News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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One of the biggest misconceptions about Daylight Saving Time is that farmers pushed for it, because “they needed daylight hours to work in their fields”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The adoption of daylight saving time in the United States through the Calder Act, also known as the Standard Time Act of 1918, was devised to conserve energy during wartime. Even then, the agriculture industry spoke out against it. Here’s why: Shifting the clocks back and forth is hugely disruptive for our farmers and ranchers, not to mention any lives...
As the pandemic eases, it looks like no end is in sight for the continuing need for us all to remain flexible in our ideas, schedules, plans and expectations, and that’s a good thing. The human skill at adapting has never been more crucial. Last week, a “Grant County Leadership” online meeting of municipal and health officials, chambers of commerce, journalists, and others, which has been meeting biweekly for months, decided to switch from pandemic mode to recovery mode with a sigh of relief. But even at that, it was noted that switching back...
A while back a person told me I’m always fighting for the underdog. I liked Underdog as a kid but was more of a Popeye fan. I was hoping the GCDSD high brass would not feed me more spinach. However, more cans were opened with leaps of abstraction by the GCDSD Board. Blaming the failure of both levies on the pandemic and reminding us that elections have consequences is unbelievable. These disastrous results are due to their poor decision making over the last few years. This is a self-inflicted wound that they’re responsible for. Now they want to...
I thought for most of my life that I would be a lumber grader. My training was initially at Potlatch Forests Inc., in Potlatch, Idaho, just nine miles from my home in Palouse. I had been there for four years and decided after I met my wife to leave PFI and move to southern Idaho. Dorothy was from Buhl, about 120 miles east of Boise. Of course, I needed work, so I found a job grading lumber in Gooding. The mill owners had a second mill in Fairfield, so I split some of my time there. If you know Idaho at all, you know how bad winters can be. The...
As the Congressman for Washington’s 4th Congressional District, my number one priority is advocating for the people who live and work right here in Central Washington, contributing to our communities and economy. That’s why, last week, I voted in favor of the Consolidated Appropriations Act. This legislation not only delivers on many of Central Washington’s top priorities but preserves long-standing conservative principles and takes significant actions to strengthen our national security. Decisions about the needs of our communities shoul...
There is an old saying: Don’t let the “perfect” be the “enemy” of the good! That is important to remember as we work our way out of the energy crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the Russians are razing the country and killing thousands of innocent people, many world leaders are slapping Moscow with heavy economic sanctions. Embargoing Russian oil and natural gas are examples. With the prohibition of Russian oil imports, there is a crude shortage in our country. Consequently, our drivers are shocked by the recent pric...
During World War II, Americans put up with rationed gas and car tires, rationed coal and fuel oil, rationed silk and nylon, rationed meat and dairy products, rationed jams and jellies, even rationed coffee. Would today’s Americans – some of whom freaked out, during the worst of the pandemic, when they couldn’t get their hair done – be willing to endure even a minuscule fraction of the sacrifices that our forebears weathered 80 years ago? I’ll answer my own question with a question: Can you imagine what would happen if coffee were rationed,...
This has to be the most ridiculous decision I’ve ever heard a board make. You as a group just had two levies fail. You are supposed to be looking at what you have to cut from the budget. But instead, you decide to pay the man who will be cutting the budget, 69% of his pay for 50% of the work. On top of that, you’ll bring in someone new and pay him/her 92% pay for 50% of the work. How can you even be considering this? I’m sorry Mr. Turner has health issues, but if he wants to retire then he can leave. This school district shouldn’t be providi...
It’s not often that we see an athlete at the top of his (her) game walk away from a multi-million dollar payday to go home and fight for his (her) country. However, that is exactly what world heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk did after Russia invaded Ukraine. Usyk postponed his championship rematch with Britain’s Anthony Joshua and returned to war-torn Ukraine. He enlisted in the homeland defense force; however, he’s not alone. Fellow boxers Vasiliy Lomachenko and Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitali, did the same. “They are pro...
Five years ago, a sports injury forced me to wear a light brace on my knee. Within a few months the joint was fine, yet to this day I continue to wear a brace on both knees when on the field. I feel there is prophylactic value, but also a sense of comfort and security. Perhaps that helps explain why, as mask mandates are being relaxed, I find myself in a minority that welcomes being masked — at least in certain situations. In other countries, principally in Asia, masks were worn routinely in public before COVID came along. Often it was to a...
I recently had one of those annual medical examinations. While waiting for the doctor, I was required to provide answers on a questionnaire. “Have you ever had this or that medical issue?” Finally, the questionnaire posed a set of state-of-mind questions ending with, “Are you happy with your life?” I answered, yes, I am happy with my life. The doctor looked at the questionnaire and remarked, “We don’t see many people like you.” My satisfaction with my life is not because of great achievements; I am in the ordinary category. It is because I am...
We’ve all seen the flash of lightning and heard the aftermath of the lightning bolt — the loud clap of thunder. There are three basic elements needed to form lightning. An unstable atmosphere, moisture, and some type of atmospheric action to get the air moving. Most lightning activity we see occurs during our summer months here in the Coulee. Yet, there have been some occurrences of lightning during the winter too. According to NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, lightning is one of the o...
Washington’s Board of Natural Resources is considering banning timber harvesting on state lands. That is extremely unwise. Instead, the Board must ensure its healthy forest policies incorporate ALL management tools, including planting, thinning and logging. The Board, established in 1957, sets policies to manage Washington’s 5.6 million acres granted by Congress in 1889. More than 3 million acres were designated as trust lands, of which 2.1 million acres are forests, to support various public institutions. Banning timber harvesting robs cri...
As a lad I had my heroes, and as time went on, I changed how I picked them. Golfer Ben Hogan was one of the early ones. He was severely injured in a car wreck. There was a question if he would walk again, and certainly he would never play tour golf again. About a year later, not only was he playing golf again, but winning. Joe Louis was another early hero. I listened to many of his fights along with my dad and mom, who tuned in to all his fights. Along with most boys, I saw Babe Ruth as a hero. He was out of baseball before I was old enough to...
Bills in the Legislature are proposing mandating nursing ratios and restricting how health care facilities can contract for on-call professionals, both of which provide the kind of flexibility without which rural, critical care hospitals may not function well at all. Two local doctors wrote to the legislature on the bill currently up for a committee hearing tomorrow (Thursday) in the Senate. The Star was asked to publish their thoughts too, and a third letter, by a nurse who gets into the details of day-to-day needs for flexibility will also...
My name is Andrew Castrodale and I’ve been a practicing physician in Grand Coulee Washington for 24 years. Coulee Medical Center (CMC) is a 25 bed Critical Access Hospital in North Central Washington next to the 1.4 million-acre Colville Indian Reservation. Higher level of care is approximately 100 miles away making Family Medicine truly “full spectrum”. I grew up on the reservation and came home to practice 24 years ago after undergraduate and medical school training at the University of Washington followed by a Family medicine resid...
I am a lifelong Washingtonian and practice full-spectrum family medicine, including surgical obstetrics and hospital care at a Critical Access Hospital in Northern Grant County. Coulee Medical Center provides crucial access to healthcare services in an area of very high need, and passage of HB 1868 could have disastrous consequences for a small yet crucial rural hospital that is already straining under the demands of the pandemic. I work as a hospitalist seven days each month and am the Acute Care Director, and I have personally witnessed and...
My name is Beth Goetz. I am a Registered Nurse in rural eastern Washington at a 25 bed Critical Access Hospital (CAH) located in Grand Coulee, Washington. Coulee Medical Center is my second home, and my second family. Both of my biological children were born at CMC, delivered by my coworkers. Awkward at times yes, but that’s who I trusted. I knew that both them and I were in the best hands we could have been, and that made up for the few awkward moments. Both of them have been in the emergency department, undergone surgical procedures, and r...
I’ve mentioned before that cows are not my favorite animal. When I was just in my teens I lived on a farm. My Dad had some work horses and a cow. Had to handle the cow but not milk her. I couldn’t then, nor now, get a cow to give milk. I would take her down the road and stake her out so she could get fresh, green grass. That’s when I learned that cows have a mind of their own. Flash forwards a number of years to when I met my wife and would drive to southern Idaho to visit her. I would get off work at 5 on Friday and then drive the 500 miles...
Europeans have invaded Russia twice. Napoleon invaded Russia with a force of close to half a million troops. He advanced to Moscow, but the Russian government had relocated. The brutal Russian winter arrived, and Napoleon’s army froze, starved, and died of disease as they retreated from the country. Germany, under Hitler, invaded Russia at the outset of World War Two. The Germans sent their best armed forces to the Eastern Front to fight the Russians. Seventy percent of Germany’s casualties were sustained fighting the Russians. During the war...
Good ideas have a way of changing into something else in a committee, and that’s precisely how we tend to govern in America, especially in Washington state in the last two years. Last year the Legislature passed a law widely condemned by law enforcement agencies who warned of unintended consequences. A proposed fix, still controversial, is currently under debate. See that story on page 1. This year, the Leg is considering a similarly well-intended but possibly disastrous effort, one that seeks to address a very real problem with a n...
As you may have heard, the Washington State Redistricting Commission approved maps to rebalance our 49 statewide legislative districts and 10 federal congressional districts in November. This is a process conducted every 10 years in our state based on the federal Census data for population. The process was challenging in 2021, in part because the commission received data later than usual and because of the significant population growth shown in western Washington. Despite approving the plans late, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that...
When our youngest daughter was about 10, we bought her a horse. A real old cowboy lived about four blocks from us, and I got acquainted with him. His name was Homer. He lived in a small house on the edge of Bothell and had a two- to three-acre pasture that on occasion was home to a horse or two. While visiting with him one day, he suggested that I ought to buy Kim a horse. He said he would rent the pasture to me real cheap. I explained that I didn’t know anything about horses, only that they had four legs and a mane. He said he would help me p...
If you ask almost any farmer in Central Washington these days what their most pervasive problem is, I can guarantee they’ll say labor. Producers across Washington and the country are keenly aware that there simply isn’t enough interest among domestic workers to fill these essential roles. As the breadbasket for the world, the labor crisis creates a threat to our food security and our national security. That is why I have been championing agricultural labor reform since coming to Congress. In 2019 my legislation, the Farm Workforce Mod...
Living in Central Washington means you’re pretty much as far as you can get from the southern border while remaining in the land of the free, so it’s easy to think President Biden’s open-border policies don’t affect us. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth. President Biden’s open-border policies have allowed fentanyl to flow across the southern border and into our communities. In FY21, there was a 134% increase in the amount of fentanyl found by Customs and Border Protection. The 11,201 pounds of fentanyl that were seized by o...