Our Vision for 2016

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year

With the new years come’s “Resolutions” and other lies we tell ourselves when we know darn well we were just waiting until New Year’s to keep holding on to our bad habits for the other 364 days…

As most of you know I started this paper for several reasons

1. To aggravate our other local paper into reporting the news, not just whatever the county, cities or elected officials (or advertisers) wanted printed.

That backfired on me as it seems to have gotten worse, and now the citizens can’t even comment anymore because evidently “your a idiot” or if you’re Doug Parry and can’t grasp proper English. This was the Herald’s response to the decision to stop allowing comments, their words, not mine but I got a screenshot of the whole thing to preserve it for all time. Editor’s must’ve been on a coffee break when he wrote that… you’re an idiot

Not to mention the other numerous stories that have gone beyond the pale.

2. I wanted to be able to tell stories from the community from the community’s perspective. Everyone was so gung-ho about helping out and about telling their stories.

Well that was a miserable failure and mostly it is me who does most of the writing. We do get the occasional guest writer which I am extremely thankful for but mostly it’s me.

This has led me to some serious soul searching, I do have 7 kids and almost 16 grandkids if the last little one would hurry up and make her grand entrance, I have a husband, family and friends, and I work part time.

I spend up to 10 hours a day working on the stories I write and there are no “weekends” off. I can have several hundred emails a day, which is great, but that leads to more stories, and more situations to investigate.

The problem is that there is such a climate of fear in this county that is very valid that most of the info I have I can’t write about or it would put people’s lives, homes, and jobs (even marriages) in jeopardy.

Trust when I say that if I am particularly cantankerous about a certain person there is a reason, a very valid reason why. Even if you’ve never read anything about them. Or even if I have written about them and seem to dislike them more then a certain story warrants, it’s because there is more.

Hopefully that climate of fear has come to an end with the new County Executive at the helm but it is going to take him some time to unscrew all that is screwed up in Snohomish County, it took decades to happen and won’t be fixed overnight, it won’t even be fixed in 4 years but I’m hoping he’ll keep trying.

Mr Somers was sworn in on the 23th yet there is no video on it, (or I just haven’t had enough coffee to find it yet)

The Herald was there and took a few pix but the article they wrote was very threatening, it almost forewarned about how the paper intends on treating Mr Somers over the next 4 years.

Telling him “what he better do” “who he better suck up to” and “what decisions he better make”. Basically they warned him he had better kiss Sullivan and Wrights derriere and it looks like they have already “decided” that Hans Dunshee is going to take over Somers council seat.

The sweetheart deals between Karen Kuzak and Hans Dunshee are enough to make any logical voter take a step back and say No, but add to that he is also a Reardon Ally, a very staunch ally at that, which will just bring us right back to the same old crap. I already have an entire folder to hand over to anyone running against him.

I do not know that much about the other contender: Guy Palumbo but I have not been able to find any dirt or backdoor deals on him and I have been digging in every nook and cranny. I follow him on Twitter, actually I have for a couple of years and didn’t realize he had any background in politics, and he usually is pretty logical, and pretty neutral across the board. The bonus is that he isn’t “owned” by any big interests… In all reality he seems like a boring guy. Snohomish County needs more of that.

I do think I am finally making enough of a dent in the local news audience that state agencies are starting to stand up and take notice, or in my case: Take offense.

I got after the PDC for attempting to let the statute of limitations run on the Hulten Reardon investigations, next thing you know: They have “charged” both of them

I wrote to the Washington State Auditor, Attorney General and PDC and the next day there is another article about Gold Bar’s woes with the state Auditor and their mismanagement of money, it painted a poor poor me picture of the angst of Gold Barians

So that leads me to my vision for the coming year:

Simply just to stay here, to keep writing, to keep digging, to keep investigating, to keep trying to help, and not letting up until this corruption is under control or completely eliminated.

Looks like I’ll be here for a while (((sigh)))