On a given Tuesday morning last month, anyone traveling on or around Franklin Street in downtown Olympia would have beheld a curious spectacle.
Posts published in “Issue: June 2021”
Over the past seven years or so, the city of Olympia has offered a variety of incentives to several developers to invest in “market-rate” apartment buildings downtown. One of the most lucrative offers is an 8-year exemption from property taxes for the building’s owner.
Our city leaders keep telling us that building more market rate housing will help moderate real estate prices. More supply brings prices down. Thousands of new housing units have been built in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater in the last year or so—including many of the sought-after single-family homes. It won’t be long until…
The news lately is that businesses just can’t find people to fill the jobs they’re offering. But it’s not a sign that people don’t want to work, it’s a sign that something is wrong with the American economy. Businesses have become addicted to a low-wage economy—one that contributes daily to…
In Thurston County, the need for advocates for children who have been relinquished to the foster care system is intensifying. Local volunteers who work with children in foster care report that the pandemic has affected children’s welfare in ways that may be unseen.
On Friday, May 7 —just five days ago, though it seems like an eternity—public attention in Israel was totally riveted to the complicated dance of party politics. Prime Minister Netanyahu, facing three serious corruption charges at the Jerusalem District Court, had just failed in his efforts to form a new cabinet.
BOOK REVIEW: Women Who Rock is a celebration of, and a tribute to, 103 female musicians throughout history who not only shaped music, but used their voices, their instruments and their songwriting to fight for human rights, civil rights and societal change.
In an interview on Democracy Now, Zaher Wahab makes it clear that current claims that the US needs to stay in Afghanistan to keep women safe ring hollow.
MOVIE REVIEW: The Present, a short film shot in the West Bank, just won the 2021 British Film Actors’ Award for Best Short Film along with an Academy Award nomination and dozens of prizes around the world.
We were told that the “COVID session’’ was to be limited to one bill passed per issue. Think again. What we accomplished was perceived in January as impossible, but it is true what Nelson Mandela said: “They will say it is impossible until it happens.”
BOOK REVIEW: Stalinist Plutocracy was never going to be a pleasant social arrangement. But now that Red China is the world’s most influential power, surveillance technology so cheap and artificial intelligence software so widely deployed (accurate or not), Stalinist Plutocracy is amplifying there.
Are you a prospective Wipster? WIP is evolving! Along with a new Managing Editor who will oversee production (beginning in October), WIP is expanding our editorial team to include new volunteer Section Editors.
THOUGHTS ON THE THEME: When we established this theme, we were thinking about the Big Lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and the Democrats stole it. But the more we talked about it, the more we realized that there are a lot of big-ish lies out there, not just one Big Lie.
...crabs are coming back... ...an observant local man wondered why.... ...Los Angeles took a different approach
Earth Regenerators Study Group ♦ Haki Farmers’ Collective. ♦ Olympia Mutual Aid ♦ Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons ♦ Whole Washington ♦ HOST Homes ♦ Student Art at Capitol ♦ Prayers for World Peace♦ GRuB & GRAVITY ♦ 2021 Meet the Beach ♦ Capital City Pride