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SPOKANE, WA - A 51-year-old Columbia Basin cattle rancher who pled guilty to a multi-million dollar "ghost cattle" scam has a

They call it “Cattlegate.” It’s a modern-day cattle rustling scheme. Let’s start at the beginning.             In 1958, Ervin Easterday moved his family and farming operation from Nampo, Idaho to southeastern Wash., where he purchased 300 acres of undeveloped land in the new Columbia Basin Reclamation Irrigation project. With a meager annual rainfall of 7 inches per year, the new supply of water from Grand Coulee Dam changed this land forever.              As a young man, Ervin’s son, Gale, said he worked what seemed like endless hours on a Caterpillar level...