We’ve taken pains to publish a “good news” page or section in The Columbian every week for at least the last 25 years.
Can you name this regular feature? It’s not the comics. Not the editorial page. Not even Sports, although there is a tremendous amount of good news to be found in our local sports reporting, particularly in the feature stories about local athletes.
Nope. I am talking about “In Your Neighborhood,” which currently appears Sundays in our Metro section. It’s carefully assembled by Lyndsey Hewitt, who does a multitude of tasks in our newsroom, including handling perhaps the worst news: the death notices.
Last Sunday’s report included seven stories and six photos. In Woodland, a high school team won a state championship by demonstrating its workplace skills. A student at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics won this district’s Congressional Art Competition and her painting, “Mellona,” will hang in the U.S. Capitol for a year. Furry Friends raised $4,300 for its no-kill cat shelter’s veterinary program. And so on. There is so much good news stuffed into this feature, we have to print it in our smaller typeface. (If you have trouble reading agate type, it’s full-sized online.)
My frustration is that readers somehow miss this weekly page. Stan is not alone in saying he would like a page devoted to only good news, but somehow seems to miss it.
If you don’t read it regularly, check it out Sunday. A lot of good news will be there, I promise!
Last ‘Roll Call’
The owner of Voterama in Congress, which we call Roll Call, has ended his feature and retired, he said Monday.
Richard Thomas sought a buyer for his customized report on how your state’s congressional delegation voted on every bill. But a last-minute bid fell through after the prospective buyer said the numbers didn’t look profitable enough.
“Thank you, again, for your support over many years, or even several decades in many cases,” Thomas wrote. “One subscriber, in fact, has been on board ever since our first day of publication in July 1973!
“Enough with nostalgia. My retirement has arrived. And the best of everything to you and the future of local news.”
Thanks, Rick, and the best of everything to you, too. Columbian readers will miss your feature.
