Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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I’m definitely not a socialist, but I’m still secretly hoping that Bernie Sanders wins the election this year, because if he does, I’m going to dump this newspaper gig and get myself back into the university. It’s going to be free, you know. I loved going to college when I was young. It was one of my favorite times in life. Actually two of my favorite times. After I graduated the first time, I worked for a few years, then went back to graduate school, because that was way more fun, even though...
Disagreements are a fact of life, whether you’re online or off it. But it’s a fact universally acknowledged that arguments are frequently more entrenched on the Internet. Luckily, for the commenters and Facebook-feuders of the web, a new study from researchers at Cornell suggests that there are some specific techniques you can use to win arguments online. (Short of never engaging at all, of course, which is a victory of its own kind). The study, which will be presented in April at the International World Wide Web Conference, analyzed 18,000 thr...
Dear Editor, On behalf of the students, staff and Board of Directors, I would like to extend a big thank you to the patrons of the Waitsburg School District. The overwhelming support and passing of the recent Replacement Maintenance and Operations Levy will enable the District to continue to sustain the programs and services it has previously offered. Extracurricular activities and athletics allow our students to gain experiences beyond the classroom that will enhance their growth and development. The District will also seek to extend early...
The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View: It’s nice work if you can get it: In 2013, after stepping down as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton earned $9.7 million in speaking fees -- a lot of it from banks and investment firms, including $675,000 for three speeches to Goldman Sachs. Those three speeches are not on her campaign website, but it’s a pretty good bet they had a different tone than the one she is now taking. Asked about them at a New Hampshire town hall meeting this week, her response started out merely vague -- “Lo...
The Washington Post - Yanan Wang Just over a decade ago, students at a smattering of elite colleges were debating the merits of a new website called thefacebook.com. It was all the rage at Harvard, naturally, where it had been launched by a sophomore who “literally” made it in a week. “I’m just like a little kid,” Mark Zuckerberg told the Harvard Crimson in 2004. “I get bored easily and computers excite me. Those are the two driving factors here.” The other students on campus were pretty excited, too. Within weeks of going online, the s...
WALLA WALLA – Legislation regarding education funding and reform has always been a hot topic in Olympia, and this year is no exception. Last week, a group of local education professional spoke at Whitman College to share their priorities and concerns in a discussion titled Changes and Challenges in Education. Sergio Hernandez Sergio Hernandez gave what could arguably be considered the most surprising statistic of the presentation when he shared that the three states with the most languages s...
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There have been many times over the years that I have put on my reporter hat (OK, I don’t actually have one, that’s just an expression), walked into a government office and asked for a copy of something. It might have been meeting minutes from the city council or a “probable cause” document from law enforcement. I cannot think of a time when the person I made the request to wasn’t friendly and cooperative. And I always tried to be the same. If the minutes weren’t ready yet, I agreed to come back later. I’ve never felt like someone tried...
By Stephen Stromberg, The Washington Post · IOWA CITY - Ted Cruz is the Bernie Sanders of the Republican race, and Bernie Sanders the Ted Cruz of the Democratic race. No matter how you look at it, three delusions drive both candidates’ campaign narratives. Delusion Number 1: We will transform the country, uniting it behind an expansive agenda that will move the nation’s politics sharply away from center. The country must see that it agrees with us and has all along. “All across this country, millions of people rose up and became the Reagan...
Dear Editor, We would like to bring to your attention the seriousness of our school’s situation. We urge you to pass both of the upcoming levies; most urgently the Maintenance and Operations Levy, and the equally important Capital Projects Levy. The Dayton High School roof has leaked for as long as any of us can remember. It leaves disgusting brown stains on our ceiling tiles and large wet spots on the carpets in the hallways. It also occasionally drips on students’ heads or books when they walk by. This fix is long overdue and we ask that you...
Dear Editor, Several Clarkston area residents came to Waitsburg attempting to discredit Representative McMorris Rodgers. In the process they took up a good portion of the town hall meeting held so local area residents could visit with their representative. Apparently “local area” includes a 1.5-hour drive—one-way though there was a closer meeting in Dayton. Ms. Bates and company have done this at several other McMorris Rodgers’ events at other locations according to one source. Ms. Bates researched enough to find the numbers she wanted....
Dear Editor, Please show support for the Dayton School District and our kids and vote yes on the upcoming levy. Many of the items in the Capital Projects portion are things we must take care of for the sake of the facilities and our children’s safety. Even if you do not have a school-aged child, these are our children. In order to have a successful community, we must support a successful school district. Roof projects, new asphalt, exterior doors, security cameras- these are the very basics of a well-functioning facility. It takes a village t...
By LaVendrick Smith, WNPA, Olympia News Bureau OLYMPIA—Lawmakers are looking to modify the Public Records Act in an effort to help local agencies that claim they’re burdened by overly broad and massive public-records requests. House Bill 2576 would give local agencies the power to limit the time they spend each month responding to public-records requests, and would allow local agencies to charge a fee for providing public records that are requested for commercial purposes. Rep. Joan McBride, D-Kirkland, the bill’s sponsor, said the bill isn’t...
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By Jonathan Bernstein, The Washington Post As Elaine Kamarck recounts in The Washington Post, winning isn’t all that matters in the early contests on the presidential nomination calendar. Candidates seek to beat expectations, and the press and the parties judge the results against what they thought would happen. In fact, beating expectations can matter even more than the raw results because it affects the amount and tone of the coverage candidates get. Those, in turn, can affect voters in the next state on the calendar. A classic example: In 1...
Dear Editor, We are writing in support of the upcoming Dayton School District Levies. Nothing is more important than the children of our community. It is the responsibility of all adults in Dayton to ensure that its children have a safe environment and quality education. I encourage you to become informed on the aspects of this levy election. The replacement M & O Levy is 25% of the school district budget. The state does not fully fund the education of its children. The M & O Levy provides for sports and academic teams; a part time nurse and...
Dear Editor, I am writing this letter in support of the Dayton School M&O levy and Capital Projects Bond, not because I am an employee of the district, but because I support all schools in all communities. As a second grade student, I experienced what it was like to have a school levy fail. The elementary school I attend was closed for a year and all the students were bussed to other schools in the district. My parents had four children in two different schools due to elimination of local funding. While busing students to other schools is not...
Dear Editor, As a former science teacher and a person who often must make difficult decisions, charts and graphs, data and statistics are something I appreciate and frequently utilize. In the case of the 2016 ballot-proposed levies however, it seems to me that all of the relevant data and statistics are already available to anyone who might have interest. Instead, I’d like to talk about one. ONE student who is able to find a future career in welding that excites him through the chaos of his teenage years, and stops walking the road to substance...
Dear Editor, Five citizens coming together to serve as board of directors providing direction to the community’s public school system is the short summary of what being a school board member is all about. Behind that statement is a level of commitment which deserves to be recognized. School board members in our community serve the needs of students, employees, parents, and community members. As a group they take on the many challenges which arise throughout each school year with an eye to the future. Since 2009 I have worked with and for citize...
Dear Editor, I am writing this letter to encourage every voter in Columbia County to vote yes for the two Dayton school levies on the ballot. We need to have the maintenance and operation replacement levy pass to maintain the programs we currently have in school. This replacement levy represents about 25% of the schools total budget and needs to be passed to keep to keep our students moving in the right direction as they get ready to go out into the world. By passing the IT and Capital Levy, the school will be getting some much needed repairs...
Dear Editor, I want to preface this letter by saying that I don’t hate children and I love living in Waitsburg. So I am hoping that this letter will be taken in the spirit of “we need a break from taxes/levies” that it is intended. When I married and moved to Waitsburg in 1988, I fell in love with the small town. Not long after I moved here they tried running a levy to build a new grade school. The first time it failed, so they ran it again and put restoration of Preston Hall and restoration of the grade school on the same ballot. My husba...
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Is it right that such a big chunk of the cost of operating schools rests on the shoulders of local property tax payers through voter-approved levies? During my conversation with Representative Terry Nealey a couple of weeks ago (which I wrote about last week), he said that education funding is once again the number one issue facing Washington’s state legislators in the current session, which began last week. And the specific education funding issue those folks are addressing this year is how to make it more even-handed. That is, kids in rich s...
Barton Swaim, The Washington Post Many political candidates, if we’re to believe what they say about themselves, spend most of their time traveling around listening to people. “I’ve traveled all around the country, Anderson,” former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley told CNN’s Anderson Cooper at one of last year’s Democratic presidential debates, “and there’s two phrases I keep hearing again and again and again. And they’re the phrases ‘new leadership’ and ‘getting things done.’ “ O’Malley’s opponent Hillary Clinton, though, would not be out...
