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.
Posts published in “Issue: September 2022”
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…
The Rape of Orithyia, mountain gale nymph, by Boreas, god of the north wind, a mytho–poetic interpretation of the wrath of the Goddess and her hand in the devastating Marshall Fire, Colorado 2021.
In The Armies of the Night, Norman Mailer writes about going to a big demonstration against the Vietnam War. He isn’t planning to go at all, but a friend calls him up about it. He feels as if he ought to go, though he doesn’t want to. Finally he goes.
In Who Owns the Sun, Environmental activists Berman and O’Connor offer a scathing explanation of why solar technology has played such an insignificant role in meeting America’s energy needs. Politicians, utility companies and even many mainstream environmental groups come under attack for either their lack of leadership on this issue…
CENTER PAGE: We live in an age when ignorance is praised. Ignorance and division are being manufactured on a mass scale. There is essentially an industry teaching us to doubt what we know...
It turns out that if you’re a refugee trying to escape horror and death by coming to the United States via the Mexican border—make sure that you are Ukrainian!
Most Olympia residents would welcome a coffee shop or small grocery store into their neighborhood, yet plans for such Neighborhood Centers have been in talks for years with little to show for it.
As Starbucks reports quarterly profits of $40 billion, they try to quash organizing efforts of baristas and other staff who are voting to unionize for better working conditions. Recently Matt Crichton talked with one of the baristas at the Cooper Point Village Starbucks about the employees’ experience trying to form a union.
Heat, smoke and climate assault have become “new normal” conditions that daily threaten workers, especially in agriculture.
Late in July 2021, the head of Olympia’s Office of Community Vitality requested $200,000 as a new “enhancement” to the City’s operating budget. It would pay for the City to hold a special election in the spring, to put a .1% sales tax increase before voters....
PERSPECTIVE: Ever wonder what a Department of Natural Resources (DNR)–approved clearcut of public forestland looks like after the fact? Our Whatcom County field team got a close look...
Until the last week of this July, there was a forest of 80– to 100–year–old trees in a residential neighborhood, on Cooper Point Road between 20th and 28th Streets.
On July 21, 2022, the Washington State Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Conservation Northwest v. Commissioner of Public Lands, the “All the People” case.
BOOK REVIEW: I suppose it will surprise no one to learn that the age–old fight for free speech goes on, and likely will continue as long as there are unpopular ideas...
In May 14, a young white supremacist armed with a semi–automatic assault rifle traveled over 200 miles to the zip code 14208, which seemed an ideal place for implementing his plan to kill black people.
This is not a story about the broad swath of Olympia residents who spend half their income to pay for a place to live. It's about reshaping Olympia for investors.
I’ve always been intrigued by electric cars. I love driving but hate the problems that cars bring—like maintenance and the looming possibility of another expensive thing breaking that I don’t know how to fix. A car is “the gift that keeps on taking.” So, when the State motor pool offered…