Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 885 - 909 of 2504
Dear Editor, Some think after recent events it may be difficult to entice other businesses to consider Waitsburg as a potential site. Others are of the opinion that would be just fine. At least one individual commented they liked the current small town feel and no new businesses were needed. When Pat and I moved to Waitsburg in 1969 all storefronts had active businesses. Most of them would close Friday afternoons for home football games, since there were no lights on the field for evening games. That’s about as small town as it gets. Those t...
Over the span of two days, the Republican nominee for president has proposed new child-care subsidies, new mandatory benefits to be provided by business, the removal of millions of families from the income-tax rolls, and an increase in tax rates on single people making from $112,500 to $190,000 a year. Oh, and he put in a good word for Medicaid too, leaving the impression with many people that he favors expanding it. Trump’s Republican critics say that these announcements prove what they have been saying all along: that he is no c...
Imagine you’ve set your alarm to go for an early-morning run before work. But when it goes off at 6, the embrace of your warm, cozy bed is too enticing and you never make it out the door. Or perhaps you’ve packed exercise clothes with plans to hit a spin class after work. But then the allure of happy hour, or even your couch, persuades you to skip it. Even those with the best of intentions often struggle to motivate themselves to work out. There’s almost always a powerful temptation to do something, or anything, else. This can feel like a per...
Dear Editor, I have enjoyed the privilege of working alongside Todd Kimball as a Supervisor for the Walla Walla County Conservation District for over 10 years. Todd is a rare combination of education, talent, experience, and personality. His deep understandings of business and tax law is a tremendous asset for any organization he is involved with but add to that his farming background, work experience, and his ability to communicate effectively, and you have a package that can really make a difference. I believe that having Todd involved in...
Dear Editor, I had the opportunity to work with Todd Kimball as a Board Member for nine years while I was Manager of Northwest Grain Growers. Todd was an outstanding board member during his term. His ability to explore opportunities and offer creative solutions greatly contributed to the financial stability of the Co-Op. His experiences as a farmer and a CPA gave him a unique perspective of the farming community as well as the ability to look at our financial statements and recognize potential opportunities. Northwest Grain Growers reached...
Dear Editor, Congratulations to Karen Gregutt for being selected to fill the vacant seat on the Waitsburg City Council for the remainder of the current term. Community members in attendance at the September 15 special City Council meeting to interview candidates learned there was a field of qualified candidates who voluntarily put their names in the running for the vacant seat. The information and answers provided by those candidates made the choice that much more difficult for the existing council members. One of the themes in answer to a...
Everything seemed to be coming up Gary Johnson when the week started. No one liked the two major party candidates. (OK, maybe not no one but lots and lots of people.) The first presidential debate was still almost three weeks off. It looked like there might be a real chance for Johnson to make the debate stage alongside Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump! Then Johnson went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” And it all came tumbling down. Here’s the exchange between Johnson and Mike Barnicle: BARNICLE: “What would you do, if you were elected, about Ale...
Eight years ago, I wrote a medical report on the health of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose personal physician I had been for 22 years. That report was 276 words and described Obama’s health as excellent. I was derided for issuing such a brief report, but there was nothing of significance in the medical history of this healthy, 47-year-old male. Meanwhile, Republican John McCain - a 71-year-old with a history of skin cancer - made nearly 1,200 pages of records available for a group of reporters to review. Today, the two major c...
Last month, as Donald Trump showed his campaign manager the door (again) amid stalling poll numbers, the GOP nominee started trying to make amends for all the alienating things he had said about minorities and women. He apologized for causing “personal pain” with some of his remarks. He started courting black voters. He tried to “soften” his language on immigration. Finally, it seemed that Trump realized that he could not win in November with just the voters that had won him the primary. But Sunday’s new Washington Post-ABC poll shows tha...
Dear Editor, The upper windows on the front of Waitsburg Town Hall need be replaced to prevent weather damage to the structure as well as improve efficiency. The Board would also like to replace the street-level windows in the North and South Fireside rooms to improve efficiency. Town Hall is a non-profit trying to take in enough from rentals to cover operating and repair expenses—the same as all homeowners. Even though it has been a reasonably good year financially for Town Hall there are only enough funds to replace the upper windows at t...
For nine years in the 1980s and ‘90s I lived and worked in Albuquerque, N.M. It’s a big sprawling city with a large Air Force base and a large university. Traveling north from Albuquerque will take you into some of the most beautiful country in America: an area that includes Santa Fe, Taos and Los Alamos. In 1994, two years before I moved to Dayton, a guy named Gary Johnson ran for governor of New Mexico as a Republican. I voted for him and he won, though those two facts must surely be unconnected. Right? Johnson had never run for elected off...
Libertarian Gary Johnson's plan for capturing the White House hinges on voters following through on polls suggesting they dislike the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees more than in any election year in history. "You know how crazy this election cycle is?" Johnson told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "I might be the next president." First, Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, has to be allowed into the nationally televised debates that for now are set to...
Dear Editor, Most of the conversations in this town are told through someone, not to someone. Conflicts need to be resolved and then told to the public. It is a sad day when things don’t get resolved. It makes this town weak and incapable of having a strong sense of community. Conflict should be a learning process not the end of relationships. The seed of bitterness has been planted. Now let’s see if it keeps growing. I am disappointed in our city. We need to resolve issues and agree to disagree and move forward. I am hoping for change. Cin...
Dear Editor, Citizens, corporations/companies, and developers interested in Waitsburg, BEWARE!! New “normal” established whereby “MAJORITY” declared by elected officials as he/she who protests loudest, acts rudest/profane/interruptive, and/or displays most signs. Officials acknowledge Waitsburg laws indicate how development should be handled, with Council and Public input only after examination by city staff and planning commission; and that city’s treatment of Nestle was unusual, not how other developments are addressed probably not ethical,...
Any American political strategist or reporter -- I’ve been one for more than four decades -- loves the map: That’s the electoral map that decides the presidential election every four years. Each of the 50 states is awarded electors based on its members of Congress, essentially by population; Washington, D.C., for example, gets three votes. In almost all states it’s a winner-take-all system; there are 538 votes nationally, it takes 270 to win. For about two thirds of the states, including the biggest, California and Texas, the outcome is a nea...
“I went on a really fun field trip today,” our son informed the family over dinner after a science trip to a local river. “We got to row, but not in actual racing shells.” “Racing shells?” my husband inquired. “Well, they were really just rowboats, but rowing with my friends reminded me of the book ‘The Boys in the Boat’ that we were listening to in the car.” Daniel James Brown’s recent bestseller may not have yet made it onto the radar of most seventh-grade boys; it is certainly not a book my son would have chosen for himself. His introduc...
Dear Editor, The actions of Waitsburg City Council during the last few months have been an embarrassment to our city. We are particularly ashamed of the way certain members of our Council, at the last council meeting, appeared to be orchestrating a witch hunt against our City Administrator, Randy Hinchliffe. They had plenty of criticism for his purchase of a $20,000 piece of equipment, however, not one word of appreciation for the $130,000 grant that he successfully obtained. This must stop. Deanne Johnson Waitsburg...
Dear Editor, A couple of weeks ago my wife and I stopped in Waitsburg to stretch our legs on our long wander from northern Washington to our home in southern Utah. We visited the antique store, saw sidewalk art, and had iced tea and cookies at the hardware store. My wife and I like buildings and you folks have a bunch of interesting houses. We spent more time walking around looking at nicely crafted structures. At some point I walked back to our truck parked on Main Street to get something. Just as I pulled my head back out of the cab I was...
Dear Editor, Questions that you may be interested in finding the answers to: What city council person convinced the council to allow him/her to manage the fairgrounds, then hired his/her son from the profits? Which city council person failed to advise the council of this action, and apparently failed to have a “scope of work” contract in place? What city council person is unable to keep his/her personal beliefs from playing a part in his/her decisions that affect the whole city? What city council person has demonstrated a personal vendetta agai...
Imagine what could happen if Donald Trump hadn’t turned the presidential campaign into an argument over who founded Islamic State or whether there should be ideological entrance tests for foreign visitors and immigrants. Then he and Hillary Clinton could have a rational debate over taxes, a serious topic on which they have clear differences. Trump wants to cut taxes massively, especially for the wealthy, which he claims will stimulate unprecedented growth. Clinton wants to boost taxes on corporations and the rich and use the revenue to c...
It has a chubby little body, a big head and floppy little limbs. It has high, babylike voice, a button nose and a little mouth. It has big bright eyes and rosy cheeks. It giggles and squeals. But unlike a human baby, it is also bright yellow and makes a springing noise when it hops. Of all the “pocket monsters” that people can hunt in Pokémon Go, the popular mobile game that has swept the world, the most universally beloved is Pikachu, the yellow “rodent Pokémon” that is the franchise’s mascot. Pikachu’s popularity is no accident. Wit...
When I was in high school in the outskirts of Vancouver, Wash., our football team sucked. Actually, most of our sports teams did. And I always thought it would be a lot more fun to be at a school that won the state championship. Waitsburg got to experience a state championship five years ago, when coach Jeff Bartlow led the Waitsburg-Prescott Cardinals to victory in the Tacoma Dome in 2011. In the 2B state championship game that year, the Cardinals crushed Morton/White Pass 33-7, to cap an...
