I ran for Olympia City Council in 2017 and was elected that November to a 7-member team charged with leading Washington’s fastest-growing city amidst rising sea levels, rising housing costs, rising homelessness, rising inequality—and rising local and national movements for people and planet over profit. I came on board with…
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Not having stable child care is a losing situation for families, communities and the nation. A lack of social investment in child care and early education limits future achievement for kids and opportunities for mothers. The coronavirus epidemic has dramatically changed the face of child care in Washington State, but also offers clues for repairing a steadily worsening system.
Revisar el código fiscal y garantizar el cuidado infantil gratis para la clase trabajadora, mujeres pobres y inmigrantes Sin el cuidado estable de niños, se crea una situación en la donde las familias, las comunidades y la nación van a salir perdiendo. Una falta de inversión social en el cuidado…
After incredible growth in the movement during February, the Thurston Public Power Initiative campaign came to a screeching halt. For some reason, the Washington State government can’t figure out a strategy for gathering signatures online. People bank online, buy all kinds of things online, pay their taxes online—but to make democracy work?
They say “What goes around comes around.” Forty years ago The Daily Olympian (as it was then named) did not serve our community well. The editor-in-chief turned a blind eye to local social and political issues. The newspaper was generally silent on problems and initiatives concerning race relations, gender, growth management, waste reduction, the environment.
I put a rose against the wall of the graveyard, besides hundreds of others on the altar. Candles illuminated countless names and crosses that spanned the entirety of the wall. Every flower represented a womxn who had either been murdered or was missing, all victims of gender-based violence.
Esperar. Esperar means to hope. It also means to wait. How odd -- Poetry
Since the onset of COVID-19, the slogan “We are all in this together” has been heard everywhere. But who is the “we” that is meant? Who is included and who is ignored? Whose life, health and safety are prioritized? Who is allowed to sicken and die? What are the implications…
My April column explained what socialism is and what it isn’t. However, to effect actual change, we need something concrete to advocate for and organize around. Without a shared map of the territory, the idea of adopting socialist principles remains pie in the sky. The long censorship of the idea…
The pandemic and social distancing have turned cities into a void. At the few places where there is still human contact, at home and at modified workplaces for example, there is a void of norms. No one knows how to act. In front of us, in the absence of our…
We are juniors at Olympia High School. After hearing about people suffering both directly and indirectly from the coronavirus last December, we felt driven to help. Students Against Coronavirus is a project under a student organization we created called “AI Benefit Projects.” Getting official approval to expand the project We…
The Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival was all set to celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, complete with tours, special guests, and, of course, over 500,000 sandpipers, dowitchers, plovers, and dunlins. The festival was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the Sandpiper Trail is opens. We can use this time…
Maybe there should be a dam —or several dams —on the Chehalis River. It’s just that these dams should not be built by the Army Corps of Engineers.
World BEYOND War * TESC's Pandemic Academy * The Chrysalis Project * Boldly Creating the World We Want * Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons * Hummingbird Solar Project
Only some of us are in this together. The COVID-19 pandemic makes connections visible, like a three-dimensional holograph that includes space and time. So do certain traumatic images. The virus has managed to travel the world, demonstrating how our fate is connected to the fate of people in countries everywhere.
Last month, WIP printed a photo of Father Leahy offering “curbside confessions” in Olympia. Then this happened: others have followed Leahy’s lead.....
The advent of a pandemic virus showed us in vivid terms that our healthcare system is a mess. The US response to the coronavirus has been disorganized, characterized by misinformation and confusion—and resulted in more deaths and infections than in any other developed country. And it’s not over yet.
Life on Earth and this nation cannot continue in this way. The prospect of four more years of Trump hovers over us like a bad omen, threatening all life. This calamitous prediction not only presages the future to come, but is also directly connected to the policies of the past and the present.
Olympia planners told developer Jerry Mahan he has to comply with city requirements, even though he has a powerful attorney and a lot of influential backers. Our February and March issues detailed how Mahan attorney Heather Burgess demanded that the city “timely complete” its review...
As many in Washington look for signs that the COVID–19 outbreak is slowing, some working in the food supply chain feel as vulnerable as ever—and are taking action. On Thursday, several labor organizations, including Familias Unidas por la Justicia and the United Farm Workers, filed a lawsuit in Skagit…
Works in Progress is celebrating thirty years as a community-based, volunteer-run, progressive community newspaper. WIP started as a community newspaper sponsored by the Thurston County Rainbow Coalition.
The Department of Corrections (DOC) is planning to open a new women’s prison at the site of the closed Maple Lane youth detention center in Grand Mound. This prison expansion is opposed by many area residents, and No New Women’s Prison, a group of criminal justice advocates with experiences in Washington prisons that formed in Fall 2019, is trying to stop it.
Who’s afraid of the big, bad Fox? Open government watchdog and advocate, Arthur West and his local group, WASHLITE (Washington League for Transparency and Ethics) have gained international media coverage for a lawsuit filed against Fox News and Rupert Murdoch for their repeated labeling of the COVID–19 virus a “hoax”.…
Dateline April 9: Tuesday was a nightmare in Milwaukee. Due to the lack of poll workers—most being elderly—and with the high number of COVID–19 cases spiking the city, polling places were canceled in droves. Neil Albrecht, Director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, could set up only 5 polling sites that met the CDC guidelines.
Olympia’s Planning and Development Department has decided that its new Housing Options Plan will have no significant impact on our environment and our neighborhoods. The plan prescribes new duplexes, triplexes, and apartments, along with larger and taller ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units, a.k.a. “back-yard cottages”), along with relief from parking, on-site…