One might expect that, at a time of pandemic, hospitals at least would be prospering if nothing else was, but the ironic truth is that the very health care crisis that has made the need for their services of vital importance has pushed many hospitals across the country close to the brink of bankruptcy. This week on the Compass we talk with Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn about why Jefferson County’s community hospital is no exception.

And then we talk with the founders of a new organization dedicated to giving foster kids and the families that take them in the kind of support that can literally save lives.

Wednesday, April 22nd is the fiftieth anniversary of the original Earth Day.  This week on the Compass we talk with one of the organizers of what was to have been a week of activities and celebrations to mark the occasion – and learn what opportunities still exist now that the COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on all public gatherings. The Compass airs on Saturdays at noon and repeats the following Monday at noon and 5pm.

This week on the Compass, we explore the idea of Community.

Terry Wagner was one of the local victims of CoVid-19.  She was able to weather the storm it brought to her body, and she kindly sat down with KPTZ to talk about her experience, not only with her illness, but also with the creative outpouring of love and support our community showed her during her sickness and recovery.

Then, Police Department Navigator, Judson Haynes, tells how the Port Townsend Police department, with support from the Jefferson County Health Department, sought to add the services of an embedded mental health professional to the Department’s ranks in 2019. 

Finally we share a poem about homelessness, forgiveness, and redemption on big city streets.

As the novel coronavirus known as Covid-19 wreaks havoc upon the world, Jefferson County, with fewer than two dozen confirmed cases so far, has been a relatively safe haven from a storm that has elsewhere overwhelmed hospitals and morgues. But how long will we be spared? Can we avert the kind of tragedy that has hit Italy, Spain, and New York?

This week on the Compass, we once again talk with Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke about how the Olympic Peninsula might come through the biggest health crisis of our times.

If you value the local coverage KPTZ has given to the current crisis, please show your appreciation by going to the KPTZ.org website and utilizing the “donate now” feature.

This week on the Compass, Steve Evans talks with the highly-acclaimed journalist Dahr Jamail about the relationship between the COVID 19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Then he talks with OlyCAP’s new Executive Director Cherish Chronmiller about how the Olympic Peninsula’s primary social services agency is coping with increasing demands as the virus spreads and the economy shrinks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the world economy into a tailspin, and last week any hope that the Olympic Peninsula might somehow sidestep the calamity was struck down as the first evidence of community spread of the potentially lethal disease emerged locally, and a gubernatorial decree closed down the bars, restaurants, and event venues that together form the heart and soul of the local economy – with no clear answer to the question of when (or even whether) life will return to normal.

This week on the Compass we first talk with a popular longtime Sirens Pub bartender who abruptly found herself laid off last week. Then we talk with Port Townsend Main Street Program Director Mari Mullen about the crisis facing local businesses and what resources are being mustered to help them out. And finally, we talk with Centrum Executive Director Robert Birman about the likely fate of the summer festival season upon which so much of Port Townsend’s economy relies.

As the nation and the world move into emergency mode to try to slow the spread of the potentially lethal COVID-19 coronavirus, we talk again this week with Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke about the local response to the pandemic on the Olympic Peninsula where, despite the fact there is thus far no evidence of community spread of the disease, events from church services to dances at the Grange to author readings are being cancelled, and grocery shelves being emptied of hand sanitizer and toilet paper as people prepare to hunker down and self-isolate for the long run.

This Compass was originally broadcast at noon on Saturday, March 14, and will be repeated with updates on Monday, March 16 at noon and 5pm after the calendar. In coming weeks, the KPTZ News Team will be focused on bringing reliable, up-to-date coverage of the local effects of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic.

Day in and day out all around the world, highly trained epidemiologists are constantly on watch for the next bug that might result in widespread mortality. In Jefferson County, that guardian is Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke. This week on the Compass, we talk with Dr. Locke about the threat posed by the new coronavirus that’s been dubbed COVID-19, and the plans that are being laid to deal with what he believes is the inevitable local spread of the potentially lethal virus.

This week on the Compass we revisit a November talk with a lawyer who has spent much of her career helping people think about those things nobody wants to think about: things like deadly diseases, dementia, and the big “D” itself: Death.  And she tells us why we should think about them now, so we don’t need to worry so much about them later.

There’s a small piece of land in Poulsbo, Washington, near woods that witness and fences that guard the propellant and nuclear payloads for Trident missiles.  This piece of land near the fences is called Ground Zero, and it has carried its name and its significance for 39 years.

As wind blew through the trees on a Saturday in August of 2019, supporters of the Pacific Northwest Peace Pagoda gathered at Ground Zero from across the U.S. and from other nations.  They came in solidarity, ceremony, prayer, and music, to a ground purification ceremony for the Pagoda.  After almost four decades of effort, the possibility of the Pagoda’s construction had finally become a reality.

This week on the Compass, we bring you the sounds, the words, and the emotions from that ceremony.