Parents at two local school districts were sent into a frenzy after being alerted that the South Bend and Raymond School Districts went into lockouts on Monday, January 14. Social media threats directed at two students were behind cause. Multiple law enforcement agencies and the districts themselves took immediate actions to protect students.

The government shutdown has now become the longest shutdown in United States history and has no signs of ending soon. For Pacific County and many others with higher poverty rates the prolonged closure has raised questions whether or not February SNAP benefits would be delivered among other things. The situation around tax returns has also become a boiling point among citizens as the IRS has yet officially provided how its handling the shutdown.

Tuesday, January 8 the Raymond Fire Department responded to the 500 block of Barnhart Road in Raymond to a report of a chimney fire.

The Bay Center KOA was awarded the annual KOA Founders Award for the 8th consecutive year. Owners Iris and Ken Shupe have held their privately owned campground to exceeding industry standards and because of their love and passion it has become on the the biggest success stories in all KOA's.

"When will this end" has been a comment heard around the county and most of western Washington after another strong wind storm took a quick shot at the area. Forecasters predicted on the evening of Friday, January 4 that winds would be intense late in the night on Saturday, January 5 into Sunday, January 6. The peak winds were anticipated to strike around 1:00 a.m. and last only a few hours.

Robin Souvenir took over as sheriff on January 1 after a changing of the guard took place at the Pacific County Sheriff's Office. What was hoped to start with a smooth transition has been anything but perfect.

Senior Matt Pearson continued with his dependable output by leading Willapa Valley to a 68-53 road victory over Ilwaco December 19. Pearson attacked the basket for 26 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field and 8 of 8 at the foul line. Pearson also took down 6 rebounds and handed out 5 assists.

Centurylink sustained a nationwide outage that not only crippled phone communications but took down hundreds of 911 dispatch centers. The 911 outage lasted nearly 5 hours before Centurylink engineers were able to locate and repair the issue. The Pacific County Communications Center (PacCom) was one of the many to be running in the blackout.

Outage consumes 911
The outage began early in the morning on Thursday, December 27 affecting millions of Centurylink customers across the United States. It wasn't until around 9:00 p.m. that the outage spread to 911 centers. 911 callers were greeted by a "fast busy signal" according to numerous dispatch centers.

State issues EAS alert
Around 10:30 p.m. the Washington State Emergency Alert System issued an EAS alert informing residents of the 911 outage and told them to "call their local fire department or police department" for help. Numerous dispatch centers immediately took to social media to tell residents that option was limited. They instead asked callers to use the dispatch centers' non-emergency numbers for help or to text 911 from a cell phone.

Two cars collided on US 101 at milepost 61 when a vehicle attempting to turn into a driveway was struck by another car attempting to pass it. According to the Washington State Patrol on Wednesday, December 26 a vehicle was driving southbound on US 101 when it slowed to turn left into a private driveway. A second vehicle, that was also heading southbound, attempted to pass the turning vehicle and struck it.

No, you weren't seeing things, there was indeed a kayak paddling down US 101 near Valley View in Raymond on Thursday, December 20. Flood water inundated the area in several feet of water for just over three hours before finally receding in the early afternoon.