News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A neat trick in American politics is taking advantage of our collective unwillingness to really pay attention to what’s being said. So, when they talk about a real problem, attributing it or at least insinuating it’s due to some nefarious plot or stupidity by the other side, we nod our heads and sleepily agree when in the next sentence they offer a solution that is completely unrelated but liked by their own side. They’re relying on us to be long-blinking right past the propaganda, especially in the dog days of summer. That’s like naming a colu...
This is the last of three letters intending to bring clarity and facts to the community about the Grand Coulee Dam School District. This installment will address the complicated and challenging issue of school discipline. ISSUE: School Discipline This issue may be the most complex problem to quantify and eventually resolve in large part because it requires an all-hands effort to succeed. In short, there are no easy answers here. It is accurate to note that public school discipline is a wide-ranging challenge covering nearly every school...
I was excited to learn Norway’s government is investing €10 million over five years to develop cultivated meat and precision fermentation. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from animal cells, without slaughter. It’s better for the environment, public health, and livestock. “We can increase self-sufficiency in food in Norway, and we do not have to kill animals to produce the necessary protein,” said the project’s leader, Sissel Beate Rønning. “In Norway, we have both the expertise and the money needed to develop new tech...
There is a national shortage of teachers, leaving some districts short of covering all their classrooms. While current events are creating problems in education, not the least of these problems are politics and financial resources. That teachers are underpaid is pretty well understood and agreed upon nationally. Teachers should be paid at least 25% more than they now receive. Something needs to happen nationally to shut down the vast exodus of teachers leaving. In order to provide new teaching recruits, we should provide four-year scholarships...
Inflation has soared from 1.4% in January 2021 to 8.5% in July of this year, and parents are bearing the brunt of these increased costs as they face their annual back-to-school shopping trips — on top of the mounting costs for just about everything else they buy. Retailers are being faced with increased wholesale costs, which they’re forced to pass on to consumers. For instance, at a local grocery chain in Richland, hamburger meat is $12.99 a pound and milk is $3.29 a gallon — on sale. And as parents try to manage these price increases, they...
This letter is an effort to bring clarity and facts into the conversation about the financial operations of the Grand Coulee Dam School District rather than unsubstantiated opinions. This is the second installment of three total letters addressing issues related to the GCDSD. This installment will address financial management. ISSUE: School District Fiscal Management THE FACTS: Despite what some may suggest, the Grand Coulee Dam School District is not broke, but it is financially challenged. Public education in this country is a very, very...
After two years without the ability to open our doors, we are again at the end of our sale season as we come to the community to thank everyone for a fantastic TEN week run at the VET Center. Our American Legion Post appreciates everybody who has stopped by and shopped with us during our sale. Although it seemed like a very long stretch for those of us who worked every week to gather and prepare all the treasures that we had for sale, the time flew by as we greeted many of the same people on a weekly basis. With this year shortened by three...
After two years without the ability to open our doors, we are again at the end of our sale season as we come to the community to thank everyone for a fantastic TEN week run at the VET Center. Our American Legion Post appreciates everybody who has stopped by and shopped with us during our sale. Although it seemed like a very long stretch for those of us who worked every week to gather and prepare all the treasures that we had for sale, the time flew by as we greeted many of the same people on a weekly basis. With this year shortened by three...
Nancy Kuiper is the new Athletic Director for the GCDSD. She is such a phenomenal common-sense choice – THANK YOU! She is one of the top three Lake Roosevelt Raider multi-sport athletes of all time along with Dawni Bjorklund and Kasey Rey. All three were top tier student-athletes who excelled at high school state (champions/records) and collegiate levels. All have wonderful parents. Nancy has always been a role model and work horse. She has high expectations for herself and others. She hears and puts others first, collaborates, learns and is s...
I got my desire to take drives from my dad who used to take us for rides all the time. He had an old car from the mid 30’s. I remember when my dad got his first new car, it was in the early 40’s before all effort turned to making things for World War II. The local Ford dealer drove up with a new car, came to the door and handed Dad the keys. He told him to drive it and, if he liked it, to come down and they would make a deal on it. In my earlier days, everyone had a canvas water bag hanging from their front bumper. We often drove up into the...
If you want a glimpse of parched river bottoms behind “would be breached” lower Snake River dams, look at recent photos of European rivers and lakes. On parts of picturesque Rhine River there is often more dry land than flowing water. Europe is in the clutches of another drought — the second since 2018. It is so severe that countries across the continent are imposing water restrictions. There are massive fish kills and desiccated croplands. Shipping is endangered on the Rhine and the Danub...
This letter is an honest effort to bring clarity and facts to the rumors, innuendos and often half-truths that frequent this page when referring to the Grand Coulee Dam School District (GCDSD). The local community, in particular the parents of children attending a Lake Roosevelt school, deserve to know the facts. Each of the issues to be addressed is complex and complicated. However, we will endeavor to address the highlights of each matter as space permits. Because of space limitations, the issues will be addressed in three separate...
Hello. I am just commenting on your supplement, Grand Coulee Dam Area (Visitor’s Guide). I found this to be about the most useful tourist magazine for an area that I have ever come across. Kudos, to all at your paper. Have the publisher/editor take all you employees out for a beer! Cheers! Gary Miller...
On Sept 9-11, this fall, a small group of Welsh descendants will be visiting the Almira-Wilbur area. They are a part of the North American Welsh Association out of Seattle. A while back, they followed up on a lead of an abandoned Welsh cemetery near the Grant/Lincoln County edge. (Approximately 4 miles NW of Almira in the middle of a wheat field owned/farmed by Brian Carstensen. Over time, this group’s interest grew until it bloomed into this full-blown “field trip” to our area! While here, they hope to visit with Welsh descendants and disco...
Who has more mental problems — the perpetrators of gun violence or congressional Republicans, including our own Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who lack normal compassion and regard for human life, even of young children? Congressional Republicans have once again copped out of their responsibility to do anything significant to stop the mass killings by effectively acting only on mental illness measures. At the least, their social-emotional development has been severely stunted. Using the Second Amendment of the Constitution as their crutch, they i...
I have always been taught to give something back to society. For years I tried to do so by volunteering or running for public office. I have held office in park boards, library boards and school boards. Most recently I served 17 years on the North Central Regional Library Board and 10 years on the local school board. But there comes a time when that isn’t possible, so I have been trying to find a couple of charities that cover things I can identify with. There are so many needs in our world that could use some help, and people can choose t...
Communities in every corner of the country now struggle with a lack of affordable homes, an ailment long associated with fast-growing urban areas. A lack of affordable housing hamstrings rural towns’ abilities to attract workers and slows business growth. Quality housing is also linked to health and well-being, and home ownership remains a primary way working people build equity and ownership. Small towns need affordable, quality housing for people across the financial spectrum. Solving this shortage will require multifaceted solutions, c...
Implausible as it may seem, gasoline powered vehicles can be part of reducing carbon emissions. They need to be part of the solution and not brushed aside. Take for example, Glacier National Park in northwest Montana, where there is a fleet of 33 tour buses powered by gasoline engines. Each year, they transport 60,000 visitors mainly across Logan Pass — the park’s famed “Going to the Sun Highway.” Without them, congestion would be much worse and fewer people would enjoy Glacier. The Logan P...
Having come here in 1985, and having lived in Spokane before that, my idea of a normal summer includes high heat reaching into the 90s. Now, we’re trying to accept the latest triple-digit trend as the “new normal.” That’s a mistake. Just because we live through a heat wave, or “heat dome” two or three times, doesn’t mean it’s OK, normal. It’s not, and our changing weather seems to be changing our landscape, with fire the great change agent. Burn scars don’t always rebound to their prior state. There used to be more sagebrush on the hi...
This month I'll start with an interesting research project. The study involved data gathered more than 200 years ago. For the period of 1826 through 1872, citizens in New York state made observations and collecting data on basic natural events. Those early observers used thermometers and rain gauges; they also watched seasonal changes unfold. These citizens documented when certain species of birds arrived, specific trees started to leaf out, when strawberries ripened and when wheat harvests...
I recently wrote a column on my Aunt Voe. I am writing this column on my Aunt Lorena, just to show how important family is to help younger members grow up. I was born in a farmhouse on Four Mile Creek, just out of Palouse. My parents and siblings had arrived just months before from Minneapolis. My Aunt Lorena, my dad’s youngest sister, just happened to be at the house when delivery was imminent. My father had gone to town to get Dr. Dart, the family doctor, but I guess I decided to enter this world without Dart. The fact that Aunt Lorena did th...
On August 3, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) visits Grand Coulee Dam, a massive public works project undertaken as part of Roosevelt's efforts to ease joblessness during the Depression....
In the last couple weeks, this community has shone brightly with examples of strength and good will and a readiness to step up and do what is needed. First, people immediately stepped up to answer a communitywide need: to support an important park at North Dam, home of many community events and activities, giving thousands to keep it in operation this summer, even knowing that a full solution has yet to be found for the basic underlying problem. Next, the Siam Palace and many volunteers arranged to put on a dinner to raise money to help a...
Congress has gradually surrendered its law-making role to the President, to the Supreme Court, and to the state governments. That isn’t working well. Early in the American experience the founders of our government realized that 13 colonies could not govern a nation. Central authority was required. Consequently, they formed the United States. Today, we need to recognize that 50 states cannot govern a nation. They can only produce chaos. We need to send people to the U.S. Congress who are willing to establish laws that govern the nation and n...
The construction trestle, with deck at Elevation 1180, approaches the spillway section of the dam. The Bethlehem Steel Co., under subcontract from Consolidated Builders, furnished the structural steel, and erected the trestle. - August 2, 1938....