The Community Sustaining Fund of Thurston County is accepting grant applications up until Friday, November 13, 2020. The grants are available to Thurston County organizations and individuals. Grants will also be available from a fund created by the Olympia Kiwanis to honor Sue Lundy, a long-time community activist and volunteer…
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Washington police deprived Michael Reinoehl of two crucial rights, the right to a fair trial and the right to be alive. By killing Reinoehl, the police took on the role of judge, jury and executioner.
Haki means Justice in swahili—a widely spoken language in Africa. Haki Farmers collective seeks to bolster and reincorporate traditional and inherently sustainable farming knowledge that is present in our migrant and indigenous communities.
Skokomish Valley Farm The first time all 18 new owners of Skokomish Valley Farms got together, they discovered that none of them had ever lived or even worked on a farm. The structure of the farm was also new: each of the 18 owned a 40-acre parcel in what had…
Citizens for a Clean Black Lake has made progress in its effort to show the County Commission that it is illegal to use a flood control district to fund treatment of algae bloom in Black Lake. The Black Lake Special District (BLSD) had requested Thurston County Commissioners to back a…
Setting the bar higher It was good news and bad news in Grays Harbor when BHP Billiton announced September 4 that it is withdrawing its permit applications for a proposed potash export facility at Terminal 3 in Hoquiam, Washington. The good news, for those of us who live in Grays…
The current cadre of WIPsters It is a sensible warning that if you’re going to acknowledge the work of anyone, you have to acknowledge everyone—and since inevitably you will leave someone out, you better figure out another way. This is the better way we’ve hit upon. We’ll tell you about…
Works In Progress came into being and continues to exist, thanks to three decades of generous and the mostly anonymous volunteer labor of hundreds of individuals.
WIP recently invited former WIP writers, editors and agitators to share reflections from their time with the paper for its 30th anniversary edition. We received, and continue to receive, thoughtful responses that shed light on the marriage of activism and journalism that is key to WIP’s longevity. They remark below…
Looking back at WIPs coverage of development in Olympia and Thurston County, the conclusion has to be that citizen opposition to many initiatives has kept planners from sacrificing neighborhoods to the demands of the market.
Our story begins with the 1988 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson. All around the country “Rainbow Coalitions” organized at the local and state level in support of the campaign. In Washington state, there came into being an incipient Rainbow Coalition with various components including the Thurston County Rainbow Coalition (TCRC).…
Works in Progress accounts reveal a 21st century history of a government that serves many interests, but without a focus on helping people in Thurston county.
Attorney Larry Jefferson was selected by the Board of the Thurston County Bar Association (TCBA) to receive this year’s Daniel Bigelow Award in recognition of outstanding achievement in professional and community service.
The League of Women Voters of Thurston County urges all eligible citizens to make sure that they are registered to vote at their current residence and VOTE as soon as possible before November 3, 2020. If you are uncertain whether you are currently registered as a voter in Washington at…
In the face of covid-19 and climate change The paradigm of ever-expanding development on a finite planet is ill-fated, especially forcing neighborhoods to sacrifice to accommodate more “yuppie” transplants. This doesn’t meet Growth Management Act requirements and would change Olympia from being a small, close-knit city into a mess similar…
While campaigning for the presidency in 2016, Donald Trump promised to “repeal and replace” Obamacare with a “fantastic” health plan: a better plan that would “cover everyone” and “cost less!” He made the promise repeatedly for the next four years. He has yet to offer any plan let alone a…
No shots were fired when US Marshalls arrested the MV The Dream, formerly the Evergreen State ferry without incident, at the request of the Port of Olympia on Sept 15. The 310-foot ferry, which has a fuel capacity of 30,000 gallons has been occupying a moorage at the Port since…
The coronavirus pandemic has left Washington state not only facing a public health emergency, but also a budget crisis that will shape public policy for years to come. We’ve seen an economic fallout like this before in our state, and the response by legislators then continues to haunt the decisions…
As mass protests have taken place all over the nation, the images of well-armed and flak-jacketed police facing off against protesters and violently subduing them while remaining encased in protective gear stands in stark contrast to our desperately under-equipped health care workers who have been vainly trying to save as many lives as possible during the coronavirus pandemic.
La pandemia de coronavirus ha dejado al estado de Washington no solo frente a una emergencia de salud pública, sino también a una crisis presupuestaria que dará forma a las políticas públicas en los próximos años. En el pasado ya hemos visto una secuela económica como esta en nuestro estado,…
Washington’s Democratic legislature and Republican Secretary of State have made it easy for any citizen to vote in Washington State. Easy to register, easy to get a ballot, easy to vote, easy to return your ballot. One result is that Washington is a predictably blue state: Washington voters have checked…
The letters below were sent to members of the Olympia City Council after they asked Governor Inslee to change state laws to provide severe penalties for people who form private armed militias—complaining that existing penalties were insufficient. The fact that Olympia’s city leadership hadn’t enforced even those penalties struck some citizens as a problem.
It can happen here. As the struggle for racial justice unfolds in Olympia, my biggest fear is that too many people believe our city is too liberal for anything like what happened to my aunt or Rosebud Denovo or George Floyd to happen here.
What is a militia? Federal and state laws generally use the term “militia” to refer to all able-bodied residents between certain ages who may be called forth by the government to defend the United States or an individual state. See10 U.S.C. § 246.When not called forth, they are sometimes referred…
There is so much more to politics than deciding between what the Democratic Party and Republican Party chooses to put on the ballot. Around the country this year, people organized in behalf of direct ways to address the inequality that is driving us toward disaster. Here some of the efforts…
It’s a tall order trying to build a more humane world and save ourselves from ecological collapse. In the Olympia chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), we know that the solutions to our biggest problems must come in the form of working people organizing from the bottom-up, to protect and build power for ourselves.
While ballots were being counted in many states days after election day, here in Washington State, our legislature remains solidly in Democrat hands. However, as everyone knows, all Democrats are not equal. The question is, how well will we do in the upcoming legislative session? The answer, from a progressive…