
Cody Easterday sentenced to 11 years in prison for cattle fraud scam
Read
Almost two years ago, Easterday confessed to swindling meat companies of hundreds of millions of dollars for the care and feeding of nonexistent cattle. After he came clean, Easterday worked with the bankruptcy court to sell off most of his family’s massive farm and ranch empire.
“It’s all come to a collapse,” Judge Stanley Bastian said in the courtroom Tuesday before sentencing Easterday to 11 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref said the $244 million Easterday stole was the largest amount in a criminal fraud case in the district of Eastern Washington.
“It’s very critical that we send a message to the community that this type of fraud — almost a quarter of a billion dollars — is taken seriously,” Waldref said.
Easterday’s lawyer Carl Oreskovich had argued for a lighter sentence, saying Easterday had been a community stalwart to the local 4-H kids, his workers and his family.
“He’s somebody that has helped everybody. And this is something that he’ll take hard,” Oreskovich said.
After the sentencing, Easterday’s supporters filed out of the courtroom silently.
Related Stories:

Nonprofit asks EPA to investigate the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency
Yakima Clean Air Compliance website in Spanish. (Screenshot from the YRCAA website.) Listen (Runtime 1:33) Read A nonprofit organization, Friends of Toppenish Creek, is asking the U.S Environmental Protection Agency… Continue Reading Nonprofit asks EPA to investigate the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency

What we learned from COVID: Delaney Snaadt
When COVID-19 reached the Inland Northwest, few people could have predicted the profound changes it would cause. NWPB’s Rachel Sun interviewed local residents about how the pandemic changed their mental health, lives, and perspective. This is the second in a four-part mini series. Continue Reading What we learned from COVID: Delaney Snaadt

WA Supreme Court upholds capital gains tax just weeks ahead of collection deadline
The Washington Supreme Court has ruled in a 7-2 decision to uphold the constitutionality of the state’s new capital gains tax. The decision filed Friday comes just weeks before taxes are due. Continue Reading WA Supreme Court upholds capital gains tax just weeks ahead of collection deadline