Around 2007 federal officials decided to ensure that the US medical stockpile would have the ventilators needed in a predictable epidemic. They wrote specifications for an easy-to-use device that would cost $3000 each. I
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Deep River is a story rich with historical detail spanning the decades of the early 20th century in America and told through the eyes of three siblings, immigrants from Finland, who settle in a logging community in southern Washington....
I’m not asking why but I’m asking what now and what next? -- Poetry
In Cuba, health care is considered a human right for all citizens and is therefore a national priority. Cuba’s health policy emphasizes prevention, primary care, services in the community, and the active participation of citizens.
Things often look the way they do because someone claiming authority tells us they look that way. If that sounds too cynical, pause for a moment and reflect on what seemed most important to you just a year ago, or even a few weeks ago.
The Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons will meet online during the Coronavirus quarantine. Productive meetings hosted by Glen Anderson are held the 3rd Thursday of each month at 5:00 pm. Participants for the Thursday, May 21 meeting will need a link to join. Contact Glen Anderson at 360.491.9093 or…
Hello President, I just want to tell you that I don’t think very much of you as president. You are destroying this country.
The City Council offers exemptions from property taxes for developers who build “market rate” housing downtown. According to their Downtown Strategy (DTS), market conditions present a few years ago would produce a return of [only] 13%, while “entrepreneurial developers” wanted at least 15%. The 8-year exemption from tax on residential…
America’s response to coronavirus pandemic has revealed a simple truth: So many policies that our elected officials have long told us were impossible and impractical were eminently possible and practical all along....
Then this happened… WIP covered freight derailments in February, and this month, Washington legislators sent Governor Inslee a bill that requires freight and passenger trains to run with a minimum of two crew members. —climate activists were acquitted of criminal trespass by a Portland jury based on a defense that…
On March 2, thirteen nuclear abolitionists blocked traffic leading into Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Washington as part of a public protest of Trident nuclear-missile-launching submarines based there. The direct action came at the conclusion of the annual gathering of the Pacific Life Community, a network of spiritually motivated activists from the…
Washington’s Governor Inslee issued an order on March 23 prohibiting people from leaving home except for essential activities at least through April 6. The order exempted “individuals experiencing homelessness.” So if you’re homeless, you’re not illegal, just on your own. The order said nothing about people locked up — either…
Sheltering in place, washing hands often, not touching the face and using a mask when encountering outsiders are all good ways to “flatten the curve” and stop the spread of N-Covid-19. But don’t stop there—consider the advice of nutritionists, naturopaths and medical doctors who recommend additional ways to boost your…
It all started on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with over 170 people attending a meeting of Olympia Indivisible (OI). I entered the basement of St. John’s Episcopal Church inspired by posters on the wall with quotes by King such as “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Elyanna Calle is a senior at Timberline HS and is a member of the organizing team for the Olympia sub-chapter of Washington Youth Climate Strike. Matt Crichton interviewed Elyanna by phone in late February...
Imagine getting a notice to vacate your home -- in a short 20 days. You must pack up, look for new lodgings whose rent you can manage. Then meet the financial demands of a new landlord if you do find a place...
In April Parallax Perspectives on TCTV, Glen Anderson helps the public understand the serious shortage of housing that is truly affordable for people who are not rich. Local governments in Olympia and elsewhere want to solve the problem, but they have misdiagnosed it, so they have proposed the wrong solutions,…
The March 5th forum on rental regulation was a spirited evening. Four members of City Council and Olympia’s senior staff people listened to community advice and concerns about rental housing.
The first US gathering for women’s rights was convened in Seneca Falls, NY, by leaders of the anti-slavery movement. The “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” signed by participants benefited from the gathering’s exposure to the Iroquois nation, where women enjoyed social equality...
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.…
The coronavirus outbreak has now hit Thurston County. Thousands of county residents are at risk of contracting the disease and suffering the economic fallout of its rapid spread. Many local residents do not have the option of working from home. Service, retail and restaurant employees, gig economy workers, those employed…
El brote de coronavirus ha llegado y golpea el condado de Thurston. Miles de residentes del condado corren el riesgo de contraer la enfermedad y sufrir las consecuencias económicas de su rápida propagación. Muchos residentes locales no tienen la opción de trabajar desde casa. Los empleados de servicios, minoristas, de…
Can we learn anything from a socialist country? When Bernie Sanders mentioned that Cuba’s population has a high rate of literacy, US politicians and their media echoes acted like he had endorsed the Devil Incarnate...
The 2021 budget proposed by President Trump reveals the intent of this administration to reshape America as an authoritarian country run by big business backed by a sweeping military sector. Some deep cuts proposed by the President would affect mandated programs like Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and unemployment. However,…
We are all familiar with the dominant narrative that the virulent strain of influenza known now as N-Covid-19 originated at a crowded seafood market in Wuhan China when an errant bat infected poultry, passed the virus to humans and quickly mutated into at least two deadly strains. Because the market…
Over the past several weeks, I have witnessed the death of an idea – the United States as a democratic republic...
Shortly before Doug Shoop retired from managing Hanford cleanup operations for the US Department of Energy in 2019, he met with members of the Hanford Advisory Board and answered a simple question: of all the issues that need more attention than they are getting now, what keeps him up at…