Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 879 - 903 of 1333
I'm writing to express my concern about Washington Fish and Wildlife's consideration of a proposal by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) to reintroduce hatchery spring chinook salmon in the Touchet River. I own a home in Dayton and fish in the Touchet River often. I was not able to make it to that recent public meeting, but I did send WDFW email comments on March 15. One of my comments stated that I would support the reintroduction proposal as long as that action does not, under any circumstances, reduce or...
Recently I was encouraged to start an online petition to remove Rush Limbaugh's show from the local radio station KUJ. There are many other petitions like this one across the country. Several stations have dropped his show, including prominent ones, and many of his sponsors have ceased to support him. Rush Limbaugh has always been an ignorant, meanspirited, hate-mongering shock jock however his recent attack on a young woman spiked national outrage. This woman, a law student by the way, was standing up for the health care and reproductive...
Waitsburg Teens Have A Vision: Ending Hunger W AITSBURG - Teens in the Waitsburg community will be participating in a 30-hour famine to understand what it's like to be one of the children who go hungry around the world. Through this famine, the teens will also be raising money for World Vision, a non-profit, Christian organization that helps end poverty and injustice, particularly with children. Wai t sburg res ident Brandon Miller will be leading the famine for four high school students in his...
A jury of his Walla Walla-area peers deliberated for two hours before handing down their verdict in the case of Melvin Bohleen, the elderly Dayton man who was accused of vehicular homicide in a collision that killed Westside cyclist Sarah Eustis nearly a year ago. The 12 largely middle-aged jurors, headed by foreman Duane Mitchell, a biologist with the U.S. Corps of Engineers, found him not guilty. His attorney Michael Hubbard said as terrible and tragic as the collision was, it was "an accident, not a crime." But her surviving husband, now a...
In the March 22 and March 29 issues of the Times, Times staff members duplicated the Pioneer Portraits in both issues to correct a previous mistake. The correct Pioneer Portraits can be found in this issue....
In the last week, Chicago May wheat futures prices have declined 30 cents from the quick spike high created at the end of March. White wheat for August delivery "new crop" in Portland declined about a dime to 15 cents in the same period, showing about $6.55, refl ecting a stable Pacific Rim market. There was a Tuesday morning USDA acreage and stocks report released before the opening of the trading session. For wheat it was a not eventful, as the survey of analysts showed previous guesses were spot-on, with an average guess of 792 million...
Back To The Mountain! WAITSBURG - Rebecca Wilson and others at Waitsburg Elementary are working hard to bring back Ski Bluewood lessons for the fifth grade class for next school year. "I just decided to go ahead and go for it," Wilson said. She teaches music and fitness at the elementary school and has been a ski coach for Special Olympics. "I can see how much that program is valued for students," Wilson said. Pam Conover organized the fundraisers and the ski program for about four years at the...
One of the common topics we seem to write about in the Times has been burglary. Frankly, I have been surprised by how many burglaries have been reported and actually taken place in our valley, specifically in Dayton. When writing a story last month after a couple of burglaries in Starbuck, our Columbia County Sheriff Walt Hessler said the economy is to blame for the rise in burglaries. Also, offenders getting out of the state prison too early may be a factor, he said. Part of the reason burglary has also been in the limelight lately is because...
Dear Editor, Waitsburg's City Council deserves voter support for making a tough choice. Instead of adding $10 to the car license fee of all city residents to care for our streets they chose, instead, to put a tax increase to the vote of the citizens. That took guts. The very small (.001 or one cent per $10 purchase) increase in sales tax would actually cost residents less than the other option. Rather than only residents paying for street upkeep, it spreads the cost to others using them - visitors to Waitsburg. Those who come and enjoy what...
We are carrying a story this week in our paper that says horse racing will not return to the Touchet Valley for the second year in a row. In 2011, the races didn't come to the area because all of the racing dates were given to a track in Kennewick. This year, Dayton and Waitsburg didn't even ask for dates because the insurance premiums that protect the jockeys went skyhigh after some recent accidents and our Dayton Days and Days of Real Sport groups can't afford to bring the races back. Speaking with sources while gathering information for...
DAYTON - In the Dayton community, past residents have left a gift that continues to support our most crucial services -- health care and education. Dr. William Day and his wife Jessie left an income-generating, activated in 1973, that pays out thousands of dollars each year to the Dayton hospital and school district, according to Kevin Paulson, a manager in special asset management in farming and ranching for Bank of America. The Days set the trust up through their attorney. Farmland is the...
In a world where energy is most certain to come up in virtually any conversation, as well as any political speech, we all hang on sound-bites about crude oil. Every time the price of "black gold, Texas tea" rises a few dollars on the global market, we all get a new tax increase at the gasoline pump. At least it feels like a tax increase. So every day we all worry about what happens in lands far away where the stuff is pumped out of a hole in the ground and a nearly inconceivable amount of money flows back down the hole. One year ago, the price...
In the March 22 issue of the Times, a story about the success of the WP middle school basketball team included misspelled names. Those names are Tavis Crittenden and Trey Potts. Also in the March 22 issue in an election story on Bart Baxter and Tiffany Laposi, the location of a campground Baxter would like to create was misinterpreted. He would like to make the city-owned area by the former Waits Mill into a campground. Finally, in the March 22 issue, a story called " Health District Search Begins For New CEO," no recruitment firm was used...
I would like to add my name as an "also ran" to the notable list of previous employees (including my brothers,) of the Times during Tom and Anita's ownership. My first summer job out of high school was as the teletype setter. It was not long after that when Tom upgraded to cold type. I count myself as fortunate to have experienced firsthand the machines that are now on display in the Coppei Café as relics of a bygone era. The cacophony of the machinery, the smell of the molten lead, and the drama of the deadline are all indelibly etched into...
I'm always amazed when I hear my friends, neighbors and colleagues complaining about the state of our country or community only to find out that they've not voted in a national or local election. I took the opportunity to attend our county caucus in Walla Walla earlier this month and was shocked to find only a handful of people from Waitsburg, Prescott and Dixie in attendance. Maybe it's because most folks feel that their opinion won't make a difference. I've struggled with that thought myself. But if we're going to make a difference it has to...
When will the Port of Walla Walla understand that they are a public agency and accountable to the public? Recently the port director hired a 30-hours a week project manager for more than $60,000 a year plus full benefits. This was done without any public notice of the job opportunity and did not give qualified individuals an opportunity to apply. Circumventing fair hiring practices in this manner is outrageous and should be questioned. Why does the Port of Walla Walla and Director Kuntz believe they can behave so differently from other public...
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Christine Gregoire signed into law earlier this month a resolution that would give financially distressed biomass processing facilities and pulp and paper mills a break from compliance rules dealing with the expensive process of clean-energy conversion. Prime sponsor Sen. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond, was prime sponsor of Senate bill 5575, which calls for a change in the 2006 voter-approved Energy Independence Act (Initiative 937) to further define what biomass-elements may constitu...
A few weeks ago, I received a big envelope with a calendar in it. It was called "Wisconsin Horsepower." The postmark was also from the Cheese State. I did a double take. Whom did I know in Wisconsin? I opened the calendar and two letters fell out, both from someone named Jim Bragg. I searched my gray matter. Jim Bragg. Jim Bragg. Nothing. I read the title of his letter, "Coast To Coast," and I suddenly realized who had sent me the packet. Jim Bragg was the 70-something man who stopped in Waitsburg on his walk across America! The near...
Waitsburg Memorial Scholarship Fund In memory of: Andrew Groom, Luanna Kalahele, Neil Witt and Sara Leid Heggen From: Bill & Roseann Groom...
In the Times edition on May 13, 2010, I wrote about my experience playing the piano for patients at Booker Annex, many of whom are dementia patients. A March 9, 2012, edition of the Union-Bulletin featured a story on its health and fitness page that read: "Dr. Brent Bauer, professor of medicine and director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., says research is beginning to catch up with the value of music in promoting healing." He credits the Natural Institute of Health with the changing...
The big USDA report last Friday brought only a little news for wheat markets. Ending stocks of all wheat in the U.S. are expected to total 825 million bushels, a downward revision of 20 million from the previous official monthly projection. This was considered mildly supportive for wheat prices, especially next to the lower global wheat supply estimate for the year, which was given to be 209.58 million metric tonnes, some 3.52 million tonnes lower than the previous month's figure, which was itself a record high 213.1 million. Although for many...
