Eagle Wire

EWU's resident El Nino expert, Prof. Bob Quinn, discussed the effects of the El Nino effect with the Northwest's Ag trade publication, the Capital Press.

Capital Press

The study on the safety of biosolids done by EWU faculty member Chad Kinney is still generating news stories...

King County Journal

Ryan Keyes, a graduate of EWU's recreation management program helps disabled folks have fun in the Telluride region.

Telluride Watch

Cam Hershaw, a 1979 EWU grad was named interim public safety director for the city of Washougal, Wash.

Vancouver Columbian

EWU biochemistry professor Chad Kinney's report on the toxic compounds in biosolids sometimes used for lawn and garden products is creating a national stir. The Tacoma News Tribune did the intitial story on the report and several major media outlets picked it up for their national feeds.

Fox News, CBS News, Newsday, Washington Post, Forbes, Seattle Times

A house fire in Tacoma claimed one of our students, Suzanne Surface, early Sunday morning. Suzanne would've been returning for her second year at Eastern. The EWU family's collective thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.

Here's the TNT story:
Tacoma News Tribune

I thought I was going to have a nice, quiet Friday to clear off the extra things I've got lying on my desk, but it was not to be.

At about 8:30 a.m., I got a call from Stu Steiner, a professor in our computer science department asking me why his building was cordoned off and cops and fire trucks were pulling up and closing the street. I went down to the president's office and quickly got briefed before walking across campus to the scene.

Seems somebody thought making a fake pipe bomb would liven things up on a lazy late summer morning at EWU.

A custodian found the "suspicious device" in a trash can near the door by the balcony entrance to the Computer and Engineering Building. Police were notified and the "device" was removed from the building and placed on the lawn in front of the building while the the building was evacuated and the Spokane County bomb squad was called.

The TV crews started to arrive at about 10 a.m. and over the next couple hours the bomb squad arrived and then used the robot to disrupt the "device." There was no secondary explosion after the discharging burst, so that indicated the device was not a bomb.

After the police declared the scene safe and secure, I got a look at the "device." It was a 1-inch diameter metal pipe, about 10 inches long, that had been stuffed with mud and dirt and capped on the ends with some red rags and then wrapped in bubble wrap.

The event caused some disruption on the west side of campus, as Washington Street was closed off between 7th and Elm streets and Cadet Hall, Cheney Hall and the Physical Ed Building were all evacuated and closed while the cops went about their business.

Things went very smooth from a safety standpoint and the media was very professional in how they gathered the story without getting in the way, even though the shots they could get with their cameras weren't the best.

Here's the first press reports of the incident:

KREM-TV, KHQ-TV

A study by the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis showed EWU has a $306.5 million impact on Spokane County and is the university of choice for Spokane County residents.

Spokesman Review

Rich Greb, a graduate of EWU's MBA program, was selected to be the director of logistics for Sunrise Medical Technologies in Texas. Greb has extensive experience in the logistical end of the medical industry.

DOTmed news

One of Eastern's most distinguished grads, Brian Valentine, made a surprising move from his senior VP post at Microsoft to Amazon.com on Friday. Valentine shepherded Microsofts past three operating system rollouts and was expected to do the same for the upcoming Microsoft Vista OS.

He'll join Amazon as a senior VP in the middle of September.

Seattle Times

Here's a pretty funny short movie done by three of our students -- warning, it's probably rated about PG with a couple of naughty words uttered here and there... Enjoy...

The Spokesman's Shawn Vestal did a long piece on the history of tenured faculty disciplinary actions at WSU and EWU. Vestal started gathering info for the story a couple months ago, filing public records requests and analyzing the documents gleaned from those requests.

EWU didn't have very many incidents and was the second player in the piece, which focused mainly on WSU.

Spokesman Review

Four years after the scary E.coli outbreak at a cheerleading camp at EWU, one of the most seriously affected campers reached a legal settlement with the produce company that supplied the lettuce the USDA said transported the food-borne illness. EWU also settled with the camper, but is currently in a suit to recoup that settlement from the service that provided the lettuce.

Spokesman Review

While EWU has seen tremendous minority enrollment growth over the past five years, the state as a whole is still struggling to attract more minorities into higher ed. This story, originally printed in the Spokesman, talks about the challenges and mentions EWU's faculty fellow for diversity, Dr. James Ochwa-Echel.

Seattle P-I

Roberta Brooke, head of the Spokane International Trade Alliance for the past six years, was named the new director of the EWU masters of business admin program.

Spokesman Review

Matt Chisolm, a product of the master's of education program at EWU, takes over as the principal at Progress Elementary this fall.

Spokesman Review