HEADLINES & HISTORY SINCE 1879 Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2024
Vol. 145 No. 11
$1.00
BNNBREAKING.COM
WHEN DID THE SHERIFF JOIN THE GOLDENDALE CITY COUNCIL?: A news website in Hong Kong ran a story about a recent Goldendale city council meeting under a picture of Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer. The caption did not identify him, and neither the headline nor the story made mention of Songer or why his picture was there.
Hong Kong website runs refurbished news story on Goldendale city council Good news, Sentinel readers! Our town is making news in Hong Kong! Last Tuesday a story about the Goldendale city council meeting of February 20 ran on a website called BNN Breaking. Its slogan is “The People’s Network.” It’s based in Hong Kong. The story was actually a fairly comprehensive report on the meeting, citing the discussion about a 1912 city water supply agreement. The story ran under an old, but striking, picture of Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer. You know, because he works for the City of Goldendale. Yes, we’re kidding, but that reveals the depth of knowledge about Goldendale shown by the website. There isn’t even a caption identifying Songer under the picture. Here’s how the story opened: “At the latest Goldendale City Council meeting, a historical 1912 agreement resurfaced, sparking discussions over the city’s water supply and the eligibility of certain landowners to access this essential resource. Concurrently, the Police Chief reports an unusually hectic month, underscoring the small city’s challenges and resilience.”
NEWS ANALYSIS Lou Marzeles Editor The site obviously did not follow Associated Press (AP) style, which most newspapers do, since it capitalized “Police Chief” in mid-sentence when it should have been lowercase. Strange, but some news media have their own house style, which The Sentinel does. But they did use the word “concurrently,” so kudos on vocabulary. The author of the story was indicated to be one Wojciech Zylm. Wait, wasn’t he one of the Oompa Loompas in “Willy Wonka”? If there is such a person, apologies for the joke. But it’s very unlikely that a human wrote the story. BNN Breaking was launched in 2022 by an Indian (Asia Indian) American businessman named Gurbaksh Chahal. Not one of the Oompa Loompas. The site is accused by many media experts of being an aggregator—a site that compiles content from other legitimate news sources—and of using artificial intelligence to generate
READ ACROSS AMERICA
DOCTOR’S ORDERS: READ MORE: Goldendale students are participating in a series of reading events, including Read Across America that utilizes characters from Dr. Seuss.
much of its content, pulling from published sources. In the case of this story, the copy was almost certainly generated from our reporter’s excellent coverage of the city council meeting. But the site took Rodger Nichols’ copy and rewrote it—pretty convincingly, truth be told—and passed it off as original. Another telltale sign of this being bogus is the mere fact that a city council meeting in a tiny town in rural Washington State is hardly the stuff that makes for compelling reading for audiences in the Far East. One must imagine readers in China (okay, Hong Kong; but let’s face it, Hong Kong is no longer the stalwart lone bastion of freedom from mainland China it once was) aren’t likely to be reading about Goldendale water rights over their morning coffee and going, “Oh, they’re finally getting that resolved!” One might also imagine that the paranoia of communist China might very well lead to someone there reading this story and being offended by some of these comments. Oh, well. If curiosity to see the story is driving you crazy, here’s where to find it: tinyurl.com/4bcbykjj.
Silver Alert missing driver found LOU MARZELES EDITOR Janet Smith got in her car with her dog last week and drove. And drove. And drove. The 90-year-old Goldendale resident kept heading out Cedar
Valley Road until she realized she had no space to turn around and kept driving, looking for someplace to reverse direction. What she didn’t realize was that a Silver Alert had been issued for her, since she’d been missing for 24 hours. Many in Goldendale
were deeply concerned. Sheriff’s Department aircraft were poised to begin search flights. Out past the Bolon Monument, Janet hit snow. Still no place to turn around, so she still kept driving. Finally she ended up in
See Driver page A8
Students get a good read on literacy CORYNN KAYSER FOR THE SENTINEL
The Goldendale Primary School has three events throughout March to encourage students to foster their love of reading. March 2 to 6 was Read Across America Week, which started on the birthday of Theodor Geisel—better known as Dr. Seuss. Goldendale Primary School students participated in dress-up days such as Wacky Wednesday, Fox in Socks Day, and Cat in the Hat Day. The students love to dress up, and it gets them excited about reading. First-grade teacher Lisa O’Leary stated, “Celebrating Read Across America with Dr. Seuss celebration days is an extra incentive to encourage all students—even the most reluctant readers—to pick up a book and read. Especially if a child is a new or beginning reader, they can always find a few words they are capable of reading with his repetitive and often decodable text.” The National Education Association wants to promote reading and inform people about its advantages, particularly for kids and teenagers. Schools and organizations across the country host events to encourage the same. “I love reading, and I love the joy that I see in my students when they read,” says Goldendale Primary School Principal Angie Hedges. “We take advantage of every opportunity to celebrate reading, connect with
characters, places, and problems to build curiosity and wonder. Literacy is the foundation for learning. It provides access to deepening understanding about the world around us. We learn to read so that we can read to learn. It is the foundation of lifelong learning. Oh, the places you can go if you read!” Students in Pre-K through 6th grade are encouraged to read for pleasure through the Silverwood Read 2 Ride program. The Read 2 Ride program’s objective is straightforward: encourage students to get engaged and enthusiastic about reading at a young age in order to foster the next generation of lifelong readers. Readers can earn a free ticket to Silverwood Theme Park in Athol, Idaho, for logging 10 hours of reading time. Each year about 100 kids earn a ticket throughout the Goldendale School District. There are also a select number of homeschooled kids that join this event and hope to read enough to win the prize. “The Goldendale Primary School has been participating in the Silverwood Read to Ride Program for more than 10 years,” says 2nd grade educator Alison Azevedo. “This program was designed to help empower young readers as it also benefits the community. Locally we continue participating each year in an effort to develop a better mastery of language in our students and to help enrich family bonding.” Student Jameson Dahl stated,
See Read page A8
County meeting focuses on Title updates RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
A SENTINEL PUBLICATION
STILL AVAILABLE: There are still some copies of the new Klickitat County calendar for 2024 available at The Sentinel office, Goldendale Pharmacy, Holcomb’s, and Allyn’s.
More than 60 people joined on Zoom and another dozen were in the room for the Klickitat County Commissioners meeting on March 4. Most were there for the public hearing on adopting state-mandated updates to Title 15 and Title 16 of the county building codes. Title 15 covers “New construction, additions, change in use or occupancy, exempt items, fireworks stands, demolitions, solar and miscellaneous,” while Title 16 deals with “factory assembled structures.” While counties are required to update their codes to match changes in state legislation and agency rulemaking, they are allowed to impose additional, stricter, requirements. That was the idea behind a new lo-
cally generated chapter 15.30 regulating industrial-scale solar farms. Many local citizens have opposed a proposed large-scale solar farm in the county and thought such a chapter would add controls or even discourage the whole project. Building Director Lynn Ward carefully noted that her authority only deals with building codes for structures. “I have nothing to do with planning, zoning, or critical area ordinances,” she said. “None of that.” In a phone call Friday, Ward explained some of the nuances involved. “The panels themselves are to a degree still considered a structure,” she said. “So I do receive engineering on the solar panels for their method of being connected to the ground, but I don’t do anything with the electrical
See County page A8