The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

With the basketball season coming to a close, we will be into baseball.  It will be a strange season; I can’t name a single player, on any team. I remember that when I was covering baseball, I kept track of several big league... — Updated 5/24/2023

The Colville Tribes have reason to be proud of Michelle Stanger. Michelle just returned from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she competed along with 26 other Indian national representatives for national honors and the opportunity... — Updated 5/17/2023

I have been to the nation’s capital city. My efforts have been to see as many famous places as a day there will allow. My first visit was a real disappointment. We had hired a tour guide to shepherd us around, believing that we w... — Updated 5/10/2023

Hearing the deadly dust storm on Monday caused me some alarm. The storm was reported to be in Indiana, where I have a close friend.  So I called Warner Bartleson, who is well known in the coulee. Warner was hospital administrator... — Updated 5/3/2023

I think there’s a song about that. In a few days it will be 75 years since I graduated from Palouse High School. Palouse will always be where I am from, and my home away from home. We had 24 in our graduation class, 15 of us atte... — Updated 4/26/2023

Our youngest son, Nathan is visiting the 37 courthouses in Oregon with the intent to create a book. He received his bachelor and master degrees from the University of Oregon. For the past 25 years he has been teaching at a private... — Updated 4/19/2023

All work and no play…. You know the rest. While in college in 1955-59, I occasionally took some needed time off to go fishing, despite two jobs, a full college load of classes and being a husband and father. I was located in... — Updated 4/12/2023

[Editor’s note: We mistakenly ran only a part of this column last week; here’s the full piece.] I’ve visited both the spectacular and the simplest of places where the faithful gather. A visit to Angkor Wat near Siem Reap in... — Updated 4/5/2023

I’ve visited both the spectacular and the simplest of places where the faithful gather. A visit to Angkor Wat near Siem Reap in Cambodia is probably the place I will always remember. The complex is huge and the construction... — Updated 3/29/2023

I held the last “coffee hour” that Sen. Warren Magnuson ever held. The senator had assisted me with some of my arrangements when I made my trips to the Far East. So when one of his aides called and asked if I would hold a... — Updated 3/15/2023

Jimmy Carter is in the news. At 98, Carter has entered hospice care. He has been counted out many times only to resurface with a hammer in his hand, building houses for other people. While having a lackluster one-term presidential... — Updated 3/1/2023

There is nothing like learning about betting on the ponies at the top. I was introduced to betting on race horses at Santa Anita Park, one of the premium race parks in America.  I was in Los Angeles covering the Rose Bowl for my... — Updated 2/22/2023

We were in Baltimore visiting our daughter Kathy, who lived there at the time, and did the town. One of the highlights was touring the USS Constellation, a three-mast sailing man-of-war. It was the last ship in the fleet commission... — Updated 2/15/2023

While on the newspaper staff at the Idaho Free Press, they always gave me the assignment to cover the local rodeos. The two big ones were the Caldwell Night Rodeo and the Snake River Stampede. They both lasted the better part of a... — Updated 1/25/2023

While at the Statesman in Boise, I often covered Idaho Vandal football games. My boss, Jim Brown, was a large contributor to Idaho’s football program. Vandal coach Skip Stahley came by the newspaper on a number of occasions,... — Updated 1/18/2023

It was 1962, and the baseball season was over. During the off season, Larry Jackson, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, joined our sports staff at the Idaho Statesman in Boise. As a baseball player, Larry was not yet a househol... — Updated 1/11/2023

When I was a kid, I sold the Saturday Evening Post. Post officials would come to town and round up a bunch of us kids, and we would go door to door to sell the post. It sold for a nickel. I think it was a national effort to raise... — Updated 1/4/2023

On a family vacation several years ago, I learned what claustrophobia was all about. We arrived at Lewis and Clark Cavern State Park in Montana and all of the family made it into the opening for the then self-guided... — Updated 12/28/2022

When I was in grade school, my best friend was Jon Skovlin. His father ran the local Penny’s store, and sometimes I worked with Jon and put together trikes, bikes, and wagons. The store sold a lot of these. Jon’s dad would... — Updated 12/21/2022

We were on one of our vacation trips to Montana, Wyoming and Yellowstone Park and stopped for a time in Cody, Wyoming. We were looking for a place to stay because we wanted to take in the museum there and go to the night rodeo. We... — Updated 12/14/2022

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Ruby Mountain isn’t some rugged granite peak. Rather, it is a round-topped mountain in Nevada with a beautiful trail to the top. While it is over 10,000 feet in elevation, you can drive... — Updated 12/7/2022

We shouldn’t need a date on the calendar to remind us to be thankful. I am thankful all year long for my family. While they are scattered from Louisiana to north of Everett, it is like they are with me all year long. On... — Updated 11/30/2022

While I was at the Citizen Newspaper in Bothell we were purchased by the Persis Corporation. They owned a number of newspapers and we were placed under the daily paper they owned in Bellevue. It was 1987. It created a lot of proble... — Updated 11/23/2022

A recent column on my motorcycle days put me in touch with one of the sons of my old friend Joe Emerson. Someone had sent him a copy of my comments about his dad and of our friendship while we were both living in Palouse. He said... — Updated 11/16/2022

Lloyd Meeds represented Washington’s 2nd District in Congress for a number of years and was a frequent visitor to our newspaper in Bothell. He spent a lot of time in the district and would come by the paper for interviews and to... — Updated 11/9/2022