Here’s a thought…
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and the government when it deserves it.”
MARK TWAIN
Hearing consults to be available at Senior Center
||| FROM LENA KASSA for ORCAS SENIOR CENTER ||| Stacie Nordrum, Au.D., CCC-A, of Island Hearing Healthcare will once again be offering hearing appointments at Orcas Senior Center on Thursday April 7, Thursday May 19, and Thursday June 9. Services available include hearing tests, consultations, hearing aid programming, and other
Get $$ for college! Go to a fun camp! 2022 OPALCO College Scholarship and Youth Rally
||| FROM KRISTA BOUCHEY for ORCAS POWER & LIGHT COOPERATIVE ||| Up to five local students will receive a $1,000 scholarship as well as the opportunity to represent our community at a co-op leadership camp (where they are could earn another $1,100 in scholarship funds). OPALCO’s Youth Rally and Scholarship
Guest Opinion | Lower Snake River dam removal has two sides
||| FROM TOM OWENS ||| Removing the Snake River dams is a tough decision. It has two sides. Like many other issues we face, there are merits to both arguments. Hopefully, before final decisions and actions are taken, the public can gain a full understanding of both the positive impacts
Poetry | Let America Be America Again
Let America Be America Again Langston Hughes 1901-1967 Langston Hughes, 1901-1967 Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let
Poetry | Horses at Midnight Without a Moon
Jack Gilbert Horses at Midnight Without a Moon Jack Gilbert - 1925-2012 Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods. Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt. But there's music in us. Hope is pushed down but the angel flies up again taking us with her. The
UPDATED | School Board meeting, in-person and Zoom, is coming up
Public Hearing 3/24/22 @ 5pm ||| FROM ORCAS ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT ||| The Orcas Island School District School Board will be hosting their meeting in person at The School Library and online VIA ZOOM. Here is the link to sign up for free ZOOM. Please click on this link to join the
Call for high school age artists: 2022 Congressional Art Competition
||| FROM THE OFFICE OF REP. RICK LARSEN ||| EVERETT, WA — Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) is inviting high school-aged students who live or attend school in Washington’s Second Congressional District to showcase their artistic talents in the 2022 Congressional Art Competition. Art submissions and forms are due to Larsen’s office by Monday, May
Inslee signs new firearms regulations into law, including limits on sale of gun magazines
||| FROM THE OFFICE OF GOV. JAY INSLEE ||| OLYMPIA — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a trio of bills into law Wednesday morning that restrict firearms, including a new limit on the amount of ammunition in magazines and prohibition on open carry of weapons at city meetings. The two
Not much here (technical issue at state), but latest numbers from Health Dept.
||| FROM STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ||| Newest numbers. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) reported a total of 1,446,845 confirmed cases as of 11:59 p.m. on March 20. There have been 12,355 COVID-19 deaths in Washington. Data note (Monday, March 14): Due to a technical issue in our data systems, the
Smiley for Senate shines for supporters
||| FROM STEVE BERNHEIM, theORCASONIAN REPORTER ||| More than 25 local members of the Republican party gathered at the VFW Hall in Eastsound Sunday, March 20, to welcome and be inspired by Pasco-raised candidate Tiffany Smiley at the party’s annual Lincoln Day Luncheon. Following a prayer from the master of
Fire Commissioners to meet in special meeting to interview board candidates
||| FROM KIM KIMPLE for BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS ||| The Board of Fire Commissioners will hold a special meeting this Thursday, March 24th at 5:30 p.m. for the purpose of interviewing, evaluating, and potentially appointing a candidate to fill the BOFC Seat #1 vacancy. This meeting will be held online
County’s 2022 homeless count identifies 146 people with no place to live
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS ||| The 2022 San Juan County “Point-In Time” (PIT) Homeless Count identified 146 people who have no stable place to live, an increase from the 2020 count of 133. Of the 146 people identified as having no stable place to live, 58 people were
Everyone’s invited to this observance of National Vietnam Veterans Day
||| FROM PATRICIA (PAT) AYERS, COMMANDER OF AMERICAN LEGION POST #93 ||| The American Legion Post #93 will host a National Vietnam Veterans Day ceremony at the Legion (793 Crescent Beach Road) on Tuesday, 29 March 2022 at 11 a.m. All are welcome to attend, especially Vietnam veterans and their
Island Health welcomes internal medicine physician to staff
||| FROM LAURA MULRONEY for ISLAND HEALTH ||| Charles Kotal, M.D. Today, Charles Kotal, MD, joins Island Health’s Island Primary Care – 24th Street clinic (formerly Fidalgo Medical Associates) as an Internal Medicine physician. Kotal was most recently a provider at The Everett Clinic in Anacortes. He served as Island
‘In the middle of war, he is asking for more poems’
||| FROM JOELLEN MOLDOFF, ET. AL ||| In a recent essay in the NY Times, "Poems in a Time of Crisis” by Ilya Kaminsky, a Ukrainian American poet, concluded: "I ask how I can help. Finally, an older friend, a lifelong journalist, writes back: “Putins come and go. If you want
Guest Opinion | Because we want wild salmon and orca, it’s time to tell OPALCO to support Snake River dam removal
||| FROM SHARON GRACE ||| The waters around the San Juan Islands are a summer home of the critically endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales. OPALCO, the islands’ utility co-op, is owned by islanders. Islanders overwhelmingly support recovering the endangered orcas. Recovering the orcas hinges on recovering chinook salmon populations. The
