Dean joined The Bellingham Herald in 1986. Before becoming a columnist and Neighbors editor, he was a police and courts reporter, local government reporter and a news editor.

Born in Bremerton, he is a graduate of Western Washington University and the University of Missouri-Columbia. He covered the legislatures in Missouri and Washington for United Press International before joining the Herald.

Dean lives in Bellingham with his wife, Laurie, their two teen-age children, and two cats and two dogs (a sequence the dogs find hard to accept).

The State Board of Pharmacy could decide April 12 whether to require pharmacists to fill all lawful prescriptions or to find another who would in a timely manner.

The issue arose three years ago when some pharmacists refused to fill orders for Plan B, an oral contraceptive taken with three days of unprotected sex.

This is cache, read story here