In the Media
Members of social service groups, church congregations and families marched in the chilly air and falling snow Monday morning, Jan. 16, to bring attention to worsening poverty in Whatcom County.
The city's first Poverty Action March and Essential Needs Drive was a prelude to the 21st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration, held in warm and dry conditions inside Bellingham Municipal Court.
The march was organized to continue King's "unfinished work of the poor people's campaign," said the Rev. Tara Olsen Allen of the First Congregational Church of Bellingham.
Do you hear what I hear?
For many people over the age of 65, the answer to that question is "no."
Hearing loss is a becoming less of a silent problem as awareness grows and more people are diagnosed. Experts say it's hard to determine whether people suffer from hearing loss more than before, or whether more people are now seeking help.
Western Washington University freshman Brittany Grandy had a school-record performance in her first collegiate meet, clearing 5-8 to place third in the women's high jump as the Vikings opened their indoor track and field season Saturday, competing in the Husky Preview at the Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus.
Grandy's mark shattered the school record by 2 1/2 inches and bettered the NCAA Division II national provisional standard. The previous mark of 5-5 1/2 was set by Clara Cook in 2007.
Nationally ranked University of Alaska Anchorage hit its first eight shots from the field to grab an early advantage and then pulled away to defeat Western Washington University 75-55 Saturday, Jan. 14, at Sam Carver Gymnasium in a showdown between teams tied for first in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball standings.
WWU, which had a seven-game winning streak snapped, fell to 11-4 overall. Center Britt Harris had 11 points and seven rebounds for the Vikings, who fell out of a tie for first in the GNAC and slipped into a tie for third at 5-2.
Forward Rory Blanche had 18 points and guard John Allen added 17 as Western Washington University completed an Alaska road trip sweep by defeating University of Alaska Anchorage, 73-68, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball contest Saturday at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex on the UAA campus.
The Vikings improved to 15-3 overall and 6-1 in the GNAC with the triumph. It completed a GNAC-record fourth time Western has won both legs of the Alaska trip, having defeated Alaska Fairbanks, 101-81, on Thursday.
Saturday's 24th Annual Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame Banquet at Baymont Inn & Suites was remarkable for the talented individuals in the induction class.
But it was also special because the two baseball teams honored couldn't have been any different.
When you have athletes from the one-in-a-kind linebacker David Rill to female role models such as bowler Jan Hauschel, multiple sports star June Griebel Fike, softballer Denise Posey and Cheron Moyle, who rocked the high school basketball world in the years immediately after Title IX gave females more and better opportunities, it makes for a remarkable ceremony.
Western Washington University's departments of theater and dance present Molière's "Tartuffe," directed by Patrick Dizney, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, through Jan. 28, and Feb.1-4; and at 2 p.m. Jan. 29 and Feb. 5 at WWU's Old Main Theatre.
Bellevue College has hired Ray White as its new Vice President of Administrative Services. He will oversee several functional areas of the college, including finance, the physical plant, public safety, capital projects, and auxiliary services (such as the bookstore, food service and the child care center).
Lawmakers will rightly focus this session on shielding Washington’s public schools from the worst gales of the fiscal hurricane howling through the state.
But education doesn’t end with the 12th grade. The most lavishly funded K-12 system can’t guarantee students a future if there’s no place for them to go once they graduate from high school. The 21st century’s tech-intensive economy demands workers with technical, associate and bachelor’s degrees – and punishes job-seekers who don’t have them.
How does a state, or a community like Snohomish County, ensure it has enough qualified workers to sustain a growing industry like aerospace?
You increase the number of engineers being educated locally.
You devise short and two-year training programs at local community colleges.
And you steer hundreds of skilled paper-mill workers who are losing their jobs toward careers in aerospace.