In the Media

Apple has pulled its iTunes store from the Christian Values Network due to what it sees as the network's contributions to controversial groups, as tech companies tread carefully in the midst of complicated social issues.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company removed iTunes from the list of stores on CVN.org after the company discovered CVN had made contributions to what the Southern Poverty Law Center deemed "active hate groups."

Apple was made aware of CVN's actions by Western Washington University student Ben Crowthe, who started a petition against Apple's connections to the group on Change.org, citing CVN's support of groups he characterized as anti-gay and anti-women.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to grow up with a wealth of opportunities and wanting for very little, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like for people who grow up in poverty and make the most of limited opportunities to find professional success.

That point was driven home Monday at the Washington Apple Education Foundation’s annual scholarship celebration at the Cashmere Riverside Center where 45 students from North Central Washington received college scholarships.

Bellingham Slam guard Jacob Stevenson, the franchise's all-time leading scorer, has been listed among the best minor league basketball players in the United States by USbasket.com.
Stevenson, who was a standout at both Sehome High School and Western Washington University and has played for the Slam each season since the team was formed in 2005, was listed as an honorable mention selection by the website.

Orcas Power & Light Cooperative has four youth working in the Eastsound office as interns this summer and sent three youth to the Cooperative Youth Rally leadership camp at the College of Idaho in July.

Youth internships have been a long tradition at OPALCO and the Nourdine Jensen Cooperative Youth Scholarship Program is in its first year.

Alan Smith started his internship with OPALCO in 2003 between his junior and senior years at Orcas Island High School.

Big Money For Ballot Initiatives: More than $1 million was raised and spent for each of the three citizens' initiatives headed for the November ballot. We get some perspectives.

Re–Licensing Court: Nearly 300,000 Washingtonians have suspended drivers licenses because they didn't pay their tickets. Does the punishment suit the crime? Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

James Scott, the professor emeritus of geography at Western Washington University who was a founder and the first director of the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, died Wednesday, July 20. He was 85.
Born and educated in England, Scott taught in England, Argentina and Canada before joining Western's faculty in 1966. While at Western, he focused his research and writing on pioneer settlement and economic development in the Pacific Northwest during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1971, he and several Western colleagues helped create the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, an important research center and repository of Northwest historical materials. Scott also wrote and edited many publications, including the award-winning "Washington: A Centennial Atlas."

For the second straight year, Western Washington University earned a Team Academic Award given by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

The award, which was initiated in 1992-93, honors collegiate volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the 2010-11 school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade point average on a 4.0 scale.

Before agreeing to raise the federal debt ceiling, Republican lawmakers want Democrats to agree to a number of budget cuts. Some of the proposed plans call for cuts to the Federal Pell Grant Program, which allows many of the country’s poorest students to attend college.

This continues and intensifies a months-long debate about how the Pell Grant program is funded and administered. Next school year, the program is slated to spend $35 billion on 9.4 million students. Republicans looking to cut the program have suggested restricting student eligibility or reducing the maximum amount students can receive.

This week, dozens of university presidents, students and education advocates are on the Hill to persuade lawmakers to protect Pell Grants. Monday has been designated as “Save Pell Day” by the Education Trust, a nonprofit focused on closing education achievement gaps.

Students are planning to take on the government in their media today, staging a one-day blitz of tweets, emails and other electronic messages to members of Congress and President Barack Obama, demanding that cuts to collegiate Pell Grants be excluded from continuing debt negotiations. It’s part of a continuing campaign to spotlight what the grants have enabled students to accomplish.

Pell Grants, which have become the backbone of college financial aid for low-income students, have grown by millions of recipients during the recession and now help support about 10 million college students. That large amount of money – about $30 billion in the current budget – makes it a massive target for the debt trimmers.

The University of Washington Tacoma on Wednesday launched a fundraising effort to provide scholarship help to cash-strapped students facing a 20 percent tuition and fee increase this fall.
The Step Up Scholarships will be awarded to UWT students based on both need and merit, said the university’s new chancellor, Debra Friedman.
She announced the drive in a speech Wednesday to the City Club of Tacoma. It was her first off-campus speech since she assumed her post July 1.