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Washington State News
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Protesters, school administration reach deal to clear encampment in University of Washington
SAN FRANCISCO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- An encampment at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, U.S. state of Washington, will be shut down after an agreement was reached between protesters and the university administration, according to a news release by the protesters on Friday. The protesters agreed to clear the encampment by 3 p.m. Monday and not reestablish it, said the news release by the organizers of th |
Seattle Times Opinion
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Seattle school closures: Plan won’t fix budget; board should reject it
At no point has SPS presented serious financial analysis showing “how” closing schools will lower operating expenses |
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Seattle school closures: Budget shortfall means tough choices
Failure to close and consolidate schools will force schools to rely even more on inequitable funding. |
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Dear SPS, to fix Seattle’s schools crisis, turn to your community
Seattle Public Schools has problems beyond the financial. In the face of a yawning budget deficit and dwindling enrollment, it's time to get parents on board. |
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When local reporters stop being scary to politicians, democracy suffers
The essential check-and-balance on local government provided by reporters is now absent across much of rural America and becoming an afterthought in suburbs. |
Portland Business News
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Column: Oregon's women's tackle football team looks to move the chains
The Oregon Ravens are a semi-pro full-contact women's American football team that is part of the Women's National Football Conference, founded in 2018 by Odessa “OJ” Jenkins. An entrepreneur by trade and a retired member of the women's U.S. tackle football national team, Jenkins said she saw a business opportunity in the sport that she couldn’t ignore.
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Columbian Newspaper
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Man indicted in Oregon in three women’s deaths, including one found dead in Clark County
A Multnomah County, Ore., grand jury Thursday indicted a man on murder charges in the deaths of three women, including one whose body was found in April 2023 near an abandoned barn in Ridgefield. |
The Chronicle - Centralia
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New owners look to breathe new life into Mountain View Cemetery
Following years of turbulence, which included foreclosure and repeated failed attempts to sell the property, Lewis County has approved the sale of Mountain View Cemetery in Centralia. For the new owners, the purchase is just the first step to improving the site. “A lot’s going to happen. It’s going to start quick,” Father Gary Graveline Sr. said Thursday. “And hopefully people will take notice.” The sale earlier this month is the latest chapter in an 18-month-long saga after Lewis County foreclosed on the property in January 2023 and repossessed it as the owner fell three years behind on property taxes. Established in 1899, the cemetery sits on 28.3 acres at 1113 Caveness Drive in Centralia. After the foreclosure, the plat was initially put up for auction with a starting bid of $53,481, an offer that produced no takers. In January, the sale’s price was lowered to $36,317.23, the amount of taxes owed on the property, which again did not produce an interested buyer. Lewis County announced another attempt to sell the property in March, with a May 3 deadline to submit bids. According to the Lewis County Treasurer’s Office, the land sold for $2,001, one dollar more than the minimum asking price. The Lewis County Assessor’s Office values the property at $568,400. “We’re really excited about the fact that there’s so much support for the cemetery,” Rector Stephen Morrison said. “It’s a very, very nice facility and it could be wonderful. It’s too bad that it was let go like it was.” According to Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope, the sale price covers the administrative costs the county has paid during ownership. Lewis County, Swope said, received "three really good offers,” though the price wasn’t a determining factor. “I’m just grateful that we have an entity that will treat the property with the respect that it deserves,” Swope said. A U.S. Navy veteran, Morrison said he helped restore the Hotel Olympus in Tacoma and a property in Juneau, Alaska, among other projects. According to Graveline, his background includes funeral directing and embalming, and managing cemeteries in both Arizona and Wisconsin. “We let the county know that we’re not just walking in. We have plans,” Graveline said. “Plans to better the property and keep it alive for generations to come.” Lewis County will require the group to provide proof of a cemetery authority certificate from the Washington State Department of Licensing before releasing endowment funds associated with the property. Graveline and Morrison are members of the St. James Anglican Church in Tumwater, though the cemetery will act independently from the church. “If you get an opportunity like this, to do something that’s a legacy, it’s something we look forward to,” Morrison said. “It seemed to make sense when we saw this chance.” The improvement plan includes less noticeable items such as repaving cracked roads and repairing a small outstructure near the entrance. The building will be staffed and serve as an office for the cemetery. Other work will allow the new ownership group to offer expanded services. Graveline said they plan to install a 100-niche columbarium along the fenceline, and an existing wall crypt on the property will be expanded. The plans include a “baby land” for families who have lost an infant or young child and a nature walk and urn garden in a wooded area on the property. “It’ll be a nice, quiet place for people to go to,” Graveline said. “It’ll look beautiful.” There isn’t a timeline for when improvements could begin though Graveline said, “It will roll quickly.” As the property sat in limbo, residents established a “Restore Mountain View Cemetery” Facebook page and volunteered efforts to maintain and improve the land. Over the past year, teams of Lewis County residents worked to restore the property. For the past year, around a dozen volunteers visited the property three or four times per week with weed-whackers, lawnmowers and garbage bags to restore gravesites. Craig Steepy, of Chehalis, led much of the effort to maintain the property. In an interview Friday morning, Steepy praised Lewis County for the resources and staff time it dedicated to the property. “It wouldn’t look as good today as it does if it wasn’t for a joint effort between the volunteer group and the county,” Steepy said. The new ownership group is planning a volunteer appreciation day in June to recognize residents who have maintained the property. “I’ve never seen an outpouring like that for a cemetery,” Graveline said. “The volunteers have done an amazing job here.” |
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Centralia approves 189-lot housing project near Seminary Hill
Following more than an hour and a half of discussion Tuesday, including around 50 minutes of public comment mostly in opposition, the Centralia City Council approved plans for the Woodland Glen housing development with a vote of 6-1, with Councilor Mark Westley being the sole opposition. While the plans were approved, the current developer, Bellevue-based APJJ, LLC, is now in the process of attempting to sell the approved plans to another developer who will actually carry out Woodland Glen’s construction. Woodland Glen is a 189-lot mixed-residential housing development featuring townhouses and single-family, three-bedroom homes on nearly 49 acres of land in the Seminary Hill area. It includes an area where the city-owned Armory Hills Golf Course — which closed permanently in the mid-2000s — once operated. Residents surrounding the property have been pushing back against the development for months in multiple Centralia Planning Commission meetings. While many said they understand the city’s need for more housing amid the affordable housing crisis, some cited concerns about traffic and pedestrian increases in the area, flooding fears and potential issues with the development’s Washington State Environmental Policy Act approval. Those concerns were raised again Tuesday. “All of the things that we have spoken about, either in writing or orally, have had to do with the public safety aspect of this project,” Centralia resident Richard Mack said during public comment. “We are in support of the planned-unit development proposed. We are opposed to the current access that is proposed.” Currently, the planned development has two proposed entrance roads that, once constructed, will both empty onto Duffy Street at different points, which meets the legal requirements dictated by city code. “They might, however, meet the letter of the law, but as has been stated, moving Duffy 20 feet, plus or minus, could potentially make two legal streets,” Centralia resident Claudia Kienholz said. “But anyone who’s ever had to evacuate in an emergency, those intersections, after they’ve been changed, are not two access points.” Not everyone who spoke during public comment was in opposition, as Gary Larson, a Tumwater resident looking to move to Centralia, supported the development. “I grew up here … and as of recently have been trying to get full-time employment here,” Larson said. “One thing that concerns me though is housing, trying to find a place to live down here.” He acknowledged the concerns being raised, but still wanted the development to be approved to help create more housing for the middle class. One of the owners of APJJ, John Mastandrea, was in attendance Tuesday. He said he and his partners have explored other options, including purchasing other properties surrounding the golf course to create an access point on Gold Street. Mastandrea claimed the property owner was asking for a stipulation he just couldn’t agree to. “It says in (an email), ‘I would like to have in the agreement that you would delay putting houses on the northern hilltop area for at least seven years. We would like to keep some privacy until our youngest graduates,’” Mastandrea said. “You have to look at everything two ways, one, economically, and the other is, I can’t wait seven years … It’s not the $1.6 million dollars. It’s tying my hands to seven years for 30 house lots.” Drew Harris, a civil engineer for Momentum Civil, which helped APJJ create the plans, added another access point was considered. “Let me just remind you all this piece of property only has one legal access point at this time, without the acquisition of additional property that must be purchased from a private party on Byrd Street,” Harris said. As for the traffic concerns, Centralia City Engineer Patty Page broke down the traffic impact analysis performed by the developers. The analysis was based on a total of 215 proposed homes being developed. “It’s going to be less than what they estimated because they’re building less homes,” Page said. “But based on their traffic impact analysis they did, it was 2,042 weekday daily trips, split, 1,021 in and 1,021 out.” Discussion continued back and forth among the council, city staff and developers until the council prepared to take a vote where Westley explained his opposition. “I’m still stuck on the whole point of the choke point that Byrd (Street), Duffy (Street) and Seminary Hill (Road) will create … I can’t envision what the problem or possibility could be, but to put all our eggs in one basket and have one single area where all the cars will be going back and forth from really concerns me,” Westly said. An additional vote approving the legal facts and findings of conclusions of law for the development was approved unanimously following the Woodland Glen development plans’ approval vote of 6-1. To watch the discussion of Woodland Glen’s development plans on Tuesday, visit https://tinyurl.com/37jdrtrj and start the video at the 52:05 mark.
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Former Morton employee files lawsuit against city, former mayor and former police chief for alleged sexual harassment
A lawsuit filed by a former employee against the City of Morton, former Morton Mayor Dan Mortensen and disgraced former Morton Police Chief Roger Morningstar over alleged sexual harassment in the workplace is active in Lewis County Superior Court. The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 31, 2024, according to court records. A hearing had not been scheduled as of Thursday, May 16. The employee, Jaime Fleming, ran the Morton Youth Mentoring Program from at least January 2021 through December 2023. The program partnered with the Morton Police Department to match kids ages 12 to 17 with adult mentors in the community. Fleming was also elected to the Morton City Council in late 2021, serving from January to March 2022 before resigning. Morningstar, who was hired as Morton’s police chief in 2016, resigned from the Morton Police Department in lieu of termination on June 2, 2023, after he failed a polygraph exam related to an internal investigation into allegations he sexually harassed fellow employees and citizens at both the Morton Police Department and his previous police jobs, lied on his application to the Morton Police Department, misused public funds, and mishandled an investigation into an attempted burglary by a registered sex offender, according to previous Chronicle reporting. Before his resignation, he had been on administrative leave since the City of Morton opened its internal investigation on May 15. The Washington state Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) filed a statement of charges stemming from its own investigation into the allegations on Oct. 2, 2023, and formally revoked Morningstar’s peace officer certification on Dec. 6, according to previous Chronicle reporting. Mortensen was first elected mayor of Morton in 2016 after he retired as chief of police for the Morton Police Department. He lost his reelection bid to challenger Ricky M. Mead in November 2023. Mead assumed the mayoral office in January 2024. The lawsuit alleges that the City of Morton knew of “Morningstar’s workplace transgressions at other employers,” including his resignation from at least two positions due to sexual harassment claims, at the time of hiring, and alleges the city “failed to take meaningful steps to protect employees of the city and female residents of the City of Morton and failed to take action when it became aware that Morningstar made women working for the city and those living in the community (feel unsafe).” More than 35 instances where Morningstar allegedly made sexually offensive comments or sexually harassed Fleming are detailed in the lawsuit, including times where he made repeated comments about her breasts, talked to her about “the sexual antics and conquests of his best friend,” commented to her about other women’s breasts, repeatedly asked her if she or her husband would engage in affairs, helped spread a false rumor that the two of them were having an affair, showed her “pictures on his phone of women he found attractive,” and made obscene hand gestures during conversations with her. The lawsuit also details an August 2022 incident where Morningstar allegedly closed the doors behind her while she was alone with him in his office and “came up behind her and began to rub her shoulders.” The lawsuit states that Morningstar acted “without Fleming’s consent, permission or knowledge,” and when she tried to pull away, he allegedly “grabbed her arms and learned into her face … sat down and said, ‘You don’t need to be so tense, you just need to relax.’” He allegedly proceeded to speak to her for two hours about his marriage and his sex life, repeatedly, stating “he needed an ‘outlet; and that he needed a woman.” Morningstar allegedly made multiple comments to Fleming throughout the years she worked at the city about his sex life as an attempt “to get her to have sex with him.” The lawsuit states, “after these types of conversations, she would go home and cry due to his actions.” There were also multiple incidents where Morningstar allegedly showed up at Fleming’s residence — once in October 2022 to “show her his Braveheart Halloween costume and volunteer that he had no underwear under his kilt because he wanted to be in character,” and multiple times between January and March 2023 to make inappropriate comments about Fleming’s breasts and volunteer information about an affair he was having with a different woman. When Fleming filed a complaint with Mortensen in April 2023, Morningstar allegedly “parked in front of her house in an unmarked car for several hours each day in an effort to retaliate and intimidate Fleming,” according to the lawsuit. Fleming reportedly advised Mortensen of Morningstar’s conduct, at which time Mortensen allegedly “admitted this was not the first complaint made about Police Chief Morningstar” and stated “some people are a little more sensitive than other people,” according to the lawsuit. Over the course of its investigation, CJTC documented three reports of sexual harassment — including Fleming’s — by Morningstar while he was employed with the Morton Police Department. The other two reports came from a former officer with the Morton Police Department and a citizen who worked at a coffee shop that Morningstar frequented. Multiple people CJTC interviewed during the investigation into Morningstar’s conduct in Morton indicated they knew more people who had been sexually harassed by Morningstar but would not come forward due to fear of repercussions, according to previous Chronicle reporting. The Chronicle’s previous article on the CJTC investigation is accessible online at https://tinyurl.com/3edeu86v. The lawsuit asks for the court to award Fleming “all economic damages and non-economic damages as will be proven at time of trial,” including attorney fees, prosecuting costs and “other and further relief as this court deems just and equitable.” Fleming is being represented by J. Roderik Stephens of Synergistic Law. All three defendants filed notices of appearance in March, according to court documents. Attorney Amanda Gabrielle Butler has filed to represent both Mortensen and the City of Morton in the lawsuit. Morningstar is being represented by George Allen Mix and Michael George Sanders of Mix Sanders Thompson, PLCC, according to court documents.
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