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
The amount of carbon dioxide and two other greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere hit record highs last year, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report published Wednesday.
Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three main greenhouse gases responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere and driving global warming. The WMO’s latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, published annually, found that concentrations of all three reached new highs last year — a worrying trend and a sign that the world is not doing enough to fight climate change.
“WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin has underlined, once again, the enormous challenge — and the vital necessity — of urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures rising even further in the future,” Petteri Taalas, the WMO’s secretary-general, said in a statement.
The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 2020 to 2021 was larger than the average annual growth rate over the past decade, according to the report. The WMO also said last year’s rise in methane levels was the biggest year-on-year jump since such measurements began almost 40 years ago.
Measurements for carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in 2021 were all above pre-industrial levels, “before human activities started disrupting natural equilibrium of these gases in the atmosphere,” the WMO said.
Most U.S. adults believe America’s founders intended the country to be a Christian nation, and many say they think it should be a Christian nation today, according to a new Pew Research Center survey designed to explore Americans’ views on the topic. But the survey also finds widely differing opinions about what it means to be a “Christian nation” and to support “Christian nationalism.”
For instance, many supporters of Christian nationhood define the concept in broad terms, as the idea that the country is guided by Christian values. Those who say the United States should not be a Christian nation, on the other hand, are much more inclined to define a Christian nation as one where the laws explicitly enshrine religious teachings.
Overall, six-in-ten U.S. adults – including nearly seven-in-ten Christians – say they believe the founders “originally intended” for the U.S. to be a Christian nation. And 45% of U.S. adults – including about six-in-ten Christians – say they think the country “should be” a Christian nation. A third say the U.S. “is now” a Christian nation.
At the same time, a large majority of the public expresses some reservations about intermingling religion and government.
You might want to wear waders, rubber boots and a raincoat on Monday. The “Alaskan fisherman” costume will be about the only one to stay dry for trick-or-treating.
“Unfortunately, it’s going to be a cool and wet Halloween,” said Steve Reedy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
A storm system moving into the region Friday morning will push October’s dry start further into the rear view mirror.
Tacoma can expect up to 1 1/2 inches of rain Saturday through Monday, according to the Weather Service. Olympia can see up to 2 inches in the same period. Westport could have up to 3 inches and Forks can expect 6 inches.
It’s also going to be breezy. Little witches will still need their brooms to get airborne but gusts could knock over unsecured skeletons and send inflatable jack-o’-lanterns aloft.
Sunday is shaping up to be the wettest and windiest day of the weekend. Gusts could reach 30 miles per hour from the south.
Monday’s high will be 48 degrees. The day will start off wet with an 80 percent chance of rain but improve slightly as the witching hour approaches.
This year has gone by very quickly for us all – be sure to stop by the Yelm Farmers Market on Saturday October 29th – the last market day of the 2022 season and start your holiday shopping or purchase some of your daily needs of fruits and vegetables.
Saturday October 29, 2022
10am – 3pm
Yelm Farmers Market
Yelm Community Center/City Park – Yelm WA
Many vendors will be here for the last day – here are just a few shown with several pics of some of their products
Editor’s note: I supported Sue’s campaign for Port of Olympia Commissioner and her push for transparency at the Port, as Yelm Blog readers will recall –here. R.I.P.
Former Port of Olympia Commissioner Sue Gunn is dead at 74
Sue Gunn, a committed environmentalist who set out to shake up the status quo when she served on the Port of Olympia commission from 2013 to 2015, died this week in Bellingham, a close friend of hers announced late Thursday.
Gunn died at a Bellingham hospital due to complications tied to a heart-related procedure, her friend Cynthia Stewart said. Gunn was 74.
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Gunn ran for the port commission in 2013 and ultimately defeated Jeff Davis for the District 3 seat.
After her win, she immediately pushed for more transparency at the port and called for a much more thorough review of the port’s executive director, according to Olympian archives.
“It is a formidable position,” she said about the executive director, “and therefore I think a formidable evaluation and criteria is needed.”
She also proposed eliminating the port’s citizens advisory committee and replacing it with two new community advisory councils: one focused on the airport, the other on the marine terminal.
“A Washington state judge on Wednesday fined Facebook parent company Meta nearly $25 million for repeatedly and intentionally violating campaign finance disclosure law.” Credit: Michael Dwyer/AP via NPR
Facebook’s parent is fined nearly $25M for violating a campaign finance disclosure law
A Washington state judge on Wednesday fined Facebook parent company Meta nearly $25 million for repeatedly and intentionally violating campaign finance disclosure law, in what is believed to be the largest campaign finance penalty in U.S. history.
The penalty issued by King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North was the maximum allowed for more than 800 violations of Washington’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, passed by voters in 1972 and later strengthened by the Legislature. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson argued that the maximum was appropriate considering his office previously sued Facebook in 2018 for violating the same law.
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Washington’s transparency law requires ad sellers such as Meta to keep and make public the names and addresses of those who buy political ads, the target of such ads, how the ads were paid for and the total number of views of each ad. Ad sellers must provide the information to anyone who asks for it. Television stations and newspapers have complied with the law for decades.
“I have one word for Facebook’s conduct in this case — arrogance,” Ferguson said in a news release. “It intentionally disregarded Washington’s election transparency laws. But that wasn’t enough. Facebook argued in court that those laws should be declared unconstitutional. That’s breathtaking. Where’s the corporate responsibility?”
Have you heard “Attitude is everything” before? It is true, much of the time our attitudes are completely unconscious. We think that this is how the world thinks, until that is, you step outside of yourself and witness your thoughts as an observer.
Fixed attitudes cause us to age. Our bodies are only as flexible as our minds. Have you watched how vibrant and flexible children are? Their minds are open and constantly changing. At puberty the brain starts the process of filtering, choosing the way we see the world around us. By the age of 32 our view of our world is fixed by the lens of our past unless we actively do something to change it.
I have had the honor and great good fortune to have been actively involved with the Blu Room at the U Wellness Center since it’s inception. As such I was in a space to observe the changes in people especially those who came regularly. In 2020 I left the U Wellness to pursue other interests and returned to the desk this year.
When I returned I saw people who have been coming regularly for years, and because of my time away I was able to see the enormous shifts in attitude these clients had made, where some had been grouchy and demanding they had become thoughtful and kind. Those that had been depressed were more often in a state of peace and joy. All of them were happier and healthier because they had been able to unravel fixed, unconscious attitudes and replace them with life affirming ones.
Every single one of us harbors unconscious attitudes and beliefs that over time create dis-ease in the body. If you are no longer as agile and flexible as a child your attitudes are solidifying you.
The good news is the Blu Room allows us to drop way below those attitudes, creating deep levels of relaxation where the cellular body is free to reassemble in line with new realities.
Don’t wait until those attitudes show up in pain, suffering and dis-ease. Be pro active and take the opportunity NOW to give yourself the gift of change.
Our prices have dropped to $45 a session for those under 65 years of age and $35.00 for those over 65. Early Bird Special, Tuesday through Friday 7.30, 8.00 and 8.30 am sessions just $35
The military, disabled and first responders all come for just $30. We also have packages that drop the price further.
Thank you for reading Elizabeth, The U Wellness Center.
Blogger Klein is a long-time client of The U Wellness Center.
The share of Americans who think that younger generations will have better lives than their parents is at its lowest level in nearly three decades, according to a new poll.
The decline in recent years has largely been driven by dwindling optimism among Republicans and right-leaning independents, the results show.
About 42% of American adults believe it is very or somewhat likely that today’s youth will attain a “better living standard, better homes, a better education and so on,” marking an 18-percentage point decrease since 2019 and tying 2011 for the lowest level of optimism on record since pollsters began researching the topic., according to a new Gallup poll.
The poll, conducted in the first half of September, surveyed 812 adults living in all 50 states, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Gallup has been assessing American optimism about future generations since 2008, following a similar poll from The New York Times and CBS News that ran from 1995 to 2003.
The completion of the Yelm Middle School outdoor athletic facilities has been delayed until mid-November.
Yelm Community Schools Superintendent Brian Wharton said the initial Nov. 1 timeline to complete construction was pushed back because of delays from “getting everything out of the ground and off the site.”
Wharton also said the laying of sod, which will be used for the softball and baseball fields, has been delayed due to weather-related issues. Wharton said springtime is a more appropriate estimate for those fields, as the sod needs to be fully anchored into the ground without rain.
The synthetic turf football fields will be ready for community use and after school sports when it is completed in mid-November.
“We’ve had some issues with the synthetic turf installations as we’re anticipating strong weather,” Wharton said. “But we’ll be OK.”
The current construction is occurring on the south end of the Yelm Middle School campus, where new football, softball and baseball fields are being installed. In addition, there is a full scale track surrounding the football field.
The project is currently in phase two, which is the construction of new baseball and softball fields. Each field has a metal backstop to prevent foul balls from entering oncoming traffic. Each of the fields will feature individual dugouts and bleacher capacity as well.
Wharton said the Yelm Middle School athletic facilities will be available for public reservations.
