News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Nearly four dozen young adults walked across the stage and out the door Saturday after graduating from Lake Roosevelt High School having already seen some hard reality and ready to take life on. "We are proof that hard times create strong people," is the official motto of the class of 2025. They started high school in 2021 in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic with all its health and cultural complications, steeped in a time that would teach them about the fragility of human life. In the middle...
Two people trekked across the country last week to understand a piece of their Kentucky company's history, with a major claim to fame being the Grand Coulee Dam. Now called Mason & Hanger, theirs was the lead company in the consortium of companies that built the original dam. They're the M in MWAK, the initials for Mason-Walsh-Atkinson-Kier. On Wednesday, Ben Lilly, the president of Mason & Hanger, and Holly Holt, its vice president in charge of marketing, came to town to fill in the blanks in...
The strength of the United States’ economy is rooted in the power of our workforce. As Congress works to deliver policies that bring jobs back to our shores, the need for a strong, reliable workforce has never been greater. Nearly 20,000 young Americans utilize the U.S. Job Corps program, a proven initiative that helps equip our nation’s young, disadvantaged adults with the skills they need to succeed. Amidst the Trump administration’s plans to pause Job Corps operations at the end of June, I joined 200 of my colleagues in sending a lette...
It was June 4th of 2024 when a sharp, excruciating pain under my right ribs introduced itself — because clearly, my body thought I needed a dramatic plot twist. After a night that made every nightmare I’d ever had look like a Disney short, we dragged ourselves to the doctor’s office. One of the doctors casually suggested maybe my gallbladder was just hoarding stones. Makes sense. I was a geologist in a past life, so maybe my organs got the memo and decided to start a rock collection. Before we could even find a place to scan this inter...
by Scott Hunter It's been 69 years since Nespelem High School graduated a class of students, but that longed-for possibility finally became a reality last week. A class of nine students graduated May 29, 2025, in a commencement ceremony before a gym full of relatives and community members. Nespelem School Board Chair Jolene Marchand, in a commencement address, related the story of the dream now come true. In 1956 the state said it was consolidating schools. Nespelem's high school was closed,...
Matt Ponusky is no stranger to the city of Grand Coulee. He served it as a police officer for about seven years, then transferred to Coulee Dam's police department at the end of 2023. Now, he's back - as the chief of police. Hiring him ends a long slog for the city, which started looking for a new chief before longtime chief John Tufts retired in March, 2024. The post has been filled either by an interim chief or not at all since then. Turns out finding a chief of police is not too easy....
Parents will be able to track their kids as if they were being delivered by UPS. That’s because school bus drivers in the Grand Coulee Dam School District will log on and off each child who rides their bus, with new devices and software to help keep track of the students. And, of course, there’s an app for that. Parents can follow their kids’ buses on their phones and know what time the child will be dropped off, said Superintendent Rod Broadnax at his last “Coffee with the Superintendent” May 27 at Voltage Coffee House. “We’ve had a couple of...
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...
Lake Roosevelt track and field athletes did themselves proud last week, setting personal records at the state meet and earning one big mention from the governing body of Washington state high school athletics. That would be for senior John Cooley, whom the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) named athlete of the week May 28, noting his achievements the week before: "John Cooley qualified for Districts in four events: 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles, long jump, and triple jump....
JUNE 1, 2025 8:33 AM This article was first published by TVW. The ink is hardly dry on Washington’s new budget and already legislative leaders are anticipating more fiscal uncertainty. Democrats are focused on threats to health care access if Congress slashes Medicaid funding, while Republicans are warning of renewed legal jeopardy in education funding. In post-session interviews on TVW’s Inside Olympia, House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, warned that a U.S. House-passed budget legislation — if enacted — could force Washing... Full story
After a threat against the school was reported, Lake Roosevelt Schools canceled Tuesday classes Monday night before reconvening after the holiday weekend. The school posted a notice on its Facebook page about 9:45 Monday night. A Snapchat between students had been reported in which one student had made threats against the school, officials said. Superintendent Rod Broadnax said Tuesday morning the Snapchat had occurred with up to 30 students on it. He said the chat text had not been recovered yet, so police had not been able to get a warrant...
Nespelem School District directors Tuesday voted to reject a proposal for a combined sports program with the Grand Coulee Dam School District. Directors said it was too restrictive and unfair and reacted to it taking obvious offense. I clause outlining “participation restrictions” sparked resentment. Board Chair Jolene Marchand read it out loud: “Nespelem School District may not initiate, offer or support any independent high school sports program for the duration of this agreement. Should Nespelem launch or sanction any such program, the f...
Three local women with a history of getting things done spoke with Grand Coulee's city council May 20 to advocate a new approach to tackling an old problem that the city was just beginning to explore again. Earlier this year, Councilmember Tom Poplawski proposed a possible ordinance to encourage owners of vacant buildings to either actively use them or sell them so someone else can. The council set up a "Town Hall" meeting to discuss that possibility and encouraged business owners to attend it,...
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...
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...
The Raider track and field team at last week’s 2B District 5 meet qualified 11 athletes to continue on to the state championship in Yakima May 29-31. The boys’ team placed fourth out of 17 teams at the Central Washington University Recreational Sports Complex in Ellensburg Thursday, where the top six competitors qualified for state. “It’s been a number of years since we have qualified so many student athletes for state competition,” said Head Coach Lori Adkins. “Many of our athletes went into the district meet having already met steep state...
The Lady Raiders took their postseason softball play as far as they could Friday, ending their season after two games at the state tournament in Yakima. It's always a tough go for the team seeded 16th to go up against the number-one team in the state right off the bus. Lake Roosevelt lost to Freeman May 23 in the opening rounds of the 2025 2B State Fastpitch Softball Tournament at the Gateway Sports Complex, 11-0. The Raider girls gave the next team a good game, leading 1-0 for the better part...
Fears over Columbia Basin dams, hydroelectricity grow as agencies lose hundreds of employees by Alex Baumhardt, Washington State Standard May 20, 2025 Grand Coulee Dam is among the most powerful energy-generating dams on earth. It's the bedrock of the federal Columbia River Power System - a network of 31 dams supplying more than half of the hydropower in the Northwest. Grand Coulee alone, overseen by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, generates one-quarter of that. But critical operations at...
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...
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...
by Scott Hunter Lake Roosevelt’s track and field team last Thursday in Brewster qualified 14 athletes for the District 5 meet May 22 in Ellensburg. They missed taking first place as a team by three points, 138-135, to take second to Brewster as Raiders earned championships and set several personal records that night. “It was a real team effort on a super exciting night where our athletes were scraping for every LR point they could earn,” said head coach Lori Adkins. “They performed PR after PR as many families and fans cheered them on.” Se...
A teacher at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School thought he was just attending a pep assembly Friday when his name was called to receive a statewide award as educator of the year. Derek Atkins, who graduated from Lake Roosevelt, teaches science there now and revived a club that was important to his own development and direction. The pep assembly turned out to be a well-kept secret to surprise him. Shawn Brehm, a Wellpinit teacher who serves as the chair of the Washington Education Association's Cau...