A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Covering the county seat
R. HANS MILLER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 4 months AGO
Managing Editor Rob Miller is a 4-year U.S. Army veteran who grew up in Western Montana in a community about the size of Soap Lake. An honors graduate of Texas State University, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Brandee, and their three dogs, Draco, Pepper and Cinnamon. He has one son, William. During his free time, he enjoys photography, video games, reading and working on the house he and his wife bought in Ephrata. He is passionate about the First Amendment and educating communities. | July 27, 2023 1:30 AM
Last month, the Grant County Journal ran its last issue after more than a century of publishing and serving Ephrata and the surrounding area.
The Columbia Basin Herald is committed to ensuring readers in the Grant County seat have strong local news coverage. While we will continue to have coverage of Ephrata, Soap Lake and the surrounding area throughout the week, we’ll dedicate space each Thursday to covering the Ephrata area on the Ephrata Insider page or pages. The amount of coverage will depend on the size of the paper and what is happening in the area.
We’ll still serve the other cities of Grant and Adams counties throughout the week, including on Thursdays. We’ll simply have a bit of dedicated space to the goings-on in Ephrata, including city and county government, Grant County Sheriff’s Office and Ephrata Police Department news and other information.
As part of our efforts to ensure no news desert exists in the Columbia Basin, we invite people living in Ephrata and Soap Lake to give us a try. We’re offering readers in that area a special one-month trial at no cost to them. If you previously subscribed to the Journal, you’ll begin receiving the paper automatically. If you hadn’t subscribed to the Journal, simply call our office at 509-765-4561 and provide us with your name and an Ephrata or Soap Lake address. We’ll get your trial started right away.
To our readers in other cities – we want to assure you that you’re still going to be receiving the best coverage we can provide. Coverage of Ephrata will allow you to see how your city relates to the Grant County seat and will cover some amazing events like this weekend’s car show and important information from county offices that impact you in your home. You’ll even get to see how the Tigers are doing as your students’ teams prepare to face them on the field or court.
Whether you’re in Ephrata, Soap Lake, Coulee City or Ritzville, I invite you to reach out to me and give me any news tips that can help the paper cover the Columbia Basin thoroughly. If you’re concerned about a public policy issue, send me a letter to the editor. For either, simply shoot me an email at [email protected] and I’ll follow up as needed.
Take care of yourselves and stay cool as you’re bringing in the harvest or simply trying to catch that trout. Thank you for your readership.
With appreciation,
R. Hans “Rob” Miller
Managing Editor
ARTICLES BY R. HANS MILLER
Awareness helps prevent porch pirates’ success
EPHRATA — At least 58 million packages were stolen in the U.S. last year, with about 25% of Americans being the victims of theft, according to the United States Parcel Service. At the local level, there are thefts occurring regularly as well, but that doesn’t mean that you’re stuck being the victim, authorities say. “The experience of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office is that package theft happens regularly,” said GCSO Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman. “It is a crime of opportunity. When someone’s out looking to try and make a quick buck, they may drive through a neighborhood looking for unattended packages on the front porch.”
Gorge shooting trial rescheduled to 2026
EPHRATA — The trial in the case of James Kelly, the man charged in the June 2023 shooting that led to the deaths of two women at the Beyond Wonderland music festival held at The Gorge Amphitheatre, has been bumped to early next year, according to court documents.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: In appreciation of educators ...
An experience I recently had with a school district, quite honestly, has left me gob-smacked a bit. I am in awe of the teachers and administrators at school districts throughout the region and what they have to deal with. Let me get back to the beginning, though. Journalists often cover a wide variety of topics and are constantly looking for ideas for stories that will matter to readers. As such, when we hear of events of interest, we sometimes ask to attend so we can either cover it, or, as in this case, learn how to cover a topic better.