Latest news with #KitsapSun
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mayoral races in Bremerton, Poulsbo draw candidates in early filing, and KRL levy planned
Two mayoral elections in Kitsap County cities officially have a matchup for the 2025 election and several other city council positions attracted candidates on Monday, the first day of filing week through the Kitsap County Auditor. In addition, voters countywide will weigh a ballot measure from the Kitsap Regional Library in August. As expected, current Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler filed to run for a third term in city hall, and this year he'll be challenged by current City Councilmember Jeff Coughlin. Both had earlier announced their intention to run and have begun campaigning in the city. In Poulsbo, the two candidates who have announced -- Ed Stern and Dan Weedin -- both filed the paperwork to appear on the ballot. Kitsap Regional Library's Proposition 1 proposes what's known as a "levy lid lift" for its regular assessment of property taxes to maintain operations. KRL's board approved sending the ballot measure to voters for approval, raising the district's levy from $0.27 per $1,000 in property valuation to $0.39. Below, find a list of candidates who have filed for city and school board races across Kitsap, as well as the one legislative district in the area up for election, as of Monday afternoon. Candidates must file to run in the August primary by Friday, May 9. The Kitsap Sun will continue to update this file during the week as more candidates file for office and primary matchups emerge. For more information on how to file to run for public office, or see a list of positions up for election this year, visit the Kitsap County Auditor's elections page. Related: Election season opens in Kitsap with filing week for 2025 primary candidates Bainbridge Island City Council: Sarah Blossom (District 3); Dawn Janow (District 3); Clarence Moriwaki (District 5, incumbent); Peter Raffa (District 5); Joe Deets (District 7, incumbent) Bremerton mayor: Greg Wheeler (incumbent); Jeff Coughlin Bremerton City Council: Jennifer Chamberlain (District 1, incumbent); Ash Black (District 3); Christy Cammarata (District 3); Rick Tift (District 7) Bremerton Municipal Court Judge: Steve King Port Orchard City Council: John Morrisey (District 2, incumbent); Scott Diener (District 3, incumbent); Fred Chang (District 6, incumbent); Jay Rosapepe (At-large, incumbent); Kimberly Shaw (At-large) Poulsbo mayor: Ed Stern; Dan Weedin Poulsbo City Council: Michael Fitzpatrick (Position 5); Doug Tabor (Position 6, incumbent); Gary McVey (Position 7, incumbent) Bremerton: Ben Anderson (Position 5, incumbent) Bainbridge Island: Erika Borg (District 2); Jill Anderson (District 5); Central Kitsap: Denise Tracy (District 1, incumbent); Eric Greene (District 5, incumbent) North Kitsap: Seth Hartman (District 1) South Kitsap: Brian Pickard (District 3) Senate, 26th District: Deb Krishnadasan (Democrat, incumbent); Michelle Caldier (Republican) This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Kitsap County 2025 primary election candidates
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
PCHS clinic could open on Bainbridge next year, if state funding comes through
Peninsula Community Health Services could open a new medical clinic on Bainbridge Island early next year, agency CEO Jennifer Kreidler-Moss told the Kitsap Sun this week, assuming they get funding through the state's capital budget. PCHS, a federally qualified health center providing primary care and other services in Kitsap, Mason and part of rural Pierce County, purchased a former optometrists office on Winslow Way using just over $1 million in reserve funds, Kreidler-Moss said. They plan to convert the mixed-use retail complex into a primary care clinic with two primary care providers, two behavioral health staff serving about 2,500 people per year. Permits for the project have already been approved, Kreidler-Moss said. The opening of the project now hinges on state funds. The agency has asked for about $556,000 to complete renovations. Those funds have been earmarked in the Senate's capital budget, but do not appear in the House's version. That leaves the project up in the air at a time when money is tight. Washington is facing a roughly $14 billion budget deficit over the next four years, and it remains uncertain how legislators plan to address that gap. A final budget is expected at some point this week, before the last day of the state's regular legislative session on April 27. If state funding for the clinic is not included, Kreidler-Moss said the facility will remain vacant and they will try again next year. Bainbridge residents have been asking PCHS to build a clinic on the Island for years, Kreidler-Moss said, after a series of providers consolidated or left the community. Until recently, the agency had been unable to afford a space there. 'We have been asked fairly regularly since 2021 to show up on the island,' she said. 'We are excited that we finally found something that was within our price range.' Bainbridge Island Mayor Ashley Matthews said the city lost a few providers around the start of the pandemic, including a Swedish-owned primary care clinic that closed in 2021. There is a Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Clinic on the Island at 1344 Wintergreen Lane NE, 'that does good work,' Matthews said, but they are at capacity. The city does not have enough providers needed to meet the need, she said, forcing residents to travel to Poulsbo or take the ferry into Seattle. At least 1,000 people living in Bainbridge go to the PCHS clinics in Poulsbo or Kingston, Kreidler-Moss said. Peninsula Community Health Services typically provides care for patients who are under or uninsured, yet as access challenges persist, the number of patients with commercial insurance has grown to about a third of its payors. 'At this point there's just such an access gap for all that we don't really care what insurance you have,' she said. 'The access is limited in our county so even if it is a matter of serving more commercial patients out there, who don't have to travel, that will free up more spots at other places.' Conor Wilson is a Murrow News fellow, reporting for the Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now, a nonprofit newsroom based in Gig Harbor, through a program managed by Washington State University. This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Peninsula Community Health planning new medical clinic on Bainbridge
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Washington parents get turned away again
The partisan vote to rewrite Washington's initiative for parental rights is sadly been taken. Unfortunately, many will never see the damage done to a child that does not get the care and love at times when they need it most, not to mention the lifelong negative effects that families have to deal with. Kids with the most loving homes are often concerned with letting their parents or loved ones down. It's normal for a young person not to want to confide in parents on some issues, even though doing so often is the best way for the issue to receive the care and love it needs. The Parents Bill of Rights ensured safety if there was any kind of abuse. Once again, political dominance dictates not only how parenting is to be done, but when allowed. Special interests dictate parenting even in our homes. Using identity politics to affect how our family functions is a sad part of public education in this state. Mick Sheldon, Kingston This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Initiative changes should disappoint Washington parents | Letters
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
April full moon 2025: When to watch the pink micromoon in Washington
April's full moon is frequently called the pink moon, and this year, it's also a micromoon, though you won't need a telescope to see it. Here's what to know about the first full moon of spring. The full moon will occur at 5:22 p.m. PDT on Saturday, April 12, 2025, according to Time and Date. The pink moon got its name from the early spring-blooming wildflower moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, which is native to eastern North America, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. The moon doesn't appear pink in color. The moon phases for April are: 🌕 Full Moon: April 13 🌗 Last Quarter: April 21 🌑 New Moon: April 27 A micromoon is a full moon or new moon that is near apogee, which is the point in the moon's orbit where it is farthest away from Earth, according to NASA. The distance is about 251,000 miles. A micromoon appears smaller and dimmer in the night sky, but the differences may be hard to notice with the naked eye, the Associated Press reported. A supermoon is the opposite of a micromoon. A supermoon is a full moon or new moon that happens near perigee, which is the point in the moon's orbit where it is closest to Earth, according to NASA. The distance is about 224,000 miles. In 2025, the Lyrids meteor shower will be active from April 17 to April 26, according to NASA. Its peak nights will be April 21 and April 22. "The Lyrids are known for their fast and bright meteors," according to NASA's website. "Though not as fast or as plentiful as the famous Perseids in August, Lyrids can surprise watchers with as many as 100 meteors seen per hour." The first recorded sighting of the Lyrids was in 687 B.C. by Chinese stargazers, according to NASA. This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: How, when to watch April 2025 full moon, pink moon in Washington
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
WA families are using ‘Joel's Law' for involuntary commitments more than ever
Tatiana Leone at her home in Bremerton on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (Photo by Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun) Tatiana Leone never leaves her Bremerton apartment without a reusable grocery bag filled with documents detailing her son's history of mental illness. She doesn't know when she will run into her son, who lives unhoused in Seattle, and she wants to be prepared if he's in a crisis. She's used the pile of documents — including records of his behavioral health history, jail stints and hospital stays — once before. In 2020, she successfully asked a Pierce County judge to involuntarily detain her son, whom she asked not to be named to respect his privacy, under Washington's Joel's Law. Leone, like others caring for loved ones experiencing acute mental illness, had spent many painstaking years trying to get her son help, only to find a fractured and complex mental health system that did little more than send her son to jail. She felt like she had exhausted all other options. 'It's a gut-wrenching process because you don't want to alienate your loved one and make them fear you or that the world is against them because they're already thinking that in some cases,' Leone said. 'You're just trying to help.' Joel's Law, which passed the state Legislature with overwhelming support in 2015, was designed to provide a lifeline for parents like Leone who wished to directly petition the judicial system to get their loved one into treatment. Typically, designated crisis responders — mental health professionals who act as a bridge between the medical system and the courts — are the ones to recommend involuntary detainment if they believe someone's behavioral health conditions meet the state's legal criteria. While the law was celebrated for helping to elevate the voices of concerned families, petitioning the court is just one step in a long, complicated process that might not ultimately lead to treatment or sustained support, as Leone and others have experienced. Only three days after Leone's son was detained, he was released from the hospital and was back cycling through the same systems as before. Joel's Law petitions comprise only a small portion of all involuntary detainments in Washington, but the number of cases involving the petitions has increased statewide by 266% since 2020, according to state court data obtained through a public records request. Much of that growth has been concentrated in the South and Central Puget Sound areas. Pierce and Kitsap County, where Leone attempted to get her son detained, have among the highest per-capita rates among Washington's large counties. Medical professionals, mental health providers and lawyers have a longstanding disagreement over involuntary treatment, especially in Washington, where physicians are not allowed to make that call. Some medical professionals and families feel the system is antiquated and leaves too many people without care until they ultimately wind up in the criminal justice system. A decade since the law was passed, the use of the petitions is increasing, though questions remain about how much these petitions have helped make treatment more accessible to families. Those skeptical of the law acknowledge there needs to be more access points to behavioral health care but question if involuntary care is the appropriate response or if many of these people could be more effectively treated in the community. Tara Urs, special counsel for civil policy and practice for the King County Department of Public Defense, feels for the family members submitting these petitions, knowing that the supports available outside of the hospital doors are difficult — and at times impossible —— to access. 'I understand why people might want to be banging down the only door that might be available, even though I think it is the wrong door,' said Urs, who represents people facing involuntary detention. But the state must meet a high burden of proof before taking away someone's civil liberties. 'Joel's Law increased the kinds of people who could try to access the front door of the hospital, and for King County, I'm not sure how much of an impact that's made,' she added. 'But I don't think that means that there's not a problem worth solving.' A group of parents, frustrated that their loved ones with acute mental illnesses were not getting help, pushed for the passage of Joel's Law in 2015. Doug and Nancy Reuter, whose son Joel became the law's namesake, helped bring attention to the issue. Seattle police fatally shot Joel, a 28-year-old software engineer suffering from bipolar disorder, in 2013. The Reuters said they tried 48 times prior to that standoff to get their son help. 'What was happening everywhere — and I certainly heard about it in our area — was parents would be told, 'Well we can't do anything until they break the law,' even though the parent knew the child was in grave danger of hurting themselves or somebody else,' said Kitsap County Commissioner Christine Rolfes, a former state senator who was a co-sponsor of the bill creating Joel's Law. Michael Kawamura, who oversees Pierce County's public defender office, suspects the high number of Joel's Law petitions filed in Pierce County could be due to the county being home to the largest psychiatric hospital in the state, Western State Hospital. A person can be held up to five days for an emergency detention, potentially followed by a 14-day treatment with additional 90- or 180-day extensions. With each extension, a new petition must be filed with the court, which could increase the number being filed in Pierce County. 'The majority of counties don't do most of the long-term commitments,' said Kawamura, who helps oversee cases involving Joel's Law petitions. 'That's just the hospital jurisdictions. And so most of the counties will do that initial 14-day commitment, but then they stop.' Providers attribute much of the increase to more awareness. Police and mental health workers are educating families about Joel's Law, and in some areas, the complex process to file a petition has been streamlined. 'It's 10 years old,' Jenna Vyhlidal, manager of mobile crisis outreach at Kitsap Mental Health Services, said of Joel's Law, 'but I think we're finally starting to make it work.' Dr. James Hughes, chief medical officer at Kitsap Mental Health Services, speculates that some of the difference between counties can be attributed to differing interpretations of state statutes. State laws on involuntary detainment are vague and open to nuanced interpretation. The definition of 'imminent' — a requirement for someone to be involuntarily detained — is an example of that. 'I've heard it used differently by different counties or even different institutions,' he said. Kitsap is among the counties where crisis responders are permitted to do single-bed certifications, allowing them to detain someone at a local hospital if no inpatient psychiatric beds are available throughout the state. Kitsap also permits non-emergent detention, letting crisis responders petition to detain someone who is not yet an imminent threat to themselves or others but is showing signs of a deteriorating mental state. 'It lets us do our job but prevent future [crises] so we're not five days behind,' Vyhlidal said. By design, medical providers have few options to force a patient into treatment, especially in Washington. The state's Involuntary Treatment Act was established in the 1970s amid the national 'deinstitutionalization' movement that sought to release hundreds of thousands of people held in psychiatric hospitals and move away from the system that gave doctors the sole power to strip someone of their civil liberties. 'If I agree their loved one is in need of help, I can't make them get it. I have to defer to somebody who did not see you in your acute crisis and may not have the same perspective on medical care or training as I do as the ER clinician caring for you,' said Nathan Schlicher, an emergency room physician who lives in Gig Harbor and is a past president of the Washington State Medical Association. 'That is the unique nature of Washington law.' When Leone's son's mental health conditions started to escalate in his late teens, she didn't know where to turn. She had brought him to the emergency room during a handful of episodes but was often turned away. She had heard of designated crisis responders but was told that the only way to get her son evaluated was to call the police. She tried this numerous times, which often led to him being taken to jail, she said. 'He really just needed help and intervention,' she said. 'It didn't help my son at all, because oftentimes, while in custody, their solution for people in mental health crisis is solitary confinement, and that's not helpful either.' On Christmas Eve in 2020, Leone's son was in acute crisis, in a state of heightened fear and expressing thoughts of self-harm. Leone brought him to St. Anthony's Hospital in Gig Harbor in hopes that he would be seen by a designated crisis responder from Pierce County instead of in Kitsap County, where they had been evaluated previously but involuntary detainment was not recommended, she said. While she was out getting her son warmer clothes, a designated crisis responder came and went without recommending involuntary detainment. Her son then ran away. She was angry with the hospital staff for letting him walk out the door in the middle of a snowstorm. They told her there was nothing they could do. Not knowing what to do next, Leone drove to a nearby Target parking lot and called the police. 'My son happened to bump right into me in a Target parking lot,' she recalled. While Leone was on the phone with the 911 operator, her son was talking about harming himself. She asked the operator if she could hear his comments. 'One of the (designated crisis responder's) had told me that unless we hear him say he wants to kill himself to us, or unless we hear it with our own ears, we cannot just take anybody's word for it.' The next thing she knew, police were surrounding her car. The 911 operator told her that they would contact the designated crisis responder to come out. Instead, they arrested him and charged him with domestic violence, which prohibited him from contacting Leone. She had told the officers that she wasn't in danger. 'I am not afraid of my son,' she recalled telling them. 'I called you to help him.' 'It was unbelievable,' she said. 'I am his only support system. He doesn't have a dad, he doesn't have any other family or anybody else who advocates for him. So they alienated him from his sole support network.' After he was taken to jail, Leone called the crisis line back. That's when she was told about Joel's Law. She says she 'thought it was going to be the answer we were looking for.' Families have 10 days after a designated crisis responder evaluates their loved one to file a Joel's Law petition with a judge. The petition includes the reasons the family believes someone should be detained. That often provides a more comprehensive look at someone's history than what a designated crisis responder can necessarily see at the moment, said Vyhlidal, the Kitsap crisis outreach manager. 'I've seen petitions go back to childhood photos,' she said. When a judge grants a Joel's Law petition, the same process follows as when a designated crisis responder detains someone. They are held for a maximum of 120 hours (plus holidays and weekends) during which a mental health professional decides if they need to be committed for longer. The day after Leone's son was taken to jail and she learned about Joel's Law, she started gathering the hundreds of documents she was told she needed to file the petition, including documentation of hospital stays, jail stints and admittance to crisis care. The process was arduous. She was told she had to file the petition in person in Tacoma, but she couldn't get out of her driveway due to snow. She took an Uber to a FedEx store in Bremerton and spent $200 faxing the documents to the court. They ultimately approved her petition and served him the paperwork when he was in jail. She said it was painful not to be able to reassure him given the protection order stemming from the DV charge. When she finally spoke to him, he was rightfully upset, she said. 'He thought that I was just out to get him and take him down, which was part of his symptoms, too,' Leone said. 'Which kind of makes sense looking back, because his intuition is telling him something was wrong, and he doesn't know where to look for the source of this feeling, and so everybody becomes a suspect.' After three days in the hospital and one day back in jail, he was released, and Leone felt like she was back to square one. 'I thought they had said that they were going to keep him until he was stabilized,' she said. Silvia Riley, the director of crisis services at Multicare, is lukewarm on Joel's Law. It is not a bad policy, she said. Designated crisis responders, while highly trained, make mistakes. But she wants judges to apply the same scrutiny to petitions that designated crisis responders do to their evaluations. Detention should be a last resort. 'We show up with the intention of [involuntary commitment] being the last thing we want to do,' she said. 'It's not always a popular decision, but we take it very seriously.' Judges, she argues, feel compelled to help individuals experiencing severe mental illness, often receiving thick petitions documenting someone's whole and often traumatic history. But while many people need behavioral health treatment, designated crisis responders often disagree that an involuntary approach is the best method for that care. For example, MultiCare was once asked to detain someone but could not serve them because they were at work every day. 'That itself tells me that this person is not a good candidate for involuntary commitment, because he's living productively,' she said, adding later: 'It makes me question, is this the best way to get them help? Or are we missing some opportunities in the community?' The practice of involuntarily detaining someone at a mental hospital has a dark and not-so-distant history. For example, women were frequently institutionalized in mental hospitals for not being submissive enough to their husbands. It's why the bar is so high for committing someone, Urs said. Urs wants to see a more holistic approach to mental health treatment and sees the conversation mainly focused on 'how open or closed' the door to the hospital should be. Some efforts have given her hope, like King County's Program of Assertive Community Treatment, coined the PACT program. The program, which Urs describes as a 'hospital without walls,' is tailored toward people with psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia and schizoaffective bipolar disorder. Still, the program only scratches the surface. 'We don't have nearly enough PACT teams in King County to meet the needs of the people in our community who are experiencing disorders of psychosis,' she added. Any time it snows, Leone is always out searching for her son in Seattle, distributing food and supplies to other unhoused people during the process. When he calls from a borrowed cellphone or from jail, she begs him to call more to let her know he's OK. If there's time, she tries to convince him to go to a crisis care center. She said he feels trapped at treatment centers and has lost faith that medication will help. Leone isn't sure whether she would file another Joel's Law petition again, but she hasn't completely ruled it out. 'The hope was that he would be able to obtain some relief from his symptoms and then be able to develop some appreciation for knowing what it felt like to not be suffering from those symptoms, and then building that rapport with him would help him be more receptive to staying in compliance with the treatment plan,' Leone said. She understands why Joel's Law is controversial. It's something she has to grapple with frequently. 'They can't just go around taking people's rights away' or 'involuntarily medicate people,' she said. Ultimately, she wishes they had better access to mental health services before it got to the point of using a Joel's Law petition. Or, that there were court advocates available to help families navigate the Joel's Law petition process. She said each time they tried to get help — whether it was at the hospital or through a designated crisis responder or crisis care center — the relief was fleeting and the web of bureaucracy pushed her son further away. 'He wanted the help, but he was also able to see that every time somebody was promising to help him, it was only hurting him,' she said. It's all taken a toll on Leone. 'I get a lot of 'Just let it go. He's choosing this. Just let it go. He likes this lifestyle. He's choosing this lifestyle.' And it's infuriating because it's like, no, he's just as in need of help and support and unconditional love as anybody who has got some physically evident disability or impairment or illness.' Anytime Leone is able to find her son on the streets of Seattle, he is always happy to see her and his little brother, Leone said. 'He'll open his coat, and he'll bust out a Batman action figure, and he'll be like, 'I've been carrying this around for you.'
