It’s not uncommon for someone who works in a government office to challenge his or her boss in an election. After all, a staff member would have an insider’s view of how the elected official is doing and how things are running in the office.
Inevitably, a challenge from within causes hard feeling and division within the office as office politics gives way to electoral politics.
Two Oak Harbor men who sold electronics stolen from boats on the eBay website were recently sent to jail.
A report released this week by the Washington State Auditor’s Office is critical of the Island County Assessor’s Office for a lack of adequate controls and procedures, leading to inaccurate tax bills being sent to citizens.
Apparently Whidbey Island residents keep a lot of unwanted pills in their medicine cabinets. Island County Sheriff Mark Brown reported that the drug “Take-Back Day” was an unimpaired success.
The Island County commissioners’ first official meeting on a deep-cutting budget that will result in the loss of 30 positions and the elimination of a number of programs was surprisingly amicable.
The April 2 blast at the Tesoro plant in Anacortes that killed seven people, including two Oak Harbor residents, could have been prevented, the state Department of Labor & Industries concluded in an investigation released today.
Citizens will have their first chance Monday to offer their two cents on $2 million of proposed cuts to Island County’s current expense fund.
Politically and philosophically, there’s a chasm dividing the two candidates running for the Island County District 3 commissioner position.
Some are elderly war veterans who can no longer cook for themselves. Others are widows who can’t afford food. Some are living in shocking poverty, while others are trying to hold onto what they have in the face of overwhelming health care bills.
Above all, the senior citizens and disabled people on Whidbey Island who receive food through the Meals on Wheels program are largely invisible to the public, even as Island County officials and citizens debate funding for this and other services for seniors.
Jordyn Weichert looked young and very meek as she appeared in court wearing an orange jail outfit Monday to face accusations that she was allegedly intoxicated on heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana while driving and caused an accident that killed three people and injured two others on North Whidbey Sept. 3.
A rollover accident in the middle of Oak Harbor Saturday at noon snarled traffic, but didn’t result in any serious injuries.
A husband and wife team running for separate Island County offices failed to win endorsements from their own party.
Bird watchers and some North Whidbey residents have been a little dumbfounded by a recent visitor to Dugualla Bay Heights.
A grey crowned crane, a spectacular 3-foot-tall bird originating in Africa, has been spotted in the lagoon area, sometimes hanging out with Canadian geese. A number of people have sent photos of the stately creature to the Whidbey News-Times.
