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The 2012-13 Big Sky Conference season begins for the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team this week, and their opening games are sure to be a challenge. Facing the top two teams in the league’s preseason polls in its first three Big Sky games, Eastern faces Weber State tonight (Dec. 20) at 6:05 p.m. at Reese Court in the league opener for both schools. This Saturday, Eastern hosts Idaho State in an afternoon game starting at 2:05 p.m. After a week off for the holidays, the Eagles resume conference play at Big S...
Wade Benson is returning to familiar territory. The man who made history during his his seven seasons as head volleyball coach at Eastern Washington University will return to that position it was announced Tuesday, Dec. 18. Benson replaces interim head coach Lisa Westlake, who had stepped in after former head coach Miles Kydd resigned in August. “We are very excited to welcome coach Benson back into the Eagle family,” EWU athletics director Bill Chaves said in a news rel...
The Tri-State Tournament at North Idaho College proved to be a tough arena for the Cheney wrestling team this past weekend. Falling among the lower-placing teams, Cheney earned 28 points, with one wrestler in eighth place. Only a handful of wrestlers took part in the tournament, head coach Wade Schlotter said. “Overall it was an OK showing. I didn’t think it was a good showing by us,” he said. Zach Corean (220) ended up placing eighth in his weight class, and marked one of th...
Last Saturday during all the high-fivin’, back-slapping and rejoicing that came with Eastern’s first touchdown, cutting Sam Houston’s lead to 35-7 early in the third quarter, a friend and row mate came up to me and provided this observation. “No matter how this finishes, whether we come back or don’t score any more, these are our guys!” Truer words may not ever have been spoken. Of course the Eagles did score more, pulling within 35-28 before the visiting Bearkats pulled themselves together to hold on for the 45-42 win i...
Another record-tying effort for touchdown passes couldn’t do it. Neither could a second half offensive explosion that was unmatched this season, and perhaps for a long, long time. The 35-point hole Sam Houston State University put the Eastern Washington Eagles in the first half of last Saturday’s NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoff semifinal game at Roos Field proved just too deep. So following their staving off one of the most amazing rallies in FCS history, the vi...
Carol Kriegh likes to work with people. She’s had a long association with the Community Service Council that oversees the police chaplaincy, food bank, clothing exchange and Outreach. These groups report to the service council. Here’s a short sketch of the various groups. The Methodist church spearheaded the coat drive. Cheney’s Big Wash cleaned some of the coats this year and others were cleaned in Spokane. Kriegh was a part of Feed Cheney from its beginning at the Wren Piers...
By Dr. E. Kirsten Peters Contributor To a geologist like me, it was most notable by its absence in the political campaigns that lurched to their conclusions in November. I’m talking about an energy plan with real teeth, one that addresses everything from national security to the cost of energy to greenhouse warming of the planet. The best-known geologist in the country is T. Boone Pickens. He’s been in the energy business for decades – he’s now in his 80s – and he is still tirelessly devoted to pointing out to all who will li...
Students from the Medical Lake Junior ROTC program were on hand at the Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake this past Saturday for the Wreaths Across America event, to honor our nation’s veterans....
The Washington State Patrol (WSP) has received reports from a number of citizens who received calls soliciting donations to support “AMBER Alerts.” In part of the solicitation, the callers report the money being raised goes to support the AMBER Alert program, including that 30 percent of the funds are for overhead costs associated with the program. At least one solicitation indicated they were calling on behalf of WSP. This information is inaccurate; WSP does not rely on public donations for the administration of the AMB...
Cheney Planning commissioners got their first look at proposed changes to the city’s low density residential district codes at their regular monthly meeting Dec. 10, changes designed to “preserve and promote neighborhood livability” while providing housing choices and lot flexibility for developers. “Again, this is a draft,” Community Development Director Brian Jennings told the commission. “We’re not expecting that we nailed this right out of the gate.” The proposed changes affect what are currently referred to as SR-1, R-1...
The Airway Heights City Council approved its version of the Joint Land Use Study at its Monday, Dec. 17 meeting. The land use document intended to provide additional protection to Fairchild Air Force Base passed with a unanimous vote. “We have JLUS,” Mayor Patrick Rushing said. Airway Heights has been working on the document with surrounding jurisdictions for several months now, in an attempt to make the document more urban-friendly. City Planner Derrick Braaten frequently iterated that the version passed by the city of Spo...
Let us address the declining fortunes of today’s mainstream mass media. (Yes, I can hear your pained screams of “Nooooo ... we don’t want to!” We really must, however, because it’s not about them, but us — about our ability to be at least quasi-informed about who’s-doing-what-to-whom-and-why, in order for us to be a self-governing people. So buckle-up, here we go.) The honchos of America’s establishment media are quick to blame such external causes as the Internet for their problems. But if they looked internally, the...
This is my last column in 2012, Crunch Time not withstanding. In fact, it might be my last column ever at the Cheney Free Press, or my last column period. One never knows about these things, what trials, challenges or opportunities the future holds. Despite all our plans and pretexts, the future is uncertain. We think we know what it holds, but really, we don’t. The future comes unannounced and sometimes unprepared for, even if we do our best to anticipate and plan. It’s kind of like the passage in Charles Dickens’ “A Ch...
Christmas. It can elicit the best in all of us as well as seemingly the worst. Something we can all likely agree on is that Christmas has of course been commercialized beyond recognition. The first hints of the next celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ begin to surface about Halloween; not with religious recognition, but rather with bobbles and trinkets. A peek at the breakdown of religious following in the U.S. shows that with over 51 percent of the population claiming to be Protestant, another 24 percent Catholic and...
Cheney High School students in five clubs combined to donate 337 toys to the Tree of Sharing in a holiday toy drive that concluded last Friday. The drive lasted three weeks, with the winner earning the Toy Drive trophy. Raising the most and earning the trophy was the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), donating 103 toys and a refurbished computer. The Spanish Club was second with 89, followed by Future Farmers of America (FFA) at 75, Distributive Education Clubs of...
Besides the bragging rights that come with recruiting student-athletes with good, if not great habits in the classroom, there’s a common thread their coaches will tell you is also important to wins and losses, and them keeping their jobs. “If they have great habits towards their school work they are probably going to have it toward athletics,” Eastern Washington head basketball coach Jim Hayford said. He looks for that success in every area of their life, Hayford said. “You do...
One way or another, a good portion of the business conducted at last Wednesday’s Cheney School Board meeting revolved around issues with district facilities. During the public comment period representatives from two subcontractors on the recently completed middle school projects presented the board with their case for payment of over $500,000 in work installing communications cable that is hung up in a dispute over whether or not the cable is suitable for the area of installations. In an interview Monday, district S...
By PAUL DELANEY Staff Reporter The 1970’s advertisement for Chiffon margarine told us “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” But it’s perfectly okay as we know for the favor to be returned as she threw weather watchers a nifty change-up over the past couple of months. “I’ve never in my life seen a warm sea surface temperature pattern disappear so fast,” Eastern Washington geography and meteorology professor Dr. Robert Quinn said back in October when the forecasted El Nino vani...
SEATTLE – On a single day on the Internet, more than 700,000 dogs are for sale. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says that’s what its researchers found in a one-day investigative blitz. The group is calling for new regulations on pet sales, and says an outdated Animal Welfare Act that doesn’t address online sales has become a loophole for unscrupulous breeders to sell directly to consumers. Tracy Coppola, campaigns officer with IFAW, says they found hundr...
The Spokane Better Business Bureau is alerting consumers to reports of phony charity solicitations, supposedly on behalf of the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown on Friday, Dec. 14. BBB recommends donors avoid giving to charities or funds through unsolicited phone calls, emails, texts or social media appeals. Charity scammers strike after natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, as well as tragedies such as the Colorado theater shootings and now the Newtown...
By JAMES EIK Staff Reporter The Medical Lake City Council went in to the last meeting of the year with a small agenda, but with some important housekeeping items. Some positive budget news came in, according to Finance Director Jennifer Hough, as the city’s general fund appeared healthier than expected. The unanticipated funds were a welcome sight at the meeting, especially on the heels of passing next year’s budget. “It’s nice to see a little more money than we had anticipated,” City Administrator Doug Ross. The city has...
Normally when one thinks of truck stop food, visions of pancake stacks drowning in butter and syrup, cheeseburgers so tall they sway in the breeze and steaks best described using the word “brontosaurus” comes to mind. But homemade fudge? To long and short haul drivers, and some West Plains residents, the time-honored confection might indeed come to mind when speaking about the Iron Skillet Restaurant at the Petro off the I-90 Medical Lake exit. The restaurant began making hom...
Shogo Starr listens to a fellow classmate as he waits in line with Joe White (behind box) and Tim McGillicuddy to off load armfuls of toys collected during the Cheney High School toy drive. For more details see Education, page 2....
Cheney School Board directors voted unanimously to name Airway Heights resident Henry Browne as new Cheney school’s District 3 director at a special meeting Tuesday night. Brown replaces Larry Haskell, who stepped down earlier this year because he and his family moved out of the district. In his cover letter, Browne said he believes learning is a “lifetime experience” that provides a solid basis for success, and that he is “passionate about education and the role a sound education plays in determining one’s success...
The Spokane Tribe Economic Project discussion returned to the West Plains last week, but not without controversy. New Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn was in the Spokane region for two days to visit with numerous parties involved in the STEP project and to learn firsthand more about the project. Among those he visited included the Kalispel Tribe, Spokane Tribe and Airway Heights City Council. “You all, as elected officials, have particular standing to give us community input,” Washburn said. In-...
