Opinion | This Memorial Day, gather to witness locals’ pride, duty and sacrifice
You can find their names on the massive block of marble at the Snoqualmie Valley Veteran’s Memorial in downtown Snoqualmie.
These are the men and women who gave their lives in service to the nation. Each generation, they came from the mill towns and neighborhoods of the Valley to answer the nation’s call. Their numbers, from World War II in particular, show the abundant, perhaps inordinately so, level of patriotism and service from what others might call small communities. Small, perhaps, but big in service.
Psst. Hey you, wanna be an elected official? This is your year | Opinion
“Would you consider running for public office?”
Every few years, We break out this old chestnut, taking the above question to the streets for our “Person on the Street” poll.
Results, as you can see to the right, vary. A little more than half the time, folks say no. But sometimes, we meet people who might step up.
This year, we tried a new tack, specifying an office, and got a couple of folks to ponder civic involvement. It’s a way to plant the seed of an idea.
All in the family: College football play stays at Corvallis for Mount Si’s ‘Bird Dog,’ Nick Mitchell
It’s pretty darn solid: 17-year-old Nick Mitchell will join his older brother Josh on the gridiron at Corvallis, Ore.
Mitchell, Mount Si’s all-Kingco-ranked quarterback last fall, made a verbal commitment to play football with Oregon State University after high school graduation in 2014.
OSU was the right fit, says Nick.
North Bend's food bank and the real face of Valley hunger | Opinion
Over the last few years, Heidi Dukich has given out countless pieces of paper and pens, advising her clients at the Mount Si Food Bank to write down their goals and resources, and visualize a pathway out of poverty, toward success.
She points them in the direction of the library, where anyone can book two hours of Internet time and find more resources, or classes.
Helping people is about a lot more than food. But the act of giving food can be the pathway to changing lives permanently and for the better.
Letters | More photos, please… And please clean up after your horses
Your yearly photo contest is great. I’m curious as to how many entries you receive. Would it be possible to print the non-winners photos, a few each week, for us all to enjoy?
Opinion | What’s at stake when we lose the ability to write in cursive?
Here’s a simple exercise. Take out a pen, and a sheet of paper, and write out something—your name, your favorite band, the name of the closest restaurant—in cursive.
How’d you do? I’ll bet it wasn’t easy.
I tried to write the word “abstract” in cursive script the other day. I’d just met Joe Monihan, this week’s letter writer, and I wanted to see whether I still had the muscle memory from ages ago, when I still wrote in cursive. It had been a long time. The “r” was a wave, neither “t” matched, and the less said about “b” the better.
Opinion | What’s more important, scoops or integrity?
It started with an anonymous note.
An e-mail from a fictitious address let me know on March 27 that North Bend Mayor Ken G. Hearing had been arrested. It didn’t take long to confirm that an arrest on suspicion of domestic violence had indeed happened. And it didn’t take much longer for the story to break.
I’ve covered mayors when they’ve gotten in trouble before. But a domestic violence case involving a public official was something new.
After consulting with some of my professional colleagues, it was clear to me that basic guidelines hadn’t changed. We wanted the facts. We wanted the police report. And we wanted to see if the mayor had been officially charged with a crime.
Lessons of ‘Best of the Valley’: In a competition this strong, we all win
We’ve been doing Best of the Valley for enough years now to know the drill: Put the ballots out in February, wait several weeks, rush to count the results and put together an entire section letting folks know the annual winners.
Locals, business owners and officials take this stuff pretty seriously. The plaques often take a place of pride in offices and restaurants.
We took the contest online a few years ago, in an effort to prevent ballot-stuffing. It now takes us about two days to tally all the votes.
People came forward in the Keller murders. Why not now for Lucinda Fisher? | Opinion
Supposedly, it’s the best kept secret in the Valley.
Somebody drove the truck that killed 57-year-old Lucinda Fisher, also known as Lucinda Pieczatkowski, in the early hours of January 1, 2013. It’s been 12 weeks since Fischer’s death, but precious few details have been announced by the sheriff’s spokespeople after officers impounded the white pickup believed to have been involved in Fischer’s death, just a day later.
Speculation on the identity of the driver in the fatal hit and run accident is starting to hit the Web. You had one anonymous parent who spoke to KIRO Radio last week, characterizing the whole thing as hush-hush, while offering secondhand info about the investigation. As the scuttlebutt has it, plenty of locals are in the know about the driver but are unwilling to come forward.
Opinion | After amazing first season, what’s next for the homeless shelter?
It’s quite something, what’s been done for the local homeless community, in a single season.
Every night this winter, the Snoqualmie Valley Winter shelter opened its doors—first, at North Bend Community Church, then at Mount Si Lutheran, also in North Bend.
The guests, all folks with nowhere warm to go, stayed the night, as long as they held to the code of conduct, which includes no alcohol or drug use.
About a dozen people came nightly, mostly men, but also a few women, including one mom who found a place to stay for her teenage daughter, but needed her own refuge.
New State Rep: Prioritized budget plan would fund K-12 education, reforms first
While I am the newest member of the 5th District legislative team, I am no stranger to the education reform and funding debate. As a “PTA dad,” former president of the Issaquah School Board and an original advocate with statewide education groups, reforming education to better serve students has been my top priority.
The goal of our reform efforts has always been to improve our schools through accountability to parents and students, raise the bar on curriculum standards and put children ahead of the adults in the education system. We also fought hard to address how the state funds K-12 education.
