By Grace Farrell   A person was declared dead at Tacoma’s Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) in October, the second death at the migrant detention center this year and the fourth since 2006. The individual was identified as Jose Manuel Sanchez-Castro, a 36-year-old citizen of Mexico. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which oversees the privately-owned facility, has not disclosed the cause of Sanchez-Castro’s death, but the Tacoma Police Department cited natural causes. Sanchez-Castro died shortly after an inspection of the facility was conducted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights...

Dear Editor,    I read with interest your recent article, “University Investigates Alleged Mishandling of University Torah.” As the only professor to teach a course solely devoted to Jewish studies on campus, I have been aware of the existence of this precious object for some time. I am further invested in the well being of this item as a Jewish member of our community.   As both a matter of academic and personal interest, I met with library staff years ago and asked questions and made suggestions to ensure that the...

By Mercer Stauch   On Nov. 6, 2024, library student employee August Grey (‘27) discovered and reported vandalism in Collins Memorial Library’s main floor men’s restroom. The message, written before the 2024 presidential election, read: “I hope Trump wins so that pedo men stop going into women’s bathrooms.” The message was accompanied by a swastika symbol and the acronym “KKK.”   Security Services, which chose not to comment due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, removed the vandalism and filed a report within an hour of Grey’s alert. Before that,...

By Graham Whitney   On Saturday, Nov. 16th, dozens take shelter from the rainy skies inside downtown Tacoma's bright, bustling Grand Cinema Theater. Filing into the theater, people take their seats and get ready to watch “A Real Pain,” a comedy-drama written, directed and produced by Jesse Eisenberg, who stars in the film alongside Kieran Culkin. “A Real Pain” is Eisenberg’s story of two Jewish-American cousins who travel to Poland to attend a tour of Holocaust memorial sites and to visit their late grandmother's childhood home. Eisenberg’s character David is a...