News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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OLYMPIA - In recognition of the National Park Service system’s 105th birthday, Washington State Parks, Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will offer free entrance to state lands on Wednesday, Aug. 25. On this day, visitors to Washington state lands will not need a Discover Pass to park. Discover Pass free days apply to all visitor parking on DNR and WDFW lands and in day-use areas at Washington state parks. Washington state lands agencies encourage visitors to enjoy this f...
Last month we looked at our June heat wave that was created by a heat dome. The drought we are currently in was written about as well. In this column I will take a deeper dive into drought with a look back at historic droughts in the nation. Put your hiking boots on and let’s take a dusty walk back into history and look at droughts from our North American past. Scientists and historians have done the research and have shared their results of major droughts here in the United States. As their r...
The Olympic Games are over. I watched about enough of the competition that I was interested in — mainly track and field, basketball and volleyball. While the games register winners and losers, it is my opinion that there are no losers. It is no small feat to represent your country in the games. It takes thousands of hours of practice, dedication, and sometimes luck to get on the Olympic team. I don’t recall ever personally meeting an Olympic competitor from any country. A shirttail relative of mine was determined that their young daughter wou...
Last week, Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson, the Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee, joined me in Central Washington to hear firsthand from farmers in our district about the challenges they are facing. While GT certainly appreciated the diversity of product Washington produces, the takeaway from all our meetings was clear: our farmers are in desperate need of a reliable workforce. From hop growers to tree fruit farmers, every single producer we spoke to had the same issue: there is not enough reliable labor to work their fie...
Time is short, but action is necessary! Gov. Jay Inslee and Democrats who control the state legislature need to postpone implementing the sweeping “Long-Term Services and Supports Trust Program” to determine its future financial viability and find better alternatives for coverage. The new law, also known as the Washington Cares Act, is a mandatory, public, state-run, long-term care insurance program. Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, Washington employers must withhold a new payroll tax ($58 per $10,000 of wages) to fund it. Even then, some paying the...
Thursday night some of us woke up to the fire fight. Thank you, Chief of Police and Mayor for telling us, the people in this sleepy little town, that this would take place for about three hours. Am I wrong in thinking the U.S. Army has an area in Yakima for just these kinds of games? Just to let you know, that was the rudest thing you could have done. All those that woke up to that. Old people, and let’s not forget all the combat veterans we have in this area. Carol Daily...
Governor Jay Inslee, I ask what do the powers to be think they can do to offset the so called climate change. I ask how many times the climate of the earth has changed over the Billions of years? This area was once covered with Ice 14,000 years ago, before that this area was a tropical forest there were Gingko forests Mammoths, Rhinoceros. As far as I am concerned the so called climate change is the natural process of the earth. One volcano will produce more greenhouse gasses in 24 hours than all the cars on earth in several years. The climate...
I was lucky to travel when the best hotels were still inexpensive. The Okura Hotel in Tokyo was part of the International Hotel chain. Cost for an overnight stay today would be from $400-$600. I paid $18 for a first-class room with all the amenities that only the Japanese can think of. When I arrived, a small army of nurserymen were building a small forest in the lobby area. By the time I left, their forestry project was done and a beautiful Japanese garden was there for patrons to enjoy. I stayed in the Grand Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan, a...
For months, activists and bureaucrats alike have told the American people to “believe in science” – to take the pandemic seriously, to practice social distancing and handwashing, and to wear masks and get vaccinated. I have consistently called for these same things, and thanks to the remarkable efforts of private industry and government regulators through Operation Warp Speed, we are fortunate that Washington State has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, with 57.3% of the population fully vaccinated, exceeding the natio...
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were billed as the “Hydrogen Olympics!” Then along came COVID and sporting events worldwide were put on hold. The summer games were delayed until 2021. Postponing the games cost Japan billions and thwarted its efforts to showcase the Japanese “Green Growth” strategies. Japan, like the United States, plans to become carbon-neutral by 2050. While countries like China are betting on lithium batteries, Japan’s centerpiece is hydrogen. As Japanese researchers develop new technology using renewable electricity generated...
When conventional food supply chains had difficulties adapting at the start of the pandemic, farmers markets and local food systems clearly displayed the resiliency of short supply chains as interest in local foods spiked nationwide. Farmers markets across the country did what they could to safely open for the farmers and the customers who had come to depend on them, with 72% of market organizations in the U.S. operating the same number or more market days during summer 2020 as in summer 2019, according to the Farmers Market Coalition. The...
I offer, here, a few words of history that were overlooked when you were in school. Diseases have been master killers throughout human history. There was no defense against the misery, death, and sorrow until modern medical science developed vaccines, antibacterial medicines, and other methods to prevent or treat diseases. Historian William Manchester reports that during the Middle Ages “… half the people in Europe died, usually from disease, before reaching their thirteenth birthday.” Vaccines do not ordinarily eradicate a disease, but small...
“Well regulated” does not mean regulated by the government. The founding fathers knew that the right to bear arms and maintain a militia was indispensable because governments throughout history strive to grow and must be held in check. They had just fought a war and lost many precious loved ones in order to get out from under the rule of such a government. Therefore, well regulated means the armed militia does have order from within it, and does not break laws. Beyond that, our government has no say. It is a God given right to be able to mai...
In 2021, our State Legislature enacted several bills related to law enforcement. Most of the police reform bills go into effect on July 25, 2021, affecting how we will deliver police services. As your elected Sheriff, it is my responsibility to make sure the residents we serve are aware of the level of service that law enforcement can provide under the new laws. To get the agency prepared for these changes, the department is providing mandatory training to all commissioned and limited-commissioned personnel, particularly focusing on legislated...
(Editor’s note: The writer asked that his letter to Bureau of Reclamation Power Manager Coleman Smith be included on this opinion page) Dear Mr. Smith: I am writing in regard to an incident that happened last night, July 22. At about 10:30 PM we were startled by loud automatic weapons fire up towards the top of the east side of the dam. I was extremely alarmed by this situation as the gunfire was coming from multiple locations. As you are aware the Grand Coulee Dam is considered a target and has lots of security in place. We all know this. T...
Every fire season brings back a sense of apprehension and appreciation. A number of years ago my wife and I signed on with OK Cascade, a Bothell firm that provided support for firefighters. We did this for two seasons and were at a number of fire situations in both Washington and Oregon. While the support staff was a ways from the fire, they were essential to any firefighting success. Our support staff provided food, showers, laundry, and other needed help to those facing the actual fires. We could get a sense of how difficult things were for...
Productive arguments are those in which the two opposing participants actually listen to each other in order to learn what the other is saying, thereby enhancing the ability to refute it. But the trick is that the act of listening requires understanding the other viewpoint. When that happens in most situations, stances get modified, even if only slightly. Humans are not omnipotent, and quite often someone else has at least one better point. But today’s listeners only listen pre-emptively, plotting their next strike against the enemy argument. I...
On a flight between Honolulu and Tokyo I became the third member of the International Tap Dancer’s Federation. It was a tongue-in-cheek idea that if we could get all the world’s leaders on the banks of the Yangtze River in China and get them tap dancing, we could achieve world peace. Well, that didn’t happen. The other two members were the fellow I was seated next to, Tom Ungman, and a fellow working for the Hong Kong Standard newspaper, Peter Turvey. There’s a couple of reasons that didn’t work. One is that our leaders are married to the tw...
Call me naïve, but I’ve never quite gotten why some politicians want to limit voters’ ability to cast their ballots. Sure, I know that plenty of people like to flip the classic Clausewitz quote and say that politics is war by other means. All’s fair, etc., they insist. But the cornerstone of representative democracy, the base on which everything else rests, is the people’s right to cast an informed vote to choose our leaders. There’s no argument about this: it’s just a basic right. Which means that the more Americans we hear from in the votin...
Washington law enforcement officers are concerned by recent legislation introduced by Washington State Democrats and policy stances made by Big Tech. These developments are concerning for our communities, our children, and our officers. Earlier this month, I met with several Yakima County law enforcement officers and the Yakima Gang Task Force, and they made it abundantly clear there are numerous issues on the horizon. Washington State Senate Bill 5122 was one in a series of proposed and implemented bills that would make it more difficult for...
A truck carrying a too-high load once again hit the tops of the cross beams on the Columbia River Bridge in Coulee Dam Monday night, the second time in probably 10 years that’s happened. The incident highlights recent calls for a new bridge. Although structurally it’s sound, the bridge classified as “structurally obsolete.” Modern road builders want roads that are at least 40 feet wide. The roadway on the bridge is 20 feet wide. That specification is not a luxury; times have changed. Trucks are not larger versions of the narrow cars I imagine...
On behalf of Banks Lake Golf Course, I’d like to apologize to patrons and volunteer course grounds workers for a break in communication on Friday morning during the practice round for the Coyote Open. Not all of the volunteer workers were aware that their efforts to groom the course on Friday were in conflict with the practice round in progress. As manager for the golf course, I take full responsibility for the unfortunate disruption to the preliminary event for this major course tournament. To all participants of the 2021 Coyote Open T...
As a farmer, former state director of Agriculture, chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, and congressman representing one of the most flourishing agricultural regions in America, I fully understand the extent to which water is truly the lifeblood of Central Washington and our economy. Hot summers, several years of low snowpack, and the severity of recent drought across the West illustrate how important it is that we reinvest in the water infrastructure our farms and communities were built upon — much of which is over a century old at t...
Like the air we breathe, electricity, that magical stuff behind the light switch, is taken for granted by a majority of people. Flip a switch, the lights come on. We are dependent on energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As populations continue to grow and their need for more and “cleaner” energy grows too, the demand for more production of it will become central in the not-so-distant future. The production of energy comes in many forms. We’ve been made aware of issues related to some forms...
Back in June 2015, only six years ago, we had a local June high temperature record set at 105˚F. Well, with the onset of a high-pressure system, or heat dome, that sat over us in late June, a new record was established. Fact is, it occurred twice – June 28th and 29th. The high temperature record for June is now 112˚F, just one degree off the official all-time high temperature for our area set 82 years ago, in July 1939 at 113˚F. What caused the heatwave in late June that has intensified the...