
Author Archives: hgolden


The Guardian
- How socialist Kshama Sawant triumphed over Amazon in its own backyard
- Blow to Amazon as Seattle socialist looks to have triumphed in key vote
- Seattle race between socialist and Amazon-backed candidate too close to call
- ‘A problem in every national forest’: tree thieves were behind Washington wildfire
- ‘I broke down’: new law will let students take mental health days
- ‘Sister, where did you go?’: the Native American women disappearing from US cities
- Washington state takes landmark step on missing Native American women
- ‘It’s not entertainment’: hundreds hold Mueller report read-a-thons
- California earthquake: five things to know about the tremor near Los Angeles
- ‘Give back to the earth’: Washington could legalize composting of human remains
- ‘Grande ego’: Schultz disapproval gets personal in Starbucks’ home town

‘Sister, where did you go?’: the Native American women disappearing from US cities (The Guardian)
Alyssa McLemore’s grandmother called to tell her to come home early on a Thursday evening in April 2009. The 21-year-old’s mother had a serious autoimmune disease and was not doing well.
McLemore, a member of the Aleut tribe, was only about six miles from the home she shared with her three-year-old daughter, mother and other family in Kent, Washington, a sprawling city just south of Seattle. She agreed to get on a bus and head back.
When over an hour went by and McLemore still hadn’t shown up, her family had started to worry. The young woman with a cheery personality and a penchant for dancing was close with her mother and young daughter, and devoted much of her time to taking care of them, according to her aunt, Tina Russell. It wasn’t like her to not come home, she told the Guardian.
A few hours later the family received a knock on their door from two Kent police officers. They said McLemore had called 911 asking for help, and they had come to see if she was home.
“At that point, we were trying to tell the police we don’t know where Alyssa is, she’s been gone,” said Russell. “We got the standard, ‘You have to wait to report her missing, she’s grown, she can leave when she’d like. She hasn’t committed any crimes.’”
Four days went by before the missing persons report was filed and the investigation into McLemore’s disappearance was officially opened. Ten years later, her family is still looking for answers.
“Every time a body’s found, our whole life comes to a halt,” said Russell.
***
McLemore is one of thousands of Native American women and girls who have disappeared in the US, but her case is almost impossible to put into context, because there is no single federal database tracking how many people like her go missing every year.
According to FBI figures, Native Americans disappear at twice the per capita rate of white Americans, despite comprising a far smaller population. Research funded by the Department of Justice in 2008 found Native women living on tribal lands are murdered at an alarming rate – more than 10 times the national average in some places.
But with nearly three-quarters of American Indian and Alaska Natives living in urban areas, those crimes are not confined to reservations or rural communities.
Click here to read the full article!

The Atlantic/ CityLab
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- A Space-Strapped City Gets an Unusual Opportunity: A Brand-New Neighborhood
- The Decline and Evolution of the School Librarian
- Urban ‘Breathing Rooms’ May Help Smoky Cities Survive Wildfire Season
- A Native American Tribe Gets Rent as Reparations in Seattle
- This French Theme Park Doesn’t Sugarcoat Its Environmental Message
- How to Inspire Girls to Become Carpenters and Electricians
- Bills in California and Washington Address Homeless College Students
- Preparing for ‘The Big One’ in an Isolated Island Town
- Alongside New Light Rail Stations, Seattle Plans Affordable Housing
- Could ‘Human Composting’ Mean a Better, Greener Death?
- When a Jail Becomes a Homeless Shelter
- Seattle Wants to Save a Beloved Music Venue. But Is It Too Late?
- What an ‘Octopus Census’ Near Seattle Found
- Judged in the Court of Public Support
- In a Growing Crisis, Seattle Uses City Hall as a Homeless Shelter
- Mobile Home Owners Find a Lifeline Against Displacement
- In the Netflix Era, a Video Store Becomes a Cultural Asset
- Accordions: So Hot Right Now

Humanizing the Arab World in America (U.S. News & World Report and International Women’s Media Foundation)
SEATTLE – WHEN terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Yussef El Guindi stopped writing. The Arab-American playwright’s career had only just started to take off, but stunned by the magnitude of the tragedy, he avoided his craft for weeks.
He also started noticing nervous glances in his direction as he walked down the street. He was pulled aside for airport security checks. He quietly wondered what police would make of his research materials: books on Islam, Palestine and guns.
When he returned to his craft two months later, it was with a deep determination to counter the one-dimensional view of Arab-Americans all around him. He started writing a play that followed an Arab-American writer as he’s endlessly interrogated by government agents after they discover his collection of pornography and the Quran. “Back of the Throat” became El Guindi’s first full-length published play and won the 2004 Northwest Playwrights’ Competition.
Almost two decades later, the Muslim writer who was born in Egypt, raised in London and lives in Seattle, has published 10 additional plays, won more awards and has been called by the artistic director of one theater as “the definitive voice of Middle Eastern American theater.” In other ways, little has changed in the United States. El Guindi says restrictive laws aimed at immigrants, harsh rhetoric and underlying fear and suspicion of Arab-Americans and other minority groups have strengthened his resolve to tell those stories, including his latest, “People of the Book,” which opened this month at Seattle’s ACT Theatre.
The new play fulfills his long-held desire to address the repercussions of the Iraq War and misinformation spread about it. As in all of El Guindi’s plays, he seeks to create complex Arab and Muslim characters. They help illustrate a seemingly obvious, yet often overlooked, idea: Just because two people are from the Middle East, doesn’t make them the same.
“The most radical thing I’m doing is creating three-dimensional Arab and Muslim characters,” he says. “I’m humanizing the people who are dehumanized in news stories.”
Click here to read the rest.

The Economist 2013-2018
2018
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- When houses of prayer become places of shelter
- Mormons fight to be called by their full name
- Neo-paganism offers something old and something new
- The elusive phenomenon of churches without God
- A rabbi, an imam and a pastor walk onto a stage…
- An Asian religion gains popularity in the New World
- Comparing the brain activity of jazz and classical pianists
- Why drones could pose a greater risk to aircraft than birds
- A brawl on a cruise ship raises worries about security at sea
- “This Close” is an insightful portrayal of friendship and deafness
- A rabbi, an imam and a pastor walk onto a stage…
2017
2016
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- America’s Hare Krishna movement, at 50, is a testament to adaptability
- How to translate Shakespeare into American Sign Language
- Why Donald Trump personifies what Mormons don’t believe in
- The power of comics journalism
- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the unlikely muses
- Why former Mormons club together to share their struggles
- The Rio Paralympics were successful, but the disability classifications are not
- How athletes can use medical exemptions to beat drug testers
- Dispelling the myth of the operatic prodigy
- The real water scandal in Rio
- The pay inequality ruling women in the arts
- On America’s Pacific shore, many religious currents meet
- “Brains On!”: the popular science podcast designed for children
2013- 2015
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- Mixing soul medicines
- Something out of nothing
- Now you see it, now you don’t
- Cancer quests
- Thinking of the children
- Old time, new age
- Shining the light on solar power
- Too many tweets?
- Comment section conundrums
- Applied aromatics
- The roar of the crowd
- Know when to fold
- Reading between the lines
- Tilting towards windmills
- Reading circles
- How not to get busted
- Turn that light off!
- The number of the miffed
- The right to be appalling
- Solitary linguistic confinement
- Testing the skies
- Mental gymnastics
- Achilles heel

The Associated Press 2016-2017
POLITICS
2017
- DeVos compares school choice to switching phone carriers
- APNewsBreak: Utah’s anesthesia abortion law unenforced
- Chaffetz faces harsh criticism during packed town hall
- Hurdles expected for Utah’s medical marijuana research law
- Chasing a cow with a drone? Utah bill would put you in jail
- People with preexisting conditions fret over health overhaul
- Utah hate crimes bill sponsor questions public hearing void
- Packed GOP field forms for Nov. 7 election for Chaffetz seat
- Advocates: Utah sexual assault bill could harm victims
- Utah officials launch opioid abuse task force
- Utah law that could send online bullies to jail criticized
2016
- Utah’s first-in-nation fetal pain law perplexes doctors
- Utah lawmaker wants opt-in requirement for porn
- Utah lawmaker to sponsor new medical marijuana legislation
- Debate on tax on tampons arrives in Utah
- Utah lawmakers hold plan for paid parental leave
- Utah lawmaker introduces no-permit concealed carry bill
- Utah House measure aims to keep drones away from wildfires
- Utah teens support plans to raise e-cigarette tax
- Former university football coach supports medical marijuana
ENVIRONMENT
- 3 dead after girl falls into raging river waters in Utah
- The Latest: Officials may have found body of 4-year-old girl
- Swollen and fast-moving Utah rivers make a risky combination
- Rivers in US West turn dangerous as days warm, snow thaws
CRIME
2017
- Utah judge at rape sentencing: Ex-Mormon bishop a ‘good man’
- Group complains judge who called rapist ‘good man’ is biased
- Repercussions unclear for judge after comments on rape case
- Utah man killed in London attack was hit on bridge
- Utah woman drowns while trying to rescue dogs from creek
- Lawyer: Imprisoned Utah doctor may have killed himself
- Provo Mayor: Police chief resigned after sex assault claim
2016
- Police review Brigham Young’s handling of sex-assault cases
- Police criticize BYU investigations into sex assault victims
- BYU students investigated by school after reporting rape
- Polynesians refused service at Utah bar settle case
- Utah liquor commissioners quiet over ‘Deadpool’ lawsuit
- Official: Teacher violated policy with racially charged word
- Man pleads guilty to posing as agent for Comic Con VIP pass
BUSINESS
- Report: Taxpayers donate more to homelessness than education
- Report: Tax exemptions cost Utah millions of dollars
SPOT NEWS

Crosscut

Curbed
- Fremont’s giant Vladimir Lenin statue carries a complicated history—locally and globally
- Seattle homelessness pilot hopes to finally reach those living in cars
- How the Fremont Troll became a symbol of creative resilience in a tech boomtown
- Gas Works Park is a beautiful way to remember a toxic past
- In Capitol Hill, the AIDS Memorial Pathway will celebrate life and resilience
- The Beacon Food Forest grows community agriculture in South Seattle
- Teddy bears among the Fairmont Olympic Hotel’s illustrious guests
- As Seattle grows, where do mobile homes fit in?
- How Glamorous Refusal holds space for “no”
- Lake Union hides a graveyard of historic shipwrecks
- What happens when a food bank is a grocery store?
- The Sodo Track is an art gallery built for transit riders
- Creating music inside a century-old drawbridge