The Olympia Zen Center Presents the 5th Annual Ryokan san Lecture “Spiritual Dynamics in Same Sex Partnership

This blog post seems to indicate that there may be a Kurt Cobain documentary in the works.

On Wednesday, we all loaded into a couple of vehicles and drove south to Olympia, where we wandered the downtown streets, shot a bit of test footage and generally tried to get our bearings.

Anyone know the scoop?

College invites visitors to harvest festival The 27th Annual Harvest Festival at The Evergreen State College's Organic Farm is set for 12:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday. Events include tours of the farm and composting plant, kids' games, purchase of farm produce, storytelling and music. Visitors are asked to park on campus and walk to the farm on Lewis Road. The walking path is behind the Arts Annex building and parking lot B. For more information, call 360-867-6145.

The Olympian reports on a program that helps keep folks out off jail -- thus saving the county loads of $$. Funding for mental health court is not guaranteed, however:

Only offenders accused of misdemeanors or gross misdemeanors are allowed into the program, although the prosecutor's office will reduce some felony charges for those who otherwise would be eligible.

To start the court, officials needed about $38,000, mostly to pay for a coordinator for the program. Extending the program to year's end will cost an additional $10,000. Commissioners approved the increase earlier this month.

The fledgling court's funding next year remains in doubt.

District Court Judge Kip Stilz, who presides over the mental health court, said he hopes to persuade county commissioners to fund the court next year, or to take advantage of a law the Legislature passed this year that allows counties to boost the sales tax one-tenth of a percent to raise money for mental health programs.

The program would need about $80,000 next year, he said.

If this program really works, it would be a great shame if it is allowed to lapse.