News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A lot was different in the unofficial final game of the basketball season last Friday at the Lake Roosevelt High School gym, where the school staff put on a shocker of close-call overtime game against the class of 2025, complete with state-class varsity basketball players. The ambulance backed up right in front of the gym exit as a precaution might have been a clue, but it wasn't necessary. In fact, a planned 20-point advantage the seniors thought they'd spot the elders wasn't needed either,...
The glitz and glam of Hollywood captures the attention of Americans starting from an early age. Beyond celebrities' Instagram Stories and red carpet poses, there are actors out there paying their dues and honing their craft in pursuit of a sustainable career or a fulfilling sideline. Submitting to casting calls is a big part of that journey. Whether you're a working actor or an aspiring one, you might be curious to know which movies and TV shows are casting roles near you. Backstage compiled a... Full story
As vaccine skepticism gains a greater foothold in the Trump administration and some statehouses, some Americans may already be paying the price, with deaths from influenza on the rise. Flu-related deaths hit a seven-year high in January and February, the two months that usually account for the height of flu season, according to a Stateline analysis of preliminary federal statistics. There were about 9,800 deaths across the country, up from 5,000 in the same period last year and the most since 2018, when there were about 10,800. Despite that,... Full story
Some students might get to ride on a battery-powered bus sometime next year, if a grant application is accepted by the bus manufacturer. Grand Coulee Dam School District Transportation Director Wade Magers presented the school board Monday with the option to go electric with one bus in a little over 10 months. Magers said there are pros and cons to getting one, but the financial aspect of the application makes it attractive. Magers said the IC Electric School Bus (ESB) should go about 130 miles on a charge and recharge fully in about eight...
Proposed federal Medicaid cuts could devastate Washington state, hitting rural communities the hardest. More than 1.8 million residents rely on Medicaid for health care. A Republican-led plan in the U.S. House to slash $880 billion could lead to service reductions, higher costs, and hospital closures. According to Manuel Navarro, CEO of Columbia Valley Community Health, approximately 46% of the organization's patients are covered by Medicaid. The organization provides essential medical services... Full story
The nonprofit federal administration that provides one-third of the Northwest’s electricity is preparing to part ways with its current Western energy market and sell its excess energy to companies and electric cooperatives as far away as Louisiana. Bonneville Power Administration officials announced in a draft policy proposal released Wednesday that they intend to leave the California-controlled “real-time” market they’ve participated in since 2022 and join a new “day-ahead” energy market based out of Little Rock, Arkansas. The move sparke... Full story
We’d all gain a great deal if we could just talk with people of a different opinion, calmly and rationally. During simultaneous rallies for opposite political viewpoints Saturday along Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee, some people carried signs that could have worked for the other side verbatim: “Stop the Lies” is a common cry both for supporters and detractors of President Trump and his policies. And both sides are full of people who just want what’s best for the country. The difference, it was apparent Saturday, is that they take in informa... Full story
The national debt continues to grow at an exponential rate, and with unified Republican control of the federal government, we have an opportunity to rethink how we manage taxpayer dollars. Spending more than we take in has become the status quo in Washington D.C., and regardless of which party is in power, reforms to this unsustainable practice have continuously been punted in favor of bloating the national debt. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), backed by the authority of an executive order, has been tasked with finding areas in...
The spring runoff will offer the brave whitewater rafting. I’ve had a number of exciting whitewater runs, my last the best. We signed on to a two-day raft trip on the Salmon and Snake Rivers. Most of the time we were in deep canyons, barely able to see the sun. It was in May, and the water was ice cold and the temperature hot. The plan was to do the Salmon first and then take on the Snake. An arrangement was made for us to stay in a log cabin near the end of the Salmon run. My wife and I had taken a number of whitewater trips on the Snake, b...
Dusts ups with our North American trading partners pop up periodically, especially when there is global financial trouble. They can be acrimonious and strain relationships as President Donald Trump is learning. Trump, faced with excessive federal spending and our skyrocketing national debt ($36.6 trillion), re-launched his “Make America Great Again” initiative. It is a blueprint to stimulate job creation in America’s private sector and government efficiency. He wants investments in domestic manufacturing plants, fairer trade with more equit...
The Lake Roosevelt Raiders ended their post-season basketball quest March 5 at the Spokane Arena in the Round of 12 at state tournament with a loss to Tri- Cities Prep. With eight players over 6 feet, the Jaguars won 64-33, effectively limiting the Raider offense, shooting 48% to the Raiders' 24%. Tri-Cities' Bryson Wilde scored 21 points. Ivan Alejandre led LR scoring with 17. The Raiders dropped in 11 of 32 two-point attempts and 11 of 16 free throws, but not one of 14 trey attempts, making...
Bureau of Reclamation employees at Grand Coulee Dam who had accepted the “fork in the road” offer of deferred retirement, expecting to stop working on March 7, instead got a memo Monday morning telling them to clear out by the end of the day, March 3. No reason was given for the rush, but the emailed instructions from Boise, the Columbia Pacific Northwest Region headquarters, had an air of resignation about it: “Big change in the DRP rules as of 10:37am this morning,” the email began, explaining that all Deferred Resignation Program participant...
The Trump administration on Wednesday ordered all federal departments and agencies to submit reorganization plans outlining how they would implement large-scale layoffs before March 13. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell wrote in a seven-page memo the reason for the expected layoffs is that the “federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt.” “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public,” they wrote. “Instead, tax dolla...
People with concerns and picket signs can gather on Grand Coulee's Midway Avenue (SR-155) from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 8. The march will take place on the same day as a nationally advertised march for women, but it will be the fourth in a series of local, loosely organized events for expressing solidarity with others concerned about the recent changes in the federal government, including layoffs, forced resignations and coming RIFs, abolishing entire agencies established by Congress, and... Full story
My message to our US Representative Michael Baumgartner, based on my email to him: Have you no nation-wide condemnation and world apology for how Donald Trump and JD Vance humiliated Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28? And your subsequent call for Zelenskyy’s resignation makes no sense given your statement that Russia clearly started the war and has been the aggressor — on second thought, it makes great sense considering your already evident cowardice in standing up to Trump, Vance, and Elon Musk. You certainly lack the spi...
I have flown several thousand miles in commercial jets, but small planes are my preference. My first small plane ride was here in Grand Coulee and my last was also from here. In the mid 1950’s I was a lumber grader in the planing mill above the dam. I worked for a man named Kirkpatrick. Only the old timers will likely remember either. I worked with a guy who claimed to be an Alaska bush pilot, and he had his own plane here. He told stories of landing in berry patches that stained the underside of his plane. When he invited me to go flying w...
Lake Roosevelt on Tuesday sent off the Raider boys' basketball team to the state tournament at the Spokane Arena. "We knew we're going to be tough this year," Coach Ed Wolfe told the assemble student body. "Here we are. We put in a lot of work from summertime till now. We believed in ourselves from the very start." Scheduled to play Tri-Cities Prep in game 11 of the state tournament, they'll meet the Jaguars at 12:15 in Wednesday's "Round of 12" in a loser-out contest to see who goes on to the...
A couple months after she and her husband John, moved here in 2010, Carol Nordine had found the local food bank. She's been volunteering at the Care and Share Food Bank ever since, the last seven years as its manager. Just in time to see a growing need. A roomful of volunteers and friends gathered at La Presa Saturday to honor that service, eat, and enjoy each other's company. Shawn Neider also volunteers at the food bank, as well as pastoring the Zion Lutheran Church. He recalled the growth...
Coulee Dam’s police chief published a statement Monday asking people to report crimes to police, not just post it on Facebook. “If we don’t know about it, we can’t do anything about it,” noted Chief Paul Bowden. Bowden said the don’t consider Facebook posts as a proper way to report police issues. “This is a reminder to PLEASE report any criminal or suspicious activity such as thefts, car prowls, break- ins, etc. directly to the Police Department by calling MACC Dispatch at 1-888-431-9911.” Bowden also addressed comments he’s heard that there...
Holly Koon struggles every day in her 9th-grade biology classes to help students achieve, but sometimes it seems like a losing battle. Chronic absenteeism, growing class sizes and fewer classroom helpers all get in the way of student learning, she said. "All students can absolutely learn, and they can learn to standard," she said. "I have a biology class right now with 36 students in it; I have one instructional aid. How do you – in 60 minutes a day – individualize and support all 36 stu...
Any battle over tariffs between the United States and Canada, China, and Mexico is worrisome, but if it escalates, it will hit Washington farmers particularly hard. Avoiding that possibility should be a primary goal. Tariffs could trigger new trade wars. The last retaliation in tariffs eight years ago hurt agriculture. “A trade war with economic partners is the last thing our farmers and ranchers need,” said Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA4), whose family owns and operates an 850-acre farm near Sunnyside. Excessive costs, turbulent markets, inf...
After a vandal hit Grand Coulee City Hall Jan. 4, the city was left with cleanup and repairs. Those are coming in at about $74,000 to fix broken windows, damaged floors and walls, office equipment and police cars parked outside. The city council Tuesday night OK’d spending $13,450 on new windows, including a couple not damaged in the incident but old enough to be replaced with more energy-efficient windows. The council also voted to declare surplus five of those now-unused police vehicles outside, which had served the police department when it...
Ice fishers and other recreators are urged to stay off the ice on Banks Lake, which will soon become unstable if it isn't already. The Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam will begin pumping water into Banks Lake, beginning Saturday, Feb. 22, at 10 p.m. This influx of water may result in unstable ice conditions that present serious safety risks to all ice fishers and recreationists, Reclamation announced this week. The change in operation will conclude on Monday, Feb. 24, at 6 a.m.... Full story
Elmer City residents may notice their city bill gets a boost next month. Effective March 1, each service will cost another $1, following the passage Thursday of an ordinance increasing the monthly fee for garbage, water and sewer service by a dollar each for the bill that comes due in April. The council also passed an ordinance instituting an ongoing, planned utility rate rise of 1.5% every year, beginning in 2026. Both the $1 rise this year and the future 1.5% annual increase starting next year were discussed during council budget discussions...
Citizens unhappy with the direction of the federal government under President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who heads up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, marched with signs Monday from noon to 1 p.m. along Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee. A week earlier, Sheri Edwards had walked the route alone. On Monday, President's Day, the number climbed to 13 like-minded people. Several said they were pleasantly surprised by positive responses, and no negative ones, from passersby honking horn...