Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 571
Tom and I were touched and grateful for everyone who participated in Tom Robbins Day. The event uplifted our community and reminded us to play, imagine and create. The costumes and parade participants were truly delightful. The day emphasized what a great town we are privileged to live in. This event would not have happened without our committee. Gina Torpey (aka lead fairy), Meg Holgate, Betsy Humphrey and Cherie Ware worked tirelessly for three months to make this day possible. Big thanks to Mayor Ramon Hayes for his beautiful proclamation....
Thank you for printing the Tom Robbins graduation address article. I graduated at about the same time and spent my formative years in the Skagit Valley. Although I experienced a traditional high school commencement speech, not a word of which I can remember, I clearly recall soaking up Tom’s books. I moved away from the Valley for graduate school and a satisfying career studying insects that eat trees. I’ve never tired of asking questions of the natural world, a fascination I attribute to having spent so much of my youth pondering the lim...
On Sept. 2 La Conner got our soul back. In honor of Tom Robbins our town came out to honor one of its own. The energy was electric, the costumes outrageous and the best part of the entire day was the sense of community. Truly that is a feeling that has not been present in a very long time for whatever reason. The day was magical, La Conner sparkled in our uniqueness. So from one resident to another please let’s keep that spirit going. With joy and hope Marna Hanneman La Conner...
utheast of Lahaina on Maui with sticky-foot gekkoes and cockroaches for roommates and obnoxious rats as my nearest neighbors. As the embers cool and the tempers flair from the recent Maui wildfires, I can’t help admitting geologists are correct in calling this period of our planet’s history the Anthropocine. Humans not only lit the flames of Maui’s conflagration, Humans provided the fuel. When I first visited the Islands, non-native cane toads hopped through vast plantations of sugar cane that grew where venerable rain forests had been clear...
It’s peak season for food here in La Conner. Let’s start with seafood, crab, oysters, prawns and I tasted some locally caught smoked salmon the other day, yum. La Conner is wonderfully positioned between the water and the farmland. There are so many stands offering sweet corn in our orbit it doesn’t pay to grow it yourself. I will admit the six ears for a buck and the honor stands have gone the way of the Dodo bird, well we can always blame the politicians. Sill, in the grand scheme of things locally grown food is cheap and supports our local...
There is order in the establishment of frontier towns like La Conner. Religion usually precedes law enforcement and the saloon precedes either religion or law enforcement. Opportunity is the single lure of the frontier, though opportunity is not the same for all. Some come to make a new life for themselves and family. Some come for a quick buck, however it might be acquired. Some come to escape and remake themselves. No two pioneers are the same; neither are they different. They want to get ahead and make something of themselves. Some succeed m...
In mid-August Bob Raymond and I met with Rep. Clyde Shavers over coffee. Wow, what an impressive guy! He thinks five years ahead. Green hydrogen. Agritourism. Affordable housing. Financial education in our high schools. Investing in our rural communities. Services to our veterans. The environment. Electrification of school buses. He is working on 13 bills right now that he will push forward in the next session. He knows how to get things done in Olympia. Where does he get the energy? When he asked for input, I handed him my study of the tax...
Fire Blanket saves lives Please share this with your readers! Several weeks ago, I nearly set my home on fire. I had a three-quart saucepan, with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, on the gas stove, as part of a recipe in the making. I stepped away from the stove to take care of laundry. Let’s just say I was distracted. Suddenly the smoke detector went off. I rushed back to the kitchen to a pan on fire, flames nearly 20 inches in the air! Instinct kicked in, as I reached for a Fire Blanket hanging in the pantry. If not for this blanket, I would n...
When I started working on lithium-ion batteries, in 1993, Sony and Toshiba had introduced the first such commercially available batteries a couple of years earlier. They were mostly used in “the 4 Cs” of small consumer electronics – cassette players, camcorders, cell phones and computers. If anyone had thought about putting a bunch of lithium-ion batteries together into huge battery packs, for vehicles or utility distribution systems, they would have stopped as soon as they found out the cost:...
New solar and wind electric generators are being installed at increasing rates because their costs are declining and utilities are getting better at integrating intermittent generation into their grids. New renewable generation plants are more economical than new coal or natural gas plants. Renewable generators are, therefore, displacing fossil or nuclear fueled plants when the old plants are retired. However, generation from solar and wind sources doesn’t necessarily happen at the exact same t...
I’ve lived in La Conner and the surrounding area for 38 years and continue to be thrilled by all the wonderful organizations here that support gardening, farming, land conservation, the Sunrise Food Bank, Kiwanis, Rotary and Soroptimists, to name a few. And the businesses here are unique and charming. We have a feast of restaurants here to satisfy so many tastes, fish from the sea, burgers, tacos, fine dining, ice cream, breakfasts and sliders. And coffee, the best anywhere. My favorite place in La Conner is Seaport Books. Janna and company h...
I recently received an invitation from the Skagit County Republican Party to its annual Lincoln-Reagan gala. I've never voted for a Republican, but I do recall long political discussions with my father, a lifelong Republican,. We often disagreed on policy, but never about basic facts. So, out of curiosity, I explored the website of the Skagit County Republicans and was immediately swept down the proverbial rabbit hole. In one blog post (April 27) county chairman Bill Bruch refers to "the Marxists who are currently running our country", meaning...
I was very sad to hear that the city council had voted to remove the salmon slide. The letter (Weekly News, June 7) mentioned that it was going to be removed because of the continued cost of maintenance. Having watched it closely for the past few years I know that the only maintenance that was done was done by Ollie Iverson, the parks commissioner. I question the so called high maintenance costs that the city claims. The cost of its removal would be exorbitant and would make no sense. The salmon slide was the highlight of our grandchildren’s v...
What poisons have been unleashed in America? In Jewish mythology, a dybbuk is a malicious, possessing spirit, believed to be a dislocated soul. Pandora opened her jar (dubbed a box in the 16th century) out of curiosity, thus releasing all manner of evil and misery upon mortals, put into the jar by the gods to punish Prometheus for giving fire to mortals. The non-mythical Donald Trump, via his embrace of violence and untruth, has both enshrined violence and released evil and misery across our land, and by doing so become a malicious, possessing...
After reading in the Weekly News about the La Conner Town Council’s decision to destroy the fish slide in Conner Waterfront Park due to money issues and other things, I have some questions. As I’m involved, of course I have some thoughts. The only real money the Town has spent so far was to hire renowned local artist/sculptor Tom Jay to design and build the slide, since then the monies spent were on some grinding wheels, epoxy-like material and paint used by John Doyle and myself, volunteering to maintain the slide and keep it looking goo...
No political party, no politician can heal the evident and destructive ills of our country. We, long ago, took God out of our schools, eliminated the Ten Commandments and crosses from public areas. Now in that void, evil has moved in. I have lived a long time and have never seen such darkness displayed, daily, by so many politicians and citizens. We are in the throes of a spiritual battle. Back to God in this country, or we will have a country not worth living in. "There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation ... one is by the sword ......
Dear Editor: Your May 24 editorial (“The decisions we make,” Weekly News) suggests that concerns about sex-change interventions on minors arise from “madness and meanness” and “fear and hate,” spread by the “false prophets” of “a religion of limited vision, of control, fear and intolerance.” On February 23, the prestigious British Medical Journal published a review by its investigative team of the medical evidence. It found that medical experts and public health authorities in Sweden, Finland, France, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain a...
Dear Editor, Thank you for your May 24 editorial “The decisions we make.” You describe well bigotry’s basis in fear and its manifestation in cowardice. You also point your readers to pay attention and speak up. I encourage the same. An American variety of “brown shirts” that helped bring Donald Trump to power in 2016 remains active across the country, and in our own state and county. I believe that ugly political strain will continue to assault our democratic institutions unless and until enough people stand up and call it out for what it i...
It’s with great interest that I hear about the parcel of property being quasi-gifted to the town. I’ve looked at that property for a very long time. During the slough burp of Dec 27, it was pretty much covered in water. I’ve lived at Channel Cove, contemplating this property has been a natural for me. As a lifelong farmer in the area, I’ve thought long and hard about turning it into a garden, but then I’ve thought about the strikes against it. Deer can climb and jump over significant fencing, raccoons can climb over any fencing and they’ll h...
Part II following May 17 So where are we at the moment? The Shelter Bay board once again surprises no one with their majority vote to declare the recall petitions for the five executive officers are invalid. Rather than listening and adhering to the community's wishes and intent, they narrowly interpreted their poorly written rules to establish a technicality. The board majority (5) – with strong opposition by the board minority (4) – moved forward with: • A rent adjustment index that virtually doubled the rent. • Removing legal counsel...
Shelter Bay, as an organization and entity, is both an anomaly and a conundrum. It attempts to operate functionally as both a corporation and a homeowner’s association, and the lines of authority and responsibility between them have become irreconcilably blurred. The management of both entities has become the assumed responsibility of nine board of director members elected at large from the membership (residents) of the community. (In the case of an elected board member’s unfilled term – for example, as a consequence of a resignation -- indiv...
For World Migratory Bird Day, May 13th, Skagit Audubon Society especially appreciated the leadership of U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, who is sponsoring a bill reauthorizing and bolstering the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act. As members of the Skagit Valley community, we understand the vital role that migratory birds play in our ecosystem and our economy. Our valley is home to myriad migratory bird species that rely on the region's wetlands, forests, and farmland as critical stopover sites during their long journeys. Without these...
I hope I am not alone in my wry reaction to the half-page ad in the May 3 La Conner Weekly News titled, “Opportunity For Positive Change in Shelter Bay.” Among the several issues mentioned was the need to practice transparency. The ad was submitted by a group that, although located geographically, remained otherwise anonymous. Huh … excuse me? Curtis Kemp Shelter Bay...
The circumstances at our schools have me concerned, but that’s nothing new, I’ve seen these budgetary shortcomings coming for several years now. Maybe my farm was small and inconsequential, but it was a viable business for more than a quarter century. My wife and I had to manage a budget that was produced by us, had a small staff and we didn’t get a subsidy from anyone. Research projects were funded by profits, not grants and loans. Now I’m in a quandary; can public schools legally compete and make a profit from student activities? Friday...
I was lucky enough to be a raindrop in the sea of gun reform in Washington state. My husband and I attended one of the later hearings on HB 1240, the assault weapons ban, as representatives of Safe and Sane Skagit, a charter member of The Alliance for Gun Responsibility. SaSS was begun in 2015 after nine people were shot and eight wounded at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR., by one person’s sense of outrage and helplessness in the face of another gun tragedy. She sent a letter to friends saying, “Let us please do SOMETHING, joi...
