Newsbriefs

Wal-Mart donates for car seats

Omak Wal-Mart employees, through their foundation, recently made a $500 cash gift to Coulee Medical Center to purchase seven infant car seats.

Coulee Medical Center CEO Scott Graham said the hospital appreciated the cash gift and noted: “By law, every newborn must leave our facility in an approved infant car seat. This gift means a number of babies will be able to go home … as quickly and safely as possible.”

Students to eye college interests

Six students from Lake Roosevelt High School will travel to the University of Washington next week to look over the UW campus and contact officials in the area of their general study interest. Making the trip and their areas of interest are: Brandin Smith, psychology; Hillary Carriere, nurse practitioner; Charli Knight, pre-law; Mary Ann Matheson, teaching; Brady Black, engineering; and Ashley Lezard, pharmacy. Victor Camarena is leading the group and the board approved the travel request Monday night.

County must

recount votes

Okanogan County Auditor Laurie K. Thomas had to certify the Nov. 6 election results Tuesday, but a recount is required in the race between two Republicans running for county commissioner in District 2.

The contest between Bud Hover and Ray Campbell favored Campbell by 10 votes, only six hundredths of a percent, 7,194 - 7,184.

Sorting ballots by the county’s 226 precincts was slated to start Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m., with the manual ballot recount tentatively set for 9 a.m. Dec. 3., according to Mila Jury, the county’s certified election administrator and chief deputy auditor.

Heroin ring foiled

A significant heroin trafficking ring was broken up last week with a cross-state effort, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday.

The joint Moses Lake Police and INET investigation spanned several months and uncovered a heroin narcotics trafficking ring moving drugs between Moses Lake and the Seattle area.

After a search warrant was executed last week in the Moses Lake area, several people were taken into custody and heroin seized.

INET detectives determined the heroin was coming out of the Seattle area and traveled to Bellevue, Wash. where they teamed up with the Eastside Narcotics Task Force.

Undercover drug buys were conducted in the Seattle area resulting in five arrests — among them Matthew R. Dizzard, 25, and Caspar J.S. Wandler, 22, both from Seattle. Investigators seized over four ounces of heroin, a handgun, and almost $7,000 in cash.

The investigation continues.

Supervised by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, the Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team is made up of detectives from the sheriff’s office, Washington State Patrol, Quincy Police Department and Moses Lake Police Department.

Cold tips

Grass growth has just about slowed to a stop, note Grant/Adams Counties Master Gardeners in their latest newsletter, “Grounded”. But if your lawn has grown taller than the regular mowing height, you should mow it one more time. It should not be left extra long going into winter, as there are some diseases that can attack lawns during the winter months and long grass is conducive to these turf diseases. Extra short grass can make your lawn more vulnerable to winter drying and cold temperature injury.