ELLENSBURG – Central Washington University became the third university in the state and one of 25 nationwide to bar discrimination against openly gay, bisexual and transsexual staff and students.
With little fanfare after more than a year of consideration, the Board of Trustees voted March 4 to add gender identity and expression to the school’s nondiscrimination policy, which already covered race, color, creed, religion and other group identifiers.
“We want to make Central a community where people feel welcome and are not intimidated,” said Nancy Howard, the school’s equal opportunity chief. “It also sends a clear message to our university community that individuals are not to be singled out and treated poorly because of these characteristics.”
Other universities in the state that specifically bar discrimination against people who express themselves as gay, bisexual and transsexual are the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.
Associated Press
Selah: Crew unearths ancient animal bones
A construction crew has unearthed what appear to be mammoth bones at least 10,000 years old north of Selah, the company owner says. Gary Fife of Selah said he and his crew were on lunch while building a private road about three weeks ago when he noticed some large bones protruding from an embankment near where they had been digging. At the request of the property owner, an archaeologist from Seattle made some initial tests which indicated the bones probably belong to a species of mammoth, Fife said. A contractor for more than three decades, he would not reveal the precise location of the dig but said a team of archaeologists is expected to review the discovery in the next couple weeks. “You might dig up some car hoods, old bottles, certain areas where somebody had buried their dog, but I’ve never come across anything like this. It’s a pretty interesting and exciting find for me,” Fife said. “This is probably the closest thing to a treasure chest I have ever dug up.”
Associated Press
Olympia: Man nabbed in Internet sex sting
A 42-year-old Seattle man has been arrested in a State Patrol Internet sting for allegedly arranging to have sex with a supposed 13-year-old girl. Authorities said Craig D. Olson traveled to Olympia to meet the supposed sex partner and was arrested outside a local mall. Patrol officers had posed as a teenager online, trading sexually explicit banter as part of a continuing sting operation to catch Internet pedophiles. The man posted a picture of himself and specifically asked the girl her age, the patrol said. A female trooper talked with Olson for 20 minutes before he arranged to drive to Olympia. Olson described what he would be wearing, allowing the patrol to pick him up, a spokesman said. “He was a little surprised,” said Sgt. John Didion of the patrol’s Missing and Exploited Children’s Task Force.
Associated Press
Port Orchard: Coach sentenced to year in jail
A former security guard and basketball coach at a junior-senior high school in Silverdale has been sentenced to a year behind bars for having consensual sex with a 17-year-old student. An undisclosed financial settlement is included in the agreement between Kitsap County prosecutors and Andrew Alfred Jr., 33, who pleaded guilty in February to one count of sexual misconduct. Authorities said a friend of the girl who was involved with Alfred told a counselor, and he was arrested Dec. 9. He was placed on administrative leave initially, then was fired from his job at Klahowya Secondary School on Jan. 5.
Associated Press
Seattle: UW school earns $2 million grant
The University of Washington School of Law has been awarded a $2 million State Department grant to establish a graduate program for Afghan law professors. The grant will pay for a three-year project designed to help rebuild Afghanistan’s legal profession. Afghan lawyers will spend one year in Seattle to learn about the U.S. legal system as visiting scholars or master’s of laws candidates. In collaboration with Kabul University Law School, project director Veronica Taylor, a professor at the UW Asian Law Center, and others will select an initial group of 15 people from the Afghan school’s Islamic law departments. The first group of students is expected to arrive in January 2006 to begin the intensive nine-month course. English-language instruction also is planned.
Associated Press
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