We take you inside an eclectic, authentic watering hole off the beaten path in Chimacum. It’s a place where everyone feels free to be their authentic selves. 

After four years of mulling it over, the U.S. Navy has decided a controversial proposal to greatly expand its secretive dark-of-the-night training for Navy SEALs in Washington state parks and public marinas will have no significant environmental impact which, barring a public outcry, will probably clear the way for implementation of the plan. This week on the Compass, we talk with the executive director of the Navy watchdog group Sound Defense Alliance about the plan.

This week on the Compass we take you inside the cheese production facility at Mount Townsend Creamery on its last day of operation, and we talk with the employees and Creamery co-founder Ryan Trail about the sad end of an institution that was until very recently considered perhaps the brightest light of the local food economy.

While continuing their long and active careers, dancers and choreographers Bill Evans and Don Halquist have chosen Port Townsend as their home. Recently, Evans, Halquist and Claire Porter, renown comedic dance and movement artist, showcased part of Porter’s repertoire to sold-out audiences at Key City Public Theater. We caught up with all three performers between rehearsals for opening night, and talked about their performing lives and the works they have created, both as solo and ensemble artists.

Then we speak with Justine Gonzalez Berg of the Housing Solutions Network, a recent initiative of the Jefferson Community Foundation that addresses the need for more community engagement on the issue of affordable and available housing in our county. This is an important conversation that has increased over the last several years. Justine discusses HSN’s efforts to bring people into the fabric of a larger community dialogue needed to explore solutions to this crisis.

In early December the Washington Department of Natural Resources released a long-awaited management plan for State Trust forests that has at its heart a concern for sustainable harvests and a court-ordered conservation plan for the marbled murrelet, a tiny threatened seabird that relies upon large tracts of old growth forest for successful breeding. Considering the DNR’s concurrent and seemingly contradictory missions to conserve the forests for the likes of the murrelet and to maximize timber sale revenues to support schools and other tax districts, it is perhaps not surprising that lawsuits challenging the legality of the plan have this month been filed on both sides of the issue, with state trust lands revenue beneficiaries on the one hand arguing that the plan breaches the DNR’s fiduciary responsibility to them by “dramatically” reducing revenues, while a consortium of environmental groups has filed a complaint that the plan does not go far enough to protect the public’s interest in conserving the forest.

In this week’s Compass, we first reprise a story we did a little more than six years ago, when the marbled murrelet was at the center of another lawsuit against the DNR, and then we catch up with the fortunes of the murrelet in a follow-up phone interview with Maria Mudd Ruth, the author of a book about the bird who was one of those consulted in devising the controversial management plan.

We ask the vice president of a prominent local insurance business a question you should probably be asking yourself — if a catastrophic earthquake strikes here in Puget Sound, would insurance cover you for the loss of your home and everything you own? 

While for most people the holidays are a season of love, joy, and celebration of friends and family, for others it can be a time of crippling depression and even thoughts of suicide. It is for this reason that this week on the Compass we are bringing you the story from 2017 of a woman who actually committed suicide, but miraculously survived not only to tell the tale, but to bring hope and help to others considering doing the same.

In an ancient ritual of obscure origin that was been characterized as either insane or sublime, each year thousands of nearly-naked residents of seaside communities around the world brave the winter elements on New Year’s Day to risk life and limb by diving into what is essentially ice water. On this week’s Compass, originally aired in January of 2015, we talk with and witness the death-defying antics of scores of our Jefferson County neighbors and friends as they participate in the local version of this hallowed rite, the Marrowstone Polar Dip.

This week on Compass, KPTZ Reporter Chris Bricker speaks with Dr. Jessica Tartaro, PhD. Dr. Tartaro poses the question, “As a healer, hiding behind professional veneers, what if my clients knew my humanity?” Her answer is, “If they knew, we could ALL heal.” She’s about to launch an eleven-month leadership training program called “The Other Seat” for practitioners of the healing arts who are ready to make health – including relational health with other healers – their highest value. 23

This week on the Compass, in a reprise of a show originally aired in July of 2018, we talk with volunteer firefighters who want YOU to join them in saving lives and property. Ever thought about being a volunteer firefighter? Regardless of your age, gender or experience, you might qualify for this life-changing experience … and maybe even earn some money.