Covington/Maple Valley Reporter - Latest Comments

Re: Student made threatening comments at middle school|Police Blotter

El_Tigre_Loco — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 15:06:09 -0000

As stated in The Reporter:
"On Oct. 28 a known shoplifter was reportedly at QFC. Employees contacted officers and a trespass notice was issued.
On Oct. 27 officers responded to an elementary school where a father reportedly violated orders by delivering flowers to his child’s school.
On Oct. 28 an unknown suspect reportedly stole the victim’s keys while at Safeway and stole her vehicle. Her iPhone was also left
inside the vehicle."
How can this be since today is Oct 26? Is The Reporter psychic?

Re: From trade to race relations, can the U.S. take any more ‘change’?

Scott Stephens — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 20:34:36 -0000

I wish I could email Richard about his opinion posts. I find the views in his columns disturbing and full of inaccuracies about the views of people on opposite sides of the issues as him. I'm not sure why routinely people misunderstand conservatives, but it seems to me that a good part of it is cultural and educational elitism (maybe I'm guilty of the same misunderstanding of the other side, but I can admit it). I see enough of these views in national outlets, it sucks to see them here in a local paper too. Besides, the argument that Epstein's suicide is evidence that the government is running less efficiently than under Obama is just ludicrous. A low level prison staffing issue, in a giant federal prison system, in a giant Justice Department, in a giant federal government having something to do with who's President? Come on...

So let me explain why Richard is wrong. I've heard these arguments for Trump support before about having to do with xenophobia and fear of losing white privilege. Its just completely false. First, Trump is controversial, but one thing is clear that leftists seem to always ignore, he's the most conservative President we've had since Reagan. Reagan wasn't always conservative, but he was won over in his later years, especially on tax policy, which I believe is the strongest binding issue for conservatives. The simple premise is that you can reduce regulation and tax burden in the right ways and instead of reducing the overall tax revenue (as you would expect by reducing tax rates), you can actually increase revenue. The increased business spending and investment into operations and employee's more than cancels out any loss of revenue by reduced rates, which is happening in our current federal government. Reagan proved this and Trump is re-introducing it. Yes, we have an expanding debt, but that's because of lack of fiduciary responsibility in spending and not for lack of revenue. In fact, despite the tax cut, federal tax revenue is up. Trump gets this. Plus the fact that many conservatives are patriots and love this country immensely. Many are repulsed by the rise of China at the expense of the USA. Unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft have been rampant for years and a big impetus for electing Trump was a belief that he was a fighter that could take them on.

There are many other reasons, like constitutionalism, that are also very important and have nothing to do with white privilege or xenophobia, as much as it makes leftists feel better to say that.

Re: Thieves tempted by bait mail in Covington, arrested by KCSO

Mark Lanza — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 23:39:00 -0000

Really? So now it's everyone else's fault except for the scumbags that were trespassing and stealing. I doubt these were innocent cherubs, lured by the boxes left so enticingly on porches that they just couldn't help themselves. Most likely they were lowlifes, out to make a quick and easy (or so they thought lol) buck by WILLINGLY stealing other people's belongings.. Kudos to all organizations involved for making sure these crimes rose to the level of felonies. Hopefully now these thieves will run into a prosecutor who will not plea bargain these down to misdemeanors.

Re: Thieves tempted by bait mail in Covington, arrested by KCSO

GOP Mug Shot — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:19:48 -0000

Entrapment. Placing an item of high value inside a bait package on purpose so thieves can be charged with a higher charge of a felony amounts to entrapment. Most packages do not contain items this valuable and if they did, in most cases they would/should be insured and would require a signature upon delivery or the item would not be left on a porch by the carrier. If the thieves had taken a package full of toilet paper, they wouldn't have been charged with a felony because the value of the package contents is too low.

Point is, nobody would normally place a valuable item like a large television, a valuable piece of jewelry, or even one of those Vive virtual reality headsets valued over $1,300 in plain sight on their front porch and expect nobody would be tempted to steal it. That's asking for trouble. So why does Amazon recklessly leave valuable items in boxes on unsecured front porches? If I were the thieves lawyer, that's what I would be arguing in court. If I left something valuable on my front porch in plain sight and it were stolen, I'd expect the first thing a police officer would ask me would be, "Sir, WHY did you leave it there?"

Re: An announcement for our long-time readers

Bernadette Thormahlen — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 14:21:16 -0000

I Love reading the Kent Reporter each week, glad to have the addition of Covington coverage.

Re: Maple Valley organizations awarded money from the county

Space Warrior — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 14:10:21 -0000

Money from the county? No, money from the taxpayers!

Re: Karma is coming to Covington

Mark Lanza — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 11:15:06 -0000

1980's Boy George title...original

Re: Local mother charged with failing to report sex abuse of daughter

anon_64 — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 17:22:44 -0000

Mixed feelings about this one. Like, how old was the stepbrother? It sound like he was more a victim of his father's abuse than a perpetrator. If the dad was forcing both of them to do things, why is she a victim but he a perpetrator?

Re: Black Diamond under burn ban

Teej — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 23:25:56 -0000

In a rainstorm..

Re: Black Diamond approves transportation improvement plan

RickPerezPE — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 11:30:33 -0000

How is a roundabout costing $12 million? Either this is a typo or it includes a whole lot of approàch road improvements or roadway realignment.

Re: Community dreams about new downtown Maple Valley

Chudy Bowers — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:49:33 -0000

We're sorry to have missed the "Vision" Meeting for the future of Maple Valley. We are fairly long term residence who raised our kids here.
For "cities of choice", we love Front St in Issaquah, Main Street, in Ventura CA, and other places where there is a "Main St" that is a destination for a nice Saturday or Sunday morning stroll. These are populated by small local stores, arts, cafes, boutiques, small restaurants, bakeries, antique stores, and places to just wander through for some browsing (not of the Internet variety).
As of now, Maple Valley is just considered by most to be the commercial quadrants around four-corners; large parking lots, surrounded by store fronts, in "strip-mall" style.
Our vision is (was) that the street on the East side, behind Fred Meyers and Safeway, still had a chance to have a single row of diagonal, street-side parking, sidewalks and trees, and small family owned stores along it. The high density housing that recently popped up behind Safeway has pretty much put the kybosh on that vision.
The article quotes Mayor Sean Kelly, that Fred Meyer is the second largest employer in the city. Does that mean more than Boeing? Amazon? Microsoft? Is that head count or pay? For the most part, Maple Valley will always be a "bedroom community" with it's citizens predominantly going to the tech/business centers to bring home the living wage.
So our vision is to preserve at least some small area in the city where a quaint, old town feel can be established, as an alternative to large paved parking lots. Where a morning coffee and cinnamon buns can be enjoyed at an outdoor café, under trees, and we can say hello to our neighbors and passersby. As a small example, we have always loved the architecture and "feel" of the Library.
PS-
I do have one pet peeve; as I drive south down 169, towards 4-corners, the iconic, and absolutely breathtaking view of Mt Rainier, is now spiked by street lamps along the East side of the highway, that should, with better planning, have been placed on the West side of the street. Just notice, next time you come in to town, how the view of that mountain, which could have been a "Maple Valley moment to remember" has been spliced and split by street lamps and power poles. Ugh!
Let's do better next time!
I second the opinion of Laura Philpot. If Maple Valley becomes like every other town, then what have we become? What soul have we left?

Re: Enumclaw: trying to retain original charm while building booms

Katie — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 15:39:11 -0000

Maybe start by selling McDonald's correctly

Re: Readers are invited to discuss the future of the paper over coffee

Mark Lanza — Wed, 22 May 2019 01:36:33 -0000

Why not schedule this at a time when people can actually attend?

Re: Housing study pokes holes in conventional wisdom

RickPerezPE — Sun, 19 May 2019 12:03:17 -0000

This study documents what I've observed for years: "urbanist" land use policies only increases economic segregation, and dislocates the working classes from proximity to their jobs. So when a transit agency proposes large-scale projects that would serve "social equity" goals, guess what? It doesn't work. The only affordable housing developed near high-capacity transit is subsidized. All the rest of the supposed benefits of transit ends up serving people that could afford to not use transit. Since transit doesn't pay for itself, we end up subsidizing trips made by people that could afford to pay their own way. The folks that were supposed to benefit now end up in places not well-served by transit, so they end up having long and expensive commutes. This is nothing new - Portland's newspaper documented this phenomenon 30 years ago.

Re: I-1000 passes state Legislature as advocates hope to increase equality

Teej — Wed, 08 May 2019 19:55:25 -0000

Reverse racism, not equality. Please correct headline.

Re: Speed reductions on section of Highway 169 to start at end of May

Ken Mortland — Mon, 06 May 2019 21:16:48 -0000

The article on speed limit changes on SR 169 fails to mention anything about the construction underway in the area of Lake Wilderness Village. Much more important reason for a speed limit slow down, don't you think?

Re: Black Diamond’s Rock Creek Bridge to gets pedestrian walkway

Teej — Sun, 05 May 2019 12:34:33 -0000

Of course bureaucratic government groups think there should be more bureaucracy (SEPA) to save their jobs.

Re: Eastside church sues state on International Women’s Day to overturn abortion coverage

Joel Wiseman — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 15:26:04 -0000

Why can't you just report news? Your bias is overwhelming. The writer of this 'article' seems clearly pro- abortion, anti-religious (at least in regard to conservative religion), pro-gay rights, pro-gay marriage and cites a very leftist shill group (SPLC) who lists any org. that doesn't agree with their far left 'progressive' view - as a 'hate group'. You apparently think you've reported bbn news when you've published a crappy opinion hit piece against a christian church and their legal assistance. Your 'rag' is shameful!

Re: Speed reductions coming to Highway 169

Teej — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 19:41:48 -0000

bleh

Re: Repercussions could come to law enforcement who refuse I-1639, AG says

DanH — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 18:38:25 -0000

They're just following the example set by the cities and state that have declared they are not going to follow the law about illegal aliens. If you want everyone to follow laws, you must do so first.

Re: Public comment period for asphalt plant extended

Brenda Chrystie — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 09:50:18 -0000

As someone who lives within 500 feet of this proposed asphalt grinding and hot mix site, I feel I have a better understanding of what’s happening in our community than many others. Lakeside Industries is closing their Maple Valley plant and relocating to the proposed site on SR169. All jobs will simply be based from a new location. Aside from short-term plant construction jobs, new jobs at Lakeside Industries will be a net zero. And you know nothing about me or what I am opposed to so let me tell you... I am not opposed to asphalt. My husband is retired Union 302 and developer and worked on the AK Pipeline project, local highways, bridges and dams. Asphalt is a core infrastructure material. I get it. My contention is with having a grinding and hot mix facility within 150’ of a salmon habitat in one direction and residents (including me) within 500’ in the other. That coupled with no piped gas to the proposed site (diesel, gas, liquid gas) will be stored in tanks + nearest fire hydrant is 1/4 mile away = safety hazard.

Re: Public comment period for asphalt plant extended

Rightofthepeople — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 21:41:13 -0000

I’m a bit confused Brenda. How will a new asphalt plant not create new jobs? You have to employee at least one person to run the plant, plus you generally have another person running the loader on the yard. Then there are the truck drivers who deliver the material to job sites. Plus there are the workers who work at the manufacturer who builds the plant, the silos and the equipment that will be used there on a daily basis. Not the mention the construction workers who will erect the plant before it can operate.

You may oppose the plant on environmental grounds, although modern asphalt plants have very good controls and systems in place to minimize emissions. But don’t say this won’t create jobs and isn’t good for the economy. New facilities and new construction is always good for jobs and the economy, that’s how growth works.

Re: Equality versus freedom

PiedFifer — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 10:08:58 -0000

Thank you for having the sense to mention Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Shame on you for smearing it with the standard straw man fallacies. To those who have been denied the actual history of Laissez-Faire Capitalism because they attended "Progressive" schools (progress toward a communist workers state), Laissez-Faire Capitalism is much simply and accurately defined as the system in which the initiation of force is banned from human relationships, all property is privately owned, and the government may use only retaliatory (police) force and ONLY against those who initiate force (criminals) or fraud (contract law). Equality exists only before the law in Laissez-Faire Capitalism and in reality. There is no such thing as economic equality, or intellectual equality, or equality of ambition. Economic Equality is merely a rationalization for wielding government force by the envious against the productive.

Re: Public comment period for asphalt plant extended

Brenda Chrystie — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 20:09:31 -0000

Lakeside Industries continues to promote the proposed hot mix and grinding site as being in Maple Valley, as creating jobs, and as adding revenue to the community. It’s actual address is in Renton (unincorporated King County). No NEW jobs are being created. So far, Lakeside (no longer a locally family-owned business) sponsors community events in Maple Valley but no revenues for Maple Valley Heights, Fairwood, or Renton.

Re: Group of cities, chambers advocate SR 18 widening

Teej — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 18:17:59 -0000

Long overdue.