Monthly Archives: December 2008

Griffin School District Unveils New Web Site

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The Griffin School District has come out with a dramatically redesigned web site. Area parents will really appreciate the new layout, which makes it easy to navigate to the school calendar and to access lunch menus, emergency contacts, teacher information and information regarding the Griffin PTO, Griffin Foundation and the school board.

“The site will incorporate premier website technologies, such as interactive school calendars, teacher class pages, news and announcements functions and even a special programming that connects parents to students’ schedules. In addition, the site allows several innovative functions, including interactive multimedia blogs, the ability for students to submit their homework online and much more.

This solution also provides a significant saving in the maintenance of the Griffin web site. The service is outsourced and negates the need to replace an aging web server. It also meets guidelines for federal funding.”

We also like the links to online educational resources, such as Encarta Academic and the Timberland Regional Library District.

The new site is located at http://griffin.schoolfusion.us/ and there’s a message, on the old site, which refers browsers to this new address.

We compliment the Griffin School District and their technology faculty member, Pat Passmore, on this much-improved web presence.

Thurston County Democrats Post Applications for County Commissioner

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The Thurston County Democrats have posted the applications and, in some cases, cover letters, from 10 individuals who have applied to replace Bob Macleod as County Commissioner, District 3. Click here to read those, if you’re inclined to do so.

The short list is now comprised of:

Corinne Tobeck
Ed Crawford
Erik Landass
Gayle Broadbent
Jack Turner
Jacqueline Brown Miller
Karen Valenzuela
Mary Moore
Richard Emde
Russ Lehman
Sharron Coontz
Susan Bogni
Walt Jorgensen

A piece we wrote previously, about Bob Macleod’s resignation, describes the process the Thurston County Democrats will follow, in order to send a list of at least 3 candidates to the Board of Commissioners.

UPDATED: Click here for the Olympian’s coverage of this list, which raises the number of candidates to 13).

Mobile Phone Numbers Go Public Today – What You Can Do

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Just in time for the holidays, the Federal Trade Commission is allowing cell phone numbers to be released to telemarketers today.

The FTC has provided a DoNotCall program, for our use. Call 888-382-1222 from the phone you wish to put on the do not call list. Or, you can go to www.ftc.gov/donotcall and register up to three numbers at a time. You will receive an email for each number and you must respond within 72 hours to complete the registration, which is good for five years.

Non-profit organizations and political parties are exempt from the Do Not Call list. Also, those companies which can claim they have an “established business relationship” with you are also exempt.

Telemarketing firms are supposed to register and download a list of do not call numbers so that they can eliminate the do not calls from their calling lists.

You can file a complaint against a telemarketer you think may have broken the rules online by going to https://www.donotcall.gov/Complaint/ComplaintCheck.aspx. But, your phone number must have been in the registry for at least 31 days.

If you would like to read about a case in which a telemarketing company failed to give an accurate call back number so that consumers could complain, go to http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/05/scorpio.shtm. Each of the defendants in the case received a $530,000 fine, but they only had to pay a small fraction of it, and they were then free to continue with their pestering calls.