News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Until August of 1934, German judges swore an oath that reflected the spirit of the democratic Weimar republic: “I swear loyalty to the Constitution, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.” But that fateful summer, the judicial oath was tweaked just a wee bit: “I swear loyalty to the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.” Donald Trump would love to mimic what Hitler intoned...
I moved from the Idaho Free Press in Nampa to the Idaho Statesman in Boise. It was only a 20-mile move in distance, but a mile in experience. While it nearly doubled my salary, the move was a dangerous one for me. It was in the spring, and baseball season was just starting. My early major assignment was to cover Boise’s team and the Pioneer League. The Pioneer League was a Class C League and Boise was a Milwaukee minor league team. The Pioneer League at the time was made up of Boise, Twin Falls, Pocatello, Billings, Missoula and Great Falls. I...
Although President Donald Trump and Harvard’s recent spats make headlines, key issues in question affect all higher education. Harvard, our nation’s first college (1636), is a center of current civil disruption and antisemitic behavior. The timing is bad because high school graduates are finalizing their college choices or deciding to forego college altogether. The news comes after graduates see existing student loans payments reinstated after a four-year pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Morgan Stanley economists estimate there are 5.6 mil...
June 8, 1861, Citizens of Tennessee voted in favor of secession from the United States. In the Eastern mountainous part if the state, voters opposed secession by a large margin. There were few slave owners in that region. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s Vice President in his second term as president, was from Eastern Tennessee. Tennessee was a border state between the southern and northern states. Some Tennesseeians fought with the Confederate Army, while others fought with the Union Army. Notable C...
Those wanting to clean up the mess we tend to get used to harken back to a time when this community had set its sights on self-improvement. That’s a good sign. Some people say such efforts didn’t make any difference. They misremember. Many improvements did come out of the discussions and initiatives to spruce up the place, even if some of it was cosmetic, like the awnings on buildings that were an inexpensive fix for flawed architecture. Even that helped. That was Project REV back in the 1990s. The new discussion goes deeper, though, and see...
I indeed wish the best for new Pope Leo XIV. Many commentators have said that he has potential for many years ahead. Quite true, as far as actuarial tables go. However, I am mindful that when I was a teenager in 1978, Pope John Paul I was elected pope. He served for a fateful 33 days. He was only 65 years old (younger than Leo is now). He was known as “the smiling pope” (only eclipsed by the late Pope Francis in smiling). Probably my favorite pope was Pope Pius IX. Not many people know that as a young priest, he also served in Peru and Chi...
What began as a cordial exchange of comments between Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House this week rapidly disintegrated into an acrimonious affair. Trump baselessly claimed there was a genocide against white people in South Africa, which Ramaphosa and other South Africans have vigorously denied. It’s just the latest surreal and theatrically tense Oval Office meeting Trump has had with a foreign leader, and comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and South Africa over the false claims. The m...
Some of the most interesting experiences I have had were seeing what is over the hill. I was lucky, and my wife was just as willing to take side trips. We got on Route 66 in California and planned to take it for a couple of 100 miles across Arizona and New Mexico. We got tired of the route and decided to find someplace to go to. We went north about 60 miles to the National Monument Canyon de Chelly. We spent a little time in the ruins. Not enough time, but making a note to ourselves that someday we would like to return. We had the opportunity...
On Sunday, May 30, 1937, Chicago striking Republic Steel Mill workers, family members and their allies attempted to set up a picket line in an open field in front of the steel mill. Tensions were high between labor and capitalists stemming from the economic depression, Chicago Police, alerted to what was planned by the mill management, were also armed with weapons and teargas provided by Republic Steel. It turned violent ending with over one hundred strikers injured, many men were shot and ten...
The week of May 18-24, 2025, is Emergency Medical Services Week. The 51st anniversary of EMS Week theme is EMS WEEK: We Care. For Everyone, it reflects the heart of what we do. We serve as the safety net for every member of our community, regardless of age, background, or circumstance-because everyone deserves help in their greatest moment of need. At Grand Coulee Volunteer Ambulance Service, our dedicated team of EMTs and firefighters proudly serves all our area residents and visitors. Availabl...
President Trump made a recent four-day trip to a few countries in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Several deals were made. Boeing scored some big sales, there were billions of dollars in U.S.-made weapons sales, and some deals regarding oil. While in Qatar, the president was gifted a Boeing 747-8 by the royal family. The aircraft has been for sale by the royal family for five years. It was registered as A7-HBJ. Today, it appears to be registered as PH-HBJ. It was...
Michael Baumgartner is hostile to his constituents and generally all Washingtonians. He claims to be a “state’s rights guy,” as Republicans used to be until most congressional Republicans now cowardly won’t stand up against President Donald Trump’s wannabe all-powerful dictatorship. Accordingly, Baumgartner fell in line with House Republican colleagues by recently joining a letter from the House Judicial Committee to Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown (Spokesman-Review 3/31/25). The letter, in effect, claims that Trump’s extremely c...
It appears that our family has a dancer. Great granddaughter Westlyn Landeros had her recital a week ago in Omak. Her parents saw that she attended dance class for the past nine months. It was an every-Tuesday experience. She got to dance in three parts of the recital. Prior to her dance training in Omak, Westlyn took part in dance classes in Wilbur. Her brother, Damon, played JV basketball at Lake Roosevelt, and her sister, Kaylee, lettered in about 10 sports at Lake Roosevelt. No one in the family has a history of dance. I am not sure yet if...
May 23, 1911, President William Taft presided over the dedication of the New York City Public Library. Funding to build the library came from a trust created by former governor of New York, Samuel Tilden, “…for the creation of a free public library and reading room in New York City.” The New York City Public Library has a room for exhibitions as well as a picture gallery. It was designed to meet a variety of educational needs. Strategically situated above seven floors of stacks, the main reading room provides researchers with requested mater...
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Seems pretty clear, practical, wise. Like they could see this coming. When the Framers wrote the Constitution, they didn’t want a grifter in chief ruling the nation for profit, but obviously they could foresee such a person coming along someday. So they told him i...
President Trump stated Sunday, May 4 that he is directing, “…the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.” Alcatraz Island is not an unknown place to me. When I was just starting my career with the National Park Service back in the early 1970s, I was part of the first crew of park ranger tour guides assigned to Alcatraz Island. I’ve been back a ha...
Every May we honor our law enforcement during National Police Week and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring they have the resources and authority needed to keep our communities safe. We are lucky here in Central Washington to have some of the best-trained local and tribal officers, and they deserve recognition for their work to keep us and our families safe. This National Police Week, my colleagues and I in Congress are passing common-sense legislation that sends a clear message: we stand with our local law enforcement. When a situation...
What couples spend on weddings is mind boggling. I was in Southern Idaho, and my future wife, Dorothy, agreed to marry me. I didn’t know anyone except the family, and she wasn’t interested in planning a wedding, so we did the only thing left: we eloped. Spending a lot of money to get married seems ridiculous. Some families spend a lot more than the down payment on a home. The amount you spend has nothing to do with how long the marriage will last. We spent a couple of hundred dollars and our marriage lasted 69 years, until I lost her because of...
May 18, 1955, Mary McLeod Bethune, Political leader and Educator died in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was the daughter of former slaves in South Carolina. Bethune understood the importance of education early on. Her family, though living in poverty, managed with the help of a patron, to send Mary to schools in North Carolina and later Chicago. After a period of teaching, she opened her own school in Daytona Beach. Today it is the Bethune-Cookman College. In 1936, President Roosevelt made Bethune director of the Division of Negro Affairs,...
President Trump stated Sunday, May 4 that he is directing, “…the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.” Alcatraz Island is not an unknown place to me. When I was just starting my career with the National Park Service back in the early 1970s, I was part of the first crew of park ranger tour guides assigned to Alcatraz Island. I’ve been back a ha...
Recently, my wife and I took one of our semi-grown daughters and her friend to the American Rodeo Championship Weekend at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. But we weren’t there to see the adult, full-contact petting zoo that is a championship rodeo. Instead, for around the cost of the latest iPhone, we bought four tickets to see country music heartthrob (and darn good singer) Riley Green and the almost-as-lovely-as-my-wife (in case she reads this) Ella Langley perform mid-rodeo. Because the concert was sandwiched between the final and c...
When traveling abroad, you meet a lot of people, most of them casually. Not the case with the Fujimotos from Tokyo. It all started here in the U.S. when we got involved with a student FIUTS organization. We were sponsoring a student from Thailand, and sponsors and students were having a get together to get acquainted. In chatting with a student from Japan, I mentioned that I was going there. He said if I would give him my itinerary, he would have his sister show me around. I arrived and was staying at the Okura Hotel, at the time one of the...
May 9, 1754, the “Join or Die” political cartoon appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette. Ben Franklin was the newspaper publisher and author of the article and cartoon. The cartoon depicted a snake cut into eight pieces that symbolized the British colonies. The cartoon was part of an article addressing a recent military loss to the French. Franklin’s article went on to explain. “The Confidence of the French in this undertaking seems well-grounded on the present disunited state of the British Colonies, and the extreme difficulty of bringin...
The Pacific Northwest stands at a pivotal crossroads when it comes to the future of energy. Blessed with an abundance of hydropower resources, the region has an unparalleled opportunity to lead the nation in developing a hydrogen economy. By leveraging both its hydroelectric resources and heavy industry sectors, the PNW can create a new wave of economic prosperity and develop a regional energy hub that will benefit local industry and consumers. Hydrogen is a critical component of our energy future. Clean hydrogen made from hydropower provides...
Our Representative in Congress, Dan Newhouse, has repeatedly betrayed us, his constituents, and has shown himself to be a MAGA Yes Man, and one who is anti-healthcare, opposed to the rule of law, and pro-Jim Crow. In February and again in April he voted for a devastating budget proposal that guts Medicaid/Apple Health and will lead to decreased access to care, rural hospital closures, and deaths in Central Washington. He also voted for the No Rogue Rulings Act, which limits the power of federal district courts. These courts are even more...