News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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My son Paul is a month into a five-month trip to Alaska. He called Sunday from a small campsite near Prudhoe Bay, where you can get to the gate but you can’t get in unless you have a permit or work there. There are about 2,000 workers at the oil site, mostly Eskimos who reside in nearby villages. The oil-and-gas site is expansive and the living quarters are huge, allowing for an influx of temporary workers. It is claimed that the oil companies are highly sensitive to environmental issues since the big Exxon Valdez oil tanker issue in 1989. A n...
Here’s a story that is growing bigger by the day: Cyber scams are on the rise. My elderly family member fell for a common scam a few weeks ago: His screen appeared to be locked by “Microsoft” and he was urged to call the number the phony security alert displayed. If you call that fake number, a fake Microsoft representative will ask you to provide access to your computer, so he can steal sensitive data or download malicious apps. To be sure, in the digital era in which we all now live 24/7, you must assume that every email, text and phone call...
The departure of a local volunteer board member this week (see her letter on this page) underscores for us an emerging trend that is the direct result of the onslaught of social media’s encouragement of extremes online that affect our real world for the worse. Social media’s expert finesse at manipulating humans’ innate physiological reactions to emotional stimuli was a subject of one part of the meeting of the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors Monday exploring ways to control student cell phone usage. Social media sites...
To the students offended by my actions after the board meeting regarding their classmates not allowed to walk in the LR graduation: As you can imagine this was very hard on all of us and coming to this decision had me heartbroken for all the families of the students not allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony. In the meeting I spoke on how it’s unfair to be placed in this position at all and how the blame fell on our shoulders in their eyes. When the meeting was over I approached a scene where another board member was being c...
My parents were of the “Greatest Generation”: Dad served in the Army Air Corps in the European Theatre, and Mom was a defense worker. They had grown up in the Great Depression, which was a time of political division and grinding poverty. There was a populist element in the country that wanted the United States to be isolationist, led by the heroic pilot Charles Lindburg. Industrialist Henry Ford was a quiet supporter of Adolph Hilter. A Catholic priest named Father Edward Coughlin had a huge national radio audience where he spewed ant...
Oh-K, I’m sorry. I should not have made everybody read my smarty mouth letters. I was really looking for a targeted reader. This huge pile of concrete has sat for years, I know the project had no plans to deal with this eyesore. I am not so naïve to think my letters would change their minds. Fact, nobody likes to be reminded of their obligations. Now they are really not going to look into this mess. This is pretty much what I figured would happen. My target readers list should be a superintendent or someone in upper management. So as Paul Ha...
Dreams did come true for Colleen Leskinen of Nespelem. Last week Colleen had an open house for her new daycare center. The daycare, just 50 yards from Colleen’s house, will be fully operable when state licensing officials make their official visit and signoff on the 2,400 square foot daycare building. Colleen is licensed for 35 children. She currently has 28. Building a new facility has long been a dream of Colleen’s. Her dream has come true. Her home and new daycare building is at the end of a long lane. If her dog Duke doesn’t announce your...
It’s not always clear who is going to learn what or when as consequences come down after rules are broken. But one possibility this week is that the community is learning to draw a meaningful line. Four students, by all accounts good ones, will suffer the consequences of breaking rules against alcohol at school functions and contrary to their own pledges: They won’t be allowed to walk at graduation this Saturday. Following two executive sessions, appeals from each of the four, and more appeals from some 30 or so of their supporters Tuesday nig...
Last Friday I received a phone call from Wir Smith, the adopted son of the late Dr. Pat Smith. I knew of Wir and his older brother Det from my trips to Vietnam in the period between 1968-1970. I had read about Dr. Smith in an article in the Seattle Times. She graduated from the UW School of Medicine and responded to a challenge to go to Vietnam and open a hospital in the Central Highlands. That was in the 1950s. It was not known at the time that in a few years there would be a war in the area. The article told of a group in the Seattle area tha...
We recently celebrated Memorial Day, a time of remembrance of those brave Americans who gave their lives to promote and protect the right of men everywhere to live free and responsibly in peace. My own Dad served in the army in Hawaii after the bombing of Pearl Harbor which began the Pacific campaign of WWII. We became a nation defending two fronts, one in the Pacific and the other in Europe where we joined forces with Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union against a truly deranged despot named Adolph Hitler. Had the Allies lost that war, o...
Every year on Memorial Day, a few citizens go to great effort to put on a tremendous display of patriotism to honor and remember those veterans who have passed on, dedicating new flags to those whose families wish to have them remembered with one. More than 600 American flags were flapping gently in the breeze Monday as speakers shared their thoughts on the day, and also during a moment of silence, which was a beautiful moment. It also meant volunteers put up and took down 600-plus flags, no easy task. But it is one that yields the kind of...
I’ve always been a simple person who needs very little to be happy. My first date with my partner was over 50 years ago. We talk about how if we had nothing but our family, would we be alright? We realize without a doubt we’d be just fine. We are all about quality relationships and being passionate about life and what we enjoy. With these thoughts in mind, we were very excited to be in Yakima this past weekend to cheer on our Raider teams’ athletes and coaches. Last spring after state softball was over, I told the head coach, Jaci Gross, to ke...
Service people catch the brunt of angry people. They have to take it out on somebody, I guess. You constantly read of incidents of anger interrupting airline travel. Usually, it is some small inconvenience brought on by someone who is having a very bad day. Incidents that you read about would have been unheard of in travel 50 years ago. I have traveled a lot, flying all over, and I never saw anger that you read about today. Airlines need to develop a D.B. Cooper drop from 30,000 feet to cool off some of these characters. Airline attendants are...
On Memorial Day, we traditionally honor Americans in our military who gave their lives in battle for our country. It is called the “Ultimate Sacrifice,” and they died protecting our freedoms and keeping us safe. In recent times, we have acknowledged our citizens in uniform who continue to suffer with permanent combat emotional and physical scars. They are alive largely because our battlefield survival is dramatically improving, and our accompanying rehabilitation expands. This Memorial Day we...
As many of you know, Central Washington is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. From Sunnyside to Okanogan, our hardworking producers provide the food for our nation, and the world. Central Washington is currently the top producer of many agricultural products, including potatoes, tree fruit, berries, wheat, and various types of livestock and poultry. This success resulted in over $7.29 billion in sales in Washington’s 4th Congressional District alone in 2022. This is due to the over 7,890 farms across Central W...
Last Saturday was my 34th Colorama Parade. I will likely remember this one more than the rest. I had sat at my vantage point for over an hour before the parade started. It was really hot out. Just as the first part of the parade reached my location the heat got to me and I passed out. This is really about our local healthcare providers and how they help us when we have problems. On the scene almost immediately was Rick Paris and his ambulance crew. While I wasn’t tuned in to much, I remember how pleased I was that Paris was on the scene. I h...
I am the first to admit when I’m wrong. A city employee and I had a talk. He informed me that the concrete (see “Let’s try common sense on illegal dump” in May 8 issue) was not from the city road project, but from a private party. He knows who but doesn’t want to get in volved. So, my apologies to the city. But I still wish it would get cleaned up! Robert Fields...
I am the first to admit when I’m wrong. A city employee and I had a talk. He informed me that the concrete (see “Let’s try common sense on illegal dump” in May 8 issue) was not from the city road project, but from a private party. He knows who but doesn’t want to get in volved. So, my apologies to the city. But I still wish it would get cleaned up! Robert Fields...
I have tried to address the illegal dumping on federal land a couple of times, but Scott did not agree with me, so he throws my letters in the trash. So I went to The Star building and asked why? He told me I need to quit writing my letters as though they are facts. So let’s use another word, common sense. A couple of years ago Grand Coulee had a contract to do a good sized road project on Federal Ave. (The shortcut through town.) I can only guess that the contractor was paid to properly dispose of the leftover landfill. That was when five d...
Having family at Grand Coulee, I have relatives who work at the dam and it mystifies me how little attention presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., pays to hydro-electric power. True, I mention wind and solar, but rarely (if ever) hydro. The man comes from a rich family and most of them have disavowed him as “dangerous” and called his make-believe candidacy a “vanity project”. He shows images of his father (RFK, Senior) and his uncle (President JFK). But one thing is for sure, “Junior” cannot hold a candle to either of those gentl...
We honor our mothers this week. This, of course, is something we should do all year long. I was born at the beginning of the Great Depression. My mother was a depression mother, the kind that is made of kindness and steel. She was the rock of the family. During the 1930s jobs were scarce. My father often had to work out of town and returned home for the weekends. I remember he worked one full year at Moses Lake. The depression is what brought my parents and siblings to Palouse. My father, who was born in Palouse, was discharged out of the army...
It’s tempting sometimes to lump people into easy categories. Stereotypes exist for a reason. But if you learn anything from this issue of The Star, it should be this: Labeling groups of “those people” as this type or that one is just pure laziness. In case you were tempted to do that after reading about some horrible threats allegedly made by some students at a local school toward other students (see the story on the front page), you should realize that the story about the king and queen of the senior prom (page 3) is also about kids at the l...
What if our president went to the Arlington Cemetery to put a wreath on the unknown soldier and said the soldier who gave his life to protect us was a loser and a sucker? What if our president got out of the service draft about a half dozen times by claiming one ailment after another and then bragged that he had torn up his draft card? What if he said John McCain was no hero after his airplane was shot down and the Vietnamese captured him. John did about five years of torture. Was McClain a loser and sucker also? Don Andrews...
When coming from Coulee Dam through Grand Coulee I understand people like to take a left at The Star newspaper building to save time on the way to Wilbur. If it is a safety hazard, make it a four-way stop! Or tell area police to patrol it. The money was not appropriated for signs on Federal and Main; they were bought for entry into our town from Bridgeport and Wilbur. Is that so hard? I feel like Nicholas Cage in the movie Con Air. (Why can’t you just give me the bunny????) Robert Fields...
I decided to quit my job with Potlatch Forests and move to southern Idaho so I could see my future wife more easily and not have to drive 500 miles on weekends to see her. I guess that’s when I came in contact with Idaho potatoes. If you are in Idaho you wouldn’t be served anything but. Wherever we went and ate out I would ask the waitress if these were Idaho potatoes. I did it as a lark and would get the funniest looks. The answer was usually yes, they were, or I don’t know I will ask the cook. I really didn’t care, I was just having a littl...