Thursday, October 1, 2026
Opinion

Before voters commit $48 million for hospital construction in Hospital District #1, they deserve solid county-wide information to confirm how best to meet the medical needs of the residents of …

An open letter on meeting Washington's H.R. 1 moment

Executive order 26-03 was the right call. Building a verification hub that will help 400,000 more Washingtonians keep their Apple Health coverage, and standing up a committee to track the impacts of H.R. 1 is the leadership our state needs right now.

Labor Day has passed, school buses are back on the roads and another North Central Washington summer is beginning to give way to fall. But this year, it doesn't feel quite as simple as turning …

Opinion has a place. So does disagreement.

One of the responsibilities of publishing a newspaper is understanding that not everyone will agree with everything in it. That has always been true. Readers will disagree with news …

The elections closest to home

We spend an extraordinary amount of time talking about elections that happen thousands of miles away. Presidential campaigns dominate television, social media and conversations for months, …

Grace is becoming a lost skill

Grace is one of those qualities that rarely makes headlines. It doesn't generate clicks. It doesn't trend on social media. It doesn't win many arguments. Yet it may be one of the most …

Living online, missing what's around us

For much of human history, communities were experienced face to face. People gathered at schools, churches, coffee shops, ballfields and community events. They knew their neighbors. They …

The next generation is watching

With school out for the summer, children across North Central Washington are spending their days a little differently. They're riding bikes through neighborhoods, attending summer camps, playing …

The best stories aren't happening on the field

Before the FIFA World Cup kicked off in the United States, much of the conversation centered on logistics. Would transportation hold up? Would security be sufficient? Could the United States …

As an AI tech-hub, Washington must lead with conscience

From Seattle to Spokane, the state of Washington has been a leader in cutting-edge technology. Today, technological advances focus on artificial intelligence. As president of Gonzaga University, …

Local voices matter most in Washington redistricting

A messy redistricting battle is breaking out all across the country. In states like Mississippi, Virginia, and Missouri, political maps are trapped in an endless loop of court fights and mid-cycle …

Not every disagreement needs an audience

There was a time when most disagreements stayed small. Not hidden. Not ignored. Just contained. Two people could disagree, work through it privately and move on without feeling the need to …

A community is measured by how it treats those in need

Every community reveals its values. Not only through what it says, but through what it does. Values are easy to claim in speeches, mission statements and public celebrations. They are …

Calm is a form of strength

We often misunderstand what strength looks like. Many people associate strength with force. With volume. With the person who speaks the loudest, reacts the fastest or dominates a conversation …

Kindness is not a small thing

Kindness is often treated as something optional. A personal trait. A nice gesture. A matter of personality. It is easy to see it as secondary to more serious qualities like strength, …

The cost of assumption

Assumptions are easy. They fill in gaps. They provide quick answers. They allow us to move forward without waiting for more information. In a world that moves quickly, that can …

Your story matters and how we tell it matters, too

There’s something special about a community newspaper. It’s one of the last places where a school fundraiser, a nonprofit milestone, a business opening and a student achievement can all live …

Winning isn’t the same as solving

Somewhere along the way, many of our public conversations stopped being about solving problems and started being about winning arguments. You can feel it in the tone of debates, the language …

When the noise gets louder, perspective gets harder

Not long ago someone told me, with complete certainty, that the United States had never been more chaotic. Politics are more divisive than ever. The news cycle is relentless. Social media …

When discourse breaks down

There was a time when disagreement required effort. You had to explain your position. You had to listen to the other side. You had to respond to the strongest version of their argument, not the …

1 | 2 | 3 Next »
Currently viewing stories posted within the past 2 years.
For all older stories, please use our advanced search.