Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 930 - 954 of 2504
Dear Editor, On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank those who completed and returned the recent proposed capital projects survey. The responses have given the Board guidance in determining its next steps regarding the upgrading of district facilities. Additionally, your comments provided a deeper understanding of how to better communicate the needs of the district, as well as the funding limitations and challenges which we face. Results of the survey can be found on the District’s website: www.waitsburgsd.org. As a result of...
Dear Editor, We are writing to endorse Todd Kimball for County Commissioner, District 2. We have known Todd personally for nearly 20 years and consider him a good friend. He has brought his boys out hunting on our property over the years and has always been a conscientious and responsible hunter and has brought his boys up to be the same. His stewardship of wildlife goes along with his stewardship of the land. As a farmer, he has a unique perspective on the relationship between wildlife and crop ground and that there is give and take in both....
Dear Editor, What is really happening with Nestle and our spring water? I plan to go to the Waitsburg City Council meeting Wednesday night, July 20, for more information. I am hoping that the Mayor and the City Manager are willing to schedule a public meeting devoted to the pros and cons of this issue before City Council has to decide whether or not to allow Nestle access to our water. Nestle, a multi-national corporation, is only responsible to its shareholders. Our city government (which should be as transparent as a plastic water bottle) is...
On August 25 the National Park Service is celebrating its 100th birthday. To mark the occasion, my traveling partner and I set out from Dayton on June 25 for an eight-day whirlwind tour of some of the Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota National Parks, national historic memorials, and other places of interest for a westerner to see. The first leg of our journey took us 622 miles across the aptly-named "Big Sky Country" of Montana, where there is plenty of "elbow room," to the historic site of the...
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Dear Editor, Ms. Callahan’s letter in the June 30 The Times appeared to have four points: (1) No city water for Nestle; (2) the Mayor using his veto power for his personal agenda; (3) Territorial Charter allows city police; (4) the Mayor wasting city money. As to (1) if Nestle had been in contact with city administration concerning the feasibility of locating in Waitsburg that would be a normal initial step prior to any publicity. Had there been open discussion it would likely have been reported in The Times the following week. If there was no...
Dear Editor, It is a pleasure to endorse Melissa Hansen who is running for Walla Walla County Commissioner. Among her many qualifications, Melissa is a graduate of the Washington AgForestry Leadership Program. Washington AgForestry Leadership Program is a two-year leadership program designed for individuals who work in Washington State’s natural resource industries. The AgForestry Leadership Program was established for leaders who want to enhance their leadership skills and take on further leadership roles and responsibilities after their g...
When an advisory ballot was sent to property owners in Dayton's Southside Historic District this spring asking whether they support disbanding the district or keeping it, about two out of three respondents voted for the former. Results were similar for the smaller Washington Street Historic District. But despite the overwhelming wishes of those property owners, the Dayton Historic Preservation Commission voted last week against passing that recommendation on the City Council. (See story on Page...
While the competing candidates for president each make anti-trade rhetoric a central theme to appeal to populist anger and a nationalist mood, they’re leaving out a few key facts about trade. It is good for the country. It is vital for our economy. And, yes, it helps American workers. It is also true that some workers have been displaced by trade, and they should be given the help they need to compete and succeed in the 21st-century economy. But misguided proposals to build tariff walls, tear up trade agreements and turn inward would only h...
Dear Editor, Gun or person? Try painting without a brush, try eating without a fork, and try killing 50 people without a gun. Tools are needed to get a job done and if you want to do a whole lot of harm to your fellow man, the AR-15 is a great tool. Cathy McMorris Rodgers hasn’t demonstrated the political will to do anything about gun slaughter and violence happening daily. She waits for cues from her ideologically driven party leaders. Nobody is asking her for the elimination of guns but merely attention to the “general welfare” clause in th...
Dear Editor, First and foremost I would like to thank those who have supported me as your County Commissioner representing District 2 for the past eight years. These two terms have been both challenging and rewarding, as this position has evolved and expanded tremendously. I have been honored to be able to help and serve the residents of Walla Walla County. This year there are six candidates vying for the District 2 position. They all have distinct attributes that need to be analyzed to determine who will best fit the needs of Walla Walla...
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are e...
The contempt that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump express for each other will continue to play out in vitriolic sound bites. But their profound differences on what to do about the economy and the struggling middle class are far more important. “This election will be won by whichever candidate convinces middle-class voters they are better for their jobs and future prospects,” says Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation economist and Trump adviser. “This is about whether economic forces hollow out the middle class or whether those forces strengthe...
Even if you’re not a hypochondriac by nature, jumping on Google to do some research when you have a mysterious headache or cough has been enough to make you one. For years both patients and doctors have complained about how hard it is to distinguish between real advice and the random ramblings of a complete quack. Google has finally come up with a solution. On Monday, the company unveiled symptom search, a new feature that offers you legitimate information curated by Harvard Medical School and Mayo Clinic experts. This includes basic informatio...
Dear Editor, Rumor has it we have had Nestles big wigs in town wanting our water. Not just no, HELL NO! I have been very concerned since my first year on city council. My concern stems from the Territorial Charter. It states in Sec. 38. The mayor of the city of Waitsburg, in addition to his powers and duties as part of the body known as “the council of Waitsburg,” shall have power to veto all ordinances or resolutions passed by said council in the manner provided by this act. I found that the veto power has been misinterpreted as the power to...
During the first half of this month I got to take my first real vacation from being publisher of The Times. I traveled to Virginia to attend a reunion of my mother’s extended family (and sit on the beach for five days). On my way, I stopped in Washington D.C. to spend three days as a tourist. It’s something all Americans should do, and it seemed like a large proportion of them were there the same time I was. I did all of my sightseeing in and around the National Mall, which is a two...
Republicans need to start worrying about losing their majority in the House of Representatives. Republicans accept the conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, and they know that her election would probably end their majority in the Senate. But in a year that has upended political expectations, they have clung to one comforting assumption: Their hold on the House is secure. Their majority is protected by gerrymandering, the geographic distribution of Republican voters, the power of incumbency and its own sheer...
Dear Editor, As a lifelong Republican, I reject Donald Trump and what he stands for: racism, xenophobia, nativism, and contempt for women, the disabled and other groups. Rather than adhere to our party’s conservative principles and state a clear program, he offers a vague vision of “making America Great Again” and simplistic slogans about “building a wall” and deporting millions of undocumented workers. He is demagogue who most people thoughtful people will surely reject as President and Commander in Chief. At the minimum, who would want the...
Dear Editor, I have known Randal Son for several years. Just recently I have become aware of the depth and breadth of his experience as he campaigns for County Commissioner District 2. He has had formal training and then applied it professionally in developing Endowments, Agricultural Credit Analysis, and Community Development Finance. He has held the Certified Financial Planner Certificate and the National Association of Securities Dealers Broker’s Licenses. He was early to recognize the importance of developing clean and renewable energy, a...
Anyone who has ever watched children get on a school bus before the sun is up in the morning or teens walk into their first class clutching a jug of coffee knows that too many young people aren’t getting enough sleep. In fact, experts say that more than a third of the U.S. population doesn’t. Now, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has just released, for the first time, its recommendations for how much sleep children and teens should get to avoid health risks. The academy also said that children and teens who do not sleep the recommended am...
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Are you constantly plagued by warnings that your phone is running out of storage? We’re here to help. Storage woes are common for smartphone owners, perhaps particularly during the summer when we’re snapping more pictures, playing more games and feeling generally more unwilling to take on big organization projects. So we went in search of (relatively) quick ways to free up space on your phones. I tried a lot of strange tricks in the course of putting together this piece, downloaded some regrettable apps and got to know my settings better tha...
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