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Sonics leaving Seattle

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College admissions scandal.

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Rental and home prices increasing due to high demand and short supply.

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Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child.

Despite a steady decline in this harmful practice over the past decade, child marriage remains widespread, with approximately one in five girls married in childhood across the globe. Today, multiple crises - including conflict, climate shocks and the ongoing fallout from COVID-19 - are threatening to reverse progress towards eliminating this human rights violation. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for global action to end child marriage by 2030.

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Child marriage threatens the lives, well-being and futures of girls around the world

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The long term effects of how war and battle damage the mind

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library book banning (Jenny M. )

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weed legalization
(kalea w)

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Vegas massacre- Columbine-

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Nuclear Power

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Discovery of dumped coyote carcasses.(sierra w.)

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when paul walker died
(kalea w)

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school mask mandates (sierra w)

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Kobe and Gigi Bryant's death(Camden)

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Fred Meyer Shooting (Tamzin, Gen, Onyx, Karlye)

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Man distressed by dumped coyote carcass's (Alicia Apodaca)

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Bill passed banning the use of choke holds (Tamzin, Onyx, Gen, Karlye)

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The mf that killed the birds at pioneer park(vyn H)

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Kim Jong-Il death(Camden)

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Whitman Massacre(Camden)

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Police defunding (vyn H)

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jones @pihi= 🤬?
(kalea w)

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Mask mandates
-zaeya

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vaccine mandate
(kalea w)

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rising fears of conflict between Russia and Ukraine. (sierra w.)

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Doping in the Olympics (Tamzin, Karlye, Onyx, Gen)

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Ellen Degeneres doing her last season ( vyn h)

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Murder of George Floyd (Tamzin, Gen, Onyx, Karlye)

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Global warming (vyn h)

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2 deputies in stable condition after shooting, man arrested (Alicia Apodaca)

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January 6th capital riot (sierra w.)

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WWPD body cameras (Gen, Tamzin, Karlye, Onyx)

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russia may invade ukraine during the olympics so americans are told to move (Alicia Apodaca)

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North Korea Nuclear weapons

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People want to tear down dams on the snake river for salmon population to increase, veiwing the dams as structures blocking spawning zones for salmon.
-Dylan brown

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School shootings

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Nun steals money from school in L.A. (Alicia Apodaca)

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The potential eruption of the Yellowstone caldera
-dylan brown

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Walla Walla ward's problem's come to fore after city council walk-about. (Katye)

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Walla Walla ward's problem's come to fore after city council walk-about. (Katye)

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https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/local_governments/walla-walla-wards-problems-come-to-fore-after-city-council-walk-about/article_6d1aa245-2ae6-51f2-a111-f4229cd60947.html

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When Susan Nakonieczny led a walk-about over the summer with fellow City Council members through the West Ward she represents in Walla Walla, what they saw was neither pretty nor welcoming.

Noted were homeless people camped outdoors, used drug needles, stolen items, discarded bedding, people acting aggressively, littering - and more.

To her, it added up to an overall public safety problem, a key issue for her ward that she campaigned on when she ran for Council last year.

Residents do not feel safe enough to let their kids play or bike outside because sometimes people are walking and lying on the road, noticeably on drugs, she said.

"It's not because we don't want the homeless to have help for their situation. It's that we worry about our safety," Nakonieczny said residents told her.

On Monday, she gave a virtual presentation at a Council work session of the many issues the ward faces.

She said the city had two goals when it created the Sleep Center, a place in her ward for unsheltered people to stay.

One was to provide a designated safe area for homeless people to spend the night, which allows the city to enforce the no-camping law. The second goal was to alleviate camping in public places, littering, and other problems.

"So the first goal has been met and I commend those who worked to create this safe place for the unhoused, however, the second goal to alleviate camping and so on has not been met," Nakonieczny said. "So now we need to consider the safety of our community members."

Nakonieczny presented demographic maps of West Ward residents that indicated a notable percentage of minorities, low-income workers, people in assisted living, retirees and people living in poverty.

"We live in the West Ward because we can't afford the prices in the rest of the city," she said.

She also noted the ward hosts some of the city's largest employers, such as the Washington State Penitentiary, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, City Hall, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Key Technology Inc. and Providence St. Mary Medical Center.

The ward is also home to overnight shelters, low-income housing services, homeless and mental health services, government social services and three cannabis shops, she said.

Underlying issues

It is widely accepted by Nakonieczny and her constituents that those who do not stay in shelters, tend to camp in the surrounding areas of the West Ward.

Craig Volwiler, board president of the Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless, which runs the Sleep Center, said it operates close to its 50-person capacity most nights, but does sometimes have openings.

To stay at the Sleep Center, guests must follow a set of rules, like other area shelters. Some of those entail not committing any crimes or disturbing others in any way. Guests also cannot possess or use illegal drugs or alcohol, among other restrictions.

Those who do not follow rules, however, must find someplace to stay and generally they don't go far.

Nakonieczny shared photos taken this year, showing used needles and other drug paraphernalia discarded in the area, blankets and bedding left around and destruction of property. Other photos show abandoned encampments.

She also showed the Council a video with a person shouting foul language at night, claiming it is common in the neighborhoods. If people complain about noise, foul language, yelling, fighting or other disruptions, they face retaliation, she said.

Possible solutions

Nakonieczny supports giving police and staff tools and support to enforce the safety of residents as well as homeless people, suggesting more law enforcement is needed in the area.

"Everything that we saw on that walk-about was illegal," she said.

She suggested a geographic information system map for recent crimes In Walla Walla would be more useful by showing them more visually throughout the city, rather than by the type of crime.

After the meeting, Police Chief Scott Bieber told city leaders he would work with Tech Services on what crimes and calls for service data to display and how to display it. But he noted that the usefulness of mapping is limited when attempting to track roughly 35,000 calls for service each year.

"We will look at reducing the time frame to displaying one month or maybe up to one quarter," he said in an email to the city.

Nakonieczny also suggested finding a quick way to track anti-social behavior and see how much time police spend contacting people in the ward about noise, loitering and encampments.

She suggested possibly issuing arrest warrants to people who repeatedly break laws.

"We can arrest a person on a 'book and hold' arrest warrant," Bieber responded, "but they are really just booked and released. We recently had a meeting with District Court Judge (Kristian) Hedine and County Corrections Director Norrie Gregoire where it was decided that when a person was arrested on a 'book and hold' warrant the third time, they would actually be held until they appeared in front of the judge."

If probable cause exists, police will cite or arrest and book people for the crime they have committed, but those people are not held in jail on misdemeanor charges, he said.

They are released shortly after being booked with a promise to appear in court.

Bieber said his department is working with an outside entity to implement a program to get mentally ill people who break laws treatment instead of being jailed.

Additionally, the Chief's Advisory Committee, a group that formed recently with local leaders from diverse backgrounds, is working to identify types of calls for service that more appropriate agencies can respond to and resolve rather than using police officers.

As for encampments and the trash left behind, code enforcement officers have a weekly route to check areas where homeless camps typically are and work with city sanitation to clean up the area.

Council member Myron Huie attended the summer walk-about in the West Ward and called it a "wake-up call."

"It was an eyeopener to me because I live in South Ward, and in South Ward we don't face those kinds of issues," Huie said.

He suggested the city could provide containers for unhoused people to safely dispose of rubbish, needles and trash that could cause illness or contagious diseases.

"We should give the homeless some of the basic fundamentals that we have in other areas," he said. "It represents one-fourth of our geographical population, but it contains the vast majority of our homeless problem."

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Walla Walla ward's problems come to fore after City Council walk-about

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When Susan Nakonieczny led a walk-about over the summer with fellow City Council members through the West Ward she represents in Walla Walla, what they saw was neither pretty nor welcoming. Noted were homeless people camped outdoors, used drug needles, stolen items, discarded bedding, people acting aggressively, littering - and more.

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Russia possibly invading Ukraine. (Katye)

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Russia possibly invading Ukraine. (Katye)

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/15/ukraine-russia-nato-putin-germany/

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Ukrainian troops on Feb. 14 survey the impact from shells that landed close to their positions in the country's east the previous night. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

MOSCOW - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday he sees reason for "cautious optimism" after Moscow signaled willingness to continue talks to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, and Russia said some of its troops were returning to base. But the NATO chief noted no signs of Russian de-escalation "on the ground."

"There are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue," Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels ahead of meetings with NATO defense ministers Wednesday. "There are grounds for cautious optimism. So far, we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground."

After Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled Monday that he was open to diplomacy to resolve the crisis between Russia and NATO over Ukraine's bid to join the alliance, Moscow sent a barrage of contradictory signals Tuesday - announcing that some Russian forces were being sent home after completing drills, even as major military exercises continued near Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Feb. 15 that this footage shows some of the units returning to their bases after military exercises near Ukraine. (Reuters)

Putin met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Kremlin on Tuesday, the latest in a string of Western leaders urging the Russian president to de-escalate the most serious crisis in Russia's relations with NATO since the end of the Cold War.

U.S. officials have warned that Putin has the final military pieces in position to launch a major attack within days if he chooses to do so.

"We have not seen any de-escalation on the ground, no signs of reduced Russian military presence on the border with Ukraine," Stoltenberg said Tuesday. He said NATO is looking for a "significant and enduring" withdrawal of Russian forces, troops and heavy equipment from areas bordering Ukraine as a sign of real de-escalation.

Julianne Smith, the U.S. permanent representative to NATO, said the United States has also noted the reports of Russian pullbacks but "will have to verify if that is in fact the case."

"These reports just came out," she told reporters at a briefing in Brussels. "We will assess the situation, we will work to try to verify, and we will go from there."

Russia's military said Tuesday that more than 30 of its naval vessels were carrying out a live fire exercise in the Black Sea with aircraft taking part, in preparation for a "major" naval exercise that would be supervised by Russia's naval commander.

There were also announcements about drills in other regions: Russian fighter jets armed with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and long-range bombers flew more than 900 miles to deploy at Russia's Hmeimim base in Syria ahead of Russian drills in the Mediterranean Sea, the military said. Additionally, 20 Northern Fleet ships were drilling in Barents Sea exercises.

But the military also announced that some units from Russia's Western Military District and Southern Military District were loading equipment onto rail cars to return to base after completing military exercises, in line with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's report to Putin on Monday that some drills were ending and others would end soon.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said on Feb. 14 that Russia is "doing all the things you would expect" ahead of a possible invasion of Ukraine. (The Washington Post)

U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly called on Russia to draw down its 130,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, warning that Russia has all the pieces in place for a major attack on Ukraine.

After Putin left the door open Monday to continued dialogue over his demands for an end to NATO expansion, including barring Ukraine from the alliance, State Department spokesman Ned Price called for Russian de-escalation first.

"We have not seen any meaningful, real sign of de-escalation," he told reporters Monday.

Questions remain about Moscow's intentions, with Kremlin officials, diplomats and military officials sending contradictory messages and keeping Western leaders off balance in trying to gauge whether Putin will give the order to invade Ukraine and when it might happen.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine would wait to see whether Russia was serious about drawing down its forces before concluding that Russia was moving to de-escalate.

"Russia keeps making statements of various kinds, so we have a rule: We believe it when we see it, not when we hear about it. We will believe de-escalation when we see their withdrawal," Kuleba told journalists in Kyiv.

After an earlier military buildup on Ukraine's borders last spring, Russia withdrew its forces but left significant amounts of military equipment in place, according to Ukrainian officials.

Scholz, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday, sat down with Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday, in his first meeting with the Russian leadersince taking office in December.

Scholz faces the formidable task of trying to fill the shoes of his predecessor as chancellor, Angela Merkel, who for years maintained close contact with Putin even as NATO-Russian relations plunged following Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Putin and Scholz sat at opposite ends of a long white oval table, where Putin last week met French President Emmanuel Macron. Kremlin officials said this was in line with the administration's coronavirus restrictions.

Before the talks began, Putin said he would focus on the "fierce debates" over European security and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, remained tranquil and open for business Tuesday. Shops were busy, but the main airport and the rail station for trains to the west were quiet.

While there was no sense of panic, an increasing number of residents were deciding to leave. Robert Grant, 57, an American banker, was on his way to the airport for a flight to Montreal Tuesday.

He does not predict an invasion, but his wife, a Ukrainian surgeon, is pregnant, and they decided to leave, just in case.

"I don't want to have a baby in a war zone," said Grant, who has lived in Ukraine for almost 30 years. "We were planning to leave anyway to have the baby, but we decided to go now." He estimated that half of their friends were making similar just-in-case calculations. Many of the Ukrainian families were heading west or to summer homes in the Carpathian mountains.

The couple decided to book a flight now when news broke in recent days that air carriers might begin suspending flights to Ukraine, which has yet to happen.

Russian officials have claimed that the alarms sounded by the West of a possible invasion of Ukraine amount to a "hybrid" information attack on Russia. They blame the alarms for the tensions between Russia and NATO and dismiss charges that the Russian military buildup on Ukraine's borders provoked the crisis.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Western warnings that Russia could invade Ukraine and moves to pull out diplomats were "ostentatious hysteria that is not based on anything."

"The whole world is in a fever over this. And, indeed, this is nothing but an absolutely unprecedented campaign to provoke and escalate tension in Europe. We consider this an absolutely harmful, very bad practice," he added.

"If it had not been for this hysteria, these demonstrative destructive information campaigns, the atmosphere in Europe would have been quite different," Peskov said. He added that Russia was entitled to hold military exercises on its own territory when and where it saw fit.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that the West, led by Washington, was conducting "informational terrorism" by naming Wednesday as the date when Russia could attack Ukraine. But he said talks with the United States and NATO over Russia's demands for an end to NATO expansion would continue.

Speaking at a Moscow news conference after meeting his Polish counterpart, Zbigniew Rau, Lavrov claimed that Europe would "sigh with relief" if Ukraine withdrew its application to join NATO, although Ukrainian officials Monday ruled this out.

The State Department late Monday issued an alert urging U.S. citizens to immediately depart Belarus and Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova near Ukraine, because of Russian military activity in the vicinity. The department earlier that day relocated all remaining U.S. Embassy personnel in Kyiv to the far western city of Lviv, near the border with Poland, because of what Secretary of State Antony Blinken said was "the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces" on the Ukrainian border and mounting U.S. fears of an invasion.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined Monday to put a specific number on the Russian troop buildup over the past 24 to 48 hours but said that "should [Putin] choose to invade again, he is doing all the things you would expect him to do to make sure he's ready for that option."

What's happening in the Ukraine-Russia crisis

Scholz has said he would use his trip to Moscow underscore to Putin that any attack on Ukraine would have "serious political, economic and geostrategic consequences for Russia," but he has refrained from saying that in the event of an invasion, Germany would halt Nord Stream 2, the controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany that is awaiting regulatory approval.

While Scholz said "all options are on the table" when it comes to sanctions, he has not mentioned the name of the pipeline since December.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the situation Tuesday as "extremely dangerous."

"At the borders with Ukraine, the fate of an entire country and its people is at stake at the moment due to the Russian troop deployment," she said, adding that it was "up to the government in Moscow to withdraw the troops and create full transparency."

Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine's ambassador in Berlin, called on Scholz to issue a "crisp and clear ultimatum to Mr. Putin." Speaking to German media, he said Ukraine expected Scholz to "bang on the notorious long table in the Kremlin to talk Mr. Putin to bring reason and bury his insane plans of conquest."

Russia's State Duma, its lower house of parliament, sent an appeal to Putin on Tuesday to recognize two Russian-backed separatist Ukrainian republics as independent states, a move that, should Putin agree, would effectively torpedo a stalled 2015 peace deal known as the Minsk peace agreement. The agreement is designed to end the eight-year conflict in eastern Ukraine between the separatists and Kyiv's forces and return the regions to Ukrainian control.

Lavrov said at Tuesday's news conference that there was no alternative to the Minsk agreement.

Zelensky has expressed frustration over the grim warnings from Western officials about an imminent Russian invasion, which have taken a toll on Ukraine's economy. On Monday, he declared Feb. 16 - the day some media reports have suggested Russia will invade - a national day of unity, calling on citizens to fly flags and sing the national anthem together in the morning.

The State Department said Monday that Washington is offering a sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to support Ukraine's economic reform agenda and soften any blow caused by investor panic about a possible Kremlin attack. Germany's Scholz also announced a new, rapidly accessible loan of about $170 million while in Kyiv on Monday.

Russia has backed separatist militants in Ukraine's east for the past seven years - and continues to demand that Kyiv implement a 2015 peace deal for the region brokered by France and Germany after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

The Kremlin is also trying to negotiate a sweeping rewrite of the post-Cold War European security order, demanding that Ukraine be barred from joining NATO and that the Western military alliance remove forces and troops from Eastern Europe. The United States and its NATO partners have rejected the ultimatum.

One effect of Russia's aggressive stance toward Ukraine has been unifying Western resolve. France, which had previously been more circumspect on the prospect of an imminent attack, said it now seemed Moscow had everything in place for its forces to invade.

Inside the White House preparations for a Russian invasion

"Putin wants to prevent Ukraine from exercising its sovereignty," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on France 5 TV, adding that Russia was seeking a "rump" state that was unable to choose its alliances.

Italy has had fairly warm relations with Russia until recently, but its foreign minister's trip to Eastern Europe comes as Prime Minister Mario Draghi has emphasized his support for NATO, calling Rome a protagonist in the "Atlantic Alliance."

Hendrix reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, Pannett from Sydney and Rauhala from Brussels. Loveday Morris in Berlin and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.

The latest The geography The backstory Analysis

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Russia says some troops withdrawing from Ukraine's border; NATO chief notes 'cautious optimism' but sees no de-escalation yet

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MOSCOW - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday he sees reason for "cautious optimism" after Moscow signaled willingness to continue talks to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, and Russia said some of its troops were returning to base. But the NATO chief noted no signs of Russian de-escalation "on the ground."

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https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/06/fact-sheet-u-s-strategy-on-countering-corruption/

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Washington_Initiative_732#:~:text=certain%20manufacturing%20taxes.%22-,Provisions,%25%20from%206.5%25%20to%205.5%25