Everyone has something to contribute; Everyone has something they need The COVID-19 pandemic response in the US has challenged communities, as local food banks experienced shortages and shelter beds became even more restricted. Confronted by an uncertain and under-resourced governmental response, many communities countered with energized “mutual aid” organizing. People recognized…
Posts published in “Issue: May 2021”
There’s a lot of talk these days about how polarized “the country” is. The talk fixates on Trump voters vs everyone else, or Democrats vs Republicans or liberals vs conservatives...
A February report from Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson reveals that the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) refused to cooperate with an AG inquiry into whether law enforcement agencies are complying with Initiative 940. Among other mandates, the law created by 1-940 requires that investigations of police use of deadly force be conducted by an agency independent of those involved....
...left at the altar—again …housing prices aren’t “filtering down …‘trickle down” doesn’t work either! ...the City was not convinced, item 1. ...the court was not convinced, item 2. ...the judge was not convinced, item 3.
The volunteer Managing Editor of Works in Progress is stepping down after five years. Unless someone volunteers for the position and is in place by August 1, the last issue of the paper will appear in September. To support a new managing editor (if one is in place) we are…
Regarding Tom White and Bill Moyer’s article about passenger trains, I understand that it was focused on a comparison between improving current N-S Cascades service and the proposal for Ultra High Speed Rail that would essentially parallel the current Cascades N-S route but on “dedicated” track....
We will run issues monthly with a maximum length of 750 words. We currently have reviews scheduled through June, so there’s plenty of time to read a big book! Moving the Bar: My Life as a Radical Lawyer—Michael Ratner (Autobiography “taking the law to places where it had never been”)…
REFLECTION: Nearly a year ago, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin during an arrest, after a store clerk alleged that Floyd had passed a counterfeit $20 bill. The obscenely violent act of kneeling on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, killing him—seen and known about only because one young bystander caught it all by video on her phone—ignited a nation into action....
REFLECTION: The Olympia Police Department (OPD) is roiled in a troublesome search for a new Chief of Police. Olympia’s City Council had hired Karras Consulting to help recruit Oly’s next top cop, and on March 25, the City announced the names of four finalists under consideration for the job.
It’s Saturday afternoon and we are at the Victory Garden, a fenced 2-acre plot owned by the Thurston County Food Bank on Martin Way in Lacey. ...
The seed for GRuB was planted in 1993 as the Kitchen Garden Project (KGP). Inspired by the work of Vietnam veteran Dan Barker (founder of the Kitchen Garden Project—KGP), South Sounders Richard and Maria Doss began building free vegetable gardens for low-income people in southwest Washington....
It’s been hard to hope. Beginning with the 2020 election in November, and then the Electoral College vote in December, and then the official electoral vote count in January 2021, and then the inauguration on January 20, each was an opportunity to hope....
Comparison of the requirements versus the rewards of a registered nurse, schoolteacher, police officer and property owner.
“Stewardship of the commons is a fundamental purpose of local government” On March 30, Olympia City Council members signed a 15-year contract needed by Milestone Companies to attract financing for their “West Bay Yards” project, a luxury mixed-use development on the edge of Budd Inlet. Hundreds of citizens weighed in…
When we to home on the westside returned from an excursion to the north Cascades....
MOVIE REVIEW: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are getting more powerful, to the point where the programmers who created AI do not know what is going on inside—a black box, if you will.....
Nick Leppmann is a Seattle-based artist who depicts the often overlooked impact of our ambitions on the natural world. He can be reached at nickleppmann.com, on Instagram at @ nickleppmannart or on Facebook at @NickLeppmannArt.
Imperium is a 2016 movie based on the real experiences of undercover FBI agent Mike German who infiltrated white supremacist organizations, as related in his book Thinking Like a Terrorist published in 2008. Unfortunately, the lessons found in the movie are all the more relevant today, as white-supremacist Trumpism increasingly…
BOOK REVIEW: We believe this book to be so important that we are running a second review. Isabel Wilkerson’s masterwork, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, makes painfully clear exactly who we are. She expertly lays out how systemic discrimination, abuse, and murder of those within the lowest caste of the US is intrinsic to the fabric of our country....
President Biden announced in February that he would end support for Saudi Arabia’s offensive operations in Yemen. No more refueling warplanes, providing logistical support, no more advanced weapons systems for the Saudi war effort. But the warplanes are still delivering their bombs....
Sea-Tac, April 1. Father Steve Kelly, S.J., a Jesuit priest and longtime nuclear resister, was brought in chains to Tacoma on March 30 to appear in the US District Court on a warrant for a previous probation violation.
Where will the money come from? The big question and the Republicans’ number one argument against President Biden’s long-overdue program to repair the country’s infrastructure is: where will the money come from? For example, what about the $40 billion the President asked Congress to spend on the huge need for…
P.O.W.E.R Fundraiser ♦ Black Mama’s Day Bail Outs! ♦ American Friends Service Committee ♦ Evergreen seminar: College behind bars ♦ League of Women Voters ♦ Genealogy Cafe ♦ GRuB ♦ Glen’s Parallax Perspectives: ♦ OCEP Victory!