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  • May's warmth a sneak

    Ken Stern|May 31, 2023

    Whatever your politics and values, this year to date may have seemed generally gloomy, at least. Inflation stays persistently high, the potential of recession seems to be forever looming, wages are lower than the ongoing rising costs of everything, there is work but too few workers and then there is the persistent war in Ukraine, which appears as if it will never end. Here at home, until May, glorious May, 2023 has the general and overall feel of being cold and damp. And it has been, cold and at least gray, all the way back to the snows and flo...

  • The decisions we make

    Ken Stern|May 24, 2023

    The march of madness and meanness continues. Last week Montana, Nebraska and Florida’s legislators joined the stampede in outlawing gender-affirming care to teens and youths in their states. These laws will punish doctors and healthcare practitioners for assisting youth in developing into their genuine selves. Gender-affirming care is “age-appropriate care that is medically necessary for the wellbeing of many transgender and non-binary people who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria, or distress that results from having one’s gender ident...

  • Green field or home field?

    Ken Stern|May 17, 2023

    It is a tough choice for the residents of our little town – the citizens of La Conner – to make. The community was given a gift, nearly, when Sybil and Tom Jenson sold the Town of La Conner a half-plus acre of property under Pioneer Park and west of Maple Avenue. Residents now have to discern, discuss and debate the best way to use that sliver of land. The top choices are keeping it as a green space – organized into a community garden, as some are advocating – or building starter homes for first time buyers. This could sprout into a tiny ho...

  • Democracy needs a local press

    Ken Stern|May 10, 2023

    As publisher of the Weekly News, I will be on a panel discussing “The Future of Local Journalism: Is It Important to Our Democracy?” Monday May 15 at the Mount Vernon high school. In the United States, where our Declaration of Independence holds as self-evident truth “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” self-evident also is the press’ central, fundamental role in the functioning of our democracy. Newspapers are baked into society's governance, hammered into the Constitution in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respect...

  • Town needs new leadership

    Ken Stern|Apr 26, 2023

    Ramon Hayes, mayor of the Town of La Conner for 16 years, is retiring when his term ends after the November elections. Hayes deserves a huge thank you for his steadfastness. He deserves credit for the solid staff employed in support of the town's residents and infrastructure. Hayes can be rightfully proud of the two – three, really – most visible accomplishments under his watch. He secured critical state and local funding for the downtown channel boardwalk and the La Conner Swinomish Library. And, in the dark days of the coronavirus pan...

  • Earth Day needed every day

    Ken Stern|Apr 19, 2023

    Saturday is the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day. In the giddy, heady days of the early 1970s – with or without pot – people celebrated recycling. Going farther meant reusing and reducing. Reflect on that, on how radical the concepts of reusing goods has become. In the 1960s parents and grandparents returned pop bottles back to the grocery and redeemed the deposit, with the bottles going back for washing and getting refilled. Fewer new glass bottles needed to be made. Aluminum cans once did not exist. And when was the last time any of us took a r...

  • The endless war in Ukraine

    Ken Stern|Apr 12, 2023

    Peace will come to Ukraine, but how and when? Fourteen months after Russia's invasion and nine years after their occupation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, the largest European conflict since Hitler's 1939 invasion of Poland is an intractable tragedy destroying two societies. The horrific loss of soldiers on both sides continues. In Ukraine civilians are in danger in war zones and from targeted attacks throughout the country. Look to AP – Associated Press – or other analyses to learn of the probably over 70,000 Russian-side combat deaths and...

  • Free speech in Shelter Bay

    Ken Stern|Apr 5, 2023

    Is democracy dangerous to the health of Shelter Bay community board members? Or, is the board’s leadership allergic to free speech? Is it possible that the Weekly News is just plain wrong in its efforts to cover Shelter Bay governance? The Weekly News has taken the standard journalistic approach to cover Shelter Bay: attending meetings; interviewing people; reading documents – including court filings; and tracking social media posts. Staff have spoken to people on and off the record, on background and for source material, including holding nam...

  • Right or wrong in Shelter Bay

    Ken Stern|Mar 29, 2023

    Finding out who slew the Slough Swindler, the La Conner Chamber of Commerce’s participatory mystery theatre event last Saturday, was relatively easy. Several people figured it out and the winner was chosen by lot. He got a grand prize package of La Conner tourist goodies. Everyone went home happy. Solving the problems the Shelter Bay Community faces will not be nearly so easy, may not end at a prescribed time and the outcome is not certain. This is a drama still playing out. It may be dramatic but it is certainly a mess. The five executive c...

  • When banks and trains crash

    Ken Stern|Mar 22, 2023

    Seems like banks and railroads are failing all around us. No one is really surprised, from corporate CEOs to congressional committees and Congress, period, to front line workers driving engines and managing branches or federal and state regulators at every agency. Train cars and locomotives jumping the tracks in East Palestine and Springfield, Ohio or nearby, behind the Swinomish Casino? Banks failing in California, New York and, now, Switzerland? The new normal is business as usual. Big companies are always failing. Big companies are always no...

  • Welcome to year 4 of COVID-19

    Ken Stern|Mar 15, 2023

    What is the difference between last week and this week? Answer: Last week everyone was at the end of the third year of the coronavirus pandemic. This week we all step into, no not its fourth year but the first year of what the World Health Organization in January termed a global health emergency. When the United Nations' backed World Health Organization declares a global health emergency, pay attention. We can breathe a sigh of relief that we are out of the three-year grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pandemics are defined as everywhere, able to...

  • School daze coming again

    Ken Stern|Mar 8, 2023

    Ouch. Ouch everywhere, for everybody. New La Conner Schools Deputy Superintendent of Finance Dave Cram's initial assessment is that 490 students will enroll in the school district next fall. That is down 35 kids from today and 100 from 2021. It is not good news that the pain is nationwide, that national and local media are reporting on drastic drops in the numbers of pupils attending public schools, with no upturns in sight. This sea change is no more anyone's fault than a flood or a wild fire. There are larger reasons, root causes, as carbon...

  • March invitations: Say yes

    Ken Stern|Mar 1, 2023

    With March's arrival are a flurry of activities, not late winter snow but opportunities to join together in fun and games, literally, and, in one instance, to change, literally. There are also very real storm clouds hanging over Shelter Bay. The month's first joyous get together is the La Conner Rotary Clubs’ annual farmer and merchant dinner on the 6th in Maple Hall. All farmers and merchants get dinner and an evening of hearing from organizations of community plans and projects, ventures toward a more sustainable future. The La Conner Chamber...

  • Keep public records public

    Ken Stern|Feb 15, 2023

    Dear fellow citizens. Help, please, by paying attention to your state government and taking a stand to keep public records public, available to you – and to the journalists and activists. Tell your legislators and Attorney General Bob Ferguson that the documents created by legislators elected to serve citizens must be seen by citizens and not blocked behind a legislative privilege they claim and desire but does not exist. What do legislators tell us all the time? That they work behind the scenes, that they meet day and night – sometimes in clo...

  • Debt ceiling not the problem

    Ken Stern|Feb 8, 2023

    The good news is raising the nation's debt limit is not a problem. The U.S. Congress has always voted to pay its bills– and will this spring. The source of those debts, of course, came from Congress first approving the annual budget and the corresponding appropriations. Our elected officials have a matching obligation to agree to pay for what they already committed to spend. That is what running the government – or a business, or a family – is. There is planning, spending to execute programs agreed to and paying all the bills as they come...

  • About violence in America

    Ken Stern|Feb 1, 2023

    What a beautiful clear, crisp blue sky day we had Sunday. Monday started sunny. February is here: there are more hours of sunlight and the sun is higher in the sky and starting its march northward. And, we live in a state with sane legislators reflecting the majority of people's concerns. More laws restricting firearms may soon be passed in the legislature. Can't this newspaper's editor leave that topic alone? No. Five Februarys after the Parkland, Florida high school murders, six years after the Las Vegas concert massacre, close to three...

  • Resiliency every day, every year

    Ken Stern|Jan 25, 2023

    Town of La Conner leaders continue to talk, plan and act in preparing flood control measures in the wake of Dec. 27’s flooding from the Swinomish Channel. Last night the town council created a flood commission by ordinance, cementing in place a group charged with developing responses to the next flood. Last Thursday Mayor Ramon Hayes, Councilmember Rick Dole and Administrator Scott Thomas met with U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen and gained his commitment to have his staff pay attention to Town entreaties to federal agencies. No magic bullets there, b...

  • Community invitations

    Ken Stern|Jan 18, 2023

    La Conner area residents are invited to engage this week and next with the two local institutions that define and make a difference in our lives. This is where citizens can have the most impact, making self-governing a reality. Your participation is needed first Saturday in a Town community conversation for the development of a communication plan. La Conner’s Council seeks conversation with citizens to clearly define the priorities, strategies and tools the town will use to communicate with the community. Open communication facilitates p...

  • Adding various numbers up

    Ken Stern|Jan 11, 2023

    At the start of the new year, one way to assess the year just passed is by looking at the numbers contained in budgets and reports and reflecting back and projecting forward. From front to back in this issue of the Weekly News, there are all kinds of numbers – and information to be used in decision making. The coronavirus pandemic has not ended, but is no longer a crisis. In Skagit County and statewide, the rate of new infections has slowed and the number of people being hospitalized and dying are increasing at a much slower rate. While a...

  • New year, old challenges

    Ken Stern|Jan 4, 2023

    Wow. What weather these last two weeks, ending the year with both a groan and a whimper. Last Tuesday’s flood, blown in with rain and mild temperatures, was a stark contrast to the seven inches of snow and bitter cold a week earlier, the Tuesday before Christmas. Then kids could be forgiven for thinking the Washington Street sledding hill would be open all month, maybe all winter Recall 2021’s post-Christmas week weather: days of record cold, snow and First Street businesses virtually shut down. Who wanted to – or could – visit La Conner?...

  • Local heroes of democracy

    Ken Stern|Dec 28, 2022

    When considering activists watching over the community's governance and vocally championing the better future we all want, the dedicated and sometimes seemingly too quiet La Conner Town Council and local school board may not come first to mind. But, as with Mayor Ramon Hayes and the Town's arts, parks and planning commissions, these individuals deserve every resident's thanks for diligently showing up meeting after meeting, taking on assignments, initiating projects, crunching numbers, balancing budgets, fielding questions and agreeing to a...

  • "Is There a Santa Claus?"

    Ken Stern|Dec 21, 2022

    Dear Editor — I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O’Hanlon 115 West Ninety Fifth Street, New York Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great...

  • This newspaper's for you

    Ken Stern|Dec 14, 2022

    This is the last week of sending the Weekly News to every address in the La Conner School District. This annual subscription drive is an economic venture: La Conner News Publishing, LLC is a single person corporation, owned by its publisher. The Weekly News is a business, aiming to be profit-making. It is not its owner’s “boat,” not a hobby business. What an odd duck industry newspapers are. Back in 1789 newspapers were so essential, so vital to the fabric of the nation that our Founding Fathers wove them into the Constitution, the only priva...

  • Your newspaper in your weekly mail all year long

    Ken Stern|Dec 7, 2022

    Last week was quite the start of holiday activities throughout the Skagit Valley. From Friday evening’s Tiny Tree silent auction at the La Conner Swinomish Library through a myriad of events Saturday in La Conner and holiday markets Sunday at the Vinery next to Christianson’s Nursery and at the La Conner Pub and Eatery, people were out and about, shopping and singing – a lot of singing. Did you know that the La Conner Schools volunteer students from the middle and high school music program played on Gilkey Square at 1 p.m. Saturday? Did you s...

  • Greetings from your community newspaper

    Ken Stern|Nov 30, 2022

    Happy holiday season! Along with lights, trees and lawn displays comes this more recent tradition: the annual La Conner Weekly News subscription drive. These next three weeks your community newspaper will be delivered to every address in our local school district. Friends, neighbors and relatives of subscribers are invited to join the close to 900 households in greater La Conner who have decided that they are better off – and the community itself benefits – by their investment in their subscription to their local newspaper. This is their – y...

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