Breaking News: The Capitol Theater is going to begin some major renovation tomorrow (Monday). The marquee will be removed and the awning will be repaired.

So, say your last goodbyes and take a few photos bright and early because they begin at 8am. The hope is to replace the marquee with one more in the style of the original. After the marquee is removed, take a moment to notice the stained glass windows of the muses that have been hidden underneath for many years.

Had a nice lunch with JT today and we reached the conclusion that not everyone likes shooting in cold weather, and that it would be neat if the gunners on olyblog wanted to get together as a group and have a shoot.  Seems there is a couple of months to plan and organize this well enough to have it go off smoothly.

I for one would also invite anyone who wanted to show up to do so just to look at guns, ask questions or fire off a few rounds.  My guess is there will be plenty of guns and ammo to go around.  Maybe make a picnic outing out of it.  Heck one could combine a shoot and wild food foraging mission.  

Anyway I know there will be some interest, and some "shut up and quit talking about this here already" 

BTW, if anyone needs spinal realignment, I can offer the service of my Mosin Nagant M38 carbine for that purpose :-) 

This topic is in danger of hijacking Rob R's excellent "What have you changed your mind about?"

So, I'm giving y'all an opportunity to change venues. Against my better nature I might add. So rather than make this a debate, let's work together to solve a mystery. I'll even give it a small local spin to justify it.

I remember when JFK was murdered. At the time I was attending Roosevelt School and living on Eastside Street. The 9/11 experience was close in terms of how the nation was feeling. One memory I have very clearly was during the brief time Oswald was still alive in Parkland Hospital after being the victim of getting whacked by gangland figure Jack Ruby. We were watching all the live news coverage on our black and white Motorola when the words, "Lee Harvey Oswald has just died in Parkland Hospital" scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

My Mother gasped and said, "Now we'll never know the truth." Even as a kid I thought, "Hmm. Something is fishy here."

And I still think so. I hope I live long enough to get a definitive answer. I'm in the "I do not think Oswald acted alone" camp, by the way.

dropping knowledge encourages social change. Using advanced web technologies, the initiative with offices in Berlin, Germany links the voices of individuals and organizations. The web-platform enables the global public to ask and answer questions, exchange ideas, and start initiatives around the most pressing issues of our time. Events like the Table of Free Voices, campaigns like "ask yourself" and projects in cooperation with different partners create a meaningful bridge between the on and offline worlds.

(see full view of my post to learn more)

This building is the headquarters of Washington State's Associations of PUDs.

The builiding is at 212 Union Avenue. It is featured on the Fall 2007 issue of the PUD magazine Connections. The building has 159 solar panels on the roof are expected to produce about 40% of the building's energy needs and will be able to feed electricity back to the grid through grid-tie technology when the sun shines and the panels create more electricity than the building uses at any given moment.

The solar panels were donated by REC Silicon, a company in Moses Lake that is building solar panels.

The State of Washington has passed incentives for installing photovoltaics that are especially attractive if the installation is constructed with solar panels constructed in Washington State. It's inspired public policy. It commits to real production jobs here in Washington State, building solar panels, not the kind of production jobs that the Federal Dept of Labor wants to recognize and count, like the assembly of a big mac as a production job. Building durable goods, that's production. Building clean energy durable goods, that' ethical production.

Here is information regarding the grid tie incentives for photovoltaics installation in Washington State. I will be first to admit that installation of huge numbers of solar panels in Washington State will not stop the melting of the ice caps on Mars, but I think they may help with our problems here on Earth. Sad as it may be to see the ice caps of Mars go the way of the dodo, I think we better start with saving Earth's ice caps.

Find information here about the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program

Overview

USDA's Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) provides financial assistance to producers of noninsurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory or prevented planting occurs due to natural disasters.

Read more.

You are invited to attend the Autism Awareness Rally planned for February 27th, 2008, at noon in the Capitol Rotunda. We are inviting families from around the state to come and share their stories with their legislator and gather together in support of issues that are common to all those living with autism. It would be great to bring your children, if they can tolerate the crowd. We would like to put a Face on Autism.

Legislators and individuals connected with supporting autism issues this legislative session will speak. Currently, 1 out of 150 children are being diagnosed with autism. Often the waiting lists to receive a diagnosis and then appropriate treatment are months long. This is a difficult waiting time for families.

An Autism Spectrum Disorder can have a devastating impact on families affected by it. Several bills supported by the Autism Society of Washington are directed toward easing some of the distress families feel and thus go toward helping to preserve the family unit. Those bills are: