News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 426 - 450 of 3285
Jericho Desautel was crowned queen of the prom Friday night, with Damon Landeros crowned king. Alice "Wheatie" Desautel said Jericho's classmates had been "nothing but amazing," supporting the girl who has a rare chromosomal disorder that causes developmental delay. "As her family, the people that love her, we find comfort that since day one, her classmates have loved her, cared for her, watch out for her, acknowledge her as their peer, and treat her like she's a part of THEM," Desautel wrote...
One minute, they were heading to another party. The next was chaos, blood and death. That was the scene outside the Nespelem Community Center April 18 as unveiled in an elaborate enactment involving vehicles full of Lake Roosevelt High School students. Most of the student body stood on the other side of the black plastic curtain and a taped off border. Beyond it, many of their classmates lay in a bloody scene depicting the kind of instant carnage that can happen when fragile flesh is forced...
Update: Two students have been arrested by police and taken to jail or juvenile detention, Superintendent Rod Broadnax said about 7:45 Thursday night. The two students at Lake Roosevelt Jr./Sr. High School were expelled on an emergency basis earlier Thursday after an investigation of their emails revealed threats to kill five students at the school. During an authorized investigation into one student's emails, school personnel came across a "hit list" of five students to kill, naming two of them... Full story
Some deep thinking has been going on, and its helping. Last week, many local professionals in law enforcement, emergency medicine, and other first responders, — the folks who have to live with the possible trauma of a car crash to which they only responded to help — took time to show every local high school student just what happens in a crash. Many of them worked for weeks or months in preparation and planning. Teenagers as a group are far more likely to be involved in car crashes, and this area has too often seen the worst side of those sta...
Communities across Central Washington have been devastated by the epidemic of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is the leading cause of death for people ages 18-45 in the United States. Dubbed the “silent killer” of American youth, fentanyl’s lethal potency is alarming; a mere two milligrams, equivalent to 10-15 grains of table salt, constitutes a fatal dose. Bad actors in China have been taking advantage of loopholes in our laws in the United States to push these dangerous substances over our borders, and I have been working tirel...
The Raider tennis team will host the District 6 Tournament on Saturday, May 11, and Wednesday, May 15, Coach Casey Brewster said. The tournament will take advantage of the four courts at the high school, likely the newest in the district, built in 2015, and the two courts at Coulee Dam's Cole Park just across the river, originally built in the 1930s but resurfaced during Coulee Dam's Quincy Snow administration more than 10 years ago. Visiting teams will include those from Liberty Bell High...
From Newman Lake to Lake Stevens, they came to fish Banks Lake last weekend to try to catch three different species of fish on each of two days. Local Brian Walters completed the task, with the greatest combined weights to take the big prize of a tricked-out Jackson kayak. Reel Recreation, a local non-profit led by fishing friends and dedicated to promoting fishing and other outdoor activities for kids, put on the Triple Fish Challenge tournament, which started in 2013 under the local chamber...
High school students tomorrow may pretend to die or be injured in a mock car crash planned for Thursday morning in an exercise designed to resemble the real tragedy. That will include "toning out" police and ambulance units to respond to the event at the Nespelem Community Center, so don't panic if you hear those genuine-sounding calls. The purpose is to portray to students just what can happen in the seconds and minutes after someone makes a mistake: distracted driving, driving intoxicated,...
Could be excellent pitching. Could be fast, smart base stealers. Could be good, solid bat-ting skills. It must be all of those. The Lady Raiders are having a season. The 1-A Omak Pioneers managed to get a point on them Saturday in Omak, losing 14-1. LR skunked Oroville last Thursday in Grand Coulee, 15-0. Yesterday, they scored 17 on Tonasket, holding the Tigers to 2 for their 10th win of the sea-son. They've only lost to Okanogan and ACH, once to each. The Raiders meet Manson there Thursday...
Ceremonial gold shovels overturned dirt after prayers, songs and speeches Tuesday, celebrating the coming construction of a new convalescent center north of Elmer City, where the Colville Tribes will build the new facility for elders and other clientele. Praise was high for the project and those who moved obstacles and legislatures to get it underway, but details were scarce. Jarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Business Council of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, said...
Last month, I traveled to Anchorage, Alaska for a Maternal and Child Health Conference. This conference brought together maternal health experts and advocates to discuss the heart-wrenching maternal health crisis in our country and what we’re doing to promote better outcomes. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries. In 2021, 1,205 women died of maternal causes in the United States. In 2020, 861 women died of maternal causes in the U.S., a 40% increase in just one year, and some of our neighbors a...
Carmela Conroy gives eastern Washington voters the unusual, important opportunity to elect a foreign policy expert as their US Representative. As Foreign Service Officer for 24 years, she served in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Norway, New Zealand, and Tom Foley’s Japan office. US voters must weigh foreign policy experience much more heavily than usual in their 2024 voting decisions. Electing wannabe dictator Donald Trump would be a huge catastrophe for our national security by his policies towards Ukraine and Russia, with most congressional Republica...
In the United States, one of our most important freedoms is individual choice. However, the Biden Administration has unmistakably signaled its determination to advance its aggressive climate agenda at any cost — even at the expense of consumer choice — whether it pertains to gas stoves, dishwashers, or even gas-powered vehicles. As this administration continues their unconstitutional efforts to phase out gas vehicles in favor of electric vehicles (EVs), it overlooks a critical factor: the United States currently lacks the necessary inf...
Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School clubs are planning trips to Seattle and Montana, following Monday night’s school board blessing. The school’s Knowledge Bowl competitors will head to the University of Washington on a trip paid partially by their own fundraising efforts and supported by the gifted program and the Colville Tribes. Members of the team and advisor Pam Johnson advised the board of a transportation problem that is worsening as the group grows: They don’t fit in a Suburban. Johnson said they have a dozen high school students in the a...
All counties are required to install “Albert Systems,” a technology that notifies counties when there is an attempted cybersecurity attack, under a bill Secretary of State Steve Hobbs endorsed. Even though ballot counting machines are not connected to the internet, election data is oftentimes circulated on internet communication channels. Technology like the Albert System can help protect the security of county records by monitoring any attempt to manipulate, intercept, or tamper with data transmitted through these channels. While 36 of 39 cou...
Big maps up on a screen made an impression. The maps outlined all the areas burned by wildfires in Okanogan County. The first slide showed burns from 1982 through 2013. The second slide added what has burned since 2013. From a glance at the map, you might guess that possibly twice as much land burned in the last 11 years as in the prior 31. In a room full of firefighters and others concerned with keeping the county from burning up, it was an appropriate intro to the Community Wildfire...
For decades, the debate over grizzly bear introduction into the North Cascades ecosystem has raged on, and I have been fighting tirelessly to ensure that the voices of Central Washingtonians are heard. Regrettably, last week saw the release of the U.S. National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with proposed action on the question of introducing grizzly bears to the region. This proves that—once again—the Biden Administration is acting without due consideration for the concerns of Ce...
Local organizations received accolades Tuesday night as the chamber of commerce announced the winners of three awards voted on by chamber members at a dinner for that purpose at MPH Hi-Dam. Addressing a fairly young crowd, Nancy Zimmerman-Boord, executive director of the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, noted that young people are starting new businesses or taking over established ones. "What I love to see about this community ... is that our kids are stepping up into owning...
The third in a series of the "Okanogan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan" meetings will be held Wednesday evening, March 27, from 5-7 p.m., at the Lucy Covington Government Center, 21 Colville Street, Nespelem, the headquarters of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Any Okanogan County residents can attend the meeting to be able to "engage with CWPP partners and discuss community-level wildfire concerns and values at risk," an agenda for the meeting states. "We will...
Sometimes city governments run smoothly, but as they operate with humans in a democracy, rough patches happen. Balancing human needs, egos, ambitions, desires, skills, or a lack of them, all within the confines of public perceptions, budgets, legal restrictions, and politics sounds like the kind of idea that might cause many stalwart business pros to run screaming from the room where it was suggested. But that’s exactly what it takes for a city, or any municipality that serves us, to operate. It’s natural when tensions rise, and they can be...
Local firefighters fought a stubborn fire in a Delano home early Monday, with one person being taken from the scene by ambulance for treatment. At approximately 1:47 a.m. Grand Coulee and Electric City fire departments were dispatched for the fire at 57928 Yakima Street NE in Delano. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also responded for assistance and led fire ground operations, the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department, stated on its Facebook Monday. The Grand Coulee Ambulance took one patient from the scene to Coulee Medical Center for...
A ribbon cutting ceremony in Elmer City will introduce to the public the town's new fire hall March 21 at 1 p.m. The recently completed structure is already in use, housing fire engines for Okanogan County Fire Protection District 2. The $1.3 million project, funded mostly by the state Legislature with the final $150,000 coming from the federal American Rescue Plan Act via Okanogan County commissioners, began in 2022 when the town began seeking state funds. The project involved the work of two...
Among Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s negative legacies she leaves as US Representative, her most impactful may be on immigration. However, she still has time to improve that. Donald Trump cares nothing about our country, just his election. Accordingly, he recently ordered all Republicans to scuttle the bipartisan, long-negotiated Senate deal supporting Ukraine and limiting immigration that would be a victory for President Joe Biden. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, an election-denier, obeyed Trump by withholding a full House vote, despite e...
Two longtime teachers at Lake Roosevelt Elementary were commended Monday night for their everyday work and leadership at the school. The two had just reported on their activities with a new Teachers Advisory Committee, which works to provide information and perspectives to administration and the board. Christy Portch, the committee president, and Jaci Gross, vice president, said the committee of 13 had just met that day, discussing pertinent facts that some educational statistics don't make...
Coulee Dam will get state and federal help planting new trees on a street it clear cut last summer. The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced this week it will award Coulee Dam $71,180 for the work. The project is designed to restore and enhance Ferry Avenue’s tree canopy. More than 30 90-year-old maples were removed unexpectedly during a sidewalk replacement project in 2023. City engineer Marisa Stevens, of TD&H Engineering, applied for the funding to plant 24 new trees along Ferry Avenue, which was stripped of more than 30 of...