Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2025
Vol. 146 No. 53
$1.00
Applicant files to fill Prosecutor position Rodger Nichols For The Sentinel
What yesterday thought 2026 would look like Lou Marzeles Editor As the calendar tips toward another new year, we do what humans have always done at moments like this: we look ahead and imagine. We forecast. We speculate. We predict. And if history is any guide, we’ll get a few things astonishingly right—and many things hilariously wrong. The future has always been irresistible to the past. From the late 1800s through the mid-20th century, writers, scientists, illustrators, and everyday citizens confidently sketched out what life would look like “in the distant future.” For many of them, that distant future is now. Or close enough to feel awkward at family gatherings. So as 2026 approaches, it’s worth asking: what did people decades, even a century ago, think this moment in time would look like? The answers tell us less about technology than about human nature. If there was one thing futurists of the early 20th century agreed on, it was this: progress was inevitable, and it was going to be marvelous. Publications like Popular Mechanics and Popular Science brimmed with confidence. Flying cars would crisscross cities. Meals would arrive in pill form. Machines would eliminate drudgery, leaving humans free for leisure, art, and contemplation. By the 2020s—certainly by 2026—workweeks would be short,
houses would clean themselves, and energy would be limitless, according to such periodicals. In fairness, some of that did happen. Appliances do far more than their early inventors imagined. We carry computers in our pockets that would have looked like magic in 1926. And yes, some people do work fewer hours—though often because their jobs vanished, not because robots politely took over the boring parts. But the overall optimism was striking. Very few predictions from a century ago imagined the future as anxious, distracted, or overwhelmed. No one predicted inboxes. Flying cars: always just around the corner Perhaps no future cliche is more persistent than the flying car. As early as the 1910s, artists confidently depicted suburban families hopping into personal aircraft parked beside their homes. By the mid-20th century, it was simply assumed that roads would move to the sky. Why hasn’t it happened? Well, partly, it has. There are indeed early prototypes of automobiles that can sprout wings and take to the air. The fact that roadways haven’t vanished isn’t about imagination. It’s about safety, noise, infrastructure, regulation, and the inconvenient fact that many people already struggle just with turn signals. Instead, we got traffic apps, carpool lanes, and the strange modern experience of sitting in a vehicle with more computing
power than NASA had during the moon landing. That’s often while moving at roughly the same speed as a horse-drawn carriage in 1890. If anything, the flying car predictions reveal a common pattern: futurists consistently overestimate dramatic visual change and underestimate subtle, invisible transformation. The future rarely looks the way we expect. It just quietly rewires everything. The smart home—minus the buttons Early predictions of future homes were surprisingly accurate in concept, if not execution. Writers in the 1920s imagined houses with centralized controls for lighting, heating, communication, and entertainment. Some even described homes that would “anticipate” residents’ needs. They just pictured it all happening via enormous wall panels covered in switches, dials, and blinking lights—essentially turning every main living area into a submarine control room. They did not foresee that we would one day say, out loud, “Turn off the kitchen light,” and a disembodied voice would comply. Nor did they imagine the arguments that would follow when it didn’t. What’s missing from most early predictions is not the technology itself, but the emotional reality of living with it: the frustration, the dependency, the subtle erosion of patience. No one in 1926 predicted that people in 2026 would spend five
See 2026 page A6
Goldendale resident wins $150,000 While the $1.817 billion Powerball jackpot was won in Arkansas on Christmas Eve, Washington’s Lottery officials Monday announced that the state had its own share of big Powerball prize winners during the recent jackpot run. Among them was someone in Goldendale who won $150,000. Since the time the previous jackpot was won on September 6, Powerball produced 1,267,751 prizes for winners across the state, totaling more than $11 million. These include 21 prizes worth $50,000, two prizes worth $100,000, one prize worth $150,000, and two prizes worth $1 million. Some of these prizes were doubled or tripled because players purchased the Power Play add-on, and others won during the secondary Double Play drawing, also an add-on feature of the game. Each year, Lottery sales help uplift programs that benefit communities throughout the state, including education, economic de-
velopment, responsible gambling, and more. More information on where the money goes and why it matters can be found at www. walottery.com/WhoBenefits. The retailers that sold each winning ticket were: • September 10, 2025 Drawing – One $1 million prize o Rockety located at 15119 Pacific Avenue S in Tacoma • September 21, 2025 Drawing – One $50,000 prize o Safeway located at 17230 140th Avenue SE in Renton • September 27, 2025 Drawing – One $100,000 prize (included the Power Play add-on, which was 2x on draw night, turning the $50,000 prize into $100,000) o Fred Meyer located at 101 Wellsian Way in Richland • September 29, 2025 Drawing – One $1 million prize o Safeway located at 210 Washington Avenue S in Kent • October 4, 2025 Drawing – Two $50,000 prizes o Super Duper Foods located
at 33607 US Highway 97 in Oroville o Albertsons located at 11012 Canyon Road E in Puyallup (Double Play drawing) • October 8, 2025 Drawing – One $50,000 prize o Clear Creek Grocery located at 14367 Clear Creek Road NW in Silverdale • October 25, 2025 Drawing – One $50,000 prize o Jacksons located at 2936 228th Avenue SE in Sammamish • November 8, 2025 Drawing – One $50,000 prize (Double Play drawing) o Pick-Rite Thriftway located at 211 E Pioneer Avenue in Montesano • November 22, 2025 Drawing – Three $50,000 prizes o Hico located at 403 S Park Street in Chewelah o Chevron located at 4814 Center Street in Tacoma o A Street Station located at 2805 E A Street in Pasco (Double
See Lottery page A6
Rebecca Sells, a prosecutor in the Klickitat County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, was the only person to apply to fill the vacancy created when Prosecuting Attorney David Quesnel resigned on November 26. She told county commissioners at their December 23 meeting that she was worried about the time it would take someone new to get up to speed. “My biggest concern is someone who doesn’t have the institutional knowledge walking in at this point,” she said. “There’s going to be a catch-up time where they are trying to learn what the cases are, what the issues are that are county-specific. So in putting forward my application, my consideration is that I would keep those civil cases moving and also work with the criminal attorneys.” Following a short executive session, commissioners agreed to look at a formal appointment for next week. Planning Director Scott Edelman presented a list of poten-
tial planning department fee increases, including new fees for some filings. Currently, he said, the department was charging no fees for exempt 80-acre land division by deed, boundary line adjustment by deed, and segregation by deed. He proposed adding a $132 fee for each of those filings. He asked about other opportunities: “We don’t charge for over-the-counter questions; we don’t charge for phone calls. Some of those take a lot of time. Is this something that we just do as a service? And I guess that’s why I want to bring it to your attention.” While most fees would go up to try to capture actual costs incurred, one fee would be cut by two-thirds. That is the application fee for Accessory Dwelling Units, known as ADUs. Those are small additional buildings located on the same parcel as the main home and used as residences, sometimes called mother-in-law homes. Right now, applications for ADUs require conditional use permits, and the fee is $660. The proposal would
See County page A6
The Sentinel chooses not to pay a $24K bill Lou Marzeles Editor The following is offered as a cautionary tale to local businesses. The Goldendale Sentinel recently received an invoice informing us—somewhat sternly—that we were late paying a bill for $24,090. Imagine our surprise. The invoice claimed we owed the money for “Consultation Services,” “Membership & Coaching,” and something called “Management, Organizational, & Business Improvement Services,” allegedly provided over nearly an entire year. It was accompanied by an IRS form W-9. You know, as a courtesy for tax purposes. Very thoughtful. We’re pretty sharp cookies here at The Sentinel. We were very aware that no one here had ever received consultation, coaching, or business improvement services anytime in 2025. Not for a day, let alone over the course of a year. A careful review of the invoice
did provide us with some fun. The invoice listed a return address in New Jersey but with a phone number with an area code for New York City. While we admire efficiency, this multistate approach to billing raised questions. We imagined a conversation with questions we could have with Andrea, the person identified on the invoice. It might go like this: Sentinel: “Can you explain what services were provided?” Andrea: “We dislike specificity.” Sentinel: “Why does your phone number not match your address?” Andrea: “Geography is a state of mind.” Sentinel: “Do you have a signed agreement?” Andrea: “We prefer vibes.” The invoice described services in terms that were both expansive and impressively vague. “Consultation Services” appeared without explanation. “Diagnostic Consultant III” was
See Fraud page A6