“Now 72% say it is greater threat than big business or big labor”

By Jeffrey M. Jones in “Gallup Politics”:
“Seventy-two percent of Americans say big government is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor, a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. The prior high for big government was 65% in 1999 and 2000. Big government has always topped big business and big labor, including in the initial asking in 1965, but just 35% named it at that time.”

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Photo courtesy Victoria Harper Parsonson,
taken Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 2010 from Yelm’s Bald Hill Rd area

“In 2013, winter begins with the solstice at 12:11 P.M. on December 21 (EST),” quoting The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
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Tips to be prepared for winter from locally-owned “Survival Center:
America’s Premier Preparedness Center, In Continuous Operation Since the early 1970’s.”
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Yelm
SCHOOLS WILL START 2 HOURS LATE – SNOW ROUTES
Due to road conditions in outlying areas, buses will pick up students 2 hours later than their normal pick up time on “limited transportation” snow routes. There will be no AM/PM Preschool and no out-of-district or New Market transportation. Breakfast will not be served.
Read more from Yelm Community Schools.

Rainier
Due to the weather, and the fact that our schools are already scheduled for an early release, we are going to cancel school today, Friday, December 20th.
Read more from the Rainier School District.

Award-winning author and the 2013 Woman of the Year by the National Assn. of Professional Women Bettye Johnson, announced publication of her most recent book. Here is the story in Bettye’s own words:

“Magdalena of Hy Brasil, Book 3 of the Mary Magdalene Series is the latest book by award-winning author Bettye Johnson. As with the previous series, Johnson has woven a new story of the bloodline of Mary Magdalene. Set in the present day, Ellen Douglas receives an anonymous package that has within it a surprise object. The story weaves from present day France to 400 A.D. and a mystical island that has been named Hy Brasil. This island has been said to be 200 miles west of Ireland. Could this be the Mists of Avalon? It is up to Ellen and Peter Douglas along with their friends Jill and Sebastian Gontard to ferret out the gifts meaning and why the gift was delivered to her. The two couples are again plunged into a new adventure with mystery, danger, antagonists and discovering the mysterious island of Hy Brasil.”

Click here to purchase your copy of Magdalena of Hy Brasil.

Bettye Johnson
Rainier, WA-based award-winning author

Photo credit: John Granen Photography, Seattle johngranen.com

Reprinted from JZ Knight.com
Copyright 2010 JZ Knight. Used with permission.

Welcome to Christmas in Yelm!

JZ Knight is the owner of JZ Rose Boutique and the award-winning JZ Rose Virtual Village web site, www.jz-rose.com (formally the Outback Boutique).

JZ Rose is a treasure chest that offers vintage-style gifts and collectibles, home furnishings, fine antiques, and everything beautiful. JZs personal love for fine art, timeless antiques, and the nostalgic romanticism of the Victorian style inspired her to create a store where she could share the things she loves with other people.

The JZ Rose store in Yelm attracts shoppers from California to New York and Canada

‘With this store I want to keep the magic and awe of Christmas alive all year long, JZ said. I want you to feel like a little child the moment you walk into the store or visit our web site.

JZ designed the Virtual Village web site in collaboration with H. Hargrove, one of Americas most popular living artists. Hargrove painted the four seasons of the village scenes from JZs vision. The JZ Rose web site (formerly the Outback Boutique) won third place in the 2005 Horizon Interactive Awards for design. IBM received second place in the same category from this prestigious international competition.
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JZ Rose
207 1ST Street South
Yelm, WA 98597
Telephone: 360-458-4618 or
Toll Free: 877-458-4618
Fax: 360-458-1182
www.jz-rose.com

Yelm Store Hours
Mon Sat 10:00 am 6:00 pm
Closed Sundays

Click here for a Merry Christmas greeting from JZ Knight & JZ Rose.

Blog writer Steve Klein has been employed by JZK, Inc. for 10 years and a Yelm resident for 25+ years.

“Spring wildflowers carpet Mima Mounds National Area Preserve.”
Photo credit: Washington State DNR

“A new twist on an old mystery may finally settle the debate over the origin of Mima mounds, which bulge out of the ground like enormous, grass-covered bubble wrap in western Washington.

Mima mounds (sounds like dime-a) were named in 1841, when a vast pimply prairie (the Mima Prairie) was discovered in western Washington during the United States Exploring Expedition. In the centuries since, the source of this strange landscape has defied explanation. A single field may be covered in a million mounds that are several thousand years old, yet no builder has ever been found.”

“Now, a study analyzing the interplay between gopher and ground vindicates the humble rodent,” quoting Live Science.
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– UPDATE: January 4,. 2014
“Virtual gophers dig up Mima mounds mystery”
“Local scientists put the brakes on California geologists theory”
By Craig Sailor in The Olympian
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“I-5 southbound at the Center Street overpass in DuPont following a fiery crash at Mounts Road near the Pierce- Thurston County line is closed while emergency crews clear a car fire that killed one person on Monday, Dec. 16, 2013.”
Photo credit: Dean Koepfler, The Olympian Staff Photographer, in multiple-hour back-up

Yelm’s southbound arteries were in gridlock all afternoon Monday with diverted I-5 traffic, which occurs several times a year.

From Adam Lynn in The Olympian:
“Some people, including many who sat in the backup for hours, were left wondering why it took authorities more than 10 hours Monday to reopen southbound Interstate 5 near DuPont after a fiery wreck that left a man dead. ”

“Troopers were no closer Tuesday to determining what caused the wreck, which happened about 10:15 a.m. when a man lost control of his northbound pickup, crossed the median, hit a box truck and slammed head-on into a tractor-trailer, killing the driver of that rig and prompting the long-term closure of part of the interstate.”

“Troopers diverted some traffic off the interstate and along a route that took southbound drivers through Yelm before reconnecting them with I-5 at points south, but it did little to alleviate congestion.”

“U.S. President George W. Bush welcomes
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah to his ranch in Crawford, Texas,
April 25, 2005”
Photo credit: Reuters

Editor’s note:
While this story is not directly related to Yelm-area issues, this does highlight the lack of transparency in the Federal government that permeates all the way to the local level, which this blog covers extensively.

By Paul Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of ‘Infiltration and ‘Muslim Mafia’:
“After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.

But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress investigative report on 9/11 dealing with specific sources of foreign support for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.

It was kept secret and remains so today [December 15, 2013].

President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isnt just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).”

“The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found ‘incontrovertible evidence’ that Saudi government officials not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war,” as quoted from the New York Post.
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Sandra Romero

On Monday, December 16, Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero conducted her monthly coffee in Rainier and Yelm, joined by Rainier City Council member Dennis McVey as her guest, about the recently finalized draft of the Sustainable Development Plan. Approximately 40 persons in Rainier and 50 in Yelm were informed and got an opportunity to ask questions, providing for a robust give-and-take.

Mr. McVey explained the draft was the cumulative effort of three years of work involving many people and included: 400 County residents, the Thurston Regional Task Force, 29 local organizations, 15 sub panels, along with 2,000 written and emailed comments. Commissioner Romero explained that the draft is not a regulatory or mandatory document and said, “The draft plan has no force of law, at this point.” She and Mr. McVey pointed out that each jurisdiction will choose options from the draft and implement as they see fit.
Click here for the document.

Yelm Public Safety Building & City Council Chambers

This blogger’s question covered here December 10 and posed to the Yelm City Council was the ONLY comment in the two 2014 Budget Public Hearings held November 26 & December 10:
“Can you please explain to the public why the City of Yelm has these requested funds in the 2014 budget?”

– Community center Operations & Maintenance = $50,000
– Community Center Design = $150,000
– Community Center Construction Management = $150,000
– Community Center Construction = $1,768,250
– Yelm Skatepark = $439,208
Total = $2,557,458
Click here for the Yelm City budget released to the public, scroll to page 72.

City Administrator Shelly Badger explained to the Yelm City Council December 10 that the city has previously received revenue from 3 sources:
– $1 million dollars from the Library Bond
– about $1 million Capital plan grant form the state legislature
– a grant for the Skatepark project
She said this income must be offset vs.expected expenses to use the funds, in order to balance these revenues the city currently holds in the budget, even though the projects have not been approved.

Of course, not mentioned was the interest expense the city has been paying annually on the $1 million Community Center Bond, an annual “Library/Community Center GO Bond debt payment of $133,410 in 2013/$132,900 in 2014” or $66,000+ annually to keep the Community Center Bond in the bank until the voters approve expediting these funds. Read more on page 9.

Badger reported Mayor Harding previously stated (in the NVN) he will convene a group in early 2014 to investigate plans for moving ahead on Yelm City Park improvements and Community Center, after two ballot failures in 2013.

Interestingly, if this question had not been raised, the public would not know why over 2.5 million dollars in expenditures for a Community Center & Skatepark was in the budget, as the newspaper’s stories did not cover this aspect, until this question was presented to the Council.