YAKIMA, Wash. - Bill Cook is set to retire next month after a 12-year run as the city of Yakima’s director of community and economic development, and one of City Manager Dick Zais’ top aides.

Cook came to the city in 1997 after stints in Austin, Texas, and Schenectady, N.Y., where he amassed an extensive background in community development, zoning and code enforcement, federal housing, planning and land-use regulations.

In a written statement, Zais praised Cook’s leadership in helping manag

Yakima County Prosecutor Jim Hagarty called the other day to add his thoughts on the Legislature’s shiny new overdose immunity law.

Before he became the county’s top prosecutor, Hagarty was a federal prosecutor who handled lots of big drug trafficking cases. He’s on a first-name basis with just about every undercover narc in the county.

Like other local law enforcement officials, Hagarty says he’s mystified how an overdose law gets traction with the Legislature while gang bills went nowher

For the record, Yakima Valley Museum Director John Baule did apply for a spot on the Yakima’s new Arts Commission.

In a post I wrote last week about the circular makeup of the arts commission, several readers posted comments claiming the influential City Hall insider never applied.

I checked with the city of Yakima today, and confirmed that Baule did apply. I knew he had, because I had a copy of his application. See PDF

However, city staff told me today that Baule verbally withdrew from con

How much do connections count? Somehow it’s not surprising that just about everybody on the new Yakima Arts Commission knows each other.

The City Council officially appointed the Arts Commission Tuesday, naming Councilwoman Kathy Coffey and 14 others to the commission.

The commission’s goal is to champion public art in a city not known for it, and to vet projects in a way that avoids a repeat of the North Front Street Historic District sculpture controversy.

The process had been held up for

YAKIMA, Wash. -- One of state Rep. Norm Johnson’s gang bills took a big step Thursday, making it out of committee in the state Senate.

The measure, House Bill 2414, passed the House 90-6 earlier this month. It will now head to the Senate Rules Committee for possible action by the whole Senate. Johnson, a Yakima Republican who prime-sponsored the bill in the House, is hopeful for that outcome.

“A step at a time,” he said by phone from Olympia. “The next step is Rules, and I don’t think there

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. - Sunnyside is still having troubles with its dance halls, or at least one of them.

Marty and Peggy Beeler, owners of Sunnyside RV Park, addressed City Council on Monday night with a laundry list of concerns over their dance hall neighbor, Athenas Paradise. They showed pictures of litter, public urination, tire burnout marks and beer bottles strewn in the parking stalls of a business two doors away — all taken during and after a party last Saturday night.

“Business as usual

Rep. Doc Hastings toured Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences Friday, greeting students and getting a primer on cadavers. Hastings drew a laugh when he asked how long a cadaver can last in the anatomy lab.

“What is, for lack of a better word, the life cycle of a cadaver?” the Pasco Republican asked Robyn Phillips-Madson, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The answer: one school year.

Phillips-Madson said students treat the bodies with dignity and respect. When they are fi

By total coincidence, I happened to be visiting Bremerton on Tuesday, the same day that city's hometown artist Will Robinson was installing his controversial granite sculpture in Yakima.

That said, I wasn’t surprised when I stumbled across Robinson’s unmistakable handiwork at Bremerton’s Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Memorial Plaza.

Unlike our North Front Street standalone curlicue, Robinson’s work in Bremerton is far more ambitious. Polished boulders and sculptures stretch the length of the b

“The city of Yakima should make it illegal for panhandlers to solicit money within 25 feet of a pothole within the city of Yakima. Problem solved!”

- Reader Jack McCormick of Yakima, killing two birds with one stone via a letter to the editor

Representatives of the Yakima police union were no-shows at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, robbing the otherwise mundane proceedings of any suspense.

The union’s lawyer had said representatives would attend the meeting to complain personally about an alleged threatening remark made by police Chief Sam Granato.

With the complaint the subject of a behind-closed-doors executive session before the meeting got under way, union officials apparently realized they didn’t need to go.

For sure they’