– “Closing of Lacey Albertsons not popular among some customers”
“The Lacey store is at 6100 Pacific Ave. and measures 45,548 square feet, Thurston County Assessors Office data show. It was built in 1992 and occupies a 5-acre site,” quoting Rolf Boone in The Olympian.
Read more

– “Lacey Top Food to close, with no word why”
“Grocery analyst says company might see WinCo as competition too tough to fight against”
“The Top Food & Drug Store at 5600 Martin Way in Lacey will close in the next four to six weeks, the second major retailer to close in the area since October,” quoting Rolf Boone in The Olympian.
Ed. Note: A Starbucks is located in Top Foods, also affected.
Read more

Editor’s Note: This is a sad announcement, as these are two quality, full-service grocers, leaving only Safeway, discount grocers & big-box stores as options, similar what is left in Yelm [Safeway and Wal-Mart]. We were frequent customers of the Lacey Top Foods and noted several Yelm residents as employees there over the years, We watched both stores being built and now their closure and probable vacancies, leaving quite a blight. The closure of Yelm’s QFC in 2007 led to a long-time vacancy there and still today, 50% of that space still unoccupied, 5+ years later.

Yelm Community Services – 22 Years of Service

From Matt Batcheldor in The Olympian:
“For years, volunteers have headed into the woods in Thurston County to count homeless people in makeshift camps.

Not this year.”

“The Thurston County Homeless Census, which takes place Thursday [January 24], will focus on counting people who come into Olympia [and Yelm] for meals and social services. Organizers will set up events to draw them in rather than going to them.

The counting will take place in an event billed as Homeless Connect, set for 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday at First Christian Church, 701 Franklin St. SE, in downtown Olympia. Haircuts, food and social services will be provided, Schlecht said [Anna Schlecht, housing program manager for Olympia and the coordinator of the census].

Nearby at Temple Beth Hatfiloh, doctors will be on hand to help point people to medical services. Free vaccinations will be available. The event lasts from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Some services also will be offered outdoors for people with their dogs and bikes, or those who dont want to go inside, Schlecht said.

Similar services will be offered from 1-4 p.m. at Yelm Community Services, 624 Crystal Springs Road NW.”

“The information gleaned from the count helps the community qualify for grants for social service programs.

Slusher [Theresa Slusher, the countys homeless coordinator] said the county is making a special effort to count young people this year. Of the 691 people who gave an age in last years census, 320 were 25 or younger. There were 45 homeless people counted between 18 and 20; 87 between 21 and 25; and 188 younger than 18.”
Read more

Rory Sagner in Yelm
Photo credit: Nisqually Valley News

CELEBRATING AGAIN TODAY!

Rory Sagner’s “Purple Flower”

Nationally acclaimed photographer Rory Sagner’s DAHLIA DREAM photo (listed as “Purple Flower” in the contest) has been chosen as one of the 20 Finalist photos in the Macro category of Michael Maven’s 2012 Photography Contest. Sagner brought national acclaim to Yelm as a Canon U.S.A.s Project Imaginat10n photo contest winner.

Click here for the link to Sagner’s photo on Michael Maven’s site, the third entry in the slideshow, where YOU can vote if you choose, for her photograph.

Sagner told the Yelm Community blog, “I am on Cloud-9 again!!!!”

The Yelm Community blog congratulates Sagner in her achievements.

Rutherford Institute Asks Fifth Circuit For Injunction Prohibiting School Officials From Expelling Student Over Objections To RFID Tracking Badge

“Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute are asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to prohibit Texas school officials from removing high school sophomore Andrea Hernandez from her current academic program at John Jay Science & Engineering Academy pending the outcome of her case. Hernandez, a 15-year-old Texas public school student, was essentially expelled over her refusal to wear a chipless RFID tracking badge based on her sincere religious beliefs that it represents the mark of the Beast.

The Rutherford Institute has already appealed a January 8 ruling by U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio denying Hernandezs request for a preliminary injunction on the grounds that the sophomores refusal to wear the chipless tracking badge is not grounded in her religious beliefs and is a secular choice rather than a religious concern. The badges, part of John Jay High Schools Student Locator Project, include tiny chips that produce a radio signal, enabling school officials to track students location on school property. In coming to Andreas defense, Rutherford attorneys have alleged that the schools attempts to penalize, discriminate and retaliate against Andrea violate her rights under Texas Religious Freedom Act and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution,” in Front Page, Texas, U.S. Constitution.
Read more

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King
in Montgomery, Alabama, April 29, 1966.
(Photo: JRT / AP)

THIS IS 27TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THIS WEEKEND THE NATION PAUSES TO REMEMBER THE LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King’s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986,” quoting Wikipedia.

The Seattle Times has a fabulous expose on the civil rights giant.
Click here

“The full version of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech.”
August 28, 1963 on YouTube.

“Towering legend, flawed man? King’s image evolving”
“Some fear civil right leader’s legacy is lost on many ”
Read more from Brett Zongker & Samantha Gross for the AP on MSNBC.

“Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington”
By John Makely, NBC News.
Read more

“Visitors” captured in Yelm, January 18, 2012
Photo Courtesy: Rory Sagner

Yelm photographer Rory Sagner achieved national acclaim in the last quarter of 2012 with her photo selected out of many thousands in the Canon U.S.A.s Project Imaginat10n photo contest.

Sagner told the Yelm Community Blog of the unique photo above:

“There’s a great quote by Ansel Adams, noted American photographer and environmentalist:
‘Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.'”

Read more from Yelm-based Rory Sagner Photography & Fine Art.

“A high-profile former sheriff who once sued the U.S. government over its gun regulations and won says it is the local sheriff who will have to defend Americans when and if the feds starting banning and confiscating guns.

Richard Mack, a former sheriff in Graham County, Ariz., joined with then-Ravalli County Sheriff Jay Printz in a lawsuit against Washington when Bill Clinton demanded sheriffs enforce provisions of the Brady Bill gun control law.

He won. And since then hes been at the front of a movement that highlights the responsibility of local sheriffs.

Now, as Washington gears up to consider imperious plans to limit guns, require fingerprinting and registration, impose additional taxes and fees, ban particular features or functions outright, and even confiscate weapons of self-defense, Mack has told WND that theres hope remaining in local law enforcement.

Its not complicated, he said.

‘Gun control is illegal and its against the Constitution,’ he said. ‘What people dont realize is that the Second Amendment was designed to protect us from the power of the federal government,'” quoting J.D. Longstreet in in Front Page, U.S. Constitution.
Read more

– Sea Mar has purchased the former Yelm Family Medicine building on Cullens Ave.
Click here for Sea Mar’s Thurston County services.

– The Tahoma Vista free Yelm/Rainier Clinic is now rethinking their options.

– From Sea Mar Community Health Center’s website:
“Sea Mar Community Health Centers, founded in 1978, is a community-based organization committed to providing quality, comprehensive health and human services in Washington State.

Sea Mar proudly serves all persons without regard to race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, or sexual preference, and regardless of ability to pay for services.

Sea Mars network of services includes more than 50 medical, dental, and behavioral health clinics and centers, and a wide variety of nutritional, social, and educational services.”
Read more

About Sea-Mar:
“In 2009-10, Sea Mar Community Health Centers provided in excess of 580,000 individual services to 143,735 people in ten counties in Washington State. More than 90 percent of Sea Mars clients had incomes below the federal poverty level. Forty percent of Sea Mar clients are Latinos, and the majority is made up of people of all races and ethnicities, including Black/African American, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and White.

Sea Mar was founded in 1978 with a single clinic in the South Park neighborhood of Seattle. Today, Sea Mar is one of Washington States largest providers of community-based, comprehensive health care. Sea Mar health care services are available in 20 medical clinics, 13 dental clinics, and 16 behavioral health and/or substance abuse treatment centers in western Washington. This includes the only Spanish-only inpatient behavioral health treatment program in Washington State.”
Read more

Chelsea Krotzer reported today in The Olympian:
“Thurston County Commissioners will interview three candidates to replace newly-elected Secretary of State Kim Wyman as county auditor.

The interviews are public and will be conducted from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday in Room 280 of Thurston County Courthouse Building One, 2000 Lakeridge Drive S.W. in Olympia.

The Thurston County Republicans recommended three candidates to replace Wyman last week. The first choice is Olympia real estate agent Carol Person, the second candidate 2nd District Legislator and Auditor’s Office employee Gary Alexander and the final candidate is Yelm Mayor Ron Harding.”
Read more

Editor’s note:
As reported here previously, Yelm Mayor Ron Harding does not has the skills to support his being considered for this assignment.

The facts speak for themselves – supporting corporate interests are Mr. Harding’s number one priority, over and above his constituents.

While Mayor Harding is a very warm and personable fellow, a likeable guy, his actions have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars with several appearances of conflict of interest.

And cronyism with fellow Republicans does not qualify one for a County Auditor position or elsewhere.

Photo: Photographers for Social Change / Flickr

– “Fight the largest coal export terminal in the country”
“If approved, the Gateway Pacific Terminal near Bellingham will be the largest coal export terminal in the United States. Right now, the Army Corps of Engineers is trying to decide which environmental impacts to take into account as it considers the permit proposal.

This decision could be a major turning point in the fight against coal exports. If the full range of potential impacts is considered — from supercharged climate change to toxic coal dust pollution and carcinogenic diesel fumes — it will be undeniable that the Gateway Pacific Terminal is a bad deal for Washington.

The Army Corps of Engineers is accepting public comments right now on the scope of its review. Since it is considering a project that has the potential to do so much damage, Washingtonians deserve a review that fully considers all of the disastrous impacts before it is too late,” quoting CREDO Action.
Read more

– ” The US Coal Industry Wants to Boost Exports to Asia – Native American Tribes Stand in the Way”
“So its not surprising that environmentalists and residents along the proposed coal routes are fighting the planned export terminals.

Julie Trimingham, a Bellingham filmmaker, founded the website Coal Train Facts because she wants her three-year-old son to grow up in a clean and safe climate, and she wants the same opportunity for the kids of my doppelganger in China. Don McDermott, a retired railroad fraud prevention executive and owner of a Columbia River Gorge vineyard, fears coal dust coating his grapes. In the small town of Rainier, WA, where rail tracks run right down the middle of Main Street, industrial designer Duncan MacKenzie fears if a coal train passes through every hour, Rainier will not be the kind of place future generations will want to call home. We know about the trains and we live with it, but thats once or twice a day, not every time you turn around, he says,” quoting Kari Lydersen, Earth Island Journal in Truthout.
Read more

– “Stop Coal Exports through Washington”
“Coal export threatens the health, public safety and economic vitality of our communities.”
Read more from Greenpeace.

Editor’s Note:
So, reason this with me:
– we ravage our land to dig the coal
– then despoil our neighborhoods & rural/urban towns with major train traffic bringing noise & diesel pollution transporting the coal to Pacific NW ports
– ship the coal to China to power an industrial expansion where there are no environmental controls
– and their air pollution particulate matter blows back over the west coast, bringing clouds of pollution raining down.

Where is the logic in that?

“China’s air pollution disaster is coming to America. The pollution comes from unprecedented levels of coal burning that has turned Beijing into a crisis zone. The news stories have focused on China with little attention to other areas, especially California. Particulate matter can arrive within days because the western U.S.is downwind of China. According to a Jan. 17 China Dialogue article, researchers now realize that more than a few air pollution violations in U.S. cities actually originated in Asia,” quoting Examiner.com. Read more