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After decades of studies, in 2022 the Department of Enterprise Services (DES) approved the decision to restore the Deschutes River Estuary by removing the 5th Avenue dam in Olympia. A natural river estuary would eliminate the need to maintain Capitol Lake, and, at least in theory, promises restored salmon runs…

Ultimately, the entire universe…has to be understood as a single undivided whole. David Bohm SEPA regulations – WAC 197-11-060 3(b) (b) Proposals or parts of proposals that are related to each other closely enough to be, in effect, a single course of action shall be evaluated in the same environmental…

Olympia Washington lies at the southern end of Puget Sound. Over the past 100 years the waterfront has been extensively modified to accommodate growth and industry. Efforts at restoration have met with strong political opposition. Background Introduction Budd Inlet, the bay which the city adjoins, is fed by several fresh…

How does Thurston County’s criminal justice system work? Is there bias in the system? What’s being done to deter people from entering the criminal justice system and to keep them from returning? I’ve been hanging around the County’s justice system for the last ten years asking these questions. Here’s a…

Local journalism across the country has suffered from the consolidation and monetization of news organizations, causing many local papers to downsize while increasing prices. Thurston County is fortunate to have the online newspaper The JOLT to fill some of the holes left by declining local coverage by the local daily…

The concept of a Soul Cafe is to represent a place, a container, for people to gather and receive nourishment on a soul level through authentic relating and inspired connections. When my husband and I opened Soul Cafe in late summer of 2022, more than anything else, this was the…

Works in Progress would not exist right now without the leadership of Glen Anderson. When he got word about the WIP WRAP party in October 2023, he contacted people who had contributed to WIP and asked if they were willing to keep WIP alive. The result was a meeting of…

Background on how I met Glen: I moved to Olympia, WA from Omaha, NE for a job in July 1976. In Omaha I had volunteered with The Peace Center and United Nations Association.  In early 1977, I was at an event at Seattle Center and a man was tabling for…

Glen Anderson’s death marks the end of an era.  He had been a loyal Green Party member for 30 years.  He used to give talks for the state party (on Peak Oil for instance) and he led a 12-part series on Re-examining Capitalism for our local party in 2010 (after…

I urge you to learn the harsh facts that lurk behind the mask of official illusion with which we have concealed our true circumstances, even from ourselves.  Our country is in danger: not just from foreign enemies, but above all, from our own misguided policies—and what they can do to…

From the Pacific Northwest to Palestine, the world mourns the tragic killing of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. Ayşenur was protesting against an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank when Israeli troops opened fire upon demonstrators. During a memorial service for Ayşenur that took place in the city of Nablus,…

Vice President Kamala Harris’s dramatic entry into the presidential race in July—including selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate—put a new twist on the already gendered nature of the election. A woman was now at the top of the ticket. Instead of Donald Trump’s and JD Vance’s misogynous…

Voters need to keep in mind that when we head to the election booth on November 5th we’re voting for a whole team, not just an individual. People who are frustrated, unhappy, or otherwise feel like the system isn’t working for them are likely to vote for the candidate who promises…

Parents face unprecedented levels of stress these days, so much so that the mental health challenges they experience constitute “a serious public health concern for our country.” That’s the message the U.S. Surgeon General communicated to the nation last summer. Today it’s a message with implications for the current presidential election, since…

Oct 4, 2024 This week, Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel and Israel continued its intensive bombing campaign against Lebanon, the Lebanon-Syria border, Gaza, and the West Bank. These developments mark a new stage in the already heightened situation in the region. They occur in the context of  decades of…

“You reap what you sow.” In the old days this was the axiom that was fed to the youth to groom them into hard-working, self-reliant people. The idea is that You Get What You Give – if I sit on my behind all day and do nothing I can expect…

October Poetry Reading with Olympia Poetry Network – Traditions, 5th &Water St – October 16, 6-7:30pm Open Mic Signup opens at 5:30 pm— Featured writer Gary Copeland Lilley is the author of 8 books of poetry . Gary has received the Washington DC Commission on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.…