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Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, left, and Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, right, embrace after a special session to figure out how much to punish drug possession on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Olympia, Wash. Without action, Washington's drug possession law will expire July 1, leaving no penalty in state law and leaving cities free to adopt a hodgepodge of local ordinances. (Karen Ducey/The Seattle Times via AP)

Opinion

Editorial: Robinson smart choice to head Senate budget panel

A 10-year legislative veteran, the Everett senator displays a mastery of legislation and negotiation.

Randall Tharp’s month recovery coins after battling a fentanyl addiction. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Fentanyl crisis should force rethinking of approach

A continuum of care, that includes treatment in jails, is imperative, says a journalist and author.

Flowers bloom on the end of a dead tree on Spencer Island on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Restore salmon habitat but provide view of its work

Comments are sought on a plan to restore fish habitat to the island east of Everett with popular…

FILE - Six-year-old Eric Aviles receives the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from pharmacist Sylvia Uong at a pediatric vaccine clinic for children ages 5 to 11 set up at Willard Intermediate School in Santa Ana, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. In a statement Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021, California's public health officer, Dr. Tomas J. Aragon, said that officials are monitoring the Omicron variant. There are no reports to date of the variant in California, the statement said. Aragon said the state was focusing on ensuring its residents have access to vaccines and booster shots. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Opinion

Editorial: A plea for watchful calm this time regarding covid

We don’t need a repeat of uncontrolled infections or of the divisions over vaccines and masks.

A construction worker caulks the siding on a townhouse at The Towns at Riverfront housing development in Everett on October 25, 2017. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: How do we put housing within reach of everyone?

A Herald Forum panel discussion considered the challenges and solutions for affordable housing.

The Rotary Club of Everett Awards on Monday, May 22, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Rotary efforts prove no limits to ‘Service Above Self’

Everett Rotary clubs have welcomed Dominican Rotarians this week marking several accomplishments.

FILE- In this June 15, 2018, file photo, twenty dollar bills are counted in North Andover, Mass. Record low-interest mortgages are long gone. Credit card rates will likely rise. You'll pay more for an auto loan. The unusually large three-quarter point hike, Wednesday, June 15, 2022 in the Fed's benchmark short-term rate is going to have a lot of impacts on Americans' finances. The hope is that by making borrowing more expensive, the Fed will succeed in cooling demand for homes, cars and other goods and services and slow inflation (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Opinion

Editorial: Cash should remain option for most purchases

A county ordinance would require businesses to accept cash for the first $200 of a purchase.

Marysville Pilchuck High School students talk with Snohomish County council members Jared Mead and Nate Nate Nehring during a Civic Engagement Day event hosted at the county campus on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Larger issue in Marysville schools’ budget woes

A gap in levy funding left the district $17.5 million in the hole, pointing to a systemic funding…

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Opinion

Editorial: Spanning growing political divide by giving a listen

The third of four Building Bridges community forums comes next Tuesday to Lynnwood.

Lolita, here in a 1994 file image, has lived more than 40 years at Miami Seaquarium. (Harley Soltes/Seattle Times/TNS)

Opinion

Editorial: Honoring the memory of the last captive orca

Tokitae can’t return home, but the Salish Sea can be restored to save the whales living there.

Fred Meyer employees Shawna Wilder, right, and Michelle O’Keefe, left, hand out flyers with information about the grocery merger and chat with a customer on Thursday, April 6, 2023 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Grocery chains merger would hit workers, shoppers

The state treasurer has written the FTC, objecting to the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons.

An addict prepares heroin, placing a fentanyl test strip into the mixing container to check for contamination, Wednesday Aug. 22, 2018, in New York. If the strip registers a "pinkish" to red marker then the heroin is positive for contaminants. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Opinion

Editorial: State, county overdose rates call for all-out effort

With no slowing of deaths, communities must welcome steps key to confront addiction and its harms.

A man walks through wildfire wreckage Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens sounded before people ran for their lives from wildfires on Maui that wiped out a historic town. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Opinion

Comment: Maui’s devastating fire offers a plea and a warning

Along with our contributions, we owe Hawaiians sober consideration of our own risks for wildfires.

Eric Meyer, publishers of Marion, Kansas, County Record, has a telephone interview with a British radio station about the raid on his newspaper's offices and his home by local police, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Marion, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Opinion

Editorial: Police raid on newspaper a blatant abuse of power

That it happened in a small Kansas town doesn’t lessen the chilling effect on community journalism.

FILE - In this April 11, 2018, file photo, water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near Almota, Wash. Some Republican members of Congress from the Northwest are accusing a GOP Idaho lawmaker of conducting secret negotiations with the Democratic governor of Oregon over a controversial proposal to breach four dams on the Snake River to save endangered salmon runs. (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios, File)

Opinion

Editorial: Fate of four dams may turn on talks, climate change

Settlement talks on four Snake River dams end soon, but climate change is a looming influence.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson speaks Thursday, March 31, 2022 before Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill that creates a first-in-the-nation statewide alert system for missing Indigenous people — particularly women, in Quil Ceda Village, near Marysville, Wash., north of Seattle. The law creates a system similar to Amber Alerts, which are used for missing children in many states. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Opinion

Editorial: Supreme Court left abortion decision to the people

Yet officials in some states seek restrictions that ignore other states’ laws and the wishes of voters.

Mike Tullar grabs a Herald to check over as the first papers roll off the press on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Help proposed to stem growth of U.S. ‘news deserts’

Federal tax credit legislation could help sustain local newspapers through advertising and payroll aid.

People arrive at the entrance to the terminal during the grand-opening of the Paine Field Airport on Monday, March 4, 2019 in Everett, Wash. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Paine Field’s biggest news wasn’t name change

Passage of FAA’s reauthorization can deliver important policy and funding for U.S. airports, passengers.

Catherine Berwicks loads ballots into a tray after scanning them at the Snohomish County Elections Ballot Processing Center on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020 in Everett, Wa. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Lacking confidence in elections? See how it’s done.

A study finds better understanding of the ballot process could increase trust in elections.

City council member Josh Binda listens and eats a sucker during a city council meeting at Lynnwood City Hall in Lynnwood, Washington on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (Annie Barker / The Herald)

Opinion

Editorial: Binda, Lynnwood council have mistakes to learn from

An NAACP report clears an allegation against the council member, but his tenure has been controversial.