Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 426 - 450 of 735
Who says you can never find a cop when you need one? Certainly not two local motorists allegedly harassed last month by the 61-year-old driver of a Ford Escape who later told Swinomish Tribal Police she was the female Jesus Christ and that the right side of her body had vampiric tendencies. The suspect, a resident of Walla Walla but who most recently had been living at a Mount Vernon RV park, was taken into custody and transported to Skagit Valley Hospital for evaluation after having been led by the tormented drivers into the tribal police...
Three Dark Clouds are hovering over the world today and this coming election should not be glibly decided by party posturing. It is time to wake up your family and friends and point to these three clouds. The First is the coronavirus, COVID-19. This is a worldwide threat to our very human existence and is mutating – indefinitely. The Second is the threat of nuclear annihilation. The U.S. alone has enough warheads to wipe out every country on the planet several times over. The Third is drifting closer and closer to silently cover all of...
This one is more than a bit “over the top”, even for this editor (Sept. 9 editorial). Sad that this article has no balance, no civility and no truth. I wasn’t born yesterday, so I have long experience of watching, hearing, discerning truth from error, false from genuine. A close friend recently commented to me: What the left claims the president and others on the right are doing, is instead, exactly what they are doing. I started paying attention to that claim and found it to be true. I have even heard others comment this is happening. There...
Monday, September 7 11:26 a.m.: Safe landing – Deputies were advised of a need for water rescue off Hope Island Rd. for an overturned kayaker. Deputies responded and were advised the kayaker had made it to shore and no longer needed assistance. Golden View Ave., Greater La Conner. 11:40 a.m.: Leave for good – Deputies responded to a verbal fight among several people. Deputies arrived and determined this was a trespassing issue with a prior tenant. The prior tenant was told to leave the property. Channel Dr., La Conner. 10:51 p.m.:...
The American trait of impatience, that drive to get things done now, caution be damned, is often fatal. It was for Ada Weeks’ step-parents, who in the opening pages of Shelter Bay resident Ashley Sweeney’s new novel, “Answer Creek,” plunge their oxen-driven wagon into the late-May Big Blue River, swollen to twice its normal flow and carrying whole trees. In minutes the wagon is rammed, turned into the current and swept downstream. Humans and oxen are upended and disappear. Gone. The 19-year-old Ada, along with hundreds of others in the Donner...
Letters praising the most corrupt and incompetent president in my seventy-five years compel me to speak out after a long silence. I no longer have clients to lose and the people I care about agree with me. I can now be brutally honest and I will be. Donald Trump was never prepared for public service and never expected to have to serve anyone but himself. His candidacy was another of his many cons, intended to resurrect his failing brand. A climate of hateful ignorance and the aid of a brutal dictator wanting to sow chaos in our democracy swept...
My friend said she is going to vote for a decent man, Joe Biden. He has been in national politics for 47 years and has been a racist, voting against bussing and saying he did not want his kids to go to school in a jungle. He had 47 years in the Senate and as vice president to build America better and failed. If decent is sex accusations, there are plenty of those in both parties. I plan to vote for the truly decent man, Donald Trump. He opposes late term abortion, where a soon to be born child is cut into pieces in the womb. His administration...
The Electoral College in our Constitution, Article 2, Section 1. We voters need to be informed why it exists and why it is still necessary. It gives the smaller and/or less populated states a fair representation when voting for our president and vice president. It makes it harder to steal an election. It encourages the candidates to campaign nationally, in order to win every state, not just the heavily populated states. It protects Americans from the tyranny of the majority. Our Founding Fathers were far more than what the word politician may b...
It was just over a half century ago that the Shelter Bay development, which some predicted would transform then sleepy La Conner into the Carmel of the Northwest, both literally and figuratively changed the local landscape. That is when Osberg Construction of Seattle was in the midst of dredging millions of yards from what had been known as Indian Bay to create the present harbor and moorage area that serves as a visual anchor for the 420-acre planned residential community. The population now...
In response to Mr. Morrell’s letter of last week, I hope that the residents of the 2,626 counties who voted for Donald J. Trump in 2016 will think twice before casting their ballots for him this year. It’s time to elect a decent man, one who unifies rather than divides, one who vows to tell the truth instead of peddling lies and one who is capable of true leadership instead of saying he takes “no responsibility” for the state of American affairs. Proudly, I will be casting my presidential vote for Joe Biden on Nov. 3. Ashley Sweeney Shelter...
Recently a neighbor here in Shelter Bay, a person of color, told us that he was out for a walk in the community when a white stranger accosted him to ask what he was doing there. The stranger told our neighbor that he didn’t look like anyone who lived in the community, and then the stranger demanded that our neighbor account for himself. We are infuriated and embarrassed to learn that an apparently out-and-proud racist is despoiling our beautiful neighborhood, and we refuse to tolerate it quietly. More importantly than what it might do to p...
If true that a busy person wears many different hats, don’t expect to see J.J. Wilbur without a head covering anytime soon. Wilbur, a commercial fisherman who serves on both the Swinomish Tribal Senate and Fire District 13 Board of Commissioners, joined another local public service panel Monday night when he was chosen to fill the vacant Shelter Bay director district seat on the La Conner School Board. Wilbur was selected by board members to succeed Brad Smith, who resigned mid-term in June, at the time Whitney Meissner resigned as district s...
In its final issue before Tuesday’s election, the eight-page La Conner Weekly News published a cover story and four letters attacking – and even slandering – a candidate for the state legislature. With no chance of rebuttal, Bill Bruch, a La Conner resident running for the state House of Representatives, was targeted by known Democrat operatives. This is because Bruch, a Republican, along with the more than a quarter million people who signed the R-90 petition, is opposed to the mandatory sex education law pushed forward by his r...
La Conner Schools is bracing to enter a virtual new world this fall. A local blue-ribbon Back-to-School committee has recommended starting with an on-line model with the option of small groups meeting in campus buildings. This is in response to health and safety concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel has received input from parents, students, school staff and Swinomish Indian Tribal Community representatives since its mid-July start. The committee suggests a slight delay in opening to provide teachers and families opportunities to...
While it is still unclear what form school will take here in the fall, one thing is certain. La Conner Schools will operate under a slimmer, balanced budget of nearly $12.7 million, crafted in response to COVID-impacted revenues and expenditures. That is down from last year’s $12.9 million. The La Conner School Board unanimously adopted its 2020-2021 financial game plan at its monthly meeting, following a 30-minute video-conferenced public hearing Monday night. Washington state school districts must prepare their budgets in July for their n...
Prior to celebrating her 98th birthday last week, Jean Collins of Shelter Bay put in some laps at the La Conner High Whittaker Field track, logging a mile. Collins wasn’t alone for that early workout. She was joined by La Conner Senior Center Coordinator Margaret Hillard and several local friends, all of whom shared birthday greetings and ice cream afterward while wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Not even the virus crisis could mask their admiration of Collins. “She is gra...
Rich Stewart hasn’t had the luxury of easing into his new job as interim Superintendent of La Conner Schools. Just two weeks into his role as the school district’s lead administrator, Stewart on Monday night led a video-conferenced budget study session amid the uncertain financial climate posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. School districts must submit their budgets for the ensuing fiscal year to the state in July. The La Conner School Board will adopt its 2020-21 budget at its July 27 meeting. District officials anticipate decreased revenue and...
Comings and goings continue with the La Conner School Board. The school district’s governing panel lost its most senior member, Brad Smith. He submitted his resignation June 19. Smith represented District 3, the Shelter Bay area, for 14 years and was the board’s liaison with the state legislature. La Conner High seniors Avery Sloniker and MacQuaid Hiller were welcomed aboard as new student representatives for the 2020-21 academic year during the same June 22 video-conferenced meeting. Sloniker and Hiller will succeed recently graduated sen...
The La Conner School District seeks candidates to fill the District 3 board seat held by Brad Smith until his June resignation. Residents must live in District 3, which includes Shelter Bay. The term runs through 2021. Applications need a statement with reasons for seeking appointment, a statement of philosophy regarding public education, completion of a questionnaire and supporting documents. The position is open until filled. The first screening of applicants is July 14. People applying must be U.S. citizens, legal residents of Washington...
The Soroptimist members of La Conner started sharing remembrances of Marianna Metke among themselves upon hearing word of her death May 24. The following messages provide a glimpse into her life and her commitment to the Soroptimist International La Conner Chapter (SILC). Metke grew up a Sisson, a Skagit Valley pioneer family. She loved La Conner, plants, the arts and her Soroptimist sisters. Marianna touched me deeply by caring and sharing when my husband got ill. I will remember her always...
Dear Ken Stern, I sold the house. I moved to Anacortes. I drove through downtown La Conner to say “goodbye.” Then it hit me! I am leaving the nicest town I have ever lived in. Yes, Shelter Bay is part of La Conner. Over the 20 years I often sat in the Catholic Church and looked at the window labeled “La Conner,” named after Louisa Conner, the founder of our little city. She also built the church! As I said “goodbye” to my old house, I realized that I loved this area. Especially the grocery, Pioneer Market. The main street. The Tavern. The many...
No joke! A whale, probably a Gray, swam north through the Swinomish Channel Sunday. Bart Borusinski, of Hope Island, and his son, Jasio, age 5, reported seeing it about 3 p.m.from the Shelter Bay Marina guest dock. He said it was a big one and the first he had seen in his 20 years in La Conner. He said his son had the best look. Mick Jolley and his daughter Jessamy, age 9, chased it on their bikes from the Rainbow Bridge to the La Conner Marina docks across from its fuel dock. Susan Gardner...
Because I write fiction set in the American West, sooner or later I knew I’d be compelled to tell an Oregon Trail story. But why any trail story? If I was going to tackle this subject, I decided to take on one of the most difficult and misunderstood narratives in American history. Isn’t everyone a bit intrigued by the Donner Party saga? We recall the story of these ill-fated travelers from high school history classes, and what do we remember? Cannibalism. Even though there’s no avoiding gruesome detail, I focused on the emigrants’ collect...
The best things in life truly are free. And better yet when they’re also pain-free. That’s been the case at the COVID-19 testing drive-thru site at Skagit Valley College, where Sgt. Jeff Willard of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner detachment is part of the team assembled to quickly and efficiently guide the public through coronavirus self-exam stations. Located in the large parking area east of SVC’s McIntyre Hall, the site has drawn between 50 and 200 vehicles daily since opening...
The coronavirus outbreak hasn’t slowed things down for the La Conner Senior Center. Those who take part in the center’s wide range of activities haven’t missed a step despite a statewide ‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order mandated to curb further spread of COVID-19. That thanks to the Zoom video conferencing platform. The technology, which is fast becoming a feature of daily life, makes it possible for seniors to connect with classes – from composition to exercise – that they would normally attend at Maple Hall. “While there has c...
