News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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We sold my mom and dad’s dream home last autumn — the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired mid-century modern house they called home for 25 years. Staying put is becoming more commonplace in America. According to The Atlantic, America, once the most mobile society in the world, has become increasingly stagnant, with fewer people moving between cities, states and even neighborhoods. The American Economic Association’s research finds that internal U.S. migration is at a 30-year low. The Atlantic argues that declining mobility leads to fewer econo...
The death of cursive handwriting reared its ugly head during the recent presidential election. Since 2010, according to Yahoo News, many states have dropped cursive writing from their curricula as they shifted to Common Core State Standards for English. As a result, many Gen Z Americans lack a distinctive cursive signature, which posed a problem for Gen Z voters who used mail-in ballots last month. Since officials had great difficulty matching Gen Z mail-in-ballot signatures to the signatures the government had on file for them, many of their...
A story from my childhood came to mind as I read a recent ABC News report about a mother who was arrested after her son was seen walking alone to the Dollar Store a half mile away from his home. Brittany Patterson of Mineral Bluff, Ga., was at a doctor’s appointment with her other child when her nearly 11-year-old boy left his house and was spotted by himself. Somebody alerted the police who took the boy home. A few hours later, the cops went to Patterson’s address, cuffed her in front of her kids, dragged her off to the police station for a m...
Here’s a story that is growing bigger by the day: Cyber scams are on the rise. My elderly family member fell for a common scam a few weeks ago: His screen appeared to be locked by “Microsoft” and he was urged to call the number the phony security alert displayed. If you call that fake number, a fake Microsoft representative will ask you to provide access to your computer, so he can steal sensitive data or download malicious apps. To be sure, in the digital era in which we all now live 24/7, you must assume that every email, text and phone call...
“Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” is on April 25th, and I think we should try something different this year: Let’s take our daughters and sons to grandma’s. The Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation says that April 25th is designed to be more than just a career day — more than the practice of “shadowing” an adult in the workplace. It’s equally important to show children “the value of their education, helping them discover the power and possibilities of work and family life…” It’s about “providing boys and girls a chance t...
A growing number of Americans think the American Dream is out of reach, but I think they are wrong. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, only 36% of voters said the American Dream still exists, way fewer than the 53% who believed so in 2012. Half of the poll’s respondents believed that America’s economic and political systems are “stacked against people like me.” These are troubling findings, but I think more of our native-born non-believers need to start dreaming — and acting — like American immigrants. Many immigrants still belie...
As we wrap up a very inflationary 2023, pet shelters across the country are at maximum capacity and they don’t have room to house the pets people are turning in. ABC News reports that animals entering shelters began to climb in 2021. During the covid pandemic, you see, many people adopted pets, but as they began to go back to the workplace, some decided they no longer wanted to care for a pet, so they turned them back in. The past year was significantly worse for pets because adoptions are falling far short of the increase in sheltered pets. ...
Halloween is upon us, which means you’d better be cautious about the costume you choose. Halloween has long been a staple of childhood, but in the past few decades it has been increasingly celebrated by adults — and for good reason. Until recently, it was the one day where adults could dress up in funny, outrageous costumes that satirized popular culture and the complexity of modern life. Dressing up as a rock star, Albert Einstein, a famous sports figure, or some other pop icon could be fun and funny. There should be some limits to our costume...
There’s a reason the name “Jimmy Buffett” elicits immediate joy in the hearts of millions: happiness contagion. A study conducted by Harvard University and the University of California followed 5,000 people for 20 years to determine if happiness was contagious. The study’s finding: it most certainly is. If you smile at a stranger as you hold a door open for him, you transfer a positive, happy energy that he can’t help but enjoy. Better yet, according to Psychology Today, the study finds that the happiness you just infused in a stranger...
According to the directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest scientific study of happiness ever conducted, the answer is very simple: our relationships. “The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying and overall healthier lives,” according to the book “The Good Life,” which recounts lessons from the Harvard study. “Relationships in all their forms — friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study groups — all contribute to...
This week half the country will be upset by the midterm election results and half will be elated. Regardless, politics is causing every one of us more stress than it ought to, but, believe it or not, there is, hopefully, still some humor that we can all enjoy. Since Congress has a lower approval rating than polio, here are some fun lines to share: It’s so cold today, the congresswoman had her hands in her own pockets. The opposite of “pro” is “con,” so the opposite of progress is: Congress. Q: What did the corrupt congressman order for lunch...
Where did all the nurses go? One of my family members ended up in the ER for a week after a bad fall. The hospital we chose and its staff were wonderful in every way, but this time, one important thing was missing: an appropriate number of nurses to deliver superior care. The nurses who were there did their best. They are working long hours and exhausting themselves and, still, the ones we met were cheerful and supportive. There is a special place in Heaven for people in this profession. But where did all the nurses go? We moved our family memb...