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grocery store shopping

**Article updated with new information**

OLYMPIA — WA State Governor Jay Inslee is intending to announce drastic new COVID-19 related restrictions in a scheduled press conference at about 11am on Sunday morning, Nov 15th, 2020.

This information was contained in a leaked email letter from the Washington Food Industry Association (WFIA) to their members. In it, the President and CEO of WFIA, Tammy Hetrick, stated that she met with Governor Inslee’s office regarding the intended new restrictions. These statewide restrictions are expected to take effect on Monday, Nov 16, 2020, and last for at least 4 weeks. As it stands, gyms, bowling alleys, museums, movie theaters and aquariums would be required to close, said various industry officials. 

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Local News
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The site of the new Winthrop fire station is being cleared of trees.

WINTHROP — Okanogan County Fire District 6 is in the process of clearing the building site at its property on Horizon Flats Rd, where the new Winthrop fire station will be built. The District is trying to do as much of the site clearing work as possible with volunteer labor in order to save taxpayer funds.

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Local News
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WINTHROP – The WSDOT has declared that the North Cascades Highway is closed as of Friday evening, due to heavy snowfall and risk of avalanche danger.

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Local News
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Starlink satellite dish setup in the Idaho panhandle's Coeur d'Alene National Forest. Photo by Wandering-coder.

WINTHROP – Beginning October 26th, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) went into a public beta - limited to northern latitudes of the US - with its low-Earth orbit satellite internet service, called Starlink. The hype was that it would be a low latency, high bandwidth, internet service to under-served areas such as the great expanse of rural America where terrain, distance or the plodding of a bureaucratic and outdated telco, prevent any decent connection to the internet, and, in many cases, no connection at all.

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History
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A street in Winthrop, WA, circa 1940

On May 28, 1897, the Methow Trading Company of Winthrop, Okanogan County, is formally incorporated under the laws of the State of Washington. Capitalized by Eastern investors, it is an expansion of a mercantile venture started in 1892 by Guy Waring (1859?-1936), considered the father of Winthrop. The company acquires land and plats the town in 1901. For several decades, under Waring as president, the Methow Trading Company supplies townsfolk, ranchers, and miners with the necessities of life and occupation. It establishes branches in other towns in the Methow Valley and in mining camps in the Cascades. Gradually these fail, until only the store at Winthrop remains. The company loses additional money on Waring's pet project, an apple ranch. In 1916 Waring gives up control of the company and in 1924 resigns altogether. The company goes into a long period of liquidation until its demise in 1934. The failure of Waring's ventures in Winthrop obscures his overall contribution to the survival of a precarious frontier town in the remote Methow Valley.