Vashon Enters the Surveillance Age By Marc J. Elzenbeck Imagine you’re a county or municipal administrator in a cash-hungry jurisdiction and you see a demo of an Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) system. These are typically “green” solar-powered cameras mounted along high-traffic public thoroughfares to capture vehicle images, license plates, make, model, color, and designated characteristics. …
By Caitlin Rothermel My Uncle Mike lived in Breezy Point, New York. It was a sandy, lovely beach town, and during the summers and holidays, my family would visit his. Sometimes, Uncle Mike would cook lasagna. He didn’t just cook for us. Mike was a New York City firefighter, and I got to watch him…
By Pam “Gates” Johnson Well, I made it to the other side of surgery. About 4 weeks post and to say it has been a challenge is an understatement. Let me walk you through the last few weeks. My surgery was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. December 8th. Had to be at the hospital at 5:30…
By Suzanna Leigh Gramma Stoltz – Illustration by Suzanna Leigh We called her Gramma Stoltz. She lived in a one-bedroom trailer across the road from her son’s auto wrecking yard and the big house on Cemetery Road where she had raised her children. Here, she tended her quarter-acre garden and a passel of chickens. She…
By Daniel Hooker On June 8th 1972, a young girl ran screaming in agony, her body engulfed in flames by bombs dropped full of napalm. The world would be forever changed by the Pulitzer Prize photograph of this. It was one of many horrific instances created by the insanity we call war. The young girl’s…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman “Can you bring down my groceries from the Toyota?” Seán asked as I stopped by to visit. The path to Seán’s cabin is all uphill or downhill, depending upon one’s direction. I dragged a few bags out of the back of his pickup and brought them down the path…
By Stephen Buller Washington Governor Ferguson is championing a new “millionaire tax” as a way to address budget shortfalls and income inequality. Both of these are real and serious issues, but will yet another tax solve the problem? Let’s talk about this tax specifically and use it as a springboard to critique our overall tax…
By Andy Valencia Previous parts of the story are available at vashonloop.com/tom/ Tom, the weed who accidentally rooted onto the bumper of a car, is on a long journey. Parked at a campground, he went to seed without dying, and is getting to know his new children. Tom spent the rest of the day teaching…
By Daniel Hooker I had to cut ties with an old friend who was dragging me down. Yup, mountain climbing is a hard sport. ~ I took a laxative before New Year’s Eve, just so I wouldn’t drag myself through the same manure as last year. ~ My friend made a suggestion for traveling free….