Gary Weiss has witnessed first-hand how having friends in high places can help further an important cause.
A San Juan Island man accused of dumping 66 automobile tires over an embankment and onto the shoreline of a publicly owned nature preserve is off the hook.
An Orcas Island man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl three years ago, and of threatening the then 15-year-old with a handgun on one occasion, is slated to stand trial on a pair of felonies in mid-August.
An Orcas Island man who two weeks ago began serving a six-year prison term for felony assault could face additional penalties for failing to appear at a sentencing hearing in late October.
San Juan County's chief building official remains on paid administrative leave and his employment with the county in doubt.
The Center believes J-19 is the mother of new calf sighted off the west side of San Juan Island in mid-morning of Feb. 12. Center biologist and photographer David Ellifrit said the calf appeared to about a week old and seemingly healthy as it traveled north, snugly tucked between J-19, AKA Shuchi, the name of a Hindu goddess of wrath and jealousy, and its first-born, J-41, a female also known as Eclipse.
While the looming specter of a moratorium may have vanished, the tug-of-war over marijuana production and whether impacts of the newly created industry warrant a new regimen of local land-use rules remains anything but resolved.
At the height of production, San Juan Sun Grown had as many as 16 employees.
Now, it has none.
While the County Council wrestles over whether – or what – rules should apply to marijuana cultivation, the county hearing examiner drew a line in the regulatory sand Dec. 10, sending a determination of non-significance back for another round of review and revoking a building permit for a marijuana grow operation on San Juan Island’s west side.
Tearing apart a boat that’s past its prime is nothing new for Michael Durland.
A Lopez Island woman that kept a set of keys after losing a job at the post office, and later used them in the theft of several pieces of jewelry – including a diamond ring – will spend four months in jail or on work crew for felony theft.
Every so often, Washington state’s smallest county ends up under the gaze of its highest court: jet skis, recorded telephone conversations, identity of political campaign donors.
The big payoff isn’t expected until the summer sailing season, when demand is at its peak, lines are long and it’s pretty much anyone’s guess how early one should show up to catch a ferry headed to or leaving the San Juan Islands.
Only seven weeks after its celebrated arrival, the first newborn in nearly two years to join the population of endangered killer whales that makes their summer, seasonal home in the San Juans is now missing, and presumed dead.
Elections are often about change.
San Juan County voters demonstrated an overwhelming eagerness for it in the administration of their sheriff’s office.
On the heels of serving a 15-month prison sentence for felony burglary, a San Juan Island man was ordered to pay $10,000 to a crime victims fund and serve out the remainder of a jail term on work crew after pleading no-contest to an unrelated crime, punching a man twice in the face.
An Orcas Island man who served a four-month jail term a year ago after brandishing a knife at a grocery store worker faces a new felony charge, possession of methamphetamine.
In a first-ever bid for public office, deputy Ron Krebs grabbed a sizable lead in a hotly contested 2014 sheriff's race. Krebs, an eight-year veteran of the force and former deputy guild president, collected 3,372 votes of 5211 ballots tallied on election night, earning 64.71 percent of the Nov. 4 early election returns.
That’s the reality of the landscape in the San Juan Islands today and, according to a local animal advocacy group, it’s a combination that demands a greater level of awareness, training and dedication to the cause of animal protection than local law enforcement is presently equipped or inclined to provide.
A Friday Harbor man was ordered to serve one year and four months in prison for selling cocaine to an informant working with the San Juan County Sheriff's Department on four separate occasions beginning late last year.
Midterm elections rarely draw the big-time voter turnout typical of a presidential election year. But with three contested county office races, including sheriff, and no fewer than six local property tax or bond measures on the Nov. 4 election ballot, San Juan County voters have plenty to pay attention to in the run-up to the 2014 general election.
A two-year drought came to a welcomed end Saturday, Sept. 6, as researchers with the Center for Whale Research spotted a killer whale calf off the west side of San Juan Island.
If you’re looking to score some weed in the San Juan Islands, legally, that is, don't hold your breath.
The U.S. Postal Service expects to save more than $500,000,000 a year by shutting down or cutting hours at about 13,000 post offices across the nation, mostly in rural locations.
Not only did Joshua Accomando and Lexi Abel both finish first in the Friday Harbor 8.8K Loop Run, in their respective men’s and women’s divisions, but by doing so they fulfilled a promise to Abel’s mother, Susan Hyde, and soon-to-be stepfather, Jay Lien, on the eve of the elder couple’s wedding.
An Orcas Island man who a year ago helped a female friend break into a relative’s home and steal credit cards, cash and power tools will be allowed to undergo treatment for substance abuse in lieu of jail, after pleading no-contest to criminal trespass.
After 100-plus years of serving up top-flight entertainment, one might think the San Juan County Fair had seen it all.
One of the best parts of the county fair is running into old friends, and getting reacquainted.
When push came to shove, it wasn’t even close.
Incumbent Rick Larsen, D-Everett, landed the lion’s share of votes in Washington state’s District 2 congressional primary, collecting 56.7 percent of 106,333 ballots cast in the three-way race.
State officials cited negligence as a factor in imposing a $112,500 fine against an Anacortes-based seafood company, whose fishing boat accidentally sank in Bellingham Channel, near Guemes Island, a year ago in July.
Faced with a possible proliferation of industrial-sized marijuana grows, the San Juan County Council agreed to consider placing new limits on the construction, scope, size and operation of greenhouses, an accessory use for agricultural production that can be constructed, in many instances, without a permit.
If buying a brand new, 26-foot custom-built boat for just $35,000 sounds like a good deal to you, well, you're not alone.
If you were making plans to pick up your dry cleaning, well, there's no rush.
Business at Friday Harbor's only commercial dry cleaner and laundry service came to a screeching halt early Tuesday morning after fire broke out inside Sunshine Cleaners at about 2:30 a.m.
Authorities claim the two men broke into a home in the Lampard Road area on the night of May 22 and, after searching from room to room, made off with a jar full of coins, a $20 bill and a 9-mm Glock handgun from a bedroom cabinet.
If you're looking for a gripping, true-life tale about the battles Ken Balcomb has waged to protect the southern resident killer whales, and other marine mammals as well, from the very same government that is supposed to be reeling the endangered population back from the precipice of extinction, well then, my friend, your ship has come in.
A new twist to a long-standing state pollution prevention program made a hearty debut last week on the waterfront of Friday Harbor. By all accounts, it proved a smashing success.
On the heels of recent rulings in federal court, San Juan County and its Sheriff’s Department are joining a rapidly expanding list of cities and counties limiting how far they will go to assist in rounding up those suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
Bigger. Faster. Built to endure.
And with a lot more firepower—as in a pump that can shoot out 1,500 gallons of water per-minute, three times the amount that’s now available to fight a fire at the water’s edge.
An uptick in harbor porpoise strandings has local biologists scratching their heads, looking for clues and wary that mid-May’s unusually high death toll may signal something other than the natural die-off of a population on the rise.
Although the dust has yet to settle over a now-infamous waterfront clearcut at the former Mar Vista Resort, the property's new owners are in pursuit of a dock.
