Winter 2010
Understanding the “Civility Crisis”
There is a reason why rude and loutish political talk shows dominate the airwaves—they attract huge audience ratings and advertising dollars. But is rude behavior good for democracy? » More ...
Public affairs
Winter 2009
Paper cuts
Not that many years ago Washington's legislature was covered by more than 30 journalists from around the state. Now that number is eight. The Seattle Times no longer has a bureau on the east side of Lake Washington, and a print Post-Intelligencer no longer exists. Who will give us information and investigation when the papers have all gone? » More ...
Winter 2006
An American in Albania
Adapted from a series of e-mail messages from the author to friends and associates.
Introduction
Since serving three terms as ASWSU president as an undergraduate, I have never lost my passion for the process of student representation. I’ve tried to be a help to as many student leaders as possible, and I have wound up speaking at a lot of conferences around the nation, and even helped found the American Student Government Association (the only professional association for student governments) in 2003.
Earlier this year, I was asked by the State Department to do a speaking/training tour in Albania … » More …
Summer 2007
Dana Patterson: The path ahead
Yellow Springs, Ohio, is a small college community with a rich history of social justice. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad and, much later, home to Antioch College, where civil rights activist Coretta Scott King went to school.
Dana Patterson, who completed her doctorate in higher education administration at Washington State University last spring, was seeking a career that would lead her into social justice and human rights activism, when she applied to be first director of the new Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch. Looking at the job description, she realized, “It’s a perfect fit for me in light of what I … » More …
Summer 2007
Fighting for a free press
Brian Schraum ditched school for several days in January. The 19-year-old Washington State University junior wasn’t playing hooky, though. He was testifying in Olympia on behalf of a free-press bill he inspired.
Schraum, a communication major, is trying to protect high school and college newspapers from censorship. House Bill 1307, which Schraum helped Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-Des Moines) craft, would put the full weight of editorial decisions in the hands of the student editors. Even in high schools.
Last year, as editor of the Green River Community College newspaper, Schraum realized that while he had the freedom to print what he chose, that freedom wasn’t … » More …
Spring 2003
Smoke & asthma
For as long as Jami Hinshaw can remember, she has coughed, sneezed, sniffled, and felt miserable every September. When she was nine, the Spokane native and WSU alum was diagnosed with asthma.
Last fall, Hinshaw was fighting her usual symptoms, but she was also carrying a portable air quality monitor in a backpack as part of a study to better understand the health effects of agricultural field burning. Researchers from Washington State University are working with their counterparts from the School of Public Health at the University of Washington to examine volunteers’ exposure levels to atmospheric pollutants coming from field burning in the region.
Controversy … » More …
Winter 2001
State Economy: Across the new divide
Sooner than you think, you’re going to connect those dots and discover the whole state lit up.
THE VARIOUS PEOPLES OF Washington have successfully prevailed over many divides— mountain passes, raging rivers, ocean straits, even cultural differences— that separated comfort and prosperity from isolation and hard times. There were grim consequences to encounters with those divides, and sometimes stuff and people were jettisoned so a few could make it across. We wouldn’t be here at all if we had seriously miscalculated who had the right to survive.
Now, in a techno-economic system constantly challenged to be robust and resilient enough to meet the fiercest global … » More …
Summer 2005
Ruth Bennett: A former 'Youth for Nixon' puts a crimp in Christine Gregoire's majority
The way Ruth Bennett figures it, if the Libertarian Party candidate hadn’t been on Washington’s ballot for governor, Christine Gregoire (D) would have waltzed to an uncontroversial victory.
As it turned out, Gregoire’s winning margin of 129 votes made her contest with Dino Rossi (R) the closest gubernatorial race in state history.
While Bennett (’75 Anthro.) finished a distant third with just more than 2 percent of nearly three million votes cast, her 63,465 total nevertheless was plenty to turn the race into a nail-biter. Her tally shrank Gregoire’s margin of victory nearly 500-fold. By Bennett’s estimate, her campaign nearly cost Gregoire the race.
Conventional … » More …
Fall 2009
America’s Nuclear Wastelands: Politics, Accountability, and Cleanup
Max S. Power
WSU Press, 2008
When engineers, physicists, and other scientists began making materials for nuclear bombs, the Manhattan Project sites around the country including Hanford, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge were wrapped in World War II and Cold War secrecy. The processes, products, and, most importantly, the waste they produced were hidden from the American public.
Even people who lived near the test facilities were unaware … » More …
Fall 2007
Food fights
Four children died in the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak. Attorney Bill Marler's client survived, but only after spending six months in the hospital. Marler sued and won a $15.6 million settlement for Brianne Kiner. Even more significant, the work he produced for the case made him an expert not only on E. coli, but on the whole food production system.
» More ...