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Lakewood School District Superintendent Michael Mack is leaving to head the International Schools Group in Saudi Arabia. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

Lakewood schools leader tells why he’s going to Saudi Arabia

His focus is kids, not politics. “I view my role as kind of a statesman,” says the superintendent.

Renowned poet Nikki Giovanni will be the keynote speaker at Snohomish County’s YWCA Inspire Luncheon April 18 in the conference center at Angel of the Winds Arena. (Photo HarperCollins Publishers)

Local News

‘We’re all sisters,’ says poet and YWCA speaker Nikki Giovanni

She teaches at Virginia Tech and knew what to say after the nation’s deadliest school shooting there.

Louis Harris, long involved with the local NAACP was recently honored as the Everett Elks Lodge’s Citizen of the Year. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

Elks Lodge’s award is one more step away from segregated past

Louis Harris, longtime member of the local NAACP branch, is the Everett group’s Citizen of the Year.

Cathie Ong-Herrera is the sister of Betty Ong, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first airliner to crash into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. She spoke Wednesday at a Victim Support Services fundraising lunch in Everett. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

Her sister, who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, was a hero too

A nonprofit’s lunch featured a talk about that awful day, plus an award for a county victim advocate.

Holding a broom, Graham Kerr explains Monday how he saved a bird that had become trapped in his greenhouse. He plans to tell the story at the YMCA prayer breakfast April 19. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

Former TV chef Graham Kerr has a different message now

As the “Galloping Gourmet,” he made rich recipes and sly jokes. Life and faith prompted a turnaround.

The Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill March 24, 1989, blackened hundreds of miles of coastline in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, devasting wildlife and altering lives in fishing communities for generations. (John Gaps III / Associated Press)

Local News

30 years after oil spill, he will never forget or forgive

A longtime Snohomish resident has written a book about her fisherman husband’s experience in Alaska.

At his home in Edmonds in 2008, Chris Wedes, 80, had transformed himself into the popular clown Julius Pierpont “J.P.” Patches. Wedes was battling cancer, which took his life four years later on July 22, 2012. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

‘Funny dudes’ J.P. and Gertrude may soon be seen in traffic

Patches Pals will get a chance to display their favorite clown on license plates if bill’s approved.

Pet poop and plastic-bag bans: What’s the right way to toss?

Local News

Pet poop and plastic-bag bans: What’s the right way to toss?

Even biodegradable bags may not break down in a landfill, but it’s still the best place for dog…

Senior Damilka Ortega runs past flag-waving students flanking the entryway to Cascade High School for Wednesday’s first-ever Culture Night. She modeled a dress that she is carrying from Puerto Rico and recited her own poetry at the event. (Dan Bates / The Herald

Local News

Cascade honors its own whole world at first Culture Night

Parents, families join in a celebration of the many nations represented by the school’s student body.

In 1893, Snohomish County built its poor farm at Allen Prairie west of Monroe. Shown in this 1909 photo, it later became the site of Valley General Hospital, now EvergreenHealth Monroe hospital. (Courtesy Monroe Historical Society)

Local News

A mansion and a ‘poor farm’ are among Monroe’s missing places

An Historical Society program will tell stories of lost landmarks and inmates who built bricks.

With Emma Ka’aha’aina (fourth from left in lei), program manager of EvCC’s Diversity & Equity Center, are members of the college’s First Nations Club who proposed a space for Native American, Indigenous and Pacific Islander students. They are, from left, Cullen Zackuse, Kayah George, Tara Duffin, Sebastian Corrales and Rafael Alverez. (Photo by Derek Walker, EvCC)

Local News

‘Place of Our Way’ welcomes Native, Pacific Islander students

The new space in EvCC’s Monte Cristo Hall has cedar-plank walls to evoke the sense of a longhouse.

John and Maureen Keane talk about his homeland of Ireland in their Edmonds living room. He is the Honorary Consul of Ireland in Seattle and a longtime member of the Irish Heritage Club that presents Irish Week activities. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

From Edmonds home, he’s Honorary Consul of Ireland in Seattle

Irishman John Keane and his wife shun green beer, corned beef, 4-leaf clovers on St. Patrick’s Day.

Ruth May Scougale will celebrate her 100th birthday Sunday at the Josephine home in Stanwood. Born and raised in Australia, she was a war bride who taught at Everett High School and Cascade High. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

Turning 100, she taught with high standards and a big heart

War bride from Australia, Ruth May Scougale was EHS yearbook adviser who helped open Cascade.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Polar Star, a heavy icebreaker, during its 105-day deployment to Antarctica. The icebreaker returned to its homeport of Seattle on Monday. (Photo Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard)

Local News

Icebreaker is home from Antarctica, and ex-Coastie reflects

An Everett man served aboard the Staten Island. The Polar Star now is one of just two U.S.…

Author J.D. Howard, whose novel “The Pride of Monte Cristo” features Martin Comins,’ pours Irish whiskey Monday near a new grave marker for Comins, who died in 1913. The grave of the man known as the “Duke of Monte Cristo” had been unmarked for more than a century. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

From fictional Monte Cristo tale comes new marker on a grave

Local author helps memorialize Martin Comins, known as “Duke” of the mining boomtown in the 1890s.

Dr. Scott Casselman speaks out against airport expansion at Paine Field during a 2005 town hall meeting in Mukilteo. Now that commercial airline service has started, the Mukilteo resident hasn’t changed his views. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

Paine airport battle lasted longer than the Thirty Years War

Save Our Communities group voiced many concerns over property values, noise, traffic and pollution.

Local preservationists Paul Popelka (right) and Patrick Hall attach paper hearts with messages about the Longfellow Building in Everett Friday. They are “heart-bombing” the 108-year-old former school to raise awareness of plans to demolish it for parking. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

A heartfelt plea to save Longfellow School

Preservationists stage “heart-bombing” outside building the district plans to demolish for parking.

Ciera Graham (center), the new director of Everett Community College’s East County Campus in Monroe, with longtime instructor Sandy Lepper and student Leon Field (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Local News

East County Campus leader brings experience from WSU Everett

Ciera Graham, director of EvCC in Monroe, sees the value of community college for all kinds of students.

Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers in the movie “Captain Marvel.” It will be shown, free, March 8 to more than 100 girls and women served by the Edmonds School District and the YWCA. (Photo: Chuck Zlotnick / ©Marvel Studios 2019)

Local News

Free ‘Captain Marvel’ screening to showcase heroics for girls

An Edmonds woman, a film fan, spearheaded an effort that will include locals on a hero-themed panel.

Scriber Lake students and staff are celebrating the publication of their seventh book. It includes stories of personal struggles, addiction, failure, anxiety and more. Gathered are, (from front left) Jenna Jensen, 17, Mindy Filla, 18, Moniline Winston, 18, and Bailey Frisbie, 17. From left top, librarian Leighanne Law, teacher Marjie Bowker, Joey Walker, 16, and Reese Olds-Craig, 17. (Dan Bates / The Herald

Local News

Student authors write their truth, their pain, their healing

Scriber Lake High School’s book project produces a seventh volume, with teens telling personal stories.