Kim Kalliber, Author at Tulalip News

Grant helps EdCC support student wellness

Edmonds Community CollegeSheryl Copeland is the Counseling and Wellness Services director at Edmonds Community College. — Edmonds Community College
Sheryl Copeland is the Counseling and Wellness Services director at Edmonds Community College.

Theresa Goffredo, The Herald

One might say that healthy students and staff make for a healthy campus.

That’s the aim of a new program that’s set to begin in the fall at Edmonds Community College.

The college recently was awarded a $369,000 grant from Verdant Health Commission to create a Wellness and Health Promotion program for students and campus employees.

The ultimate mission of the new program is to keep students enrolled and employees working by helping them to find ways to address their wellness and health concerns so they can reach their goals, whether those goals are academic or professional.

“We are creating that culture of support,” said Sheryl Copeland, “That’s why I’m here, I want people to reach their goals.”

Copeland, recently named the college’s Director of Counseling and Wellness Services, will direct the new program.

The program will hire a full-time project coordinator and a part-time substance abuse specialist and two student programmers.

Copeland said she hoped to have several positions filled by early August so the program can start helping the campus community by the beginning of fall semester.

The grant will fund the program for two years and a half years. College leaders are in the early stages of talking about ways to fund the program to keep it going, Copeland said.

One of the top priorities for the college is to promote health literacy and healthy interpersonal relationships and promote the benefits of nutrition and exercise.

The new wellness promotion program can help students and staff identify health and wellness issues such as a learning disability or a substance abuse problem and get them help dealing with those issues.

“When a student is facing so many responsibilities, a lot of ‘now’ things crowd out the future,” Copeland said. “We want to look at the student holistically and get them connected to a resource to reduce the barrier, whether that’s an academic learning disability or medical or mental health concern. It’s hard to do homework when you think there’s no point.”

Copeland joked that the campus doesn’t have a force field that keeps life out and that many life stressors, such as juggling work and school or juggling a child and school, can lead to a student or staff’s failure to complete a degree or stay on the job. The new wellness and health center would offer a place for challenged students and staff to go to seek help.

Edmonds Community College has a diverse student population, made up of high school students, about 350 veterans using their GI bill, about 50 percent on financial aid, about 14 percent on disability, 25 percent in basic skills programs such as getting their GED, 31 percent have dependants and almost half are working.

So these are vulnerable populations, Copeland said.

So part of the program’s goal is to empower the students and staff to take an active role in their well being.

“Helping them be advocates for themselves,” Copeland said, and equipping them with important, lifelong self-care skills.

Unhealthy students create more of an impact in the classroom because of bad behavior that is manifested because “it’s life stuff going on how and that’s how they are exhibiting their reaction to the stress,” Copeland said.

“So let’s figure out how we can get you connected to the stress and see how that could be reduced.”

Copeland said she wants the program to look at the whole system.

“Ours is going to be much more global and more visible and accessible,” Copeland said. “We could be a model for other community and technical colleges and it’s very exciting.”

Feds will review Snohomish County Jail

Rikki King, The Herald

EVERETT — The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office has asked the federal government to review operations and medical services at the Snohomish County Jail, where at least seven inmates have died since 2010.

Two of the deaths have resulted in pending legal claims against the county alleging that inmates were denied basic medical care.

The review is scheduled this summer, sheriff’s spokeswoman Shari Ireton said Wednesday. It will be done by the National Institute of Corrections, the same division of the U.S. Department of Justice that reviewed operations at the Monroe Correctional Complex after the murder of corrections officer Jayme Biendl in 2011.

The consultants will visit the jail and interview corrections officers, civilian staff and inmates, Ireton said.

Afterward, the sheriff’s office will receive a report with findings and recommendations for change. The report will be made public. The review is paid for by the justice department.

County Executive John Lovick requested the review earlier this year while he was still sheriff. The recommendation came from corrections bureau chief Mark Baird, Ireton said. The recent inmate deaths were a factor in the decision. The justice department agreed to conduct the review a few weeks ago.

The sheriff’s office has made changes since taking over the jail’s operations in 2008, but recognizes the need for additional improvements, Ireton said.

“No death in the jail is acceptable to our staff,” she said. “We have a lot of people and resources and policies and procedures in place to keep that from happening. The challenge we are presented with is a population who may not be in the best of health.”

The report’s findings won’t help the inmates who already have died in the jail, said Everett attorney Royce Ferguson, who represents the family of Lyndsey Elizabeth Lason. Lason, 27, suffocated at the jail in 2011 when her infected lungs slowly filled with fluid. Other inmates said Lason had pleaded for medical care.

The county has acknowledged receipt of the $10 million wrongful death claim but has not otherwise responded, Ferguson said Wednesday. His firm already has hired an outside expert to analyze jail operations as well.

The claim was meant in part to force changes to prevent additional deaths, he said.

“Lyndsey didn’t die from prostitution or from drug use,” Ferguson said. “She died because someone at the jail didn’t do their job.”

Another high-profile death was that of Michael Saffioti, 22.

Saffioti died at the jail in July 2012 from bronchial asthma triggered by severe allergies. His family has hired a Seattle attorney to press for answers. He was in jail for marijuana possession.

The county corrections budget for 2013 is $43.9 million. Of that, $4.3 million is budgeted for medical services. Medication amounts to about $1 million.

There are 337 budgeted corrections staff positions, including roughly 25 medical staff.

The jail’s average daily inmate population is about 1,200.

Ireton on Wednesday outlined some of the concerns the review is expected to address.

One challenge has been hiring and keeping nurses, as evidenced by the post’s frequent inclusion in the county’s job listings.

Qualified nurses are in high demand, and it can be difficult to persuade them to work in corrections, Ireton said.

The review also is expected to include the distribution of medications in the jail, and the use of contracts to house inmates from agencies in neighboring counties, Ireton said.

Medical services at the jail are similar to a community health clinic, Ireton said. Inmates often come in with untreated conditions, including health problems related to years of drug and alcohol abuse. Many suffer from mental health issues or need emergency dental care. Someone never arrested before may be delivered to the jail without their heart medication or blood-pressure pills, Ireton said.

In addition, corrections staff are dealing with people coming down off street drugs, she said. They’re getting inmates to their court hearings and providing services without knowing if an inmate is staying one night or several weeks.

Jails must provide a complex number of services required under federal, state and local laws, Ireton said.

“We see a lot of emergency issues come up because of a lack of care and (lack) of preventative care, and now they’ve finally shown up in a system that has that care,” she said.

The Schimmel Sisters of Art: Contemporary Native Artwork From Umatilla

Indian Country Today Media Network

Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts is housed within the historic St. Andrews mission schoolhouse, itself situated at the base of the Blue Mountain foothills on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon. Since 1992, it has been a peaceful and inspiring place to go and create art and a gathering place for contemporary Native artists. The nonprofit institute draws artists from around the world to its state-of-the-art printmaking studio, Crow’s Shadow Press. Its goal is to provide opportunities for Native Americans through artistic development.

Although Umatilla artistry of a much different variety, the hardcourt play of Louisville Cardinals basketball players Shoni and Jude Schimmel, has been making headlines recently, it’s now the extraordinary contemporary artwork being created at Crow’s Shadow that is drawing much deserved attention. Now open and running until January 5, 2014 a the National Museum of the American Indian’s Gustav Heye Center in New York City is the exhibit Making Marks: Prints from Crow’s Shadow.

Rick Bartow, “Facing Left Raven,” 2008. (Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts/NMAI)

The exhibition showcases 18 works by seven contemporary Native American artists: Rick Bartow, Wiyot, Phillip John Charette, Yup’ik, Joe Fedderson, Colville Confederated Tribes, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Cheyenne/Arapaho, James Lavadour, Walla Walla, Wendy Red Star, Crow, and Marie Watt, Seneca. The prints in Making Marks were collaborations between Crow’s Shadow master printer Frank Janzen and visiting artists; they are part of the Crow’s Shadow permanent collection.

Crow’s Shadow is located on the Umatilla rez in the gorgeous foothills of Oregon’s Blue Mountains

Although Crow’s Shadow places an emphasis on contemporary, fine-art printmaking, it also functions as a venue to practice traditional Native American art practices — weaving, bead working and regalia making — of the Plateau region. To learn more about Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, go to CrowsShadow.org.

And for more information about the NMAI exhibit in New York, Making Marks: Prints from Crow’s Shadow, go to AmericanIndian.si.edu.

National Memorial to Native American Veterans May Finally Be Built

Indian Country Today Media Network

Amid all the controversy and ugliness associated with the surging push to have NFL team owner Dan Snyder change the widely considered racist name of his Washington, D.C. franchise, something truly positive for Indian country is developing in the U.S. capital.

This week, Congressman Markwayne Mullin introduced H.R. 2319, the Memorial Amendments Act. This follows Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introducing S. 1046, Native American Veterans’ Memorial Amendments Act of 2013 on May 23.

This legislation amends the Native American Veterans’ Memorial Establishment Act of 1994 to allow the National Museum of the American Indian to construct a memorial to Native Veterans on the museum’s grounds, which is on the National Mall. Current law authorizes a memorial inside the confines of the museum, but there is not sufficient space within the facility to construct a proper tribute to Native American Veterans.

A Cherokee, and a member of the Natural Resources subcommittee on Indian and Alaskan Native Affairs, Mullin noted the importance of the introduction and passage of H.R. 2319.

“Our Native American heritage is one we can take pride in and one we should respectfully honor,” said Mullin, in a press release. “Passage of this legislation is vital to get this project off the ground and get our brave Native Americans who fought for our freedoms the memorial they deserve. I thank my colleagues for their support and look forward to working together as we pay tribute to our Native American veterans.”

Members have shown strong, bipartisan support for H.R. 2319, with 10 cosponsors including Congressman Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) and Congressman Raul Ruiz (D-California). (Senator Schatz’s bill also enjoys bipartisan support, an encouraging sign. The original 1994 memorial legislation too was passed with support from both sides of the aisle.)

“I am pleased to co-sponsor this legislation with Congressman Mullin,” said Cole, who is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. “We both have great pride in our Native American heritage and recognize the importance of sharing that heritage with others. It is high time that the National Museum of the American Indian is able to move forward with the construction of a memorial to honor our veterans on its grounds. This bill facilitates that goal and also approves museum fundraising efforts, paving the way for us to truly recognize those Native Americans who bravely served our country.”

“Throughout American history, Native Americans have served our country with honor and bravery,” said Ruiz. “It is important that we highlight their patriotism and sacrifice with a Native American veterans’ memorial on the National Mall, and I’m proud to join my colleagues in strong bipartisan show of support for this legislation.”

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker said he supports the bipartisan changes in the Native American Veterans’ Memorial Amendments Act of 2013.

“I respect and admire any man or woman who has donned a uniform and played their role in securing and defending America’s liberties,” Baker said. “The Cherokee people have a deep tradition in American military history. Many fine young men and women have served and to all of them we owe a debt of gratitude. A memorial in D.C. near the National Museum of the American Indian is a fitting tribute and I thank Representative Mullin and the other sponsors for making it a priority. Every one of us has a family member with a veteran’s story. They served and they fought – and many of them died – for the freedoms that we all enjoy today. I hope we keep their history alive.”

To track the progress of Senator Schatz’s bill in Congress, click here.

To track the progress of Representative Mullin’s bill in Congress, click here.

Get salmon and fly-fishing tips this weekend at Tulalip Cabela’s Store

Mark Yuasa, The Herald

The Tulalip Cabela’s Store is hosting some Father’s Day weekend activities:

Sunday, June 16

Fly Fishing on Highland Lakes: 1 p.m. in the Conference Center. The snow will be melting soon, so get ready now to hit the road for some highland lake fly fishing. Learn from expert Mike Benbow from the Evergreen Fly Fishers Club as he walks you through the ins and outs of fly fishing on highland lakes.

The store is located at 9810 Quil Ceda Blvd. in Tulalip. For more information, go to www.cabelas.com/tulalip.

Father’s Day Specials at Quil Ceda Creek Casino

Sunday, June 16. www.QCCcasino.com

Beading Demonstration at Hibulb, June 15

Mary Williams will be demonstrating her Native beadwork, Sunday June 15, 1PM to 2PM at the Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center. www.hibulbculturalcenter.org

Skagit River Bridge rallying point at hearing

Congress agrees infrastructure needs to be fixed, but plan remains uncertain

Gina Cole, GoSkagit.com

The Skagit River Bridge snagged Congressional attention Thursday morning, as a subcommittee on transportation appropriations grilled federal officials on how to fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and how to pay for those fixes.

A temporary replacement for the span of the bridge that collapsed into the Skagit River two weeks ago should be in place by June 20, with a permanent replacement done by Oct. 1, said Victor M. Mendez, administrator for the Federal Highway Administration.

“We intend to meet that deadline,” he said.

The bridge’s collapse has snarled traffic and stalled economic activity in the region, and fueled a national conversation about its failing infrastructure. The federal Department of Transportation has promised emergency funding for its repair.

Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the subcommittee on transportation appropriations, used Skagit as an example of the “devastation” that can occur when a major roadway is shut down by such an incident.

“Unfortunately, I know all too well what happened when our infrastructure fails,” she said, introducing the hearing.

Murray lamented efforts in Congress to “choke off” investments in transportation projects in favor of shorter-term budget fixes.

“We’re not really saving any money at all; we’re actually making things worse,” she said. “… If we don’t make investments now, we’ll be stuck with a much bigger bill down the road.”

The average age of a bridge in the United States is 42 years. About 70,000 of the nation’s 600,000-odd bridges have been deemed structurally deficient by the Federal Highway Administration. The 58-year-old Skagit River Bridge wasn’t one of them, but it was considered functionally obsolete, meaning if it were built today it would be built to stricter standards.

The bridge also is “fracture-critical,” meaning a failure at one point can cause larger portions of the bridge to fail. That’s what happened when an oversize load struck a truss while heading south on the bridge the night of May 23.

Being fracture-critical doesn’t in and of itself mean a bridge is unsafe, Mendez said at Thursday’s hearing. Requirements for steel toughness, welding quality and other construction elements are stringent, and highway officials inspect those elements regularly, he said.

If a bridge were unsafe, it would be closed, Mendez told the Senators.

For about an hour, the subcommittee questioned Mendez, along with Polly Trottenberg, undersecretary for policy with the Department of Transportation, and Phillip R. Herr, director of physical infrastructure issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

A sticking point at the hearing was how to fund repairs or replacements for any of the nation’s aging roads and bridges. President Barack Obama has suggested using money freed up by military drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan, but many members of Congress want to use that money for other things, and it hasn’t actually been earmarked for anything in particular, Trottenberg said.

Federal grant and loan programs have helped a bit, but there just isn’t enough money to go around, she said.

The Highway Trust Fund, which is where emergency money to fix the Skagit River Bridge is coming from, will soon be depleted, Trottenberg said. For years, Congress has put money from the nation’s general fund into the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent.

“This is clearly fiscally and politically unsustainable,” she said.

Herr told the subcommittee that large-scale bridge projects are “too expensive to be implemented with federal funds alone,” but many states face budget crises of their own.

Speakers at the hearing seemed to agree on the need for a long-term plan to fund surface transportation but reached no conclusion on what that plan would be.

The Skagit River Bridge collapse has been “an eye opener for everyone in my state,” Murray said. But challenges funding infrastructure are not unique to Skagit or Washington, she said.

“We’ll be looking very closely at that in the appropriations process,” she said.

Strawberries, art, jousting and more weekend fun

Tulalip Tribal members Carol McKay and her brother, Peter Henry, will be representing the Tulalip Tribes as this year’s Marysville Strawberry Festival King and Queen. Photo by Diane Janes.

Lauren SalcedoHerman Williams Sr. has been selected to be the Strawberry Festival Grand Marshal. — Lauren Salcedo
Herman Williams Sr. has been selected to be the Strawberry Festival Grand Marshal.

The Herald

Strawberries: The Marysville Strawberry runs through Sunday, with a carnival, market, parades, fireworks and, of course, strawberry shortcake. For even more strawberries, the Biringer Strawberry Festival is Saturday and Sunday in Arlington with U-pick fields, pony rides and lots of other family-friendly fun. Get the details on both events in our story here.

For art lovers: The Edmonds Arts Festival is Friday through Sunday. More than 240 artists will sell their fine arts and crafts. There will also be food vendors and fun for kids. Get more details in our story here.

In honor of Dad: Sunday is Father’s Day. So, Dad gets a pass to do whatever he wants, of course. If he like cars, he might enjoy an event meant just for him. The Father’s Day celebration in Monroe includes a car show, pageant, music, soda fountain, beer, wine and more. Read more about it here.

Garden art: The Schack’s latest exhibit, “Art of Garden” is now open. It features more than 40 regional artists. The exhibit includes a variety of mediums, and artwork for display indoors or out. Read more here.

Meet an astronaut: NASA astronaut Mike Foreman will present a talk from 1 to 1:45 p.m. Saturday at the Future of Flight Aviation Center in Mukilteo. Admission is free. Foreman will be available to sign autographs and pose for photos from 1:45 to 2:15 p.m. For more information, click here.

Jousting: The Seattle Knights will present two jousting shows on Saturday at the Rhodes River Ranch in Oso. You’ll see jousting and plenty of choreographed stage combat, with real weapons. You’ll also get to enjoy dinner from the Ranch’s restaurant. Get more information here.

Get active: A Youth Fitness Expo is Saturday at McCollum Park in Everett. Kids can get information on a ton of activities. Kids can race on or simply try out the BMX track at the park. Get more information here.

For hikers: Craig Romano, a prolific Washington state guidebook author, will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at the Everett Firefighters hall. He will focus on day hiking the Columbia River Gorge. The event is the monthly program meeting for the Pilchuck Audubon Society. Get more information here.

Horses: All Breed Equine Rez-Q has an event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The event will raise awareness about rescue groups in the area. There will be demonstrations with horses at liberty, games, raffles and more. Get more details here.

NW Grind: Two skateboarding and scooter competitions are this weekend. The first is Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Arlington Skate Park. The second is Sunday at 1 p.m. at Lake Tye Skate Park in Monroe. Check out NW Grind’s website for details or to register.

Weather casts pall over summer salmon opener

Tulalip Cabela’s offers free seminars on major upcoming fisheries this weekend

Wayne Kruse, The Herald

The first major saltwater salmon fishing season of the summer opened over the weekend, and results were probably better than had been anticipated.

Coastal marine areas 1 and 2 (Ilwaco and Westport) opened for their early hatchery chinook fishery — marked kings only — and despite all handicaps managed to produce decent fishing.

Wendy Beeghley, coastal creel sampling coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Saturday’s weather was really lousy — bad enough that the Westport bar was closed for part of the day — and only marginally better on Sunday. Add to that a forecast for a smaller run of chinook to the Columbia River this year than last (although still pretty decent) and the normal day or two needed by the charter fleet to locate the fish at the start of a season, and the average of a half-chinook per rod on Sunday at Westport wasn’t half bad.

There was little effort at Ilwaco, Beeghley said, probably attributable to the weather, and an average on Sunday of about one-third fish per person.

Best fishing in the Westport area was north, Beeghley said, off Ocean Shores, and the fish ran the whole range, size-wise, from 8 to about 20 pounds.

“We expect fishing to improve in the region as the weather calms down,” Beeghley said. “The offshore troll fishery has continued to improve, indicating better numbers of fish coming down the coast.”

The selective chinook fishery in area 1 runs through June 21, and at Westport, through June 22, allowing two fin-clipped kings per day. The regular summer salmon season opens in both areas the day after the early season closure, while the early selective season off La Push and Neah Bay runs June 22-28.

Shad

It’s the peak of the season right now for shad in the Columbia River, with daily counts over Bonneville reaching 200,000 fish on Monday, and the cumulative count at 1.75 million. “That’s about double what it was last year at this time,” said state biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver.

“It’s crowded on the weekends,” Hymer added, “but fishing has been pretty good. The creel checks last week were about 10 shad per rod, river-wide, and most of those were incomplete fishing days so the average was probably higher than that.”

He said that unlike some previous years, most of the shad caught in this Washington-side fishery are being kept.

“More user groups are showing up that like to eat the fish,” he said, “and we’ve seen stringers of 100-plus fish. You do need a license, but there is no limit on shad in the Columbia.”

The sporty little 1- to 5- or 6-pound fish are bony, but considered fairly good table fare when properly prepared, and some anglers like the roe, grilled in the skein like sausages and served with scrambled eggs and toast. Others catch and release, or save a few for crab bait.

The area immediately below the Washington-side “new powerhouse” portion of Bonneville Dam is a popular, but crowded, spot, from the yellow deadline marker 600 feet below the dam, downstream. Hamilton Island, below the dam, is also a good bet. Drive east on Hwy 14 a couple of miles past the town of North Bonneville to a line of transmission towers, and take the turnoff to the right. That road leads to the Hamilton Island boat launch and there are good, public, bank fishing spots both above and below the launch. Any small point and its attendant eddy marks a good place to try for shad, which will generally be close to shore and out of the heavy current.

A heavy-trout-weight spinning rod with soft action is about right, and a reel loaded with 6- or 8-pound test line. Use a slinky or piece of pencil lead, or a one-ounce sliding sinker, and about three feet of leader. Lure can be most anything small and shiny or colorful — spoon, spinner, crappie jig, shad dart, bare size 1 or 2 hook with three yellow or red beads strung above it. A lot of bank fishing spots can be grabby, so go equipped with plenty of gear.

Cast upstream and about 30 feet out, let the lure sink until you think it’s just above the bottom, then retrieve slowly and let it swing around below you. Most popular spots are too crowded for float-and-jig fishing, Hymer said.

The shad fishery is considered a very good family experience, but youngsters should definitely be equipped with flotation jackets when anywhere near the Columbia’s often heavy currents.

Seminars

Good stuff this weekend at Cabela’s Tulalip store, in the form of free seminars on major upcoming fisheries:

Fishing for Kings in Area 9, Saturday, 11 a.m., in the fishing department, Hear special tips and techniques of local experts and bring your stories to share.

Fly Fishing on High Country Lakes, Sunday, 1 p.m. in the Conference Center. The snow will be melting soon and Mike Benbow has been there, done that, on many of the Cascades’ best high country waters. He’ll walk you through the ins and outs of fly fishing the highland lakes.

Waterfowl festival

Over the past 12 years, the Oregon Waterfowl Festival Association has donated nearly $20,000 to Ducks Unlimited for improving habitat on lower Columbia River estuary wetlands. This year’s event runs June 29-30, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in St. Helens, Oregon. For information go to oregonwaterfowlfestival.com.

Lingcod

Marine Area 7, the San Juan Islands, close to ling fishing at the end of the day Saturday, offering one last shot at what has been an excellent season. WDFW checks at the Washington Park launch on Sunday showed 25 anglers with 9 lings and 2 cabezon. Kevin John at Holiday Sports in Burlington said that reports have slowed around Lopez Island, but that the north end of the islands has held up well. He said that while Deception Pass and Burrows Island were hit hard in the first few weeks of the season, he thinks new fish have moved in to fill the habitat and that fishing has remained good. Dunk a herring in Deception Pass, or a white or rootbeer grub on a jighead. Around Burrows, he said, work the shallower water and rockslides with a 6- or 9-inch swimshad.

Potholes Reservoir

Arguably the best all-around fishery in Eastern Washington, Potholes Reservoir is coming on as water temps warm. Mike Meseberg at MarDon Resort said bass fishing on the face of O’Sullivan Dam offers top early-season action on smallmouth bass, using topwater lures. Or run over to the Lind Coulee Arm and toss diving plugs in crawdad pattern, or half-ounce spinner baits in chartreuse or white. Work the rocky points, Meseberg said, and you might also nail the occasional walleye.