News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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By Scott Hunter Supporters filled the meeting room at La Presa as the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a dinner to honor local businesses for their accomplishments in 2024 March 13. Coulee Hardware was voted Business of the Year for being far more than a hardware store. The store "also provides a lot of other services," noted Nancy Zimmerman-Boord, chamber executive director," listing its UPS package shipping center, retail rentals, garden supplies, fresh plants every spring,...
March 18, 2025 WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has begun the process of reinstating tens of thousands of fired federal workers, though most are just being placed on administrative leave as the government cites the "burdens" of rehiring, court filings reviewed by States Newsroom show. The documents also show, agency by agency, the wide swath of firings that swept across the federal government in February and early March. A federal judge in Maryland last week ruled the recent terminations...
GRAND COULEE — As of Tuesday night, they hadn’t had to answer a call to a fire since Feb. 18, but the volunteers at the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department has responded to 11 fires since Jan. 1, Chief Ryan Fish reported to the city council last night. The ambulances has been on the road much more, rolling 37 times in January, 40 in February, and 23 so far in March. Out of those 100 calls, 47, nearly half, of them were to patients who ended up not being transported by ambulance. Whole council up for election All four of Grand Coulee’s city...
People on Friday object to federal policies under the Trump Administration and hold signs, talk, and engage with passersby, who have been giving more signs of support than when they started several weeks ago, they said. They'll be out on the sidewalks along Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee again this Friday from noon to 1 p.m., said Sheri Edwards. "It doesn't matter who they voted for," she said. "They didn't vote to close the hospital; they didn't vote for closing services they depend on. She...
As reproductive health access becomes increasingly restricted across the country, expanding Washington’s law that protects patients and healthcare workers is becoming more important, supporters of the law say. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, women from Idaho, Florida, Texas and Ohio have traveled to Washington for access to reproductive health care, and some worried out-of-state authorities would seek legal avenues to stop people from being treated here. In 2023, the state adopted the Shield Law to protect m...
Locals and newcomers alike may disagree about how much drizzle and gray skies they want in the Pacific Northwest, but when it comes how our government works, I think the great majority of us would agree that limited cloud cover is best. This is what government transparency advocates call Sunshine Week. And, unfortunately, it has been pretty cloudy on that front across the nation, in our statewide, local agencies and special districts. The state’s Public Records Act (PRA) was originally passed as a ballot initiative by voters in 1972 because p...
As vaccine skepticism gains a greater foothold in the Trump administration and some statehouses, some Americans may already be paying the price, with deaths from influenza on the rise. Flu-related deaths hit a seven-year high in January and February, the two months that usually account for the height of flu season, according to a Stateline analysis of preliminary federal statistics. There were about 9,800 deaths across the country, up from 5,000 in the same period last year and the most since 2018, when there were about 10,800. Despite that,...
As a cast of 42, local students and a couple Missoula Children's Theatre staffers (on each end) take their bows at the end of "Pinocchio" Friday afternoon. The MCT was brought to town by the Grand Coulee Dam Parent Teacher Organization. They audition the kids on Monday, practice after school all week, then present the resulting production at the end of the week in the Lake Roosevelt gym. MCT staffers bring all the props, costumes and sets. PTO's Lee Seekins and Rebecca Hunt were musical...
Some students might get to ride on a battery-powered bus sometime next year, if a grant application is accepted by the bus manufacturer. Grand Coulee Dam School District Transportation Director Wade Magers presented the school board Monday with the option to go electric with one bus in a little over 10 months. Magers said there are pros and cons to getting one, but the financial aspect of the application makes it attractive. Magers said the IC Electric School Bus (ESB) should go about 130 miles on a charge and recharge fully in about eight...
Proposed federal Medicaid cuts could devastate Washington state, hitting rural communities the hardest. More than 1.8 million residents rely on Medicaid for health care. A Republican-led plan in the U.S. House to slash $880 billion could lead to service reductions, higher costs, and hospital closures. According to Manuel Navarro, CEO of Columbia Valley Community Health, approximately 46% of the organization's patients are covered by Medicaid. The organization provides essential medical services...
The nonprofit federal administration that provides one-third of the Northwest’s electricity is preparing to part ways with its current Western energy market and sell its excess energy to companies and electric cooperatives as far away as Louisiana. Bonneville Power Administration officials announced in a draft policy proposal released Wednesday that they intend to leave the California-controlled “real-time” market they’ve participated in since 2022 and join a new “day-ahead” energy market based out of Little Rock, Arkansas. The move sparke...
Seated among more of them, 10-year-old Stettson Miley holds the first buttercup submitted to us this year, which he found in a rocky area near Electric City March 7. - submitted photo...
March 18, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9201. It authorized the War Relocation Authority. It was established in the Office of Emergency Management. This authority was charged with interning Japanese-Americans. The director was Milton Eisenhower, younger brother of Dwight Eisenhower. Prior to the above date, and hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, FBI agents had gathered hundreds of Italian, Japanese and German immigrants who were living in California. They were put on a train that brought them to Missoula, Montana....
Bureau of Reclamation employees at Grand Coulee Dam who had accepted the “fork in the road” offer of deferred retirement, expecting to stop working on March 7, instead got a memo Monday morning telling them to clear out by the end of the day, March 3. No reason was given for the rush, but the emailed instructions from Boise, the Columbia Pacific Northwest Region headquarters, had an air of resignation about it: “Big change in the DRP rules as of 10:37am this morning,” the email began, explaining that all Deferred Resignation Program participant...
The Trump administration on Wednesday ordered all federal departments and agencies to submit reorganization plans outlining how they would implement large-scale layoffs before March 13. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell wrote in a seven-page memo the reason for the expected layoffs is that the “federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt.” “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public,” they wrote. “Instead, tax dolla...
People with concerns and picket signs can gather on Grand Coulee's Midway Avenue (SR-155) from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 8. The march will take place on the same day as a nationally advertised march for women, but it will be the fourth in a series of local, loosely organized events for expressing solidarity with others concerned about the recent changes in the federal government, including layoffs, forced resignations and coming RIFs, abolishing entire agencies established by Congress, and...
Martin Falls near Steamboat Rock cascades in all its glory on Friday, Feb. 28, one of several along the Grand Coulee wall. - Scott Hunter photo...
A federal judge last week sentenced two men to life in prison for their six-week multistate crime spree that included murdering two Keller residents in 2022. Acting United States Attorney Richard R. Barker announced that on Feb. 26, Zachary L. Holt, 24, and Dezmonique D. Tenzsley (a/k/a “Privilege”), 36, were sentenced on 17 counts including Felony Murder in Indian Country, Attempted Murder of a Federal Officer, Assault of a Federal Officer, Attempted Robbery in Indian Country, Robbery Affecting Commerce, as well as several firearm off...
A couple months after she and her husband John, moved here in 2010, Carol Nordine had found the local food bank. She's been volunteering at the Care and Share Food Bank ever since, the last seven years as its manager. Just in time to see a growing need. A roomful of volunteers and friends gathered at La Presa Saturday to honor that service, eat, and enjoy each other's company. Shawn Neider also volunteers at the food bank, as well as pastoring the Zion Lutheran Church. He recalled the growth...
Coulee Dam’s police chief published a statement Monday asking people to report crimes to police, not just post it on Facebook. “If we don’t know about it, we can’t do anything about it,” noted Chief Paul Bowden. Bowden said the don’t consider Facebook posts as a proper way to report police issues. “This is a reminder to PLEASE report any criminal or suspicious activity such as thefts, car prowls, break- ins, etc. directly to the Police Department by calling MACC Dispatch at 1-888-431-9911.” Bowden also addressed comments he’s heard that there...
The Missoula Children's Theatre will audition local students for parts in their upcoming play, "Pinochhio" on Monday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. in the Lake Roosevelt gym in Coulee Dam. The company is looking for students in grades 1 through 12, or 6 to 18 years old. The MCT will audition its actors on Monday, rehearse them all week after school, then put on the play on Friday, March 7, at 4 and 6:30 p.m., also in the gym. Anyone interested in helping to put on the production can volunteer by...
An ice fisher plies his pastime Friday evening on Banks Lake ice near the feeder canal through which the Bureau of Reclamation planned to pump water into the lake beginning at 10 p.m. Saturday. That could make the ice unstable, and Reclamation urged people to stay off the ice. But late Saturday afternoon, ice fisher's tents were lined up at the edge of the ice. - Scott Hunter photo...
Holly Koon struggles every day in her 9th-grade biology classes to help students achieve, but sometimes it seems like a losing battle. Chronic absenteeism, growing class sizes and fewer classroom helpers all get in the way of student learning, she said. "All students can absolutely learn, and they can learn to standard," she said. "I have a biology class right now with 36 students in it; I have one instructional aid. How do you – in 60 minutes a day – individualize and support all 36 stu...
March 2, 1899 Mount Rainier National Park was established when President William McKinley signed federal legislation. Originally called Tacoma or Tahoma by generations of Northwest Native Americans, the peak was named after British Admiral Peter Rainier. The first European to see the volcanic peak was explorer George Vancouver in 1792. A century later, naturalist John Muir visited the Mount Rainier region. He recommended that it be designated a national park. Following the designation as a national park, some critics charged the act was merely...
After a vandal hit Grand Coulee City Hall Jan. 4, the city was left with cleanup and repairs. Those are coming in at about $74,000 to fix broken windows, damaged floors and walls, office equipment and police cars parked outside. The city council Tuesday night OK’d spending $13,450 on new windows, including a couple not damaged in the incident but old enough to be replaced with more energy-efficient windows. The council also voted to declare surplus five of those now-unused police vehicles outside, which had served the police department when it...
