News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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They are inescapable, these words. They are present everywhere, down the street, and all the way to Washington, D.C. They have become prominent in our society and its politics over the past decades; truly the agony of our nation. Ignorance, intolerance, indifference, irresponsible, ineptitude and ineffectual. Let me share the definition of each of these words according to The American Heritage Dictionary. Ig.no.rance -- The condition of being uneducated, unaware or uninformed. In.tol.er.ance --...
Democrat Senators and Congressmen are pushing to Impeach Trump again. For his bombing Iran Nuclear sites, that every President from President Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, and Trump again has said Iran can’t have nuclear bombs. However, Obama used 26,000 bombs to bomb Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, & Yemen in 2016 alone. Never did obtain an act from congress to conduct Military Operations. President Biden bombed Syria, Yemen, Iran with 3,246 bombs No complaints from Democrats. & not congress approval either. Obama s...
What’s most important to remember about the monstrous “big beautiful” bill ginned up by Trump’s Reichstag is that Republicans are just being themselves. They’ve always pined to fatten the fat cats and screw the average citizen – to take from the needy and give to the rich, like Robin Hood in reverse. None of this is new. What’s different now is the sheer scale of the cruelty, the scope of the destruction, and the spineless fealty to a fascist. And what truly galls me is the Republicans’ repugnant hypocrisy. In 2011, President Obama proposed...
July 3, 1844, fishermen killed the last confirmed pair of Great Auks (Pinguinus impennis) at Eldey Island, Iceland. The Great Auk was a large flightless bird native to the North Atlantic. At its peak, the population of the Great Auk was in the millions. Because it and other flightless birds were popular as meat and bait, they were hunted tirelessly. Why the fishermen killed the last breeding pair is disputed. Some felt the fishermen were working for a businessman who wanted to sell the specimens to collectors. Other’s thought the fishermen k...
The United States Postal Service is on the brink of a self-induced collapse. The failed policies of the Delivering for America Plan have driven away customers through a combination of sky-high rate increases and degraded service. David Steiner, who will take over as Postmaster General on July 14, 2025, has a tough job to do and little time to do it, with some estimates indicating the USPS could be insolvent as soon as 2028. Congress has a key role to play in helping him right the ship but must get off the sidelines and act. A useful step...
In regard to the most pathetic car show in history, last weekend (June 14). Seriously? What happened to the big North Dam car shows from the past or a car show lining both sides of Main Street? There was no advertising, no word of mouth, no one knew anything. Six cars attended, ha ha, that has to be the world record. How embarrassing. Why did someone decide that it would be a good idea to combine a kid’s fest and 40 sign protesters together with a non-advertised car show? Why not go back to days of a stand-alone advertised car show with v...
I somehow became friends with two Seattle disc jockeys, Frosty Fowler and Emperor (Lee) Smith. I met Frosty at a French pastry restaurant on Capitol Hill in Seattle. The place was Marcel’s, owned by a fellow Bothell resident. I often drove there for lunch and Marcel introduced us. We apparently hit it off because it became a lasting friendship. He told me what he did and was amazed that I hardly even knew his name. I explained that I seldom listened to the radio and wouldn’t be interested in the type of music he played. Frosty had an ego and...
With high school and college commencements wrapping up, employers now worry about the graduates’ preparedness to enter the work world. This year, 3.9 million students graduated from our high schools, marking the largest class on record. An additional 4.6 million scholars earned college degrees. Their expertise was graded from A to F. Grades are supposed to indicate accurate achievement, competence, and knowledge when applied without being inflated. “Grade inflation” refers to a rise in grades without a matching increase in learning outco...
Our local hot summers provide plenty of lessons we might also keep in mind for our politics. Most people who don’t fight fires on a regular basis may not appreciate the delicate relationship between fuel and energy, but it’s key to understanding ignition, the point at which flame erupts. The hotter the air is, the closer the energy level of everything is to its ignition point. The drier the fuel, likewise. So, when the wind blows in the heat, when “relative humidity” — that is the amount of moisture in the air — is low, a spark can light a fir...
With Marines on American streets and fascist disinformation invading American minds, one is compelled to wonder what Edward R. Murrow would say. But that query is a tad irrelevant. There’s no space in today’s political media culture for an Edward R. Murrow. Granted, if you watched George Clooney’s play “Good Night, and Good Luck” (broadcast live last weekend on CNN), or if you’ve seen his streamable 2005 movie by the same name, chances are you were stunned and disturbed by the many parallels between 1954 and now. In Murrow’s time, right-w...
Our family over the years had a strong relationship with Potlatch Forests Inc., who had mills in Potlatch and Lewiston. I only found out recently that my father also had ties with PFI. A distant cousin whose grandfather headed the Lucas logging operation had some documents that showed that. The Lucas brothers Ralph, John (my dad) and Omer had a logging operation near Bovill, Idaho. They were cutting virgin timber, and the logs were huge, some so big that you could only get three on a logging truck. The family had a pretty large block of land,...
June 24, 1912, The Bull Moose Party is formed. President Theodore Roosevelt asked his supporters to leave the floor of the Republican National Convention in Chicago. Republican progressives reconvened in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and endorsed the formation of a National Progressive Party. Roosevelt’s support of government regulation, his groundbreaking efforts in conservation and consumer protection, and his willingness to work with organized labor alienated pro-business Republican Party mem...
This Saturday, June 14, is Flag Day here in the United States. The day commemorates the date in 1777 when the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution stating, “the flag of the Unites States shall be 13 stripes, alternating red and white, the union be 13 stars, white on blue field, representing a new constellation.” That union of 13 stars has grown to 50, a union of states. Bernard Cigrand, a teacher in Wisconsin in 1885, originated the idea for an annual flag day to be celebrated acr...
Lori Adkins is the longest tenured teacher and coach in the GCDSD’s history. Over 43 years she has helped thousands of students and hundreds of athletes. Her loyalty and longevity are unmatched. Over the decades I’ve seen her work 20-hour days and rarely miss a day of work. She’s about solutions not excuses. She’s a talented artist who rarely has time to create personally because she’s always creating with kids. Lori raised five Raiders and as the longtime cheer squad coach and leadership class instructor she’s brought more school spirit to o...
The strength of the United States’ economy is rooted in the power of our workforce. As Congress works to deliver policies that bring jobs back to our shores, the need for a strong, reliable workforce has never been greater. Nearly 20,000 young Americans utilize the U.S. Job Corps program, a proven initiative that helps equip our nation’s young, disadvantaged adults with the skills they need to succeed. Amidst the Trump administration’s plans to pause Job Corps operations at the end of June, I joined 200 of my colleagues in sending a lette... Full story
It was June 4th of 2024 when a sharp, excruciating pain under my right ribs introduced itself — because clearly, my body thought I needed a dramatic plot twist. After a night that made every nightmare I’d ever had look like a Disney short, we dragged ourselves to the doctor’s office. One of the doctors casually suggested maybe my gallbladder was just hoarding stones. Makes sense. I was a geologist in a past life, so maybe my organs got the memo and decided to start a rock collection. Before we could even find a place to scan this inter...
June 14, 1988, the FBI announced a major multi-agency investigation into Department of Defense procurement fraud. It was called Operation Ill Wind (Ill Wind is an old English term). The investigation began when an honest person contacted authorities in 1986. He had been approached by a military consultant who wanted competitor information in exchange for cash. From there, it grew substantially. The investigation involved many federal investigative agencies. Search warrants were ultimately served in Washington D.C. and 12 states. The offices of...
Until August of 1934, German judges swore an oath that reflected the spirit of the democratic Weimar republic: “I swear loyalty to the Constitution, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.” But that fateful summer, the judicial oath was tweaked just a wee bit: “I swear loyalty to the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.” Donald Trump would love to mimic what Hitler intoned...
I moved from the Idaho Free Press in Nampa to the Idaho Statesman in Boise. It was only a 20-mile move in distance, but a mile in experience. While it nearly doubled my salary, the move was a dangerous one for me. It was in the spring, and baseball season was just starting. My early major assignment was to cover Boise’s team and the Pioneer League. The Pioneer League was a Class C League and Boise was a Milwaukee minor league team. The Pioneer League at the time was made up of Boise, Twin Falls, Pocatello, Billings, Missoula and Great Falls. I...
Although President Donald Trump and Harvard’s recent spats make headlines, key issues in question affect all higher education. Harvard, our nation’s first college (1636), is a center of current civil disruption and antisemitic behavior. The timing is bad because high school graduates are finalizing their college choices or deciding to forego college altogether. The news comes after graduates see existing student loans payments reinstated after a four-year pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Morgan Stanley economists estimate there are 5.6 mil...
June 8, 1861, Citizens of Tennessee voted in favor of secession from the United States. In the Eastern mountainous part if the state, voters opposed secession by a large margin. There were few slave owners in that region. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s Vice President in his second term as president, was from Eastern Tennessee. Tennessee was a border state between the southern and northern states. Some Tennesseeians fought with the Confederate Army, while others fought with the Union Army. Notable C...
Those wanting to clean up the mess we tend to get used to harken back to a time when this community had set its sights on self-improvement. That’s a good sign. Some people say such efforts didn’t make any difference. They misremember. Many improvements did come out of the discussions and initiatives to spruce up the place, even if some of it was cosmetic, like the awnings on buildings that were an inexpensive fix for flawed architecture. Even that helped. That was Project REV back in the 1990s. The new discussion goes deeper, though, and see...
I indeed wish the best for new Pope Leo XIV. Many commentators have said that he has potential for many years ahead. Quite true, as far as actuarial tables go. However, I am mindful that when I was a teenager in 1978, Pope John Paul I was elected pope. He served for a fateful 33 days. He was only 65 years old (younger than Leo is now). He was known as “the smiling pope” (only eclipsed by the late Pope Francis in smiling). Probably my favorite pope was Pope Pius IX. Not many people know that as a young priest, he also served in Peru and Chi... Full story
What began as a cordial exchange of comments between Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House this week rapidly disintegrated into an acrimonious affair. Trump baselessly claimed there was a genocide against white people in South Africa, which Ramaphosa and other South Africans have vigorously denied. It’s just the latest surreal and theatrically tense Oval Office meeting Trump has had with a foreign leader, and comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and South Africa over the false claims. The m...
Some of the most interesting experiences I have had were seeing what is over the hill. I was lucky, and my wife was just as willing to take side trips. We got on Route 66 in California and planned to take it for a couple of 100 miles across Arizona and New Mexico. We got tired of the route and decided to find someplace to go to. We went north about 60 miles to the National Monument Canyon de Chelly. We spent a little time in the ruins. Not enough time, but making a note to ourselves that someday we would like to return. We had the opportunity...