The Bellingham Herald

• Whatcom County sees biggest jump in unemployment in 15 years
  Job losses hit Whatcom County hard last month, as the number of people actively looking for work swelled by more than 2,000 between December and January. Whatcom County's unemployment rate in January soared to 8 percent, from 6.1 percent in December.
  
  While some of the jump is because of seasonality as layoffs typically occur at the end of the holiday shopping season, this big of a jump is surprising, said Hart Hodges, director of the Center for Economics and Business Research at Western Washington University.

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• Home prices flat in Whatcom County, bucking national trend
  Home prices in Whatcom County remained basically flat for the past year, escaping the trend enveloping much of the U.S., according to a new federal study.
  One reason Whatcom County prices may not be falling as much: This report is based on conforming mortgages only and does include homes financed with jumbo loans, said Julia Hansen, an Economics professor at Western Washington University. She said the high-end home market appears to be experiencing the biggest slowdown locally and may not be picked up by the index.

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• Officials from U.S. and Canada push for cooperation as Olympics near
  "It's clear Obama gets it," Gov. Chris Gregoire said Tuesday, Feb. 24, during a luncheon address to a conference on northern border issues attended by U.S. and Canadian officials. "He understands."
  
  The conference was organized by the Pacific Northwest Economic Region group, which involves public officials from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and three Canadian provinces. It was held at the Woodrow Wilson Center, involved the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University and those attending included local, state, provincial and federal officials from both countries.

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• Three UW students arrested for thefts on WWU campus
  Police have arrested three UW students in connection with a pair of burglaries in a residence hall at Western Washington University over the weekend. Western Police recovered more than $8,000 in stolen property, including laptop computers, in the thefts at Nash Hall on the Bellingham campus.

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• SBDC changes name, not mission
  Along with many companies these days, a local business counseling service is going through some changes in order to adapt to the economic climate. The Small Business Development Center at Western Washington University is changing its name to the Center for Economic Vitality and will no longer be affiliated with the SBDC.
  
  The new CEV will continue to be led by Tom Dorr and offer the same services. It will continue to be an educational program administered through Western Washington University. It will continue to be located in the Bellingham Towers in downtown Bellingham.

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• Economic woes providing lessons for WWU students
  A panel of financial experts told Western Washington University students and community members that they may need a strong stomach to ride out the current financial crisis, during a discussion Thursday, Feb. 19, at Western's Academic Instructional Center.

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• Athletics news: Western golf places fourth in tournament; WWU's Flem is GNAC player of the week; Freshmen lead WWU golf to preseason national ranking; Viking men fall in OT; Women win at home; Track and field takes second place; Softball sweeps on road trip; Graham continues to lead Vikings

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Chronicle of Higher Education

• Why build the way we always have?
  When doing a campus master plan or planning a new facility, give equal consideration to locations in the community and locations on campus, particularly facilities for professional programs. Among the advantages: Doing so places selected academic programs in the community that the institution seeks to serve; enhances the institution's role in community development; and provides creative financing opportunities through third-party financing and redevelopment funds. This is consistent with our for-profit competitors, which locate their facilities in convenient locations for students. There are also many excellent examples in the nonprofit sector, including those at Georgia Tech, the University of Michigan at Dearborn, Western Washington University, and the Savannah College of Art and Design, which has developed its entire campus in two million renovated square feet in 60 locations in the city's historic district.

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Seattle P-I

• Washington legislature cuts funding
  The Legislature took its first step toward dealing with Washington's massive budget deficit on Wednesday, passing bills that would free up more than $700 million to help fill the current fiscal year's budget deficit. Gov. Chris Gregoire quickly signed the savings bills into law and applauded lawmakers for moving with unusual speed. But that relatively quick work was immediately overshadowed by an upcoming preliminary state revenue forecast, scheduled for Thursday.

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Consumer Reports

• Automotive X-Prize entries near finalization
  At least 25 teams have been accepted to compete in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, beginning later this year. The X Prize organization announced that the entry list will close at the end of this month. Entrants fall into two classes, a Mainstream class that must seat four, have a 200-mile range, and have at least four wheels; and an Alternative class that must carry at least two and have a 100-mile range.
  Entries include Western Washington University, another successful team in previous alternative fuel races, including winning the California Clean Air race in 1991 and placing first in class in the 1991 GM-sponsored Sunrayce solar-car event in Australia. Western will enter a biomethane and CNG powered hybrid in the Alternative class.

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Winnipeg Free Press

• Obama may not be the free-trade defender Canada needs
  Barack Obama may have once trash talked free trade, but few are expecting anything so antagonistic during his first visit to his country's closest trading partner.  Rather, the U.S. president's first words on foreign soil Thursday will likely aim to smooth any ruffled feathers over his campaign rhetoric to renegotiate or kill the North American trade pact under which $1.5 billion in goods cross the border each day."I think he will want to send a signal to Canadians that we want to make this relationship as strong as possible," says Don Alper, director of the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University.

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