Sorted by date Results 601 - 625 of 3077
OLYMPIA -- State Department of Social and Health Services officials have announced its closing some statewide offices while limiting lobby access to others in response to the spread of COVID-19. Beginning March 19 (Thursday), Disability Determination Services and Child Support will be available via online or telephone only at 1-800-772-1213 (Disability) and 1-800-442-KIDSD (Child Support). Disability offices in Spokane will be closed and Child Support offices in nine cities and Olympia will also close. Starting Friday, March... Full story
SPOKANE -- Spokane County officials are taking further steps to protect its employees and the public during the COVID-19 outbreak by limiting access to the fourth floor of the Public Works Building until further notice. The fourth floor is the location for the Environmental Services Department, including Sewer Billing and the Regional Solid Waste System. According to a March 18 news release, sewer bills are due by Wednesday, March 25. County officials are asking residents to make their payments by phone, mail or online, but... Full story
CHENEY -- School district officials have released the schedule of free student meal packs to be made available during the cancellation of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meal packs, which include breakfast and lunch, will be delivered at the following locations beginning March 18: Bus 75 Salnave Elementary School 9 – 9:20 a.m. Betz Elementary School 9:25 – 9:40 a.m. Bi-Mart 9:45 – 10 a.m. Bus 51 Windsor Elementary School 9 – 9:20 a.m. Snowdon Elementary School 9:30 – 9:50 a.m. Hayford Village 9:55 – 10:5 a.m. Bus 52... Full story
SPOKANE -- Spokane Regional Health District officials have announced that three individuals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 disease. More information will be released at noon press conference today, March 14. Regional health district officials said they have identified and contact those who may have been in contact with these infected individuals. They will be monitored for fever and respiratory symptoms. As with everything associated with COVID-19, this is a developing situation. John McCallum can be...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS, WASH. -- Fairchild Air Force Base officials have announced that one of their airmen has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. In a March 16 news release, officials said they are monitoring the situation after samples sent to a Department of Defense lab produced positive results. The individual is in self-isolation at their off-base residence and base officials have notified Spokane Regional Health District authorities. Additionally, Col. Derek Salmi, the Installation Commander, has declared an on-base... Full story
CHENEY -- Eastern Washington University will push back the start of spring quarter and spring semester one week in order to allow measures dealing with preventing the spread of novel cornavirus and its associated disease COVID-19 to have a better effect. University Provost Dr. David May made the announcement that classes will resume April 6 instead of March 30 during a virtual town hall meeting this afternoon, March 16. The intent with delaying the start of instruction -- which will all be online -- is to increase the amount...
SEATTLE – If Washington is to stop the spread of coronavirus and the disease it carries, COVID-19, the most important step is to essentially keep our distance from each other. That was the most important aspect of personal protection outlined by Gov. Jay Inslee and others at a Monday, March 16, press conference in Seattle. That includes not only health directives to maintain a “social distance” of a minimum of 6 feet between each other, but also evaluate our routines and if at all possible, simply stay home as much as possi... Full story
CHENEY -- Cheney School District officials have announced they are proceeding with a state-ordered shutdown of all K-12 schools one day earlier than scheduled. In a post on its website, the district said all its schools will be closed beginning March 16, rather than the March 17 date ordered by Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday, March 13, in the state's effort to quell the spread of the novel coronavirus and the disease it carries, COVID-19. Inslee's order will keep schools closed, and all athletic, extracurricular and afterschool ev... Full story
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Jay Inslee signed several executive orders today extending previous requirements to close K-12 public schools and limit large gatherings to no more than 250 people in efforts to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. School districts will be closed beginning Tuesday, March 17 through April 24. Inslee took similar measures earlier this week with schools and large gatherings in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. In taking the action the governor noted the virus has spread to 15 counties in... Full story
WEST PLAINS – With more cases of the 2019 novel (new) coronavirus appearing in Washington state, local authorities are taking precautions to try to guard against spread of the disease while also putting plans in place to be ready to immediately implement should cases appear locally. According to information from Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD), coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated COVID-19, is the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The disease has killed over 2...
SPOKANE – Jury selection and initial proceedings began earlier this week in the murder trial of a Cheney-area man who allegedly poisoned his wife with pain-medication laced ice cream. David L. Pettis, 58, has pled not guilty in Spokane Superior Court to charges originally filed in October 2018 but dropped in December and then refiled in June 2019. On June 25, 2018, Pettis called police to report his wife, 64-year-old Peggy Pettis was “blue and wasn’t breathing.” Responders arriving at the house in the 21400 block of South B...
Update at 1:59 p.m. -- NCAA officials announced they have canceled both the men's and women's national basketball tournaments as well as other winter sports championships. This coming on the heels of conferences such as the Big Sky canceling their respective tournaments. BOISE, IDAHO -- The Big Sky Conference is canceling the remainder of its 2020 basketball championships due to concerns over the spreading of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The announcement was released just before 10 a.m., March 12, prior to the tip-off of... Full story
OLYMPIA – Sixth District Sen. Jeff Holy is hoping Gov. Jay Inslee will use his veto pen and strike down a controversial K-12 comprehensive sex education bill that passed both the House and Senate recently along party lines. After a six-hour debate that ended at 2 a.m., the Senate adopted ESSB 5395 by a 27-21 vote early last Saturday, March 7, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting no. In a March 10 news release, Holy called for Inslee to veto the l...
CHENEY -- Eastern Washington University has announced it will be making changes to its class schedule for the remainder of the school year. In an email to students, faculty and staff, university President Dr. Mary Cullinan said that following Gov. Jay Inslee's recommendations protecting health and safety of Washington residents, the university was moving all academic operations "to the fullest extent possible" online for the remainder of the current academic year. Classes that cannot be moved must not exceed 25 people.... Full story
SPOKANE – Presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders dueled each other to a virtual tie in Washington’s Democratic primary Tuesday night. At press time, Sanders held a slim 2,084 vote led over the former vice president, garnering 32.70percent of the statewide vote to Biden’s 32.49 percent. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received 11.05 percent of the ballots cast, 126,093 even though he suspended his campaign last week. In Spokane County, the results were almost exactly the opposite, with Biden holdi... Full story
SPOKANE – Jury selection and initial proceedings began Monday (March 9) in the murder trial of a Cheney-area man who allegedly poisoned his wife with pain-medication laced ice cream. David L. Pettis, 58, has pled not guilty in Spokane Superior Court to charges originally filed in October 2018 but dropped in December and then refiled in June 2019. On June 25, 2018, Pettis called police to report his wife, 64-year-old Peggy Pettis was “blue and wasn’t breathing.” Responders arrived at the house in the 21400 block of South B...
CHENEY -- Needed maintenance work on Burlington Northern Santa Fe's main line through Cheney will close several railroad crossings next week. According to BNSF and city of Cheney officials, the crossing at Lance Hill Road will be closed Wednesday, March 11 and Friday, March 13, from 5:30 a.m. -- 12:30 p.m. The crossing in downtown Cheney at F Street and Cheney-Spangle Road will be closed Thursday, March 12 from 5:30 a.m. -- 12:30 p.m. and again on Monday, March 16, along with the crossing at Pine Street from 5:30 -- 12:30...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS -- An early morning collision on U.S. Highway 2 claimed the life of an unidentified pedestrian near Airway Heights. According to a Washington State Patrol press report, law enforcement responded at 4:33 a.m. to a report of a pedestrian in the roadway near milepost 280 between Lucas and Flint roads east of Airway Heights. The pedestrian was reported to be had been struck by a passing vehicle. The pedestrian was taken to a local hospital but eventually died of their injuries. The identity of the individual has...
CHENEY – When Chris Babcock first proposed a dog park in June 2018, she met with skepticism from the City Council. Last Tuesday, Feb. 25, that skepticism morphed into unanimous approval to dedicate two acres of land at the corner of 1st Street and Presley Drive for use as an off-leash dog park. The vote capped almost two years of work by Babcock and other proponents and triggered the next stage of the park’s development — getting money to build the facility. “It’s perfect,...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – No one can fully plan for an emergency, and it’s on this premise that Akira’s Foundation was born. Started in mid-summer 2019, Akira’s Foundation’s mission is to help families of medical emergency patients — some life-threatening — with lodging and transportation along with meals and clothing if the need arises. It’s about meeting needs Foundation co-founder Linda Harris struggled with when her granddaughter, Akira Presson, was severely burned on May 15. The seven-year-old was served a Cup of Noodles microwa...
CHENEY – What is leadership and when should it take place? The answers to those questions may not be as obvious as one would think. For Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Stephens, the answer to the latter is essentially now. “You’re never too young to be a leader,” Stephens told a group of West Valley School District students last Friday, Feb. 28. “Leadership starts by being aware of all of the connections you have.” Stephens, a 1983 West Valley High School...
CHENEY – Most of the time when a teenager is glued to a TV monitor, it’s not necessarily a good thing. For several hours last Saturday at Eastern Washington University’s pool, teenagers staring at TV monitors was a good sign, one of intensity and focus on the task at hand — fitting a small cap onto a traffic cone during one of the challenge courses at the SeaPerch Robotics competition. Sponsored by the EWU American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Office of Nava...
SPOKANE – When Julianne Mewhinney saw the Facebook ad for the 2020 Miss Spokane competition, she viewed it as an opportunity to talk about her volunteering focus to a larger audience. The Cheney High School senior competed with 15 other area women for the title Feb. 15-16 at Shadle Park High School, undergoing an extensive interview session on Saturday followed by Sunday’s pageant where the winner, 21-year-old Gabby Dansereau, was announced. Miss Spokane is the first step in...
SPOKANE – Former Spokane County Treasurer Rob Chase has announced he will be running for Congress in Washington’s 5th District. Chase will challenge incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is seeking a ninth term as the district’s representative in Washington D.C. Chase was county treasurer from 2011-2018, and has lived in the district since 1974. A former real estate agent, he is a graduate of Eastern Washington University with a bachelor’s of arts degree in business administration. Chase is the second challenger to file ag...
CHENEY – Several residents inside and outside Cheney were awakened early Thursday morning, Feb. 20, by something they had never heard before and can’t explain its source. Marie Shepard said she and her husband Tim were awoken around 2:45 a.m. in their house across State Route 904 from the Bi-Mart Arena rodeo grounds by a very loud, sustained noise. Shepard said the noise was hard to describe, but sounded somewhat like a medium-high pitch machine whine that didn’t vary in pitch or intensity. The noise lasted about 5-10 minut...
