Opinion
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 1720
Artificial intelligence and peace
In his message for the 57th World Day of Peace this Jan. 1, Pope Francis reflected on the impact of artificial intelligence on world peace and urges the international community to adopt a binding international treaty that regulates its development... Full story
For a stronger La Conner in 2024
Hello and Happy New Year! First and foremost, I hope you have been able to spend time with loved ones and had some time to reflect on 2023. Secondly, I wish you and yours a safe and prosperous New Year. May 2024 bring the necessities we need to make...
Regarding the future of agritourism
By Glen Johnson Agritourism, is it a good thing or bad? A wedding in a farmer’s backyard is a great place and time to congratulate the couple, while also putting the spready on the table. Foods from area farms could be shared, marketed and sold to t...
Thank you Mayor Hayes
How does one thank a person who has unstintingly given 16 years of his life to our community? Ramon Hayes has been La Conner’s mayor twenty four hours a day for every one of those years. Many of us have had the pleasure of chatting with him on his d...
Check smells political
Many, maybe all of us, received a check from our state attorney general, Bob Ferguson. He said it was for me being overcharged for chicken. I don’t know how he knew how much chicken I bought but because of his being a candidate for governor, I s...
La Conner Fire Department thanks
The La Conner Volunteer Fire Department would like to thank our La Conner Community for the continued support this year! From attending parades to supporting our fundraisers, this community helps make our operations more fulfilling and successful....
Thank you Weekly News
Dear La Conner Weekly news team, Simply put: thank you. Thank you for all of the effort you put into your stories, for connecting with the community and for the quality of your work. Your publication is a large part of what helped my spouse and I...
New knowledge advances science
In 1992, two colleagues and I visited Ukraine and Russia to tour ex-Soviet research laboratories in search of interesting technologies that had been developed by their scientists and engineers. The co...
Weekly News staff are unsung heroes
From an editor who takes each week’s editorial very seriously, I report that this is one of my most important editorials of the year. Each December ends with shining light on unsung heroes in the community, the critical souls who day after day and e... Full story
If I ran the Zoo
Rain rain, go away, come again some other day. No, rain please don’t go away, stay so I can breathe another day. We live in a place with a lot of rainfall, especially at this time of year. This m... Full story
The future of readily available alternative energies is almost here
I wrote earlier that existing technologies aren’t that far from allowing us to produce sustainable energy for as little as a tenth of the cost of conventional electric generation. Solar p... Full story
Finding hope in dark times
Tomorrow, Dec. 21, is the solstice, the shortest day of the year. In BCE, Before the Common Era, and for all the centuries in our Common Era, people have celebrated the end of the year’s dark period and the beginning again of the coming of the l...
Musings - On the editor's mind
We, tell – and listen to – stories for a reason. Way before the internet or radio or even telegraph lines, communities collectively gathered around the campfire to both tell each other the important stories of the day and to recall and pass down myt... Full story
Preserve Skagit County's small business farmers
Did you know that in Skagit County only 2% of the farms in the valley are over a thousand acres? Did you also know that 41% of farms in Skagit County are noted as residential or lifestyle farms, aka hobby farms? The face of farming has changed:... Full story
Report: The Sound is holding on; recovery uncertain
The Puget Sound Partnership recently released its biennial State of the Sound report concluding that while, overall, Puget Sound is holding on, its recovery remains uncertain (Puget Sound Partnership: State of the Sound (wa.gov)). This very mixed... Full story
Loss, politics, family love
Kudos to the editor for being willing to post a letter in last week’s issue that, I suspect, did not align with his perspective. This gives credence to his professed belief that a free press, uncensored, is best and open communication can, h... Full story
War reporting, now and then
For this last subscription drive mailing editorial, because I respect everyone reading this newspaper and take my work seriously, I went to “Deadline Artists,” an anthology of newspaper columns over the last 100 years. The point of reporting is to... Full story
Thoughtful management for a successful future
Look around: We live on the edge of the continent, less than 35 miles due east of Victoria Harbor in one of the most idyllic communities on the west coast. Positioned as a safe passage for marine travel and tied to the to the salt waters of the... Full story
Every heavy rain shows ring dike is needed now
Well, once again we dodged a bullet, the atmospheric river hit mostly just south of us this time. Two years ago the atmospheric river hit the Skagit watershed pretty hard, but Whatcom County got hammered and towns along the Canadian border were... Full story
"The Work of Christmas"
Each year when I look for my unused Christmas cards and find the poem titled “The Work of Christmas” by Howard Thurman, a 20th century theologian, educator and civil rights leader, I am reminded of what is important about the season. While we cel... Full story
No one way First Street
The idea of making First Street in La Conner one way has been attempted before, over 25 years ago now. It didn’t work. The Town’s public works department used to change the traffic flow to one way during tulip festival, for a month during that tim... Full story
Go solar not hydropower
The article from Nov. 15 about the Skagit County water outlook (“Skagit County water outlook complicated”) pointed out that the challenges related to low water flows on the Skagit River are becoming more complex. This is a big deal for both irrigatio... Full story
America has changed and Joe Biden is to blame
Growing up in Seattle from the early ‘50’s until 1989 when I finally had a bellyful of the insanity and moved here, it seemed like the world had gone just nuts! Compared to today’s world, America in particular, it was the best of times! Between the m... Full story
Covering the holidays
Another holiday season has come to greater La Conner. Santa jump started December, showing up at the La Conner Swinomish Library to read stories to children last Wednesday. He returned twice Saturday, first fortifying himself with pancakes at the... Full story