Words and ideas associated with change:
When considering educational improvement (always ongoing), simultaneously, teacher preparation is in flux. Some 39 states have introduced more rigorous requirements for teacher certification, but criticism of education schools for the quality of their graduates is rising. From the teaching p…
On Feb. 25, the Washington Supreme Court issued an extraordinary opinion with far-reaching consequences. With a 5-4 majority, the court in State v. Shannon Blake declared Washington’s felony drug possession statute to be void.
Across the state and in Island County, we are experiencing pressure from increased population. Planning for growth is a mandate to local jurisdictions by the state’s Growth Management Act.
As we focus on another legislative session in Olympia, you can bet I’ll be there fighting for a smarter — and safer — approach to our wildfire crisis.
The debate over the crematory could have been prevented if city officials had notified the community.
There are good guys and then there are good guys. They are the people who help communities prosper and offer safety nets for the less fortunate.
When I was a kid, my dad was a volunteer fireman in Kirkland. We had a black box called a plectron in our home, which would squeal loudly when signaling a fire call.
Baby Boomers all have a question we can ask each other to determine a person’s age and history: “Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?” We then launch into a long description of what happened and who was there. Every person’s story is different and unique, and we tell it like it is…
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” — Proverbs 4:23.
Think about a best day in your life. Who made it a best day? What made it a best day? Where were you and who was with you?
You may have seen it behind home base at a major league baseball game, a sign that someone is holding up that reads “John 3:16.” It’s the one of the most popular verses in the Bible but could also be one of the most misunderstood.
Latest e-Edition
When Jesus took Peter, James and John with him as he went up the mountain to pray, they grew drowsy and fell asleep. When they awoke, Jesus’ clothing was dazzling and he was talking with two giants of the Chosen People — Moses and Elijah. They were flabbergasted and, as usual, they did not u…
A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, …
I don’t like grades. I probably would have taught more than 33 years, had I not had to grade papers and keep grades.
I recently read a story from CNN about a guy trying to decide where he should put a hole in his wall for a TV cable wire. He lowered a battery-powered alarm clock down an air vent with the alarm set to go off after 10 minutes. When the alarm sounded he would know that the location was a safe…
Honoring our war dead is a concept that originated at the end of our U.S. Civil War (1861-65). In passing decades. it came to include all who served their country up to and including current conflicts. In nearly all cases, military service has touched the lives of families in every corner of…
Inheriting my mother’s cookbooks was a double blessing. Not only did they contain her tried-and-true recipes, but there in her handwriting were her random thoughts along with “pearls of wisdom” cut from magazines and pasted over recipes she didn’t like.
On April 18, US President Donald Trump visited the Kenosha, Wisconsin headquarters of Snap-on to speak in front of an American flag made of the company’s tools and publicly sign an executive order titled “Hire American, Buy American.”
Gotta love those senior moments.
A look back at Stanwood and Camano Island history.
House bills aimed at better managing public records requests and providing a way to cover the cost.
I am the granddaughter of immigrants. My grandparents, John and Isabella Hutchison, emigrated here from Scotland in 1912. They first went to Canada and came across the country to Vancouver and down to Bellingham.
As I grow older, I’m constantly amazed at how the simple messages I grew up with are the most meaningful.
Trending Now
-
Citizens make their voices heard at Stanwood-Camano School Board meeting
-
Cama Beach Cafe remains beacon of hospitality, hope amid cabin closures
-
School district facing $3.5 million funding gap in upcoming budget
-
Controversy brews over educational equity in Stanwood-Camano School Board
-
New labyrinth to be celebrated at Freedom Park
During August I spent two weeks in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area helping my daughter move. I feel like I have seen every stretch of freeway between Baltimore and College Park, Maryland, several times over!
I have always thought that Thomas Crapper invented the toilet, but he didn’t. John Harington invented the flushing toilet in 1596 and several others improved upon it. But Crapper owned a company whose insignia included his last name, and he also was the first to promote sanitary plumbing whe…
July is crabbing month in Warm Beach. I cannot remember a year when I haven’t gone crabbing with my mom and dad, and now my husband. It’s a ritual everyone in Warm Beach (and all the beaches on Port Susan and Saratoga Passage) share.
I really love trees. We have two big fir trees in my front yard that I actually think are my friends.
Whenever my parents heard a Benny Goodman or Andrews Sisters song, they would look at each other, with twinkles in their eyes only for each other, rise up together from their chairs, and start dancing.
Last month marked the eighth anniversary since I started this column and I have never repeated a column’s subject until now — my struggle with weight. In my first “weight” column, published almost eight years ago, I reviewed my history of weight loss and gain, and in this one, I will reflect…
Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” died Feb. 19, 2016, at the age of 93. While I knew her death was probably close and inevitable, it was hard for me.
There are four deaths that have shaken me, with seismic force, to the core. Four that brought tears at the moment I found out about the loss. Only four.
I hate to fly. The only reason I get on a plane is that flying is the fastest way to go from Point A to Point B.
In the show, “30 Rock,” Jack Donahey, who is played by Alec Baldwin, has a day that he calls Reaganing, a phenomenon where everything falls into place and goes perfectly. The day is named for Jack’s hero, our 43rd president, Ronald Reagan.
It’s a new year – a time when many of us consider changing more than our calendars.
You will read this after Christmas, but hopefully the Christmas spirit will still be with you. I read this on a blog kept my one of my favorite people in the world — a young man named Cameron Kane, one of the kids my son and nephew grew up with here in Warm Beach.
One thing I have realized as a teacher and an adult is how important it is for kids to have another adult in their lives who influences them in ways their parents can’t.
It’s Friday at 11 p.m., the end of a particularly hectic week, and I am tired. But it is OK, because I can go to bed, thank goodness.
Last night I yelled at the television. The news was reporting Congress’s latest exploits concerning the budget, gun control and whatever other frustrating concern they continue to not solve. I said some very, very, very bad words. But then I stopped. I told my husband, “I’m turning into my dad!”
When I was a teacher, around the end of August and first of September, I could always guarantee that I would have at least one teacher dream before school started.
Last month a Facebook article received 150,000 shares.
We are at the lake and they are swimming — despite the gray clouds and looming weather, which threatens to dampen everything except their spirits. They seem oblivious to the coming onslaught, even though the air hangs heavy and dark, even though it is late afternoon — prime time for summer storms.
When I was substitute teaching a few years ago, a student said to me, “Aren’t you that lady who writes a column in the newspaper about dogs?”
I am lucky to live in a place that is a vacation spot. I guess the population in the summer increases by at least a 10 to 20 percent in Warm Beach.
Power tools and potatoes are on my bucket list. One I want to use. The other I want to grow. I’ll let you take it from there.
A blank page can be daunting. Especially first thing on a Monday morning, which is how I usually start my week.
Stress does strange things to me. Honestly, I lose brain cells.