In the Media

Sixty five years ago my maternal grandmother, having experiencing months of fatigue, abdominal discomfort and weight loss, underwent exploratory abdominal surgery, the only truly diagnostic tool available at the time.

One brief look by the surgeon told him everything he needed to know: her liver and omentum were riddled with tumor, clearly advanced, with the primary source unknown and ultimately unimportant. He quickly closed her up and went to speak with her family–my grandfather, uncle and mother. He told them there was no hope and no treatment, to take her back home to their rural wheat farm in the Palouse country of Eastern Washington and allow her to resume what activities she could with the time she had left. He said she had only a few months to live, and he recommended that they simply tell her that no cause was found for her symptoms.

Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike issued a formal apology Thursday to the Chinese community for the Chinese expulsion 125 years ago.

Pike says the apology helps people understand that things that were done by people and the government were wrong.

Western Washington University distance runner Sarah Porter had the greatest accomplishment of her illustrious career, winning the women's 10,000 meters in opening-day action Thursday, May 26, at the NCAA Division II National Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Turlock, Calif.

Porter's time of 33:17.39 broke her own school record as well as bettering meet and stadium standards. The old meet record was 33:24.24 set by Robyn Root from Cal Poly SLO in 1985. Porter's clocking, which was just over 12 seconds off the all-time NCAA II standard of 33:05.80 set by Seattle Pacific's Bente Moe in 1987, qualified her automatically for the USA Championships later this summer.

Two shuttle routes will carry people to and from the Fairhaven Festival during Ski to Sea this year on Sunday, May 29, helping to alleviate the traffic and parking crunch.

One route will run between Western Washington University's Lot C and Fairhaven. Another will run from Zuanich Point Park to Boundary Bay Brewery and to Fairhaven. A ticket is $2 for unlimited rides.

"We're hoping to alleviate the cars at Fairhaven and Zuanich," said Mel Monkelis, Ski to Sea coordinator.

John Belcher, principal at Omak High School in central Washington, has been tapped as the next principal at Mount Si High School.

“We got ourselves an outstanding new principal,” said Dan Popp, head of the Snoqualmie Valley School Board.

Two Washington Conservation Corps crews are in Joplin, Mo., removing debris and cutting paths with chainsaws for search and rescue teams to reach demolished buildings.

The 10 crew members and two supervisors were dispatched to Joplin from St. Louis, arriving Monday morning shortly after a May 22 tornado ripped through the city. They had been in the state since May 2 assisting with tornado disaster relief efforts.

State lawmakers put their final touches on deep spending cuts as they ended a dreary budget-slashing special session Wednesday night.

The Senate approved more than $4 billion in recession-driven budget cuts — to higher education, social services, health care and other programs — a day after the same budget passed the House.

Democrats and Republicans engaged in a praise-a-thon as the budget sailed through the Senate on a bipartisan 34-13 vote — with no one speaking in opposition.

It took Washington state lawmakers more than four months to reach an agreement on the state's next two-year budget, but they finally managed to do that before the end of their 30-day special session Wednesday. Lawmakers also dealt with a handful of key policy issues during the legislative overtime, which came on top of a 105-day session.

Here's a look at the major changes that passed this year and the ones that got left behind.

There's a very good reason Washington's university presidents aren't tearing down the governor's door this week to complain about a proposed half billion dollar cut in state dollars for the state's colleges and universities over the next two years, and it has nothing to do with not wanting the public to see them cry.

They know the real people who should be crying are Washington parents who plan to send their children to college over the next few years.

At the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral, Fla., the space shuttle Atlantis awaits its last liftoff. In June, it will be rolled to the launchpad, within sight of the white sands of the Atlantic coast. In the past 30 years, 134 previous space shuttle missions have launched from the same swath of land.