For the last several years, I’ve taken something of a break from writing – first, with political work on a number of campaigns (including helping pass Seattle’s new city council district elections system and working to elect progressive council champion Kshama Sawant), and for the last couple of years as I’ve been consumed with health issues and the chronic poverty the Health Industrial Complex, especially the insurance arm, has left me in. That in itself has been a full time job.

My health is thankfully much improved now, and it’s time I got back to doing what I do best and love most: writing and reporting on local and global issues of importance. In particular, our city is in the process of remaking itself into an enclave where only the wealthy are welcome, and local media needs a voice for the rest of us, a voice that resists that tide.

And so, I’ve been hard at work on a new project that is intended to help fill that void. It’s long past time I started writing full time again. Watch this space in the coming days. In the meantime, I’m still struggling with a secondary insurance provider that has decided my deductible should be about 80 percent of my monthly income, leaving me financially exhausted as I’ve been scrambling to pay for, among other things, critical and criminally expensive medications.

I’m also hoping this project can draw community support to help defray those expenses. If you can help, use the PayPal button at the lower right of the home page, or write me at geovlp(at)earthlink(dot)com for details on how to help.

The less time I need to spend dealing with that, the more journalism I can do instead. Thanks for your help, and watch this space!