Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Dear Editor, The City of Dayton decision to seek a sales tax rate increase and to create a Transportation Benefit District is one that is of utmost importance to our community. You only need to drive the streets of Dayton to realize that there is a need to capture dollars that will only be used for street maintenance. A yes vote will insure that dollars will be set aside to repair, maintain and reconstruct the streets as necessary. Current city tax dollars and existing budget requirements do not allow sufficient funds or reserve to accomplish...
OLYMPIA — Lawmakers are considering legislation to allow university students between ages 18 and 21 to taste alcohol in the classroom. But don’t plan a celebratory high-five unless you’re an aspiring winemaker. “It’s imperative that someone learning to make wine has the requisite palate to recognize the nuances that are inherent in the product that they are making,” said Rep. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland, wine merchant and co-sponsor of House Bill 1004. “This is a product that you don’t just talk about: you smell it and you taste it. It would be...
OLYMPIA - Would your legislator ever consider decriminalizing heroin possession? Or maybe turning the Supreme Court justices’ elections partisan? What about allowing teenagers to taste alcohol? The 2015 legislative session is just getting started, but already some proposed bills are likely to turn a few heads. Sixteen Republicans and three Democrats have sponsored House Bill 1051, which would require Supreme Court justices — but no other judicial officer in the state — to declare a partisan affiliation when running for election. One spons...
Every once in a while some adult in my family will tell a hilarious joke about my being able to pay my way through college. I laugh. They look confused. And I find out that it wasn’t supposed to be a joke in the first place. As far as I can tell, paying one’s own way through college is all but impossible nowadays. Depending on which way you lean politically, this is either the inevitable result of Socialist-style financial aid distribution or a conspiracy of the wealthy establishment to rem...
OLYMPIA--Two years after Washington voters ended pot prohibition lawmakers are wading through a thicket of proposed reforms that aim to stabilize an industry struggling to get off the ground. “Right now I call it the wild, wild west,” Senate Democratic Leader Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, said during Thursday’s annual Associated Press Legislative Preview. “We’ve got incongruities in this law that we need to solve.” With seven new cannabis-related bills pre-filed so far come seven new opportunities to shape Washington’s unprecedented...
Dear Editor, A few drivers are putting themselves and our school bus riders at risk by choosing to violate laws. School busses are required to stop at railroad crossings and yes, they accelerate slower than your car which may inconvenience you. That does not mean it is safe or legal for you to pass them across the double yellow line to get in front of them. School busses follow the speed laws for trucks, not cars, meaning they may be going 60 mph when your limit may be 65 mph. County roads, such as the Middle and Lower Waitsburg Roads, are...
The Times invites readers to share their thoughts on our Opinion Page. Letters to the Editor can be emailed to us at editor@waitsburgtimes.com, or mailed to The Times at P.O. Box 97, Waitsburg, WA 99361. Letters can also be hand-delivered to our office. Letters should be no more than 400 words long. All letters must be signed by the writer(s) using their actual name, and complete contact information for each writer, including address and phone number must be included. We reserve the right to decline to publish any letter that we deem...
About four years ago, when I was publisher of the Blue Mountain News, I interviewed State Representative Terry Nealey as he was preparing to start the 2011 legislative session. The economy was in the dumps then, and the state government was facing a reduction of more than $1 billion in tax revenues compared to the year before, along with a huge budget deficit. Here’s what Nealey had to say about that in December 2010: “In 2007 the state had a $2 billion surplus, and the Democrats passed a bun...
It’s been one of those days. After wasting two cups of good pecans on a batch of gritty pralines, I discovered that one of my college applications is missing some components – in other words, that it is still bound and determined to kill me with a stress-induced apoplexy. It’s days like these, remarkably, when I make the most progress on my recreational writing projects. Anyone who has ever had more than two undertakings go sour within forty-five minutes of each other can appreciate the appea...
DAYTON – Republicans are in a stronger position in the Washington state legislature this year, and the state's economy is stronger as well. Those are two factors that State Representative Terry Nealey, Republican from Dayton, will look forward to as he heads to Olympia this month for his sixth legislative session. The 2015 session of the Washington State legislature opens Monday. This year's regular 105-day session will last until early May. The state house and senate must agree on a two-year bu...
This issue of The Times marks, for me, the completion of two years as the paper’s editor and one year as its owner and publisher. For once, the new year brings no big change in my role here. It has been a great pleasure to help bring news and information to our readers in Walla Walla and Columbia Counties the past two years. (And let me not forget the many readers around the country who read The Times to keep up with what we’re doing here.) It’s a privilege to be able to provide a voice for w...
I sat in the living room thumbing through a seed catalog. I contemplated ripping out the order form and sending for a few choice varieties of tomato when I remembered that I would be heading off for college right before they were in season. The floor was littered with shreds of wrapping paper. A brother and a couple assorted cousins were sprawled on the floor and furniture. A paused frame from the credits of a Christmas movie flickered on a TV screen. It was getting warm, and I was getting...
Dear Editor, I’m in full agreement with Joyce Anderson’s letter (“Stricter requirements needed for pot processing” / Union-Bulletin / December 26, 2014). In addition to the 1965 Walla Walla Avenue location (mentioned in her letter), here are two more examples of unacceptable locations for pot retail shops: 927 West Main Street. Tangletown Holdings (Seattle) plans to open in March 2015. This address is in a residential and small business neighborhood. A church is across the street. And The Salvation Army and St. Francis Catholic Church are abo...
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds; While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore...
I t's almost Christmas, and if any of you are anything like me you'll still be trying to get some last-minute shopping in - in order, of course, to ensure that all of your loved ones get the perfect gift. When it doesn't quite work out like that, however, the results can be faintly amusing. So here's my gift to all of you: A list of the worst gift-giving predicaments I've ever been in. (But I put the entire list in the second person, just to lessen the personal shame I feel.) At the end of a long day of shopping, you find the perfect present...
Dear Editor, I am writing to protest the shooting of candid photographs of local citizenry by the Times staff. A photo of me appeared in this week's issue and it has become an uncomfortable issue, indeed. The local heathen had, at some time past, issued an informal decree that whenever someone's picture appeared in the local paper, that person was required to furnish a dozen maple bars to the Waitsburg Hardware store. Obviously, this was intended as a form of punishment for having had one's picture in the paper. However, I am not responsible...
[Editor's note: Following is one of the most famous newspaper editorials ever written. It was written in response to a letter to the editor, and was published in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun.] We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun: Dear Editor- I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please...
Dear Santa. OK, so it's been a few years since I've written. And, yes, I know about the rising cost of reindeer feed due to the effect of an expanding ethanol market, and the detrimental effect that unnecessary gift weight has on any airborne object operating without the benefit of a major lift coefficient. And, yes, I know I'm a bit too old for this. But this year, there are extenuating circumstances. I really, really need this present. Really. I loved the model I grew up with. If they still...
This week we have the privilege of presenting the writing of nearly 150 young contributors. Students at Waitsburg Elementary School have written Christmas poems or stories, or even letters to Santa Claus, and they've submitted them to us for publication. (And we're not even paying them.) Last year in this space I said that, when you write for a living, it can sometimes feel like digging ditches with your fingertips. That's an example of an analogy, which is something we writers like to use,...
