By Peninsula Daily News
and Associated Press
THIS WEEK’S NORTH Olympic Peninsula business meetings (all are open to the public):
■ Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce — Weekly luncheon meetings are held Mondays at noon in the second-floor meeting room of the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St.
This Monday’s speaker will be Clallam County District Court Judge Rick Porter, who will discuss recent changes in marijuana laws, liquor distribution and indigent-defense standards, and how they are affecting his court.
Luncheon tickets are $15 and can be purchased from the meeting room cashier.
For those not having lunch, there is a $3 participation fee that includes a beverage.
■ Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce — Weekly luncheon meetings are held Mondays at noon at the Port Townsend Elks Lodge, 555 Otto St.
This Monday’s speaker will be Robert Birman, Centrum executive director.
Lunch at $8 will be catered by Subway. The meeting sponsor will be the CoLab.
■ Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce — Luncheon meetings are held the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at noon at SunLand Golf & Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive, Sequim.
This Tuesday’s speaker will be Diane Schostak, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, updating chamber members on tourism highlights and statistics.
The meeting sponsor is Dungeness Courte Alzheimer’s Community.
Luncheon reservations closed Friday, but seats are available for those who are not having lunch. Coffee or tea is $3. Phone 360-683-6197 or email info@sequimchamber.com for information.
■ Forks Chamber of Commerce — Luncheon meetings are Wednesdays at noon at JT’s Sweet Stuffs, 80 N. Forks Ave.
This Wednesday’s featured speaker will be Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Kevin Ziegler, officer-in-charge of Station Quillayute River in LaPush.
Lunch costs $8; a bowl of soup, $4.75; and a cup of soup, $4. The entree is lasagna.
■ North Hood Canal Chamber of Commerce — Representing the “Emerald Towns” of the Hood Canal, Quilcene and Brinnon, the chamber usually meets monthly on the third Monday but is on summer hiatus.
Gatherings resume Sept. 16 with a mixer at Cove RV in Brinnon.
■ Port Angeles Business Association — Breakfast meetings are Tuesdays at 7:30 a.m. at Joshua’s Restaurant, 113 DelGuzzi Drive, Port Angeles.
This Tuesday’s scheduled speaker will be Clallam County Fire District No. 2 Chief Sam Phillips, who will discuss the proposed property tax levy lid lift on the Nov. 5 ballot in the district covering unincorporated area that surrounds the city of Port Angeles.
The district is seeking an additional 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation to its current tax rate of 76 cents per $1,000 valuation.
There is a $3 minimum charge by Joshua’s for those who do not order breakfast.
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OMC lauds employees for Epic training
PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center’s board of commissioners and Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis recently recognized 18 employees for “their tireless involvement in the implementation of the Epic electronic health record.”
“The Board of Commissioners and administration want to thank each of these employees for their hard work, outstanding skills, focused determination and huge dedication to our Epic implementation,” said Lewis.
Recognition included staff specifically trained to be credentialed trainers, known at OMC as CTs.
CTs had six weeks of intense training in their respective area and have the most technical knowledge of the processes involved in Epic.
They taught Epic “super users” and then taught all other employees to use the system.
Those recognized are Amber Adkins, patient accounts; Sarah Bennett, patient accounts; Jina Bradley, OMP Specialty Clinic, Sequim; Debra Ford, clinical informatics; Jan Johannessen, pharmacy; Julie Jones, patient access services; Laura Kasperski, patient accounts; Margaret Kimball, health information management; Debbie Nickles, diagnostic imaging; Kevin O’Neill, RN, surgical services; Katie Orth, RN, medical oncology; Samantha Reynolds, OMP Specialty Clinic, Sequim; Jessica Ritchie, patient access services; Kathy Ruud, laboratory; Susan Sotebeer, RN, emergency services; Gretchen Souza, RN, education services; Alberta Stamp, clinical informatics; and Denise Waters, RN, medical/surgical unit
“Each of these employees has worked tirelessly to make our Epic implementation successful,” said Dr. Mark Fischer, Olympic Medical Epic lead physician champion.
“They have guided us through new, complex workflows and solutions in the last four months. More than 1,100 employees and providers are now proficient with Epic.
“During Epic implementation, these individuals have also maintained their own usual job responsibilities.”
New physical therapist at PA facility
PORT ANGELES — Heather Hagan, physical therapist, has recently joined the team at Therapeutic Associates Physical Therapy at 1114 Georgiana St.
Hagan received her doctorate of physical therapy from the University of North Georgia this year.
She also is a certified athletic trainer.
She has worked in acute care, home health and outpatient physical therapy settings.
She has treated adult and pediatric neurological conditions, athletic injuries and postsurgical rehabilitation.
Hagan also recently became an athletic trainer for Peninsula College in Port Angeles.
She believes that “the key to getting each patient back to their optimal functional ability lies in getting to know them as an individual.”
For more information, phone Therapeutic Associates Physical Therapy at 360-452-6216 or email Hagan at hhagan@taiweb.com.
New tutoring firm
PORT TOWNSEND —Surpass the Class Literacy & Learning Center LLC is now open in Port Townsend at 211 Taylor St., Suite No. 31-A.
Surpass the Class was founded by Beth Miller, an educator, who has 17 years of experience as a special education teacher and reading therapist, working with students
who exhibit reading, spelling and written language challenges.
Miller said she will offer students one-on-one educational therapy using multisensory, research-based methods adapted to each student’s abilities and needs.
An open house to check out the new space, and see and experience the materials used in individual therapy sessions is set for 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
A drawing will be held for half off an assessment package, which includes a student assessment, a written report and a consultation.
Pharmacist sets massage presentation
PORT ANGELES — An educational event, “Pharmacology for Massage Therapists,” will be presented by the Olympic Peninsula Massage Group on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
It will be held at First Presbyterian Church, 139 W. Eighth St., from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Sharen Numa, pharmacist and Peninsula College faculty member, will share information regarding medications and how their side effects can determine what massage modalities would be appropriate.
Medications might include muscle relaxers, pain medication and drugs that can cause easy bruising.
At the meeting she also will answer specific questions that are emailed to her ahead of time via cpat@olypen.com.
Attendees should park in the lot across the alley behind the Presbyterian church and enter at the double doors. A $5 donation will cover costs.
Licensed massage practitioners will earn two continuing education units.
For more information, email Carter, or phone her at 360-457-0333 or contact Darla Workman at darlaw@willowmt.com or 360-417-5257.
Winery praised
PORT ANGELES — Camaraderie Cellars of Port Angeles’ 2009 Tempranillo recently was rated “Outstanding” and among the top 10 of this variety in the Northwest by Andy Perdue, publisher and editor of Great Northwest Wine online newsletter.
The wine has “bold flavors of rich red cherry, pomegranate, plum, blackberry, all backed with assertive tannins,” Perdue wrote.
“The [Tempranillo] variety originating in Spain’s Rioja District is showing well in Northwest vineyards and is becoming a favorite wine to accompany grilled hearty dishes,” Camaraderie Cellars said in a statement.
Shred events set
First Federal will host four free community shredding events to help individuals dispose of sensitive documents in a secure way.
Individuals are encouraged to bring sensitive paper for shredding on site by LeMay Mobile Shredding, a professional shredding company. Shredding documents helps ensure privacy and prevent identity theft.
There is no charge for the service.
Types of documents to bring include old tax returns, account statements or any paperwork with account or Social Security numbers or other personal information.
The shred events will run from 10 a.m. to noon on these dates:
Sixth Street branch, 227 E. Sixth St., Port Angeles, on Saturday, Sept. 21.
Port Townsend branch, 1321 Sims Way, on Saturday, Sept. 28.
Forks branch, 131 Calawah Way, on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Sequim Village branch, 1201 W. Washington St., on Saturday, Oct. 19.
The shred event is limited to five bags or five boxes per vehicle.
Those having documents shredded should be prepared to keep the bags or boxes.
Murrelet ruling
PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge has handed the timber industry another defeat in its effort to expand logging on the habitat of the marbled murrelet, a threatened coastal seabird.
U.S. District Court Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., said marbled murrelets will keep their Endangered Species Act listing, rejecting an argument that Central California murrelets, which are doing poorly, should not be lumped in with the populations in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.
Bates also ruled that old-growth forest habitat will remain protected during a three-year period when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service re-examines what it considers a flawed 1996 critical habitat designation.
The marbled murrelet was listed as threatened in 1992, and habitat protection has meant less logging in the Pacific Northwest.
The tiny sea birds venture inland to raise their young and depend on old-growth forests for nesting.
New iPhones
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple is expected to unveil new models of the iPhone on Tuesday at its Cupertino headquarters.
The iPhone, introduced in 2007, is Apple’s top-selling product, accounting for half of the company’s revenue last year.
Along with an iPhone 5 upgrade, the company is debuting a less-expensive model meant to help attract customers in developing regions.
Roving eyes
NEW YORK — The pay-TV industry lost 217,000 subscribers in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, the SNL Kagan industry report showed.
Traditional cable companies, meanwhile, are losing more subscribers to satellite services and other competitors that offer video service.
Traditional cable slipped to 55.3 percent of the pay TV market.
Pilots rehired
CHICAGO — United Airlines said it will call back almost 600 pilots who were furloughed during a time when fuel prices spiked and the Great Recession forced the airline to shrink.
The returning pilots are the last of 1,437 United pilots furloughed in 2008 and 2009, according to the Air Line Pilots Association.
United has about 12,000 pilots.
Ship pollution
WASHINGTON — The world’s largest cruise ship company will adopt technology from power plants and automobiles to reduce air pollution from the massive diesel engines powering its ships.
In a tentative agreement reached Thursday with the Environmental Protection Agency, Carnival Corp. will deploy scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide and filters to trap soot on as many as 32 ships over the next three years.
At port, the ships will plug into the electrical grid, rather than idle, to reduce pollution.
Emissions from ocean-going vessels had largely been unregulated and contributed to 30 major U.S. ports violating air pollution standards.
Fat-fighting bacteria
WASHINGTON — Call it a hidden ally: The right germs just might be able to help fight fat.
Different kinds of bacteria that live inside the gut can help spur obesity or protect against it, say scientists at Washington University in St. Louis who transplanted intestinal germs from fat or lean people into mice and watched the rodents change.
And what they ate determined whether the good germs could move in and do their job.
Thursday’s report raises the possibility of one day turning gut bacteria into personalized fat-fighting therapies, and it may help explain why some people have a harder time losing weight than others do.
“It’s an important player,” said Dr. David Relman of Stanford University, who also studies how gut bacteria influence health but wasn’t involved in the new research.
“This paper says that diet and microbes are necessary companions in all of this. They literally and figuratively feed each other.”
Fishing stocks
WASHINGTON — Federal efforts to rebuild depleted fish populations have largely been successful, but pressure to overfish some species remains high, and some fish stocks have not rebounded as quickly as projected, according to a new report by a scientific panel.
The report by the National Research Council said 43 percent of fish stocks identified as being overfished were rebuilt or showed good progress toward rebuilding within 10 years, the time limit required by federal law.
Another 31 percent were on track to rebuild if sharply reduced fishing levels remain in place, the report said
But the report also said 26 percent of overfished stocks continue to be overfished, due to ineffective enforcement and errors in fish stock estimates that led officials to set catch limits that were too high.
