by David B. Williams in the Street Smart Naturalist (thanks to Mary M.)
Many, many years ago, I was a national park ranger at Arches National Park and the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. As a ranger, I led tours, helped people understand what they were seeing, cleaned up trash, removed graffiti, and answered numerous questions. (The most popular was “Where’s the bathroom?” “Out the door and to the left,” was the answer.) I assisted on search and rescue, carried out visitors who needed first aid, and fought fires.
I knew that I was privileged to be a ranger and work in these amazing places. I knew that I was not alone. My best friend was a career employee for the National Park Service. “The primary thing I liked about my career was that nearly everyone was passionate about the mission,” he said. “People weren’t there just to make money, they believed in the agency mission and were putting their heart and soul into the job. It seems like that dedication and commitment is being undervalued right now as agencies just haphazardly terminate employees.”
Over the past three decades, I have continued to be impressed with the federal employees I have met in my adventures writing about human and natural history.
I have skimmed across Admiralty Inlet in a Zodiac with a United States Geological Survey biologist focused on diseases in forage fish, such as herring and sand lance. His work is helping protect these important fish species. As another federal biologist told me, herring “link predator and prey…[and] are very much the hub in the wheel of the Sound.” Without the increased knowledge of forage fish that is coming from federal studies, we significantly reduce the ability to improve herring runs, to the detriment of salmon that feed on herring, and the orca that feed on salmon. No herring, no orca.
Pacific sand lance caught by me in Admiralty Inlet. A few were kept to study; the rest were released.
I have walked through ponderosa pine forests on the east side of the Cascades with a United States Forest Service ecologist. He showed me how a century of fire suppression had created forests highly susceptible to fire and how future conditions could lead to even more devastating fires with climate change. He told me of research that illustrated the deep relationship between Indigenous people and fire and how their stewardship had created resilient and adaptable forests. He gave me insights and observations clearly based on his passion for and knowledge of these forests.
I have hiked out onto the Nisqually Glacier at Mount Rainier National Park with a National Park Service glaciologist. Our goal was to change the batteries on two seismic probes he had set up to monitor water discharge and sediment movement. His long-term project was a novel test for developing non-contact methods to obtain basic, on-the-ground data. This information would help the NPS with management of the Nisqually and other glaciers in the park, along with habitat downstream of the ice. I could never have accessed this stunning area without him.
A gray and gloomy and wonderful day on Nisqually Glacier in Mt. Rainier NP.
I have boated across Puget Sound with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ecologist working on a study of bycatch of lingcod and rockfish. (When fishers accidentally catch a species other than the one they planned to catch, the “wrong” fish is known as bycatch.) The goal of the NOAA project is to determine whether there are better ways to catch lingcod without bycatching rockfish. This is important because overfishing of rockfish in Puget Sound led to the listing of two rockfish species on the federal list of endangered and threatened species. As part of their long term research, federal biologists have also helped develop a better understanding of rockfish (27 species of which inhabit the Sound) life histories. This, in turn, has resulted in improved management and a consequent increase in rockfish populations, though we still have a long way to go. Yet another reason for on-going research.
A copper rockfish caught in the Sound as part of the bycatch study. The fish was released back into the water.
Unfortunately, I have also encountered people and reports who felt that government scientists were biased and questioned the accuracy of their research. I find this assertion hard to believe. Of the dozens of state, federal, tribal, and academic biologists I have interviewed, all of them clearly expressed their concern about the environment and how people, government, and industry affected it. I am sure that each has some bias—we all do—but they are scientists who take great pride in eliminating those biases to try to get to the underlying truths. They were up front about where they lacked knowledge and recognized that they didn’t always have enough experimental data to fully explain what was going on, which is why they were out in the field trying to get the data.
I write this now, of course, because of the unprecedented dismantling, abuse, and firing of thousands of federal employees in the past few weeks. These ill-conceived actions are short-sighted and narrow-minded and predicated on a fantasy of agencies rife with abuse, fraud, and mismanagement. In fact, most of the mismanagement and fraud comes straight out of the mouth of the guy who is foisting these bad ideas. Why should we think that Elon Musk (aka Leon Skum, or King Skum) has a clue as to what he’s doing? The estimated value of Twitter since Musk bought it has dropped 80%.
All of the federal employees I have spent time with have been forthright and helpful, insightful and inspiring, and always dedicated to the land, people, plants, and animals where they worked. Without their kindness and knowledge, I couldn’t have written my books. Thank you to all of them and to the many others dedicated to doing their jobs well.
Here are three links to stories and newsletters addressing this issue.
Westerners Favor Protecting the Land – A High Country News story on a recent Colorado College poll that shows that even MAGA voters prefer public land conservation over oil and gas development.
One final note. Once again the great clam debate has been chowered. Lawmakers in Olympia couldn’t mollusk the might to garnish the votes to cook up their plan for a state clam. Neither the geoduck nor the Pacific razor clam advanced. As they say, legislation for an honored clam is mired in the muck.
Posted inGovernment, Parks|Comments Off on Keepers of the Land
Date: Sunday, March 23Time: 7:30 pm PDT Cost:$10 – $35 Sliding Scale – Get Tickets
Despite grief being one of the most universal of human experiences, there is still much that we do not know about it. Can we die of a broken heart? What happens in our bodies as we grieve; how do our coping behaviors affect our physical health, immunity, and even cognition? While we may be more familiar with psychological and emotional ramifications of loss and sorrow, we often overlook its impact on our physical bodies.
In The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing,the follow-up to its successful predecessor The Grieving Brain (2022), grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor focuses on how the painful ordeal of grief impacts the body.
O’Connor shares scientific research, charts, and graphs coupled with personal stories, revealing new insights on grief’s physiological impact and helping illuminate the toll that loss takes on our cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems and the larger implications for our long-term well-being. The Grieving Body is for anyone who has experienced loss and who may want to learn more about what they are going through and how to support them.
Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD,is a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab, investigating the effects of grief on the brain and the body. Her book The Grieving Brain was included on Oprah’s list of Best Books to Comfort a Grieving Friend. O’Connor holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Dr. Anthony Back, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, is a pioneer in patient-oncologist communication and co-founder of the nonprofit VitalTalk. Educated at Stanford and Harvard, with training at UW and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, his research spans physician-assisted dying, communication pedagogy, and psilocybin therapy for healthcare providers and patients with cancer-related anxiety. He is also an ordained Zen priest in Roshi Joan Halifax’s lineage.
Posted inGrief|Comments Off on Grief and the Body – at Town Hall
Ed Note: There’s an old joke–The masochist and sadist meet up. Masochist says, “Beat me, beat me.” The sadist replies, “No I don’t think I will.” So who wins in the battle of retreat?
Thanks to Mary Jane F.
By James Carville
Mr. Carville is a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s in 1992, and a consultant to American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC.
The Republican Party is all too often effective at campaigning and winning elections, but there’s another fact about it that a lot of Americans forget: The Republican Party flat out sucks at governing. Even Tucker Carlson agrees with this. For all the huffing and puffing on the campaign trail in 2016, the first Trump administration largely amounted to tax cuts for the wealthy, 500 miles of a border wall and a destructive pandemic gone viral. George W. Bush got us into a harebrained war in Iraq and then tried to privatize Social Security while letting our financial system drive smack into the Great Recession. And George H.W. Bush governed his way into a one-term presidency because of the economy.
For Round 2 in office, instead of prioritizing the problems he campaigned on — public safety, immigration and the border and, most of all, the economy — President Trump is hellbent on dismantling the federal government. To accomplish this, he has put his faith in the most incompetent cabinet in modern history: a health and human services secretary who is already targeting federal vaccination efforts and dumped a bear carcass in Central Park as a fun prank at age 60, a director of national intelligence who was devoted to an allegedly abusive yoga-centered cult, a WWE tycoon turned head of Department of Education and a former cable news talking head as defense secretary. Which will result in one clear thing: disorder. There will probably be more enormous tax cuts for the wealthy and Medicaid cuts hitting a lot of other people, but there is nothing the American public despises more than disorder and a broken economy.
And there’s nothing Democrats can legitimately do to stop it, even if we wanted to.
With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead. Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat. (continued)
On Friday, February 21, former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg posted: “A defining policy battle is about to come to a head in this country. The Republican budget will force everyone—especially Congress and the White House—to make plain whether they are prepared to harm the rest of us in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest.”
Buttigieg was referring to the struggle at the heart of much of the political conflict going on right now: How should the U.S. raise money, and how should it spend money?
Generally, Democrats believe that the government should raise money by levying taxes according to people’s ability to pay them, and that the government should use the money raised to provide services to make sure that everyone has a minimum standard of living, the protection of the laws, and equal access to resources like education and healthcare. They think the government has a role to play in regulating business; making sure the elderly, disabled, poor, and children have food, shelter and education; maintaining roads and airports; and making sure the law treats everyone equally.
Generally, Republicans think individuals should be able to manage their money to make the best use of markets, thus creating economic growth more efficiently than the government can, and that the ensuing economic growth will help everyone to prosper. They tend to think the government should not regulate business and should impose few if any taxes, both of which hamper a person’s ability to run their enterprises as they wish. They tend to think churches or private philanthropy should provide a basic social safety net and that infrastructure projects are best left up to private companies. Civil rights protections, they think, are largely unnecessary.
But the Republicans are facing a crisis in their approach to the American economy. The tax cuts that were supposed to create extraordinarily high economic growth, which would in turn produce tax revenue equal to higher taxes on lower economic growth, never materialized. Since the 1990s, when the government ran surpluses under Democratic president Bill Clinton, tax cuts under Republican presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, along with unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have produced massive budget deficits that, in turn, have added trillions to the national debt.
Now the party is torn between those members whose top priority is more tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations, and those who want more tax cuts but also recognize that further cuts to popular programs will hurt their chances of reelection.
That struggle is playing out very publicly right now in the Republicans’ attempt to pass a budget resolution, which is not a law but sets the party’s spending priorities, sometimes for as much as a decade, and is the first step toward passing a budget reconciliation bill which can pass the Senate without threat of a filibuster.
Under the control of Republicans, the House of Representatives was unable to pass the appropriations bills necessary to fund the government in fiscal year 2025. The government has stayed open because of “continuing resolutions,” measures that extend previous funding forward into the future to buy more time to negotiate appropriations. The most recent of those expires on March 14, putting pressure on the Republicans who now control both the House and the Senate to come up with a new funding package. But first, both chambers have to pass a budget resolution. (continued)
If you’re on Medicare and have leveraged convenient telehealth appointments, that’s about to end.
Medicare originally expanded its coverage of at-home telehealth services during the Covid-19 emergency, which was an important move to protect seniors and has become a critical service for those in rural communities.
As part of the deal to keep the government open in December, Congress proposed a bill to extend telehealth coverage for two years. However, Elon Musk struck down that bill; the ultimate package that kept the government open only extended coverage through March 31.
The change doesn’t apply to all telehealth services: for those in urban areas, monthly home dialysis visits for end-stage renal disease, acute stroke, and mental/behavioral health visits can still occur via telehealth. For those in rural areas, people must be at a healthcare facility to access telehealth services.
Posted inHealth|Comments Off on Heads up: Medicare will stop covering telehealth in April.
Ed note: Historian Heather Cox Richardson helps make the current current political chaos understandable putting events in context.
In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking. Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina’s president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended to make to his country’s government, then posted that image to X, labeling it “The DogeFather,” although the administration has recently told a court that Musk is neither an employee nor the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Politico called Musk’s behavior “eccentric.”
While attendees cheered Musk on, outside CPAC there appears to be a storm brewing. While Trump and his team have claimed they have a mandate, in fact more people voted for someone other than Trump in 2024, and his early approval ratings were only 47%, the lowest of any president going back to 1953, when Gallup began checking them. His approval has not grown as he has called himself a “king” and openly mused about running for a third term.
A Washington Post/Ipsos poll released yesterday shows that even that “honeymoon” is over. Only 45% approve of the “the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president,” while 53% disapprove. Forty-three percent of Americans say they support what Trump has done since he took office; 48% oppose his actions. The number of people who strongly support his actions sits at 27%; the number who strongly oppose them is twelve points higher, at 39%. Fifty-seven percent of Americans think Trump has gone beyond his authority as president.
Americans especially dislike his attempts to end USAID, his tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and his firing of large numbers of government workers. Even Trump’s signature issue of deporting undocumented immigrants receives 51% approval only if respondents think those deported are “criminals.” Fifty-seven percent opposed deporting those who are not accused of crimes, 70% oppose deporting those brought to the U.S. as children, and 66% oppose deporting those who have children who are U.S. citizens. Eighty-three percent of Americans oppose Trump’s pardon of the violent offenders convicted for their behavior during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Even those who identify as Republican-leaning oppose those pardons 70 to 27 percent.
As Aaron Blake points out in the Washington Post, a new CNN poll, also released yesterday, shows that Musk is a major factor in Trump’s declining ratings. By nearly two to one, Americans see Musk having a prominent role in the administration as a “bad thing.” The ratio was 54 to 28. The Washington Post/Ipsos poll showed that Americans disapprove of Musk “shutting down federal government programs that he decides are unnecessary” by the wide margin of 52 to 26. Sixty-three percent of Americans are worried about Musk’s team getting access to their data.
Meanwhile, Jessica Piper of Politico noted that 62% of Americans in the CNN poll said that Trump has not done enough to try to reduce prices, and today’s economic news bears out that concern: not only are egg prices at an all-time high, but also consumer sentiment dropped to a 15-month low as people worry that Trump’s tariffs will raise prices. White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement: “[T]he American people actually feel great about the direction of the country…. What’s to hate? We are undoing the widely unpopular agenda of the previous office holder, uprooting waste, fraud, and abuse, and chugging along on the great American Comeback.”
Phone calls swamping the congressional switchboards and constituents turning out for town halls with House members disprove Fields’s statement. In packed rooms with overflow spaces, constituents have shown up this week both to demand that their representatives take a stand against Musk’s slashing of the federal government and access to personal data, and to protest Trump’s claim to be a king. In an eastern Oregon district that Trump won by 68%, constituents shouted at Representative Cliff Bentz: “tax Elon,” “tax the wealthy,” “tax the rich,” and “tax the billionaires.” In a solid-red Atlanta suburb, the crowd was so angry at Representative Richard McCormick that he has apparently gone to ground, bailing on a CNN interview about the disastrous town hall at the last minute. (continued)
Like many, I am tired of waiting for the congressional Republicans to grow a spine, and for Democrats to get their resistance act together. Instead, I suggest aspects of a shadow government and an emerging new politics, with these components.
A candidate for president. Now.
Such a candidate would begin to assemble a new, broad coalition and issues that will focus attention on the resistance agenda. The candidate would not be a standard-issue Democrat and would appeal to independents and Never-Trump Republicans. He or she might signal that their candidacy might end when the primary season commences.
An impeachment trial.
If Congress won’t do it, citizens should. Present key evidence, with rebuttals, and make the case public for removal of Trump. It would be catnip for the media.
Select 20 congressional targets.
There might be 10 from each chamber, who are in swing districts and thus vulnerable to a primary. The goal is to squeeze out candidates who have given up on congressional independence and can be attacked for wimpiness. One hopes there would also be challenges from the right, meaning only one-third of voters are needed to remove them in the primary. Raise money to fund the challenges, and pick challengers who suggest a new, third party.
Develop political leverage that pinches.
Some candidates: secession by Northeast or West Coast; a general strike for government agencies; armed Minutemen doing field exercises; product boycotts for Tesla and Trump resorts.
Build a Defense Fund.
There will be massive legal expenses, so create a large pool of money to pay for lawyers (and seek volunteers). Create a mechanism for distributing the funding in a tactical way. The fund, along with the congressional targets, gives people an effective way to volunteer and send money.
The patriotism model.
The script for this is along the lines of De Gaulle’s Free France during World War II in England and France, and the patriotic tide that produced the American Revolution and pushed out the mighty British. That is: rallies, marches, websites, and modern versions of Sam Adams’s Committees of Correspondence. All are meant to focus the resistance and generate a new politics and a sense of hope.
David Brewster, a founding member of Post Alley, has a long career in publishing, having founded Seattle Weekly, Sasquatch Books, and Crosscut.com. His civic ventures have been Town Hall Seattle and FolioSeattle.
Ed note: We’re fortunate to have David and Joyce as fellow Skyline residents. David is a creative activist–just what we need.
Ed note: Will someone explain whether this will really help?
Posted by Jon Stewart but initiated by John Clemens:
“The 24 hour Economic Blackout” As our initial act, we turn it off. For one day we show them who really holds the power.
WHEN: Friday February 28th from12:00 A.M. to 11:59 P.M.
WHAT NOT TO DO: Do not make any purchases; Do not shop online, or in-store; No Amazon, No Walmart, No Best Buy; Nowhere! Do not spend money on Food & Gas Do not use Credit or Debit Cards Do not hire anyone to do work around your house, etc.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Only buy essentials if absolutely necessary (Food, Medicine, Emergency Supplies) If you must spend, ONLY support small, local businesses.
SPREAD THE MESSAGE Talk about it, post about it, and document your actions that day!
WHY THIS MATTERS? DT and his minions only care about their pocketbooksCorporations, banks only care about their bottom lineFinancial markets rely on consumers to spend If we disrupt the economy for just ONE DAY, it sends a powerful message.If they don’t listen (they won’t) we make the next blackout longer (We will)
This is our first action.
February 28thThe 24 Hour Economic Black Out Begins.
PLEASE PASS IT ON
Posted inEconomics|Taggedprotests|Comments Off on “The 24 hour Economic Blackout”
Donald Trump’s post proclaiming himself “king” rightfully earned a heap of backlash – more so after it was shared on official White House social media accounts with an apparently AI-generated image of him in a crown.
On Wednesday, Trump posted “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” to his Truth Social account after the administration put an end to the daytime tolls in New York. Shortly after both the official White House X and Instagram handles posted the quote along with an image of the president in a crown standing in front of New York.
Reactions to the Instagram posts in the comments ranged from “This must be new wall art for his bathroom” to “Really??? Posting this on the official White House account is so embarrassing and disrespectful to our country.”
Over on X, a number of users – both familiar faces and regular users – rallied against the comment and wondered loudly why more Republicans were not crying out with similar concern. Many also asked how organizations like Fox News might have reacted if former presidents Barack Obama or Joe Biden had proclaimed themselves a “king” on their social media platform of choice.
From Foundation Fighting Blindness – Thanks to Ann M.
Join A Virtual Quarterly Vision Webinar onAge-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)February 27th | 7:00 p.m. ET (4 PM PT)
Dear Friends, Discover the latest information on AMD with the Foundation Fighting Blindness! We invite you to a free webinar to learn more about this common eye condition. This webinar is sponsored by Apellis Pharmaceuticals. What will you learn? What is AMD and how does it affect vision Current research and potential treatments Tips for managing AMD and maintaining eye health Q&A with experts
Webinar DetailsDate: Thursday, February 27th, 2025 Registration Page: Quarterly Vision Webinar on AMDPS: Forward this to anyone you know who’s interested in eye health research.
Join us for Trump in the World 2.0, a series of talks and discussions on the international impact of the second Trump presidency.
Moderator: Danny Hoffman, Director of the Jackson School of International Studies and Stanley D. Golub Chair of International Studies
Mondays, 5-6:20 p.m. from March 31 to June 2, 2025
This lecture series is available as an in-person 2 credit/no credit course for UW students. It is available and free for the public via livestream only.
Faculty and guest speaker presentations will explore how different regions and global issues are affected by the policies of the Trump administration.
UW students: Register in MyPlan for the course; regular attendance required if taking the course.
Commentary from a college classmate of Mary Jane F.
A town hall with our local House of Representatives member, Rick Larson* appeared on my phone yesterday and I decided to listen in. Larson, a Democrat, has represented this region of Washington for 24 years and is now in charge of the transportation subcommittee. There were 400 questions in queue, and 13,000 of us listening.
Some good points:
1. Contact. Contact. Call your representatives in Congress with your concerns. Call representatives and senators whose actions you do not like, call the White House. And then call again the next day. He says these numbers make a difference. The White House is feeling the pressure. If you don’t want to call, send emails. Write letters. Keep the pressure up.
2. A woman asked about working across the aisle. He said that there is no concession with what the Trump team is trying to do. However, in committee they do work across the aisle and are able to come up with effective legislation.
3. He believes that the reason Trump team is doing so much that is outrageous so fast is — they are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. The more we are outraged and make that known as they throw these things at the wall the fewer they will get away with.
4. I can’t list the different many things that were mentioned that he says can actually not be changed by executive order but it was comforting to hear. A lot of the government is continuing to function fairly normally.
5. Support your attorneys general, support them with letters, emails etc. That is where the real battlefield of this crisis is.
6. The ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center and other nonprofits need to be supported in whatever ways you can. They are doing good work.
There was more but that’s enough for now. We need to work with the good people who are representing us.
*Rick Larsen is the representative from Washington’s 2nd Congressional District
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Listen in, call in & stay involved!
1 of 6 | Not everything is destined for the recycle bin. Jay Simmons, packaging product development manager from North Pacific Paper Company, says it’s important to know what can and can’t be processed by the company. Keep the Christmas… (Courtesy of NORPAC)More
By Bree Coven in the Seattle Times (thanks to Marilyn W.)
You dutifully toss your soda cans and last week’s newspaper in the bin and wheel it out to the curb every other week. But are you recycling right?
Seattle has some of the highest recycling rates in the U.S., with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU)’s program recycling nearly three-quarters of all recyclable packaging and paper products discarded by residents, Susan Fife-Ferris, director of SPU’s solid waste planning and program management, told The Seattle Times in November. Local organizations and businesses, community events and Ridwell’s subscription service all help reduce waste, too.
Yet questions remain. Fortunately, the answers — and many solutions for the things you don’t want or can’t use anymore — are out there.
“Climate anxiety seems to be at an all-time high,” says Kyleigh Turk-Polifko, owner of PUBLIC, a sustainable goods and refill shop in West Seattle with low-waste home and personal care options. “Instead of letting that take us to a place of paralysis, we keep encouraging our community to look for ways to make an impact locally. Recycling correctly is one way you can make an individual difference.”
Everything in its place
Seattle Public Utilities asks residents to focus on the top five types of recyclables: paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal. SPU spells out best practices on its website. First, make sure each item is actually recyclable. SPU’s online Where Does It Go Tool lists thousands of items (searchable by name and item category) and is available in 14 languages.
Gotta keep it separated
One of the biggest recycling misconceptions is assuming the recycling facility can easily separate items placed in the bin, says Jay Simmons, packaging product development manager from North Pacific Paper Company (NORPAC) in Longview, Wash. (norpacpaper.com).
“For example, someone might put a strand of broken Christmas lights into their recycling bin, expecting that the recycling facility is capable of separating the bulbs, insulation and copper/aluminum wiring for processing to make new products,” Simmons says. “In reality, there is no technology that can do this and those strands of Christmas lights will degrade the separation efficiency of other products.”
Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) process 200 to 500 tons per day with highly automated equipment, Simmons says. Anything that interferes with that hands-free process creates inefficiencies downstream.
Another misconception, he says, is some consumers think items put into a recycling bin are just being transferred to the solid waste dump. They’re not.
Keep it clean
If you’re going to recycle, recycle right, Turk-Polifko says.
“It’s so important to make sure your items are clean and dry before putting them in your bin,” she says. “That is the standard for all recycling programs (including our in-shop beauty recycling program) so other recyclables aren’t contaminated.”
One water- and timesaving strategy her shoppers use is to keep a tub under the sink for recyclables that need cleaning and wash them all at once when it’s full.
No bags allowed
Place recyclables loose into the container. Do not bag them. Plastic bags have not been accepted in the recycling cart since 2019 and actually damage the machinery at the recycling centers. Heather Trim, executive director of Zero Waste Washington, which is working to make trash obsolete through policy, on-the-ground projects and research, says plastic bags, plastic wrap, flexible film and candy wrappers cause major problems. They wrap around and clog the equipment of the recycling facility. “For every eight-hour shift, they have to close it down for an hour to cut the plastic off the metal rollers,” she says.
Instead, bring plastic grocery bags to take-back bins in local grocery stores like Fred Meyer, QFC, Safeway, Haggen and Albertsons, where they are collected and often sent NexTrex, which mixes them with sawdust to create plastic lumber decking and benches. (continued)
There is no question that it has been a difficult start to this year and the new Trump administration — from funding freezes to executive orders that have caused chaos across the country. We must come together as a community to fight back, which is why I’d like to invite you to my Community Forum on Tuesday, February 18th. This is an opportunity to hear directly what I’m doing to fight back in Congress, learn from other local leaders in a panel discussion on where we go from here and get answers to your biggest questions. Join us to gather in community and chart our path forward under this new administration. WHAT: Community Forum with Congresswoman Jayapal: Coming Together, Building Resilience, & Uniting for Change
WHEN: Tuesday, February 18, 2025 from 6:00-7:30 PM, doors open at 5:30 PM
WHERE: Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101
RSVP here: Be sure to arrive early to visit various booths from community partners on the front lines serving our district.
I hope to see you there! Space is limited and registration is required, so please RSVP today.
Talk soon, Pramila Jayapal U.S. Representative (WA-07) Did you find this update helpful? Yes No Other (please specify) Let me know Click here to take Survey
Posted inAdvocacy, Government|Comments Off on Congresswoman Jayapal at Town Hall
Borders between one kind of life and another. A moving piece by Timothy Snyder, one of our most well-informed advocates for democracy and Ukraine and author of the 2017 book On Tyranny. I hope he is as safe travelling close to Russian occupied parts of Ukraine as he says he is.
I am on a night train from Kyiv, bound for Zaporizhzhia, a city in the southeast of Ukraine which is about twenty miles from the front. Russian missiles take about thirty-five seconds to hit the city, and the take civilian lives. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region. In September of 2022 the Russian parliament proclaimed the annexation of the region as a whole.
That front is a line that runs through Zaporizhzhia region, and indeed across the east and south of Ukraine. My train rushes southeast, towards that line. Its passengers, civilians and soldiers alike, know what lies on the other side.
Given the nature of Russian occupation, Ukrainians are fighting not only for their lives, but for a certain idea of life in freedom. In the parts of Ukraine controlled by Russia, anyone who showed any initiative or was elected to any position is killed or subjected to torture. Any expression of a political opinion or any gathering or anything that seems like opposition to Russian authorities will lead to a long prison sentence in awful conditions. Just having Ukrainian material on your phone is enough to be sent to prison. Ukrainian citizens in the occupied zones have to accept Russian citizenship in order to have access to basic services, such as schools. Children are kidnapped and sent to Russian families for adoption. They will be raised to hate the land of their birth. Perhaps still worse, they will be raised in a country where the government lies about everything all the time, where the media lies about everything all the time, and this is thought to be normal.
These basic facts create a different kind of existence, on that side of the line.
Ukraine is not a perfect country, and of course war itself makes people less free. The number of killed and wounded, though far lower than on the Russian side, grows every day. Ukrainian men have to serve in the armed forces, whether they want to or not. Even in the unoccupied majority of Ukrainian territory, Russian missile and drone attacks are not only lethal but exhausting. It is worse close to the front, as in Zaporizhzhia, where I arrive tomorrow morning, or Kharkiv, which I visited last September, because there is no time to take shelter from the missiles. But everywhere in the country nights are interrupted and people are at risk. I spent part of last night in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, awakened by the siren right after I went to sleep. For me this is an irritation. But for Ukrainians, three years of sleep deprivation takes a toll. The train tonight departed right at the time of the curfew, when people have to go home. This, too, is a certain deprivation of freedom.
And, yet, on this, the Ukrainian side of the line, people lead completely different lives than under Russian occupation or in Russia. Ukrainians say what they want, including about the war and about politics. Journalists cover the war and write about politics. There is fear, although less than you might think; but it is fear of bombs and missiles and violence from Russia, not of denunciations or oppression or of one’s own government. I have the strange feeling, this week in Kyiv, that Ukrainians are living freer lives now than Americans. At a book store where I was talking to a Ukrainian philosopher about freedom, a young woman put her hand on my arm and said “sorry about the U.S.”
There are lines that matter. If I made some sort of mistake, and somehow found myself on the Russian side of the line in the Zaporizhzhia region, I would probably disappear for good. Russian authorities have made clear what they think of me, sanctioning me not once but twice. (And, to be clear, it is a terrible idea for any American to go to Russia now; you will just be kidnapped, and held for some possible exchange for a Russian criminal.) If I crossed that line, it is unlikely that I would come back. (continued)
The Sky Bridge offers one of the best views in the building — perhaps one of the best views in Seattle. The design philosophy centers around framing the brilliant views with natural elements and a rich palette of earth tones.
The Nautical Gauges placed on the Sky Bridge reflect the nautical inspired interior details of the project in the amenity overlooking Seattle’s waterfront. The gauges selected are historic pilot navigation tools in black to match the blackened steel staircases leading to the second level.
Fitness Center Curated by House Concepts
Located on level 32, the indoor and outdoor fitness center will be equipped with cardio equipment as well as free weights and lifting equipment. The outdoor space will be home to a full size boxing ring. Residents will also have access to a range of fitness classes curated by House Concepts, and private training.
When asked to draw a scientist, school-age kids in the United States are increasingly sketching women. That’s the main conclusion of a new study that compiled information about 20,860 pictures drawn by students age 5 to 18 over 5 decades.
In the 1960s and 1970s, less than 1% of students depicted scientists as female. But the percentage of women in the “draw a scientist” sketches—like the one pictured, drawn by a third grade girl in San Antonio, Texas—has increased over time, reaching an estimated 34% by 2016. And the numbers are even more stark when looking at drawings penned by girls: About 1% drew women in the first 2 decades—but in the past decade more than half have drawn women, researchers report in Child Development.
The trend in how children perceive scientists parallels an uptick in the actual number of female scientists. Over roughly the same time period—from 1960 to 2013—the percentage of women holding science jobs rose from 28% to 49% in biological science, from 8% to 35% in chemistry, and from 3% to 11% in physics and astronomy.
Posted inScience and Technology|Comments Off on What does a scientist look like? Children are drawing women more than ever before
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