffee. These scenarios are often viewed as annoyances and nothing more. Often people don’t acknowledge the ability of hearing as ability at all. It is an ingrained natural skill over 80 percent of the American population take for granted, according to the Center of Hearing and Communication in New York. Of the roughly 38 million A...

  • Genealogists unite to support and encourage

    LYNETTE HAGEL, Contributor|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    "Genealogy is like a puzzle, you take little bits here and there and put it all together," Don Seamen, a Family Search Center Volunteer, said. "Solving the mystery is the exciting part of genealogy and family history work." On April 26 the fourth annual "Remembering Generations Family History Symposium" offers a chance to learn more about how you can solve your own family mystery. Experts and beginning enthusiasts are invited to come together and share their knowledge about...

  • Climate change and air quality can affect health

    JOHN R BALMES and MD GEORGE D. THURSTON DSc, Contributors|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    The third National Climate Assessment report, due to be released this month, confirms both the role of human activities in causing climate change and the broad range of adverse health consequences that climate change brings. The federal government’s multi-agency U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), established by Presidential initiative in 1989, produced the report. The effects of climate change on human health are of particular concern to the physician and scientist members of the American Thoracic Society. Our p...

  • The world should act now to ensure a livable planet

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    The editorial board piece in the March 20 Cheney Free Press said that we should proceed with caution and open minds when it comes to climate change. That’s good advice if we’re debating how to deal with climate change, but not if we’re still debating cause and effect. As detailed in the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report, human activities are warming the planet, and the impacts will be dramatic and dramatically unpleasant. Don’t be fooled by the well-orchestrated, well-funded campaign to cast doubt on the facts. For example,...

  • A tale of tragedy and a tale of travesty

    PAUL DELANEY, Staff Reporter|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    As a parent, and now grandparent, my heart aches, my eyes roll and I had to shake my head over two recent news stories. They both involved families doing family things. Each had different outcomes. One ended in tragedy while the other, luckily, happily, if not drowning in waves of controversy. The tales are those of the Kolves family from not far away in the Columbia Basin, and the Kaufmans from California. The Kolves were thrust into the headlines March 30, when what was...

  • State should spread ferry replacement funds across regions

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    During the last legislative session the state passed House Bill 1129, which requires vehicle owners who register online or at a county auditor’s office to pay $5 for registration renewal and $12 for transferring a certificate of title. Money from these fees will pay for ferry replacement throughout the state. The bill applies to vehicle registrations that are due on or after Jan. 1, 2015, and certificate of title transactions processed on or after the same day. Owners who register through private license agents will not p...

  • West Plains Briefs

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    ML library book sale “Spring” in to the Medical Lake Library Book Sale, April 11-12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and sponsored by the Medical Lake Friends of the Library. Proceeds are used to support children’s programs and other activities at the library that the Spokane County Library District do not cover. Medical Lake Easter dinner April Showers won’t stop Feed Medical Lake from serving a free meal consisting of baked ham, yam, and green bean supper with Easter candy cups for dessert, April 14, from 5-6 p.m. at St. John’s... Full story

  • MLSD celebrates 15th annual book festival

    AL STOVER, Staff Reporter|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Students and their parents packed the Medical Lake High School Gym, April 3, as the school district held its 15th annual book festival. Every child who came to the event received at least eight new books. According to Kim Headrick, director of teaching and learning, the district gave away over 900 new books at the event. In order to receive their books, students participated in activities such as cup stacking, bowling and literature trivia. Headrick said the festival gave...

  • Hallett Elementary School reveals award winners

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Hallett Elementary School announced students earning awards for the month of March. The character trait of the month was caring. Pride Braden Durbin, Bailey Kutch, Eli Whitehead, Evan Gardner, Kailyn Wilder, Rya Monroe, Jamal Shyvers, Jessa Gonzalez, Trynity Hanks, Isaac Sweeney, Madison Collins, Connor Palmen, Kaden Pedersen, Matthew King, Aurora Hone, Lynzie Wilson, Nadiri Duttonand and Jacob Wagner. Can Marcus Durbin, Jess Harrison, Noel Frost, Jonathan Neumann, Christian Tilson, Nathan Ehrgott, Kainoa Beyer, Landon...

  • CHS announces March students of the month

    Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Standing left to right: Jessica Camacho, Amanda Hosmer, Johanna Sherman, Mya Geisler, Kymberly Zachman, Samantha Oldman, Kora Wevers and Elena Munoz-Zamora. Sitting left to right: Tyler McBride, Issac Fencl, Irvin Quezada and Mike Keopha. Not pictured: Meghan Heritage and Harley Tellier....

  • Passport helps students keep up with the changing world

    John McCallum, Editor|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Next time you run into a student from Cheney's Betz Elementary School, ask them what level they are in the Passport Club? If they're a "Geo Whiz," they should respond by naming all 195 countries in the world. If they can't do it off the top of their head, they have got a small, blue book to prove that they know them. The Passport Club was started by Betz parent-volunteer Daiatra Westlund. Westlund got involved in the program when her family lived in Olympia, which is where for...

  • Veltri ready for new journey and challenges in Mead

    AL STOVER, Staff Reporter|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    The Medical Lake School District will be saying goodbye to one of their longtime leaders. In an email to school staff back in March, Superintendent Dr. Pam Veltri announced her resignation and explained that she will be taking a position as an assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction with the Mead School District starting in July. Veltri said Mead Superintendent Tom Rockefeller recruited her for the job. Although she will be going from a district with 1,800 students to one with 10,000, Veltri is excited about...

  • AH sales tax rate change takes effect

    AL STOVER, Staff Reporter|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    At the April 8 Airway Heights City Council meeting, Clerk-Treasurer Richard Cook announced that the retail sales tax rate change went into effect at the beginning of the month. Back in November 2013, citizens voted to pass a sales tax increase from 8.7 to 8.9 percent to provide funding for a Transportation Benefit District (TBD) in the city. Cook said the city would start receiving the funds from the tax increase in June. The money will be deposited into a TBD fund and used for transportation projects. During the meeting,...

  • And now, it's back to a normal spring weather pattern

    PAUL DELANEY, Staff Reporter|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    After a strange start, winter returned to normal in February. And normal is what we can expect our spring to be according to Eastern Washington University meteorological and geography professor, Bob Quinn. Minor cold snaps that took temperatures into the teens in December and January - thanks to a large stationary high-pressure ridge that sat over the Pacific Northwest for much of the fall and early winter - were all part of a puzzling start to the season that gave us an...

  • Airway Heights CPR classes gives public emergency aid preparation

    AL STOVER, Staff Reporter|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Eastern Washington University student Macey Brown practices 100 compressions on a mannequin. Once she is finished, her friend and Whitnie Whitman takes over and begins pushing on the mannequin. Brown and Whitman were two Eastern Washington University students who attended the April 5 CPR and First Aid class, presented by Airway Heights Park and Recreation Department. The city will hold two more classes in 2014 to teach people the basics of how to perform CPR and administer...

  • The deer counter

    AL STOVER, Staff Reporter|Updated Apr 10, 2014

    Animal control was one of the main focuses of the April 1 Medical Lake City Council meeting. During their report, Mayor John Higgins and City Administrator Doug Ross announced they had been getting complaints about deer in the city. Ross said he received an email from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, who are assigning Medical Lake a big game biologist. According to Ross, the biologist will come out and do a deer count in the area and go over the options with the city. “We don’t have a magic wand, we don’t have...

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