Historical science

BBCC Chem instructor draws inspiration for new course from European sabbatical

MOSES LAKE – Big Bend Community College Chemistry Instructor Lindsay Groce recently returned from her sabbatical in Europe. Drawing on experiences from her travels, she plans to create a new course to be offered at Big Bend in the spring of 2024...

Othello budget solid, city waiving chamber event fees

OTHELLO – Monday’s Othello City Council meeting featured a presentation from the city’s Finance Officer Spencer Williams on the city’s projected 2024 revenue sources. The council also unanimously voted to waive all the city event fees for the Chamber of Commerce’s upcoming Family Fall Festival...

Knights bounce back, defeat Wahluke 51-3

ROYAL CITY – It didn’t take long to see how Royal would bounce back since its first loss in nearly four years. The Knights, who defeated Wahluke 51-3 on Friday night, scored 23 points in the first five minutes of the first quarter en route to a dominant win. “We just wanted to refocus after (the loss),” Royal head coach WIley Allred said. “Just get back to working on improving and reset some of our habits. Whether we won or lost that game, we could see there were some areas of improvement needed.” Scoring opened with Royal senior quarterback Dylan Allred finding receiver Edgar Delarosa on a crossing route, where the senior receiver ran 43 yards to give the Knights a 7-0 lead following the extra point. “That set the tone pretty good – everybody got hyped after that,” Delarosa said. “It boosted energy.”

Knights prep for ‘tough’ Mount Baker team in 1A state title

ROYAL CITY – Playing in a state championship game is nothing new for the Roya Knights, who prepare to take on the Mount Baker Mountaineers in this weekend’s 1A State Football Championship in Lakewood. “They’re fast, they’re quick, they’ve got a good football team,” Royal Head Coach Wiley Allred said. “They’re really aggressive on defense, they run their Wing-T offense really well like a lot of Wing-T teams that play this long in the season. They run the ball well, we’ll have to be really disciplined.” The Mountaineers finished the regular season with a 6-4 record but tied with Lynden Christian and Nooksack Valley atop the Northwest 1A league to force a Kansas tiebreaker, where Mount Baker and Nooksack Valley advanced to the 1A state playoffs...

Decorating safely for the holidays with pets in the home

As the holiday season brings Christmas trees, decorations, and holiday foods, pets may take the opportunity to create mischief. Dr. Murl Bailey, a senior professor at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, provides some common dangers for pet owners to be aware of throughout the holiday season...

Quincy defeats Brewster 34-6 for second win

QUINCY — The Quincy Jacks football team evened its record at 2-2 with a convincing 34-6 win over the Brewster Bears Friday at the Quincy High School field. It was the first home win for Quincy in two years. “I thought it was a great group effort,” said Quincy head coach Russ Elliott. “The defense played really well, the offense got going - we had some great runs, and we threw the ball better tonight.” “They played sound fundamental football. And we did not,” said Brewster head coach Travis Todd. Quincy never trailed in the game, scoring first on a 35-yard touchdown run by Jackson Yeates with 11:21 left in the second quarter. The Jacks recovered a Brewster fumble and capitalized on it with a pass from quarterback Ethan Gregg to David Gudino that put the ball on the 2-yard line. Gregg scored from two yards out to put Quincy up 14-0 at the half. “I thought the kids came out and played hard from the start,” Elliot said. “We’d had an issue with that.” ...

Fire destroys Wilbur-Ellis fertilizer plant

MOSES LAKE - Sunday afternoon a building at the Wilbur-Ellis fertilizer and blending facility, located at 14903 Road 1.3 Southeast, caught fire and burned to the ground. “This facility is not very old and they built it specifically to where it is 100% wood construction so that it doesn’t have any corrosion issues with the fertilizer,” said Grant County Fire District 5 Battalion Chief Robert Horst. “Fertilizer will corrode metal so they built it 100% wood so that's why it went (up in flames) so fast and so quick. One, because of all of the fertilizer but two, because of being 100% wood construction.” Grant County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman said a call about black smoke coming from the elevator was placed at about 3:15 p.m...

Maverick slow pitch off to 4-0 start

Older student-athletes credited with strong leadership

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Mavericks have started 2022 with a 4-0 record in slow pitch softball, with sweeps of Chiawana and Hermiston in the first four games. The Mavericks opened the season with back-to-back wins over Chiawana, winning 4-2 and 7-6 last week. On Tuesday, Moses Lake won both games over Hermiston by a score of 10-0. “It feels good that we came out and played clean on defense,” Moses Lake head coach Mike Hofheins said. “We got the sweep last Thursday against a really good team, and didn’t play tremendous defense – so that’s one of the things we kind of talked about since then.” ...

Ephrata Chamber to host first business expo

EPHRATA — The Ephrata Chamber of Commerce will host its first annual Business Expo Wednesday. The new event has received unexpected, but welcome support, chamber officials said. “Our goal was 25 businesses,” said Chamber Director Rita Witte. “We actually got 47.” ...

Regal save: New committee steps up to save Royal City Summerfest

ROYAL CITY — Yes, there will be a Summerfest. Back in December, the Royal City Summerfest committee put out a request on social media for new committee members because all of the existing members, who had shouldered the burden for years, were stepping down for a variety of reasons. By March, it was beginning to look as though the event would be history. Now, with a new committee chaired by Jonathan Cox of Royal City, the town’s biggest community event will take place on schedule, July 7-8...

Powering up

Design phase to begin for Wanapum Dam to Quincy line

QUINCY — The preliminary design phase for a new electrical transmission line from Wanapum Dam to Quincy should be starting in July. It’s part of a larger Grant County PUD project to increase electrical availability in the Quincy area, but Jeff Grizzel, the PUD’s chief operations officer, said getting the electricity to Quincy is only part of the equation. “We have a very long list of customers who either want to expand in the Quincy area because they’re already there, or new customers who want to locate in the Quincy area,” Grizzel said. “And right now, if you look at that list and add up all the service requests in terms of how many megawatts they’re asking for, the (project being planned) will help many of those requests, but not all of them.” ...

UPDATED: Active shooter arrested at Gorge Amphitheater

GEORGE – An evening shooting at The Gorge Amphitheatre campground near George has left two victims dead and three people, including the shooter, injured, according to Grant County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman. “At about 8:20 p.m. or thereabouts, there was a shooting in the campground. The shooter was fleeing the scene and also firing shots,” Foreman said...

On to state

Warriors headed to SCAC final

MATTAWA – Wahluke clinched its spot in the 1A State Boys Soccer Tournament with a 5-0 win over Wapato on Tuesday, highlighted by a three-goal first half and two second-half goals by senior Juan Bravo. The two teams that make it to the South Central Athletic Conference final automatically qualify for state. The Warriors will face off against Highland in the SCAC final on Saturday. “We wanted to come prepared, ready to give it all,” junior Brian Herrera said. “We wanted to be able to accomplish this and get ready for Saturday.” ...

“All or nothing at this point”

After a regional championship, Ephrata’s Sager moves on to State

EPHRATA – Senior Hudson Sager entered the 2A Boys Region 4 tournament with goals of making it to state – and avenging a loss he took in the first-place match of the Central Washington Athletic Conference district tournament.

Bingo-ing out cancer

Local taproom, sheriff host game night to support Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation.

MOSES LAKE — The cage spun, the little balls went clack-clack-clack, and a hand reached in to pull one out. “B-9,” Grant County Sheriff Joe Kriete shouted over the sea of voices, and a room full of people looked up from their beverages and marked their cards...

Soap Lake confident heading into new season

SOAP LAKE – Eagles Head Coach Garrett Devine said that the team is much stronger than they were last season. Soap Lake’s first game of the season is Friday, where they will be playing against Wilbur-Creston-Keller at 7:00 p.m.

Braced for growth

Soap Lake real estate market comparable to other areas, but still soft

SOAP LAKE — The real estate market in Soap Lake is similar to other surrounding areas, but still not as strong as it could be with lower inventory and a softening market, said Realty Executives Grant County Broker Raymond Gravelle. Gravelle is also the president of the Grant County Association of Realtors and served as the mayor of Soap Lake from 2014 to 2019. “We do have an inventory crunch … Our inventory is still low. That is keeping pressure on the prices,” said Gravelle. “In the past three years, there's been 23 new homes sold with average stays on market of 35 (days) and an average price of $324,509. So today's average price is four percent lower than the average price over the past three years.”

Crusading against domestic violence

Auction buyers, donors Man Up to support New Hope in battling household violence

MOSES LAKE — If you see folks wearing purple at the Moses Lake Roundup this year, it’s not just a fashion statement. They’re manning up. For the last several years, the Moses Lake Roundup has partnered with New Hope Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services in Moses Lake in the Man Up Crusade, both to raise awareness of domestic violence and to raise funds to actually do something about it...

Resurgent Biden starts Super Tuesday with big Virginia win

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden notched his first major Super Tuesday victory, winning battleground Virginia to start the most pivotal night of the Democratic presidential primary and add to a remarkable political comeback that looked unthinkable just last week.

Voter turnout strong for Super Tuesday vote in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A hotly contested Democratic nominating contest brought strong turnout and busy polling places on Super Tuesday in Utah.