Opinion

Americans labour under the delusion they practise roughly the same customs as their friends throughout the English-speaking world. Many do not realise that their orthographic behaviours differ considerably even from their neighbours to the north, Canada. While the United States may have the largest defence budget of any country, and fought in the most theatres of war of any nation, it is still not the centre of ...

Golf is the only sport in the world where competitors can call a penalty on themselves.If you ground a club in a hazard, you call a penalty on yourself. If your ball moves, you speak up. It takes a measure of honor and integrity to play the game the right way.Washington head boys? golf coach Mark Berhow tries to instill these values in his young players. The team?s motto is ?Integrity on and off the ...

Many people in Washington County have been waiting anxiously for the lilacs to bloom, the oak leaves to get the size of a squirrel?s ear, or any of a myriad of methods for knowing that the soil temperature is has reached the point that morel mushrooms will be fruiting. At least right now, the odds are looking to be excellent that the soil moisture levels are right, and 2011 is going to be a banner morel mushroom ...

Thanks to everyone who has sent me comments regarding the nuclear power issue. Some have sent suggestions on other means of generating electricity for Iowans, others have sent opinions. We have been told that next week we will be having an in-depth caucus to share information with our colleagues. Hopefully, I will have my research completed before this important meeting. The redistricting map that was released ...

Kindergarten Round UpWe have held kindergarten roundup and Mr. Miller, principal at Stewart reports approximately 120 students have been registered. If things run as normal, we also get an additional 10 students in the fall. This would give us approximately 130 kindergarten students for next year. This is about average across our K-12 system, with our three largest classes in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade next year ...

I had a birthday last week, on April 5. I spent the night at a storm spotter class. I can now recognize different types of storms from quite a long way away.Believe it or not, it was a more memorable birthday than the one I had four years ago, the big 2-1. How is that possible? Well, I?ll tell you.In the spring of 2007, I was a resident advisor in a dormitory called Friley at Iowa State University. A ...

The City of Washington missed a big opportunity recently. It could have joined Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and city governments in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City in issuing a historic ?Day of Reason? proclamation, which recognizes the May 5, 2016 secular event, for the growing secular community across Washington. It was an opportunity to affirm its commitment to the Constitutional separation of church ...

Our oldest grandchild, Lucy, 8, is a little small for her age. She has at least one real good reason to feel fortunate she is small, which is the role of her lifetime so far. Her short stature allowed her to portray 5-year-old Gretl Van Trapp in a stage production of ?The Sound of Music.?But while she is small physically, she has a personality at least as big as the Ellie Caulkin Opera House stage in the Denver ...

I attended the Readers and Writers Department of the Fortnightly Club Wednesday afternoon. I've been a member of the group for a few years and really enjoy the meetings.Our topic for the meeting was "A Family Reunion." We don't have to write about the topic each month, but having a topic narrows down the vast number of topics we could select for a reading or a writing project.Six of us were present at the ...

With our enrollment numbers for Washington Community School down over 50 students, we will need to look at ways of leveraging our funding streams in the coming years. There are many funding sources that the Washington Community School District utilizes to fund education. The total budget for the Washington Community School is nearly $20 million, but that includes all funds available to us. I think it is important ...

May 6, 2016Washington, Iowa To the Editor: Dear residents of Washington: Saturday, May 14, marks the 24th anniversary of one of America?s great days of giving ? the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Letter carriers walk through the community every day, often coming face to face with a sad reality for far too many, hunger. So, each year on the second Saturday in May, ...

Everything has its place. Sometimes, though, it becomes difficult to find time to fit everything in to an already tight schedule.During one of my recent field trips, the students? day was split in half. They spent the morning in groups, rotating around several stations. After lunch, for a couple of hours, they could fish and/or enjoy the park. This year, ?enjoying the park? included a teacher-led scavenger hunt, ...