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We have an exceptional candidate running this year for state senator for the 10th LD: Helen Price Johnson. If I were to list the qualifications I would want in a senator representing our district, she would fulfill each and every one. Helen is experienced. She has been our county commissioner in Island County for the past three terms. She came into office at a time of the recession as Island County’s first ever elected woman commissioner. Helen had to be strong to hit the ground running, plowing through tough times of the recession with steadin...
If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, if the light is coming from an oncoming train, you can’t enter the tunnel until the train goes by. Brad Bradford La Conner...
Joan Caroline Wilbur selestel-lot was born on June 16th, 1937 in Harrison Mills, BC, Canada. She lived a life filled with prayer, giving, and tradition. Joan’s teachings from her elders have been passed down to her family and community and will not be forgotten. On May 18th, 2020 she said her last prayer with us. Joan grew up alongside the Fraser River in British Columbia, daughter to Joseph Pennier and Jean Pennier (Willoughby) on the old Scowlitz Reserve. At the young age of 5 she was taken t...
I want to say THANK YOU to all of my fellow reasonable and brave free-thinkers. Since the beginning of the COVID scare I’ve felt alone. I choose to live my life in love and rationality, not fear, and so it has been difficult for me to watch as the leaders of our country and around the world have decimated our economies, school systems, individual liberties and sense of security over a virus. For those of you who have ever had the “common” cold, that is a virus. It is a “bug” that ordinarily enters our mucus membranes via the nose, eyes, mou...
As you read this this during Memorial Day week the number of Washingtonians killed by the coronavirus is surpassing 1,100. Deaths reached 1,000 May 15. The number of confirmed cases in the state is over 20,000. The daily increases, in cases and deaths, have been slowing – the flattening of the curve – though the 304 cases reported Friday were more than double the number of the two previous days. Nationally, the death toll rose above 100,000 this week. On this Memorial Day week it is important to reflect that deaths reached 58,000...
The Swinomish Tribal Community has held Memorial Day services for three-quarters of a century, one of its longest-standing traditions. But Monday’s program at Swinomish Cemetery was like no other. The COVID-19 pandemic and a steady rainfall kept attendance down, and among those who did turn out many wore masks and observed social distancing guidelines while visiting grave sites and listening to speakers. “Times have changed for us,” said Swinomish Tribal Senator J.J. Wilbur, who served as maste...
Sally Wilbur kept secret until the last minute a birthday party parade for her 17-year-old son Danny “Dano” Rapada Sunday afternoon. But in that last minute the surprise was revealed to the guest of honor in a big way. A dozen local fire, police and emergency medical services vehicles with horns and sirens blaring, followed by a long serpentine of honking cars and trucks, twice circled past Rapada seated in a wheelchair at the front of his driveway on Swinomish Reservation to drop off a bev...
La Conner High seniors and their parents have fretted for weeks that there may be no graduation ceremonies this year due to the coronavirus. Now there may be two. La Conner Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner raised that possibility during a briskly paced one-hour video-conferenced school board meeting last week and later in remarks to the Weekly News. She said plans are in the works to broadcast a “virtual” graduation in June and hold a scaled-down in-person commencement later in the sum...
Ah, life during a pandemic. This is usually my favorite time of year. Mostly sunny but not too hot. Flowers blooming. Great golf weather. Start of the major league baseball season. My solution to social distancing is to get in my car and explore new places, listening to as much bad news as I can bear before turning the radio dial to old time rock and roll. Have you driven along the S Skagit Highway? Because it’s a road rarely taken, it has some funkiness but there are also beautiful farms and i...
Multiple candidates filed for several county and state offices by the May 15 deadline, bringing excitement to both Skagit County’s Aug. 4 primary and its Nov. 3 general elections. The Legislative District 10 senate seat and its two state house seats are hotly contested, with hundreds of thousands of dollars already collectively raised. Retiring Rep. Norma Smith’s Position 1 seat has drawn five candidates. Greg Gilday is the lone Republican, while Democrat Scott McMullen is the lone Skagit County resident. The other candidates, Democrats from Is...
Will restaurants and breweries open again? What about schools? The export market? While farmers are still grappling with big questions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, “we have to get farming,” says Eddie Gordon of Gordon Skagit Farms. “The growing season is here.” That means moving ahead on plans made last winter – or coming up with a creative workaround. Also important to consider: soil health and crop rotation. Here is what some La Conner-area farmers are getting...
La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes joined a major letter writing campaign last week. And no one had to twist his arm. Hayes, who owns a downtown business closed since the statewide Stay Home, Stay Healthy order was issued in March in response to the COVID-19 crisis, joined Skagit County’s seven other mayors in signing correspondence asking Gov. Jay Inslee to allow the County to apply to enter Phase 2 of his four-phase re-opening plan. Hayes said science and recent data support the request. He said the number of COVID-19 cases in the county has d...
Friday afternoon the Skagit County Board of Health asked Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington Department of Health Secretary John Wiesman for a variance from the state’s Start Safe Plan criteria to allow Skagit County to move forward to Phase 2 “today, and by June 1 at the latest.” The Board’s May 22 letter followed Gov. Inslee’s May 19 announcing moving to Phase 2 of the Safe Start Plan required meeting the benchmark of fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14 day period for counties with populations over 75,000. Skagit County ne...
Due to COVID-19, the Blessing of the Fleet, was a quieter affair in the Swinomish Tribal Community. Part of the celebration was held last week. Tribal members, lined up in their cars, drove by the Fish Plant, to receive plates of freshly cooked and chilled prawns and Dungeness Crab. In addition to eating some cold and fresh, I created this delicious salad. Ingredients - Prawns, 10 to 15, cooked & cooled - Dungeness Crab, 1 whole, cooked & cooled - Lemon juice, 1 freshly squeezed - White or...
