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A Washington mayor called 911 to report a group of petition signature gatherers at Walmart and described them as "far right-wing" because she did not agree with their politics. In the audio of the Sept. 3 call obtained by The Post Millennial, Yakima Mayor Janice Deccio said, "There’s some far-right-wing petitioners at Walmart, and they don’t — they’re not leaving. Walmart has asked them repeatedly to do so, and the police have not taken them off the premises." The 911 dispatcher and a supervisor informed Deccio that the petitioners have a legal right to gather signatures on private property under...

At least three people were killed in what police have called a “random shooting” that took place early Tuesday morning at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington. The gunman, who police believe to be 21-year-old Jarid Haddock, is still at large. “It appears to be a random situation. There was no apparent conflict between the parties,” Yakima Police Chief Matt Murray said in a video shared on the department’s Facebook page. “The male just walked in and started shooting.” Murray said police received calls around 3:30 a.m. of a man shooting people at a Circle K store. Upon arrival, officers...

Washington State Trooper in Yakima, Wash. signs off after 22 years — fired by Gov Inslee for being unvaccinated. “This is the last time you’ll hear me in a patrol car and Jay Inslee can kiss my ass.”

UNION GAP, WA - During a press conference on Thursday the Yakima Valley Office of Emergency Management (YVOEM) gave an update on the Rattlesnake Ridge landslide. They also mentioned new work that is set to begin next week near the landslide. YVOEM says the movement of the landslide has been decreasing since April. "The most recent surveys indicate that the fastest moving point is about .85 feet per week and the slowest moving point is .20 feet per week," said Horace Ward, Senior Emergency Planner at YVOEM. Ward says next week new equipment is set to be installed, "There is...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Police say a Yakima man suspected of assaulting of a 13-year-old girl was arrested while re-entering the country from Mexico earlier this month. Juan Acevedo-Giron, 22, was taken into custody on March 7 after giving his name to a U.S. Border Patrol officer who saw he had a warrant for his arrest, said Yakima police spokesman Mike Bastinelli. Acevedo-Giron is accused of assaulting the girl Feb. 9 by forcing his way into her bedroom and threatening her with a screwdriver after she refused his demands to remove her clothes Police say she was stabbed her in the...

A mysterious cluster of severe birth defects in rural Washington state is confounding health experts, who say they can find no cause, even as reports of new cases continue to climb. Federal and state officials won’t say how many women in a three-county area near Yakima, Wash., have had babies with anencephaly, a heart-breaking condition in which they’re born missing parts of the brain or skull. And they admit they haven't interviewed any of the women in question, or told the mothers there's a potentially widespread problem. But as of January 2013, officials with the Washington state health department and...

Pendleton died in 1944 in Bardenburg, Germany, sacrificing himself to help knock out enemy machine guns that had pinned down his unit. The council first considered the petition — which was backed by two veterans groups — in August, but it hesitated when a resident objected, saying the city hadn’t fairly considered his group’s 2006 proposal to rename the street after civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez. Having determined that the city duly considered the earlier petition, the City Council passed the current proposal. But the resident who objected, Alonzo Marquez, accused the council of “race discrimination,” and threatened...

“Actually, I’ve been praying about it,” the 70-year-old said about taking the gun training class at the Yakima church. “For protection.” She was among more than a dozen women enrolled in the five-hour class in how to properly handle and shoot a gun. As incongruous as it may seem to hold firearms training in a church, it’s not unheard of. Since the Newtown, Conn., massacre in December, at least a dozen churches across the country have been holding similar classes as a way to reach out to non-Christians and attract new members, according to news reports. The movement has led...

Two notorious abortion mills have closed or are scheduled to close, contributing to the national trend of clinic closures first documented by Operation Rescue last year in "Project Daniel 5:25."  In Yakima, Washington, the Cedar Women's Clinic, which was the first abortion clinic to open in that city 31 years ago, closed Monday due to a dramatic decrease in the demand for abortions. According to statistics kept by the state, the abortion rate for women ages 15 to 44 dropped from 18 per 1,000 in 2008 to 16.7 per 1,000 in 2009. One abortion clinic remains in Yakima.  In...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- In 2005, gang members gunned down a reputed drug dealer and his 3-year-old daughter in Yakima. On May 30 this year, a brazen daylight shooting killed an 18-year-old Yakima man in a gang-related dispute. Both times, Yakima police Chief Sam Granato said the homicides were perfect examples of why the federal government should lead a Yakima-based Safe Streets task force dedicated to combating what he describes as the growing complexity of Yakima's gangs. "I think we are going to be dealing with a lot more sophisticated gang members from here on out," Granato said. It's looks like...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging the Department of Justice to place additional law enforcement resources in Yakima County. The letter is being sent after the brutal daylight execution of 18-year-old Daniel Rivera marked the ninth gang-related homicide in the City of Yakima this year.  “The Yakima County Gang Initiative and the people of Yakima County understand how to combat gang violence but they need support to succeed in their fight,” wrote Senator Murray. “I request that you deploy all necessary Department of Justice resources, led possibly by...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- With two wolf packs totaling about a dozen animals and more expected in the coming years, Washington state is grappling with a proposed wolf management plan. Authors of the plan called the process that produced it wrenching and polarizing. In short: a flashpoint issue.When it comes to attitudes about wolves, there seems to be no middle ground.Hunters are afraid wolves will decimate elk and deer populations. Ranchers fear the state’s newest alpha predator will wreak havoc on their livestock. Conservationists worry that hunters and ranchers will shoot the wolves despite state or federal protections.A recently released draft...

YAKIMA, Wash. — For the second time in five days, hundreds of angry people gathered in downtown Yakima for a "tea party" demonstration Wednesday in protest of federal bailout and stimulus spending

A buried treasure of trees A Washington state man who always loved to dig in the dirt unearths a petrified forest, covered by lava 15 million years ago while still upright. By Tomas Alex Tizon Times Staff Writer June 28, 2007 Yakima, Wash. — Clyde Friend's life changed the moment his bulldozer hit the first tree on a hot summer afternoon in 2002 as he leveled a hill behind his workshop. Chips flew everywhere, a small explosion of brown and white shards. He hopped off the dozer to investigate. There, embedded in the hill, was a mostly intact fossilized tree...

YAKIMA, Wash. The Yakima chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says it will shoot video of tomorrow's May Day immigration reform march in the city. Chapter president Bob Dameron says he was shocked by a similar march last year in which people carrying foreign flags demanded rights. A march and rally also is planned tomorrow in Seattle as part of a day of demonstrations across the United States and Mexico. The Seattle march is being planned by The Committee for General Amnesty and Social Justice." Organizers are calling for a moratorium on immigration raids and deportations. Last year thousands...

YAKIMA, Wash. - Mexican President Vicente Fox told hundreds of farm workers here Wednesday that his country and the United States can't go it alone in trying to fix immigration problems. "It's clear the purpose is to reach an agreement that can give security, that can give legality, that can give flow to the migrant people," Fox said in Spanish on his second day of a four-day visit to the western U.S. "I think we are closer to the end of this route. This is a shared responsibility, the immigration reform." Fox's speech came on the same day the U.S....

YAKIMA — Some farmers in Eastern Washington are looking to hire as many as 1,000 seasonal farmworkers from Mexico under a federal guest-worker program, as concerns about a labor shortage this season heighten. Last year, a severe drought in the Yakima Valley, as well as reduced crop size, enabled growers to avert a serious labor shortage, by most accounts. Still, two employers were able to justify hiring 90 workers from Thailand to harvest apples under the federal H-2A program, which allows farmers to bring in foreign workers if they can prove a labor shortage exists. This year's unprecedented recruiting comes...

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YAKIMA, Wash., July 30 - Vice President Dick Cheney sketched out the Bush campaign's counterattack against the newly nominated Democratic ticket on Friday, saying that both Senators John Kerry and John Edwards had failed to support the troops they helped send to war and that the Democrats' convention promised only increased taxes. The critique began as Mr. Cheney's wife, Lynne, introduced him at a rally here with a jab at the Democrats' convention in Boston. "Some politicians can't help themselves - they think they know better than the rest of us," she said, arguing that arrogance led the Democrats to...