News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Commercial companies, non-profits, government agencies, and military organizations evaluate their performance periodically. The U.S. Constitution requires that the President of the United States “… shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union….” George Washington delivered the first address in 1790. These addresses often deal with major issues of the moment. Very probably, the forthcoming Feb. 7 address will include something about Israel and Palestine. Other measurements of the state of our union are cit...
As a third-generation farmer, I understand how important agriculture is for families, jobs, and trade in Central Washington. Our district’s farmers and producers grow the highest quality hay, wheat and more than 300 specialty crops, making agriculture a vital part of our economy. But foreign adversaries are purchasing U.S. farmland at an alarming rate, posing a threat to Central Washington’s most crucial industry, and the federal government is struggling to keep up. Last week the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a rep...
When deciding on hot issues in current politics, it’s best to keep a discerning eye on bloated rhetoric, even when it purports to support “common sense.” Everybody is all for commons sense, of course, but often when two sides differ greatly, they’ll each genuinely believe the other side shows none. That’s rarely true. A case in point lies on this page when our man in Congress uses this rhetoric. We support part of Rep. Dan Newhouse’s argument, not the other. Police agencies, including local ones, of all sizes across the state have complained...
The new year is here, which means the Washington State 2024 Legislative Session has just begun. On January 8th, our state legislature began consideration of a multitude of new bills, which could impact just about every aspect of our lives. It’s imperative we pay attention, because over the past year, the enactment of various pieces of legislation has underscored a severe disconnect between the people of Washington state and some of our state representatives. Now, our state legislators have an opportunity to right those wrongs and vote in f...
Palouse was the easternmost team in the Whitman County basketball league. We usually ended up as one of the top teams in the league. Colfax, the county seat, and the largest city in the county, was often the leader. So when Palouse played Colfax it was a big deal. Other teams in the county included St. John, Pine City, Steptoe, Garfield, Oakesdale, Rosalia and Lacrosse. Steptoe’s gym was not regular size. The out-of-bounds line was against the wall at court side. They allowed one row of chairs on the floor and you had to raise your feet when p...
Disclaimer: No pets die in this column (but they sometimes smell like they did). As I write, I’m trying to relax in my recliner on a cold winter’s day next to a roaring fire, yet my feet are freezing because a large, semi-elderly cat named “Missy” AKA “The Loaf” is lounging on the fireplace hearth directly in front of the firebox and hogging all of the heat. “How did I reach this state?” you might wonder. So do I. When my middle daughter was 6 years old, she looked up at me with her big, manipulative green eyes and said, “All I ever wanted was...
Don C. Brunell really outdid himself with his January 10th column, “Biden needs to expose his secret Snake River dam plan to reality.” Despite his somewhat hysterical and overwrought tone, no “secret plan” was hatched in “the White House Basement.” The leaked policy statement he refers to is very much a matter of public record and has been for at least a month. It does not endorse removing the dams; it only looks at replacing lost generation from the power grid if they are to be removed — an obvious and sensible move. Also, any plan to breac...
I can’t remember when I agreed with her policies. And I definitely disagreed with her father and opposed his controversial actions. But Liz Cheney, with her new book, Oath and Honor, is certainly again My No. 1 Hero. She shows once more she is the rare prominent Republican who really cares about saving our democracy. And I totally agree with her that if Donald Trump wins the presidency in 2024, that may be our last election, or at least the end of democracy as we have known it. Cathy McMorris Rodgers refused to comment on the House GOP’s non-re...
We are finally getting an idea of what winter is all about. It was decided that the playoff game at Buffalo was important enough to play Monday, despite the weather. However, the last week was hardly a blip as far as winters go. Years ago, while working at the Potlatch Forest Inc. mill at Potlatch, Idaho, I went to work one day when it was - 41 degrees. We worked under a metal roof with open sides. Our boss sat in a heated office where he could see all the planer operations. His response when people complained about the cold was to tell them...
After a brief hiatus, those pesky citizen initiatives are back, much to the chagrin of three-term Gov. Jay Inslee and Democrats who have an ironclad grip on our state Legislature. Lawmakers, currently meeting in Olympia, are dealing with six initiatives aimed at altering or overturning laws jammed through the Legislature in recent years. Those laws add billions in taxes and costs, restrictions on parental rights, police pursuit limits, and a troublesome government long-term care policy required...
My name is Priya Helweg, and I am the US Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Regional Director for Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and 272 federally recognized Tribes in Region 10. The new year is a time of hope and renewal, but it can also bring financial challenges to those facing up-front health costs. When President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, he made a commitment to lowering health costs for Americans and increasing savings each year. At HHS we see how this commitment improves the lives and health...
The $33 billion secret Snake River Dam plan that President Biden and friends cooked up in the White House basement needs to be exposed to the light of day and thoroughly aired by all. It is time to assess how it might work in the real world rather than wait and see what happens once it is implemented. While $33 billion may seem like “walking around” money to a President who tosses around trillion-dollar programs like horseshoes at the church picnic, the amount is equal to the yearly ope...
While traveling in Idaho, we ran into a group of wagons doing a reenactment of the Oregon Trail days. Those on the wagon train reported how much fun they were having. It was a far cry from two wagon trains that ended as massacres while in Idaho, the Ward train and the Van Ornum/Utter trains. The trains crossed the Snake River at a place that was shallow enough and where the rushing river was still about 60 miles east of Boise. You can still see ruts at the river crossing. The ward group in 1854 consisted of 20 people and five wagons. While in...
Okay, maybe I’m approaching this from a position of privilege. One of my earliest memories is of tagging along to my mother’s former grammar school when she voted. Social Studies was one of my favorite elementary school classes. Mr. Lowry’s junior high Civics class taught us about polling, current events and debate skills. I made straight A’s when I minored in Political Science in college. So I’m a wee bit prejudiced when I applaud the arrival of the book “Restoring the City on a Hill: U.S....
How about making an effort to visit a national park this year. It’s a great way to rebuild your appreciation of our country. We have three great national parks in our own state and a couple of others within a day’s drive. One of my favorites is Olympic National Park. It’s a day’s drive away but will take you to our coast, and inside the park offers a unique experience. The Rain Forest is unique and a bit scary with the moss hanging from the trees. Allow time to go into the Rain Forest for at least a couple of miles. Quite often you will ru...
Tom Smothers wasn’t the first performer to weaponize comedy for political purposes, but he was perfectly suited for it. During the height of his career with brother Dick in the ’60s and ’70s he took on Lyndon Johnson over his Vietnam policies and Richard Nixon over, well, just about everything. When news came that Tommy died of cancer on Dec. 26, many of us immediately recalled the playful jibes exchanged by the brothers as hosts of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” on CBS. “Mom always liked you best,” was Tommy’s favorite bit of bait for...
It was half-past second coffee and darn near to French toast time and it had been very quiet at the round table, that general headquarters of the World Dilemma Think Tank. “Heard something interesting yesterday,” said Herb. “Kids were talking on the sidewalk and I couldn’t help but hear parts of it. I had to stop and ask them about it, even if it seemed rude to them. “Seems somebody tipped them off that there was a thousand dollars in gold coins buried beneath the stepping stone going into Jenkin’s cabin.” Dud looked up, “But nobody knows wh...
Remember the Coulee Card. It was handy and fun and I wish it would make a comeback. It is awesome to call the Coulee home. Here are a few people and places I’m proud of that make the Coulee area so special – Caden Portch represented Lake Roosevelt well at the State Cross Country Championships. Kasey Garvin did an amazing job with the high school Volleyball team. She’s always been a winner! “Clap for the Wolfman” Edward Wolfe and his staff have the top ranked Raider Boys Basketball team rolling with the 1000-point club member Chase Marchand...
It is the season of giving, forgiving, renewal, and hope. If you could give a gift to America, what gift would you give? We all appreciate our country, and we are grateful for all that it offers. But we also know that there are things that could be better—and should be better. If we identify some of those issues, perhaps we can then focus on making the improvements. The rulers of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt gave their citizens the gift of survival by collecting grain, as a tax, during years when the harvest was good, storing it, and d...
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. ...
In the 1990s, “Things go better with Coca Cola” was the catchy slogan that dairy farmers dreaded. At the time, milk producers were in a head-to-head battle with soft drink giants and losing market share. Milk consumption had steadily declined over the previous two decades. One key reason was aggressive advertising by bottlers of iced tea, water, and soda pop. By 1993, nationwide milk consumption declined 20 percent and was down to less than one cup per person per day, Savuer.com reported. So,...
We have to remember how to act in a democracy if we expect it to last, and for a while there, it seemed we might not be able to do that. But it could be that those troublesome signs are waning, even if our troubles aren’t. Maybe it’s just that the day’s news is not quite so relentlessly pessimistic, or perhaps the rhetoric of our national politics has cooled off a degree or two. Or maybe it’s just that much of the nation is focusing more on local issues, the one’s more of us can actually do something about. That can be both a good thing, fo...
The Grand Coulee Police Department is critically understaffed, yet the city council has declared a hiring freeze for an unspecified length of time. Currently, the department has six full-time officers. A fully staffed local police force would be eight officers. Interestingly, mandatory overtime has become the norm as the city refuses to search for qualified candidates. Presumably, the reason behind the hiring freeze is an unbalanced budget. However, typical monthly overtime for our officers averages 30-40 hours per month, and we all know... Full story
My love for flying in a small plane came gradually. The first small plane ride was when I lived here the first time, in 1954. I was a lumber grader at the small planer mill above the dam. There was a guy working on the crew who had been a bush pilot in Alaska who had his own plane. The guy invited me to go along with him on a Saturday flight. We flew to Spokane, Missoula, Orifino, to the Pullman-Moscow airport, and then home. We took all day. That was my first experience in a small plane. The next time was when I started writing for the Idaho...
For 2024, Lincoln County will be paying over $1,500,000 in risk insurance premiums. This represents a drastic increase of over 83% from just two years ago and 53% over 2023. And … these rates are expected to escalate next year as well, with no end in sight. Next to wages and benefits, risk insurance represents the second largest expense for the county. One might wonder why such dramatic increases are happening. There are multiple factors at play, such as the state Legislature passing laws that de-criminalize property crime, joint and several l...