Steve Klein addresses current issues impacting Yelm and vicinity and provides a meeting place for anyone with an interest in this area to provide their ideas and opinions
After watching the Perseid meteor shower, sky watchers in Washington state can observe another stunning sight: a partial lunar eclipse.
North and South America will have the best views of the blood-red moon.
When are the best times to get a glance at the astronomical phenomenon?
Here’s what to know:
When is the next full moon in 2026?
August’s full moon will reach peak illumination in Washington state at 9:18 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27, according to online clock Time and Date.
The full moon will coincide with a partial lunar eclipse.
Why is August’s full moon called the sturgeon moon?
August’s full moon is known as the sturgeon moon due to the “abundance” of fish that could be easily caught in the Great Lakes at this time of year, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.When are best times to watch the partial lunar eclipse?
According to Space.com, the partial lunar eclipse will hit its peak around 9:12 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, Aug. 27.
The full eclipse event will take place between 7:35 p.m. Thursday and 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 28.
The early phases likely won’t be visible, as the sun may still be out and the eclipse may be below the horizon.
Why does the moon appear red during an eclipse?
During a lunar eclipse, the moon appears to change color because the earth blocks most of the sun’s light from reaching the moon.
The light that does reach the moon is filtered through the earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA.
“It’s as if all of the world’s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the moon,” NASA said.
This is most apparent in totality, but even partial eclipses change the moon’s hue.
Do I need special equipment to see the lunar eclipse?
You do not need any tools or eyewear to see the lunar eclipse, according to NASA.
Binoculars or a telescope can enhance your viewing experience, but are not necessary.
The sale was organized by Billy Sleeth of commercial real estate firm Newmark, who represented Capital Development Co. The latter owned and operated the center for six decades. The center is currently anchored by Trader Joe’s, which opened in November 2025 and signed a 10-year lease. Other tenants in the center include Marshalls, PetSmart, Michaels, and Target.
Shopping center representatives said in a press release that its retail spaces were 81% occupied at sale time and that there is potential for future growth with new retail assets and property improvements.
The Washington State Pharmacy Association (WSPA) has named Will Quinby the recipient of its 2026 Pharmacist of the Year Award. Co-owner of Yelm’s Tim’s Pharmacy. Credit: The Chronicle (Centralia).
Co-owner of Centralia, Chehalis pharmacies wins 2026 Pharmacist of the Year Award
The Washington State Pharmacy Association (WSPA) has named Will Quinby the recipient of its 2026 Pharmacist of the Year Award.
Will Quinby and his wife, Courtney Quinby, are owners of Centralia Pharmacy, Chehalis Pharmacy and Tim’s Pharmacy in Yelm.
Will is a PharmD — short for doctor of pharmacy — at Centralia Pharmacy, which he co-owns with Courtney Quinby, his wife, who was also the winner of the WSPA’s 2025 Outstanding Mentor Award.
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The Quinbys opened Centralia Pharmacy in May 2017. Since then, they have expanded to open the Chehalis Pharmacy. They took over ownership of Tim’s Pharmacy in 2018.
WSPA awards are given out to recognize “outstanding pharmacy professionals and students whose leadership, service and dedication have made a meaningful impact on the profession of pharmacy and the health of communities across Washington,” the WSPA stated in a news release announcing the 2026 award winners.
According to the WSPA’s website, its Pharmacist of the Year Award is given to the pharmacist “who possesses qualities of excellence in routine practice and association activities, is an exemplary role model, and who has contributed in service and skill to the WSPA during the past year.”
The WSPA will honor Will, along with the other 2026 award winners, at its annual meeting starting on Nov. 13 at Cle Elum’s Suncadia Resort.
Today Governor Bob Ferguson held an event in Pasco to discuss a top legislative priority for the upcoming session: Banning cellphones in schools statewide during school hours.
Governor Ferguson was joined by school district leaders, students and teachers at Pasco High School to talk about his proposal. Pasco High School currently does not allow student cell phone use during instructional time. Governor Ferguson’s proposal will build on policies like Pasco’s, creating a consistent, statewide policy. Governor Ferguson’s proposed “Away for the Day” policy will remove smart devices, including smartphones and smart watches, from the first to last bell in K-12 public schools in Washington state. He announced the policy proposal in June.
Cellphone policy in Washington state and across nationwide
At least 31 states and the District of Columbia now restrict students’ use of cell phones in schools, according to Education Week. Of those states, 22 have a bell-to-bell ban.
Washington has taken incremental steps to discourage phones in schools. While many districts and individual schools in Washington have some sort of policy restricting student cell phone use, the policies vary in scope.
Governor Ferguson has taken multiple steps to protect youth against the harm of cellphones. During the 2026 legislative session, Governor Ferguson signed a new law that helps lay the groundwork for regulating cellphones in schools. He also successfully proposed a new law that provides safeguards for the public – particularly kids – when using AI companion chatbots. As Attorney General, he took social media companies to court to change their addictive algorithms and hold them accountable for the harm they have done to kids.
Governor Ferguson is also proposing legislation to require all high school seniors to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — known as the FAFSA — or its state equivalent, in order to graduate high school or opt-out. Washington is among the most generous states in the nation for funding for college and job training. Approximately half of Washington families qualify for free money. Yet, our state has consistently ranked near the bottom for completing the application required to unlock this free money.
In response, last September, Governor Ferguson launched his Washington Completes FAFSA campaign. While that campaign increased FAFSA and WASFA completion, nearly half of Washington seniors still didn’t fill out the form. Governor Ferguson’s legislation will make filling out one of the forms part of graduation requirements, with an opt-out option available.
On Election Day Nov. 4, 2025, thousands of ballots are delivered and processed at the newly renovated Thurston County Ballot Processing Center in Tumwater. Credit: The Olympian.
+ Editor’s note: Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall encourages voters to return their completed ballots at one of the county’s 31 drop boxes, rather than mailing them, to ensure proper tabulation.
Monday’s [Aug. 24] U.S. Supreme Court ruling clears a path for possible restrictions on mail-in voting. But local election officials say voting procedures won’t change for Thurston County’s Nov. 3 general election.
“Following recent reporting on the U.S. Supreme Court’s order regarding the federal executive order on mail ballots, the Thurston County Auditor’s Office is reassuring voters that local voting procedures remain entirely unchanged,” Auditor Mary Hall said in a statement.
The Supreme Court’s ruling centers on an executive order issued in March by President Donald Trump.
The order asked the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to start rulemaking on vote-by-mail services. States would be required to submit a list of voters receiving mail-in or absentee ballots to USPS. Envelopes would undergo strict barcode requirements. The rule would change how general, special and run-off federal elections are overseen.
USPS published the final regulations Friday. The 95-page document clarifies how the executive order would be enforced, though it notes that the new procedure wouldn’t be enforced in 2026 unless the Supreme Court sides with the Trump administration.
Monday’s decision pauses one of two injunctions that prevent the executive order, and the Postal Service’s new rules, from going into effect immediately.
A coalition of attorneys general, co-led by Washington’s Nick Brown, filed a lawsuit in June opposing the executive order. The new USPS procedure would violate states’ constitutional right to oversee elections, the attorneys general argued.
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Thurston County auditor: elections will remain unchanged
In a statement to The Olympian on Tuesday, Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall said the November election procedures will not change because that second injunction remains intact.
“While the Supreme Court permitted certain preliminary aspects of the executive order to proceed, a nationwide injunction issued by a lower federal court remains in full effect. As a result of this nationwide injunction, there are no changes to how mail-in voting will be administered for the upcoming November general election.” Hall said in a statement.
In Thurston County, ballots will be mailed to homes of registered voters between Oct. 8 and Oct. 12 for the November general election.
Hall encouraged voters to return their completed ballots at one of the county’s 31 drop boxes. That ensures ballots are counted on time, rather than risk a postmarking after election day.
As Yelm Community Schools (YCS) prepares for a fifth attempt at passing an educational programs and operations (EP&O) levy at the rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed home value, Chris Woods, YCS superintendent, highlighted the projected ending fund balances for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years.
First, Woods said that YCS is working on getting its budget approved for the 2026-27 school year — which requires a lot of conversation with Educational Service District (ESD) and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). He noted that YCS will end the current 2025-26 school year with an ending fund balance of $7.9 million.
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Woods added that the projected ending fund balance for the 2026-27 school year is projected at $877,000 — which doesn’t cover a month’s payroll.
During a Yelm Community Schools (YCS) Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, Aug. 13, three area-residents used the “community comments” portion of the meeting to speak on the district’s fifth run at a levy, and a potential media opportunity.
During a special Yelm Community Schools Board of Directors meeting on Monday, Aug. 3, school board directors voted 4-1 in favor of running a fifth educational programs and operations (EP&O) levy attempt this November in the Thurston County general election.
The proposed rate is set at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Join us for an unforgettable evening of live music, community, and summer fun at Evergreen Fest!
This FREE community music festival celebrates the incredible talent of our region, featuring performances from local youth musicians alongside outstanding regional artists. Bring your family, friends, lawn chairs, or a blanket and enjoy an evening filled with great music in a welcoming outdoor atmosphere.
While admission is free, a variety of delicious food trucks will be on-site with food and beverages available for purchase.
+ Alternet via MSN: Study confirms what many suspected: the 2024 election was rigged – A peer-reviewed study released Thursday in Nature, the world’s most prestigious scientific journal, has finally put hard numbers to what a lot of us suspected the moment the 2024 election was called for Trump (and Republicans in Congress) by the big networks: the algorithms that control our largest social media platforms intentionally and explicitly tilted the playing field, and they tilted it for Donald Trump and the GOP.
A major dereliction by the feeble Democratic Party leadership is their unwillingness to address the political amnesia they have allowed corrupt, lying, cruel, outlaw tyrant Trump to enjoy with political impunity. Trump has been more than willing to fill the vacuum created by this abdication. That is his business and political modus operandi (MO). His daily lies, boasts, and fantasies have polluted the political landscape. Moreover, his false claims are rarely rebutted by the haughty Dems who view his diatribes as beneath them to counter.
The Democratic Party leadership needs a compelling “REMINDERS” platform for their current electoral campaigns that they can pin on the Trump rubber-stamping GOP candidates at the Congressional and state levels. Here is a sample:
1. Trump was a failed gambling czar and a frequent user of bankruptcy as a competitive tactic, as he brazenly described it, to stiff his creditors, employees, and consumers.
2. Trump is a serial sexual abuser of women.
3. Trump derided and minimized for weeks in early 2020 the spreading COVID pandemic.
4. Trump’s tax cuts for the super-rich and giant corporations mean huge deficits and a lack of these tax dollars for public services, public works and jobs in communities everywhere.
5. Trump is the consummate climate denier.
6. Dems should remind people how Trump is the extorter-in-chief.
7. Trump has never backed down from his outrageous claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
8. Trump is a major league racist against African Americans and Hispanics, among countless other groups…
9. Trump has pardoned hundreds of convicted violent criminals and fraudsters, politically on his side, many of whom have since committed crimes.
10. Trump’s words about “law and order” exclude his corporate crime cronies.
11. Trump’s cruelty to children knows no bounds.
12. Trump enabled the criminal enterprise DOGE, led by Elon Musk, to rampage through federal agencies in 2025, closing down some vital lifesaving programs and pushing out the door tens of thousands of civil servants doing their work daily for the public.
13. The Dems should remind people of Trump’s crazed hatred of solar and wind energy—life-sustaining—in favor of goodies for the homicidal oil, gas, and coal corporations heating the planet. Psychiatrists, you are needed here. (See the Statement from Medical Professionals, Congressional Record—Senate, April 30, 2026).
14. Finally, voters will be stunned by Trump’s plethora of vote-losing epithets such as “losers and suckers” to describe those who are killed in combat, like those buried World War II GIs in a French cemetery, as this draft dodger related to his chief of staff, retired General John Kelly.
It is, of course, true that the Democrats have to run on what they are for.
Most GOP candidates are running on their unbreakable fealty to Trump. Therefore, they should be held accountable for all the ugly drawbacks of Trump that they have been backing to the hilt including his cruel and vicious Cabinet secretaries.
Political amnesia by the public is easy to fall prey to because it is so often covered up by the culprits and allowed by incompetent opponents. The Democratic Party knows how to lose. It allowed Trump’s worst GOP in history to win in 2024!
