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The world is witnessing the start of year two of slaughters in Palestine. Hamas fighters started the killing Oct. 7, 2023, murdering over 1,200 innocents in their surprise attack. Since then the murder and mayhem has all been under the direction of the Israeli government and completely controlled and manipulated by its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. As horrific as the civilian death count is in Gaza – some 42,000 verified – the vast majority women and children, it is certainly an undercount, including only the found bodies and those dea... Full story
Finally. October is here, the home stretch. It is now 34 days to election day. Oh my god, still five more weeks till the campaigning ends. Since almost every one of us is ready to cast our vote for president and, if many of us had our way, we would have voted in January, or the day after President Joe Biden turned the reigns over to Kamala Harris in July, why can’t we vote tomorrow, or next Tuesday? We can’t because the U.S. Constitution sets the date of national elections. So, let’s change the Constitution. That starts most readily with petit... Full story
At 7 p.m. tonight, people wanting the La Conner Weekly News to exist in 2025 are meeting in the La Conner Civic Garden Club on South Second Street. The possible audience extends to anyone reading these words. Perhaps that includes you. The newspaper you are holding, whether reading a paper copy or reading on your phone or computer, what is your weekly news? Is it highlighting last week's events in our community, from the winners of the giant pumpkin contest at Christianson's to a state economic... Full story
The American Library Association’s 43rd annual Banned Books Week starts Sunday. It runs Sept. 22-28. This year’s theme is “Freed Between the Lines.” The ALA champions: “We can find freedom in the pages of a book – but book bans and censorship threaten that freedom, along with many other rights and institutions. ... (L)let’s share our love of the right to read and the freedom found in books. Let’s be Freed Between the Lines!” Opening a book, surfing the internet, even playing a video game offers all of us, children to elders, the opportunity t... Full story
Enrollment in the La Conner School District is shrinking while costs continue to rise. Administrators need to be jugglers and magicians, both. They are. A year after climbing out of a hole from having spent too much and thus having too little set aside for reserves – and the resulting state oversight that brought – the district is in good financial shape even with the related dilemmas of fewer students and the corresponding fewer state dollars. While it is little comfort to know most school systems in the state are in similar straits, it ind... Full story
13 issues printed since July 5, 2017. 16 weeks to paper’s final issue. Monday is Labor Day, the last of the summer season holidays and the unofficial start of fall. It is the picnic and barbeque holiday, the gather friends and family together occasion, the toast the kids before they head off or back to college or return to the classroom holiday. It is a holiday that is uniquely American, as if our laborers are special, and separate from the riff raff of all the other workers around the world. The U.S. Congress created Labor Day in 1894 to d... Full story
12 issues printed since July 5, 2017. 17 weeks to paper’s final issue Yesterday afternoon, at a hearing before the Town of La Conner ‘s hearing examiner, the case of granting a conditional use permit for a health club to open at the former COA restaurant on Maple Avenue was heard. The land is zoned residential. The restaurant operated with a conditional permit. Once the building was vacant for six months the zoning reverted to residential. Several residents oppose the permit application, saying workforce housing is needed in La Conner and an... Full story
Richard Nixon announced he was resigning his presidency 50 years ago tomorrow, Aug. 8, 1974. Why did he resign? He knew he was going to be impeached and convicted by each House of Congress. Why was Congress about to do that? The House Judiciary Committee had drafted articles of impeachment making the case that Nixon had criminally broken the law. The first article was obstruction of justice. It begins: “Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best o... Full story
La Conner’s town government – elected officials and staff – created a long task list for the second year of implementing the five-year strategic plan they adopted last September. Credit them for being ambitious: 31 tasks came out of their June retreat, with over half of them placed on Mayor Marna Hanneman and Administrator Scott Thomas’ shoulders. The fire department, with five tasks, has made progress, getting a $150,000 commitment from the town council to buy a fire boat. Public works and finance staff are assigned these tasks: improving inte... Full story
This is going to be hard for our committed Republican neighbors, friends and family members to read, but being in a community and living in a democratic society obligates all of us to accomplish the difficult task of continuing to the end of this editorial. It seems we have been collectively engaged in an agonizing drama these past three weeks. The world watched and without any hesitation universally agreed that President Joe Biden’s performance in his debate with Donald Trump June 28 was a disaster. More than stumbling terribly, he was a p... Full story
Skagit County League of Women Voter members have new T-shirts that read “LOCAL NEWS = DEMOCRACY.” They printed these ahead of their successful campaign to have the national League adopt this as a resolution in June: “The League of Women Voters of the United States believes it is the responsibility of the government to provide support for conditions under which credible local journalism can survive and thrive. “The LWVUS defines local news as accurate, in-depth coverage of government entities, including but not limited to, city council... Full story
Our country is in a pickle, politically, and, oddly, a vast majority of us seem to agree that our two major political parties are the primary factor. While more Republicans are enamored with their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, the polls show that most voters wish we had two different people to choose from to lead the country. Neither the Republican Party, as an institution – or its adherents – have any inclination of dealing with the deficits of their candidate, whether it is his age, his character or his criminal record. The Dem... Full story
Tomorrow is the 248th anniversary of the Continental Congress passing the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The easy thought, the belief that the colonists rose up with one voice in kicking the Brits out and demanding self-representation and democracy is a nice story, but not completely true. The anger, energy and righteousness throughout the 1760s and early 1770s leading up to war with Great Britain came from a minority of the population. Historians estimate that perhaps 20% of people in the 13 colonies were ardent patriots working toward... Full story
I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. – Henry Thoreau, in “Conclusion” chapter, “Walden,” 1854 This issue is the 364th I have printed as the Weekly News publisher. It finishes my seventh year here. Next week, issue 365, begins my eighth year as owner of the La Conner Weekly News. It has been a great run. “Best job ever” has long been my mantra. I am blessed to ha... Full story
Is the La Conner economy like a log floating in the Swinomish Channel, carried by the tides, up or down channel as the tide rises and falls with no momentum except moon and wind? Sometimes the log travels for miles in a single day and over the course of days or weeks, maybe helped by the breeze or a favorable obstruction or beaching. The next rising tide continues its forward direction. If progress is measured in distance, then that log may have a phenomenally successful run. Other times a log’s movement is held back for any of a host of r... Full story
Summer doesn’t arrive for another eight days, but it sure looked and felt like summer this past weekend. After two Sundays of overcast skies and rain pouring down, this week the La Conner Live Gilkey Square concert band Adrian Xavier & Ska Island and listeners were blessed with sun, blue sky, a mild breeze and temperatures almost to 70 degrees. May Sundays all summer long be warm, but not climate change induced too hot. Next Sunday it is Skagit favorite Chris Eger Band. Concerts start at 1 p.m. through Sept. 8. Bring your lawn chair. There is a... Full story
Thursday afternoon some 36 La Conner High School seniors will graduate in a ceremony at the football stadium. The weather forecast predicted sun and 71 degrees Sunday afternoon. In every way the ceremony, the parties afterward and through the weekend, the summer and the year and decades ahead ought to be a time of good weather, smooth sailing, enthusiasm and optimism as these students, like graduates from high schools and colleges all over the United States, move forward into adulthood, jobs, schooling, independence, relationships and the zilli... Full story
Memorial Day this year was cool and gray. That did not prevent people from gathering with family and friends. Outside picnics might have been few, but lots of folks celebrated, boating, home barbecuing and going out in the many ways we do on holidays. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration reported record numbers of passengers at the nations’ airports. In greater La Conner scores of people attended services at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery and the Swinomish Cemetery to honor departed military, pioneer and family members. That is how l... Full story
If there is fault to be had and people to be held accountable for the state auditor’s staff finding shortcomings in the oversight of the La Conner Rural Partial County Library District – for that is what the library’s official name is – that fault lies with all the Skagit County commissioners for the years and decades of a lack of vision and leadership that has allowed all residents countywide to languish with antiquated, piecemeal and completely underfunded and understaffed independent municipal and partial county library districts. It is no... Full story
What a weekend we had, weatherwise. Saturday was perfect for the Skagit County Master Gardeners plant sale and so tomato plant seekers were lined up at 6:30 a.m. at the county fairgrounds. Sunday was perhaps better, a gift to mothers and their families to make Mom’s day a picnic, or at least opportunities to go for a walk. Highs were in the 70s May 9-12 and after 1.9 inches of rain May 2, skies have been mostly blue. It is almost like Oregon, if not quite California. Maybe we don’t want too much sunshine too soon or for too long. But that is... Full story
Last Saturday some 13 people – mostly La Conner residents, along with Channel Drive and Pull and Be Damned neighbors and the Home Trust of Skagit executive director – met Mayor Marna Hanneman at the La Conner Swinomish Library for her monthly community check-in. There were mostly familiar faces around the conference room table. These residents have attended Hanneman’s earlier library gatherings, as many of them joined in town-organized community mingles on short-term rentals, First Street parking and the town-acquired Jenson property. That... Full story
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 amount of justice that they can pay for. And when you are a billionaire ex-president who has appointed three Supreme Court justices, not only are the books cooked, but the defendant has aces in his back pocket as well as up his sleeve. Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments over former President... Full story
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 balls got tossed around, guitars were played and laughter and music filled the air. So, for 50 years the seriousness of human-fueled devastation danced with the joy of opening our eyes to the beauty and wonders of the natural world. “It is only a little planet / but how beautiful it is” the poet Rob... Full story
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 Day, which started after the Civil War. In 1870 Julia Ward Howe called for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” dedicated to the celebration of peace and the eradication of war. Howe hoped mothers could prevent the cruelty of war and the waste of life since mothers alone bear and know the cost. That is from al... Full story
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 were the shining city on the hill, the beacon of light and hope, the place where everyone in the world wanted to be. Our citizens were the envy of mankind. We were all born with silver spoons in our mouths and our streets were paved with gold. That is why people from all over the world strive to... Full story
