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  • My comments to the GCD School Board

    Karen Elizabeth Wapato|May 13, 2026

    (These were to be made at the meeting, but I was not told the date changed) For nearly a week now, I have felt as if I was living in a parallel universe. That feeling, like you cannot believe what is happening around you! Like you woke up to a changed world. The two words that best describe my feelings last weekend are shock and hurt. Now I stand so humbled before you. I realize that what I was feeling last weekend is only a small sampling of what many of the staff, inside these walls, have felt. I am sorry it took my own pain, to begin to see...

  • Dismantling the US Forest Service harms public lands and communities

    Tracy Stone-Manning|May 13, 2026

    When I led the Bureau of Land Management under President Biden, the hardest part of my job was reassembling the agency after the first Trump administration had scattered its headquarters from our nation’s capital. The move crippled the agency — as intended. That experience led me to understand that the current Trump administration’s unpopular plan to move the U.S. Forest Service headquarters will be every bit as destructive. It will hurt forests, wildlife and communities that rely upon our public lands and waters. In 2020, almost 90% of the B...

  • Trump is un-questionable

    Peter Funt|May 13, 2026

    The great contradiction in Donald Trump’s two terms — at least as far as covering and understanding the man are concerned — is that he is, on the one hand, the most media-accessible president in history, yet he has proved to be the most difficult for journalists to interview. This was demonstrated again the other evening as Trump toured his renovation project at the Washington Mall. ABC’s Rachel Scott asked a perfectly reasonable question: “Mr. President, you are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects as w...

  • Lake Roosevelt Boys Golf Defends League Title; Johnson Wins Individual CWB Crown

    Scott Hunter|May 13, 2026

    PATEROS, Wash. - The Lake Roosevelt Raiders boys golf team successfully defended its league title Wednesday at the CWB League Golf Championships held at Alta Lake Golf Course. Lake Roosevelt's Sylas Johnson also claimed the individual boys' championship. Lake Roosevelt clinched the team title with a score of 363, finishing ahead of Okanogan (372) and Manson (393). Johnson won the individual crown by shooting an 84. He was followed by teammate Collin Christman, who finished second with an 86. Four boys from Lake Roosevelt will advance to the...

  • Survey: Most prefer the four-day school week

    Scott Hunter|May 6, 2026

    An early peek at a survey done by the Grand Coulee Dam School District to gauge feelings about the transition to a four-day school week for students indicates most parents are more pleased than not with the change, Superintendent Rod Broadnax says. Broadnax presented the school board the results so far at the last school board meeting April 27 and discussed it at an informal meeting with constituents at Voltage Coffee House the next morning during his bimonthly "Coffee with the Superintendent"...

  • Ridge Rider volunteers are hard at work on Colorama prep

    Scott Hunter|May 6, 2026

    by Scott Hunter As the Colorama Rodeo comes barreling at them, volunteers on Monday were fixing up the rodeo grounds to get ready, from minor to major improvements or repairs. John and Cheryl Pryor were concentrating on the stock chute gates, apparently fixing some small detail. Mike Clanahan and Randy Willette were placing huge concrete blocks inside a newly excavated flat space to hold more bleachers east of the Rattlesnake Saloon. Wayne Fowler, who got elected president after George Kohout di...

  • Raiders survive forfeit, move on in league tournament

    Scott Hunter|May 6, 2026

    The Lake Roosevelt Raiders' baseball week took an unusual turn Tuesday night in Okanogan, where a 10-0 loss to Brewster in the Central Washington 2B league tournament became a forfeit win after the Bears were found to have used an ineligible pitcher, according to LR Coach Billy Nicholson. The ruling kept the Raiders alive long enough to face Okanogan later that night. The Bulldogs won that game 22-2, but Lake Roosevelt will continue its postseason Friday at Tonasket, where the Raiders will play...

  • Lady Raiders stretch streak with four more wins

    Scott Hunter|May 6, 2026

    Lake Roosevelt's softball team kept its late-season roll going this week, sweeping Almira-Coulee-Hartline and Inchelium to stretch its winning streak to nine games, counting two forfeits from Bridgeport. The Lady Raiders opened the week April 30 with two wins over Almira-Coulee-Hartline, taking the first game 7-2 and the second 7-3. In the opener, LR collected 11 hits. Juel Swager went 3 for 3 with two runs and a double, while Shae Crollard and Paisley Fury-Smith each had two hits. Crollard...

  • Red pens did me good

    Tom Purcell|May 6, 2026

    My second-grade teacher, Sister Mary, would be shocked that I turned out to be a writer. Please allow me to explain. In recent years, many schools within the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have barred teachers from marking student papers in red. Their thinking is that correcting young students with red pens is too confrontational and upsetting for the children. Many teachers prefer to grade in more soothing colors, such as green, blue, pink and yellow. Red ink surely wasn’t banned at St. Germaine Catholic School in the ...

  • Nespelem puts on annual junior rodeo

    Scott Hunter|Apr 29, 2026

    The Nespelem Junior Rodeo drew kid contestants for the two day event last weekend eager to compete in events ranging from a "chicken scramble" to a bull ride and more types of events than you knew existed. Here are a few photos.... Full story

  • Staff, parents push back as district weighs cuts

    Scott Hunter|Apr 29, 2026

    The Grand Coulee Dam School District's reduced education program is colliding headon with the people who run classrooms every day. Over the last two board meetings, staff and community members have spoken up to plead for preschool, career and technical education (CTE), athletics, and key administrative positions they say are holding the system together - even as district leaders stress that the math simply no longer works. "We're shrinking, we're going away" At the March 24 meeting, CTE...

  • School district gripped by push and pull of change

    Scott Hunter editor and publisher|Apr 29, 2026

    The forces shaping decisions about the Grand Coulee Dam School District are stubbornly calling for what one might reasonably conclude are exactly the wrong decisions. Last fall, when the process of laying out a “modified education plan” — the term in education for layoffs — members of the public were calling for the district to stem its financial losses by increasing the amount of money coming in, rather than cutting expenses. In public education, that means bringing in more students — through increased offerings, not fewer. The district... Full story

  • Veterans are leading the way in healing – again

    Rob Lewis, communications director for DAV|Apr 29, 2026

    By any honest measure, veterans have long been unintended pioneers in the advancement of medicine. The unique realities of war and military service have forced innovation that later benefits civilians for generations. Modern triage systems emerged from battlefields where medical personnel had to decide, in seconds, who could be saved. Medevac transportation by helicopter increased survival rates in conflicts like Vietnam and later became a staple of civilian emergency medicine. Advances in trauma surgery, prosthetics, rehabilitation medicine...

  • Americans rediscover self-reliance

    Tom Purcell|Apr 29, 2026

    Survivalism and self-sufficiency are exploding across America. According to TruePrepper, a preparedness research group, nearly 23 million Americans now call themselves preppers — many fleeing big-city metros for rural areas where they can be self-reliant if calamity strikes. I offer some insight into this trend. A decade ago, I left the Washington, D.C., metro area and returned to my small ranch on the edge of the countryside just outside Pittsburgh — a place I’ll call Maybury. The people in metro Washington sure are different from the good...

  • LitFit program boosts focus and reading at Lake Roosevelt Elementary

    Scott Hunter|Apr 22, 2026

    At Lake Roosevelt Elementary, students start many mornings not by quietly filing into classrooms, but by moving, reading and thinking all at once in a program staff say is helping focus and literacy: LitFit. Principal Lisa Lakin said the key to LitFit's success is that the school has committed real time to it, treating it as an essential part of the day rather than an add‑on. "We put dedicated time into our schedule for it, and it's like, non‑negotiable - we do it every day that we can," Lak...

  • Wrong Washington, right chaos

    Olivia Harnack|Apr 22, 2026

    It’s no secret that this managing editor turned Army girl has found herself in a bit of an unexpected chapter – boots on the ground in Washington, D.C. And let me tell you, this concrete jungle is a far cry from the rolling wheat fields of Eastern Washington, let alone the dusty, wide-open cowboy country I call home. I like to joke that I told people I was heading to Washington and somehow boarded the wrong plane. Next thing I knew, I was living out a real-life “Home Alone 2” moment, full Kevin McCallister energy, just with less room service...

  • Rural America is in trouble. Congress needs to pass the farm bill

    Dan Newhouse Congressman 4th District|Apr 22, 2026

    Farmers across rural America are facing an affordability crisis. As a third-generation farmer in the Yakima Valley, I know firsthand the challenges facing farm country and the importance of passing the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026, otherwise known as the farm bill. This legislation is an investment in our producers, our families and the rural economy across Washington’s Fourth District. This Congress, I have worked as a member of both the House Agriculture Committee and the Agriculture Subcommittee on Appropriations to help ensu...

  • New lease for old theater approved

    Scott Hunter|Apr 15, 2026

    A lease was approved by the city council in Coulee Dam last week so that a couple who moved to town again last August can re-imagine what was the Village Cinema into something new. Ben and Naomi Dupris were set to sign the lease Wednesday. The couple envision an art-centered community space for all ages, one that will honor Ben's memory of, and hope for, the community he grew up in, meet the needs of its people today, and embody a business model emerging for such spaces. Ben is a 1992 graduate...

  • Funday Friday starts at noon

    Scott Hunter|Apr 15, 2026

    The Funday Friday that starts the Triple Fish Challenge is set for noon to 6 p.m. at Coulee Playland Resort and will feature more than a dozen different stations of free kids’ activities. “Outdoor fun for all ages,” as the poster promotes for Reel Recreation’s annual fishing derby on Banks Lake. This year, an animal processing demonstration will take place at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. The Triple Fish Challenge is a “family-friendly fishing tournament like no other!” Reel Rec’s website says. “Anglers will compete to catch three different speci...

  • 'Our new normal': Washington confronts another year of drought

    Aspen Ford|Apr 15, 2026

    Washington's Department of Ecology announced a statewide drought emergency April 8, marking the fourth consecutive year that part or all of the state has been in a drought. "We declare drought when water supply drops below 75% of normal," said Casey Sixkiller, director of Ecology. "This year, every watershed in our state has met that threshold." Snowpack in the mountains is at about half of normal. The emergency declaration follows an above average wet winter where precipitation levels were...

  • Support Ukraine, not Iran War

    Norm Luther|Apr 15, 2026

    The 40+ billion dollars already spent on the Iran war, endorsed by our own Republican US Representative Michael Baumgartner, has only made our world’s democracies much more vulnerable. Instead, that money should have been spent on Ukraine’s war effort against Russia that’s made our world’s democracies much less vulnerable. Norm Luther...

  • Those motorcycle days

    Roger S. Lucas|Apr 15, 2026

    Shortly after high school I got into motorcycles. My friend Joe had a brother who was living in Spokane, so we went to the city to visit him. He was hanging out with a bunch of bikers so we heard nothing but talk of bikes. We ended up at a British-American motorcycle shop on East Sprague. Before we knew it, we both had purchased bikes. Neither of us had ever ridden a motorcycle, so we were in for some interesting times. We rode home to Palouse. In a couple of weeks, we were back in the bike shop too buy bigger bikes. We both bought BSAs. The...

  • Months later, DOJ lawsuit to obtain WA voter rolls can move forward

    Jake Goldstein-Street|Apr 8, 2026

    It took the federal government months to properly serve attorneys for Washington in the Trump administration's litigation to force the state to turn over its voter rolls. But now the lawsuit filed in December can finally move forward. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs told the Trump administration last year that he would be willing to provide public information from voter records. But he wouldn't hand over dates of birth, driver's license numbers or the last four digits of social security numbers....

  • A corner on newspapers

    Roger S. Lucas|Apr 8, 2026

    There was a time when our family controlled newspapers in Palouse. My oldest brother, Richard, had the franchise for years in Palouse. There were four paper routes, and my brother hired my two older brothers and my sister to take routes. Richard took the fourth route. He said I was too young for a route. However, I had a route for the Moscow paper, five days weekly. Richard had an agreement with the Spokane paper people to fill the routes and see to it that they were delivered properly. For that he was paid pretty well, and my sis and two...

  • Entrepreneurs build free and prosperous America

    Don C. Brunell|Apr 8, 2026

    Today, people who risk their homes, savings and reputations are viewed by critics as the “evil incarnate,” the roots of all that is wrong with America---a nation celebrating its 250th birthday. Unfortunately, critics of our country ignore the fact that people historically came to America to escape oppressive regimes and for the opportunity for a better life in a free and open society. In the USA, our constitution protects our citizens’ rights of expression, to practice their faith or atheism, and freedom to create and innovate. Americans are i...

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