News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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We are a nation adrift. Even before the pandemic and George Floyd’s death, the U.S. was piling on problems with little sense that we had either the leadership or the political will to address them. The coronavirus and Black Lives Matter protests have amplified those challenges, throwing older ones into stark relief and adding new ones. I am as convinced as ever that this country has the strength and ingenuity to find its way out. I don’t know about you, but I see rising out of the multiple crises besetting us a bedrock recognition that the...
The wind energy industry remains one of the fastest growing in the U.S. It has not only increased capacity, but provided consumers and utilities with clean energy while creating additional economic benefits, such as tax revenue, career opportunities and direct payments to landowners who host turbines. However, with that growth has come questions and concerns, leaving local officials trying to decide the best approach to regulating development. The most common solution is zoning, in particular setbacks, which plays an important role in setting...
Elections for key WA State positions are imminent. It is a timely election with much at stake, including the leadership to guide us out of a pandemic, to protect our lands and natural resources against the ever increasing climate change, to fight against corporate corruption, to ensure our public safety and protect our civil liberties, to improve our public schools, to protect our agricultural areas, and to implement an affordable healthcare care system. Each level of government adds to this body to make sure that the needs of the various...
When we think of bravery, we have a tendency to think big. Actually, acts of bravery are all around us, some more apparent than others. While in Vietnam a number of years ago I met a medical doctor who was captured by the Viet Cong and held captive four years. It wasn’t unusual at the time for people to turn up missing. The doctor was held in a jungle field hospital where he worked on soldiers who were wounded or people who came down with jungle diseases. He was somewhat philosophical about it all. He reasoned that he was trained for this k...
Hunters, fishers, and farmers are the original conservationists. Growing up in Central Washington, I have been surrounded by agriculture my whole life. As our farmers and ranchers work to feed the world, we also recognize the importance of conserving our precious natural resources and native species. The same goes for sportsmen, many of whom hunt or fish in order to honor generational traditions or provide for their families. Without responsible land use, resource development, and local conservation efforts, hunting, farming, and fishing as we...
Sometimes you discover history after it is past. I have visited a lot of cemeteries and memorials, but probably the most moving is the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. I’ve been there twice, the second time after I had learned that a cousin had been killed in the war and that his name was etched on the marble wall. I had a natural interest in the wall because I had made three trips to Vietnam while the war was still going on. Visiting the wall is a moving experience. It is one of the most popular memorials in D.C. On my visits it was crowded...
When rural communities call, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) answers. Our postal service employees provide critical services to the communities of Central Washington and are often the only delivery service that will go the “final mile” to ensure that important mail – including prescriptions, bills, and checks – can be safely delivered to every house in America. In Washington state, we also rely on the USPS to securely deliver our ballots as recently as earlier this month during our state’s primary election. In recent days, there has been a lot o...
Sunny summer weather helped restaurant owners and workers recover after they were broadsided by the coronavirus pandemic last March. However, as fall morphs into winter and diners are forced back inside, the big question will be: Are there enough customers to keep what’s left of the restaurant sector financially viable? The worst fears of many American businesses are coming true. With no recovery in sight from the COVID-19 pandemic, 72,842 businesses across the U.S. have permanently closed, acco...
Small businesses continue to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. While they are doing their best to keep the doors open, they are hurting. That is especially true in our rural towns. Congress has acted to provide businesses with loans through the Small Business Administration six months of payment forgiveness. This is a lifeline for big city enterprises, but it doesn’t help rural entrepreneurs. That is because many rural businesses do not have access to an SBA lender and must borrow from a USDA Rural Development program instead. On A...
The English language is the best friend while traveling in most countries. In all my travels in Asia, the one most constant thing was that English was spoken and understood in every country. Part of the reason was the influence of English colonialism, and the fact that most people study English as a second language. While English is prevalent in both Japan and Hong Kong, Sometimes natives seek out touring English-speaking people so they can practice their English. This happened to me in both Japan and Hong Kong. In Osaka, Japan, I had walked...
I recently conducted a survey of constituents in Central Washington, asking a question that is on the minds of parents across our district and the entire country: “Do you support doing everything we can to safely reopen schools for in-person instruction in the fall?” The overwhelming response was “yes.” As we all know, on March 13, 2020, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered Washington state schools to close in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As other states followed suit, the governor extended the order several times and, unfortu...
If Americans are to receive all of their electricity without coal and natural gas by 2035, they will need nuclear power. Even if Washingtonians, who already procure over 70 percent of their electricity from hydro, are to be completely devoid of fossil fuel generation by 2045, they must have nuclear. Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act passed earlier this year by the Legislature leans heavily on renewable fuels, particularly wind and solar. It calls for electrical generation to be c...
In January 1950, a group of community leaders formed the Grand Coulee Dam Athletic Association to fund community athletic teams. To help provide funding, the association booked nationally recognized dance bands to the Coulee Dam high school gym. A member from the association had a close contact within the Music Corporation of America, which was the nation's largest booking agency for famous-name bands. What followed between January 1950 and May 1953 was then described as the "Parade of Bands."...
If popular differences can show up any place in the United States, it’s very possible they could show up first in Okanogan County. Once considered a bellwether county in presidential politics, the county supports a variety of types, from ranchers to escaped urbanites and everything in between. So it’s no surprise that county commissioners in recent discussions have represented the politics of our national Covid angst writ small, right down to the mask-wearing controversy. It was obvious the three commissioners fit well into distinct cross sec...
The people of the 12th District are so fortunate to have a meaningful choice in the legislative race to represent us in Olympia. Adrianne Moore is an exciting, hardworking candidate with family roots five generations deep in North Central Washington. Having worked in long -erm recovery from the impact of wildfires, she is primed to get the economy going following COVID19. Having worked to assist people to access health care, she will do all in her power to make sure people have adequate healthcare coverage. Our local hospital administrators in...
I once moved twice on the same day. We have moved 14 times, but only once in the past 56 years. Our first move was to Palouse from southern Idaho. We were so recently married that it only took a couple of boxes, and those fit neatly in the trunk of our 1946 Ford. We spent the winter there. Trained as a lumber grader, I answered an ad in the Spokesman Review for a position at Lincoln Lumber Company. We interviewed, got the position and found an apartment in Wilbur. The apartment belonged to the school district there, and we got it with the...
Grand Coulee creates an image in our minds - the Grand Coulee Dam or the City of Grand Coulee, maybe the general area around the dam. Of course, the Grand Coulee, as well. However, where is Grand Coulee National Park? Well, the story of what could have been a national park goes back some 108 years to1912. Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the American Geographical Society of New York, an organized excursion was planned and implemented — The Transcontinental Excursion of 1912. Geologists and ge...
The area around where Grand Coulee sits today was sparsely populated around the turn of the 20th Century, and the few settlers and ranchers all knew each other. They also knew Texas Jack, a loner who lived down in the bottom of Rattlesnake Canyon, in a cave. One day, Texas Jack returned home with a young mixed-race woman. He never called her by name in public and referred to her as 'Woman" as if that was her name. She dressed rugged and in men's clothes. Some people in the community took pity...
To the Grand Coulee City Council and mayor: Why do you hate our community? We are in the middle of the worst pandemic in our history! Businesses closed, people out of work, and mask shave to be worn at all times, and you pass an ordinance that lets anyone from anywhere rent our neighbors’ houses for weekends or vacations! (“Short-term rentals will be allowed in Grand Coulee” Star, July 29). Are you crazy!? You let an out-of-towner run our town, people who don’t even live here! We have to say enough! Did you ever check with the CDC? Did you eve... Full story
In past columns, I’ve shared information regarding climate change and the measurable impacts that are occurring. The impacts are measurable, and the science on climate change is being documented around the world. Back in June 2017, the column was about tree species migration. The most recent column provided information about the declining populations of songbirds. This column, we will read what researchers at the University of Wyoming are doing. Their published work addresses Climate Change impacts on mule deer habitat and migration. The r...
A drive through the Hartline area the other day showed piles of wheat forming outside granaries, an indication of an abundant harvest. I was born on a farm about four miles south of Palouse, delivered by my aunt while my dad went to town to get Dr. Dart, the area medical czar. I was on the farm until age 5, when the family moved to town so I could start school the next year. There was a custom, a sort of a rite of passage, that young kids could ride the harvest trucks during harvest. We would go down to the warehouse, and when the trucks would...
The first locomotives to haul construction material for the dam were old and tired. Two were on hand in 1935 and had been bought by MWAK to get trains moving. For the section from Electric City down to below the dam, an old logging locomotive, built in 1926, was purchased. It was of the Shay type of geared steamer, in that it was designed to move via pistons turning a common shaft via gearing attached to the wheels. The speed wasn't high, nor was the pulling power great, but it was perfect for...
It’s almost unimaginable. Music, whether we realize it or not, plays an important part in all our lives. My earliest recollection of music was when I was very young and my father sang to me. My father had an ocean of Irish ditties that he would sing while I was sitting on his lap. What I wouldn’t give to remember all of them. But I do remember one “Froggy went a courtin.” I don’t remember why this one stuck to me. I don’t even remember if my dad had a good singing voice, but it was magical to me. We can be depressed, lonely, sick, but music is...
America desperately needed some positive news and a reprieve from the coronavirus pandemic and rioting which is ripping apart our country---most notably in Seattle, Olympia and Portland. We needed reaffirmation that our political leaders can come together, set aside bitter partisan differences, and act in our country’s best interests. That actually happened in the course of the last month. The result would undoubtedly please the legendary U.S. Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) — the master...