In the Media
An Olympia retiree group and two major labor unions plan to sue next month in an attempt to win back the cost-of-living adjustments for 109,000 retirees that lawmakers voted to cut this year.
The COLAs were for the Teachers Retirement System Plan 1 and Public Employees Retirement System Plan 1, which have the biggest unfunded liabilities of the state-run pension funds.
“It’s not whether we are going to pursue legal action; it’s when and how,” said Cassandra de la Rosa, executive director of the 9,500-member Retired Public Employees Council of Washington.
IN a recent guest commentary, a researcher from the other Washington argued that our state pension programs are in trouble because elected officials make promises without paying for them. Andrew G. Biggs reaches this conclusion by ignoring both the way our public pensions are managed and the investment returns achieved from pension funds ["State's pension hole deeper than estimates," Opinion, Sept. 14].
Washington's pension plans are among the best-funded in the nation, with assets sufficient to pay the benefits earned. Thirteen of the state's 15 plans are fully funded. Only two, known as PERS 1 and TRS 1, closed to new employees more than three decades ago, are currently underfunded.
Washington's two major public universities have been awarded $80 million in federal grants to kick-start a biofuels industry in the Northwest, with hopes of turning trees into fuel for jet engines and cars alike.
Underscoring the size and importance of the grant, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was to make the announcement Wednesday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The total grant is $136 million and one of the largest the USDA has ever made.
Western Washington University shot the low round of the tournament and finished one shot out of first, in the final round of the Saint Martin's University Men's Golf Invitational that ended Tuesday, Sept. 27, at the Olympia Golf and Country Club.
The Vikings fired a 4-under 280 to move up six spots and tie for second in the 15-team field with Hawaii-Hilo (285) at 586. Cal State Stanislaus won its second straight event, shooting 285 for a winning score of 17-over par 585.
Western Washington University finished fifth, 12 strokes out of first, among 16 teams at the Grand Canyon University Fall Women's Golf Invitational which ended Tuesday, Sept. 27, at the Wigwam Golf Course in Litchfield Park, Ariz.
The Vikings, ranked No. 8 in the National Golf Coaches Association/NCAA Division II Preseason Top 25, shot 309 to finish with a 36-hole total of 620.
Erin Baker, founder of Baker's Wholesome Baked Goods and inventor of the Baker's Breakfast Cookie, will be the keynote speaker at Western Washington University's Bellingham Business Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 11.
Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. at the Hotel Bellwether Ballroom, with lunch service beginning at noon; the keynote address will begin at 12:45 p.m.
For Christopher Kong, spring 2010 began a year of living dangerously. It included months of grueling work bussing tables in an open-air dining room in Malaysia and prepping vegetables and sauces in the adjacent sweltering kitchen. It meant living and working with Nepalese and Bangladeshi contract-crews sleeping four on the floor; sharing a single bathroom with 20 men and no hot water; washing clothes by hand and drying his stained apron over Chinese steamer-baskets in the restaurant's kitchen.
Far too often in academia, the faculty at colleges and universities overlook the central function amongst their professional activities: the education and development of their students. When I look back at my teaching career as a professor of geography at Western Washington University, what provided me with the deepest sense of satisfaction was facilitating my students' learning and research. That involvement and commitment to teaching took on many manifestations, including directing graduate student research, serving on thesis committees, directing field camps and organizing conference proceedings. The reward: a career encouraging and guiding the intellectual and personal development of my students.
YOU MIGHT have found yourself swaying in your shoes, moving to the deep rhythms of Ben Musa’s huge double bass if you happened to be in the crowd at the recent DennyFest down at Kirkland's O.O. Denny Park.
Bursts of full, rounded notes sailed off the low, resonant strings of Musa’s six-foot stand-up bass and into the audience, as people sat along the Lake Washington waterfront or strolled the shore.
The Finn Hill-based folk quartet Natch’l Thang was doing an all-acoustic improvisation of the '60s signature song by Crosby, Stills & Nash, Wooden Ships.
Western Washington University's Nick Varelia has been named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men's Golfer of the Week honors for Sept. 18-24.