News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Currently, I live with a view of the Muckleshoot Casino and see its fireworks displays advertising their “Boom City” and heralding their upcoming end-of-June fireworks. With Independence Day and the freedoms it celebrates just around the corner, I can’t help reflecting on the many challenges we have faced as a nation and continue to face, and the role of our newspapers in that ongoing transformation. Washington state saw its first expression of the constitutionally enshrined Freedom of the Press 37 years before the state’s creation. When th...
I read the opinion piece in The Star “America loves a comeback: Meet Hunter Biden”. After I read that, I instantly thought of two words: “Preposterous Balderdash”. There is just no way that Hunter Biden can redeem himself. He cannot turn back time when he was holed-up in a White House bedroom doing unspeakable things, while his aging father technically held the Office of the Presidency of the United States while others (perhaps Hunter himself and/ or Jill Biden commandeered an unconstitutional piece of technology called an “Auto-P...
An inevitable press briefing a few days from now: (Trump is hydraulically lowered into his seat.) “Mr. President, are you planning to drain the Reflecting Pool and start over? There are reports – ” “Quiet, Piggy! I know you’ve been down there stealing patriotic paint chips. Maybe we oughta cuff you. And gimme a smile for a change. You’re a terrible reporter by the way, like the rest of the Fake News, which keeps saying very terroristically that my beautiful pool restoration is a ‘met-a-phor’ for something about me. That’s a big word, a lotta...
June 26, 1911, Mildred “Babe” Didrikson was born in Port Arthur, Texas. It is said Mildred acquired the name Babe after baseball legend Babe Ruth. She played every sport offered for girls during her school years. Her athletic records show her great versatility in many areas. Didrikson set four world records at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. She won gold and silver medals in track and field events. In 1935 she began to play golf. In 1938, she competed in the Los Angeles Open, a PGA tournament. She shot 81 and 84 and missed the cut. She con...
Cambodia is enjoying the fruits of an increasing tourist trade. In the 1970s the country was in the midst of a terrific civil war with Pol Pot leading a communist ground offensive, determined to take over the country. There was physical evidence of thousands of Cambodians killed and it was referred to as a killing field. The rebels tried to destroy Ankgor Wat. I was in Cambodia less than a year after the war was over and spent two days at the temple site. I could see the destruction of statues and other areas of the temple. I was able to get...
For years, Hunter Biden was less a person than a political symbol. Republicans turned him into a one-man crime wave, Democrats often treated him as a liability to be ignored, and much of the media covered him as a walking scandal. Now, in one of the strangest political plot twists, he's becoming a major social media star, attracting nearly one million followers on X by doing something radical: talking honestly about his own failures. He's hailed for candidly discussing his recovery, for his self...
During World War II, the Hanford Site played a pivotal role in propelling the United States to win the nuclear arms race, which put an end to combat in the Pacific Theater. Decades later, as a result of that work, the federal government is still working on the largest environmental cleanup site on the planet, holding up its end of the Tri-Party Agreement to remediate the land. One of my top priorities in Congress has been ensuring that Hanford has the necessary resources available to complete cleanup progress while ensuring taxpayer dollars...
In Washington, this year we will again deal with water shortages because of insufficient mountain snowpack while escaping the historic droughts plaguing other parts of the world. The Columbia River water system has not flowed at normal levels in recent years, which is problematic for our agriculture, hydropower generation, barging, local water supplies, fish and wildlife. However, 20 years ago we faced the same severe drought that is afflicting the world’s major river drainages, including the Colorado River. That water scarcity forced f...
When a lad, I used to take Greyhound bus rides with my mom. She often took the bus to visit a friend and I got to go along. She could drive but chose to take the bus on longer trips. Later in life, I was on another bus — in Cambodia — and this was a different kind of bus ride. I was there to visit Angkor Wat, one of the most famous of religious ruins. I flew there from Japan and planned to stay a couple of days, then fly off to Phnom Pehn, the capital. I decided to stay an extra day and take the bus to the capital. The bus was an old and bru...
The near legendary elementary school teacher sighed. “I’ve been teaching more than 23 years and I love the kids,” he said. “But it’s getting harder and harder and I think I’m going to hang it up at the end of this year.” What’s getting harder? “There’s so little support at home when the kids act up. There’s so much stress in the classroom. There are some nights when I can’t get to sleep. I love what I do but I think it’s time. I have to take care of myself.” This teacher isn’t alone. There is a teacher shortage and it isn’t just a number pr...
June 10, 1942, the small Czechoslovakia village of Lidice was completely destroyed and most all its inhabitants killed. There was a growing anti-Fascist movement in Czechoslovakia. On May 27, 1942, SS Obergruppenfuher Reinhard Heydrich’s vehicle was attacked by anti-Fascists, wounding him. He succumbed to his wounds within a week. The German military moved into Lidice around midnight, June 10. The 503 citizens of the village were gathered. 173 men and boys were shot and killed at a nearby farm. Women and children were taken to the village s...
For many people, the railroad running through the northern part of Lincoln County along Highway 2 is just part of the landscape. But for the communities it serves, it is something they experience every single day. The sound of locomotive horns late at night. Grain cars banging together during loading. Waiting at crossings while another train moves wheat toward market. For towns along the route, the railroad has long been part of everyday life. Not to be confused with one of the major transcontinental rail lines that run through the southern...
1 The vast majority of humanity are good people. 2 Social structure requires organizing process. 3 Representation is not equivalent to misrepresentation. 4 Minority rule cannot be majority rule. 5 Humans make mistakes. 6 A majority is as likely to be wrong as a minority. 7 Knowledge can be leveraged to understanding, producing technology and value. 8 Humans of understanding are less likely to make mistakes as ignorant humans. Understand that a government is a human tool of decision process used for organizing a social environment, and that a co...
My favorite sport is Track & Field. So, I loved watching our Raiders compete at the recent Washington State Championships. Our coaches will miss the Seniors and these kids were super excited about their Senior trip. Head Coach Lori and Assistant Coach Ashley could not coach all 18 events without the help of their 3 volunteer coaches – Christy, Chance and Alfredo. Much appreciated! Once back home, I checked the Star newspaper and wanted to truly thank Scott Hunter for kindly printing my thoughts. I apologize for a grammar mistake, but Scott know...
June 4, 1989, the Chinese government ordered its military to open fire on unarmed protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The protesters had marched to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang, a pro-reform leader within the Chinese government. Pro-reform and pro-democracy demonstrations continued and grew in numbers across China. Martial law was enacted on May 20, 1989. On June 4th, the People’s Army, fully equipped, opened fire on the protesters while sending personnel carriers into Tiananmen Square where protesters were still sleeping in tents. ...
I’ve known the past three owners of The Star newspaper. My father was an owner of small- town newspapers. The business is extremely hard with few thank-you’s. Scott Hunter, the current owner for some time now, is also my neighbor. I have a great deal of respect for him. This will never change – he is a good dude! He publishes a quality product even though his business is understaffed. It’s rare, but occasionally he’ll squeeze in time to write an editorial. Every once in a while, others will disagree with his opinions and really lay on the wo...
The day the fed rent-a-cops showed up at Gerhke Windmill Park and insisted that displaying a banner on Federal Government property, is a crime, and that they can confiscate my property (the banner), if I refused to remove it.... A family, not more than 30 yards away had placed a banner on that same property, attached to a structure... The Public often holds events in that public space and we place banners, signs etc, and the federal nazi goon squad never shows up and confiscates that display. In fact at Colorama weekend celebration, just days...
May 30, 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington D.C. Following the assassination of President Lincoln and the eventual end of the Civil War, Congress incorporated the Lincoln Monument Association following the Civil War in 1867. The association was to devise a plan to build a memorial to honor the assassinated President. Some decades later, a group of planners, sculptures, artists, financiers, politicians and park officials were gathered to design and build the memorial. Ground was broken for the foundation of Lincoln Memorial...
It’s hard enough to understand the difficulties the local school district finds itself in without making an argument that resorts to deliberately cherry-picking facts to color the origins of the problems in much darker hues than a clear picture would provide. For example, citing a chart that peaked with an anomalous high enrollment of 311 students higher than the current count gives a distinctly worse impression than a more accurate average of the seven prior years, which would tell you the district is down about 130-150 students from that aver...
All school districts face significant employee costs, increased insurance rates and inflation along with other major challenges. Many school districts get the same funding sources as the Grand Coulee Dam School District, but they are thriving. Why? It is due to advanced planning, foresight, knowledgeable leadership and gradually taking care of these issues over time before a crisis can develop. Our local elected School Board members, who have boasted they are good stewards, and their current superintendent have destroyed our local school...
May 26, 1940, The Dunkirk Evacuation was initiated by the British. Called Operation Dynamo, it was an attempt to save the British Expeditionary Force in France from total defeat by the advancing German Army. Great Britain assembled nearly 1,000 naval and civilian vessels of all kinds, aided by the Royal Air Force and favorable weather. The evacuation was mostly successful with about 340,000 British, French and Allied troops being moved out of France. France considered Dunkirk a betrayal. The alternative was likely the capture of the entire...
(These were to be made at the meeting, but I was not told the date changed) For nearly a week now, I have felt as if I was living in a parallel universe. That feeling, like you cannot believe what is happening around you! Like you woke up to a changed world. The two words that best describe my feelings last weekend are shock and hurt. Now I stand so humbled before you. I realize that what I was feeling last weekend is only a small sampling of what many of the staff, inside these walls, have felt. I am sorry it took my own pain, to begin to see...
When I led the Bureau of Land Management under President Biden, the hardest part of my job was reassembling the agency after the first Trump administration had scattered its headquarters from our nation’s capital. The move crippled the agency — as intended. That experience led me to understand that the current Trump administration’s unpopular plan to move the U.S. Forest Service headquarters will be every bit as destructive. It will hurt forests, wildlife and communities that rely upon our public lands and waters. In 2020, almost 90% of the B...
The great contradiction in Donald Trump’s two terms — at least as far as covering and understanding the man are concerned — is that he is, on the one hand, the most media-accessible president in history, yet he has proved to be the most difficult for journalists to interview. This was demonstrated again the other evening as Trump toured his renovation project at the Washington Mall. ABC’s Rachel Scott asked a perfectly reasonable question: “Mr. President, you are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects as w...
May 18, 1927, the Bath Consolidated School of Bath, Michigan, a small town of 300, was ripped apart by a bomb. School had just started, students, teachers and staff were going about their day. The explosion caused half the structure to collapsed, killing and injuring many. The aftermath of the bombing left 43 dead - included students, 4 staff members and one bystander. The person behind the bombing was Mr. Kehoe, a school board member and treasurer. He been arguing with board members over the cost of ongoing taxes for the consolidated school....