Olympia Community Solar and South Sound Solar just completed installation of a solar array at Quixote Village as part of their work to leverage solar energy as both a powerful tool for equity and a contribution to Thurston County’s renewable energy transition.
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Home in Tacoma for All and Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America announced an important victory for residents of Meridian Mobile Estates, who faced mass eviction from the mobile home park in Puyallup slated to close October 1st. Following protests, the owners of Timberlane Holdings, a large developer, agreed to negotiate with tenants.
The most dangerous times on an airplane are take-off and landing. These are transitional times between two conditions that are not clearly defined. In the first case, the mass of the plane is yet to be airborne, and in the second case, a mass that is elevated in the atmosphere needs to come down.
Come to the Estuarium on December 17 to discover the orcas that share the waters of the Puget Sound. You will learn the history of southern resident orcas in this area and the survival challenges they face.
PERSPECTIVE: The Olympia School Board’s unanimous decision to appoint Talauna Reed to the board has sparked vocal ire cloaked in concern. Ms. Reed is the first African American board member and has criticized the police in the past.
Reader Review Grant is back…but with a difference. Each issue we will suggest a book to review. If you’re interested in reviewing the book, email us and put BOOK REVIEW in the subject line. We will buy the book (or reimburse you if you buy it) and pay $50 if…
After almost three years of stymied contract negotiations, rail workers voted 99% this summer in favor of a strike. That threat was averted when the Biden administration stepped in. By September there was a tentative proposal agreed to by the companies and submitted to the unions. But it’s not over.
A new Washington state report highlights the stark reality that black and indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) would need to buy more than 140,000 houses in the state to achieve parity with white homeownership on a percentage basis. The housing gap is even more significant today than in the 1960s, when housing discrimination and redlining were legal.
To the WA state legislature, Governor Inslee, WSDOT, Thurston county local leaders, stakeholders and members of the community: We the undersigned strongly oppose creation of a new major commercial airport in Thurston County.
Indigenous peoples have been among the most vocal proponents of solutions to climate change effects, but their advocacy has often been marginalized. A recent conference titled Evergreen Tribes and Climate Change Conference at the Squaxin Island Tribe’s Little Creek Hotel (November 8-9) made that advocacy more visible. One hundred faculty…
Another Co-Opportunity! Blue Heron Bakery, which has successfully served the South Sound community and beyond for over 45 years, will become a community-owned cooperative in 2023. The bakery joins an increasing number of successful businesses operating as co-ops, to the benefit of both workers and consumers. “Our intention is to…
The Haki Farmers Collective was founded by Mercy Kakutani-McGee and her daughter Elisa as a continuation of the work started by elders who called the valleys of Kandara, Kenya home.
On October 7, several “Olympia Hidden Histories” self-guided walking tours were introduced to the public. The multimedia walking tours are a collaboration of student authors and faculty at The Evergreen State College, with the “Walls Tell Stories, Olympia” project of Art Forces and Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice.
Instead of seeing a legacy forest while driving north on Cooper Point Road in Olympia, you now see a devastated clearcut landscape and a large sign for OlyEcosystems, the new owner. They have already begun stabilization and restoration of the property with two community work parties that began planting trees…
Partnering with the Nisqually tribe, the North Thurston School District plans to develop a course in the traditional Lushootseed language with the goal of offering it at River Ridge High School starting in the 2023-2024 school year. Works in Progress correspondent Margaret Thomas met with Nisqually Tribal Chairman Willie Frank III in his office this fall to talk about Lushootseed in the schools. Excerpts from their 40-minute conversation appear below.
BOOK REVIEW: One of the pleasures of reading detective novels is getting to know the setting. Sara Paretsky’s detective series, which features V.I. Warshawski, exposes new sides of Chicago. The same is true with Cara Black‘s series, featuring Aimee Leduc, which is set in Paris...
The new economy shows up in proposals to expand airports, or build new ones, as cargo planes crowd out passenger flights. It has also created a seemingly insatiable demand for more and more rural and agricultural land to be rezoned for industry and warehousing. This race for space looms over the whole country and Thurston County is no exception.
Renowned sociologist Francis Fox Piven shared a somber analysis with The Guardian on Nov. 25, 2022: “I don’t think the fight over elemental democracy is over, by any means. The United States was well on the road to becoming a fascist country—and it still can become a fascist country.” Large-scale…
The day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating a constitutional right that had stood for nearly 50 years, much of Washington revolted. Thousands of pro–choice protestors took to the streets of Olympia and Seattle in response to the Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization.
In June, Rhode Island passed a $10 million pilot program that will use COVID-19 stimulus money to build mixed-income public housing.
For years, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has treated its responsibility to manage state forests as requiring them to maximize timber harvest and revenue generation for public services including, especially, school construction.
Many stories in this issue say that our governments’ priorities don’t reflect the priorities of the governed but instead serve the demands of profit. Their decisions direct public resources—and even the modest resources of workers and other members of the public—into the hands of investors for their private gain. Illustrating…
Maybe they’ll drive electric cars?...Maybe we didn’t need new taxes....Maybe it’s worth fighting....Maybe Washington could address the wage end of the “affordable housing” crisis....Maybe ensuring everyone has access to basic needs is scary.
What the hell is “ordered liberty”? Most people in the United States are not familiar with this archaic legal term, but it reveals the direction that the current attacks on our freedoms and civil rights are headed.
In 2020, the same year Ed Troyer ran for Sheriff of Pierce County, Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier commissioned a study of use–of–force incidents committed by the Sheriff’s Department. Published in November 2021, the report of the Pierce County Criminal Justice Work Group noted that black residents of Pierce County…