News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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I met this Japanese man through a program I belonged to at the University of Washington. The program was made up of families that sponsored students at UW. When it was learned that I was going to stop over in Tokyo, he said he would like me to meet his family members there and he would give them my itinerary and where I would be staying. I was staying at the Okra Hotel. Soon after my arrival the man’s sister and mother knocked on the door. They showed me the city even though neither spoke English. We did a lot of dictionary hunting. I was i...
I studied the classical philosophers in college, including Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. But the most profound advice I’ve culled over a lifetime of scholarship has come from contemporary pop stars. The Beatles reminded me in a rather pithy way that “All You Need Is Love,” although I believe they might have stolen that from Jesus, or Burt Bacharach. The Vogues taught me that it’s a “Five O’Clock World” and not to lose sight of life’s fleeting pleasures. Bobby Sherman advised me that material possessions are irrelevant, as they “Easy Come, Easy... Full story
Last Friday, the Washington State Supreme Court issued a ruling that, for once, I can agree with — a decision that clears the way for a long-standing problem to be addressed. That decision stems from a lawsuit brought by the Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC), in which Lincoln County, along with Yakima County and Pacific County, are plaintiffs, challenging how public defense is funded in Washington. The lawsuit was first heard in Thurston County Superior Court, where the judge ruled that counties did not have standing to bring t...
My duty as US citizen is to try to stay politically informed which includes closely following my US Representative Michael Baumgartner. As such, I subscribe to his weekly, often quite lengthy, Friday evening emails and read them carefully. Unfortunately, they’re mostly filled with politically motivated platitudes, and who or where he visited. The visits are generally with Fifth Congressional District individuals and organizations, mainly supporters, although most recently Nigeria at the invitation of President Donald Trump who threatened to i...
Twice in my life I have been beaten by a door. The first time was in Houston while we were in Texas visiting my brother, some years ago. He was taking us to a fancy restaurant for dinner. We entered the restaurant through a revolving door. Just when I was in my small compartment in the door, the door jammed. Here I was trapped in my own little space. It took them some time before they could free the door and yours truly. Meanwhile, my brother was fuming because he was embarrassed. The next time, it was here in Electric City and the famous, or...
In the race to reshore manufacturing and stay ahead of foreign competition, America needs an abundance of added skilled workers and electricity sources. “Electrify Everything” has been our recent political mantra as key politicians race to replace natural gas and coal-fired generation with vast fields and wildlands of wind turbines and solar panels. However, that strategy has glaring glitches, which could derail our economic recovery and job creation. For example, it is bureaucratic nightmare siting power lines and reliable power plants. “Am...
January 16, 1917, German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmerman sent a telegram to the General Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause of World War 1. British cryptographers deciphered the telegram. The British government waited to present the deciphered telegram to President Wilson, as there was an ever-growing anti-German sentiment in the U.S. Late February 1917, President Wilson received the encrypted telegram from the British, it was published widely in the press on...
Righting the record on the Affordable Care Act by George Ochenski, Washington State Standard December 16, 2025 With the Affordable Care Act subsidies on the chopping block in the Republican-controlled Congress, it’s no surprise the Lee newspapers did an interview with Montana’s former senator Max Baucus. As the chairman of the Senate’s powerful Finance Committee, Baucus “was chief architect of the Affordable Care Act known as “Obamacare.” According to Baucus: “For 15 months, I had the committee work on health care, and it was totally nonpo... Full story
This year, Christmas packages were available for pickup for seventy-one children in 32 families at the Grand Coulee Dam Area Senior Center on Saturday, Dec. 20 thanks to this community’s participation in Trees of Sharing 2025. Many thanks to contributors and volunteers who supported this project by making cash donations or purchasing and wrapping gifts for children who might not have otherwise received one this season. Trees of Sharing cannot happen without your active involvement. Each year we count on and extend special appreciation to S...
As a longtime community member and taxpayer, I hope that it is now obvious to others in our area that the crisis the Grand Coulee Dam School District is in was totally preventable. This should be unacceptable to all of us. The crisis is much bigger than very poor fiscal decisions. It is a culmination of multiple systems in the organization being mismanaged due to a significant lack of expertise, best practices and on-going reactive management instead of successful preventive collaborative leadership. The upper brass and their hired hand have ne...
Leave it to MAGA Republicans to ring out the old year with one last blast of craven stupidity. Mike Johnson’s House crew apparently assumed releasing Jack Smith’s recent secret testimony in the midst of holiday festivities would somehow ensure nobody would notice the ex-special counsel eviscerated his hapless inquisitors, leaving no doubt he had abundant ammo to paint Trump as a criminal in a federal court of law. Trump and his House toadies tried everything to stack the deck against Smith. He wanted a public hearing, but was refused. Mea...
January 10, 1861, delegates of the Florida Convention voted to secede from the United States of America. In February 1861, Florida was one of six Deep South states to form the Confederate States of America. Though, during the Civil War, Florida witnessed little military action. The least populous state below the Mason-Dixon line, Florida played an active role in the Civil War. Approximately 17,000 Floridians fought in the war between the states. The state’s coastline provided blockade runners safe harbor. Florida’s products like sugar, por...
Congratulations. You’ve just lived through one of the most unpredictable years in at least six decades, so you might already be primed to accept a little advice about the coming months: stay loose. The country has had enough political tension in 2025 for each of us to snap a whole box of Sharpies. That’s by design and not something any of us can control, so don’t let it control you. Instead, look for the bright side and the humor in the absurd, right after you decide to do something about it. You’ll live longer and think better when you let...
I intend here to discuss MAGA handmaiden Bari Weiss, the CBS News assassin, and to suggest ways we can combat corporate media corruption. But first I need to share a story from my rookie stint in journalism. You’ll see why. In 1975, while covering the cops in New London, Connecticut, I got a tip the boys in blue had screwed up. The first paragraph of my subsequent piece gives you the gist: “Bank Street was left unguarded by city police early Monday when a break-in occurred at Roberts Electronic. Thieves escaped with an estimated $1600 in ste...
January 1, 1892, fifteen-year-old Anne Moore became the first immigrant to pass through the doors of Ellis Island Immigration Station. Over twelve million more immigrants would follow in Anne’s footsteps. Ellis Island would operate as an immigration station for sixty-two years, sitting in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Immigrants completing their Atlantic Ocean journeys, would disembark at Ellis Island. There, they were screened by doctors for obvious physical ailments, and by officers who reviewed their legal d...
Here are a few reasons I feel foratunate. I appreciate those involved with the Center Senior Living proyject. Looking forward to future updates. Very exciting! Persistence, hope and unwavering commitment pays off for CMC’s Leadership. The $3 million innovative workforce federal funds they received for an on-site “tiny village” to house rural health care workers is necessary and long overdue. Once again, thanks for showing your critical employees they are valued. It’s great to see all incumbents back on the Board after recent elections. They al...
I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives. Serving the Fourth District of Washington has been the honor of my life, and this decision comes with no reservations or remorse, only gratitude for the tremendous opportunity to have represented my home state in Congress. After over 25 years of public service, including more than a decade in the House, I am grateful to the Washingtonians who put their faith in me, as well as the colleagues I have served with on both sides of the aisle. Public service takes...
The Holiday Season is an especially tough time for anyone grieving lost loved ones. Evergreen wreaths placed on veterans’ graves across America help to ease that pain. On Dec. 13, an ISIS shooter killed two members of the Iowa National Guard and their American interpreter while they were serving in Syria, causing another tragic loss. More than 3.1 million red-ribboned wreaths were placed by thousands of volunteers, including many family members, on December 13. Those wreaths are made from clippings of balsam firs dedicated to deceased v...
The Northeast was blanketed with snow last weekend, and I loved it — because I love how snow humbles us. When it snows in my hometown of Pittsburgh, people pour out into the streets. We shovel sidewalks and driveways, invigorated by the crisp air and the physical work. We sip hot coffee as we enjoy cheerful conversations with neighbors. Snow still fills me with the same joy I felt as a boy when school was canceled. I still feel the urge to grab my Flexible Flyer sled and head for the steepest hill I can find — just to laugh like a kid aga...
December 25, 1830, the first regularly scheduled steam locomotive passenger train in the United States occurred. It was called the “Best Friend of Charleston,” and its initial run was six miles of track of the South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company. The new line was designed to make Charleston competitive with Savannah, Georgia, in the cotton trade. For the next three years the South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company became the world’s longest railway line – for a time. The company was a predecessor to J.P. Morgan’s Southern Railway Company t...
Given all the political drama that has saturated the nation the last few years, it should hardly come as a revelation the heated rhetoric dominating the public discourse has alarmed many Americans. A Gallup poll released December 3 revealed a majority of voters of the nation’s two major political parties believe acerbic, inflammatory criticism and vile, cruel political language has gone too far. Not surprisingly, voters on either side of the political spectrum are more inclined to believe the opposing party has been more extreme in spouting suc...
Do you yearn for a president who is not cruel, vindictive, racist, hateful, a liar, corrupt, a convicted felon, and a wannabe dictator, and for a Congress not typified by our own MAGA toady Republican Michael Baumgartner? Do you yearn for someone like Barack Obama who, in fact, is currently trying to save our democracy? Then let’s get him to run in 2026 for a House seat currently held by a Republican — there are three in Obama’s home state of Illinois. John Quincy Adams (1767 – 1848; 6th US president 1825 -1829) is the only president ever to...
Tracing my wife’s father turned up a lot of mysteries. He was born in 1882 in Kentucky, near the Land Between the Lakes. His name was James Oscar Compton. When he was 16, he left home after some disagreement with his father and headed west. Next, I picked up that he settled in Missouri for a time, long enough to get married and have two children, Richard and Clara. Upon the death of his wife, he headed west again, leaving the children with their grandparents. He stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho, and four years later married my wife’s mom. The det...
December 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment was adopted as part of the United States Constitution. The amendment officially abolished slavery and immediately freed more than 100,000 enslaved people – from Kentucky to Delaware. Within five years, Congress passed both the 14th and 15th Amendments. These amendments are the most contested in courts today. Two years prior to the 13th Amendment, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It declared all slaves held captive in the states who’d rebelled (the Confederacy) against the United Sta...
For nearly a year now, state officials have been wrestling with a surprisingly difficult question: where do you put a 4-ton bronze Marcus Whitman? The statue, which occupies the north portico of the Washington state Capitol, is so heavy it threatens the integrity of the building. Moving it outside exposes it to the weather and vandalism. Finding a new indoor space requires costly structural engineering. And placing it next to the forthcoming statue of Billy Frank Jr. is appropriately off the...