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Crime in Cheney saw a 11.1 percent overall rise in reportable offenses in 2018, a continuation of a rollercoaster-type pattern the city has seen over the past three years. According to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ “2018 Crime in Washington Annual Report,” overall Group A offenses rose by 70 reports to 702 in 2018 from 632 in 2017. The latter was a 20.1 percent decline from 2016’s 791 reports, which itself was a 24.5 percent increase from 2015’s 636. Group A reports are broken into three categorie...
On July 4, at a Starbucks in Tempe, Arizona, six police officers were asked to either move out of a customer’s line of sight or leave the establishment because they were making a patron uncomfortable — for being police. As a progressive-minded American who believes certain (unjust) laws are meant to be broken and who strongly opposes any manner of police abuse or overreach, I am not particularly comfortable around police myself (although, admittedly, I am white and tend to get the benefit of the doubt during confrontations)....
Technology firms portray themselves as bastions of equality and progressive values — but in reality, they frequently discriminate against female workers. Sixty percent of the time, tech firms offer men higher salaries than women for the exact same role. And that’s assuming firms even interview female candidates. More than 40 percent of the time, firms exclusively interview men. Once they accept job offers, 65 percent of female tech workers say they’ve faced discrimination due to their gender, compared to just 11 perce...
I spent the Fourth of July sitting on the porch of our cabin on the river thanking God we had a cabin on the river. I tried to ignore the roaring jet skis and speedboats pulling kids on inner tubes. I groaned inwardly as they churned the water of my favorite fishing hole into a white froth. One interesting boat towed an inflated contraption that looked like a large living room couch. It carried three or four riders in a sitting position, no training or effort required. You could even include the family dog if you wanted. I...
Shortly, after Apollo 11 landed on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong took his famous first steps on the dusty lunar surface, some comedian in our army unit at Ft. Knox, Ken., posted a sign in our barracks: “Sorry, Drill Sgt., No Green Cheese!” Our basic training drill instructor was already “highly agitated” because President Richard Nixon ordered a “training holiday” so we could watch live television coverage of landing. On July 20, 1969, our unit was supposed to...
Handing out candy to children at parades is as American as mom’s apple pie, and the Cheney Rodeo Parade was no exception on Saturday, July 13, as a number of kids scrambled for some goodies. Several rodeo queens from nearby cities and towns like Spokane, Ritzville, Newport and Kennewick rode in the parade, which also featured the Spokane C.O.P.S. Mounted Patrol and several local businesses and organizations like Cheney Feed and Tack, the Boy and Girls Scouts and the Spokane C...
Lola Faye (Bickle) Phar passed away peacefully into the waiting arms of her Lord and Savior on July 10, 2019 at The Hospice House in Spokane, Wash. Lola was 92 years old. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law Dianne and Ken Yorke, grandson Willie and his wife Amy Yorke and two great-grandchildren, RJ and Abigail Yorke, all of Cheney Wash.; one brother David Bickle of Portland, Ore. and sister Bonnie Fitzsimmons of Reno, Nev., as well as many nieces and nephews. Lola...
Cheney Congregational presents flintknapping Harvey Zacker will present “The Ancient Art of Flintknapping” at the Cheney Congregational Church’s fourth Wednesday series at 7 p.m. on Wednesday July 24. Flintknapping is a generic term and includes chipping of flint, jasper obsidian, chert, agate, opal, basalt and other rock. The presentation will include a demonstration and finished stone tools used by Native Americans to survive. It is free and open to the public at 423 N. 6th St. Local non-profit hosts garage sale fundr...
Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon while millions of people worldwide watched on television. Learn more about our area’s history at www.cheneymu www.cheneymuseum.com....
Cheney Community Church Cheney Community Church invites you to worship with us this Sunday at 10 a.m. There is a nursery for infants and toddlers, and junior church for older children. A children’s moment during the main service highlights a Biblical word or person beginning with a letter of the alphabet. Bible classes for adults, young adults and youth are presented at 8:45 a.m. prior to the main service. Coffee is also available in the narthex during this time. The Mega Sports Camp/vacation bible school participated in t...
Grab your fiddles, banjos and guitars, your tents and lawn chairs, it’s family friendly bluegrass pickin’ time once again. The 18th annual Blue Waters Bluegrass Festival is just around the corner and will soon be in full foot-stomping mode beneath the pines of Medical Lake’s Waterfront Park. Billed as “quite possibly the best summertime bluegrass experience in the Northwest,” this year’s festival features a diverse cast of local to national bluegrass bands. “If you’re a musi...
Cheney Public School’s director of student support services, Robin Andrus, will be leaving the district and school officials have hired Franklin Day to fill the position going forward, the district announced on Tuesday. Andrus has served in her current position for one year and was the assistant director of student support services prior to that, according to Assistant to the Superintendent Helen Page. Andrus has accepted a job at another district as a school psychologist. The district posted the job opening on June 17 and c...
A number of local students have recently received degrees and awards from post-high school institutions. They are listed below along with information about their university. Bruess makes Dean’s List Cheney High School alumnus Brayden W. Bruess has been named to the Norwich University Dean’s List for the spring semester, 2019. Full-time undergraduate students, who earned a semester grade point average of at least 3.40 and had no failures in the previous fall or spring semesters are awarded Dean’s List honors. These students ca...
The Cheney-Spokane Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) is sponsoring a free public lecture on the archaeological contribution of a common feature of Eastern Washington’s landscape — Mime mounds. Dr. Jerry Galm, Eastern Washington University professor emeritus of anthropology will discuss “Mima Mounds and Missoula Floods Revisited: An Archaeological Contribution” on Thursday, July 18, from 7 – 9 p.m. at Spokane Community College’s Lair Auditorium, Building 6 in Spokane. The lecture is sponsored by the Ice Age Floods...
From left, Dan Dorshorst of the Medical Lake Kiwanis, homeowner Juergen Duetsch and his wife Susan, Sharon Granquist, Gayle Hennings of the Gardeners of Cheney, and Shannon Narcelo representing this month’s sponsor, the Pizza Factory. Kneeling are Braydon and Tyrstan Demick. The Duetsch’s received a $25 gift certificate from the Pizza Factory as this month’s Medical Lake Yard of the Month winners....
Local officers have arrested the suspect in May’s fatal hit-and-run, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office announced in a press release last week. According to the release, Traffic Unit Corporal Jeff Welton developed probable cause to charge 24-year-old Trevor J. Stephan with leaving the scene of a fatal collision. The collision occurred May 16 on Hayford Road at Sprague in Airway Heights and resulted in the death of 39-year-old Jackson Lawless. Members of the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Northwest Violent Offenders Task For...
The Airway Heights City Council zipped through their agenda on Monday, July 15, despite having barely enough members present to make a quorum. Only Mayor Kevin Richey, Deputy Mayor Doyle Inman and council members Steve Lawrence and Larry Bowman were present at the meeting, though the other member’s absences were excused. The council unanimously appointed Lawrence, Bowman and council member Veronica Messing to serve on what was originally listed in the agenda as an “Affordable Housing Ad Hoc Committee” While discussing that...
CORRECTION: The name of the farmer who originally owned the land that the Cheney Rodeo is now held on was spelled incorrectly in an article in the Cheney Rodeo Supplement of the July 11 edition of the Cheney Free Press. According to his grandson, Timm Shepard, the correct spelling of his grandfather’s name is Herman Wllms....
At its July 9 meeting, Cheney’s City Council unanimously agreed to renew its relationship with a program that has given the city access to equipment sometimes only wealthier municipalities can obtain. The council agreed to allow officials to submit an application to renew Cheney’s agreement with the Federal Surplus Property Program. The program allows participating entities to purchase surplus federal vehicles and equipment often at prices significantly below market value. “Generally we can get them at a pretty fair value...
The city of Cheney is announcing the start of several projects that may create impacts to residents’ services for a brief period of time. The city’s recycling facility and yard waste disposal site on Anderson Road will be closed on Saturday, July 20, so a street repair and paving project can be completed. The yard waste disposal site will reopen for business either Saturday evening or Sunday morning, July 21, while the recycling facility is expected to reopen on Tuesday, July 23. Cheney’s potable water supply Well 3 is sched...
Cheney officials had hoped to have the city’s newest potable water well up and running by now, but have been prevented from doing so by what’s essentially a housing shortage. In order to bring the recently re-drilled Well 3 online in time for this summer’s irrigation season, the City Council approved a change order to the original contract with Wesslen Contractors that allows them to build a temporary, more traditional structure than the prefabricated one order from CXT in Feb...
An Airway Heights shooting listed in last week’s Cheney Free Press police reports may have raised a few eyebrows, but local police said it was less concerning than it first appeared. Just after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3, police received a report of a man in a vehicle shooting a gun in the air while the vehicle was driving down the 800 block of South Garfield Road. Witnesses reported hearing “two or three pops” coming from a silver sedan, Airway Heights Police Department’s Sgt. Robert Swan said. There was no propert...
It appears Andy Louie bought a lemon, and wants to make lemonade, but the city of Medical Lake won’t let him. The lemon in question is a 99-year-old, 888-square-foot building located at 110 S. Lefevre St. in Medical Lake that Louie purchased in March 2018 for $35,000, according to county documents. The structure was later deemed uninhabitable after complaints from an adjacent business and local residents prompted a city inspection, according to City Administrator Doug Ross. F...
The ever-changing nature of online technology claimed another victim as the Cheney branch of Bank of America officially closed its doors at the end of the business day Tuesday, July 16. The move leaves Cheney with three financial institutions that are operating physical branch locations: Cheney Federal Credit Union, Spokane Teachers Credit Union and Banner Bank. In an email, Bank of America regional media relations manager Britney Sheehan said the move comes because “many c...
Crime in Airway Heights increased 97.4 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to the “2018 Crime in Washington Annual Report” released last week by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Airway Heights experienced the fifth-highest increase in crime in the state among reporting agencies, according to the report. Leaders at the Airway Heights Police Department initially said they had not seen the report and could not comment, but later the same day offered comments on its contents. Sgt. Robert Swan said the...
