KENNEWICK, Wash. -- A political newcomer out of the Tri-Cities plans to announce a 2010 run at the 4th District congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco.

Jay Clough, D-Kennewick, is a 33-year-old former Marine who works for the Hanford cleanup company Washington Closure Hanford and has never held or even sought elected office before.

“I’m a novice to the game,” he said.

A Central Washington University graduate with degrees in Pacific Asian studies and Chinese language, Clo

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Skamania County Auditor J. Michael Garvison, who earlier this year sought appointment to a state House seat in the 15th District, is under investigation by the state Auditor’s Office for his use of county funds.

The Clark County newspaper The Columbian first reported the investigation Friday, saying Garvison has billed the county $83,000 for travel expenses since the start of 2008. That includes payment for trips to Las Vegas, Montreal, Florida and Washington, D.C.

Garvison

When candidates for the Yakima City Council ask for your vote, most can claim it’s a civic duty they personally hold dear.

Voting records show that of the eight candidates, six have exemplary voting habits. Out of 26 elections since 2001, none of those six missed more than a few.

Two candidates, however, missed a bunch. That would be Sonia Rodriguez and Dave Ettl. As luck would have it, they’re in the same race.

Rodriguez, a family law attorney who was appointed to the council in December,

YAKIMA, Wash. -- It’s been a month since a judge threw out a partisan-tinged recall petition targeting Yakima City Councilman Rick Ensey. So why hasn’t he submitted a bill yet?

The City Council early on agreed to reimburse Ensey for his legal fees, leading to speculation by some that Ensey’s been delaying the inevitable as a way of protecting colleagues Bill Lover and Micah Cawley, who are up for re-election Tuesday.

“If they get their way, citizens won’t find out until the election’s over,”

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Yakima Valley wine industry in general got some major props in The Hill, a D.C. blog that’s popular with political types.

Just ignore the post about Sen. McCaskill’s adventures in spelling and go straight to the item “Obama serves G-20 leaders one of the world’s top wines.”

-- Chris Bristol

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — Sunnyside’s waste water treatment plant will be the final resting place for some of the chemicals at a natural gas well high in the Horse Heaven Hills.

Sunnyside City Council members on Monday voted 5-0 to allow Delta Petroleum to dispose of 400,000 gallons of potassium chloride at the waste water plant.

The Denver, Colo., company has spent more 16 months drilling a natural gas well about 12 miles southeast of Bickleton, but the company announced last month that its enginee

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — A room packed with soccer players, many of the wearing their jerseys, greeted Sunnyside City Council members at Monday’s meeting.

Well over 100 players and family members involved with two Sunnyside based soccer leagues crammed council’s chambers, filling all the chairs and huddling on foot near the door to voice their support for two proposed soccer fields at the Sunnyside Law and Justice Center.

“I wouldn’t be here without a lot of support and there’s really no doubt I ha

If Yakima City Councilwoman Sonia Rodriguez needs any pointers on how to overcome a big campaign deficit, she need look no further than colleague Bill Lover.

As a relative unknown in the 2005 primary, Lover got a wake-up call in the power of name recognition when he finished with 35 percent of the vote to 49 percent for then-mayor Paul George. (Perennial candidate Wiley Mills was the odd man out with 14 percent.)

But in the general election, Lover turned the tables and defeated George 53 perc

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Yakima City Council took care of several pieces of business Tuesday before the group hustled over to the Capitol Theatre en masse for the gang forum.

I didn’t have much room to work with after the meeting (in industry parlance, the news hole was very tight that night), so I concentrated on a $132,000 pilot program designed to save money by keeping mentally ill people out of jail.

In other business Tuesday, the council:
• Eased for the third year in a row fire code restrict

It’s true he’s 107 years old and suffers from neglect, but is the colonel really too frail to move?

Seven years ago there was talk of moving the Spanish-American War monument known simply as “the colonel” to the new National Guard armory off Ahtanum Road.

Nothing came of it, but a couple years later a new plan was floated to move it into the North Front Street Historic District.

The Front Street plan was scrapped over concerns the sandstone monument was too fragile to move. The issue recent