What’s up with Dennis Huston? I went to the guy who knows.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna

A reader of this blog recently urged me not to drop the ball on the embezzlement investigation of former Franklin County Public Works Accounting Director Dennis Huston, accused of embezzling some three million dollars of taxpayers’ money over a ten-year period.

 I didn’t forget about you, NWTraveler. Today I spoke one-on-one with Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna. I asked him what’s going on. 

Rob McKenna, who’s running for governor, told me it’s taking as long as it is because investigators are following a paper trail dating back to the late 1980s.

“There’s many, many, many years of alleged violations and embezzlement,” McKenna told me. “With this many years of records to go through and years of witnesses to interview, it’s a big investigation.”

As far as when we might expect something, McKenna wouldn’t  go on record, but in the Tri-Cities today (receiving the endorsement of the Washington Fraternal Order of Police), I spotted the AG speaking with newly elected Franklin County Auditor Matt Beaton, who blew the whistle when he noticed the discrepancies in the books. It’s a safe assumption the status of the investigation came up.

“We’re working on the case hard,” McKenna told me, “and we’ll bring it out as soon as we have the evidence that we need and we know the full range of charges that we want to bring.” 

Huston remains free, his bank accounts frozen.

I’ll be in touch with the attorney general.

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn

NBC Right Now Local News Today/photo by Scott Butner

If you’re like me, you no longer wait until 5 to get the news. You hop on line. Your phone Droids you. You’re tweeted. There’s the whole Facebook thing. There’s, ahem, blogs, of course. We’ve been talking for years about the future of news gathering and consumption. Well, the future, as predicted, is here.

For the past month or so, the morning crew (NBC Right Now Local News Today 4:30-7 a.m. Monday through Friday) has taken on the additional project of boosting the news content on the station’s website. After we get off the set in the morning, we start posting stories: local, national, stories from throughout the Pacific Northwest–anything we think you’ll find informative, sometimes amusing, sometimes aggravating, perhaps enlightening.

For me, first and foremost a writer, I dove into this assignment like a labrador spotting a duck floating in an irrigation canal.  The assignment also entails coming up with headlines. Some of mine Claire Graham says make her laugh out loud, and she says she can’t help but read the story.

She’s on to me. That’s the purpose of a headline. To get your interest, draw you in.

Here’s a few recent examples you may have come across.

Parade organizers sink wheat growers float

Deputy has bone to pick–with police dog

It’s BYOB, bring your own baby!

Starbucks customers bugged about dye

Pot charges go up in smoke

And maybe my personal favorite

Student avoids tests, but not jail

(You should have read the thread on the station’s Facebook Page)

Since we started, I’m glad to report, the story count on the website has increased by hundreds, and you’re getting information faster. If you’re a Facebook friend, you’ve seen the difference in the added stories we share.

So keep an eye out on the web for my bi-line–and the headlines.

And click here to sign up for breaking news emails.

And follow me on Twitter by signing up in the column on the right.

While you’re over there, sign up to get this blog sent to you on your phone, pc, or tablet.

And Like me on Facebook.

Whew!

Books Are Us

Authors Stephen Wallenfels and Maureen McQuerry

I find it extraordinary how many published authors live in the Tri-Cities. To me, having one–New York Times bestseller Patricia Briggs–living among us is a pretty big deal. So two more writers with big time publishers releasing their novels this week just knocks my socks off.

When I think of the literary world–poets, novelists, and the like–I picture men sporting goatees wearing turtlenecks and tweed coats (patches on the elbows) and women in cocktail gowns fondling their strings of pearls exchanging chit-chat at Manhattan book parties.

I don’t picture little ol’ Tri-Cities. Not us. We’re a post World War Two landscape of scientists in chinos and plaid shirts with pocket protectors and cell phones clipped to our belts. 

Not so much, anymore.

Stephen Wallenfels and Maureen Doyle McQuerry both write for younger readers (click on their names to visit their web sites). McQuerry, who has taught at Hanford and Enterprise High Schools and Columbia Basin College, says she still relates to young adults. “My own young adult person is still talking to me, ” she says.

“I can still remember being in that place, trying to figure out who I am and all those questions young adults deal with all the time,” McQuerry says.

McQuerry’s novel THE PECULIARS, is about a young woman’s search for her father.  As her website describes it, “This dark and thrilling adventure, with an unforgettable heroine, will captivate fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance.”

Fans of science fiction–of all ages–get ready for Wallenfel ’s debut novel POD,  an alien invasion that starts in Prosser. The local setting will draw you in, the story will keep you there.  Since its release last year in Australia and Europe, Wallenfels says many adult readers have discovered POD.

“Originally it came out as a YA release, but Penguin is actually marketing it as an adult science fiction novel now,” Wallenfels says.

It’s pure coincidence two major publishers have released the writers’ books at the same time, but Wallenfels and McQuerry will take advantage by holding a joint book launch party 4-6 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday April 28th) at Barnes and Noble at Columbia Center Mall, where they’ll sign copies of their books.

Speaking of death, “passing away” just kills me.

Death found an author writing his life-E. Hull

Judy comes home from vacation and asks her brother how things went.

“Your cat died.”

Stunned, tears welling, Judy says, “Did you have to be so cold and heartless with bad news like that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You could have prepared me for it. You could have said something like: ‘Well, Whiskers was playing on the roof. He lost his balance and fell, twisting his little leg. We took him to the vet and he appeared to be okay, but after a few days he didn’t look so good. Then, slowly but peacefully he faded until he finally, quietly, passed away.’”

Judy wiped away a tear. “You could have said something like that, instead of being so blunt and uncaring.”

“Sorry,” her brother said. “I’ll try to be more sensitive.”

“Thank you.”

Judy blew her nose. “So, how’s the family?”

“Well, Grandma was playing on the roof…”

In journalism, people don’t “pass away.”

They die.

I’m hearing and reading a lot more people passing: On CNN, the networks, and the Internet. Like Lord Voldemort, journalists suddenly cannot speak the word, death. I must have missed the meeting when the Associated Press, Reuters, and the other news services decided passing away is the acceptable euphemism for you-know-what.

If passing away is acceptable, why not

• JFK passed away today from an assassin’s bullet.
• The Queen has kicked the bucket.
• Serial killer Ted Bundy has gone to live on a farm where he can romp and play with other serial killers.

Call me an old school, insensitive curmudgeon, but as a journalist, I tell my colleagues our job is to give the facts, straightforward. Don’t put Grandma on the roof.

Trust me, I tell them, the viewer can handle the truth.

(I paraphrased the joke from an old Bob Newhart record I inherited after a relative you-know-what.)

What it takes to make a real hero…

…not the actual hero, but the story about the hero.

Every year the Tri-Cities and Yakima chapters of the American Red Cross recognize heroes nominated by people throughout the community.

It’s different from the everyday, routine news story. Unlike the hard news story, in which we approach impartially, we admittedly and gladly go into this assignment with bias. We intend to show the hero in their best light, show and tell their story with gusto and true approbation.

That’s why I always look forward to telling the story of a real hero.

Not that it doesn’t come with challenges.

Most of the real hero recipients are reluctant at best at having the spotlight shone on them. Some are so humble it can be downright exasperating getting them to go on camera and share their story.

This year my hero came from the animal rescue category, Audrey Ulrich, who had died in a car crash. Her husband Matt would be accepting the award posthumously.

Probably the hardest part of my job–asking nosey questions to people dealing with devastating, personal heartache.

Fortunately for me, Matt was helpful, and with a good impression of Audrey, I left inspired to tell her story–to my dog.

That’s why you see most of the story in black and white. Dogs don’t see colors.

That’s another thing I like about the real hero assignment. You get a bit more artistic license.

Audrey Ulrich’s piece airs at six tonight. You can also watch it and all the Real Heroes’ stories online by clicking here. This will get you to the Real Heroes page on the NBC Right Now website. The animal rescue is the next to last one.

I hope it makes your tail wag.

Leader of the Pack

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If you think about it, werewolves, vampires, and other paranormal would fit in.

“For some reason we think the Tri-Cities is this homogenous, white Anglo-saxon protestant community, but you walk into the mall and you hear five or six different languages, you see people are every color of the rainbow.”

Patricia Briggs throws back her head and laughs.  “If there’s ever going to be a place where people could ignore the fact some of their neighbors are vampires, werewolves or fey, it would be the Tri-Cities.”

When Briggs introduced her pack of paranormal to the Tri-Cities in the 1990s, she quickly found a following among local urban fantasy readers, and with the commercial success of the Mercy Thompson novels, Briggs has achieved alpha-wolf status among the Pacific Northwest writers community.

In FAIR GAME, the third in the Alpha & Omega spin-off series, Briggs sends two of her pack to Boston, where the young werewolf couple help the FBI search for a serial killer who is hunting werewolves. “They go to consult, and being werewolves they go to hunt, too.”

Briggs leans back and laughs again. “Werewolves, witches, and fey. “What could be better?”

The first two novels in the series, CRY WOLF and HUNTING GROUND  became New York Times bestsellers. Ace has published FAIR GAME in hardcover, which means the publisher expects to move some books.

Briggs will sign copies starting at seven this evening at Hastings in Richland. The book store says it’s ready for what could be a long night. Several hundred people showed up for Briggs’ last book signing party in the Tri-Cities.

Briggs will hopscotch the country for the next two weeks, and then return to the Tri-Cities to finish the next Mercy Thompson novel, due out next year.  

Click here to see the TV news version.

Click here to visit Patricia Briggs’ website.

In a murder case, there is no such thing as a happy ending.

Gregorio Luna Luna

You know the story:

Gregorio and Griselda drove up from Mexico, bringing with them their toddler son. After a few years, they split and started arguing over five-year-old Allen.  When Pasco Police arrested Gregorio for assaulting Griselda, the INS deported him. Within weeks, Gregorio had returned to Pasco, stormed Griselda’s apartment, and stabbed her in the heart.

“It’s a sad case,” Prosecutor Andy Miller told me today after the jury convicted Gregorio Luna Luna of aggravated first degree murder, a crime that will send him to prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole.

“You’re never happy about something like this,” Miller says. “But it is nice we received justice for the death of Griselda Ocampo and for Griselda’s son, and that the defendant will be held accountable.”

Allen, who has turned eight, now lives with his grandparents, Griselda’s mother and father, in Mexico.

That’s the happy ending, if you can call it that.