In the Media
A Read-In will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Village Books' Reading Gallery, 1200 11th St.; in conjunction with a community book drive. Parents are encouraged to bring their children ages 3 to 8 to join Western Washington University volunteers in reading stories with social justice themes.
Western Libraries is teaming up with Western Washington University men’s and women’s basketball teams to launch a fundraising campaign to support the university’s libraries.
The human race has been considered a race of hunter–gatherers. Groups that lived inland hunted wild animals and when the opportunity presented itself, they fished in lakes and rivers. Alternatively, groups that lived by a coast relied far more heavily on fish from the ocean, naturally leading to the formation of villages near rivers that led to oceans to maintain a food supply.
In America, climate change is commonly, and simply, viewed as hot summers and cold winters. However, for some groups that have maintained the hunter–gatherer lifestyle, climate change is potentially devastating.
Western Washington University professor Lauren McClanahan recently experienced the effects of climate change in Alaska, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka first-hand.
Washington politicians have abdicated their leadership role in higher education, leaving the state with a disjointed system that doesn't produce enough bachelor's degrees and forces employers to go out of state — and even out of the country — to find skilled workers.
That's the conclusion of a report from the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, which noted that only 40 of every 100 Washington students who start ninth grade will enter college on time. The authors say state leaders should set "clear goals and an ambitious agenda" to increase the number of students earning bachelor's degrees.
Washington agencies wrestling with budget reductions have managed to save an additional $100 million a year beyond the cuts mandated by the Legislature.
The surplus cash has provided a boost to the state as revenues have been slow to recover from the recession. Agencies are typically supposed to get back some of the savings as an incentive to control spending, but lawmakers have been seizing the extra dollars to put into the general fund.
Those so-called reversions accounted for 15 percent of the $480 million budget adjustments that lawmakers made during the special session.
Come Monday, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire will begin to write the final chapter of her biography as the state's chief executive.
Lawmakers will start a 60-day session that will be the last opportunity for Gregoire to leave her political fingerprints on how the state serves its residents and spends their money.
Lawmakers face an all-too-familiar problem when they convene Monday for a 60-day legislative session: balancing a state budget that's way out of whack.
This year's different, though. Lawmakers will also confront a volatile mix of other issues that could easily tie the Legislature in knots.
Both a sales-tax and gas-tax increase are on the table. The state Supreme Court says more money is needed for education. The governor says it's time to legalize gay marriage. Abortion is back on the docket. And then there's that plan to legalize marijuana.
Western Washington University is launching a statewide recognition campaign called Washington Companies to Watch to honor what it calls second-stage businesses.
Washington is the seventh state to become associated with the national venture created several years ago by the Edward Lowe Foundation in Michigan. The awards program is designed to publicize, encourage and inspire companies. The foundation already works with businesses in Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Indiana and Colorado.
Western Washington University ranks as one of the top 100 best values for public universities in the nation, according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.
Kiplinger's ranked WWU 81st in its February 2012 issue for Best Values in Public Colleges for 2012.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tops the list, while the highest-ranked college in Washington is University of Washington, at 14th.
When legislators representing Whatcom County head to Olympia, one problem will occupy their minds: the state budget.
Legislators representing the 40th and 42nd districts will introduce bills reflecting their various interest and specialties, but they'll be forced to make tough budget cuts. The state is facing a $1.5 billion shortfall in its general fund in the current budget, which started July 1, 2011, and goes through June 30, 2013.
The 42nd district includes the north half of Bellingham and stretches north to the U.S.-Canada border. The 40th district includes south Bellingham, Sudden Valley, San Juan County and part of Skagit County.