In the Media
Requests for financial aid at Everett Community College have nearly doubled in the past four years, with 12,000 requests made so far this school year.
That number could reach 14,000 by June, the end of the academic year, college officials say. Just four years ago, there were 6,300 requests for financial aid.
Backcountry skiers and snowboarders have a new tool to explore regional daily avalanche-danger levels.
A web-based map (seati.ms/xL4m67), created by students and faculty at Western Washington University (WWU), takes the regional avalanche forecasts issued by the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center and displays the same information spatially. This allows backcountry travelers to zoom into specific regions and examine the forecast avalanche danger. But it also prevents users from zooming in too closely, because the forecasts are regional, not site-specific.
At one point or another, everyone had a smile on during State Park Ranger Ed Johanson's memorial service Friday. Family members and colleagues talked of Johanson's whimsical side, as well as his passion for his work at Kitsap area state parks.
Johanson, 44, was killed Feb. 24 while driving home to Seabeck, when another vehicle swerved from the opposite lane and struck his private vehicle head-on.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office investigated the crash. The driver of the other car was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide. Drugs or alcohol are suspected to be involved, according to the sheriff's office.
Western Washington University Alumni Association is hosting a contest for a new design for Western's special car license plate. The current one shows a Viking vessel.
The contest is open to WWU students, staff and alumni, and to other community members. Participants have until March 22 to submit designs. See wwualumni.com/plate for rules and instructions.
James Patrick Brotherton's first novel, "Reclaiming the Dead," is an adult tale with characters who hunt and kill the undead, yet Brotherton is not part of the pop vampire craze.
The Bellingham author has never read the "Twilight" series, never seen Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee in a classic film portrayal of Dracula, and never heard of "Dark Shadows" or almost any other popular interpretation of vampire legends. Nor has he read any examples of the exploding genre of "paranormal romance."
Recent Western Washington University graduate TJ Martin returned to Bellingham to tell students about winning an Oscar as co-director of the documentary feature “Undefeated.”
When students asked Thursday if he had the award with him, he brought out the golden statuette and passed it around.
A nearly $200,000 federal grant will be used to help low-wage adults already working in early childhood education earn college credits and move up in their careers.
Classes begin in spring through a collaboration launched by Whatcom Community College and Skagit Valley College.
More than a little sleight of hand went into the budget proposal unveiled by Senate Democratic leaders Tuesday in Olympia. Despite some creative accounting to patch a roughly $1 billion hole, though, the plan sets a new standard that should be adhered to in a final compromise: It spares education -- early learning, K-12 and higher ed -- from further cuts.
It's an important turning point, one that recognizes the reality that eroding educational opportunity and quality undermines our future prosperity, and with it the economic activity that funds state services.
State senate budget chief, Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle), the ways and means committee chair who has gotten a standing ovation for his budget proposal from progressives (a first from Olympia in years), told PubliCola this morning that the Republicans may be making a credible effort to pass their own budget.
By leaving less money in reserve, delaying local school payments by 24 hours, and grabbing some money from the capital budget, Murray’s budget makes no cuts to education, maintains the Basic Health Plan and the Disability Lifeline for the poor, and goes easier on the environment than all the other proposals in the mix, including the house Democrats’ proposal.
With an Oscar-winning director visiting the school Thursday, March 1, students at Western Washington University got a lot of inside knowledge about the film industry.
But there was one especially coveted bit of information: just what it feels like to hold an Oscar.