Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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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...
~Marshawn Lynch, Seattle Seahawks running back, after he scored two touchdowns in Saturday's playoff win against the New Orleans Saints....
Here at The Times, we have a love-hate relationship with crime stories. Under current management, we're trying to focus more on positive stories and less on negative ones. And anyway, we don't like the fact that crimes are happening around here any more than anyone else does. But reporting on crime, such as the recent rash of thefts from cars in Dayton, is important. Readers want to learn about these stories, and they need to. Besides, as most TV viewers would agree, the criminal mind is fascinating. Crime stories can be positive too. For...
Dear Editor, I am curious as to where our priorities lie, when a teacher in Waitsburg winning a National Teaching award is only ranked #10 by The Times instead of #1? She should be the #1 story in my way of thinking. We have great teachers here, let's say thank you to them. Rank them #1, not #10. Karl Newell Waitsburg...
One of the occupational hazards of being a wheat producer or landlord is that most of the time spent on analyzing wheat prices is focused on determination of "why the price should go UP." The problem is a kind of blindness to reasons why the price should go DOWN. The psychological basis for ignoring negatives is obvious, but it can cause a wheat marketer or trader to wait too long to sell. Then, often near the lows for the year, emphasis shifts to "damage control" instead of optimization. That period is at hand. Wheat prices are suffer- ing...
Ten Years Ago January 15, 2004 The Carnegie Art Center in Walla Walla opened January 13 featuring "The Artists of Columbia County," with a reception from 5-7 p.m. The show will run through February 21. Works featured will include bronze sculpture by Keith McMasters; pastel paints by Mon- ica Stobie; taxidermy by Roger Samples; pottery by Brian Manselle; glass by Joan Monteillet; watercolors by Paul Strohbehn, Jill Ingram and Jackie Penner; paintings by Iola Bramhall and Becky Leventis; mixed media pieces by Debbie Baxter and Anne Strode; and...
My goodness, it's the New Year al- ready! 2014. The year my little brother enters high school, my cousin and two of my best friends pass on to the netherworld known as "col- lege", and that ancient can of hominy tucked in the back of our pantry finally goes bad. It will be stamped on the prom invitations my class passes out this spring, and glitter-painted on the home- coming posters we plaster in the school hallways come fall. It will crouch in fifty- two weeks' worth of Times margins, over...
I don't know how to run a newspaper, Mr. Thatcher; I just try everything I can think of. ~Charles Foster Kane, from the movie "Citizen Kane" W hen Blue Mountain News stum- bled out of the gate in 2007, I noted in the first column I wrote there that my main qualification for the job of newspaper publisher was that I had been an avid reader of newspapers for a long time. (That, and I learned how to type in the ninth grade - on a typewriter.) Over the past seven years, I've thought of lots of ways...
A fter having served for four years as your publisher, where do I even start to sum up what this time has meant to me? Perhaps the easiest way to say it is: a lot! From the moment the Bakers took our photo in front of the old Linotype ma- chine in the back room when our purchase was announced just before Thanksgiving 2009 to the pictures I took at the last Hometown Christ- mas parade this December, my time at The Times has flown by as one big and fast- paced adventure. I'm melancholy closing thi...
Dear Editor, The Times has reported sparse attendance at local public school renovation and maintenance information meetings. Churches increasingly are dealing with the same thing: low attendance. Does it mean that no one cares? No, it doesn't. Some people really don't, but oth- ers simply are not following the conventional rules about civic participation, as was the case in past generations. This is not your grandmother's church nor your grandfa- ther's public school. This is not 1975. According to last week's Times story on Dayton High...
I t was love at first sight. When I saw it in a catalogue, I gave a little squeal. As Christmas ap- proached, I started hinting. It was simply too perfect - simply too me - to pass up. But even if I had an inkling it was coming my way, I never expected it to arrive in quite the manner it did. On Christmas morning, in the mad rush to exit our house and head to the larger family celebration, Mom sent me out to feed the chickens. I have three chickens - two hens, Mercy and Gin- ger, and a rooster,...
I t's distressing sometimes here in newspaperland when we have to report once again on a crime or other nega- tive story about our local schools and their students. This fall, especially it seems, the bad news has been com- ing regularly: A swastika burning at Dayton Schools, kids dressed up in KKK costumes for Halloween, a bomb scare, a sexual assault. But as 2013 comes to a close, we want to forget about all that and take a look at some of the good things our lo- cal students are doing. And they're very good indeed. For instance: Tackling...
"A wide net catches the most Ð ish." That was 23-year old Jordan McCandless's approach to fÐinding a job. He claimed job-hunting as a 40-hour per week com- mitment after graduating from Whitworth Univer- sity in Spokane. And after countless applications and interviews, he still had no luck fÐinding a job. Jordan described his dreams of one day becom- ing a U.S. Senator, and was willing to work any sort of job or internship to get his foot in the door. He said, "My main concern is mak- ing su...
