In the Media

At a young age, Western Washington University men's soccer player Tyler Bjork said he adopted the mentality of, "no matter how hard you get beat, you got to get back up."
Playing midfield and forward for the Vikings, Bjork, a senior, has been a staple in the Western soccer program the past four years - making 11 starts his freshman year and starting regularly since.

The Western Washington University men's golf team is seventh, 10 shots out of first, following a windy and rainy first day at the Saint Martin's University Invitational on Monday, Sept. 26, at Olympia.

Western Washington University's Claire Rachor is tied for fifth place in medalist play and the Vikings are fourth, just eight strokes out of the lead, in a field of 16 teams after the first round of the Grand Canyon University Fall Women's Golf Invitational on Monday, Sept. 26, at Litchfield Park, Ariz.

State schools chief Randy Dorn may be positioning himself to fend off cuts in education funding in the special session later this year.

He didn't reply last week to the governor's request for ways to pare spending in public schools to help the state plug a projected $2 billion hole in its budget.

He's preparing an answer to deliver this week, and his response to where he would cut will likely be along the lines of one word – nowhere.

Governor Christine Gregoire said that budget shortfalls in Washington are forcing her to undo her legacy of public service.

“I’m dismantling much of what I’ve built my entire career,” Gregoire said in an exclusive interview.

Gregoire has called a special session of the legislature for late November to deal with a new $2 billion shortfall in the state budget. Earlier this year, legislators cut over $5 billion in programs.

Democratic officials have been quietly exploring the logistics of a special election in February that could ask state voters to raise taxes to help fill another budget shortfall, according to documents released to The Associated Press under public records laws.

Staff members in the Legislature have gathered information on both the timing and costs of holding such an election, even as lawmakers say it's premature to say whether it's an option they will pursue. Advisers to Gov. Chris Gregoire are among those that have been looking at the logistics.

Peninsula College President Tom Keegan is one of four finalists for the presidency of Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon.

Keegan, a 1978 graduate and former graduate intern at Skagit, said he is happy at Peninsula College but couldn’t pass up the “unique opportunity” to return to where he started.

“I had a number of incredible experiences at Skagit Valley and grew personally through those experiences,” Keegan said in a telephone interview Sunday.

Lectures about recovering from earthquakes in Haiti, immigration enforcement and death row inmates headline the 10th annual World Issues Forum this fall.
The lecture series is sponsored by Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies. All events are free and open to the public.

A scientist at Western Washington University's Shannon Point Marine Center in Anacortes has received a four-year, $558,000 grant to study chemicals produced by marine seaweeds.

When recent Western Washington University graduate Thomas Kloucek designed a small multifunctional tool for scuba divers for a class assignment, he thought he had just designed something for school and that would be the end of it.
But now the invention is one of 10 projects representing the U.S. in an international design contest.