News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 1276 - 1300 of 6918
I am passing along an extremely disappointing decision from the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board (ISRB), involving a matter I recently handled. In 1997, Adam Betancourt, then almost 17, along with another juvenile shot and killed an 89- and 88-year-old Quincy couple. The case eerily reminds me of Truman Capote’s movie “In Cold Blood.” Betancourt and co-defendant Donald Lambert killed Homer and Vada Smithson, who had just celebrated their 70-year wedding anniversary. Betancourt and Lambert broke into the Smithson house and began shoot...
When traveling in foreign countries, always expect the unexpected. In Bothell, I met a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong who came to this country but had to leave his wife behind. He was born in Hong Kong and easily fit within the limits of the quota system. He had a sponsor and also a job waiting for him. His wife was born in Mainland China and suffered from a much smaller quota system. I had asked for information on quota systems so I was prepared to look into it when I arrived in Hong Kong. I met his wife, and she said that U.S. officials...
The Grand Coulee Library has a new librarian, Catherine Matthews, and she's excited to meet you. Matthews moved to Electric City by way of Whidbey Island and started work at the library on May 18. Speaking with The Star by phone, Matthews explained her love of books and libraries. She said that she always went to her local public library as she was growing up and got exposed to different viewpoints and opinions. "I read a lot," she said. "I read very widely, across genres and lots of different...
A congressman and a state legislator met with several local leaders last week to hear about local needs and ambitions, leaving with a list of to-dos. Congressman Dan Newhouse and Washington State Rep. Mike Steele met with the group at the Grand Coulee Dam School District office in Coulee Dam May 28 to briefed on an introductory course in how the federal and state governments have fallen short in support of the unusual area, where four or five counties come together, with an Indian reservation,...
Grant County health officials are asking people to still wear a mask, even if you’re vaccinated, because too few have gotten vaccinations. The recommendations came Tuesday evening with a list of reasons for the decision. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has relaxed its recommended safety measures, most notably not requiring masks when outdoors unless in very crowded areas and requiring no masks for fully vaccinated persons, even indoors. But Grant County is lagging the nation in vaccine uptake, with only 35.8% of i...
Voters will decide on about 30 positions up for election in the 2021 elections for local town councils, school boards, and more. The primary elections will take place in August, while the general election will take place in November. Grand Coulee Three seats on the Grand Coulee City Council are up for reelection this year, all to four-year terms. Three candidates have filed their intentions to seek Council Position #1, currently held by Tammara Byers who is not running for reelection. The candidates who have filed are: Ben Hughes, Tracey...
Social media has become such a big part of modern life, to the point that now the Grand Coulee Dam School District has an employee policy about it. The district’s board of directors approved a social media policy during their May 24 meeting. Superintendent Paul Turner explained to The Star that the policy isn’t required by the state but rather “is preemptive” and “also initiated because of some previous issues.” Turner declined to elaborate on the nature of those previous issues. “Without a policy, there is no guidance to stay consistent wh...
The City of Grand Coulee would like a couple of questions addressed before extending their B Street closure agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. One end of B Street has been blocked off near the bureau’s fire station construction site since 2017, and numerous delays in that construction project have kept the road closed. B Street connects to SR-155 through the bureau-owned Industrial Road, with the area between B Street and SR-155 being closed off. At their May 18 council meeting, the council discussed wanting emergency access t...
When traveling, better have some idea of how you are going to get around in foreign countries. In the Orient, no country bests Japan. I have traveled there in taxis, subway, boat and plane. You will find that their operations are on time, and you won’t find graffiti everywhere. When taking a taxi, hang on; drivers like to roll up the fares. I don’t mean cheating you, but they like to take as many trips as they can. They’re just good businessmen. I would get a business card from my hotel and take off on foot exploring. When I got suffi...
Think of us as cicadas, the insects you’ve heard about ad nauseam, that live underground for 17 years and then surface to get it on. Well, we humans in the U.S. have sheltered in place for 17 months, give or take, tucked away from the ravages of COVID. And now we are about to find out how bawdy our bodies have become. Now millions of hibernating Americans will emerge, courtesy of the vaccine, to discover how the world has changed. The absence of masks — prima facie evidence of a return to “normal” -- might reveal a metamorphosed society...
The Lady Raiders basketball team won two games overwhelmingly, and another game by just one point to start their season/ In Coulee Dam May 25, the Lady Raiders led 56-12 at halftime against Oroville, kept Oroville scoreless in the third quarter to lead 73-12, then won the game with an 82-26 final score. On the road May 26 against Liberty Bell, LR won by just one point with a final of 52-51. Then the Lady Raiders annihilated Wahluke 53-6 in a May 28 road game. LR was scheduled to play Tonasket...
(Nespelem, WA) — The Colville Tribes announced today that it is immediately lifting all public safety measures previously instituted to protect the community from COVID-19. A Resolution first passed on March 25, 2020, which imposed multiple public safety measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, including the closure of the Colville Reservation and limits on gathering sizes. These safety measures have been extended on multiple occasions as the pandemic continued to remain a threat, but they are all now lifted, effective immediately. The C...
To my kid brother, Raymond George Rinard This is a synopsis of my service time in World War Two. I hitchhiked from Boone to Des Moines, Iowa on October 6th, 1942 to enlist and was sent back home with four papers to be filled out. One was for my mother giving her permission to me to enlist, one with signatures of three businessmen at Boone, one to be signed by the police chief showing I had no arrests, and one by the pastor of our church. I got them signed and hitchhiked to Des Moines again on...
Lake Roosevelt High School’s Class of 2021 graduation is slated for June 12 on the football field in Coulee Dam, with more details still being developed. “Seniors voted to have graduation outdoors on the football field and so we are moving forward with developing plans,” Principal Kirk Marshlain wrote in his report to the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors for their May 24 meeting. “This will allow for graduates to have more guests present for the ceremony. More details to come as we finalize the plans.” During the meeting,...
Located along SR-174, Grand Coulee City Park, also known as Shane Proctor Park, has experienced incidents of vandalism this spring and the mayor would like citizens to keep an eye out for that type of destructive behavior and report it. This spring, someone smashed the seats of the teeter-totters in the park, and in a separate incident someone crammed the toilet full of toilet paper, a plastic jug, and other garbage. “It’s just a shame,” Mayor Paul Townsend told The Star on Tuesday. “I don’t even know what’s wrong with people. It makes me si...
Vroom vroom! You can see a variety of cars or show off your own at a car show in Grand Coulee on June 19 in a car show being held on Main Street. The Diversity Divine Auto Show, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be held by Coulee Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sam Hsieh through his organization The Divine Appeal. “The MO at The Divine Appeal has always been breaking boundaries and challenging the status quo,” a description for the show reads online. “One group that carries this loud and proud is no other than our car scene enthusi...
The demolition of a condemned building on Spokane Way that once belonged to a local inventor seems likely to happen this summer after about three years of delays. The Grand Coulee City Council approved a bid for the demolition of the “Vlachos” building at their May 18 meeting, as well as for an asbestos survey to be conducted prior to the demolition. The building, once belonging to inventor and mechanic Constantinos Vlachos, has been boarded up and abandoned for years. In 2018, the Coulee Pioneer Museum recovered some items from the premises, i...
Dollar General has become a ubiquitous feature of America’s small towns. The discount retailer is opening about 1,000 stores per year, with more than 16,000 spread across the country. Many local economic developers see the discount retailer as a threat to local retail. Other economic developers argue Dollar General creates jobs and helps keep shoppers in town. I get it. In thousands of miles spent traversing the rural Midwest, I have found myself in small towns with no other retail or grocery options. The irony is that this solution makes t...
My grandmother, Marie Rusten, was born in Norway in 1861. I have spent a lifetime trying to get information about her, while some of it was right at my fingertips all the time. I don’t have much that was my grandmother’s, only two pictures of the family farm, a photo of the church they attended, pictures of her parents, and a little black booklet. I have only fleeting memories of my grandma. She came out West with my parents and lived with us until passing in 1937. I was 7 when she died. She always kept her Norwegian ways, barely learning eno...
This year will be the 20th Anniversary of the First Nations People crossing the border on Osoyoos Lake, paddling cottonwood dugout canoes from Osoyoos to Oroville. The crossing is to let all our People and the local communities to know and remind them that the border between the two countries has never and will never separate our People. The ceremony is held sacred in our hearts. Many Bands and Tribes are joining the Okanogan People helping us celebrate unity of the People of the First Nations. Herman and Joanne Edward are the ones that have...
Cancer prevention starts on your dinner plate; actually, it starts in the garden. Growing your own nutrient-rich cancer fighting vegetables allows you to grow pesticide-free vegetables, harvest them at their peak, and use them right away, ensuring the highest nutrient value and best flavor. Be sure to include some broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and turnip greens. These cruciferous vegetables release cancer-fighting substances that help fend off lung, breast, liver,...
Elmer City may test a force main that carries wastewater to Coulee Dam’s treatment plant to see how long the 40-year-old cast iron pipe is likely to last. The town applied for a grant of $30,000 for the test, which would help nail down the cost of a possible switch from using Coulee Dam’s to building Elmer City’s own treatment facility. Engineer Nancy Wetch, of Gray and Osborne, went over the likely cost differences with the town council Thursday night after having completed a cost study of the alternatives. Wetch explained two alter...
A group of people met in Coulee Dam Tuesday to start a discussion about someday replacing the bridge over the Columbia River on SR-155. The current bridge, built in 1935, is half as wide, at 20 feet, as the state Department of Transportation would like - not to mention every truck driver who finds it necessary to wait for traffic before making an illegal wide swing into oncoming lanes to be able to make the narrow, right-angle turns. Discussion ensued about 1 p.m. around a table at the school...
Five more people have died from COVID-19 in Grant County, including the county's first death of someone in their 20s. The deaths, announced in a May 18 press release from Grant County Health District, include: two Moses Lake women in their 60s, a Soap Lake man in his 50s, and two Moses Lake men - one in his 80s and the other in his 20s. The deaths bring Grant County's total Covid death count to 125. "COVID-19 continues to kill people from our community," Grant County Health Officer Dr. Alexander Brzezny said. "These reported deaths are not...
Campgrounds in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, including Spring Canyon, have increased their fees. The LRNRA says camp fees are now $23 a night, up from $19, and that all vehicle-accessible campgrounds are now reservation only. Reservations must be made at recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-6777, with LRNRA recommending making reservations ahead of time from home because cell phone service can be spotty along Lake Roosevelt. Boat-in campgrounds and shoreline camping are still available on a first-come, first-served basis. The...