Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 1886
The old saw – cliche – is that freedom of the press is limited to those who own one. Like all cliches, there is some truth there. Communities do better when the local newspaper has ethical journalistic stewardship, but publishing a paper is half the equation, at most. The people holding the paper in their hands, reading the news, absorbing it, discussing the going ons in the community and then – vitally – participating to move the community forward creates the whole process entailed in the phrase “freedom of the press.” Press freedom is...
My thanks, first, to you who are reading this. Your continued subscribing to the Weekly News is the reason this newspaper exists. Thanks to everyone who advertised: The merchants, the large hearts powering the nonprofit organizations and their auctions, pancake breakfasts, concerts, craft fairs, theater productions and more. Thanks to Jo Mitchelle, whose classified ad by classified ad perhaps was the paper’s biggest supporter. Thanks to anyone who ever answered a question for a story, posed for a photographer, suggested a story or photo idea or...
I sent years of the La Conner Weekly News to North Carolina, New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, Tennessee and to multiple locals here and in Anacortes. To neighbors forced to move by rent increases. To a long-time boat-owner, moored here. Oh, even to Olympia. Why? The heart of many articles: individual living experiences of humans, creatures (some pets), ivy killing carbon-sequestering trees, passages of birds recoloring fields, a blue heron shot to death, a home ablaze, flooding. Photographs and basics of elementary, middle and high school students...
I wanted to say that I will really miss the paper. I have enjoyed it immensely. If I knew how long my money would last me I would have contributed gladly. Thank you! Vanessa Jett Shelter Bay...
As you cruise into retirement to wallow in hedonism, I want to thank you for embodying Civic Virtue in our hometown La Conner Weekly News. You dared to share with your readers what 70 of the top one hundred newspapers in circulation did not, endorse a presidential candidate. And you were in good company as those papers who did not kowtow to their billionaire or hedge fund owners, 28 endorsed Harris while two endorsed Trump. Those who didn’t do their civic duty their reasons were “growing polarization and fears of political ret...
Dear Ken. Seven years ago you chose to purchase the La Conner Weekly News after the opportunity to lead the paper in Hardwick, Vermont, vanished and fortunate for our community that was. For you too, spared black flies and deep winter’s frost for maritime climes, tulips and snow geese. You dove in, a cold plunge in many ways. Your exhaustive presence at seemingly every municipal event and otherwise, was impressive. Your walk with the printed paper to the stand on Wednesdays, even with injured leg, a folksy message of commitment. No doubt you t...
Here is Edward R. Murrow’s “Address to the Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation,” 1958. For our purposes, substitute newspapers/news media for television. This might just do nobody any good. At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest and your organization may be accused of having given hospitality to heretical and even dangerous ideas. But the elaborate structure of networks, advertising agencies and sponsors will not be shaken or altered. It is my desire, if not m...
This issue of the La Conner Weekly News will be Ken Stern’s next-to-last issue. The Skagit Valley Clean Energy Alliance, and I personally, would like to thank Ken for this space, and for his encouragement and enthusiasm about this column during the last two years. The story of energy technology started millions of years ago, when homo erectus learned how to sail. We know this because fossils have been found on islands in modern Indonesia that can’t be reached without a sail or motor. A mil...
No news is bad news if we lose the La Conner Weekly News. If Publisher Ken Stern has to sell to the Adams chain of papers, we can pretty much say goodbye to local reporting. Unfortunately, the La Conner Community News group has not been able to approach the $200,000 sale price. We need to connect with one or more of those deep-pocketed philanthropists who are out there who would donate to make this a better, more informed world. If any of you have a lead, make a call, send an email. Now. We are running out of time. Jai Boreen La...
The Town of La Conner had a survey for the residents and business\people about the south end (aka transition zone, aka the subarea plan, aka the property in the vicinity of “big blue” and the old Moore Clark building, aka the freezer building. The survey asked for ratings on ideas about various categories. One of the survey categories is “access improvements” (roads, parking and paths). The highest rating possible is 5. “Extend waterfront path to Pioneer Park” received a seriously spectacular rating of 4.36 out of 5. Nothing else even reache...
The recent AP article entitled, “Biden’s broken promise on pardoning his son …” ends with the comment, “Neither Biden nor his White House staff explained the shift in the president’s thinking.” Yet seemingly overlooked was the fact that the pardon was issued directly following president-elect Trump’s choice of Kash Patel as his appointee to direct the FBI. Patel, long a loyalist to Mr. Trump, has promised that, “if Trump won the White House … he would go after Hunter and Joe Biden with a new criminal investigation.” (CNN) Patel has dismissed t...
Ken, we really enjoyed your La Conner paper that you managed for years with sincerity, openmindedness, equality and last but not least with intelligence and a commitment for truth. You spoke your mind about political, environmental and local situations after evaluating the true facts and we completely agreed with your opinion. We will miss your continuous effort to bring information and education our way. Best wishes for your next chapter in your life! Rosi and Wes Jansen Fine Feathered Friends La Conner...
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The clock is running out on “Saving the La Conner News” . . . 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, GONE . . . say it isn’t so! . . . say it isn’t happening!! How shall we learn about town government meetings? School sport events and scores? Maple Hall events? New businesses and our wonderful current ones? Activities of fraternal organizations? Arts events? Emergency management efforts? La Conner redevelopment initiatives? The latest miracles from the Clean Energy Alliance? The vox populi in the Letters to the Editor . . . What’s on at the library a...
A good number of people have asked about the status of our recently formed La Conner Community News non-profit organization’s efforts to “Save the Newspaper.” We have been encouraged by the community interest and support demonstrated by financial pledges and donations, but have raised only a fraction of the funds needed to purchase the La Conner Weekly News and transition to a new managing editor. Even though our 11th-hour efforts have not raised sufficient funds for a purchase, we plan to continue our efforts to ensure the presence of a sourc...
I saw the announcement of a “Public forum” on Dec. 11 that is called to address “the town’s south end plan.” I see that title as an obfuscation, by the town, to hide the important process of dealing with the blight and danger present in the Moore Clark property. Reality is that the Skagit County Assessor’s Office current fair market value appraisal of the property, parcel P74496, is actually $442,300, not the $2,300,000 that the town administrator keeps quoting. So far there has been no attempt for the current owner to purchase insurance a...
The result of the presidential election surprised me and put me into a funk. I considered moving back to Canada, where I worked as a TV and movie director for 16 years, but that was a difficult decision because I have so much family in the U.S. and I love writing this column. Then I heard that the governors of California and Washington state were not at all happy with Trump and they both declared that they would continue to support women’s rights to have abortions and continue to agree with m...
The La Conner public parking lot, east of Maple Hall, occupies about an acre. It’s big enough to host a 400 kilowatt solar generation system, built in the form of a canopy covering most of the lot. Such a canopy would also provide protection from snow, rain and sun. Building a solar canopy over most of the lot would require installation of support structures and some analysis on how the power would be delivered to the grid, or whether it would be better to install batteries and keep the s...
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. How can we be thankful together, as families, as communities, as a nation? Thanksgiving, along with July 4th, are the foundational American holidays. Thanksgiving is more than bedrock: the holiday honors English-speaking Europeans surviving and starting to take root on the Massachusetts shore of what would become the United States. Thanksgiving. By definition giving thanks is plural, communal. It recognizes the others in the community, those we are showing appreciation for the help they have given to us. We are...
The La Conner Weekly News will continue in 2025 only if its readers become its funders. To assist those who will have to provide the major dollars needed, here is this incentive: For every $100,000 donated to the La Conner Community News organization, I will add $10,000. There are 10 households in our Valley that can invest $20,000 each and 20 households that can offer $10,000 to ensure the future of the community’s weekly newspaper. Now is the time to decide and to do that. These will be the heroes among us for maintaining a major thread t...
Most people agree that actual facts matter – in such activities as debate, discussion and reporting. Once facts are gathered, verified and distributed, informed decision-making can proceed in such important exercises as voting. But what happens when important, verified facts are published and broadcast widely, yet the resulting impact proves underwhelming – or even meaningless? If vital facts fail to affect the news audiences they intend to inform? This is the conundrum facing American journalism after Nov. 5, 2024. As a former journalist and...
If I remember correctly, in one month you will be officially retired from the La Conner Weekly News. If that is so, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your editorials and will miss them once the newspaper is in someone else’s hands. Although I’ve only been a subscriber for a short time, I found the entire newspaper informative and well worth the read. I have my fellow League of Women Voters members, Wende Sanderson and Barbara Carson, to thank for encouraging me to subscribe. I know they, too, will miss you. Wishing you a wel...
Re Mr. John Cline’s very uncivil letter to the editor in the Nov. 20 edition (“The incredible shrinking newspaper editor”). It sounded like a school boy’s triumphant “neener, neener, neener.” Of course, what else can we expect from Trump supporters? They can’t just win, they have to rub it in with sarcasm and name-calling. It is to be hoped that one day, in the near future, Mr. Cline and his ilk are as adversely affected by Trump’s insane lies and truly heinous cabinet nominees as the rest of us will be. Maybe they will then realize the error o...
John Cline’s letter to the editor calling Ken Stern’s editorial (“The incredible shrinking newspaper editor,” Nov. 20) “shrill ideologue” and cheering his retirement was appalling. The La Conner Weekly news is our only local source and Ken had done an admirable job. He has kept us informed and gives a voice to all who are lucky enough to live here. Ken’s editorials are insightful, informative and as editor, he has a right to express his own opinions, whether you agree with them or not. We will become another of the thousands of local newspapers...
From our wonderful La Conner Swinomish Library I checked out “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Not a happy read, but edifying. Chapter four, “Bloody Footprints,” begins with a quote from historian John Grenier’s “The First Way of War.” “For the first 200 years of our military heritage, then, Americans depended on arts of war that contemporary professional soldiers supposedly abhorred: razing and destroying enemy villages and fields; killing enemy women and children; raiding settlements for captives;...
