Fool me once …

Remember how last week we tricked you into reading about Tacoma’s Retirement Director, Patricia Pabst, being ousted? We put the word Pabst on the cover, and you totally thought we were talking about beer.



Ha. Gotcha again, didn’t we?



This week, in a somewhat surprising chain of events, Pabst was basically unfired by the Tacoma Retirement Board, and instead allowed to retire after a 26-year career with the city. She’ll spend the rest of the year soaking up paid sick leave and personal leave time, and she seems to have also won the “Don’t Sue Us Lottery” — meaning Tacoma will give Pabst a check for a cool $10,000 once she agrees not to, well, sue the city.



Not bad, especially considering last week’s tune was all about Pabst not being up to the job. Sure wish someone would fire me for poor performance and then give me $10,000 to not sue them.



Or maybe there’s more to the story …



When contacted, the City of Tacoma told the Weekly Volcano they had no further comment on Pabst’s firing, err, retirement. But Mayor Bill Baarsma was quoted in the News Tribune as saying: “There were many, many areas in which (Pabst) had excelled. She had published and won awards.”



Baarsma also noted that Pabst would receive letters of recommendation from Tacoma should she ask for them.



Curious, no?

SOTA in the news

The idea behind this space is to capture important people saying important stuff, and — really — what group is more important than teachers? Politicians and rich white guys might seem like a more obvious selection, but screw that noise.



Last weekend WSU hosted the second annual “Imagine Tomorrow” competition designed to allow students to show off their best ideas about ways to address the world’s energy problems.



Not surprisingly, five students from the Tacoma School of the Arts took part in the competition — and, also not surprisingly, they kicked major ass. SOTA’s Mac Tadie. Jake Stortini, Isaac Solverson, Logan Jones and Joe Holcomb presented their entry “Change Starts Now,” an environmental awareness program they designed for middle school students with help from SOTA math and science teacher Cyrus Brown.

For kicking so much eco-awareness ass the team walked away with a $30,000 grand prize.



“Each student approached the project with passion, tenacity, and commitment, but they never forgot how to have fun while working.  They have truly left a legacy at SOTA,” said Brown.



True dat. Nice work, guys.