Articles written by Judy Booth
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Langley's team approach tackles tourism
“The Langley Chamber of Commerce is supported through grants that are specific to tourism,” notes Nicole Whittington-Johnson, the Chamber’s executive director. Additionally, there is Langley Creates, a state-designated creative district, part of a Wa...
Langley faces challenges similar to … La Conner
A woman is elected the new mayor of a small town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in November 2023. “I think Langley is a very sweet, quaint town. It is not homogenous. (That’s) my experience,” Mayor Kennedy Horstman told the Weekly News in a joint...
Multitude of delays snag Snapdragon Flats development
A complex building project requiring the necessary permits from two separate permitting entities, a geology study, weather and possible staffing shortages – to say nothing of carving out a rock w...
Saratoga Inn: Great service, great rooms, great views
A dreamy, bluesy Frank Sinatra crooned the air at the 5-star Saratoga Inn in Langley as I entered the dining area for the complimentary breakfast last week. And after that, an Amy Winehouse song....
Anacortes event center plans progressing
The Anacortes City Council and the Port of Anacortes commissioners voted unanimously to authorize the Port’s executive director to enter into an interlocal agreement regarding the conceptual design of an event center at the corner of Ninth Street a...
It's a very breezy Pet Parade
A cold wind ripped up the Swinomish Channel, swirled around Gilkey Square on Saturday and undid plans for the La Conner Pet Parade's red-carpet walk. Still, around 50 registrants and a small crowd of...
Theater review: Theater Arts Guild delivers in 'Mary Poppins Jr.'
TAG did it again! Skagit County’s own Theater Arts Guild musical production of “Mary Poppins Jr.” is full of happy and talented kids on stage and in the audience. It was uplifting, rambunctious and joyful last Saturday night. All 40 performers and c...
Get dolled up for Daffodil Pet Parade
“I blackmail people now! You gotta show up [for the pet parade] – or you don’t come into my shop!” joked Gina McCarthy, owner of Enchanted Locks and volunteer coordinator for the La Conner Chamber of Commerce’s third annual Daffodil Pet Parade sc...
Theater review: March yourself over for a jubilant 'Music Man'
The rousing performance of “The Music Man” at McIntyre Hall Saturday night trumpeted the talents of Diane Johnson, the production’s music director and music department chair at Skagit Valley College. From “76 Trombones” to “Till There was You” ...
Let's dance, shall we?
Salsa, waltz, swing, cha-cha – take your pick. The La Conner Retirement Inn was hopping on Valentine’s Day to ballroom dance. The most romantic day of the year – Valentine’s Day – is celebrate...
Come and hear journalist Tim Egan talk libraries, politics at Lincoln Theatre
Feisty National Book Award winner Timothy Egan writes about some of the most pressing issues of American life. He speaks at the Lincoln Theatre March 2 to raise funds for the new Mount Vernon...
Anacortes plans events center to replace Port's Transit Shed
The closure of the Transit Shed by the Port of Anacortes at the end of 2023 left this event-centered, artistic, music loving, car-show stopping town without a large-scale program venue. Anacortes City Councilmembers Ryan Walters, Christine...
La Conner opens Rowing and Paddling Club races
Pink, yellow and white life vests bobbed through the gray waters of the Swinomish Channel as more than 100 people paddled kayaks, outrigger canoes, paddle boards and Hawaiian pontoon boats of equally...
6th Annual Birds of Fiber exhibit
A quick stroll – if climbing three flights of stairs is a stroll – to take in the newly opened "Birds of a Fiber" and then a treat by spending time viewing the other two exhibits at the Pacific Nor...
How beneficial are prescription drug programs?
A litany of opaque dealings by pharmacy benefit managers was emphasized in last week's article ("Small drugstores, high drug prices," Jan. 24 Weekly News). To recap, PBMs are middlemen who negotiate with insurance companies as well as drug...
Small drugstores, high drug prices
La Conner Drug Store is not the first small-town, family-owned drug store to go out of business in recent years. Rite Aid, hopefully the new home of former employees from La Conner Drug and Island...
66 birds/3 degrees lecture
Saturday's lecture at the Museum of Northwest Art capped off the three-month visual and sound exhibition, "Surge: Mapping Transition, Displacement and Agency in Times of Climate Change," with a...
La Conner Drug closes Jan. 23
La Conner Drug Store, established in 1877, was recognized as the oldest continuous-running drug store in Washington State by the Washington Board of Pharmacy in 2014 – sometimes under different o...
'Seussical the Musical' an extravaganza
“Adults are obsolete children and the hell with them.” – Dr. Seuss “Seussical the Musical,” a whimsical, fantastical stage production based on the works of Dr. Seuss, is the most performed show in America. The local production at the Lincoln T...
Go off to see 'The Wizard of Oz'
BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO! The opening night performance of “The Wizard of Oz” filled the Lincoln Theatre to capacity and the evening ended with a standing ovation. Since 1939 audiences have loved L. Frank Baum’s story of young Dorothy, a Kansas farm...
Blessing the La Conner Swinomish Library
Like loons calling across the water, like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," the Swinomish Canoe Family hushed the crowd of 150 people as they sang and drummed a blessing prayer, the chorus meandering its...
Olga's April account of the war in Ukraine
Olga has continued to provide email updates. She lives in eastern Ukraine. In mid-April no fierce battles were around her. She told me the sirens were less often as Russia concentrated on other areas. “I feel kind of weird because we have regions t...
Olga's firsthand account of the war in Ukraine, part 2
Olga is offering a glimpse into life in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022. The article last week left Olga at work in Ivano-Frankvisk in West Ukraine. She had just read on social media that Kiev was being bombed. Her dad and...
My Name is Olga and I live in Ukraine
This article is taken from edited emails received from Olga in Ukraine to Jan Paul of Shelter Bay. Jan has known Olga for twenty years. For security reasons we are not using Olga’s or her family’s last name. Olga became friends with Steve and Jan...
Three poets' performances at Poetry Festival
Listening to Javier Zamora sing one of his poems at Maple Hall to a Meringue beat during this month’s Skagit River Poetry Festival, you would be surprised to learn he had traveled more than 3,000 miles on foot, by bus and boat, across rivers, d...
