To The Editor
August 31, 2010
Guns
No ban is effective without enforcement
The lead story Aug. 18 reported that people are allowed to carry guns into state parks if they have a permit, but that it is illegal to fire them. How ironic is that?
They should not be allowed in, period. But the bottom line is that without enforcement, no gun or booze ban can be effective. Enforcement requires manpower and severe penalties for violation.
Ray Extract
Issaquah Read more
Gold Stars
June 8, 2010
Soaring stock at Discovery Elementary School
Discovery’s stock market team took second place in the state Council for Economic and Financial Education’s Stock Market Game May 5.
The game started Feb. 22 with more than 2,250 fourth- through 12th-grade kids in 50 schools competing to build the most profitable portfolio. The game asks students to manage and diversify a virtual cash balance of $100,000.
Students researched investments, used global market rates and business trends to trade and learned economic principals in the mean time. Congratulations to Emily Sullivan, Addies Mejia and Nic Paduano and coach Jessica Daley!
Issaquah High School Junior Statesmen of America
Thirty-six of the school’s Junior Statesmen of America club members attended the spring convention April 24-25 at Redmond Town Center, making Issaquah one of the largest chapters in attendance.
The team won nine Best Speaker gavels, three awarded to Austin Siedentopf. Matt Sekijima was elected to be mayor for the Greater Pacific Northwest Region. Mark Vernon was recognized for his work as the head of the Department of Debate Logistics and Liza Romanow was recognized for her work as Pacific Northwest Governor.
Tristan Auclair and Vincent Smith
Instead of hitting the books, Issaquah Valley Elementary School fifth-graders Tristan Auclair and Vincent Smith got down to work.
As custodians for a day, the pair got to hang out with the school’s custodian Dusty Duke. During their adventures, they tested fire alarms, used walkie-talkies, talked to the principal, released students to recess after lunch and learned about transformers. To boot, they received special shirts for their work and a 10-piece McNugget meal from McDonald’s.
Gold Stars highlights accomplishments — big or small — by Issaquah students. Send a few sentences and the student’s name, age, grade, school, good deed and a photograph, if possible, to clusebrink@isspress.com.
Off The Press
December 22, 2009
Ruffled feathers lead to reader responses
David Hayes Press reporter
In one week, The Issaquah Press will publish its top 10 stories of the year for 2009. Among such issues as the school and city budgets, banning dogs in Timberlake Park and the weather, I have no idea where a rooster falls.
That’s right, a rooster.
When we vote for a story, we usually weigh how much impact it had upon the community as a whole. Of all the weighty issues we’ve covered, none elicited as much passion, vitriol or feedback from our readers as McNugget the rooster.
When I went to cover the latest breaking story of McNugget, I had no idea I was opening another Pandora’s box.
In Greek mythology, out of curiosity, Pandora actually opened a jar gifted by Zeus, which became a box in the retelling over the ages, and released all the evils, ills, diseases and burdensome labor mankind had not known previously. Read more
Rooster wranglers ruffle feathers
December 15, 2009
McNugget the rooster, the center of controversy in a dispute to move him to a warmer climate, gets some sun in the Staples parking lot last week. By David Hayes
Issaquah icon McNugget the rooster became the center of controversy Dec. 8 and 9 when a group of concerned citizens were blocked from moving him to a warmer environment.
Kristen Parshall and her friend Debby Welsh, both of Fall City, became worried about McNugget’s welfare in the face of temperatures reaching overnight lows in the teens and below.
“Our biggest concern is the winters,” said Parshall, a former employee of Pasado’s Safe Haven. “He needs to be in a coop with a heat lamp.”
Their efforts were met by those who disagreed, saying McNugget had ample care at the Your Espresso stand and had survived just fine in previous winters.
“McNugget eats three times a day and gets fresh water provided as a second source of water intake,” barista Candice Mercado wrote in an e-mail. “McNugget uses the small creek mostly for all his drinking needs. He never leaves the property and if a rooster were unhappy, he would have left over five years ago.” Read more
Tempers boil in dispute over Issaquah rooster
December 10, 2009
NEW — 12:30 p.m. Dec. 10, 2009
Issaquah icon McNugget the rooster became the center of controversy Tuesday and Wednesday when a group of concerned citizens were blocked from moving him to a warmer environment.
Kristen Parshall, and her friend Debby Welsh, both of Fall City, became worried about McNugget’s welfare in the face of the freezing weather reaching overnight lows in the teens and below.
“Our biggest concern is the winters,” said Parshall, a former employee of Posado’s Animal Rescue. “He needs to be in a coop with a heat lamp.”
Their first effort to catch McNugget was met with resistance from a barista who alerted Issaquah Grange Supply staff.
To The Editor
September 1, 2009
Education
Headline belies progress school district making under No Child Left Behind Read more
Off The Press
August 25, 2009
Warren Kagarise Press Reporter
Maybe the newspaper in front of you arrived at your doorstep, fashioned from ink and paper and delivered in a plastic bag. Perhaps you steered your browser to the Web counterpart, www.issaquahpress.com. Now, another option exists: The Issaquah Press has joined popular microblogging site Twitter. Follow us @issaquahpress.
Wait. What? Microblogging?
Let me explain how it works: Twitter users — tweeters — post updates, known as tweets, capped at 140 characters, or about the length of a text message. Each tweet is a condensed burst of information — a useful device, especially as news breaks and reporters gather information piece by piece.
Users follow other tweeters to build a network. As a user follows others, their tweets appear in his or her timeline. A conversation begins.
Like other news outlets worldwide, we utilize Twitter to speed information to our readers. Unlike other news providers, we strive to deliver hyperlocal content and news about regional issues that affect Issaquah residents. Since we first tweeted July 27, we’ve used the medium to chronicle a record heat wave, City Council decisions, ArtWalk and Concerts on the Green, the arrival of new businesses and the departures of others. Read more
Beloved rooster McNugget survives pit bull attack
August 18, 2009
McNugget
McNugget the rooster was attacked by a customer’s pit bull Aug. 2, but it seems he’s going to be OK.
McNugget lives near The Grange, Staples and Your Espresso.
“I was here when it happened,” said Teresa Mercado, who works at Your Espresso, previously known as Espresso Time. “Basically, I was working and I heard the rooster screaming — the pit bull had the rooster in its mouth.”
Luckily, the rooster was freed from the pit bull’s jaws, but after the attack “he was limping and scared, and he was hiding for three days,” she said.
Now, McNugget is back to his normal habits. Read more
