Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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We have all been horrified by gun violence at theaters, malls, schools and town hall meetings. As a former prosecuting attorney/ county coroner, I have also witnessed the tragic aftermath of violence. We all want it to end. But how? Last year, numerous gun- control bills, including a universal background check measure, were introduced in the Legislature. These bills attracted the testimony of both gun-control and gun-rights advocates. The background checks measure was so divisive that, although it passed a committee, it failed to come to a...
Knowledge Bowl Regionals is coming up next week. Waitsburg will be butting heads with Dayton, DeSales, and Riverside Christian (a new challenger from north of Yakima), with the top two teams advancing to State. My captain is convinced that we're going to win both regionals and state. Especially regionals. He has this nasty habit of beginning conversations with such phrases as "When we win Regionals" or "After we win Regionals". My knuckles are sore from all the wood- knocking this...
Presidents Day was this week, so in honor of all the presidents we've had we give you a few of their profound (or not so profound) thoughts. Most of us occasionally say something interesting, but when you're president just about everything you say gets written down, including some things that are witty and thoughtful and others that are silly or strange. Here goes: Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. ~ George Washington Do not bite at the bait of pleasure 'til youknow there is no hook beneath it. ~ Thomas Jefferson A little f...
OLYMPIA - A proposed change to a law aimed at preserving farmland and open space could result in higher taxes for some Washington property owners. House Bill 2306 would expand a tax classification on land actively used for agriculture, timber production or undeveloped open space. While property tax is generally assessed on the market value of a parcel, the state's Open Space Taxation Act allows land to be taxed at a lower rate based on its current use, such as farming. Under the current law, if a farming operation is 20 acres or more, the...
Ten Years Ago February 19, 2004 Mother and daughter, Jackie Penner and Debbie Fortner ended toe 2003 reining circuit, a horse competition scored on arena patterns, with two year-end buckles a piece. Kennewick Police have arrested two more individuals after serving a search warrant on Feb. 10 in the apartment where numerous allegedly stolen musical instruments and other items were found. Last week a Kennewick man was arrested and he has confessed to the January 27 burglary of the Waitsburg Grocery Inc. store in Waitsburg. Twenty-Five Years...
I'm one of those people who gets a big kick out of planning (the cynics say "over"-planning) vacations. I will scout madly for the best value in hotels, hunt for the lowest prices, plan the travel route so that we pass through towns with Yelp-approved restaurants at lunchtime, draw up sample itineraries for every day we'll be there, and note the street address of any ice cream shops within walking distance. I know it sounds weird, but hey, everyone needs a hobby, right? So when I heard there...
Teachers and administrators in Waitsburg are concerned about the ability of their students to succeed with the "Smarter Balanced" testing that is now a requirement in Washington State. Dena Wood's front page article discusses their dilemma and their hope that parents will step in and help prepare students, particularly with computer skills. The Smarter Balanced website has a practice test. Its address is sbac.portal.airast.org/ practice-test. I thought it might be fun for someone who completed third grade about 50 years ago take a shot at...
OLYMPIA - A voter decision in November seems to be the only direction that the gun debate in Washington is heading. Lawmakers this week held hearings on two gun- related initiatives that drew hundreds of people with strong views, both for and against - including former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who three years ago was injured in a gun attack. Both the Senate and House majorities are divided on the issue, so there's little chance the Legislature will actually vote on either...
My 'thing' with the mail began in the fifth grade, when I entered an essay contest. Our teachers informed us that if we won, we would be sent a letter of notification. So every day after she came home from work, I forced my mother to take me to the post office and check the mail. I didn't win that contest. But shortly afterwards, I entered another one, and the ritual began once more. To this day, when Mom comes home from work and we've briefed each other on the day's events, I'll ask her if she...
My road to becoming a mature adult began with Bill Caudill (a.k.a.,"The Inspector"). Caudill was the "closer" for the Seattle Mariners for a couple of years in the mid-eighties. (A closer is a pitcher who comes into the game in the ninth inning when his team has a slim lead.) Whenever Caudill came into the game, the theme from "The Pink Panther" would play in the stadium (a.k.a., "The Kingdome"). I loved the Mariners and Bill Caudill. I was in college in Seattle when the Sea- hawks joined t...
For the 11 trading sessions ending Tuesday, Chicago wheat prices have traded within 20 cents per bushel of the lowest price since July 2010. There is doubt in the minds of would-be buyers; those that normally like to try to buy bottoming patterns, those that think seasonal patterns are likely to be completed now and those that are holding very profitable short-sold trades established at much higher prices over the last couple of months. There are signs that US wheat is working its way into competitive global wheat marketing channels. Egypt pu...
At one point, the Native American tribes of the Great Plains termed barbed wire "the Devil's rope." From this terminology, we can infer that at that point in time, no Plains Indian had attempted to make a bracelet of European 4-to-1 chainmaille. As Super Bowl mania is currently seizing America, I figured I'd better get in on the act. I decided to do so subtly, with a handmade metal bracelet of interlocking rings of blue and green. I surfed the Web until I found a pattern I liked - simple, v...
In the United States, about 85 million dogs and 95 million cats are kept as pets. That's according to the Humane Society of the United States. More than half of all U.S. families have at least one pet dog or cat. And here's another impressive statistic: According to the American Pet Products Association (yes, of course there's such a thing), Americans spend more than $50 billion per year on cats, dogs and other companion animals. But animals are different than appliances or cars. When a pet owner decides they no longer can take care of their...
In the words of the civil rights leader we honor this month, "We must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals." Decades later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words still ring true for all of us, including those who have disabilities. What are these goals for people with disabilities? They include education, employment, active participation in a community, and living as independently as possible. They are the same goals we all share. As the mom of a 7-year old son, C...
In last week's story on the new leadership in American Legion Post #35 we stated that Dorne Hall had been Legion Commander since 2013. It should have read that he was Commander from 2005-2013....
The Seahawks were everywhere. People passed us on the street decked out in cloudy navy blue and lime green. That ubiquitous stylized bird’s head turned up everywhere, from the back windows of station wagons to the hairy chests of thirtysomethings in swimming trunks. Flashing store signs, after informing passing cars about clearance sales and zero-percent financing, trumpeted “Go Seahawks!”, as did more than one public transit vehicle. And it was just killing a friend of mine, even more th...
It's a fact of life that many of the services we often take for granted in our communities actually involve choices. There's no rule that says school staffs can't be cut further, or that emergency service providers can't get by with less modern equipment. We get to choose whether or not those things happen. Waitsburg area residents will face two of these choices on the ballot that is due back February 11. One involves the Waitsburg School District. The district is asking voters to approve a $1.08 million maintenance and operations...
Ten Years Ago January 22, 2004 Sen. Mike Hewitt, R-16th District, has been appointed chair of the Capital Budget Committee within the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Legal documents are pending, but an old-fashioned gentlemen's handshake has tightened the agreement between Columbia County Hospital District No. 1 and John A. Wood Jr. for a new location of the Waitsburg Clinic. At the January 15 board meeting, the Columbia County Hospital District was given an official not to proceed with plans to build a new clinic at the corner of 3rd and Main...
A decade from now, when readers of The Times get into their self-driving cars to be whisked automatically to work, many of them will probably lean back and peruse the electronic version of this newspaper (ignoring the beautiful Touchet Valley Scenery, I'm afraid). It'll come right up on their dashboard screen, no doubt. In the Pioneer Portraits section of the January 18, 2024 edition of The Times (that'll be a Thursday - I checked), those passive automobile passengers will be able to read e...
Words simply cannot express the degree to which I am bothered when the people in my life misconstrue my beloved Knowledge Bowl as a sport for those who have had the part of their brain containing the sense of humor removed in order to accommodate more quadratic functions. English translation: They think we're cyborgs. I don't blame them entirely - after all, that's sort of the way geeky types get portrayed in the media. But first of all, most Knowledge Bowlers aren't geeks in the least (th...
