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• Monte Drake has been named Hayden Financial Center manager for AmericanWest Bank in Hayden. Drake previously served as manager of the Lewiston Financial Center. The bank also promoted Pat Braddock from Hayden Financial Center manager to Community Banking regional manager.

• The Washington Department of Ecology presented an “Outstanding Wastewater Treatment Plant” award to Mayor Tammara Byers on behalf of the City of Grand Coulee’s wastewater treatment plant . This is the 11th time the plant has received this award.

• Mark Strahl , of Spokane, received a “2010 Exceptional Award” from Phillips Lifeline. Strahl and his wife, Tyice, own and operate Specialty Homecare Lifeline.

• Nurse Leaders of Idaho named Jan Moseley “Outstanding Nurse Leader for 2011” for excellence in nursing leadership. Moseley is director of nursing systems, innovations and operations for Kootenai Health.

• Ryan Fix has been hired as vice president of business development for Family Home Care and Hospice. He has 13 years of health care and technology industry experience and previously worked for a San Jose, Calif., technology company as leader of sales and business development, and for Philips Healthcare.

• Lee and Haynes hired Tyson Crane as a patent attorney. He previously worked for Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier and Neustadt in Alexandria, Va., as an associate.

Live Free—Do It Yourself By Sarah van Gelder and Doug Pibel From ...

For all the freedom we claim in the United States, we lead lives that are mapped out for us from the beginning. We go to school and, if we’re fortunate, to college; then to a job to pay for all we and our families need and want. We teach our kids to do the same. This path once served at least some of us well. But today, it is tied to a system of institutions, habits, and beliefs that is leading us all to an ecological and human train wreck. There are places where people are doing that. Those who need homes claim space and work together to build them. People go to universities where they find their own teachers, or teach each other the skills to make their communities work better for everyone. Artists do their work unconstrained by the profit-seeking of corporations and middlemen. Bicycles rule the streets, making cars take second place, at least some of the time. Instead of asking someone in power for policy changes or the right job, why not take over streets for bikes and parks, build our own cooperatives, create cultural events that nurture our souls and community spirit, build our own homes? Why not live the lives we want, along with others, without waiting for permission from the authorities? This is the approach of the autonomists, the street artists, the tent city dwellers. In our society, people on the fringes have the most skill at this. They have been excluded because they are poor, a minority, or undocumented, and they make their own space both of necessity and as a declaration of power. Those who have succeeded within the power structure and become accustomed or even addicted to the rewards of obedience may find the transition difficult. But it can be done. Does seeking freedom mean sacrificing family and friends and striking out alone? Quite the contrary. Getting free of debt, addiction to shopping, and corporate television can open up space for the authentic relationships we crave.

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