Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo is a community partner in World Book Night U.S., an ambitious campaign to give away half a million free, specially printed books in thousands of cities and towns across America on April 23.

Volunteer book lovers will help promote reading by going into their communities and distributing free copies of a book they enjoy to new or light readers, reaching them especially in underserved places — and even some fun spots. Volunteers will be picking up the books they selected to share in locations as diverse as VA hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, ballparks, mass transit, diners and more. read more »

The South Kitsap Helpline Food Bank’s application to sell vegetable starts, plants and flowers to benefit the non-profit agency at the Port Orchard Farmer’s Market was denied by market membership. This occurred in a 5 to 4 vote on Thursday, March 15, at the market’s membership meeting at Saar’s Marketplace in Port Orchard.

The reason given for denial was stated to be because the South Kitsap Helpline has a retail location at the nursery; even though Helpline officials at the meeting stated they were very willing to stop selling on-site to comply with market rules.

Applied Technical Systems (ATS), located in Silverdale, is one of three companies awarded a one year contract with two option years to develop simple and unified interfaces to make the user experience as integrated and intuitive as possible for the US Patent & Trademarks Office (USPTO). This project supports Trademarks-Next Generation (TM-NG) and Patents End-to-End (PE2E). ATS was also recently contracted to redesign, develop and implement the new user interface for PE2E. read more »

In March, the South Kitsap School District (SKSD) began a new program in its mission to “care for the whole child” by launching Hope Academy. This new program operates under the umbrella of Explorer Academy and is headed by principal of South Kitsap Alternative Programs, Pat Oster. It is designed to help recover dropout and expelled students from grades 9 through 12.

Students who are expelled, dropped out, or have otherwise slipped through the cracks of the school system now have another chance to receive their education in a more personalized instructional environment. read more »

Applied Technical Systems (ATS) has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent for an innovative cellular-like data model to describe and relate complex data structures, perform distributed data analytics and find similar data based on like connections and attributes. The patent was issued as US Patent No. 8,069,188.

When asked to describe the value of the patent to ATS, co-author Bryan Tower stated, “Since we applied for the patent in early 2008, ATS has implemented this engine in a variety of applications that need to analyze complex data relationships.” read more »

Dr. Holly Christy announced that as of Oct. 1, Element 7 Wellness clinic had moved to a larger facility, located at 1100 Madison Avenue North on Bainbridge Island. This new space will enable Dr. Christy to add a second doctor to its team, expand its IV therapy services, and provide a larger over-the-counter pharmacy.

Additionally, more space will allow the clinic to begin developing a long-term vision of incorporating seven elements of health into one location. read more »

Bay Hay and Feed made it to the Washington Green 50 list of the most sustainably operated companies and organizations in Washington State as announced by the Seattle Business magazine at the recent awards ceremony. The keynote speaker Ben Packard, Starbucks’ vice president of global responsibility, challenged the Washington’s business community to “take your sustainability efforts to a new level” to meet rising environmental challenges.

The goal of the Green Washington Awards is to identify and honor those companies read more »

Help the SBA recognize outstanding leaders in the small business community. Any individual or organization dedicated to the support of the small business community, including, but not limited to, trade and professional associations and business organizations may submit nominations. A company/owner may self-nominate. SBA’s size standards (www.sba.gov/size) apply in defining a business as small. read more »

Debbie Macomber will be signing her latest book, “1105 Yakima Street,” at the Kitsap County Historical Society Museum on Friday, Oct. 7 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The Museum is located at 280 4th Street in downtown Bremerton. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the signing. This event is a fundraiser for the Historical Society and is free to the public.

“1105 Yakima Street” is the 11th book in the popular Cedar Cove series which started more than a decade ago with “16 Lighthouse Road.” The community of Cedar Cove is loosely based on Port Orchard. read more »