Rob is the managing editor of the Columbia Basin Herald which produces the Studio Basin podcast. An honors graduate from Texas State University's School of Journalism and Mass Communications, he is passionate about educating communities regarding the challenges they face so community members can collaborate to solve those issues. A U.S. Army veteran, he is passionate about the Constitution in general and the First Amendment in particular. He has one son, William, and is married to the love of his life, Brandee whom he lives with in Ephrata, Wash.

MOSES LAKE — Columbia Basin Herald reporter Charles Featherstone’s journalistic career has taken him everywhere, working for all different kinds of publications.

“I started out my career working for a tiny little African-American community newspaper in San Francisco,” Featherstone said.

He left that job for other opportunities that committed him to life as a reporter for some time.

“My first real job in journalism was with the Khaleej Times newspaper in the United Arab Emirates,” Featherstone said. 

After his time in the UAE, Featherstone moved halfway across the world to the Herald Journal in Logan, Utah. He then graduated from the masters program in Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He later worked for the Bridge News wire service and attended about a decade of seminary school.

Charles works the business, Moses Lake, Warden, Wilson Creek and lifestyle beats.

Rebecca Pettingill developed her passion for journalism early. A native of Zillah, in the Yakima Valley, Rebecca was working at a McDonald’s  the summer before her senior year of high school when a co-worker told her about a program the Yakima Herald-Republic offered. One student from each high school was invited to intern at the Herald-Republic and learn the basics of reporting, writing and photojournalism from local working professionals. She loved it so much that when she went off to Eastern Washington University in Cheney, she immediately made a beeline for the journalism department.

Rebecca graduated in 2020 and was immediately snapped up buy the Quincy Valley Post-Register, where she honed her skills until September 2021, when she joined the news team at the Columbia Basin Herald.