News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 26 - 38 of 38
• The Missoula Children’s Theater, which the local PTA paid to put on an impressive musical with local kids in less than a week, is a happy symptom of a depressing malady in society. We need more resources to go toward such humanities efforts, less for educational testing ad nauseam. • It will be interesting to see what a judge makes of the dispute between a local mechanic working out of his house and the city, which fined him for not having a license and practicing the trade in a residential zone. He claims his services have basically gone... Full story
If citizen involvement is a key ingredient in the health of a community, this one should feel pretty good about itself. The upside of people complaining about what they think is going wrong is that they care and they act as caring citizens should: they complain. This week we feature stories that reflect citizen concerns: local political races for 11 contested seats because people cared enough to want to serve; and folks confronting the hospital district commission on issues that matter to them. As uncomfortable as such controversy can make... Full story
Our diverse region and readership have decisions to make. We hope this week’s Local Candidates Forum provides some help for voters who open their mail-in ballots to cast decisions on races they may not have even realized were occurring. Readers should know that candidates were notified that we wanted them to answer three simple questions, but only via an email and a front-page article in last week’s paper. If you don’t see a reply from them this week, there could be several reasons for that, including that they’ve been away and didn’t... Full story
Remember when you were a little kid and had to learn, likely through repeated lessons, that you just can’t always get your way? That you have to learn to give a little just to get along in this world? That’s not just a childhood lesson, it’s a basic principal that undergirds the healthiest societies, keeps disagreements civil and greases the wheels of democracy. It makes civilization itself possible. But a new faction within the Republican Party rejects that premise, insisting that compromise is evil. Many in the House of Representatives got el... Full story
So, I’m very glad I took out that MedStar membership. Took a ride last night. The good pros at Coulee Medical Center figured out why I was so weak and sent me to Sacred Heart ICU. Turns out I have multiple pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in lungs). Yes, that’s bad. A surgery or two is coming up, along with some lengthy recuperation. Life is what happens when you had other plans. So, although your submitted photos are always welcome in The Star, they will be more so in the coming weeks. You can email them to gwen@grandcoulee.com, along wit... Full story
• Congratulations to local firm Taylor Enterprises, LLC for landing a $4.2 million contract to provide the Grand Coulee Dam with janitorial services. • Electric City’s planning commission should think carefully if asked to alter what kinds of buildings are allowed within the city. Understanding why restrictions are in place should be the first step in either removing them or keeping them. Decisions like that affect everyone’s property values. • In our special triathlon section this week, read about a remarkable young athlete who registere... Full story
• The Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada, which the two countries will start renegotiating soon, is one international news story the local community needs to watch. It can affect everything from how much water remains in local lakes to whether, as some very hardy canoeists on the front page would like, we build fish ladders around Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams. • Even while trying to form a better advocate for growing tourism via a local tourism board, the chamber of commerce continues in the interim to entice local... Full story
Along with many others, we were saddened this week by the news of Dakotah Holt’s death, and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. As a child, Dakotah was a Star newspaper carrier for a time. He was a bright, ambitious kid who seemed eager to do well as we followed his progress through high school. The world is diminished without him in it. Scott Hunter editor and publisher... Full story
Some local municipal councils have passed laws banning local participation in what appears to be on the way to becoming a legitimate enterprise: growing marijuana. With the state’s passage of Initiative 520 last year, and with the guidance last week from the federal Justice Department on how that will jive with federal drug enforcement efforts, local leaders might need to consider to loosening up a bit. Voters passed the initiative to legalize recreational marijuana last fall, and not because they all want to get high. Most just recognize t... Full story
It happens repeatedly in Coulee Country, even when we invent ways to try to get around our biggest road block to progress. In a community with four town councils and four mayors, we’ve needed to find ways, institutions, to make it possible to tackle common problems and goals: hence, the Regional Board of Mayors was born for the purpose of managing our common landfill, now a transfer station. But the RBOM has little real authority and cannot act decisively when needed. A recent need for an emergency repair at the transfer station may be a l... Full story
The Star will be closed from 1:45 to 4:15 p.m. this afternoon due to scheduling conflicts with news events. We will re-open by 4:15, and the deadline for classified ads will extend to Tuesday noon. Classifieds can be entered online anytime here: http://www.grandcoulee.com/classifieds. And news announcements and letters to the editor can always be emailed in to star@grandcoulee.com or placed in the physical dropbox outside the front door.... Full story
The first time I met Guillermo Guzman he had just done the butterfly stroke across Crescent Bay and back in September. I had taken his photograph for possible use in the paper and so introduced myself and asked his name. His thick Mexican accent was compounded by the fact that he was shivering terribly, his teeth chattering, yet he politely entered conversation as if he weren’t dying to get dried off from the frigid lake water. I’ve had little interaction with him since that 2009 encounter until this spring, when he hit on the idea of rai... Full story
Political stupidity in Washington, D.C. is about to come down hard on our local area. Some economists argue that the sky will fall because of the “sequester,” a budget cut imposed by Congress and signed by the President in 2011 in a move designed to make such blind, across-the-board cuts so painful that they would never be politically feasible, forcing opposing parties in the nation’s fiscal policy debates to compromise. That was a huge political miscalculation based on the perception that things are as they have ever been. They’re not. Te... Full story