The Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition is planning a round table discussion on Wednesday, October 26th from 6-9 in our office in the Payne Room of the First Christian Church. We hope to pool our knowledge on issues that affect low income people when making our choices on local candidates and propositions. This election will determine who is on our city councils as well as laws on indoor smoking, medical malpractice, and gasoline taxes. Dinner and childcare will be provided. Bring ballots, voter guides opinions and questions to the:

Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
701 Franklin Street SE
Olympia, WA 98501
360-352-9716

The Olympia's Historic Chinese Community site is thorough and fascinating, includes information on the Olympia Chinese Community Marker downtown in Heritage Park.

Capital Mall, which is now Westfield Capital , is going through big changes. Quite a bit of formerly treed land is being cleared and dozed and constructed. Westfield calls it HY Style expansion.

During their chipping phase, and man was that chipper huge, the noise level in the area was definitely up. Locals report that they can hear construction noise at night. Now things have settled to a mostly dull roar,  the beeping sound of trucks backing up now nothing to remark on.

And most likely because of the coming of the rains plus shift in construction phase, the air quality seems back to normal again. During the chipping of trees I noticed that the rate of coughing people in the area seemed higher, might just be coincidence.

One of the construction companies is Pivetta Brothers, they are out of Sumner.

Dogs became a big political issue when, according to legend, some legislators were visiting the new Evergreen campus and witnessed a dog doing his business on the library carpet. Included in the press coverage was an article in the Daily Olympian (Mar. 9, 1972, p. 8) that had a mention of a dog who would later become a very special part of Evergreen history. His name was Peanut Butter. He was a little terrier type of canine who was indeed the color of peanut butter and was a fixture on campus. Peanut Butter's owner was a student. The 1975 graduation ceremonies were noteworthy due to the fact that TESC was producing the first "pure" class, students who had attended the school for 4 years.

I recall two special features about that event. First, the only person wearing a cap and gown had a gorilla suit underneath it, and second, President McCann gave an honorary degree to Peanut Butter. Like many other TESC grads, Peanut Butter never left campus. Through the rest of the 1970s, I'd be walking across Red Square, getting headaches trying to understand some assignment, and this little dog would smugly trot by, nose in air, as if to say, "Ha! I have a degree and you DON'T. Chump!" Actually, seeing Peanut Butter always made me smile.

In 1983, I was saddened to see a lost dog poster in the Olympia Timberland Library neighborhood. It was for Peanut Butter, who must have been pretty old by then. He was an Evergreen grad that needs to be remembered.