We're looking for a few more people for an online Olympia marketplace.  The site will be similar in concept to buyolympia.com, but with no middleman between you and your customers.  If you have stuff to sell (be it stuff you've made, or stuff you just have), and you're looking for a regular place to sell it, then consider joining up. 

The basic idea is a bunch of shops operating independently of each other, but under one domain name and (maybe) one logo.  Like a big Olympia flea market.  You maintain your own site (including inventory, orders, etc) and keep all your money.  The costs to you are:

• $10 per year for hosting fees.
  
• Your own WA state business license and UBI number (costs $20 and takes about 5 minutes if you apply online).

• A yearly WA state B&O tax, which comes to about $4.71 for every thousand dollars the shop brings in.

The site is at olymarket.com, which will be a gateway for all the other shops.  My shop is here if you want to get an idea of how it would look.  I'll just be selling old prints at first.  Your shop would come with that same basic template, and I can offer quite a bit of help customizing it.  You don't need to know much about website development or have any coding skills at all.  The site is based on the Joomla content management system, for which there's plenty of free help available, but if you're crazy about Drupal or Wordpress or some other system you can easily install that instead.  If you already know how to create a website, you'll have ftp and file management access to make your shop look the way you want. 

I imagine the site will work best for people who have stuff to sell out of their homes, kind of on a part-time basis, but we can probably extend it to those who already have a business.  I think it would work particularly well for those who usually sell their creations at Arts Walk and would like a steady space to sell and exhibit from.  We're hoping to have a meeting in the next month or so to iron out the details.  We haven't decided yet where to cap the number of shops, so if you're interested let me know soon. larry@olymarket.com

Olympia Copwatch organizer Drew Hendricks will host a conference (or summit) of Copwatchers on Saturday, September 23rd from Noon to 9PM (7-9 PM being dinner).

The gathering is intended for 15-30 people to gather, share the history of police accountability issues as it stands now, network, and strategize for the future. We're not looking for a single strategy as much as a place and time to connect on all of our various strategies, so that we can maximize our individual effectiveness.

Although this event will be open to the public, it is intended as an advanced excercise; casually interested persons may be easily overwhelmed. (It's a large topic...)

Drew 870-3127

The several people who were in court Friday all scheduled trial;

No one has waived speedy trial; The cases are at this point joined (They will be heard all together at one time);

Final Motions in the case are due by Aug 17th -

Readiness / Confirm hearing is Wednesday, the 23rd of August

Trial is Monday, August 28th (next week is Labor Day, and after that the speediness deadline hits, so that is as late as trial can be scheduled.)

Oh, and we have photographs of two OPD detectives rolling videotape which has not been released yet to anyone (and probably is not being used by the prosecutors).

We have so far video from TCSO Det Gray, The Port of Olympia Employee(s) and the copwatch video. We also have a supplemental copwatcher video, mostly of material after the main arrests on May 30th.

If you have ANY photos or video, now is the time to submit them to Drew so he can share them with any and all defendants.

Tear it down!

Drew

.....but defend the right of others to do so.

I've witnessed flag burnings before, especially amidst large anti-war actions. When I was young this felt rebellious and very emotionally charged. But I didn't really know exactly why it was being done, I did not know the folks involved.

Flag burning did not convey what my own message was as I marched against war. Holding the flag union down did until I read the flag code:

"The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."

Though depending on when you talk to me, I might feel that holding our flag union down is entirely appropriate.

But what really made the difference to me was attending my first pow-wow. A friend was gracious enough to educate me, teach me as the pow-wow proceeded, and as we watched the Grand Entry led by veterans with flags, I got it. I myself would never burn our flag.

What works for me might not work for someone else. What a symbol means to me might mean something different to someone else. I don't know that I can tell someone else what the flag should mean to them. I also don't want to assume much of anything about why a U.S. citizen burns our own flag.

Flag Desecration in U.S.
Flag Rules and Regulations

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