News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Sorted by date Results 2606 - 2630 of 6735
Steven Flowers poses with a pen Feb. 6 at Lake Roosevelt High School, where Flowers signed a letter of intent to play football for Eastern Washington University. From left, behind him are his mother, Jaleen Flowers; brother, Bobcat Flowers; and father, Josh Flowers. The story is on page six, near a two-page salute to LR athletes, who are doing very well in their post-seasons. - Jacob Wagner photo...
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson warned sheriffs and other law enforcement officers Tuesday that they are required to enforce a gun control law passed by voters last November. Sheriffs in four local counties cite Second Amendment concerns about enforcing Initiative 1639, as do law enforcement officials in more than half the state’s 39 counties. I-1639, which took effect on Jan. 1, raises the age limit for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. Beginning July 1, it requires purchasers to pass an enhanced background check, show p...
Look out your window for flying pigs, because the coulee area may get recycling in 2020. The towns of Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City will be deciding on a recycling option to choose in a new contract with Sunrise Disposal, which performs garbage service in the area. One option is to place a 25-yard container with separate sections for various materials at the Delano Transfer Station to be taken to the Okanogan County Recycling Center on an as-needed basis. This option is said to have no additional cost in the...
Tiny houses are a trendy new housing option that are often considered affordable; however zoning requirements and other laws make them difficult to legally place. A tiny house is usually between 100 and 400 square feet but can range up to 1,000 square feet. District 25 Senator Hans Zeiger, R-Puyallup, is the prime sponsor of three bills to overcome obstacles to tiny house developments. The Senate Housing Stability and Affordability Committee heard public testimony on two of Zeiger’s bills, Wednesday. SB 5382 deals with tiny houses as d...
Tribal hunting and fishing licenses are being offered at Coulee Playland again after a brief hiatus. The Colville Tribes are transitioning to an online-only system, and were no longer offering paper licenses through third-party sellers, which complicated things for local business Coulee Playland. The Star reported on the change in the Jan. 30 issue. Colville Tribes Fish & Wildlife Director Cody Desautel said the return of the paper licenses could be because of a time lag on the transition to the digital system. “This is our first year, so t...
Companies in Grant County that “mine” cryptocurrency with high-powered computers have filed a lawsuit against Grant PUD, whose commissioners voted in 2018 to raise electric rates for the emerging industry. The companies say they chose to locate their businesses in Grant County because of the cheap power rates, and that increased rates will inevitably hurt their businesses. They are seeking money for financial losses they say they face, and they’re asking the court to order the electric utility not to implement its new “Schedule 17” rates for...
Grand Coulee 2/10 - A man at the Hill Street apartments reported that a man who had been banned the previous day was at the apartments. The man, sitting in his vehicle, said he didn’t exit the vehicle and therefore was not trespassing. The reporting party said he saw the man knock on the door of the apartment manager, who was not home. The man denied this. The officer reminded him he was banned from the property and left the scene. - A Safeway manager reported that two females had hidden alcohol in a bag, then went through the checkout w...
Local county sheriffs are weighing in on Washington’s controversial Initiative-1639 which is related to guns and is being challenged in the courts. I-1639, which took effect on Jan. 1, raises the age limit for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. Beginning July 1, it requires purchasers to pass an enhanced background check, show proof of firearms training, and wait 10 days before getting the gun. The new law also makes gun owners guilty of “community endangerment” if their gun is not properly stored and is accessible by a child or by an...
A stray dog found its way into Lake Roosevelt Elementary School and has been a staple there ever since. The 8-month-old, black Labrador female dog, now named Raider, had been hanging out around the school for about a month last fall when eventually school employee Cindy Parra found her by the football field eating a bag of chips out of a child's backpack. Parra grabbed her, and Shamara Steffler, the dean of students at the school, adopted her. The school board in October approved for Raider to...
Free tax preparation offered Free in-person tax preparation will be available at the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center for people of any age. The program, which is offered by the American Association of Retired Persons, is open to the public on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. between Feb. 13 and April 10. Deported, returned, jailed A Bridgeport man was sentenced to five years of prison Friday after he had been deported, came back to the United States and was captured again, U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Harrington’s office announced in a press r...
A group of protesters gathered outside the Colville Business Council's meeting chambers Friday as part of the council debated a move that would lead to expelling one of their own members. Ethics charges had been filed, dropped and apparently filed again on Councilmember Andrea George, who won a seat at the council last summer to represent the Nespelem District. Amid chants and drumming outside the tribal headquarters Friday, cars and pickups drove by on SR-155 and honked in support of those...
Legislation proposed on the last day of January would largely exempt state legislators from the Public Records Act, according to the attorney who led the fight against a similar bill last year. That bill was passed in a last-minute move after a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled in January 2018 that the Legislature was subject to the Public Records Act and had not been in compliance for years. Both sides appealed the decision and litigation still continues in the Washington Supreme Court. A public outcry over last year’s bill led to the...
OLYMPIA — Lawmakers are pushing for a bill to allow year-round observation of daylight saving time in the state of Washington, with the intention of the practice spreading throughout the country. House Bill 1196 was co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 14 representatives and introduced by Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane. “I want to ditch the switch,” said Riccelli at a public hearing. “We’re already on daylight saving time eight months of the year.” According to the bill, the state and all of its political subdivisions would follow Paci...
It caused a great uproar in the news media and with those living in parts of Canada and the U.S. The Upper Midwest felt the effects of the ever-present Polar Vortex. TV news reporters stood outside showing viewers just how cold the air was — frozen things were displayed for all to see. People shot video of themselves holding frozen shirts, pants or their wet, frozen hair. More importantly, the TV reports and newspaper articles addressed the health consequences of truly cold air. Add some wind t...
Grand Coulee 1/29 - A Burdin Boulevard woman said she watched a man and woman walk past her car. The man allegedly pushed her mirror out of position, the woman put her hands “all over the car,” and the complainant yelled at them to stop. - A man thought to be wanted on a warrant and to recently have run from police was spotted slouched down in a truck on Lakeview Boulevard. Two officers detained the man, who was cleared on the warrant and taken to the police station to be cited and released on charges of resisting arrest and obstructing an offi...
The Colville Tribes responded with a press release last week regarding a controversial decision to approve a contract to round up approximately 1,250 horses from the reservation. The nearly $500,000 contract awarded to Sun J Livestock was approved on Jan. 24. “The Colville Business Council responsibly addressed the need to better protect our lands, water, wildlife and native plants on the reservation with these decisions,” Colville Business Council Chairman Rodney Cawston said in the release, dated Jan. 29. “These decisions also provide a plan... Full story
Good luck to the Lake Roosevelt basketball teams and their fans in Richland today; win or lose (just saw that the girls won 46-43) , they may all have to take a long way home. Washington State Department of Transportation is showing I-82 closed between Yakima and Ellensburg, as well as minor state highways SR-24 and SR-241 through rural areas between here and there. SR 17 closed from Othello north, SR 21 is closed at Washtucna. That might leave US395 to Spokane and US 2 the only way home. But... Full story
Lake Roosevelt Schools will start two hours late Monday, Feb. 11, the school district said Sunday night. The delay is due to expected weather expected to bring several inches of snow overnight....
Hunters and fishers wanting to head to local tribal lands will have to look online to buy their licenses, not at local stores. The Colville Confederated Tribes have launched a website for buying fishing and hunting permits on their reservation and eliminated the service from third-party sellers, such as Coulee Playland. “We have transitioned to an online system,” said Natural Resources Director Cody Desautel in an email to The Star. “Customers can come to [Fish & Wildlife] office buildings and get permits, which is still through the onlin...
Legislation proposed Thursday morning would define how the Public Records Act would apply to members of the Legislature after a 2018 court ruling that the state’s governing body is not exempt from the law. The bill would not satisfy that ruling, according to the lawyer who represented 10 news organizations before a Thurston County Superior Court judge who ruled in January 2018 that the Legislature must comply with the state Public Records Act and had not been in compliance for years. Both sides appealed the decisions and litigation is still ong...
Gary Darnold, who coached cross country for Lake Roosevelt for 40 years, including 38 state meet appearances, was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association's Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame on Friday in a ceremony held in Tacoma. Darnold coached the sport from 1977 until 2016, and in that time there has been at least one runner at state 38 times, 21 times the team has gone to state including 185 athletes, and had 15 individual finishes in the top eight at state. "He...
NPS re-opens recreation area after shutdown Following an agreement between Congress and the President last Friday, the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area has “resumed regular winter operations,” a press release from LRNRA stated Monday. “Staff will be out inspecting facilities and making necessary repairs throughout the park,” the release stated. “With reduced winter staffing, this will take time. Please visit www.nps.gov/laro for updated information about the park. “Lake Roosevelt’s employees thank you for your patience and are happy to b...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District is contesting the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s claim in a draft Environmental Assessment concerning the minimal impact it says a project will have on the district. The USBR is planning on a 10-year project to update three generators, G19-21, in the Third Powerhouse starting in 2023, similar to the ongoing project of updating G22-24 that started in 2010, and is estimated to cost $100 million. The USBR’s Environmental Assessment for the proposed G19-21 update, states that the project would have at most 103...
The lights on the Coulee Dam bridge over the Columbia River will enter the 21st Century in the coming spring, when they will be updated from incandescent to LED lights. "We're replacing all the wires that exist on the bridge, and the electrical service, so that the lights will function," said Robert Stull, the transportation engineer and electrical designer for the Washington State Department of Transportation office in Wenatchee. "And we're updating the lights to LED that should have a sort of...
The Colville Business Council took a series of actions on Jan. 24 related to feral horses on the reservation, including changing a law to allow machines such as helicopters to be used in the capture of feral horses, approving a contract to do so, and raising the bounty tribal members receive for removing the horses themselves. The contract with Sun J Livestock is for $478,750 and is for the removal of approximately 1,250 horses. The Tribal Tribune reported the amount but not the name of the contractor. Sun J Livestock removed about 420 horses...