Opinion / Editorials
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Your community newspaper and you
Dear Greater La Conner Community, Welcome to the La Conner Weekly News. If you are getting the paper for the first time, I hope you will find your community newspaper an enjoyable and worthwhile read. Valued subscribers, I hope this issue meets your... Full story
Thanksgiving thanks and blessings
This is the week we sit down with family and friends and give thanks, typically for the abundant bounty that so many Americans are privileged to have. At this time of American thanksgiving, lifting our eyes past the laden table is as necessary for ou... Full story
Tainted mail, poisoned elections
What is more American than the post office? The post office is older than the United States, established the year before the Declaration of Independence, in 1775 by perhaps the wisest and most practical of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin. He... Full story
Whose kids? Our kids
It is a week after the school children of La Conner and many of their parents, families and friends swarmed up First Street in the town’s annual Halloween parade. Last weekend kids of all ages were on stage at the Lincoln Theatre, performing as... Full story
Cooperating all the time, everywhere
October was National Co-op Month, the annual celebration of this alternative way to engage with each other in our business dealings and thus as people in relationship with each other. National Co-op Month offers the time to reflect on and promote a... Full story
High power EV chargers needed to keep keep tourists coming
Last week I talked about electric vehicle chargers in rural British Columbia. Charger availability there is still improving. Flo.com’s map shows that the charger in Woss, BC (population about 200),... Full story
Against military aid to Israel
No. No more military aid to Israel, not $14 billion, not 14 cents. Write President Joe Biden, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen and tell them more weapons will neither stop the killing nor end the conflict between Israel and... Full story
Elections demand high expectations
Ballots will be arriving in the mail soon. We have very few choices in this year of municipal elections. There is only one contested seat: the La Conner school district Director 2 position. The rest of the positions in greater La Conner, for school... Full story
Citizens: Time to participate
All of a sudden there are a slew of opportunities to be active civically – democratically – in the community. You do not have to live in La Conner to involve yourself. And the October activities end, appropriately, with our school children ... Full story
CORRECTION
The Sept. 27 story “Skagit Habitat for Humanity buys La Conner lot” incorrectly stated “The Town of La Conner plans to change its comprehensive plan to allow multifamily housing … .” That is an aspiration of Skagit Habitat for Humanity.... Full story
CORRECTION
The La Conner Arts Foundation donated 11 ukeleles to the La Conner School District, not the Town of La Conner’s art commission, as incorrectly reported in the Sept. 27 story “School board reviews service graduation requirement.” The Arts... Full story
CLARIFICATION
The Sept. 13 Clean Energy Cooperative column “EV costs are predictable” stated that net metering in Washington allows people to be paid for power they feed to the grid. That sentence should have ended, “to the grid, up to but not exceeding the... Full story
Governing is not posturing
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy acted rightly as the mature adult in the room last weekend, taking responsibility for passing a spending bill to fund the United States government. When you read this, McCarthy has already been voted out of the... Full story
The freedom to read everything
Every September the Weekly News focuses an editorial on Banned Books Week. The Week starts Sunday, Oct. 1 this year. Visit the La Conner Swinomish library next week. Heck, go to a library every single day through Oct. 7. We are fortunate to have... Full story
Shortening short term rentals
La Conner staff and the planning commission are updating the Town’s short-term rental regulations. These rentals are only permitted in the commercial zone – in commercial buildings. What purpose will changing these regulations serve? Whom will... Full story
Correction
Mikala Staples Hughes spoke for her own interests as an agricultural executive, passionate about the preservation of farm operations, at the Skagit County hearing on agritourism. She is not with Hughes Farms as the Sept. 6 correction in the Weekly... Full story
From the editor - Our small-town living woes
La Conner continues to dodge the bullets that so much of small-town America is getting hit by: loss of employers, employees and families moving away, empty storefronts and boarded up homes, loss of hospitals and school closures. No, instead the... Full story
From the editor: Why Richard Nixon resigned
Yesterday, Aug. 8, was the 49th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation as president is the United States. Why did Nixon resign? First for our youth, the ahistorical, those who forgot or cannot remember our 37th president, Nixon’s top White... Full story
From the editor: Weekly newspaper for sale
I love that phrase. It always makes me smile. It is what brought me to La Conner in March 2017 to look at buying the Weekly News. I will always associate my newspaper publishing career with my best friend, Dick Wittenberg, who loves to see his name... Full story
From the editor: Futures near and far
Next Monday, July 31, the La Conner school board will approve the school district's 2023-2024 budget. The vote will almost certainly be unanimous but it will not be an easy decision. Board members and staff have known about and been grappling with...
The people behind the Weekly News
Probably not even the most loyal reader of the Weekly News noticed that this issue is volume 10, issue 11. Every week the issue number advances one and on the paper’s birth-anniversary date the volume increases one. This is the 312th issue under... Full story
Not getting smoke in our eyes
The weather at the start of this week is cool and a bit rainy. Wet is certainly needed, as the year's precipitation deficit is a whooping 6.2 inches as we head into the heart of the Skagit's summer dry season. A damp and cool week is a... Full story
Smoke, fire, heat and hot air
The secondary heading for this editorial is "our ossified leadership." The political state – and status – of our country is our society-wide failure, whether you read many newspapers or none and whether you discuss vigorously, halfheartedly or no... Full story
Graduation hopes: theirs, ours
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein Thursday La Conner High School seniors graduate, 47 of them. Local merchants and institutions recognize them by sponsoring the seniors’ photographs on today's back page. Take a look a... Full story
May's warmth a sneak
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, t... Full story
