News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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The week of May 18-24, 2025, is Emergency Medical Services Week. The 51st anniversary of EMS Week theme is EMS WEEK: We Care. For Everyone, it reflects the heart of what we do. We serve as the safety net for every member of our community, regardless of age, background, or circumstance-because everyone deserves help in their greatest moment of need. At Grand Coulee Volunteer Ambulance Service, our dedicated team of EMTs and firefighters proudly serves all our area residents and visitors. Availabl...
President Trump made a recent four-day trip to a few countries in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Several deals were made. Boeing scored some big sales, there were billions of dollars in U.S.-made weapons sales, and some deals regarding oil. While in Qatar, the president was gifted a Boeing 747-8 by the royal family. The aircraft has been for sale by the royal family for five years. It was registered as A7-HBJ. Today, it appears to be registered as PH-HBJ. It was...
Michael Baumgartner is hostile to his constituents and generally all Washingtonians. He claims to be a “state’s rights guy,” as Republicans used to be until most congressional Republicans now cowardly won’t stand up against President Donald Trump’s wannabe all-powerful dictatorship. Accordingly, Baumgartner fell in line with House Republican colleagues by recently joining a letter from the House Judicial Committee to Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown (Spokesman-Review 3/31/25). The letter, in effect, claims that Trump’s extremely c...
It appears that our family has a dancer. Great granddaughter Westlyn Landeros had her recital a week ago in Omak. Her parents saw that she attended dance class for the past nine months. It was an every-Tuesday experience. She got to dance in three parts of the recital. Prior to her dance training in Omak, Westlyn took part in dance classes in Wilbur. Her brother, Damon, played JV basketball at Lake Roosevelt, and her sister, Kaylee, lettered in about 10 sports at Lake Roosevelt. No one in the family has a history of dance. I am not sure yet if...
May 23, 1911, President William Taft presided over the dedication of the New York City Public Library. Funding to build the library came from a trust created by former governor of New York, Samuel Tilden, “…for the creation of a free public library and reading room in New York City.” The New York City Public Library has a room for exhibitions as well as a picture gallery. It was designed to meet a variety of educational needs. Strategically situated above seven floors of stacks, the main reading room provides researchers with requested mater...
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Seems pretty clear, practical, wise. Like they could see this coming. When the Framers wrote the Constitution, they didn’t want a grifter in chief ruling the nation for profit, but obviously they could foresee such a person coming along someday. So they told him i...
President Trump stated Sunday, May 4 that he is directing, “…the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.” Alcatraz Island is not an unknown place to me. When I was just starting my career with the National Park Service back in the early 1970s, I was part of the first crew of park ranger tour guides assigned to Alcatraz Island. I’ve been back a ha...
Every May we honor our law enforcement during National Police Week and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring they have the resources and authority needed to keep our communities safe. We are lucky here in Central Washington to have some of the best-trained local and tribal officers, and they deserve recognition for their work to keep us and our families safe. This National Police Week, my colleagues and I in Congress are passing common-sense legislation that sends a clear message: we stand with our local law enforcement. When a situation...
What couples spend on weddings is mind boggling. I was in Southern Idaho, and my future wife, Dorothy, agreed to marry me. I didn’t know anyone except the family, and she wasn’t interested in planning a wedding, so we did the only thing left: we eloped. Spending a lot of money to get married seems ridiculous. Some families spend a lot more than the down payment on a home. The amount you spend has nothing to do with how long the marriage will last. We spent a couple of hundred dollars and our marriage lasted 69 years, until I lost her because of...
May 18, 1955, Mary McLeod Bethune, Political leader and Educator died in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was the daughter of former slaves in South Carolina. Bethune understood the importance of education early on. Her family, though living in poverty, managed with the help of a patron, to send Mary to schools in North Carolina and later Chicago. After a period of teaching, she opened her own school in Daytona Beach. Today it is the Bethune-Cookman College. In 1936, President Roosevelt made Bethune director of the Division of Negro Affairs,...
President Trump stated Sunday, May 4 that he is directing, “…the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.” Alcatraz Island is not an unknown place to me. When I was just starting my career with the National Park Service back in the early 1970s, I was part of the first crew of park ranger tour guides assigned to Alcatraz Island. I’ve been back a ha...
Recently, my wife and I took one of our semi-grown daughters and her friend to the American Rodeo Championship Weekend at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. But we weren’t there to see the adult, full-contact petting zoo that is a championship rodeo. Instead, for around the cost of the latest iPhone, we bought four tickets to see country music heartthrob (and darn good singer) Riley Green and the almost-as-lovely-as-my-wife (in case she reads this) Ella Langley perform mid-rodeo. Because the concert was sandwiched between the final and c...
When traveling abroad, you meet a lot of people, most of them casually. Not the case with the Fujimotos from Tokyo. It all started here in the U.S. when we got involved with a student FIUTS organization. We were sponsoring a student from Thailand, and sponsors and students were having a get together to get acquainted. In chatting with a student from Japan, I mentioned that I was going there. He said if I would give him my itinerary, he would have his sister show me around. I arrived and was staying at the Okura Hotel, at the time one of the...
May 9, 1754, the “Join or Die” political cartoon appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette. Ben Franklin was the newspaper publisher and author of the article and cartoon. The cartoon depicted a snake cut into eight pieces that symbolized the British colonies. The cartoon was part of an article addressing a recent military loss to the French. Franklin’s article went on to explain. “The Confidence of the French in this undertaking seems well-grounded on the present disunited state of the British Colonies, and the extreme difficulty of bringin...
The Pacific Northwest stands at a pivotal crossroads when it comes to the future of energy. Blessed with an abundance of hydropower resources, the region has an unparalleled opportunity to lead the nation in developing a hydrogen economy. By leveraging both its hydroelectric resources and heavy industry sectors, the PNW can create a new wave of economic prosperity and develop a regional energy hub that will benefit local industry and consumers. Hydrogen is a critical component of our energy future. Clean hydrogen made from hydropower provides...
Our Representative in Congress, Dan Newhouse, has repeatedly betrayed us, his constituents, and has shown himself to be a MAGA Yes Man, and one who is anti-healthcare, opposed to the rule of law, and pro-Jim Crow. In February and again in April he voted for a devastating budget proposal that guts Medicaid/Apple Health and will lead to decreased access to care, rural hospital closures, and deaths in Central Washington. He also voted for the No Rogue Rulings Act, which limits the power of federal district courts. These courts are even more...
April 18, 1906, an earthquake struck near San Francisco, the then largest city on the West Coast. The earthquake occurred offshore at an outcropping called Mussel Rock just after 5:00a.m. Tremors were felt from Oregon to Los Angeles. The land on the eastern side of San Andreas Fault, the city and bay, moved southward. The land on the west side of fault, was pushed northward. The displacement was more than six meters (20 feet). The exact magnitude of the earthquake is disputed, most common estimate is about 7.9 – a very damaging event. Fires i...
Over the past several weeks, I have been called schizophrenic, whether it be on social media, in emails from readers or jokingly from friends who seem to think I’m all over the map on the Trump administration. I thought a little clarification was due, before I take a flight over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I am a conservative, through and through, and I have the battle scars to prove it. But being a conservative, and not a “Never Trump” liberal light, does not require I agree with everything my president does. It does not mean I have to “take one for t...
We all want to believe that a newly elected federal administration begins by working on the really critical stuff from their campaign. We are less than four months into the current administration. Evidently, there was a war on showers and water pressure, and it is high priority for the Trump Administration. On April 9th President Trump signed an executive order that will end the war on water pressure and create great showers. The executive order “…will end the Obama-Biden war on water pressure a...
The growing number of instances of biological men, who identify as women, competing in women’s sports over the last several years has led to states and the federal government taking action to protect women’s sports. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an Executive Order that would revoke federal funding for any schools that allow biological men to compete against women in athletic competitions. The House of Representatives passed, with my support, the “Protecting of Women and Girls in Sports Act” to preserve a level playing field for gir...
Al Berro had the most successful tavern in Boise. I’m sure he made a good living with it. But Al had other interests. Mainly, he was known far more as a boxing and wrestling promoter. Al carefully developed fighters, two of them eventually being rated by Ring Magazine, the bible for rating boxers. He carefully got them fights they could win, building up records. It took a long time. Roque Maravilla and George Logan were rated by Ring Magazine. Maravilla was fifth in the light heavy division and eighth for Logan in the heavyweight division. A...
Washingtonians recall Ralph Munro’s distinctive political advertisements, which featured 30 seconds of bagpipe music followed by a brief tagline stating, “This interlude brought to you by the Munro campaign.” As unusual and refreshing as the ads were, they worked! They spared voters from the merciless pounding dished out by sparing politicians and their band of campaign hacks. Munro was elected as our state’s longest-serving secretary of state in 1980 and retired, after five four-year terms, in 2000. While he often ran unopposed, Munro was tir...
April 18, 1906, an earthquake struck near San Francisco, the then largest city on the West Coast. The earthquake occurred offshore at an outcropping called Mussel Rock just after 5:00a.m. Tremors were felt from Oregon to Los Angeles. The land on the eastern side of San Andreas Fault, the city and bay, moved southward. The land on the west side of fault, was pushed northward. The displacement was more than six meters (20 feet). The exact magnitude of the earthquake is disputed, most common estimate is about 7.9 – a very damaging event. Fires i...
In a sign that there is hope for a better government, a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate seeks to reassert the authority over trade granted to Congress in the Constitution. The Congress abdicated (delegated is actually the word they’ll use) that responsibility to the president back in 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression after the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act had deepened it in an attempt to protect American businesses. But that was back in the day when Americans expected and demanded normalcy and decency in a president, not when they c... Full story
Norm Luther’s accusations against Congressman Baumgartner are baseless, written in ignorance, and only echo left wing talking points. Mr. Luther accuses Congressman Baumgartner of undercutting Zelenskyy by saying that he is not doing a great job. That does not undercut him. Zelenskyy has been at war for quite a while now and continues to back out of cease fire deals. The U.S. has given hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine. We are now finding out that much of that is unaccounted for. It’s our duty to be critical of where our tax money goes...