The Monroe Monitor & Valley News, Monroe, Washington, The Voice of the Sky Valley Since 1899

Much more inside!
Page 1: Ghost hunting team investigates Snohomish restaurant / New front in drug war / Monitor wins state awards / Turk homecoming court
Page 2: Around The Valley / Flashback / Senior Center Pancake Breakfast is Saturday / Library events / Safe stop now open in Gold Bar / Church plans "Fall Festival of Funness" / Monroe school conferences encourage partnerships with families
Page 3: New Front in Drug War (con't from page 1) / Ghost Hunt (con't from page 1) / Engage in post-debate discussion at Monroe Library / Church Directory / Professional Directory
Page 4: Letters / Monroe Homecoming
Page 5: Editor's Notebook: "I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost" / Obituaries / Bearcat Homecoming
Page 6: THE VALLEY NEWS: Robbers: Someone may be watching in Sultan / Sky High Skate Park opens / Classified Ads / Legal Notices
Page 7: Victory at Sultan Homecoming / Bearcat alumni invited to pep rally / Monroe volleyball slams Cascade / Volleyball team opens league play with 3-0 victory / Find It Fast Directory
Page 8: Monroe Bearcats lose heartbreaker in 4th quarter upset / Monroe thaws Sno in volleyball matchup / Claybreakers head to Burlington / Explosion confirms 2009 season home dates / Mudfest in Monroe turns into a win

Winner of 24 Washington Newspaper
Publishers Association awards for 2007-8!

New front in drug war: Meth is out, “hillbilly heroin” is in
Four years ago, meth lab busts were common in the Sky Valley. Labs were found in the garages of expensive homes and in abandoned vehicles, even on an island in the middle of the Skykomish River. But since a law required pharmacies to keep medicines containing psuedoephedrine behind the counter, meth labs are nearly a thing of the past, and meth addiction is no longer rising. Read story

Monitor wins 10 awards at state convention
The Monroe Monitor’s staff again took home top honors at the annual state Better Newspaper Competition, hosted by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. Among weekly papers of its size, editor Polly Keary won first place in crime writing for a piece called “Fallen Angels” on Monroe police officer Barry Hatch’s long effort to help put the Washington Hells Angels out of business and in prison. Read story

Ghost hunting team investigates Snohomish restaurant

A doll that opens its own eyes so often no one who gets the doll will keep it. A mannequin that swings by itself. Voices in empty rooms. A vanishing man in a brown suit. That’s just what the people currently working at the Oxford Saloon in Snohomish say they have seen for themselves.

The stories of what they have heard others have seen could go on for pages. A woman putting on makeup in an upstairs room. A cop who was killed in the bar long ago returning to the scene of his murder. A little girl who died in the building when it was still a brothel.

Read story