As we've discussed here previously, The Olympian was just acquired by Knight-Ridder News a few months ago. K-R shareholders are not happy about the way that the stock is performing, so they've put the newspaper chain up for sale. There are two bidders so far. From The Olympian:

SAN JOSE, Calif. — With McClatchy touted as the front-runner in the sale of Knight Ridder, sources familiar with the bidding process said a decision could be announced Monday.

Knight Ridder’s board is meeting Sunday in New York to discuss bids from McClatchy, the Sacramento, Calif.-based owner of the Sacramento Bee and 11 other dailies; and a consortium of private equity companies.

Knight Ridder, which owns The Olympian and is the nation’s second-largest newspaper company, offered itself up for sale last year under pressure from its three largest shareholders, who were unhappy with its stock performance.

The following is an excerpt from "To The Point" from KCRW in Santa Monica. It is an interview with Phillip Meyer, the former director of news and circulation research at K-R.

Let's hope that McClatchy pulls this one out. ("A community-based information system." Hmmmm. Sounds like Olyblog!)

Claude A. Allen, who resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was arrested this week in Montgomery County for allegedly swindling Target and Hecht's stores out of more than $5,000 in a refund scheme, police said.

It looks like Yelm will get a Wal-Mart after all. The story is kind of a strange one. Anyway, here's what they have to look forward to. From Willamette Week Online:

Wal-World
Inside the empire of the world's largest company.

[excerpt]

Today, the typical Wal-Mart associate...is someone like Jonnie Monroe, a 22-year-old rock musician who went to a Wal-Mart store in Olympia, Wash., to buy a can of spray paint one day and applied for a job instead, intending to work only long enough to buy an amplifier for her band. She sailed through two interviews and a drug test and was hired in February 2004, as a full-time cashier making $7.91 an hour. Her training consisted of shadowing another cashier and watching a video that included scenes of a sinister-looking union organizer working a parking lot. "It was weird, like an after-school special," said Monroe, whose supervisor made her cover up the small tattoo on her arm after a customer complained.

Monroe soon made friends with a co-worker, but within a few weeks the Customer Service Managers, or CSMs, separated them, making sure they worked in different sections of the store and eventually on different shifts. Wal-Mart discourages associates from forming friendships with the people around them, apparently because it both fears such fraternization will result in lost productivity and because there is a greater chance such bonds will facilitate unionization. If Monroe made even the smallest computation error, she had to call a CSM to fix it while customers waited impatiently. "Customers scream at you and there's nothing you can do," she said. Monroe was told not to joke around with her fellow workers or to make political comments, even on her breaks. Monroe came to particularly dread the "opening ceremony," otherwise known as the Wal-Mart cheer: "You guys treat me like crap, you won't let me switch shifts, you won't let me dress like myself, won't let me act like myself, and now you want me to be, like, 'Yay, Wal-Mart'?" Monroe quit on the spot after 11 months when her boss refused to allow her time off to attend her brother's wedding in Chicago.

Would you like the Governor's Office to issue a statement concerning hate groups in Washington State? Let them know through their web form.

Yes, that is a purposefully provocative and inaccurate title about a provocative topic of conversation in Olympia and NW. Who are those masked people in black?

I hear about this image pretty much daily now, from all camps. Surely we olybloggers can deconstruct the image, explore the parts, and find all sorts of issues to chew on.

To get us rolling:

• To mask up for rallies or not to mask?
• What does wearing black at political actions signify, if anything?
• What is anarchism?
• What assumptions do we make when we see someone garbed in black and masked at a rally?
• What is an anarchist? A lefty? A liberal? An "anti"?
   
  

Negativland, a band with strong Olympia roots, is playing on Sunday at the Capitol Theater.

Here's a sample:

From Free Radio Olympia: Not gettin to see NEGATIVLAND live this Sunday evening at the Capitol Theater? Then listen to it LIVE on Olympia's only unlicensed, direct action micropower radio station: Free Radio Olympia, 98.5 FM or anywhere in the world via the web at www.FROlympia.org. Listen this Sunday at 8pm west coastal timezone.

MSNBC:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader, who was branded “the butcher of the Balkans

What: A salsa dance and enchilada dinner with live music by Trombanga.

Why: A fundraising benefit for the Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition, (WROC), a nonprofit grassroots membership organization made up of low income parents and allies. WROC's mission is to affect social and economic justice by educating and empowering low income parents to make positive change in their communities and in their lives.

Who: Trombanga is a unique salsa and latin jazz group. Its ten members, hailing from cities throughout the Puget Sound and beyond, are all accomplished musicians. Band leader and bass trombonist, Bud Parker, has been playing trombone since the late 50's. He played and recorded with Stan Kenton in the 60's and has backed up such entertainers as Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Tony Bennet and many others. Percussionist, Malo Castro, was voted best percussionist the past two years at the Kitsap County Music Awards. Keyboard player, TJ Clement, has won outstanding soloist awards at various festivals and the Semper Fidelis award for music excellence. Trombonist, Richard Lopez, lives here in Olympia, works as a chaplain for the Fire Department, teaches trombone and performs with the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, Groovin Higher Jazz Orchestra and the jazz fusion-rock quintet, Jazz Area 51, as well as Trombanga.

Trombanga's plays a mix of latin music and jazz standards, like Night and Day, Bomba De Corazon, Devil Moon, Elena Elena, Mambo #5, and many more. A sample of their music can be heard at their website, www.trombanga.com.

Questions? Contact Monica Peabody
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
701 Franklin Street SE
Olympia, WA 98501
360-352-9716