By Rikki King
Evergreen news editor
Ever wondered how we decide front-page content for the paper?
Well, here’s a glimpse. This is my storyboard/calendar for our first month of content.
Something about method and madness? Mostly madness.
See the earlier versions here or here.
Any thing we missed, undercovered or overcovered? You be the judge.
NOTE: A version of this post appeared earlier on my personal blog.
Last Halloween was an eventful night in Pullman. Between Chewbacca’s alleged unwanted sexual advances to plain old street fights in costume, Pullman PD was out in force trying to keep people safe.
This young man walking home tries to get a ride from an officer passing by in a police cruiser but the officer refuses.
Two men dressed up as members of the famous rock band KISS see the conversation and once the officer leaves start antagonizing the man for speaking to the officer. They tell him he can’t walk on the same side of the street as them if he was going to talk to police and when he ignores them they beat him up.
After being assaulted, the man tries to follow the two costumed assailants back to their house but he loses while calling Pullman PD. An officer arrives on scene and they survey the area. The officer notices that a man comes to the door of a nearby house, looks out, sees the officer, retreats inside and then turns off the porch lights.
The officer approaches the house and knocks. In his report, the officer notes that someone would come to the front room, peek out through the blinds and then retreat back into the house. After knocking about four times a man comes to the door. He says he will cooperate and answer questions but gives the officer the run-around when he asks the man questions.
The officer leaves the porch and tells the victim the men who attacked him might be in the house but there was nothing he could do at that time. The officer stayed in the area for some time but didn’t see anyone matching the description of either attacker so he left.
The case was then closed. If you have any information about this case you should contact the Pullman Police Department.
If you want to see the entire report click here for page 1 and here for page 2.
Posted by Dominick Bonny
This was a letter to the editor we got about a column by writer Derrick Skaug where he gave his views on why Washington should ban assault rifles. He said hunters don’t need fully automatic carbine rifles and that they have the potential to bring great misery when they fall into the hands of would-be mass murders like Maj. Hasaan, the Fort Hood shooter.
“Re your posting on the necessity of a gun . .
Kudos to your reporter Derrick Skaug . . for his reasoned posting . .
However, in Canada, the country I supported 10 years in the military
and 30 years municipally, we have a gun fear, stoked by hand-wringing
females and those poet-driven Phd’s, that guns are more dangerous
than a pit bull . .
This hoplophobic fear has grown with every shooting where citizens are
killed by gang -bangers.
A knife killing? Below the radar . . . But . . guns . .
Yes, when a firearm IS used legally, properly, the media closes ranks
and puts the incident on IGNORE . . big time . .
The legal, proper use of a gun goes by the sidelines, and the perp
is given the leniency largesse Canada is famous for . . a reduced sentence . .
Criminal Code: Life imprisonment . . for armed robbery with a gun
The courts ? . . Four years . . anything wrong with this picture ? . .
What’s wrong . . I submit IS the attitude of our judges, they are NOT
our judges . . anymore, ( if they ever were ) . .
Judges express a dim view of crime . . that is to say they can barely see it . .”
Due to the creative punctuation and the fact that we couldn’t tell if it is a poem or not we decided to post it this blog.
This picture will probably not make sense to about 99.9% of people reading this post. We thought it would be in your interest to know a bit about the people who make your local paper, so we included this.
This image was created by news editor Rikki King after a lengthy discussion with Al Donnelley, our general manager. He imparted to us his close encounter with a peregrine falcon, and she felt the appropriate response was to come up with a LOLfalcon image for him. Just a snippet of some good old fashion newsroom fun. If you want to experience some of it yourself, click here and apply with us today. Now, the meme of the future: LOLfalcon.
The Evergreen recently broke a story about a convicted sex offender who had been hired to teach American Social Dance at WSU. He was fired after university officials learned that he had not disclosed his criminal history during the application process.
His name is Geoff Lee Keller. You can read the original story here.
Keller plead guilty to three counts of lewd conduct with a minor under 16 in March 2006 in Nez Perce County, Idaho. The Evergreen requested those court records.
According to the case record, Keller was guilty of three counts of sexual misconduct with two different minors, one 14 and the other 15.
Here is the first count: » Read more: Geoff Keller court documents
By Rikki King
Evergreen news editor
Last night, I left the stuffy newsroom early to go cover Jackson Katz’ speech about men and gender violence
Katz, a filmmaker, author and social theorist, spoke to a packed CUB Auditorium about what men can do to fight gender violence and how society has trained men to ignore it. V-Day WSU co-sponsored Katz’s visit to help promote the upcoming Vagina Monologues. (You can read the whole story here.)
But here’s what didn’t make the front-page story. » Read more: Reporter’s Notebook: The Jackson Katz speech
Here at the Evergreen we frequently get letter to the editors that for whatever reason don’t fit the publishing criteria of the newspaper. Usually it’s because the people writing the letters are crazy. But sometimes people have something substantial to say but they don’t want to say it in a conventional way.
That’s why we started this segment called, “Not quite letters to the editor” where we will publish the letters that aren’t way out there but don’t fit well into the paper. Enjoy!
This letter is from a student who chose to communicate with us under the pen name “McSpankins.”
“To the Daily Evergreen,
This is a text I have been compelled to convey. If it is acceptable for print please feel free to add it to your wonderful publication.
An air of respect amongst bike riders should be held. Responsibility for one’s actions is paramount in order to build trust within our community. As summer nears and the weather warms, the number of bikes around campus is sure to increase. This is a call for integrity.
If you do choose to print this I would appreciate it if my name is replaced by my pen name, McSpankins.
Thank you, and enjoy:
Today a student at WSU confessed to the world, through action, his apparent lack of balls.
This morning an unlocked bike, left by a rider trusting in the goodwill of his peers, was taken from it’s stand and tossed unceremoniously to to ground just feet from it’s original, trusting, perch. This trespasser of trust must have felt a deep-seated urge to announce to the world his lack of balls. This ball-less urge could be satisfied only if he removed the unlocked bike in order to make space for his own gray Bridgeport mountain bike. This much is clear. For there were six available spots this morning in front of Johnson Hall. But this meant sharing a stand and denying the urge to let the world know there are no balls in that crotch.
But wait. . . Maybe I’m judging too soon.
Maybe I’m missing a key fact to understand the true meaning of these events. Maybe this bike has custom modifications for a rider without balls and needs extra space for the shame it carries. Nonetheless, the ball-less rider chose to drop the unlocked bike to the ground rather than show it it’s due respect. A clear cry of confession to ball-less-ness.”
-McSpankins
Thank you McSpakins for your concern for the community and the bikes we ride.
Posted by Dominick Bonny
The Daily Evergreen recently procured the court documents and sheriff’s affidavit regarding the hit and run accident in which two WSU students were injured last semester. University of Idaho employee Daniel Noble was the man driving the car. He has been found incompetent to stand trial and a judge has ordered that he be placed under mental evaluation for 90 days to asses his mental fitness.
In this page from the sheriff’s affidavit, WSU Police Officer Monte Griffen gives his account of the incident and says that witnesses saw Noble strike the first student and keep driving:
He hit the first student in the crosswalk, kept going and near McCoy Hall left the roadway and hit the second student on the sidewalk. After that Noble decided to stop:
According to witnesses, Noble got out the car and was visibly upset:
Officers decided to arrest Noble. At this point he became resistant:
Even after being Tased, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car Noble was still trying to fight.
The report also details some of the victims injuries and where the car hit them. According to the affidavit, both students suffered broken legs from the accident and one had a big cut on his forehead.
Blood, hair and a piece of one of the victims’ scalps was found stuck under the weather stripping, on the top of the windshield and on the driver’s side door.
You can read each page of the documents here:
Posted By Dominick Bonny
WSU Communication professor David Demers is suing WSU for violating his First Amendment rights. He says that under the interim leadership of Prof. Erica Austin the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and its faculty treated him like a “pariah” because he voiced his opinions about the curriculum and the school’s emphasis on communication theory.
These are some of his complaints: 
Demers says that he threatened other faculty in the Murrow school because of his emphasis on a practical communication education rather than communication theory.
He says because of the unpopularity of his beliefs he was shunned by his peers:
This the redress he seeks:
Here are links to each page of the lawsuit where you can read his complaints, justification and the rest of what he seeks:
Posted by Dominick Bonny
In September of last year this student was downstairs dancing in one of the cages at Stubblefield’s bar when he was grabbed from behind and choked until he blacked out.
He awoke on the floor next to the elevated dancing platform and his friends helped him out of the bar. He told police that he didn’t see who attacked him and that he didn’t know why anyone would want to.
He told the police that he had no enemies at the bar and he probably just bumped into someone and made them angry, prompting the attack. His friends did see him being grabbed but they couldn’t identify the person or persons who did it.
Stubblefield’s has approximately 16 cameras dispersed throughout the bar but this incident in question wasn’t captured on film because it happened in a blind spot. Officers went and reviewed the tape and told the victim of the circumstances. He decided that having officers pursue the case would be was of time so the case was moved to inactive status because of an “uncooperative victim.”
If you have any information about this case, contact Pullman Police Department at (509) 332-2521.
To see the report in it’s entirety click here for page 1. Here for page 2. And here for page 3.
Posted by Dominick Bonny
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