The state Department of Health says that in 1976, the U.S. hit a national low with 1,010 pertussis cases. Since then, the numbers have climbed despite ongoing vaccination. Also, the three-to-five year pertussis outbreak cycle continues despite overall consistency of vaccination. The current epidemic was predicted and expected. So, what gives?
“Watching activists jump into action is really exciting,” my partner John Dancey said as we left the All Island Forum planning meeting. I knew John meant seeing our colleagues step up with enthusiasm to take on the tasks necessary to put on our next forum. But the question “What action?” playfully jumped into my mind.
For a moment last week, it looked like some of Vashon’s best and brightest were going to place their cars in front of a pavement grinding machine and face off against what they saw as one of the forces of evil.
Right now a longtime Vashon resident and small business owner sits in jail in Tacoma, though he is accused of no crime.
Every so often, county government reinvents itself, and so it has again in the way it hopes to engage those 280,000 residents who live in the unincorporated swaths of King County.
Vashon is a pretty progressive place, which makes it a perfect place to celebrate the Day of Silence. The Vashon High School Gay-Straight Alliance celebrates the Day of Silence to educate the community about keeping homophobic comments silent.
Over the past three weeks, our Vashon Public Schools Foundation has hosted breakfast meetings for Island business leaders and professionals to ask them to contribute to our $500,000 sustaining campaign.
When parents discover their beloved child is using drugs, drinking or has an eating disorder, they might feel fear, anger, guilt, panic, sadness, confusion and disbelief. How can they still function as usual with all of these overwhelming feelings? Some become paralyzed; they start questioning every parenting choice and look for someone to blame — because this was definitely not part of the plan. What happened and how did this family get here?
Islanders should consider joining the Ferry Riders’ Opinion Group (FROG) to help shape the future of the state ferry system.
I usually bake a cake. One year I trowelled on the frosting while the cake was still warm, writing “Happy Birthday Maria” in red cake-writing goo. And as we sang Happy Birthday, the green frosting oozed down the sides of the cake followed by the red cake-writing goo, forming a petroleum-spill red and green paisley puddle, pooled around the base of the scratch-made yellow cake.
As Vashon’s new public schools foundation seeks to raise $500,000, Superintendent Michael Soltman has a message to share.
Conversations around combining the planned Vashon High School (VHS) auditorium with the new Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA) have referred to the presumed efficiency, ecological value and savings that a partnership would bring. While the idea has merit, research into other efforts to combine facilities in small communities in King County shows that this is almost always unsuccessful for both the schools and the communities.
Someone should tell Sen. Sharon Nelson that the positions set forth in her March 21 commentary (“Gamesmanship brings gridlock to Olympia”) are inconsistent with truths she apparently finds inconvenient.
