News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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I’ve mentioned before that cows are not my favorite animal. When I was just in my teens I lived on a farm. My Dad had some work horses and a cow. Had to handle the cow but not milk her. I couldn’t then, nor now, get a cow to give milk. I would take her down the road and stake her out so she could get fresh, green grass. That’s when I learned that cows have a mind of their own. Flash forwards a number of years to when I met my wife and would drive to southern Idaho to visit her. I would get off work at 5 on Friday and then drive the 500 miles...
Europeans have invaded Russia twice. Napoleon invaded Russia with a force of close to half a million troops. He advanced to Moscow, but the Russian government had relocated. The brutal Russian winter arrived, and Napoleon’s army froze, starved, and died of disease as they retreated from the country. Germany, under Hitler, invaded Russia at the outset of World War Two. The Germans sent their best armed forces to the Eastern Front to fight the Russians. Seventy percent of Germany’s casualties were sustained fighting the Russians. During the war...
Good ideas have a way of changing into something else in a committee, and that’s precisely how we tend to govern in America, especially in Washington state in the last two years. Last year the Legislature passed a law widely condemned by law enforcement agencies who warned of unintended consequences. A proposed fix, still controversial, is currently under debate. See that story on page 1. This year, the Leg is considering a similarly well-intended but possibly disastrous effort, one that seeks to address a very real problem with a n... Full story
As you may have heard, the Washington State Redistricting Commission approved maps to rebalance our 49 statewide legislative districts and 10 federal congressional districts in November. This is a process conducted every 10 years in our state based on the federal Census data for population. The process was challenging in 2021, in part because the commission received data later than usual and because of the significant population growth shown in western Washington. Despite approving the plans late, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that...
When our youngest daughter was about 10, we bought her a horse. A real old cowboy lived about four blocks from us, and I got acquainted with him. His name was Homer. He lived in a small house on the edge of Bothell and had a two- to three-acre pasture that on occasion was home to a horse or two. While visiting with him one day, he suggested that I ought to buy Kim a horse. He said he would rent the pasture to me real cheap. I explained that I didn’t know anything about horses, only that they had four legs and a mane. He said he would help me p...
If you ask almost any farmer in Central Washington these days what their most pervasive problem is, I can guarantee they’ll say labor. Producers across Washington and the country are keenly aware that there simply isn’t enough interest among domestic workers to fill these essential roles. As the breadbasket for the world, the labor crisis creates a threat to our food security and our national security. That is why I have been championing agricultural labor reform since coming to Congress. In 2019 my legislation, the Farm Workforce Mod...
Living in Central Washington means you’re pretty much as far as you can get from the southern border while remaining in the land of the free, so it’s easy to think President Biden’s open-border policies don’t affect us. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth. President Biden’s open-border policies have allowed fentanyl to flow across the southern border and into our communities. In FY21, there was a 134% increase in the amount of fentanyl found by Customs and Border Protection. The 11,201 pounds of fentanyl that were seized by o...
The recent eruption of the Tonga volcano was captured by various geostationary satellites showing us the size and scale of that eruption. The eruption plume was about 162 miles in diameter before upper winds disrupted it. The Tonga volcano, officially called the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, is mostly under water. It is about 12.5 miles wide and is 6,000 feet high. The volcano is 40 miles north of capital of Tonga (175˚23’W, 20˚33’S). This volcano’s recent past activity was in 2009 and...
I have had a lot of odd jobs, spread out over the years. I don’t think I was in my teens yet when I took my first official job. I set pins in the Palouse bowling alley. I got 5 cents a line, not something I could get rich doing. A line of bowling took about 30 minutes, so you can see it wasn’t a great deal.This was before they got the racks you put the pins in. There were black circles painted and you were supposed to put the pins right on the painted circles. First you had to clear the down pins and then jump up on the retaining wall so the...
Last year, Gov. Jay Inslee attempted an end run around the legislature by banning natural gas in new homes and commercial buildings via the state’s building codes. It was a bad idea. Now, some fellow Democrats who control the Legislature are working on legislation trying to do the same — also a bad idea. Inslee’s proposed regulations forbid the use of fossil fuels for heating and hot water in new structures. Prohibiting natural gas is expensive for home and building owners, many of whom installed energy-efficient natural gas heat pumps and t...
Setting aside the likelihood that the Grand Coulee Dam School District is not perfect, critics who argue that the fix is voting against its local funding are way off the mark. When the Legislature changed the formula for basic education funding, getting dollares for this district became even more complicated than it already was, restricting funds in different buckets dedicated to specific uses, even more so than they usually are. But administrators here, like others across the state, have had to figure it out. This year, the district is... Full story
Palouse Pottery Company, founded in 1904, produced a ton of crock pots during the short time it was in operation. Currently, I am looking for my fourth Palouse Pottery piece so I can give it away. I don’t remember when or where I got my first piece, a gallon crock. Since I am from Palouse, I decided to try to find pieces of Palouse Pottery for each of our four children. I gave my first piece away, and while visiting Palouse a couple of years ago found my second piece. This one was a 10-gallon crock, and I bought it at a secondhand store on P...
There has been much debate on whether you should support the upcoming school levy continuance. While many facts have been presented, some have been unclearly represented, and our children are the ones who will suffer. Please remember the facts and consider the whole picture as you make your decision. First of all, please remember the fact that the levy that is up for vote is not a new levy. It is to continue the levy that pays for the maintenance and education operations that already exist. Voting no takes away money from the normal day-to-day...
The state of Washington has changed how school districts are funded, placing greater responsibility on local levies to help the district sustain extracurricular activities, adequate staffing, and improved facilities for our children. A typical voice in support of levies tends to focus on issues such as our aging district infrastructure and non-taxed government lands. Voices against the levies tend to focus on mismanagement, lack of representation, and the perception that property taxes will increase. What none of these issues address is the...
Thanks go to The Star, Jacob Wagner and Scott Hunter for carrying out the school levy survey and printing the results and comments in the January 19, 2022 edition. Voters need to have factual information to help them decide whether to vote “Yes” or ‘No” on the levy. There are a few comments that were included in the article and a related “Letters from our readers” section that I would like to address. Ten years ago, after many years (decades?) of our community communicating the need to replace our three aging and unhealthy schools, Sen. Linda...
I am writing in support of the two upcoming levies for the Grand Coulee Dam School District. As a teacher for the district for 42 years, I have seen how levies have supported and provided opportunities for students and staff. The levies have provided support to the athletic programs, upkeep for our school buildings and provide programs that are available for our students. In supporting our levies, we are supporting and providing for the future of our students. Gary Darnold Retired teacher and coach for GCD School District...
Previously I’d mentioned how much I appreciate The Star seeking input by polling our community about the upcoming school levies. People need to be heard and I’m proud of those who’ve studied the issue and logically responded. Maybe the only real avenue they have. It takes courage to go against the establishment, but I can tell you these folks are not against kids. They see a lack of balance and dysfunction over time. Most of us love our local school district but the elected officials and superintendent are out of touch in many ways. Looki...
This is about places I’ve been that would make my bucket list if I hadn’t. 1 - First would have to be my favorite vacation spot, Grand Teton National Park. Place to stay: Jackson Lake Lodge, on Jackson Lake. It has always been the top spot for moose watching, but it also is a hiker’s paradise. We took a boat across the lake and it dropped us off at a trailhead that wound its way between two of the mountain peaks. We had walked about a mile and when turning a corner in the path we ran into two bull moose that cautiously eyed us as if we shouldn...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District (GCDSD) is seeking voter approval for two separate levies in the upcoming election on February 8, 2022. The intent of my letter is to provide the facts regarding these levies and enable voters to make well-informed voting decisions. The first of these levies is the educational programs and operations levy—commonly referred to as an “enrichment” levy; and the second is the capital levy for safety, technology and facilities improvement, or simply, “capital levy.” Both of these levies have been approved...
In life it is very important to make progress from being fully aware of current reality and learning from the patterns involved. We should always strive to improve and find balance from our mistakes. This is not happening at the highest levels in our school district. There are excessive fiscal requests and repetitive unanimous decisions that are not logical to me. We need servant leadership, a diversity of viewpoints with equity in mind. People need to be valued and heard with genuine collaboration so progressive solutions can be found....
I well remember the feeling when I heard the clang of the prison door at Walla Walla closing behind me. This needs some explanation. When I was with the newspaper in Bothell, I heard of some of the reforms at the state prison at Walla Walla. A call to the prison eventually led to a visit with warden Bobby Rhay. I told him I was interested in pursuing the reforms with a story, particularly the elected prison inmate council. He said if I wanted to come over, I could visit with him about the reforms and also meet with the prisoner council members....
It’s not going away if we accept defeat, it will just keep attacking. Complaining about the unfair, changing “rules” is useless. There are no rules but one: Don’t give up. A good friend who knows better couldn’t help recently expressing that feeling of resentment, which is held by probably everyone who’s been alive over the last two years. No, it isn’t fair, whatever you imagine that might mean in the context of a non-thinking clump of reproducing molecules that can make you or your loved ones sick to death, literally, not just of masking yo...
As a parent of students at our local schools, I plan to support the levies that are coming up on the ballot in the next few weeks. I hope you will too. Generation Z will need to solve a lot of problems over the coming decades. One of them will be how to care for an aging Generation X, and what to do with our old BMX, inline skating, and X Game-wannabe injuries. We all thought we were going to be Dan Cortese or Gabrielle Reece. And for a brief, glorious time . . . we almost were. But at what cost? I mean, there was no real concussion protocol...
Trees of Sharing 2021 culminated Saturday, December 18 with the delivery of wrapped Christmas gifts to 118 children in 54 families. The Trees of sharing Committee thanks every person who supported this project by making a cash donation or purchasing gifts for children who might not have otherwise received one this Christmas. Trees of Sharing extends special appreciation to Spokane Teachers Credit Union, Coulee Family Medicine, Harvest Foods, North Cascades Bank, and Safeway Pharmacy for help with collecting children’s names and/or displaying t...
We have had great luck with neighbors. Thinking back to our earliest days together, and up to the present time, we have always had good neighbors. Just recently, and after our latest snowfall, is a good example of good neighbors. I heard noise from outside and went to the door to look out, and there was Gasry Norris plowing out the end of my driveway. Gary is former owner of H&H Grocery and has a blade on the front of his pickup. Not only was Gary cleaning up our driveway but proceeded to go down the street and do other driveways. At the...