Warden man gets 23 years after guilty plea
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 5 months AGO
SPOKANE — A Warden man has been sentenced to 23 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in late March to child sex trafficking and possession of child pornography, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Carlos Salgado Velasquez, 30, made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual conduct with four teenage girls — two of whom were 14 when he started — in exchange for gifts and payment. In addition, Salgado Velasquez took video of the encounters with his cell phone, according to court documents.
““This case was pursued as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the United States Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph Harrington.
According to the plea deal, Salgado Velasquez said he met the girls on online adult dating sites, and met three of his victims at an unnamed motel in Moses Lake. Two of the victims also allege Salgado Velasquez was violent during their encounters, though Grant County has dropped all charges against the defendant as part of Salgado Velasquez’s plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to prosecutors, Salgado Velasquez swapped text and Facebook messages with Moses Lake resident Donald L. Ricker, who pleaded guilty in July 2019 to producing child pornography in June 2018. Ricker, who faces up to 30 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31.
ARTICLES BY CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Potato prices up, sales down for first quarter 2023
DENVER — The value of grocery store potato sales rose 16% during the first three months of 2023 as the total volume of sales fell by 4.4%, according to a press release from PotatoesUSA, the national marketing board representing U.S. potato growers. The dollar value of all categories of U.S. potato products for the first quarter of 2023 was $4.2 billion, up from $3.6 billion for the first three months of 2022. However, the total volume of potato sales fell to 1.77 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 1.85 billion pounds during the same period of 2022, the press release noted. However, total grocery store potato sales for the first quarter of 2023 are still above the 1.74 billion pounds sold during the first three months of 2019 – a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press release said.
WSU Lind Dryland Research Station welcomes new director
LIND — Washington State University soil scientist and wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey was a bit dejected as he stood in front of some thin test squares of stunted, somewhat scraggly spring wheat at the university’s Lind Dryland Research Station. “As you can see, the spring wheat is having a pretty tough go of it this year,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging to stand in front of plots that are going to yield maybe about seven bushels per acre. Or something like that.” Barely two inches of rain have fallen at the station since the beginning of March, according to station records. Pumphrey, speaking to a crowd of wheat farmers, researchers, seed company representatives and students during the Lind Dryland Research Station’s annual field day on Thursday, June 15, said years like 2023 are a reminder that dryland farming is a gamble.
Wilson Creek hosts bluegrass gathering
WILSON CREEK — Bluegrass in the Park is set to start today at Wilson Creek City Park. The inaugural event is set to bring music and visitors to one of Grant County’s smallest towns. “I've been listening to bluegrass my whole life,” said the event’s organizer Shirley Billings, whose family band plays on their porch every year for the crowd at the Little Big Show. “My whole family plays bluegrass. And I just wanted to kind of get something for the community going. So I just invited all the people that I know and they’ll come and camp and jam.” ...