Happy New Year! Whitman County Watch published 38 independently reported stories and candidate profiles last year in addition to sharing daily COVID-19 case counts, unburied public records and other regional news on social media.
Local legal disputes, personnel investigations and COVID-19 responses again drove much of our coverage in 2021 as we look back on some of our most-read and unique stories of the year.
As in previous years, we want to provide an annual review of our most impactful reporting and share operational background for transparency. Read our 2020 report and 2019 report.
Our overall audience decreased some this year with our analytics showing more than 38,000 users in 2021 compared to 56,000 in 2020. Most of our readers hailed from Pullman (20 percent), Seattle (15 percent) and Moscow (6 percent).
TOP FIVE STORIES OF 2021
Analytic data listed our most-read stories of the year as:
1. Pullman councilman accuses WSU athletic director of threatening him over party video
2. Rolovich, WSU face suit alleging retaliation over COVID-19 risk, racial equity concerns
3. Former Pullman hospital employee files lawsuit alleging substandard care, retaliation
4. WSU agrees to $275,000 settlement, ending lawsuit against Mike Leach, appeal board
5. City of Pullman faces $600,000 budget hit after WSU files for backlog of tax refunds
INVESTIGATIONS AND LAWSUITS
Whitman County Watch broke stories on a number of investigations and lawsuits involving government agencies or influential private companies this past year.
In February, we uncovered details of an investigation into an alleged “toxic culture” and discrimination at the Pullman Police Department based on complaints from its longest-serving female officer. An attorney hired by the city to investigate later blamed workplace friction on the female officer.
Whitman County Watch recently obtained an internal report on WSU’s Cougar Health Services that found fractured trust and communication throughout the on-campus health care program. CHS supervisors say they have already started implementing recommendations to repair the workplace dynamics, but some staff say the problems continue to undermine patient care and morale.
A former employee at Pullman Regional Hospital filed a lawsuit this year alleging the hospital had neglected a patient and retaliated against the employee for trying to intervene. The hospital has refused to release a third-party investigation of the issue and the lawsuit remains ongoing.
The Whitman County Sheriff’s Office also faces a lawsuit for allegedly failing to properly train or prohibit its previous undersheriff from pursuing a relationship with a crime victim. The former undersheriff recently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence assault against his wife, who filed the lawsuit.
As Pullman city officials considered annexing new property in April to accommodate a California-based housing developer, we published legal accounts from several regional companies that accused the developer of failing to its pay bills on previous local contracts.
Whitman County Watch also published details of the Lewiston Tribune’s settlement with the family of a Pullman man who died in a collision with a newspaper delivery driver as well as a class action settlement over alleged wage theft and other violations at Lumberyard Food Hall in Pullman.
WSU ATHLETICS
Our most-read story, on allegations from former Pullman City Councilman Al Sorensen that WSU Athletic Director Pat Chun had verbally threatened him, received more than 8,800 views and was picked up numerous regional news outlets.
When asked to comment prior to publication, Chun declined via a spokesman. After publication, Chun sent a declaration to the Pullman Police disputing the accusations and alleging the Pullman detective had an improper conflict of interest.
Whitman County Watch also broke the news of a former WSU football player’s lawsuit against former Head Coach Nick Rolovich in August. This story was picked up by national news over the following week.
We also reported first on a $275,000 settlement agreement to resolve a lawsuit against former WSU Head Football Coach Mike Leach based on a decision to kick a player off the team in 2017.
(I also wrote about WSU Athletics’ financial issues for the Inlander back in March.)
COVID-19 RESPONSE AND VACCINE ACCESS
With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021, we continued to report on access and new surges over the past 12 months. In stories and on social media, we have tried to share relevant data and answer reader questions on the local effects of the pandemic.
Whitman County Watch followed student-related outbreaks in the spring and again helped explain how transient students affected the county’s vaccination rates through the summer. As the public health district moved away from daily news releases, we have continued to push that information out to social media to help track new variants and localized surges.
As public agencies introduced vaccine mandates, we took stock of local compliance and shared information about local vaccination rates or clinics.
We also covered WSU’s lawsuit against its insurance provider over $63 million in disputed payout over COVID-19 losses at the university.
(My wife also worked as one of the dozens of journalists involved with the New York Times’ COVID-19 data tracking and reporting project that received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in June.)
ELECTIONS AND TRANSPARENCY
Whitman County Watch remained a one-person newsroom this year. It ended the year with 25 active subscribers and brought in about $2,200 in subscriber revenue (before taxes) in 2021. We appreciate their financial support as well as their thoughtful questions and feedback.
We again assembled a Fall Voters Guide for the third year in a row with candidate questionnaires for several contested races throughout the county. We also broke down Pullman City Council candidates’ previous political contributions to help reflect their political priorities.
We filed dozens of public records requests over the past year and responded to a multitude of reader questions about government transparency. I also conducted workshops with The Daily Evergreen newsroom on public records and investigative reporting techniques. We occasionally covered breaking news such as the Pullman house fire pictured above.
Reader news tips and whistleblowers again helped us break some of our key stories this year. We are grateful to those individuals for their trust and patience.
Just like years past, much of our work depended on the daily coverage and historical archives of The Daily Evergreen, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Pullman Radio News, the Whitman County Gazette, the Lewiston Tribune, KLEW, the Inlander and the Spokesman-Review.
Please continue to support your local journalists.