La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

A bedrock principle of our society is the rule of law. The cliches are true because they are fundamental to justice: A nation of laws, not of men. And, of course, no man is above the law. But every red-blooded American knows that everyone gets the am... Full story

A little perspective: In 1869 bearded men in tall black hats whacked in a golden spike completing the Transcontinental Railway at Provo, Utah, establishing the first sit-down transportation between the East Coast and San Francisco. In January of the...

At its recent convention in Spokane, the Republican Party’s endorsement committee removed gubernatorial candidate Semi Bird’s name from consideration due to Mr. Bird’s failure to disclose a prior federal conviction for bank larceny. This actio...

Dear Editor, Skagit County Emergency Medical Services and the Board of Skagit County Commissioners want to thank residents for supporting the recent ballot measure to renew the emergency medical services levy. The levy funds a county-wide...

If they were protesting Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses would they be branded anti Islamic? History has shown that the students were right about the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Listen to the students. Jai Boreen La C...

Monday was the 54th anniversary of Earth Day, organized in 1970 as a teach-in on college campuses to emphasize the harm out-of-control pollution has on human health as well as the environment. In typical homo sapiens fashion, giant inflatable earth... Full story

Tsunami is a Japanese word for what used to be more appropriately called a “tidal wave.” In movies and television dramas, tsunamis are portrayed as monster ocean waves cresting over the likes of New York City or Los Angeles. A bit misleading to say...

The Swinomish Tax Authority uses the same levy rate for 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021: $11.98 per $1,000. The assessed value of homes in Shelter Bay, Pull & Be Damned and Thousand Trails increased from $206,399,050 to $262,085,926. The Swinomish Tribal...

Make housing a Jensen priority The population of La Conner is aged and aging. In-migration or family formation by families of low and moderate incomes hasn’t been the case for a decade or more. There is little to no housing available for young famili...

Earth Day is Monday, April 22. This is not an Earth Day editorial and not because the almost holiday atmosphere and platitudes reverently uttered by politicians and corporate heads have hijacked the original intent. It is the same with Mother’s D... Full story

Do you know fact from propaganda when see or hear it? Learn more at the April 29 forum “News & Media Literacy: Informed or Influenced?” The League of Women Voters of Skagit County offers its second program in their series of voter education, par...

My name is Wood Weiss and I am the Chief of Skagit Fire District 13. Recently people have been asking me about the upcoming ballot measure for the countywide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) levy renewal. I thought it might help to clarify who we...

About that cute little 0.53-acre plot known as the “Jensen Parcel?” As a resident of Channel Cove for a couple of years, I spent a lot of time thinking about it, from my permaculturalist perspective. How many wants and wishes could be achieved if...

If there is one thing that is certain in the dominant culture of the United States, it is that we are number one. The best. The greatest. Back in the halcyon days of certainty portrayed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, the metaphor was that we... Full story

If this was an editorial, it would be titled "Journalists to the ramparts to save democracy: Buy small newspapers" Journalists, self-reflective navel gazers, are quoting studies that 2.5 newspapers a week – 10 a month and 130 annually – closed in... Full story

Just beyond the deer fencing, lying between this old rotting house with fruit trees just as old, between these and a dense development, lies what used to be called a “vacant lot.” It might have been called a “swamp,” also, rather than a vestige...

We live at the bottom of Snapdragon hill, one of those beautiful, quiet islands of wildlife in town, that made La Conner’s charm. It was covered in summer with wildflowers, people would come pick blackberries, deer liked to climb up the hill, t...

On Dec. 27, 2022, a predicted 11-foot tide in La Conner Channel was met with low atmospheric pressure, high river flow and a western wind. As a result the channel rose to over 14 feet and spilled over along lower places on the eastern bank, flooding...

In the 1951 movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” the landing of a spaceship on the Washington Mall and the emergence of Klaatu in a spacesuit and helmet immediately changed everything worldwide. By the film’s end, humanity learned valuable lessons... Full story