This is the second in a four-part series, introducing you to the four applicants for the District 2 seat on the Olympia School Board, which was vacated when Rich Nafziger resigned. The series goes in reverse alphabetical order, and will wrap up before March 12, when the candidates will face questions in a "community forum environment."

I've made care to accurately quote or represent the candidates, and any potential errors are my own.

Paul Parker lives down the street from Jill Johnson, one of my colleagues at Capital. "Paul's hard-working, thoughtful, and smart," she told me over lunch on Tuesday. "Thorough, too." The only applicant with a law degree, Parker has worked in higher education and state government, and currently serves as a senior policy analyst for Washington State's Transportation Commission.

More to the point, Parker is an active PTA and Site Council member, and chaired the district's Budget Advisory Group in 2007. Last June, after examining the district's finances, the group advocated some cuts that, to paraphrase Parker, "washed out" with paired with recommended expenses.

The Seattle Times is reporting that the jury is apparently deadlocked on some of the charges against Briana Waters. It seems that the jury has reached agreement on some of the charges, but the judge rejected the prosecutors' request that a partial verdict be published. No word yet on whether she was acquitted or convicted on the charges the jury found agreement on.

The five federal charges against Waters carry a MINIMUM penalty of 35 years. Even if she is guilty, I think that's excessive. I am hopeful that the jury has found the evidence insufficient to convict, and Briana Waters can stay with her two-year-old daughter and husband.

Update:  The story sure changes depending on what headline you read!  Check out this story for another spin.    

Notice something a docent does that is just fine by you? Let us know. Appreciate their work keeping this place running? Let us know.

Impressed by a comment that adds to a healthy discussion? Let us know.

Inspired by what someone writes? Let them and us know.

I'm personally doing this as an exercise in my life in general. Looking for things that work doesn't mean I am ignoring or denying what doesn't work. It just means that I am choosing my focus and encouraging what works.

Today I am inspired by several things I'm seeing on OlyBlog, especially JT's comment. I appreciate Merwyn's post. Enpen's. Bert's. And I'm not even through looking OlyBlog over yet today.

In March of 1998 a unidentified body was found on Sheldon Rd in Thurston County. (I have not been able to find where Sheldon Rd is, the linked sites don't have other information on the location.)

The victim is estimated to have been born anywheres from 1970 to 1978, meaning he would have been either in his early or late twenties when found.

A new artist's rendition has been created. Artist renditions are an inexact science and should not be assumed to be the flawless likeness of the John Doe.

This is not the only John Doe in Thurston County.

So I think this is pretty cool. Graffiti Archaeology, the website which spawned my interest in long term photo graffiti archiving, was recently selected to be part of the Museum of Modern Art exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind. So if you go and check out the blurb write up on that site (here) you'll see fair little Olympia listed in the top left corner. It's small, I know. But in the world of modern art MoMA is...well...huge. And Olympia (and our Free Wall) got in. So 1+1=3, MESKA, Sine...you're all in MoMA.