South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity last month hosted a Home Dedication for two families moving into homes they helped to build with their own hands. The Deyoe Vista community in Lacey is brought to life by hundreds of volunteers and donors each year...
Posts published in “–”
POETRY: True peace is served by shattering our illusions with the stone of Truth....
GUEST COLUMN: Thirty-nine suspects remain in the United States’ prison on Guantánamo Bay, or “GITMO” as it’s commonly known. And nobody can reasonably predict when, if ever, they will be freed.
On April 6, the Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands launched an unprecedented carbon leasing project. The first of its kind on state trust lands, this initiative enters ecologically valuable forests into leases to generate revenue for trust land beneficiaries by reserving them for carbon storage uses.
BOOK REVIEW: At a time when transgender youth are being threatened with parental separation [1] and transgender women and transfeminine people of color are being murdered at record rates [2], "Conundrum" is especially poignant.
Calling all Changemakers! The Community Sustaining Fund of Thurston County (CSF) is now accepting Spring 2022 grant applications through May 16, 2022, for creative and impactful applications that serve Thurston County communities. In
BOOK REVIEW: In two inspiring and optimistic books, Caleb Maupin lays out where we are politically, how we got here, and points the way forward. You may not agree with him on some things, but he presents ideas and asks questions that merit consideration by any who favor transformative progressive change....
The stage is set with speakers, a foldout table with audio controls, and a MacBook. A mess of cords snake over the stage and three group members wheel a piano from the shadows behind the curtains and situate it within the temporary base. Behind them is the Bridge Music Project…
According to an index created by the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy, Washington state has the most unfair state and local tax system in the US...
The Evergreen State College celebrated its inauguration and dedication on April 21, 1972 —colliding with a call for a national student strike against escalation of the Vietnam War. Eirik Steinhoff, an Evergreen adjunct faculty member, retrieved Governor Dan Evans’ speech at the event...
An interview with Maria Siguenza, who will run for Position 1 of Washington’s 22nd Legislative District. The seat is now occupied by Laurie Dolan who has announced her retirement at the end of this term.
On the corner of Cooper Point and Harrison, it’s a typical mall setting. Cars dominate the foreground, small chain shops border the asphalt parking lot; a Starbucks serves a steady stream of customers. One thing is not typical....
If we are willing to understand war, any war, there are a few principles to keep in mind.
Length of Rope ♦ The Paper Moon ♦ Koresh Dance ♦ TSTSC Plant Sale ♦ Wild Grief ♦ Bicycle Challenge ♦ Deschutes Estuary ♦ Mycology Club ♦ Sharing Time with Elders ♦ Thousand Chestnuts ♦ Black Rose ♦ Olympia Lamplighters ♦ Women of Color ♦ More….
For April, we invited the community to submit stories related to how we use—or misuse —time. We just didn’t realize the submissions would reveal as much about the messengers as their messages....
Students from area high schools and their supporters* staged a walkout/demonstration on Friday, March 25th in Olympia to draw attention to the urgency of addressing climate change. Planned to coincide with Greta Thunberg’s global “Fridays for Future,” Climate Strike, students gathered to demand that Washington State legislators implement more of…
YOU WRITE TO WIP: Must be nice to have the “authority to spend taxpayers’ money, support real estate developers with sweet deals—including incredible tax incentives even when interest rates have been near 0% for many, many years.
A stable pH level is vital for healthy lake ecosystems. Moderately high pH provides the best productivity (for fish and other organisms) in both freshwater and marine habitats, but acids eliminate aquatic buffering by reducing alkalinity. Black Lake gets its name from humic (and other) acids that naturally occur from…
BOOK REVIEW: The idea of police being that positively engaged with the community seems Rockwellian and made me want to read Radley Balko’s new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop, to better understand whatever happened to “officer friendly”.
Residents of West Olympia, mostly from the SW neighborhood, gathered for dinner and a photo at the Mediterranean Breeze restaurant to celebrate delivery of a set of principles to guide changes to a “Capital Mall Triangle Subarea” selected by City Planners for new “transit-oriented” investment.
PERSPECTIVE: Current analyses assume that renewable energy technologies like electric vehicles, wind power and solar power are the answer to limited oil reserves. Those assumptions should be re-examined before we commit more resources to their development.
Dave Jette, one of the founders of WIP and longtime contributor, passed away in January 2022. The Seattle Times published an obituary that provides a contour of Dave’s life, including his love for his family, his passion for organizing hiking trips, his accomplishments as a physicist researching radiation treatments for cancer, and his political involvement.
Panattoni will begin developing warehouses without overall planning input from Tumwater
The City of Olympia gets about 72% of its operating budget from property taxes paid by residents and sales taxes paid by everyone who buys things or pays for services here. Lately property taxes have loomed larger and larger in the budgets of residents. And as for sales tax,at 9.4% Thurston County ranks higher than 90% of other Washington counties.
Peace, in the deepest sense—in the midst of war—requires a clarity and courage well beyond the boundaries of linear understanding. The warning lights flash. World War III has entered the red zone.