ELLENSBURG – Picketers from the Kansas-based radical anti-gay group Westboro Baptist Church plan to stage a protest on Easter Sunday outside the First United Methodist Church in Ellensburg, the most recent church of lesbian pastor Karen Dammann.
The group, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps, is the same one that protested the Central Washington University production of “The Laramie Project” in February 2003. Phelps “may be America’s most vitriolic fountain of anti-homosexual hate,” according to a file kept on his group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that keeps tabs on hate groups.
The announcement of the protest comes on the heels of a verdict in a church trial last week that acquitted Dammann of practices incompatible with Christian teachings and reinstated her as a pastor in good standing. Dammann said she’s not sure whether she’ll be in Ellensburg on Easter, April 11.
“That’s one group that doesn’t act in a very Christian manner,” she said in a telephone interview. “It’s kind of a mystery to me where they find the mandate for their behavior. It certainly isn’t the Gospel of Christ.”
Daily Record
Brinnon: Dosewallips road to be repaired
The U.S. Forest Service has decided to repair a washed-out section of the Dosewallips River Road. More than 300 feet of the road, which runs between Hood Canal at Brinnon to Olympic National Park, was washed out by the Dosewallips River in January 2002. Fixing the road will restore access to the Elkhorn and Dosewallips campgrounds, area district ranger David Craig said Wednesday. Completion of the project is expected by fall 2005, he said.
Associated Press
Port Angeles: Annie get your new play
Members of the Port Angeles Light Opera Association know there’s no business like show business. They also know it’s not good business to offend your audience. Five years ago, that sentiment kept “Annie Get Your Gun” from reaching the stage. But this summer, the popular production is back – in an updated version that tones down political incorrectness toward American Indians and stays truer to the real Annie Oakley. The opera in July will stage the 1999 Broadway revival version of the 1946 Irving Berlin classic.
Peninsula Daily News
Bellingham: Remodel planned for theater
Officials will decide today whether to go ahead with renovations that would shut Mount Baker Theatre down from April through October next year. Members of the Bellingham-Whatcom Public Facilities District will decide whether to give the green light to the second phase of theater work – about $3 million for new wiring and plumbing, acoustic improvements, and new heating, ventilation, air conditioning and fire alarm systems.
The Bellingham Herald
Bremerton: Hotel
evicts homeless
More than 40 homeless people living at a Bremerton hotel through an arrangement with a local charity have been forced out. Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel on Kitsap Way had been making about 20 rooms available to the homeless at reduced rates through Abraham’s House, a local group that helps the needy. But the hotel’s loose agreement with Abraham’s House ended abruptly a few weeks ago. Tenants had to leave or begin paying $270 a week. Coy Wood, manager of the Howard Johnson, said he ended the agreement with Abraham’s House because it failed to effectively screen tenants for problems like drug and alcohol abuse. Tyna Munger, founder of Abraham’s House, said she’s convinced Wood was pressured by corporate officials to terminate the agreement.
The Sun
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