Scandal, controversy and bad weather grabbed Tri-City reader interest in 2019

The year just ended was one of change and controversy for the Tri-Cities area.

The Tri-City Herald story that drew the most attention by far from readers — as measured by online readership — was state Sen. Maureen Walsh’s comment during a heated debate on the Senate floor that nurses “probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day.”

An unusually cold and snowy winter had readers checking for the latest weather reports and to see whether classes and events had been canceled and what roads had been closed.

Government agencies were not short of controversy, from Hanford nuclear reservation fraud allegations to the buy-out of a school superintendent contract and the the takeover of the Benton County jail from an embattled sheriff.

And some high-readership news stories were just fun, like the family that was surprised that their Kennewick Man look-alike patriarch did indeed share a distant genetic link.

Here were the highest interest local non-crime news stories:

1. Washington senator’s remarks about nurses spark outrage

Outspoken state Sen. Maureen Walsh, D-Walla Walla, outraged nurses not only in the Tri-Cities but around the world when she said that some nurses “probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day.”

She was referring to nurses at very small, critical access hospitals and later said she didn’t believe even those nurses had time to play cards.

At the time she was engaged in a heated argument over a bill that would require breaks and mandatory overtime for nurses, not just at large, urban hospitals, but at rural hospitals without many patients like Dayton General Hospital in her legislative district.

It was a battle she lost, with the bill passing without excluding small hospitals, and hard-working nurses taking offense to her remark.

The Tri-City Herald’s story went viral, attracting readers from across the nation and beyond.

Nurses flooded the Capitol’s mail room with packages of playing cards.

Walsh apologized for the comments and in November she announced she would not run for reelection in 2020 after spending most of her adult life in politics.

2. Bitter winter storm kills cattle, closes airports and highways

An unusually snowy winter closed Tri-City businesses and roads, stranded travelers and kept kids home from school.

February went down in the record books as one of the coldest, wettest, snowiest Februaries in the Tri-Cities since records began being kept in the late 1800s.

In just that month 23 inches of snow were recorded at the National Weather Service’s Kennewick gauge.

More than a half a foot of snow fell on the second Saturday of February, closing parts of Interstates 82 and 90 and Highway 225 and 240. The Tri-Cities Airport shut down that afternoon.

Blizzard conditions that same weekend were blamed for the death of 1,800 cows in Eastern Washington, where winters are usually mild enough for them to stay in the fields.

Some farmers worked 36 hours to clear roads, put up windbreaks and provide feed and bedding.

The Washington State Dairy Federation put the monetary loss, mostly to 12 to 15 dairy farms in the Grandview and Sunnyside area west of the Tri-Cities at $3.5 million to $4 million.

3. Japanese exchange student’s video on Richland High’s mushroom cloud

Japanese exchange student Nonoka Koga spent much of her year at Richland High School, home of the Bombers, keeping quiet.

She was a little shocked to arrive at the high school and see students casually walking over a big green “R” over a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb. The school logo seemed to be everywhere, she said.

She lives not far from Nagasaki, Japan, where an atomic bomb loaded with plutonium produced at the Hanford nuclear reservation was dropped during World War II.

The mushroom cloud is a point of pride for many students and alumni, reminding them of those who worked long hours with few amenities in the dusty Eastern Washington desert to help win the war.

But to her the mushroom cloud was a symbol of those who died.

After spending the year learning about her classmate’s culture and history, she shared some of her own culture on AtomicTV, the school’s morning announcement program, on one of her last days at the high school.

“Should we have pride in killing innocent people?” she asked in the broadcast. That cloud rising form the ground is made up of what it destroyed, the city and the people, she said.

She heard there were some complaints after the video was shown. But many students and teachers told her they were proud of her, and her video was viewed and discussed across the Northwest as it spread through news coverage.

4. Lavish Kennewick mansion that hockey built sold at auction

The auction of the Kennewick mansion built by National Hockey League star Olie Kolzig and his wife Christin caught the attention of Tri-Cities readers.

The dream house built on 95 acres of Horse Heaven Hills countryside featured six bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a caretaker house, gym, game room, pool, 1,000-bottle wine cellar and other lucury touches.

The house and land sold for $3.5 million Oct. 5 to Garbir Sandhu who plans to develop the surrounding property into a subdivision with oversized lots of three to five acres each.

The Herald subscribers eager to read about the property and Kolzig — who had sold the house years earlier — may get a chance to see it in person. Sandhu plans to develop it into an events center.

5. Richland’s school superintendent-to-be went from shoo-in to being out

Nicole MacTavish moved from the heir apparent as Richland’s next school superintendent to no longer working for the school district in late June.

She had signed a superintendent contract a year earlier to take over the position when Superintendent Rick Schulte retired. But the day before she was to take over, she agreed to terminate the contract.

Richland school leaders have declined to discuss why she received a glowing evaluation at the end of the 2017-18 school year but then they were willing to pay her a large settlement to step aside.

MacTavish landed a job with the Reynolds School District in the suburbs of Portland as its chief academic officer, which could save the Richland School District some money.

Under the agreement to break the contract, it was allowed to pay her less if she found a job. The district could still be required to pay her as much as $233,000 over three years, however.

The search for a new school superintendent for the 13,700-student district has restarted, with Schulte agreeing to delay his retirement until after the end of the current school year.

6. Benton County sheriff faces personal and professional allegations

The Benton County Commission, in a split decision, took over the 740-bed county jail from Sheriff Jerry Hatcher in the fall, as the embattled sheriff faced criminal charges.

Hatcher was accused of choking his estranged wife during a fight about an alleged extramarital affair in a protection order she filed. Allegations of witness tampering involving his estranged wife also were raised.

He was charged with a felony and one gross misdemeanor by the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office, acting as special prosecutor in the case. But it almost immediately withdrew charges, saying more investigation was needed by the Washington State Patrol.

Hatcher has denied ever assaulting his wife or any other wrongdoing related to his messy divorce.

Commissioners remain in charge of the jail and have appointed a new commander and jail captain.

The Benton County Republican Party in December called for the county commissioners to reverse their decision to take over jail operations and start over with a financial analysis and citizen input.

At the same time, jail employees praise the takeover and say operations are better and safer.

7. A DNA test revealed a genetic surprise

Alexis Sanchez for years thought her father, Javier, was a dead ringer for the “The Ancient One” or Kennewick Man, as depicted in a sculpture of his head.

She was ecstatic after an at-home DNA test revealed her dad, Javier, shares a distant genetic link to the ancient man.

They’re part of the same paternal haplogroup a group that shares a common ancestor along the maternal or paternal line, according to the test.

Stories about Kennewick Man have been popular with Herald readers since his bones were discovered along the Columbia River in Kennewick during the 1996 Water Follies. The skeleton is among the oldest and most complete found in North America.

Advances in DNA analysis allowed a global team to make the first study of the 8,500-year-old bones in 2015. Scientists concluded that the DNA was closely related to contemporary Native Americans.

The bones of The Ancient One were reburied by members of five Columbia Plateau tribes and bands at an undisclosed location in 2017.

8. Picturesque Pasco farm sold to make way for over waterfront homes

The west Pasco farm overlooking the Columbia River that had operated since World War II sold in November to two winning bidders for just over $5 million.

The Harris family told the Herald they decided to sell the 45-acre homestead because the farm was too small, the land too valuable and it was time to simplify the family finances.

The sale was a “bittersweet day,” said auction house owner, Scott Musser. “It’s kind of the end of the legacy that’s been ongoing for seven decades, closing the chapter for Tri-Cities history.”

9. Parade of Homes builder files for bankruptcy. Tri-Citians and others owed $9.2 million

A prominent Tri-City home builder known for the luxurious Mediterranean-style villas it built for Parade of Homes closed its doors.

Solferino Homes Inc., which built on the Columbia River and in the hills of south Richland, folded after debts overwhelmed its assets, according to a petition to liquidate the company filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The company, led by Marco Solferino, didn’t have enough assets to cover its unsecured debt and the court was advising the home buyers, contractors and other business partners not to submit claims.

10. Feds sue, claiming kickbacks at Hanford defrauded taxpayers

The Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against Hanford nuclear reservation contractor Mission Support Alliance, accusing it and others of defrauding the federal government out of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Also named were Lockheed Martin and Lockheed Martin Services.

All defendants strongly deny the allegations of the lawsuit and have asked a federal court judge to dismiss the case.

The Department of Justice alleges that when Lockheed Martin owned Mission Support Alliance, it committed fraud by earning profits on the contract and then subcontracting work to a subsidiary it owned, Lockheed Martin Services, to earn additional profit on the same work.

Government attorneys said Lockheed Martin had been clearly told by the Department of Energy that it could not double dip on profits.

The Department of Justice also accused former owners of Mission Support Alliance of inflating the prices for doing work at Hanford, for which it was reimbursed, and awarding bonuses to some executives, based in part on improper profits under the contract.

Defendants said pay rates were negotiated with DOE and that paying an executive an annual bonus cannot be considered a kickback. It also said that federal contracting law allowed profit to be collected on subcontractor work.