Story Idea 1:
Uniontown has a population of fewer than 500 people, and yet 50 percent of that population was born out of town. I will investigate the leading reasons that brought those out-of-town residents there, and connect them with WSU.
Story Idea 2:
Uniontown has an interesting art scene. The WSU Photography club will be going there next week to take pictures of some of the artists and their work. I will go through them to find some up-and-coming artists and do a piece looking at the influential connections between art style, artist residents and a small-town setting.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Community members creatively revitalize small town
UNIONTOWN, Wa.—Community volunteers had to remove 50 years worth of pigeon poop, decades of broken farm equipment and several layers of cement flooring before they could start to convert a 1935 dairy barn into an artisan center.
The two-year barn overhaul was part of the Uniontown Community Development Association’s (UCDA) project that involved 35-40 people “getting together to move the town forward,” local volunteer Sam Kimble said. The project was designed in-part to attract more people to the town, which has fewer than 500 residents, but is only about 15 minutes from Pullman, Lewiston, Clarkston and Moscow.
Resident artists Steve & Junette Dahmen donated the unused barn to the town in 2004. Artist Franceen Hermanson said the Dahmens wanted the community to use the barn for the arts. She also said the Dahmens stipulated a condition that the town keep the surrounding antique-wheel fence that Steve Dahmen built over the last 20 years—a focal point of many local artisans' work.
Hermanson is one of 20 area artists who rent studios at the barn, which also hosts a store, classrooms and events like music and dancing.
“There is something going on there all the time,” She said.
Local Uniontown Community Club member Marvin Entel was the contractor on the barn project, and previously helped community members restore the 110-year-old Jacobs Brewery Building in the center of town in 2003. The Sage Bakery and Cafe moved into that building, which was also part of the UCDA’s revitalization project.
Uniontown history has had several periods of popularity and decline. It hosted a three-ring circus, had slot machines in the club in the 1940s, and had an opera house.
Uniontown firefighter and club member Gary Robinson said the club was on the verge of closing about five or six years ago, but “a lot of people stepped up and put money into it.”
Club President Gabriel Voller, who also volunteered on these projects and others, said locals meet at the club Monday-Wednesday mornings and the Sage Café Thursday-Sunday mornings.
Community Club members Robinson, Entel, Voller and others said that the community keeps Uniontown alive.
Contacts:
The two-year barn overhaul was part of the Uniontown Community Development Association’s (UCDA) project that involved 35-40 people “getting together to move the town forward,” local volunteer Sam Kimble said. The project was designed in-part to attract more people to the town, which has fewer than 500 residents, but is only about 15 minutes from Pullman, Lewiston, Clarkston and Moscow.
Resident artists Steve & Junette Dahmen donated the unused barn to the town in 2004. Artist Franceen Hermanson said the Dahmens wanted the community to use the barn for the arts. She also said the Dahmens stipulated a condition that the town keep the surrounding antique-wheel fence that Steve Dahmen built over the last 20 years—a focal point of many local artisans' work.
Hermanson is one of 20 area artists who rent studios at the barn, which also hosts a store, classrooms and events like music and dancing.
“There is something going on there all the time,” She said.
Local Uniontown Community Club member Marvin Entel was the contractor on the barn project, and previously helped community members restore the 110-year-old Jacobs Brewery Building in the center of town in 2003. The Sage Bakery and Cafe moved into that building, which was also part of the UCDA’s revitalization project.
Uniontown history has had several periods of popularity and decline. It hosted a three-ring circus, had slot machines in the club in the 1940s, and had an opera house.
Uniontown firefighter and club member Gary Robinson said the club was on the verge of closing about five or six years ago, but “a lot of people stepped up and put money into it.”
Club President Gabriel Voller, who also volunteered on these projects and others, said locals meet at the club Monday-Wednesday mornings and the Sage Café Thursday-Sunday mornings.
Community Club members Robinson, Entel, Voller and others said that the community keeps Uniontown alive.
Contacts:
Phone numbers available via email
Sam Kimble
Franceen Hermanson
Marvin Entel
Gary Robinson
Gabriel Voller
Artisans at the Dahmen Barn website
Uniontown website 1
Uniontown website 2
Sam Kimble
Franceen Hermanson
Marvin Entel
Gary Robinson
Gabriel Voller
Artisans at the Dahmen Barn website
Uniontown website 1
Uniontown website 2
Outline:
Lede: What they did-clean up barn
Who: community members
What: barn donated to be used as art studio and gallery- Artisan Barn
When: finished in 2006
Why: part of town revitalization project
Where: small town approximately 15 miles+/- from the quad cities, pop. fewer than 500
Who: community members
What: barn donated to be used as art studio and gallery- Artisan Barn
When: finished in 2006
Why: part of town revitalization project
Where: small town approximately 15 miles+/- from the quad cities, pop. fewer than 500
Quotes
1. "Mary is trying hard in school this semester," her father said.
2. Early in the show, Steven Wright said, "How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?"
3. Did Steven Wright say, "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you"?
4. "No," the taxi driver said. "I cannot get you to the airport in 15 minutes."
5. Gov. Peterson said she will support a tax increase this session. "Without it, schools will close," she said.
6. "My favorite line is when Jerry Seinfeld said, 'My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned 60 and that's the law,'" Smitty said.
7. My French professor said my accent is "abominable."
8. "Is Time a magazine you read regularly?" she said.
9. When did Roosevelt say, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"?
10. "Can you believe that it has been almost five years since we've seen each other?" Dot said.
2. Early in the show, Steven Wright said, "How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?"
3. Did Steven Wright say, "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you"?
4. "No," the taxi driver said. "I cannot get you to the airport in 15 minutes."
5. Gov. Peterson said she will support a tax increase this session. "Without it, schools will close," she said.
6. "My favorite line is when Jerry Seinfeld said, 'My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned 60 and that's the law,'" Smitty said.
7. My French professor said my accent is "abominable."
8. "Is Time a magazine you read regularly?" she said.
9. When did Roosevelt say, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"?
10. "Can you believe that it has been almost five years since we've seen each other?" Dot said.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Political Story Outline
Outline: Who: Rep. Hudgins wrote HB 1594. Rep. Eddy and others co-sponsored the bill. Chair of the Higher Education Committee Rep. Wallace did not support it. It could not pass the committee without her approval.
What: HB 1594 did not pass. The bill “creates the environmental cleanup opportunity grant program to assist in the effort to recruit the next generation of environmental cleanup professionals.”
The Issue: Budget cuts affect the priority of environmental responsibility and sustainability in Washington State, and the jobs and education needed to fulfill that environmental role.
When: earlier this year
Where: State Legislation- Olympia
Why: “My impression was that [Rep. Wallace] thought it was going to take from the MOCA fund and she didn’t want to use it for scholarships,” Hudgins said. Rep. Eddy wrote in an email that Rep. Wallace is the Chair of the Higher Education Committee, so the bill could not pass through the committee without her approval. She wrote that Wallace probably disagreed with it partly because of budgetary concerns.
How: The bill would have used funds from the ECA. The state moved over 70m out of the ECA to cover budget cuts. The bill would have used 200k of those funds annually to provide conditional scholarships for environmental students. “It had trouble getting passed the higher education chair—Deb Wallace did not support the bill. I don’t agree with her concerns,” Hudgins said.
What: HB 1594 did not pass. The bill “creates the environmental cleanup opportunity grant program to assist in the effort to recruit the next generation of environmental cleanup professionals.”
The Issue: Budget cuts affect the priority of environmental responsibility and sustainability in Washington State, and the jobs and education needed to fulfill that environmental role.
When: earlier this year
Where: State Legislation- Olympia
Why: “My impression was that [Rep. Wallace] thought it was going to take from the MOCA fund and she didn’t want to use it for scholarships,” Hudgins said. Rep. Eddy wrote in an email that Rep. Wallace is the Chair of the Higher Education Committee, so the bill could not pass through the committee without her approval. She wrote that Wallace probably disagreed with it partly because of budgetary concerns.
How: The bill would have used funds from the ECA. The state moved over 70m out of the ECA to cover budget cuts. The bill would have used 200k of those funds annually to provide conditional scholarships for environmental students. “It had trouble getting passed the higher education chair—Deb Wallace did not support the bill. I don’t agree with her concerns,” Hudgins said.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Environmental Cleanup Opportunity Grant Program- HB 1594
Jenn Weldy
9/24/09
HB 1594
Contacts:
Zach Hudgins (360) 786-7956
Deborah Eddy (360) 786-7848
Washington State Legislation moved more than $75 million out of the ECA [environmental cleanup account] to help fill the budget deficit, Rep. Zach Hudgins, D, said. Hudgins said he sponsored House Bill 1594 in an effort to preserve some of that money for environmental work.
Hudgins said the budget cuts “caused problems in the environment arena but it also caused problems in the tuition arena. … Not only do you need money but you need people too.”
Hudgins said there is a need to create jobs, scholarships and use the toxic cleanup account.
HB 1594 would have provided conditional grants to environmental students. The bill would have cost about $200,000 annually to implement.
“I knew we were going to be moving money out of the account and I wanted to preserve some of that for cleanup in the future,” Hudgins said. “When we’re talking about $75 million, $200,000 isn’t very much.”
The bill would have put the Higher Education Committee (HEC) in charge of implementing a process for distributing the grants. A bill cannot pass through the HEC without the approval of Committee Chair Rep. Deborah Wallace, D, Wallace did not support HB 1594 earlier this year when the legislation was in session, and could not be reached for comment.
Rep. Deborah Eddy, D, a member of the Ecology and Parks Committee and a co-sponsor of HB 1594 wrote in an email that she was not sure why Wallace rejected the bill, but that “it’s a good bet that it was at least partly a budgetary matter. Funds spent on this program would not be spent on other programs that she might consider more worldly.”
Hudgins said he thought Wallace did not want to use the fund for scholarships because it was intended for toxic cleanup—not education. He said he did not agree with Wallace’s concerns because the money was being used for the same thing, “and used very little,” he said.
Hudgins is on the Environmental Health Committee and represents environmental concerns for the Duwamish River, which has several contaminated sites.
“Many of them are from our industrial legacies,” Hudgins said. Sites like these all over Washington State need cleanup, and Hudgins said that preserving ECA funds with HB 1594 would help ensure cleanup and create jobs.
According to the bill’s digest, it “creates the environmental cleanup opportunity grant program to assist in the effort to recruit the next generation of environmental cleanup professionals.”
The bill would take funds from the State Toxics Control Account and other donations to create a conditional grant account. It would award 10 conditional scholarships annually to students pursuing environmental studies. The students would have to serve two years worth of full-time employment involved in environmental cleanup work in
Washington State within the first five years following graduation. If students did not, they would have to pay back the scholarship with interest and fees equivalent to a student loan.
“My goal was to create jobs, provide educational opportunities and to clean up toxic sites around the state all at the same time—without raising taxes,” Hudgins said, since there was already a funding source intended for toxic site cleanup.
Hudgins said he had a lot of support from both parties, and when the Legislation resumes session in January he plans to rewrite HB 1594.
Eddy wrote in an email that she would not likely co-sponsor the bill again without indication of Wallace’s support for the program.
Hudgins said he will make changes in how to better involve the different agencies, including the HEC.
“The department of ecology understands it better so they will be evaluating the criteria this time,” Hudgins said. “You perfect it as best as you can, you throw it out there … then the hearing is a perfection process.”
Monday, September 21, 2009
Political Story Proposal
HB-1594
This bill "Creates the environmental cleanup opportunity grant program to assist in the effort to recruit the next of environmental cleanup professionals consistent with the green economy jobs growth initiative."
This bill addresses the issue of training youths in higher education for environmental jobs. How abundant are programs like these? Where are the finances coming from. Where is the supply and demand? How will this impact future government education funding programs that focus on environment advances and opportunities? I have a list of ten possible sources from behind the bill. I will also talk to financial aid, and students and faculty in environmental programs.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
President Floyd Blog
President Elson Floyd said the number of WSU flu cases reported in the media in comparison to other universities is misleading, because WSU's reports count all cases reported this semester--including those that did not test positive for H1N1. "Other universities may be using reporting systems that include only positive influenza tests or those who actually come to their clinics with influenza-like illness, which would tend to underestimate the number of cases," Floyd said.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
MLK Jr. speech
Civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of freedom, justice and equality today at the Lincoln Memorial to 200,000 supporters of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedoms.
"I have a dream," King said, "... that all men are created equal ... that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Rev. King spoke of the "chains of discrimination" and the right to the pursuit of happiness and of liberty, referencing the Emancipation Proclamation, signed 100 years ago.
Beat Interests
Stations Go Green Without Seeing Red
This highlights some financial aspects of eco-friendly architecture. It covers some ways to build green while cutting costs, including government rebates.
This highlights some financial aspects of eco-friendly architecture. It covers some ways to build green while cutting costs, including government rebates.
This covers research on consumer spending habits on green products.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Speech Story- Dr. Susan Crockford
The site of 3,500 to 2,500 year old houses found at Amaknak Bridge is the only one of its kind in North America and its remains reveal new human and animal migration theories, Zooarchaeologist Dr. Susan Crockford said Thursday at Washington State University (WSU) during her presentation about her fieldwork at the Unalaskan Island site threatened by road construction.
“These houses had actual chimneys with a fire hearth at the bottom—built into the wall. It’s a style of structure that is not seen anywhere else,” Crockford said.
The site had several houses up against each other that had covered rock-lined channels in the floor leading to the fire place. Crockford said some archaeologists there attributed the channels to central heating, but “my interpretation is that these are actually drafts to keep an open fire burning under really windy conditions.”
Crockford’s presentation, “Climate change in the North Pacific: Zoogeographical implications of mid-Holocene sea ice expansion in the Bering Sea,” explained how certain species of animal remains from 3,500 to 2,500 years ago proved that the Eastern Aleutian Island climate and landscape was arctic due to a neo-glacial ice expansion of the Bering Sea from 4,700 to 2,500 years ago.
Crockford said the climate conditions present when the site was occupied 3,500 to 2,500 years ago were very similar to those today in the Bering Strait. The sea ice was so far south that it created an arctic environment in the Eastern Aleutians. Crockford said it was “an unprecedented situation in historic times—that’s for sure."
Of the 76 species of birds, and land and sea mammals Crockford identified, many breed only in certain seasons and climatic environments. The abundance of certain juvenile and infant remains, such as the ringed, bearded and fur seals proved the ice must have been present as late as June or July most years, Crockford said.
Archaeologist Dr. Colin Grier, an assistant professor at WSU, said he “liked that she used a single site to re-open an old question—how did the Thule (pre-Inuit) actually populate the entire North American Arctic?”
Grier said Crockford did not present global climate data to back her theory and he was skeptical of Crockford’s use of a lack of sites in the Bering Sea as evidence to prove the area was iced over.
Grier also said he did not agree that the Thule were descendents of Aleut, but more “likely a conglomerate of many peoples and cultural practices that came together about 2,000 years ago in the Bering Strait.”
Crockford said people with a culture distinctly adapted to arctic conditions and hunting, “including whales (The Thule People),” migrated across the arctic from Alaska to Greenland about 1,000 years ago.
“This site was occupied well before that time but has many similar artifact elements,” she said.
Grier said there was still unexplained data, but the presentation was interesting and well-delivered.
“The intertwining of ice floes (sic), human movement/adaptation and climate was great,” Grier said. “What stood out was the uniqueness and significance of the site, and although not amplified in the talk, that the site is now trashed to make way for a new bridge, so we will learn nothing more.”
Crockford said her team carefully surveyed a small portion of the site for as much archaeological data as possible. She said she cringed at the thought of a bunch of graduate students hacking the site apart with a gardening tool—others that examined it later quickly unearthed the rest with a back hoe to get a more general gist of the site as a whole.
"It actually was a salvage project,” Crockford said. “They were rerouting the road leading to the airport. It was a big job—I think they allowed 6 months to excavate as much as could be done in this site, and then they were going to bulldoze the whole thing."
Dr. Crockford is a Zooarchaeologist with Pacific Identifications Inc., Victoria, B.C., Canada.
Contacts:
Dr. Susan Crockford, sjcrock@shaw.ca, http://pacificid.com/
Dr. Colin Grier, cgrier@wsu.edu, http://www.libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/faculty/grier.html
“These houses had actual chimneys with a fire hearth at the bottom—built into the wall. It’s a style of structure that is not seen anywhere else,” Crockford said.
The site had several houses up against each other that had covered rock-lined channels in the floor leading to the fire place. Crockford said some archaeologists there attributed the channels to central heating, but “my interpretation is that these are actually drafts to keep an open fire burning under really windy conditions.”
Crockford’s presentation, “Climate change in the North Pacific: Zoogeographical implications of mid-Holocene sea ice expansion in the Bering Sea,” explained how certain species of animal remains from 3,500 to 2,500 years ago proved that the Eastern Aleutian Island climate and landscape was arctic due to a neo-glacial ice expansion of the Bering Sea from 4,700 to 2,500 years ago.
Crockford said the climate conditions present when the site was occupied 3,500 to 2,500 years ago were very similar to those today in the Bering Strait. The sea ice was so far south that it created an arctic environment in the Eastern Aleutians. Crockford said it was “an unprecedented situation in historic times—that’s for sure."
Of the 76 species of birds, and land and sea mammals Crockford identified, many breed only in certain seasons and climatic environments. The abundance of certain juvenile and infant remains, such as the ringed, bearded and fur seals proved the ice must have been present as late as June or July most years, Crockford said.
Archaeologist Dr. Colin Grier, an assistant professor at WSU, said he “liked that she used a single site to re-open an old question—how did the Thule (pre-Inuit) actually populate the entire North American Arctic?”
Grier said Crockford did not present global climate data to back her theory and he was skeptical of Crockford’s use of a lack of sites in the Bering Sea as evidence to prove the area was iced over.
Grier also said he did not agree that the Thule were descendents of Aleut, but more “likely a conglomerate of many peoples and cultural practices that came together about 2,000 years ago in the Bering Strait.”
Crockford said people with a culture distinctly adapted to arctic conditions and hunting, “including whales (The Thule People),” migrated across the arctic from Alaska to Greenland about 1,000 years ago.
“This site was occupied well before that time but has many similar artifact elements,” she said.
Grier said there was still unexplained data, but the presentation was interesting and well-delivered.
“The intertwining of ice floes (sic), human movement/adaptation and climate was great,” Grier said. “What stood out was the uniqueness and significance of the site, and although not amplified in the talk, that the site is now trashed to make way for a new bridge, so we will learn nothing more.”
Crockford said her team carefully surveyed a small portion of the site for as much archaeological data as possible. She said she cringed at the thought of a bunch of graduate students hacking the site apart with a gardening tool—others that examined it later quickly unearthed the rest with a back hoe to get a more general gist of the site as a whole.
"It actually was a salvage project,” Crockford said. “They were rerouting the road leading to the airport. It was a big job—I think they allowed 6 months to excavate as much as could be done in this site, and then they were going to bulldoze the whole thing."
Dr. Crockford is a Zooarchaeologist with Pacific Identifications Inc., Victoria, B.C., Canada.
Contacts:
Dr. Susan Crockford, sjcrock@shaw.ca, http://pacificid.com/
Dr. Colin Grier, cgrier@wsu.edu, http://www.libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/faculty/grier.html
Questions:
- What did you find most interesting about your research at Amaknak Bridge? Why is it a "career highlight?"
- What does having a chimney built into the house mean for the site? Was it the earliest such finding for North American Native people? Is it of regional significance or continental, or other?
- Where does this site fit in the time-line of migration? does it?
Story Ideas
Story Ideas
- Making existing buildings more eco-friendly, while maintaining cost-efficiency
http://cleantech.wsu.edu/projects/sustainable.aspx - Research on WSU campus about biofuel
http://cleantech.wsu.edu/projects/renewable.aspx - WSU research aimed at improving the efficiency and reliability of electric power and energy systems
http://cleantech.wsu.edu/projects/smart.aspx - WSU research improves existing materials and creates those with even greater strength, durability, flexibility, and that are less toxic to the environment. http://cleantech.wsu.edu/projects/advanced.aspx
- This research explores the particular function that local communities and average citizens play in environmental decision making.
http://cleantech.wsu.edu/projects/environmental.aspx - WSU also is discovering ways to reduce soil erosion, waterway pollution, and resource consumption associated with agriculture.
http://cleantech.wsu.edu/projects/climate.aspx
Sources
- Environmental Research News
http://researchnews.wsu.edu/environment/201.html - Institute for sustainable design
http://sustainabledesign.wsu.edu/ - Clean Technologies and Innovative Solutions
http://cleantech.wsu.edu/default.aspx - WSU Research
http://research.wsu.edu/
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Questions for Jonathan Randal
1. Have you ever faced an ethical dilemma where you had to choose between remaining objective to the situation and writing about it, and putting aside your notepad and pen to act in the welfare of others or yourself?
2. Some say Al Jazeera is biased against the West and others say it is more neutral and objective than Western media. Having spent so much time in Middle Eastern conflict areas, What is your first hand opinion?
3. Have you ever been censored, or completely suppressed, by a superior, governmental agency or your conscience for national security or the greater good?
4. What do you think will be the next big conflict?
5. What will your next book be about? When can consumers expect it?
2. Some say Al Jazeera is biased against the West and others say it is more neutral and objective than Western media. Having spent so much time in Middle Eastern conflict areas, What is your first hand opinion?
3. Have you ever been censored, or completely suppressed, by a superior, governmental agency or your conscience for national security or the greater good?
4. What do you think will be the next big conflict?
5. What will your next book be about? When can consumers expect it?
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