This week on the Compass, we ask the question: Are Murder Hornets coming to Port Townsend? Could they already be here? Hundreds of possible encounters with the world’s largest and most aggressive hornet have been reported throughout the Puget Sound area. To get the facts, we join a press conference with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

This week on the Compass, exhausted and heartsick over the pandemic, a faltering economy, and particularly from the bitter divide that has ended with a sitting president for the first time in American history refusing to concede his loss in a closely-monitored election, we look to the peace church known as the Society of Friends, but better known as the Quakers, for some ideas about what we can celebrate as we approach Thanksgiving Day, and about the path to reconciliation in a divided land.

Early in the morning on Thursday, November 5, Nordland General Store owners Tom and Sue Rose were awakened by an alarm ringing in the neighboring nearly 100-year old building that serves as a kind of unofficial community center for Marrowstone Island. This week on the Compass we visit with the Rose family at the beloved store in the aftermath of a mysterious fire that gutted the community institution as they contemplate the devastation and the store’s uncertain future.

A biography of the Doors’ lead singer Jim Morrison was entitled, No One Gets Out of Here Alive. And that’s true for you, me and every human being on the planet. But how we go out remains a big question. This week on the Compass, we talk with two local folks who have devoted themselves to ensuring that we all have a chance to go out in peace and comfort.

Spurred on by an unprecedented attempt by a sitting president to cast doubt on the validity of a national election, voters in record numbers across the country have been casting their ballots early, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans by 14 points thus far. And despite the fact that Donald Trump has repeatedly warned (with absolutely no evidence) that mail-in ballots such as those that have been in use in Washington state for years – and which stand as the obvious safe alternative to in-person voting in a time of pandemic – are inherently corrupt and prone to fraud, turnout has been especially high in the state, and higher than the state average in Jefferson County, where an astounding 56 percent of registered voters had already cast their ballots as of five pm last Friday afternoon.

Back in August we talked with Jefferson County Auditor Rose Ann Carroll and Elections Coordinator Quinn Grewell about how the integrity of our mail-in elections is assured. This week on the Compass we reprise that conversation.

The Compass airs Saturdays at noon and repeats on Mondays at noon and five pm.

As we approach election day, the nation is focused on a Presidential race that features perhaps the highest stakes in the nation’s history.  Some, including former President Barack Obama, feel the future of democracy itself is on the ballot.  But here in Jefferson County, we are lucky to have only one local contest of a much milder nature, that for the District Two seat on the Board of County Commissioners between a pair of candidates who mostly seem to share a common perspective of community concern.  This week on the Compass, we present excerpts from interviews with Board of Commissioner candidates Lorna Smith and Heidi Eisenhour conducted by KPTZ Reporter Lily Haight in early September.  The two candidates were asked basically the same set of questions in separate interviews, but for the sake of brevity, the two interviews here have been cut together.

The Compass airs Saturdays at noon and repeats the following Monday and noon and five PM, exclusively here on KPTZ.

After working pretty much without a break since February, when COVID-19 went pandemic, Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke decided to finally take a few days off at the beginning of October to go camping and cycling.  While he was away, the White House became the hottest COVID hot spot in the nation and the President himself was hospitalized for several days with the disease.  In this week’s Compass we talk with Dr. Locke immediately upon his return from his rest-break about the dangerous messaging coming from the top level of government as case numbers rise nation-wide, pointing towards a much-feared surge that could once again overwhelm our health care systems as we enter the cold months of the year.

The Compass airs Saturdays at noon and repeats on Mondays at noon and five pm.

These days, amid the quiet of a pandemic, if you travel down to the corner of Port Townsend’s Tyler and Lawrence Streets, you just may hear a chorus of busy voices accompanied by the rhythm of hammers, whirling drills, and the hum of newly wired coolers. 

It’s all part of a transformed Aldrich’s Market, about to open its doors in mid-October to the curiosity and smiles of neighbors far and wide.  In this, our second installment focusing on the rebirth of a Port Townsend institution, we meet three more special characters coloring the feathers of this Pheonix called Aldrich’s …

This year, the Port Townsend Virtual Film Festival will be the longest, most accessible Film Festival in its history – ten days in length, with a panorama of both documentary and narrative features and shorts. But how does it all work – the selection process, the programming, the technology, the muscle and blood of our wonderful Fest? To find out, on opening day we caught up with part of the amazing team that works the magic behind the scenes: Janette Force, Chris McFaul, and KC Upshaw, and we discover the anatomy of a successful Film Festival.

We catch up with Zach and Jordan Eades, former Port Townsend residents who decided a few years ago to sell their business, their home and almost everything else they owned, then travel all over North America in a 32-foot Winnebago RV. Their story is one of joy, sorrow, and some lessons that could teach us all a thing or two about what really matters in life.