News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The recent deaths of three Washington teens--a 14-year-old Bellingham girl, a 17-year-old boy in Shoreline, and an 18-year-old Washington State University student -- remind us just how dangerous alcohol is for minors. As parents and co-chairs of the Washington State Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking our hearts go out to the families and friends who are suffering these terrible losses. Before we lose another child, grandchild, student, and friend, let’s ask ourselves what we as adults are doing to encourage or discourage underage d... Full story
Ceth, Charlene and Craig Leonard, along with their St. Bernard Crystal, stand in front of their Aspen Street home in Coulee Dam Wednesday night. “I really wanted to do it for the kids,” said Ceth, who remembers the lighting tradition making a much bigger local impact during his childhood....
Update: WSDOT issued this statement after 4 p.m. Christmas Eve: With dozens of snow-laden trees still slumped over the highway, the Washington State Department of Transportation is keeping US Highway 2 closed from Stevens Pass to the west end of Leavenworth. Skiers can still get to the summit from the west side, but cannot continue east toward Leavenworth. Through traffic must detour via US 97 Blewett Pass and Interstate 90 Snoqualmie Pass. “At least four more large trees crashed to the r...
The holidays and accompanying scheduling conflicts seem to throw off normal schedules for every organization in town. The same goes for the newspaper, especially with Christmas falling on our normal Tuesday deadline day. So here’s what’s happening with our publication schedule. You’re holding the Nov. 19 issue. On Friday of this week, you can pick up the Nov. 26 issue. That’s when we’ll get it in the mail. That issue will include the community’s choice for The Star volunteer of the year, Christmas cards by third-graders and more. We’ll be ba... Full story
by John R. McNeil II The Raider wrestlers took fifth at the Cashmere tournament last Saturday in a field that featured mostly larger schools and only two 2B schools, LR and Kittitas. “We wrestled well,” Head Coach Steve Hood said. “Felt good to finish ahead of Kittitas and Omak.” The tourney winner was 1A Mount Baker from the Northwest Conference with 181 points. Teams finishing ahead of the Raiders included Caribou Trail League representatives Quincy in second and host Cashmere right on their heels at third. Medical Lake of the Northea... Full story
The Lady Raiders lost to the 1B Pateros Nannies in a close league game Friday 53-43. When asked what needs to improve, Head Coach Wallace Pleasants said, “Everything, mostly how to play through fouls and the girls not to get us to hard physical play.” The Nannies attacked the Lady Raiders from the start with hard physical defense. But LR kept the score close as Danielle Laramie, Katelynn Schilling and Rickyna Sam led the scoring in the first half with the Lady Raiders behind by only four points, 26-22. At the beginning of the second half, the... Full story
Chance Garvin scored all three of the Raiders’ first-quarter points at Pateros last Friday as LR went on to lose to the Billygoats in a low scoring affair, 47-38. Head Coach Jeff Brisbois said the team’s overall game effort was down. “We came out flat and never got back into the game,” Brisbois said. “It’s like we lost what spark we had from the win Monday,” referring to the LR victory over Entiat, who had beaten Pateros. The first quarter finished with the score Pateros 5, LR 3. The scoring heated up in the second quarter as the Pateros shoot... Full story
Eight candidates have been nominated for The Star’s annual volunteer of the year award. The nomination deadline was Monday night. Voting will cease on Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. The honoree will be announced in the following week’s newspaper. Nominees are: Hillary Carriere, Carol Estrada, Fern Blaylock, Earl Cole, Bob Hendrickson, George Kohout, Eloise Bowman and Andy Trader. All nomination letters are included below. To make your preference known, do one of the following: • Take the online poll at bo... Full story
A group that has been studying the feasibility of building a community/wellness center in the area decided Thursday to push ahead with the effort, citing a very favorable feasibility study and a growing need in the area. Full disclosure: Readers should know I’ve been a member of that group since its inception and have been one of many considering the idea since long before that. After deciding by consensus to move ahead, the steering committee for the effort decided where it should be located and gave it a temporary name. The Coulee Regional We... Full story
The Coulee Area Park and Recreation District commissioners passed a budget for 2013 Monday night totaling $73,000. It includes revenues of $36,500 from a Bureau of Reclamation grant, and $6,000 from each of three local cities that collect hotel/motel taxes. The budget anticipates spending $18,000 on a master plan for North Dam Park and $50,500 on operations, maintenance and construction in the park.... Full story
The same day tribal members submitted a 2,600-signature petition, the Colville Business Council rejected the petitioners’ plea to pay out all of a $193 million settlement with the U.S. government. The council will stand by an October resolution on the use of the half of the settlment that remains after already having put $96.5 million into the hands of some 9,600 members. The Qwam Qwmpt’ Plan was adopted by unanimous resolution Oct. 5, a statement from the tribes said Monday. It “allocates the remaining 50% of the settlement money for activ... Full story
Colville Tribal officials on Friday unveiled a new solar array to power the Fish and Wildlife Program building near Omak and the Hearts Gathered immersive Salish language school. Located on the campus of buildings behind the Paschal Sherman Indian School at St. Mary’s Mission, the group of five towers each hold two panels that turn sunlight directly to electricity and feed it into Okanogan County PUD’s grid, when they’re actually producing. Friday’s snowy weather didn’t make for much of a demo... Full story
The Raiders picked up their first win of the season Monday against the Entiat Tigers by the score of 59-56. The Entiat Tigers came in Monday on a two-game winning streak and looked to make it three at the cost of the Raiders. It was an uphill battle for the Raiders most of the game. The Tigers held the lead for most the game and had two big shooters in Jeremy Davis and Truong Tran. At the end of the half, it was Entiat 28, LR 24. After halftime, the Raiders stormed the floor, taking the lead... Full story
This January, core government functions such as scientific research, education, public safety, and environmental protection will face deep cuts under budget sequestration. If lawmakers cannot put politics aside to avoid continued cuts to these programs, our nation’s security, global competitiveness, and economic growth will be compromised. Teachers will be taken out of classrooms, cutting-edge research will be stifled, and conservation of America’s natural resources will be diminished. Experts agree these essential jobs and services are not... Full story
There’s been a lot of talk about what we can’t afford as a nation and who is getting what “gift” or which free ride. When President Obama recently met with CEOs and chatted with Jamie Dimon, we should hope he issued a stern warning that legal tax avoidance games played by banks and multinational corporations are on the chopping block. After all, free enterprise isn’t free. In the coming weeks there will be pivotal conversations about how and where to tax corporations and how to reform our corporate tax system. Don’t believe the hype that t... Full story
The Lady Raiders shed a cloud of early-season defeats quickly by defeating the Tonasket Tigers on Dec. 4, 60-36, then besting undefeated Entiat at the last second Monday night. The Tonasket game started slow with the first points scored at 6:30 in the first quarter. Tonasket defense was strong and came up with points as the score at the end of the first quarter was LR 16, Tigers 14. The game stayed close in the second quarter as the Tigers took advantage of LR miscues for a halftime score of LR... Full story
Raider wrestling had a busy week as they travelled to Warden for a dual meet last Thursday then trekked to Connell Saturday for the early season Connell Tourney. At Warden, the Raiders did not match up well as Warden fills out every weight with depth. LR did record four wins against the Cougars, with Sean Waters at 195 pounds taking care of business and Kodie Horn along with Orrin Gross receiving forfeits. The Warden meet was “good for exposing our weakness,” Head Coach Steve Hood said, “wh... Full story
If business wants well-trained workers, high schools need funding While I understand Don Brunell's [Association of Washington Business] lament regarding preparation of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, I would point out that there is far more to this subject than Mr. Brunell addresses. I am a [retired] professional auto and truck technician with management experience and multiple licenses and certifications, some now lapsed. For the past four years prior to retirement I taught Automotive Technology and welding in... Full story
Two months after running out of food and cutting back on days open, the Care and Share Food Bank is back up to speed, thanks to an overwhelming response from the community, said manager Fern Blaylock. “I am so happy,” she said Monday, wiping a tear on her cheek after receiving two checks from Charlie Long, who presented them on behalf of Zion Lutheran Church members and friends, and Thrivent Financial For Lutherans. The checks for a total of $2,285 were the latest in a continuing series of res... Full story
Two people were injured in a one-car collision just west of Grand Coulee early Monday, the Washington State Patrol reported. Richard Field, 70, of Bridgeport was driving the 1999 Dodge Caravan east on SR 174 when it left the road on the right, stuck a rock wall, crossed both lanes and came to rest against the guardrail on the other side of the road about 5:18 a.m. He and passenger Linda Field, 65, were both taken to Coulee Medical Center by a third party, the report said. Both of them were wearing seat belts, and no alcohol was involved. The... Full story
Eloise Bowman is my nominee for volunteer of the year 2012. She leads a group of faithful volunteers at the Grand Coulee Senior Center Thrift Shop, where they often work twice weekly every week of the year, sorting, pricing and selling items donated from our community for our community. What a great way to serve EVERYONE! The donated items don’t just add income for the senior center. This outpouring of love helps those folks on limited incomes in our community by offering clothing and household items at reasonable prices; they also offer u... Full story
Mr. Kohout has been the driving force behind "defibrillating" the Ridge Riders' Club and making it once again a vibrant, active riding club. George has put the Ridge Rider grounds to very good use this past year with the "Bulls, Burgers, and Brew" bull riding competitions and other events. He is also active in big game wildlife management, and the local area service organizations, volunteering his time and energy for causes that are good for the community. During the raging, lightning-caused range fires of a couple of months ago, you didn't... Full story
On Thursday night in Okanogan the Bulldogs posted a season-opening win over the Raiders 85-28 Thursday night in Okanogan. The new Raiders had trouble contending in the paint against 6-6 Trevor Hathaway and 6-4 Justin VanderWeide of Okanogan, who scored 18 points together but pulled down twice that in rebounds. The Raiders were led by the solid spirited play of Drew Saxon, who scored nine points and tried to get things moving in the second half with steals and trying to spark the offense. Austin... Full story
Raiders’ wrestlers started the season strong Saturday with a third-place finish at the Davenport Invitational. The Raiders scored 130 points with two champions, two second-place finishers, a third-, and two fourth-place finishers. In first was 1A Freeman with 185 points, followed by North B League opponent Kittitas with 147. “We had a good early-season tournament,” Raider Head Coach Steve Hood said. Oscar Pakootas and Kodie Horn were the two champions for the Raiders. Pakootas won at his new weight class of 120 pounds, where he hopes that Satur... Full story
Opening the regular season in Okanogan last Thursday, the Lady Raiders were handed a hard loss by the high flying Lady Bulldogs. The final score of 76-22 is one of the bigger losses in recent memory. “We need to improve everything, offense, defense, physicality -- everything needs to improve,” said Lady Raiders Head Coach Wallace Pleasants after the game. In the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs jumped ahead quickly. Katelynn Schilling led the Lady Raiders offensively in the first quarter sco... Full story
