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

Our nation faces many challenges. It has been decades since we have watched the horrors of war on the evening news. The atrocities of the war in Ukraine are a harsh reminder of the fragility of peace and prosperity in our world. Russia’s invasion o...

So, however you slice it, the more diverse the chances to edu-tain these tourists, the better. When tourists come and catch a sustainably raised, collaboratively grown fish, they will learn so much that their bill tips left behind would be a new...

Over the past two decades there have been nearly 20,000 deaths due to gun violence in the United States and since 2013 over 3,500 mass shootings. More than 2,000 firearms-related bills have been intoduced to the U.S. Congress. Proponents argue the...

Hatfield and McCoy were sitting solidly in their seats, holding tightly on to their bourbons and beers for dear life, drinking doubles and ordering new rounds before their glasses were empty. You could tell they were shook but it would be a long...

This is a once upon a time story set in our place, right here. There is not a palace but a property, and a historic La Conner couple, Donna and Gerald Blades, are at the heart of it. The Blades owned an Exxon gas station on Morris and Fourth...

The March Point Heronry is the largest heron nesting site on the west coast of the United States and provides critical genetic diversity for the health of these beloved local birds. Due to the sensitive nature of the nesting herons, the land the...

The Rotary Club of La Conner, in partnership with La Conner Elementary School, would like to thank La Conner and the surrounding Skagit Valley for your kindness and generosity for our March Community Project “Snacks for Students.” Thanks to all of yo...

The introductory line to the Port’s Tuesday public session on the future of the La Conner Marina was “(we) have property ready for development.” Those words are frightening to many of us in La Conner who have experienced the Town’s eager approva...

A friend thought this was worth sharing and so do I: “There’s a strange odor in the living room,” my daughter, a first-time mom with a newborn and an acute sense of smell, said. I knew at once that the crawlspace of our vacation rental had been...

We are facing a crisis with inflation, as happened in the 1980s. Gas prices are at record levels, a different crisis from their spikes in the 1970s, when there were two Arab oil embargoes, both a result of Israeli wars. Russia’s invasion of and w...

On March 23 I requested information from the Town regarding any rezone discussion of the property proposed for the Center Street development. On March 28 I received an answer from the town administrator saying that he had the right to take five days...

For many years there was a Skagit County 300-acre dairy farm owned by a couple with a family. As the couple grew older, they decided to sell the farm. There was a man in Seattle who was interested in the purchase of a farm. His name was Rabbi Raphael...

I am sad that La Conner School District is experiencing declining enrollment. This could force budget cuts that make it tough on kids and staff. My guess is that it has less to do with local children going to private schools or homeschooling than it...

I had a luthier guest at my Airbnb for five nights from Virginia, Steve Showalter, the creator and proprietor of Showalter Guitars. Steve, a very laid back kinda guy brought two of his beautiful guitars to the show for sale. He and I shared some inte...

Good news is building around the Skagit Valley for commitments to construct apartments. In Anacortes, the Arts Festival organization will build apartments above the O Avenue Anacortes Cinemas it has purchased and will develop into a performing arts...

The expression “new normal” has increasingly felt like a meaningless phrase. With each new shift in the experience of the novel coronavirus pandemic, what we thought we knew had to be relearned and what served as guidance or best practices often had...

Citizens of greater La Conner are invited by the Town of La Conner to participate in hearings the next two weeks. The town council first holds an obligatory public hearing May 10 before applying for a $30,000 economic development planning grant....

On April 13 a meeting of Shelter Bay homeowners was held at Summit Park Grange Hall. It was well attended and all homeowners welcomed. No elected board members chose to attend. The group sponsoring the meeting is called the Rainbow Action Committee...

I am a relative newcomer to La Conner and I have been surprised by the pending approval of the 20-unit condominium development proposed off of Center Street. As a developer of medical facilities for over thirty years, I have never seen the approval...

I would like to thank the La Conner Middle & High School for the wonderful 2022 spring concert on the evening of April 19. It was truly a tribute to the hard work of two teachers, Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Clark and their students! We were amazed at the...

Ria Burns, apparently the manager for the state’s Department of Ecology’s water resources, including the Skagit River, would do well to take some classes on hydraulics. The only way to harm fish by taking water from the Skagit for irrigation wou...

Thank you for continuing to talk about our existential crisis in your last editorial, “The world after Earth Day.” I am sorry that you have not had anyone else saying that you were not radical enough but let me say it now: you were not radical eno...

I would like to commend Ken Stern for his April 20 editorial calling for creating Car Free Sundays downtown. As he points out it would reduce our carbon footprint and help clean the air for not only our citizens and our children but also those...

Friday was Earth Day, an opportunity to share clean-ups, concerns and celebrations of our blue-blue spaceship planet home. Earth Day offers the chance to reflect on the critical changes we, the people, mostly of the United States, but truly all of us...

Late last August, this newspaper’s publisher – me – was seen by some in the community limping around the commercial district Wednesdays delivering the Weekly News to stores and red newspaper boxes. In October the pain from arthritis b...