this story:

Body Found at Olympia Bus Station

is in the Seatlle P-I but not our hometown rag.

At the corner of Jefferson St. and Wheeler Ave. the state Department of General Administration is hell bent on constructing a new building for the Department of Information Services. Most of the press so far has been about the loss of the childcare center.

If you read the linked page you can see that the folks who live in the neigborhood are referred to as "others." Well these "others" through the South Capitol Neighborhood Association are appealing GA's decision that this project doesn't need an environmental imapct statement. My personal concern is traffic. They came and looked and said, "Nope it ain't a problem." and decided that was all they needed to do. We disagreed and are filing an appeal.

Thanks goodness we live in an area where we are somewhat organized and have folks who can volunteer time and services needed to contest this. My wife and friends are closer to this than I but I will do my best to keep you informed.

I got to this from one of my fave blogs, Bitten, where they passed me along to Dot Earth where they ask the question, Can People Have Meat and a Planet too?

The gist of the matter is there's a group out there, New Harvest, working on in vitro meat. From their site:

"New Harvest is a nonprofit research organization working to develop new meat substitutes, including cultured meat — meat produced in vitro, in a cell culture, rather than from an animal.

Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting, and more humane than conventional meat."

I know there are those on Olyblog who eschew the chewing of flesh for ethical reasons. I wonder if a product like this were readily available would they object to it?

I've been buying most of my meat locally for the past 5 years. Usually large parts of an animal like 1/4 of a steer or 1/2 of a hog. I've been searching, in vain, for a source of local fresh poultry. I'm not fond of frozen whole birds. I like to portion them out before freezing. This way I can get 2-4 meals for me and my family from one chicken. Thawing, cutting and refreezing is yucky.

This proposal is a great idea for those who want to eat locally. It would increase farmers' profits and make local meat available for those who prefer smaller portions. Federal laws surrounding meat, like most food regulations, favor big business. This is a great workaround for local production.

The article says there are folks on the steering committee from Thurston County. I'd love to know who they are and how to support this effort.

I look at The Olympian online, so I don't know if this is in there.

I get the News Tribune at home and when I saw this I thought I would share it.

Tumwater High, Evergreen grad goes for Oscar gold

Audrey was my neighbor about 8 or 9 years ago.

From Talking Points Memo: "As we have mentioned, the Washington State GOP stopped counting caucus returns last night after only 87% of the caucuses were counted and declared John McCain the winner, even though his lead over Mike Huckabee was a mere 1.8%. Nice to know the Repubs have progressed from 2000 where they refused to count Democratic votes, to 2008 where they are now refusing to count their own votes."

From the Seattle Times: Huckabee sends lawyers.