This orphanage in Jimani, Dominican Republic, was used as a makeshift hospital by many volunteers around the world to help injured and displaced Haitians.

For the past eight years Steve and Jan Brazeau from Memorial Bible Church in Gleed have combined efforts with the ministry Score International to provide aid to the Dominican Republic. This year was going to be different as neighboring Haiti was struck by 7.0 magnitude earthquake just days before their arrival.

This year, the group’s roles were going to be amplified.

Seven members from “The Secret Garden” cast rehearse a scene. From left to right: Premo Allessio-Trudeau, Patrick McCormick, Taylor Burnham, David Morris, Sean McCracken, Alex Spradlin and Kayla Reynolds.

Childhood stories are often lost as we age but Karen Jochen, director, and the Selah Players are keeping one of the classics alive by performing, “The Secret Garden,” for the Selah High School spring play.

I watch very little reality television but I have watched American Idol on and off for a number of years now. My wife and I began watching this season and there are numerous things about it that lead me to believe this could be American Idol’s last dance, or at least the beginning of the end of the show.
First of all, this season’s talent just isn’t there. You take the two finalists from last season, Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, and they would slaughter the male competition this season. Throughout last year the song choices from them were good for the most part and there weren’t many cringing moments. Agree or disagree with it but I’ve wanted to press the mute button on my remote many times since Hollywood week began this year.

“Thin to Win” receives their $3,200 check for winning the Selah Fitness Express 2009 Weight Loss Challenge.

In it’s third year Selah Fitness Express’ Weight Loss Challenge is as popular as ever. This year, 77 teams entered the challenge and 50 teams finished with an accumulative weight loss of 2,330 pounds.

Throughout the course of human history, as a people, we have confronted many different racial, sexist or just flat out hurtful words or phrases and scratched them from our vocabularies. However, many people still use some of those certain words in comedy in an effort to take away their power and I applaud them for it most of the time.

The walls at the gymnasium of Robert Lince Elementary School trembled when Kim Sebastian, director of sales for U.S. Cellular in Washington, told Lince students and faculty that they were one of the 10 champions in U.S. Cellular’s Calling All Communities campaign and recipients of $100,000.

It’s not rare for a set of twins to look alike, but what is uncommon is to have a set of twins have almost identical experiences just months apart from each other. In this case, it was the Holbrook twins each suffering a broken foot within a couple months of each other.

Let me first say I enjoy watching the Olympics. I like watching sports you only watch during that time of year, every two years for both the winter and summer Olympics. But in 2010 I’ve been put off more than usual and it all began with the coverage of the Georgian luge participant, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died during a training session prior to the opening of this year’s games.

Jordan Matson speaks during the Selah City Council meeting on behalf of the Matson Fruit Company Tuesday, Feb. 9.

It’s taken more than two years but during the Selah City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 9, the Matson family and their friends finally heard what they’ve been yearning for, a resounding yes to expand their business.

One of the biggest everyday numbers known by many citizens of the United States is the amount of national debt the United States owes. There’s even a debt clock online that shows the current debt, $12.4 trillion, along with a breakdown of what that actually means and where our money is going at usdebtclock.org.