News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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On Friday, the Labor Department announced that consumer prices increased by 6.8 percent in November compared to last year, the largest annual increase in over 39 years. If that doesn’t make apparent the impacts President Biden’s policies are having on American families to my progressive colleagues, I don’t know what will. Americans deserve fiscal responsibility. With the stranglehold the far left has on the Democratic Party, we’ve seen anything but that. Trillions of dollars in wasteful spending has been rammed through Congress over the las...
The current runaround faced by the local Regional Board of Mayors points to a structural problem we’ve tried to work around before and failed. The RBOM, itself, was created as an end run around the reality that this is a community split by municipal boundaries drawn in a time when they may have made perfect sense but no longer do. That group of four mayors was formed so we could have and operate a landfill, with all four towns paying their fair share. It has worked for decades and might possibly work for decades more. But not well, and with f...
I never could understand why a person in good health would choose not to work. Several times, as early as high school, I had more than one job at a time.There was a period in my junior and senior years in high school in Palouse when I had three jobs at the same time. It started by being fast at peeling potatoes at the Oasis Restaurant. A week later, the evening fry cook didn’t show up and I was made the fry cook. I already had a job six days a week running Darigold milk products to the door. Shorty Ransom was my boss, and we delivered to S...
Several interesting research efforts have provided findings about our atmosphere and its content. Here are two that I found to be noteworthy and wanted to share them here. Just last month the Journal of Climate published the work of five climate scientists. Their work addressed historic Northern Hemisphere large concurrent heatwaves driven by changing atmospheric circulations. Remember the heatwave we witnessed in June 2021? Our new all-time high temperature for that month is now at 112˚F. Up...
To “Build Back America” people must return to work! In a U.S. Chamber of Commerce poll released in early December, the findings spell trouble for America’s employers whether they are in the private or public sectors. It found that over 60 percent of the respondents are in no hurry to return to work and over a third of the unemployed are not actively going after a job or looking at all. The problem is growing worse. A large number of respondents feel they can get by for at least another six months before they have to find employment. The surve...
For many of us, the holidays mean coming home. With all the joys of being reunited with family and friends, you might also be figuring out how to avoid certain topics of conversation with people you love but don’t always agree with. It’s okay if you change the subject when Uncle Ron starts telling you about his most recent alien encounter, but one topic that can’t be ignored if it shows up is impaired driving. If you’re at a gathering where someone intends to drive impaired, the greatest gift you can give them this holiday season is an alterna...
As talks of defunding the police ring through the halls of Congress, West-side legislators in Olympia continue to push through policies that are negatively impacting our communities, and this time, the consequences could be dangerous. Instead of empowering our law enforcement officers to protect our families and businesses, recent legislation passed by Democratic leaders in our state, in particular HB 1310, has tied the hands of our law enforcement officers behind their backs. Under this law, which went into effect in July of this year, our...
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is often misunderstood as favoring urban residents over rural. Formerly known as food stamps, a new study analyzing this program shows the opposite may be true. SNAP provides nutrition assistance payments to one in eight Americans every month. Approximately 16% of rural households use SNAP benefits, compared to 13% of metro households. In those rural households, a large majority of benefits assist vulnerable populations, including children, seniors, and people with disabilities. The...
When I lived in Bothell, I used to fly a lot in small planes. One of my friends, Phil Strathy, had a land plane, kept in Monroe. Another friend had a seaplane, kept on Lake Washington at Kenmore. About every month I would get a call from Phil wanting to know if I wanted to fly with him to someplace for lunch. The answer was always yes. Phil was the Darigold distributor for our area, and he was always interested in getting some flying time in. Usually, lunch meant about a three- or four-hour break. You can do this if you are the boss. One day...
If the goal was to keep people well and stop the spread, then we would be testing for natural antibodies which have proven to be far superior to these mRNA “vaccines.” But we are not, so tell me again what the goal is? Gary Benton Elmer City resident Good question. The answer we found is below. But first, you should know that a new program will let you, because you live in Okanogan County, order a free in-home rapid test through the “The Say Yes! COVID Test At-Home Testing Challenge.” You’ll become part of the research as researchers at NIH- s...
We would like to express our gratitude and say thank you for your continued support through countless drive-thru feeds and other fundraisers. Due to being unable to have concessions at sporting events this school year, classes such as ours are having to come up with other ways to bring in funds for senior trips. The Class of 2023 is hosting the Holiday Penny Auction Sunday, Dec. 12, from 1-3 p.m. at the High School Hub. We invite you to join us for this fun event. We will also have a chili lunch available to purchase while waiting for the...
As a substitute teacher, I was sitting amongst the students during the Lake Roosevelt School Veteran’s Day assembly. The students were so attentive and respectful for the men and women sitting in front of them. Each student gave applause and appreciation for the time and sacrifice these veterans had given. I feel the students are aware that the veterans’ lives needed to be honored and acknowledged . I’m proud of you, students at Lake Roosevelt. Karen Depew...
I have only moved once in the past 55 years. When younger, we moved several times chasing college and job opportunities. We lived in Grand Coulee for a couple of years before moving on to Idaho where we spent seven years. When I told friends in Bothell that I was moving to Electric City, they asked why, as if I had done something wrong and was trying to avoid the consequences. We lived in Bothell for 25 years, all in the same house, and only a half mile from my work. It was an ideal situation, and then something happened. The roads got jammed...
For centuries people struggled to determine whether citizens would be governed by the Catholic Church or by civil governments, whether they would be ruled by hereditary monarchies or by elected governments, whether enslaved by fascist armies or saved by military forces from democratic nations. The US has long been admired for its democracy, but that image was damaged by the assault on the U.S. Capitol and U.S. democracy on January 6, 2021. Radical deviant politicians are now condoning and exploiting the people who hold bizarre beliefs...
I would like to personally thank all of the veterans, auxiliary members and family members who showed up to honor all veterans at the Nespelem veterans’ monument on Veteran’s Day! We took the time to honor all veterans, past and present, on this special day. I would also like to commend the following businesses for recognizing and honoring the veterans by treating them to a meal on Veteran’s Day. At noon, the Rio Grande restaurant in Coulee Dam honored the veterans to a meal. Then in the evening, the Siam Palace in Grand Coulee honored the v...
As you read this letter, there may be only a week until the deadline of 12 pm, Nov. 29, for written public comments on the draft Okanogan County Comprehensive Plan. Fortunately, this revision supports our county’s need to form “More Completely Planned Areas” to address varying values and landscapes in different areas of the county. Citizen Advisory Committees would lead these efforts. If you’re interested in how land is used in your area of the county, write a letter to the Okanogan County Planning Department regarding the following situati...
Meteorological winter starts in less than a month. Meteorologists say winter is the three-month block of December, January and February. Astronomical winter starts Dec. 22. Dependent on which “winter” you choose to start your winter, get ready, because it’s coming. La Niña conditions are in place for this winter. Over at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) they explained what the nation in general might expect. “…La Niña winters tend to be drier and warmer across the...
Twenty years ago, the United States was intently focused on terrorism. The 9/11 attacks had killed 3,000 Americans and profoundly shaken our national sense of safety and security. President George W. Bush declared we were fighting a “war on terror” and vowed we would defeat terrorist organizations. Since then, we have taken important steps to keep our country safe, and they have been largely effective. News coverage of terrorism is relatively rare, and I suspect most Americans wouldn’t put it at the top of their list of concerns. But terro...
A recent story of several elk being killed by motorists in Grand Teton National Park reminded me of the plight of our wild animals. I have visited the Teton area several times and recall the time that a herd of elk crossed the road in front of us, stopping traffic for a while. There were probably 100 elk, and it was a treat watching them. That motorists were careless to the point of killing several raises questions about drivers being alert when they are around our wild animals. I recall one time I was looking for moose droppings that I...
The newly passed infrastructure package approved by Congress last week promises to reach every corner of the country, and for rural America, funding for water and sewer, broadband internet, and electrical projects could have the most impact. An $11.7 billion annual increase for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds will assist small towns in making much-needed drinking water and sewage system upgrades. The federal-state partnership provides low-interest loans to eligible communities to improve their drinking water supply,...
4 years ago, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, an armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect and ended “the war to end all wars.” Now, we honor that day, the 116,516 American military personnel who lost their lives in that war, and every veteran who has served on behalf of our nation. On Veterans Day and every day, we say thank you. The state of Washington is home to over 520,000 veterans, and those of us in Washington’s Fourth Congressional District are proud to have 39,595 of these veter...
New T-shirt slogan for Democratic members of Congress as President Joe Biden headed out for the G-20 and U.N. climate change summits: “My Grandpa Joe went to Europe, and all I got was this lousy framework.” Last week, when Biden flew off to conquer the economic, climate and pandemic worlds, he left Congress behind to fill in the blanks of his own domestic economic social program. Now, with a price of $1.75 trillion (that’s with a “T”!), it can hardly be called bare bones. But it had already been stripped from $3.5 trillion by abandonin...
My sister Dorothy was the oldest in our family. After graduating from high school, she just stayed around home until WWII broke out. She lived to be 96 and never learned to drive. She went to Wapato to live with our aunt and worked in some related war effort job there. She met her husband, Wes, while there. They later married and, being in the army, he was reassigned to Jackson, Mississippi. He was there until the war ended and they moved on to New Jersey to live. A few years later, my sis talked her husband into driving west to see the...
Lowering our flags to half-staff seems to be an all too familiar sight these days. It is a solemn act that recognizes our fallen heroes, whether they be men and women in our armed forces or a Vancouver police officer killed in the line of duty. It is a vivid reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made by those who serve us. Unfortunately, after those flags return to the top of the pole and time passes, we tend to forget that the suffering for the friends and families continues. The loneliness, financial stress and emotional strain lives on. That...
As of November 2021, a majority of developing countries have vaccinated less than a quarter of their populations. The Biden administration needs to immediately convene an accelerated global vaccination campaign to stop the delta variant in its tracks. At this time last year, many people thought it would be years until the world had effective shots. But not only have companies invented multiple inoculations, they’ve pulled out all the stops to maximize production. For instance, the biggest vaccine developers have licensed their formulas and t...