What can you do in the Methow Valley on a Tuesday in January? Tuesday is the dead zone, the doldrums, the non-eventful tweener day. It’s cold, it’s dark, the roads are snowy and the action-packed next weekend isn’t until, well, the end of the week. Even if you stay home, there aren’t any football games […]
No Bad Days
For a few dollars more
It’s been more than six years since we raised the price of mail subscriptions to the Methow Valley News. In that time, most of our costs have gone up while our revenues have stayed basically flat. We have raised rates for retail and special publications advertising periodically, by small incremental amounts. The price for classifieds […]
On the receiving end
Maybe I look underfed (doubtful). Or just needy (more likely, especially when I’m fatigued and distracted). Anyway, I’ve had a couple of grocery store experiences in the past week that make me grateful for others’ generosity and, I suspect, their holiday spirit. At one store, as I was readying to pay for my small bag […]
News from the News
We’ve been trying to secure another vendor for our single-copy sales in Pateros since the previous vendor, under new ownership, decided not to continue selling the paper. It’s not easy to find a place that will deal with the logistics of displaying and selling newspapers, and the business paperwork that goes with that. We also […]
Locally sourced
I was in a local retail store last weekend, browsing a bit, when I overheard an obviously-not-from-here couple discussing an item the man liked (I wasn’t eavesdropping — it was close quarters). The woman suggested that he buy it. “I can get it online,” the man said as he examined the item. “But it’s right here, why […]
Make some news
It’s been another eventful year in the Methow Valley. You may think you have a pretty good handle on everything that’s happened since January, but we’re here to help refresh your memory — and to again ask you for assistane in determining the valley’s top 10 news stories of the year. For the past several years, we’ve […]
Whither Winthrop?
A lot has changed in Winthrop and the Methow Valley in the past 25 years, and Rita Kenny has seen much of it from the front windows of Winthrop Mountain Sports, the outdoor store she co-owns on Riverside Avenue. Still, Kenny worries that the community isn’t doing enough, that some projects are languishing, that some […]
Post-election perspectives
As reluctant as I am to project the outcomes of local elections, having been lamentably wrong before, I’m less reticent about analyzing results. Or at least making observations, hopefully of the informed variety. Not having to explain or defend wayward predictions of course gives me something of an advantage in the punditry department — I can act […]
Take a number
They say it’s just a number. On your birthday, you’re only a day older than the day before, not a year older. And, you’re only as old as you — think? feel? behave? Ultimately, however, your age is your age (don’t you just love tautology?), if you’ve been fortunate enough to make it however far you’ve made […]
Delicate decisions
There are stories that we choose to do, and stories that we have to do as part of our responsibility to the community. The “have to” stories are often controversial, sensitive or potentially damaging to reputations. In those cases, we take extra care about how we handle the reporting and writing. Such a story came […]
