Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1567 - 1591 of 2504
The holidays are winding down. Your living room floor is littered with shards of wrapping pa- per and crushed cellophane bows. The trash can out the back door is sixty-five percent full of cardboard; the other thirty-five consists of crumbled styrofoam and hacked-open plastic clam- shells. The new toys were fun, but after a while Junior's remote control gizmo will suffer a fatal one-vehicle collision with Cousin Ellie's leg, and that twenty-seven- in-one screwdriver ding- dong you got Uncle...
Whether an accurate reflection or not, a community is often judged based on its school system. For a relocating couple with children, the quality of the school district in which a house is located will often be as much a deciding factor in buying a home as the size of the living room. Entire websites are devoted to ranking school districts by test scores, student/teacher ratios, ethnic makeup and more. A positive accomplishment reflects well on us all. Last week, as reported on Page 1, Waitsburg Kindergarten teacher Pamela Nolan-Beasley...
[Editor's note: The following bit of verse was originally published in a small-town newspaper called the Troy Sen- tinal, in Troy, N.Y., on December 23, 1823. At the time, the author was anonymous. His name, in fact, was Clement Clarke Moore, and his poem is often considered the most famous poem in history, at least by an American. Moore's poem is responsible, more than anything else, for our mod- ern concept of Santa Claus and children receiving gifts at Christmas. It is also responsible for the reindeer drawing Santa's sleigh, though Rudolf...
My goodness, it's only a week until Christmas! I have this weird "thing" about Christmas presents - I try to make as many of them by hand as I can. Sometimes that's as simple as baking a batch of cookies and lov- ingly packing them in a tin with some cheesy winter motif on the front. And sometimes it's a smidge morehellip;shall we sayhellip;interesting. Take the table behind me, for instance. I'm knitting my aunt a scarf out of some of that fun new yarn that has two-inch-long loops on it. With...
For many of us, writing is part of our jobs. And for a few of us, it's the main part. (Sometimes, for us, it's like digging ditches with our fingertips, but most of the time it's pretty rewarding.) For many others among us though, writing is something that's done only on rare occasions. One of those occasions is Christmas. Christmas is the time when many adults sit down, with pen or keyboard, and recount the highlights of the past year - often in excruciating detail. Others just scratch out a few words of greeting and well-wishes at the bottom...
[Editor's note: Congress- woman Cathy McMorris Rodgers provided the follow- ing Statement for the Record at a recent Oversight Field Hearing held by the House Natural Resources Commit- tee in Pasco on December 9. The subject of the hear- ing was: "The future of the US-Canada Columbia River Treaty-Building on 60 years of Coordinated Power Gen- eration and Flood Control"] I appreciate the opportunity to submit a statement before the House Natural Resources Committee regarding the importance of the United States-Canada Columbia River Treaty and it...
Dear Editor, Congress is considering renewing subsidies to wind companies. It's time to end wind subsidies. BPA has been forced to pay for wind power that wasn't needed due to adequate production of hydro power which Wash- ington State does not recog- nize as a renewable energy source. How asinine! Power bills are rising in our state due to the requirement to increase use of "renewable" power, which wa- ter is not considered to be. Ridiculous! Wind power has been giv- en enough of a head start. It's time for them to stand on existing towers or...
A h, December. In no other month does so much joy rub shoulders with so much stress. I spend all fall looking forward to the former, and every year - without fail - the latter hits me like a Mack truck. One of these years, I'll see it coming, but it probably won't be anytime soon. Sometimes, when faced with the emotional para- doxes the holiday season brings, it helps me to make a list and separate the pros from the cons: - School gets out for two weeks! - In two weeks. - I'm finally going to...
Last week the Columbia County Board of Commis- sioners voted not to proceed with a planned renova- tion of the youth building at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. We think that was a prudent move, for three reasons: First, as Commissioners Talbott and Robanske both pointed out at the time of the vote, no plan was in place to cover the cost of maintenance of the building once it was upgraded. The cost of the renovation would be too high to not be committed to keeping the building in top shape afterwards. Second, Dayton and the Touchet Valley...
'T was three weeks until Christmas, and all through the house Not a creature was stirring - except for my mouse. The clock chimed eleven as swiftly I typed In the hope of reaching bed while it was still night. My brain had been dormant since Wendesday at noon, and it became Sunday, oh, far, far too soon. 'Tween family and bluegrass and chores and the play, My four-day vacation had slipped quite away. And I still had two hampers of laundry to wash and more homework than, oh, say, the Midwest has...
The Apple Cup is history. (Sorry Cougar fans.) The Civil War is in the books. (Ditto, Beavers.) The Seahawks crushed the Saints in a Monday Night Football game that brought an end to a long and highlight-ridden weekend. (For a good example, go to YouTube and check out the last play of Saturday's Alabama-Auburn game.) Your stomach is probably still full of turkey and gravy and your fridge is likely stuffed to the roof with more turkey and gravy. And your couch cushions are no doubt strewn with chips and pretzels, and possibly some bottle caps. B...
OLYMPIA - On Novem- ber 20, legislators in Olym- pia adopted the most recent revenue forecast issued by the Washington State Eco- nomic and Revenue Forecast Council. According to Chief Economist Steve Lerch, the 2013- 15 General Fund-State net change is an increase of $16 million. The forecast also shows an increase of $9 million for the 2011-13 biennium. However, officials are predicting a decrease in rev- enue of nearly $44 million for the 2015-17 budget cycle. A technical adjustment...
Dear Editor, Rosie Warehime and the Friends of the Library would like to thank the Commer- cial Club, our surrounding communities and especially a huge hand clapping to Alli- son Bond from Coppei Coffee for all the hard work and donations from the Haunted House tour. A special thanks also, to Dan Cole, Mike Hubbard, Richard Hinds And Julie Tayloe for their generous donations. There was a wonderful turn out and great fun was had by all. Our library will greatly benefit from the $850 that was raised. Again, thank you so very much. Rosie...
Dear Editor, Veterans Day always re- minds me of World War II. World War II reminds me of the old Waitsburg Theatre. Now how could that be? Back in the 1940's my Uncle, Earl Crossler, ran that theatre. He was running it the year my father, Layton Royse, came home from the war. He was a marine. My Grandfather, Oliver Royse, and my Uncle Donald Royse were out here from Cincinnati Ohio to greet him when he got here. All of us were up in the prosecutor room with Uncle Earl just waiting. I was about five years old, so about 1947. We waited a long...
My first column, as those of you who have read me from the very beginning know, was not funny - at least not terribly so. It was, in fact, a yawn-inducing list of Christmas shopping tips. But hey, the editor liked it, and if it hadn't been for the fact that said page of pointers was printed, you might not be reading this right now. This is a week of honor- ing tradition. This is the last column you're going to read before Black Friday hits. So I thought I'd honor tradition - AND give my loyal...
While a junior high basketball game was under way November 19, somebody was playing their own game in the parking lot. Several people came back to their cars after the game to find purses and other person belongings missing. Valuables were taken from at least ten cars, and guess what: none of them were locked, according to Public Infor- mation Officer Dian Ver Valen. The Columbia County Sheriff's office issued a statement last week saying that numerous car prowls were reported Tuesday, most occurring near the gym. The statement also said that 3...
Dear Editor, On behalf of the Waits- burg Ministerial Association and the Resource Center, I would like to extend my sin- cere gratitude to the Leo Club of Waitsburg High School for their outstanding work in collecting over 1,200 pounds of non-perishable food items on November 14 for the Waitsburg food bank. This was more than was collected last year, and demonstrates a great spirit among the young people for serving the community. We also deeply ap- preciate the generosity of the community which responded to this year's food drive. Each month...
Fifty years ago Friday I was in the third grade. (Yes I know, it's hard to believe that someone so youthful and vibrant as myself has been around that long, but it's true.) It was also a Friday. I attended Lafayette El- ementary School in West Seattle and our class was in a "portable;" one of those trailers they park in the play- ground. Mrs. Young was our teacher, and she looked shocked that day - though she didn't cry - when some- one came in the room and handed her a piece of paper saying...
Boomerang is a neat little plugin that can come in very handy for Gmail users. Frankly, I don't know exactly what a "plugin" is, even though I use several of them. As best I can tell, they add a specific feature to software or a pro- gram you are already using. But don't worry. You don't need to understand it to en- joy the benefits. You do, however, need to use Gmail as your email client. If you don't already, you might consider it. I use Gmail and have my busi- ness and personal Charter.net...
Historical fiction is my favorite genre. It both entertains and educates. Reading a well- researched, well-written work of historical fiction is a wonderfully painless way to learn about the culture, politics and history of a par- ticular place and time. While homeschooling my two old- est children (now 17 and 20), we relied heavily on histori- cal fiction to make history come alive and "stick". I've read and enjoyed scores o f ex- cellent young adult a nd adult historical fic- tion but most...
