Latest Yakima, Washington Stories

By Ross Courtney, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 30--BICKLETON -- Rick Gray grew up here, helping his parents raise cattle and dryland wheat. That's what he's doing on his own 6,000 acres now. But Gray is cultivating something his folks never did -- natural resources. He has leased land to two natural gas exploration companies, as well as a wind turbine firm that plans to begin construction in 2010. Delta Petroleum of Denver is drilling an exploratory natural gas well in the...

By Pat Muir, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 28--Barry James is 39 and has no illusions about the rare form of cancer that returned to his liver in February; he knows it's likely to kill him. But that's not going to keep him from running and biking and lifting weights. It won't keep him from teaching second grade. It won't keep him from spending time with his wife and playing with his son. "Realistically this stuff may catch up to me at some point," James said. "But I've always said,...

By Jean Guerrero, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 28--SELAH -- Short of a time machine, your best chance to see a Columbian mammoth is on a hillside overlooking the Wenas Valley where anthropology students are excavating one that died an estimated 16,000 years ago. Since the bones were discovered about three years ago, Central Washington University students and professors have uncovered ribs, a shoulder blade, vertebrae and several arm and leg bones of the creature that probably stood...

By James Joyce III, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 27--Students from four lower Yakima Valley high schools are learning what it takes to be a teacher. Twenty-four high school students who aspire to be teachers gained valuable experience this week, allowing them a chance to follow that dream. The Recruiting Washington Teachers program launched with a three-day academy at Heritage University in Toppenish. Thursday was the final day of the academy, the first part in the year-long...

By Scott Sandsberry, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 26--If the sockeye run continues at record levels and Lake Wenatchee ends up having its fifth fishing season on sockeye salmon in 25 years, that will be "five seasons too many, if you ask me." So says lakeshore resident Byron Dickinson, who could count a traffic jam of nearly 300 boats from his back yard when the first Lake Wenatchee sockeye fishery was held in 1984. Dickinson, 73, yearns for bygone days when the lake's best fishing was...

By Mai Hoang, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 26--Delta officials plan to reinstate the flight July 7, only to pull it back out of operation Aug. 18. The flight was taken out of operation for the second time this year May 1. The latest announcement is irritating to Yakima airport manager Buck Taylor. He, along with business and city officials, spent two years and raised $150,000 for marketing and more than $455,000 in prepaid purchases of Delta Air Lines tickets to draw the airline...

By Jane Gargas This Yakima man has ridden a wave to statewide honors. Gov. Chris Gregoire honored Dan Haller for his leadership skills Tuesday during a ceremony in Olympia. Haller, who works for the state Department of Ecology, was one of 26 state government managers saluted by the governor. A technical and policy expert on water resources, irrigation efficiencies and crop management, Haller works with farmers, ranchers, irrigators, tribes and other agencies. He helps promote and...

It pioneered online education in Central Washington, venturing into the world of virtual schools when they were -- virtually -- nonexistent. Along the way, the founder became a symbol of distant learning's meteoric rise in popularity, students signed up from around the world and staff members moved into plush, high-rise offices in downtown Yakima. But something went awry. By this spring, the founder was gone, the offices abandoned and an out-of-state educator had taken charge. It's a story of...

By Ross Courtney, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 20--A chest cold had crept up on him the night before as he finished the endless chores of his start-up farm. He didn't want to drive sick all the way to his house in Pasco. All those chores -- disking soil, planting tomatoes and contending with irrigation pipes that seem to leak faster than he can patch them -- would be waiting for him the next day, cold or no cold. He may as well get an early start. A new farm requires sacrifices...

By Scott Sandsberry, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash. Jun. 19--YAKIMA -- A fishing trip to Mud Lake used to be a short jaunt. Now it's a long journey -- and a dicey one at that. For Layne Hansen of Naches and all the other anglers who liked the four-acre lake's hungry trout and its proximity to town -- the old access road was less than three miles past the "Y" on the State Route 410 side -- this is an inconvenience. But it's less of one than that faced by the Horseshoe Bend landowners whose...