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The Bellingham Herald
- New report gets to the nitty-gritty of Whatcom real estate market
Last year was a time of significant change in the local housing market, and now there's a comprehensive report showing what happened.
Earlier this month the 31st volume of Whatcom County Real Estate Research Report was released, providing a wide variety of data, from building permit activity to home sales to commercial vacancy rates.
"While prices finally declined, the decline in 2008 was relatively modest. Some people might have expected larger declines both because of the large declines experienced in many other markets and because prices are high in Bellingham relative to household income," said Julia Hansen in an e-mail. Hansen is the editor of the 138-page report and an Economics professor at Western Washington University.
- 10 years later, Kings learning to feel joy again
Wade King is forever a child.
His friends are becoming men. But Wade always will be a boy, in the memories of those who love him and on the gravestone etched with the prayer he said each night with dad, Frank King.
Ten years later, the Kings talk about those first nightmarish days that gave way to years of fog, about pushing for pipeline safety, about honoring their son's memory, and about being able to smile with happiness instead of always weeping in pain.
Over the years, they've shifted their attention to good deeds to honor their son. The most public of those include the donation of $400,000 to the new Wade King Elementary School and $4 million to Western Washington University for athletic scholarships and recreational programs. WWU in turn named its new student recreation center after the boy.
When WWU students wondered who Wade King was and whether their rec center was named for an old man, the Kings commissioned a life-sized sculpture by Georgia Gerber of Whidbey Island. Wade sits an alcove in the building with a baseball mitt and ball in hand, a smile on his lips, a Sehome High School baseball cap on his head - much as he would have in life.
"I want the kids to know he was a child," Mary said. "He didn't get the opportunity to go to school, but we're hoping his legacy will carry on in all these other students for years to come."
- Economist: housing bubble caused Great Depression, too
Nobel Prize-winning economist Vernon Smith draws some disturbing parallels between the events that led up to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the severe economic slump of today.
Smith, professor of economics and law at Chapman University, won his Nobel in 2002. He spoke Friday, June 5, before a standing-room-only crowd in Fraser Hall at Western Washington University.
California Chronicle
- An epic journey
Nike (pronounced nee-kay) Imoru is a Renaissance person, and we mean the actual Renaissance: She's a scholar of 16th century Shakespearean theater. Yet she's also a Renaissance person in the broader sense: a Spokane actress, university professor, director, literary scholar, personal coach and a film casting director for North by Northwest.
The University of Hull had a teacher-exchange program with Western Washington University in Bellingham, so Imoru agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to an exchange. She ended up loving the experience, mainly because she was able to form her own experimental group called The Possibilities. The group toured the Northwest, including Idaho, which is how she came to the attention of the University of Idaho. In 2001, Imoru said goodbye to Britain and took a job as a professor at the University of Idaho. She directed "The Tempest" and "As You Like It" at the Idaho Repertory Theatre, and also started directing shows for Interplayers Theatre, Spokane's professional theater.
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