U.S. Cellular is giving $1 million to help teachers erase classroom needs with the return of the company’s Calling All Teachers campaign. The pinch of budget cuts has compelled many teachers to supplement shortfalls by purchasing basic supplies like crayons, textbooks and calculators with personal resources. Starting Aug. 1 through Sept. 15, Washington teachers can post their funding requests to www.DonorsChoose.org, and U.S. Cellular will fund projects in September and October. Last year, U.S. Cellular funded 51 projects in Washington valued at nearly $26,000 that impacted more than 3,600 students.

Portland, OR - It's not exactly the "aloha" you'd expect from Hawaii. Conservation groups and the Yakama Nation have filed a lawsuit to stop barges loaded with Hawaiian garbage from making their way to a landfill in the Northwest. The trash would be unloaded at Longview, Wash., and sent by rail to southeastern Washington.



The lawsuit charges that the U.S. Agriculture Department hasn't done enough to ensure the trash won't carry invasive, non-native pests and plants into the orchards, vineyards and water of the Columbia Gorge. Robert Harris, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, agrees.



"The fruit fly, for example, which is quite prevalent in Hawaii and has been eliminated in the United States. And the concern is, what if it gets established in either Oregon or Washington? These are the types of things that really should be looked at through an environmental review, which hasn't happened yet."

OLYMPIA, Wash. - To some, it is a glaring omission that Gov. Chris Gregoire's new Higher Education Funding Task Force, formed this week, includes no teachers. It will be chaired by an attorney at Microsoft, and is made up of 16 business executives and school administrators, but no instructors.



That concerns Bill Lyne, president of the United Faculty of Washington State, although he says it does not surprise him. Many teachers have been affected as university budgets have been cut by about 20 percent, and students have seen tuition hikes of at least 14 percent in the past two years. No matter who's on the committee, Lyne says new funding ideas will be welcome.



"All of those people who are on that task force know a lot about raising money. They don't know anything about running universities. So, they should focus on raising money, and leave the running of the universities to the people who have been doing it really well for a long time."

Hoquiam, WA -  Timberland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSBK) ("Timberland" or "the Company") today reported net income of $804,000 for its fiscal third quarter ended June 30, 2010. Net income available to common shareholders after adjusting for the preferred stock dividend and the preferred stock discount accretion was $543,000, or $0.08 per diluted common share. This compares to a net loss to common shareholders of $(3.44 million), or $(0.51) per diluted common share for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 and net income available to common shareholders of $769,000, or $0.12 per diluted common share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2009.



Fiscal Third Quarter 2010 Highlights:



* Capital levels remain very strong: Total Risk Based Capital of 15.96%; Tier 1 Leverage Capital Ratio of 11.15%; Tangible Capital to Tangible Assets Ratio of 10.94%, all solidly above well capitalized levels

* Non-performing loans ("NPLs") decreased 20% and represented 3.74% of total loans at June 30, 2010

* Non-performing assets ("NPAs") decreased by $5.6 million during the quarter

* NPAs decreased to 5.12% of assets at June 30, 2010 from 5.95% three months earlier

* Construction and land development loans decreased 53% year over year and 34% during the quarter, and now account for 12% of total loans

* Net interest margin for the current quarter remained strong at 3.85%

* Deposits increased 17% year over year with no brokered funds

* N.O.W. checking account balances increased to 27% of deposits compared to 21% of deposits one year prior

SEATTLE – A collaborative program developed in the state of Washington to address “the greatest unmet need for health services among children” has achieved impressive results while delivering “a strong return on taxpayers’ investment,” according to the Pew Center on the States.

In its June 2010 report, Washington’s ABCD Program:  Improving Dental Care for Medicaid-Insured Children, Pew says, “other states would be smart to consider a similar approach.”  The need for prevention-based programs is apparent because, as the Pew report notes, “The costs of dental disease are severe: impaired nutrition and health, lost school time, worsened job prospects and sometimes even death.”

“We were very impressed with Washington State’s ABCD program.  It is a good model for others to consider because it is effective and shows that investing in early preventive care results in lower dental treatment costs over time.” said Shelly Gehshan, director of the Pew Children's Dental Campaign.