In the Media

Whatcom Transportation Authority had the most passenger boardings per hour in its history in January, but the achievement was partially attributed to weather and the luck of the calendar.
The agency had a total of 511,566 passenger boardings on its fixed-route buses in January, or 48.2 boardings per hour of bus service. Boardings per hour is one measure of productivity.

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Phuture Phoenix program has been awarded a one-year, $177,579 grant to expand and focus efforts to prepare disadvantaged middle and high school students in Northeastern Wisconsin for higher education.

Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation (Great Lakes) announced the award Monday, Feb 20. Through community investments, Great Lakes funds programs that foster workforce development and improve economic competitiveness by increasing the number of disadvantaged students who start and complete a postsecondary degree or certificate.

THE state Legislature must not miss an important opportunity to fulfill last year's promise to give universities and colleges more flexibility and less micromanagement.
Credit Reps. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland, and Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, for pushing through the House sweeping legislation lifting restrictions on office-equipment leasing, raising the threshold for competitive bidding and letting schools make simple purchases, such as airline tickets. Another bill would allow postsecondary schools to invest their own funds.

The House Democratic budget is formally on the table: The $30.66 billion supplemental spending plan lops some $81.6 million in local government aid, delays $405 million in funding for K-12 public schools into the 20130-15 biennium, and makes roughly half the cuts to welfare programs that Gov. Chris Gregoire and House Republicans have proposed.

House Democrats on Tuesday proposed solving a deep hole in the state budget largely by pushing certain payments to public schools into the next budget cycle, and making more than $400 million in spending cuts.

Their job was made easier with the unexpected news last week that a combination of reduced demand for state services and a slight uptick in tax collections had reduced a $1.5 billion shortfall closer to $1 billion, depending on how much money is left in reserves.

House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a supplemental budget proposal that looks to change the timing of payments to schools and make some cuts to higher education and other programs to save the state nearly $890 million.
The proposal does not ask voters to consider a temporary sales tax increase, as suggested by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Volunteer income tax assistance is now available to the public free of charge at Western Washington University and Whatcom Community College.

Bryan Rohde with Western’s Beta Alpha Psi and Accounting Society says they have about thirty trained volunteers ready to help you prepare and e-file your personal income taxes.

As apartment vacancy rates remain at low levels across Whatcom County, industry experts say renters should continue to expect increases in what they pay each month.
Last fall the apartment vacancy rate in Whatcom County was estimated at 2.2 percent locally, according to a report published by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at Washington State University. While up from a year earlier, when it was 1.6 percent, the vacancy rate was still well below the state average of 5 percent.
The average rent in Whatcom County last fall for an apartment unit was $782 a month, up $36 a month compared to a year earlier. It's the highest average in the 12 years the research center has studied this area.

Understanding our history is one path to understanding ourselves. That's why we have Black History Month and Presidents Day, which actually go well together.

For 50 of the first 60 years of the United States, the presidency was held by men who owned other people, more specifically, white men who owned black people. Their thoughts and actions shaped the country we inherited.

I went digging around for more information and unearthed Robert Lopresti. He's a librarian at Western Washington University and creator of a website titled simply, "Which U.S. Presidents Owned Slaves."

The University of Washington raked in more private money last year than ever before, thanks in part to a big anonymous donation for need-based scholarships.

Contributions for everything from cancer research to new buildings hit $334 million, a jump of 17 percent over the previous fiscal year, The Seattle Times reported Sunday (http://is.gd/rkT5ju).

Among all universities, that tally ranked 14th in the nation - less than Stanford, Harvard or Yale, but more than Cornell or the University of California at Berkeley.