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 thoughts are with the U.S. Military, Foreign, and Civilian service members and American citizens across the Middle East as news breaks that the United States and Israel have launched preemptive strikes on Iran, and Iran is retaliating. When American lives are on the line, we must lead with steadiness - not impulse. Failing to seriously consider the moral and legal justifications for attacking another country costs the aggressor blood, treasure and reputation, and earns the enmity of the people attacked. Having worked with survivors of armed...
I’ve lived in many public school systems around the country and all of my nine children attended the public schools where my family lived. I can tell from talking to hundreds of people here in the Grand Coulee area, that the schools here are not high quality and are not meeting the needs of children or their parents. I lived in a similar school district in Texas and after trying to change the local school from within, I ultimately moved my family to get my children into a better school. I’ve met only a few people in this school district who...
I’m sharing these thoughts as a taxpayer. My heart goes out to the army of staff and administrators who have been giving accurate, emotional testimony to our GCDSD School Board. Some of their closed sessions should have been in public. Trust is now lost in the organization. They were warned several times over the last few years that this multi-faceted crisis would evolve, but they ignored the evidence and facts. This crisis is showing a significant lack of preventive fiscal oversight, transparency and actual leadership. There is justified n...
Recently, the Washington State Association of Counties released its 2026 County Fiscal Health Survey. The results confirm what many of us have been saying for years: county governments across Washington are under significant and growing financial pressure. Out of 39 counties, a majority report significant or severe General Fund pressure. Twenty counties say state mandates are the primary driver of their budget problems. Twenty-one report moderate reductions or delays in public safety services. Nearly two-thirds say long-term sustainability...
Thank you, Anna Kirk, for your support, and your letter was right on. I received several thanks for the letter and even a phone call from Wilbur in agreement for the letter to the editor. Jamie Holman If you cannot see what the Democrats are doing in Congress and Senate you are very naive about what is going on with the criminal illegals. Some city Democrat mayors are cooperating with Ice & border patrol with no problem. But most of the Democrat Cities are not cooperating like Minnesota and calling the ICE officers Gestapo, Hitler Brown shirts...
I chose a week’s stopover in Taiwan because I had special arrangements set up with the government there. My congressman at the time was Lloyd Meeds. He had some influence there because his wife was Chinese and knew a lot of government officials. I was set up in a very Chinese hotel with a car and driver at my disposal. I didn’t know at the time that I would land there in the midst of the Chinese New Year celebration. It was The Year of the Horse and the capital was jammed with traffic. It apparently is the custom to pay your debts with “Fu...
February 26, 1919. The United States Congress passed an Act establishing the Grand Canyon National Park in the State of Arizona. The park is composed of over one million acres of Northwestern Arizona, including the spectacular are of the 277-mile canyon cut by the Colorado River. The region is still home to Native peoples. The Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Paiute, Havasupai and Hualapai. Prior to the middle of the 19th Century, little was known about the geography of the Grand Canyon. Spanish explorations were in the general region. Vasques de Coronado...
There’s a lot of hatred in the world today. For a while, starting from when I was a young girl, it was classless to openly display your bigotry. People would whisper among themselves about “the others,” and epithets were spoken at cocktail parties and behind closed office doors, but people were savvy enough not to come to work wearing white sheets. Lately, however, that has changed. I’ve already talked about the damage being done to our Jewish communities by the blatant antisemitism displayed by anti-Zionists of all stripes, including other J...
We continue to enjoy The Star every week. Please continue our subscription for another year. Your editorials have been “spot on”! So glad to see small town folks marching for democracy! We continue to march and speak up in the Tri-Cities. Darlene Price...
While reading Letters to the Editor in The Star, I am reminded that change often comes one funeral at a time. Some can’t come too quickly. Gloria Carroll Coulee Dam...
I have been very troubled with the presentation of the picture chosen to be put on the front page of The Star (Feb. 11). I have not always agreed with the sentiments expressed on the protestors’ signs, but that’s OK. However, the sign that reads, Guardians Of Pedophiles (GOP), is shameful and hypocritical. It is also ironic that the sign next to it states, “No Hate.” Are we supposed to forget that the Democratic Party under the Biden Administration allowed hundreds of thousands of unvetted immigrants into our country and even gave them plum pr...
February 21, 1972, President Richard Nixon arrived in China for an eight-day official visit. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People’s Republic of China following its founding by the Communists in October 1949. Prior to 1949, China was called The Republic of China, and had been established in 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution that ended over 2,000 years of imperial rule. The official visit with Premier Zhou Enlia resulted with a positive note. The Shanghai Communique was reached. The communique was a pledge to set aside d...
As I get older, I accept that my main duty as a citizen is to stay informed about current issues and vote responsibly, knowing that my time is finite and a new generation is coming up. Staying informed means being able to discern between unreliable content designed to evoke emotion (usually anger) and actual journalism; accepting that my preconceived notions may not be correct; checking various sources to validate stories; not using social media or talk radio as legitimate sources of information; and recognizing that older people like myself...
Thank you, Carl Russell, for your right-on letter in the January 28 edition of The Star. I agree with you and support you 100%. However, sadly the rules of engagement for criticizing the Trump-hating Dems is, “Stick your neck out and get your head chopped off.” In the February 4 edition of The Star, there were three contemptuous shots sent your way. Jamie Holman’s letter was a simpering and condescending word salad. I struggled to get through, but apparently you need to be admonished… a lot. Don Andrews had to vomit and therefore could not con...
A front-page article in The Star news recently described the frustration of the Electric City council concerning the lack of equal, accurate and reliable representation within the decision process of law and policy in the matter of the wastewater treatment plant owned and operated jointly by Electric City and Grand Coulee. I share that frustration and growing anger related to our entire process of government from town council to the federal system. Watching the system making legal decisions of law and policy with life and death consequence to...
February 1964, Vol. 15, Issue 2, American History Magazine. An essay by John F. Kennedy, written a year earlier, was published. Here are a few passages -- “There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country. Without such knowledge, he stands uncertain and defenseless before the world. Knowing neither where he has come from nor where he is going.” “A knowledge of history is, in addition, a means of strength. “In times of change and danger,” John Dos Passos wrote just before Wo...
The normal reply when the Seattle area is mentioned is that the person wouldn’t want to live there. I remember when my family learned we were going to move to the Seattle area. All we could think of was the things we could do in a large city. This was in 1964. We were so surprised that you could drive downtown and park right next to a movie house. We were in Bothell at the time. I fished off the dock in Edmonds, visited every art gallery in town and most of the museums. Our neighbors were friendly enough, and we largely kept to ourselves. A...
It is uncommon for me to respond to letters to the editor; however, Mr. Russell’s recent submission [Letters from our Readers, Jan. 28] warrants a reply. When broad accusations are presented as fact, it becomes necessary to address them with clarity and evidence. Mr. Russell asserts that Democrats support “pedophile’s, murders, rapist’s, criminal gang members, robbers, drug dealers and traffickers, domestic violence, and fraudsters.” Such sweeping claims are serious and should be supported by verifiable facts rather than rhetoric. I encourage...
Those Democrats are getting crazier than anyone can imagine — not voting for a president who is a convicted felon, for a man who doesn’t respect America’s laws and cries like a baby if they don’t give him the Nobel peace prize. I could go on and on, but I’d have to go throw up in the bathroom. Don Andrews...
Regarding Carl Russell’s letter to the editor, “Democrats have gone crazy.” I suppose he means they are insane. Wonder if he has given some thought to a safer, saner place to live. Here’s why. The population of the United States is over 345 million. Of that, 189.5 million are registered voters, 44.1 million are Democrats, and 37.4 million are Republicans. The remainder are not party affiliated, or they are Independents. Forty-four million insane Democrats are on a rampage, running loose, doing all sorts of crazy things. They outnumber the san...
February 6, 1911, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, was born in Tampico, Illinois. Reagan was a skilled orator and was known as the Great Communicator. Prior to his presidency, he served two terms as Governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He was faithful to conservative Republicanism. In his speech to the nation in 1981, President Reagan said, “And to you, my fellow citizens, let us join in a new determination to rebuild the foundation of our society, to work together, to act responsibly. Let us do so with the most p...
When I left for college 70 years ago a friend said that the best thing that I would get was what I got off the walls. Of course, he was talking about the experiences that I would have, meeting people from all over the world and people who were unlike me. He was only partially right. I had some good professors, ones that I still remember. I had two survey profs, one in Old Testament studies and the other in sociology, both under class subjects. My sociology prof had used the same notes for probably 30 years but he welcomed questions. I think he...
During the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton famously intoned, “I feel your pain,” reassuring voters he understood what they were going through. Since then, similar statements of empathy have become a staple for politicians but too often they are just hollow words. Take small business owners, for example, which are the backbone of America’s economy. They are Washington’s forgotten constituency. Most elected officials have no idea what it’s like to risk everything you have or to struggle to meet payroll for your employees and their fam...
It has been said that once a kid, always a kid. I believe that, in a way. I remember growing up and some of the things I did way back then. I used to follow the railroad tracks. I always took a salt shaker because I often came across apple trees. I liked to salt up an apple; seems they taste better that way. I followed the rails in both directions. The W I and M went toward Potlatch. The Idaho line was but two miles away. The W I and M line was largely used in the early days as a logging operation. Going the other direction, I would go either...
In our local Grand Coulee Dam School District, we have and always have had amazing staff. As a community member for several decades, I’ve shown appreciation for many of their successes but I’ve barely scratched the surface of impactful differences they make in the lives of their students every day. Great school districts have staff who realize that schools must manage their funds properly, provide a safe and secure environment with sound mental wellness options for their students, among many other common-sense priorities that come before aca...