News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 3345
Unfortunately, too many pragmatic Democrats and Republicans in Congress are retiring at a time when we need them most. Two are from Washington: Reps. Derek Kilmer (D), Olympic Peninsula; and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R), Eastern Washington. McMorris Rodgers and Kilmer cut their political teeth in Washington’s Legislature. While they faithfully followed their parties, they found ways to come together on issues vital to our state and nation. McMorris Rodgers was elected to Congress in 2004 and Kilmer in 2012. Recently, problem-solving Democrats a...
Some deep thinking has been going on, and its helping. Last week, many local professionals in law enforcement, emergency medicine, and other first responders, — the folks who have to live with the possible trauma of a car crash to which they only responded to help — took time to show every local high school student just what happens in a crash. Many of them worked for weeks or months in preparation and planning. Teenagers as a group are far more likely to be involved in car crashes, and this area has too often seen the worst side of those sta...
Communities across Central Washington have been devastated by the epidemic of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is the leading cause of death for people ages 18-45 in the United States. Dubbed the “silent killer” of American youth, fentanyl’s lethal potency is alarming; a mere two milligrams, equivalent to 10-15 grains of table salt, constitutes a fatal dose. Bad actors in China have been taking advantage of loopholes in our laws in the United States to push these dangerous substances over our borders, and I have been working tirel...
Watching the evening television news is something I typically don’t do. There are a few reasons why. There is the widespread TV news edict, “If it burns or bleeds, it leads.” Next, there is the never-ending prescription drug advertising that is most prevalent on the national networks. Let me share an interesting fact — of the 195 nations on Earth, only two permit prescription drug advertising directed at potential consumers. It’s called direct-to-consumer advertising, or DTC. Who are those two...
“Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” is on April 25th, and I think we should try something different this year: Let’s take our daughters and sons to grandma’s. The Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation says that April 25th is designed to be more than just a career day — more than the practice of “shadowing” an adult in the workplace. It’s equally important to show children “the value of their education, helping them discover the power and possibilities of work and family life…” It’s about “providing boys and girls a chance t...
For the people that have not followed political history, I would like to give you my perspective as to where the political parties have gone from the late 1950s and early 1960s. (I voted for JFK.) The Democratic Party today is where the Socialist party was in the 1950s &1960s, and a large part of the DNC is where the communist party was. The Republican Party is where the Democrats were in the late 1950s and early 1960s. To demonstrate my point, John Fitzgerald Kennedy could NEVER be nominated or elected President in the DNC party today. But he...
If a dog is man’s best friend, then why can’t a man be a dog’s best friend? I lost my little dog over a year ago. She had been with me for about 15 years. Now I don’t want to pick a fight with people who feel differently about pets. I bought my little dog when she was just a small puppy. A woman was selling her dog’s puppies out of the trunk of her car on Bureau property near The Star newspaper corner. I paid $50 for the puppy. Upon the advice of my wife, I eventually picked a female puppy, while I liked the color of the male puppy better. My i...
While wind and solar farms generate “greenhouse gas free” electricity, there are ongoing concerns over their impacts on our environment especially as a rapidly growing number of worn-out blades and panels are landing in landfills. Those blades, housed on giant wind towers reaching over 250 feet in the sky, are starting to reach the end of their useful lives (15 to 20 years) and are being taken down, cut up and hauled to burial sites. Even though over 90 percent of the decommissioned wind tow...
Last month, I traveled to Anchorage, Alaska for a Maternal and Child Health Conference. This conference brought together maternal health experts and advocates to discuss the heart-wrenching maternal health crisis in our country and what we’re doing to promote better outcomes. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries. In 2021, 1,205 women died of maternal causes in the United States. In 2020, 861 women died of maternal causes in the U.S., a 40% increase in just one year, and some of our neighbors a...
Carmela Conroy gives eastern Washington voters the unusual, important opportunity to elect a foreign policy expert as their US Representative. As Foreign Service Officer for 24 years, she served in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Norway, New Zealand, and Tom Foley’s Japan office. US voters must weigh foreign policy experience much more heavily than usual in their 2024 voting decisions. Electing wannabe dictator Donald Trump would be a huge catastrophe for our national security by his policies towards Ukraine and Russia, with most congressional Republica...
Ohs and ahs were the favorite two words uttered in the early days when visitors viewed Grand Coulee Dam. My first experience with the dam was in 1948, when a couple of buddies and I escaped the halls of our high school for the day and drove up here. I can’t say we were too excited, but it was clearly a memorable event. We started out from Palouse, hit Spokane, then the coulee, and we ended up in Moses Lake. My next trip here was in 1953, after I was married, when we moved to Grand Coulee after I took a job grading lumber at the mill in L...
In the United States, one of our most important freedoms is individual choice. However, the Biden Administration has unmistakably signaled its determination to advance its aggressive climate agenda at any cost — even at the expense of consumer choice — whether it pertains to gas stoves, dishwashers, or even gas-powered vehicles. As this administration continues their unconstitutional efforts to phase out gas vehicles in favor of electric vehicles (EVs), it overlooks a critical factor: the United States currently lacks the necessary inf...
For decades, the debate over grizzly bear introduction into the North Cascades ecosystem has raged on, and I have been fighting tirelessly to ensure that the voices of Central Washingtonians are heard. Regrettably, last week saw the release of the U.S. National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with proposed action on the question of introducing grizzly bears to the region. This proves that—once again—the Biden Administration is acting without due consideration for the concerns of Ce...
Last year I wrote several letters to The Star paper addressing people entering Grand Coulee at high rates of speed from the Bridgeport highway. Over the summer there was no traffic control, but I do feel good knowing the city hall’s well protected. I also asked for the city to install the solar slowdown signs that were purchased for traffic entering our town on Hwy [174] about eight years ago. Well, the signs were not used for the purpose they were purchased for. I have found the signs. They were installed at the corner of Federal and Main S...
I want to know after several complaints to the City of Grand Coulee, one formal, one handwritten, that after three months of waiting for something to be done, about a rooster in the city limits on Gardener and Bowman St. I live on Wetzel St., and at 3 a.m. it starts and all day and night. I have a hard time sleeping. When I do fall asleep it starts crowing. What do we have to do to get something done? The city told me as soon as an officer is free [they] will send him over there. All you have to do is sit in your car and you can hear it unless...
When I was growing up in Palouse, I always had a job, or two. One of my early jobs wasn’t one of my best. In fact, it was often dangerous. We had a small bowling alley, six lanes if I remember correctly. I set pins. We didn’t have any automation in those days. They painted a black circle and the task was to set the pins exactly in the circle. If you didn’t put them exactly in the circle, the good bowlers would get really angry with you and sometimes let go with a bowling ball before you were ready. I was paid five cents a line. It was a crapp...
Easter is when potted Easter Lily plants start showing up in nurseries and supermarkets like poinsettias during the Christmas season. They adorn the altars and pulpits of most churches on Easter Sunday, but why don’t sightseers flock to fields to enjoy the spectacular sea of white blooms? The answer is a small group of family lily farmers who are bulb producers. They need to clip the flowers to concentrate the plant’s nutrients on bulb development. Fields of white flowers on the ground are not...
Young soldiers sometimes cite a particular military weapon and pose the question: Is that a defensive weapon or an offensive weapon? Almost invariably, the answer is: It depends on the intent of the user. Whether artificial intelligence is good or bad could be described the same way. Regardless, artificial intelligence is coming to us in an overwhelming way. Computers can be programmed to “learn.” Because of their speed and vast information storage capacity, scientists believe that computer programs will make it possible to solve problems tha...
One of the things we liked to do when growing up in Palouse was go to the Washington State College baseball games. We really didn’t care about the game, but we went to see baseball coach Buck Bailey kick the bucket. Buck came to WSC in 1927 as an assistant football coach and became baseball coach. He was coach for 32 years and was tragically, along with his wife, killed in an auto accident in 1965. We didn’t care about his long time as baseball coach or his successful 603-305 record. We came to see Bailey kick the bucket. There were a number of...
Who would have thought that a small Oregon natural grain mill owner’s death would make national news or be the subject of a lengthy feature article in the New York Times (NYT)? However, 94-year-old Bob Moore’s passing in February did. The Times is published just off Broadway in the heart of Big Apple’s network television and theater district. Moore, with his white beard, wire-rim eyeglasses, newsie cap and bolo tie became a “food poster person” approaching the notoriety of KFC’s Colonel San...
Sometimes city governments run smoothly, but as they operate with humans in a democracy, rough patches happen. Balancing human needs, egos, ambitions, desires, skills, or a lack of them, all within the confines of public perceptions, budgets, legal restrictions, and politics sounds like the kind of idea that might cause many stalwart business pros to run screaming from the room where it was suggested. But that’s exactly what it takes for a city, or any municipality that serves us, to operate. It’s natural when tensions rise, and they can be...
I was just a kid during World War II but I still remember a lot about that time. I remember how America was very close to being beaten by the Axis (Germany, Japan and Italy), they did unspeakable things against the rest of the world, but they didn’t count on how America was all together on defeating them. We lost a lot of heroes to keep our freedom. Today, we are seeing the same kind of people trying to divide us with lies, lies and more lies. Maybe some people think it’s just exciting to divide us. I think lies are awful and so are the peo...
Answering an advertisement started my love of the railroads. I saw the ad in our hometown newspaper, The Palouse Republic. The ad was seeking people to apply for menial labor on our section of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The section ran from Palouse to Tekoa, about 50 miles of track. I was a junior in high school, but 16, the minimum age suggested in the ad. The track foreman, Bill Fisher, did the interview. He went on to complete 50 years as track foreman, a distinctive achievement. I was hired on to work Saturdays that could lead to...
A growing number of Americans think the American Dream is out of reach, but I think they are wrong. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, only 36% of voters said the American Dream still exists, way fewer than the 53% who believed so in 2012. Half of the poll’s respondents believed that America’s economic and political systems are “stacked against people like me.” These are troubling findings, but I think more of our native-born non-believers need to start dreaming — and acting — like American immigrants. Many immigrants still belie...
Among Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s negative legacies she leaves as US Representative, her most impactful may be on immigration. However, she still has time to improve that. Donald Trump cares nothing about our country, just his election. Accordingly, he recently ordered all Republicans to scuttle the bipartisan, long-negotiated Senate deal supporting Ukraine and limiting immigration that would be a victory for President Joe Biden. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, an election-denier, obeyed Trump by withholding a full House vote, despite e...