Elite perspective on the Pickett Bridge signs in this week’s Cascadia Weekly online / Noisy Waters Northwest

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legacy of pickett cascadia

August 26, 2017  Dena Jensen

Oxford Dictionary definition of elite: 1.1 “A group or class of people seen as having the most power and influence in a society, especially on account of their wealth or privilege”

What do we think about an elite citizen here in Whatcom County, such as Ted Van Dyk in his August 23, 2017 opinion piece in the online edition of Cascadia Weekly, asserting that the City of Bellingham temporarily taking down the signs at the so-called Pickett Bridge has “fed intolerance?” On social media this last week there was also an August 24, 2017 statement on The Pickett House FB page by past president of the Daughter of the Pioneers, Susan Hess expressing fears “that someone, in ignorance, will assume that Bellingham’s Pickett House Museum is a confederate monument and do it harm.” Continue reading →

Bellingham City Council, 8/14/17 Committee of the Whole discussion regarding renaming the Pickett Bridge / Noisy Waters Northwest

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april barker cob committee of the whole pickett

Click the graphic to access the 8/14/2017 Bellingham City Council Committee of the Whole meeting. Discussion regarding the Pickett Bridge starts at about 2:02:00 on the video.

August 15, 2017  Dena Jensen

At last night’s August 14, 2017 Bellingham City Council meeting, there was a brief discussion which touched on a bit longer discussion held earlier that day at Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting regarding renaming Bellingham’s Pickett Bridge.  Council Member April Barker said the issue is being raised due to constituent’s concerns that the name of the bridge “is celebrating a man who has a legacy of pro-slavery and had a strong alliance with the Confederate Army.”  In the summer 2015 The Bellingham Herald ran a story saying discussion of renaming of the bridge came forward when Community to Community Development and the Racial Justice Coalition, held a protest of crime-mapping software being considered by the Bellingham Police Department.  Pickett Bridge was the site of their protest.

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2016 Racial discrimination charges received no apology from Taylor Shellfish; Lawsuit is now settled / Noisy Waters Northwest

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eeoc taylor 0717
August 5, 2016  Dena Jensen

It’s time we get the apology that Taylor Shellfish failed to offer when charges were originally brought against their company in September of 2016 for racial discrimination.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found that former Taylor Shellfish employee Jeremy Daniels was called various racial slurs (noted in the EEOC press release linked to in the post) by his supervisor at Taylor Shellfish (based in Shelton and one of the largest producers of shellfish in the country) and was directed by management to ignore this discrimination. Continue reading →

Elfo asks, why citizen oversight for community safety? Answers become apparent / Noisy Waters Northwest

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August 2, 2017  Dena Jensen

On Saturday July 22, 2017 Community to Community Development posted a live-feed of their Family Forum for Community Safety that was held that evening at the Bellingham Public Library.

Near the end of the event, the facilitator, Rosalinda Guillen of Community to Community Devolopment, explained why she was being direct and public with this discussion.  She said that people are concerned about the federal government finding ways to impose immigration regulations and to make the county sheriff comply with immigration enforcement. Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo responded, indicating that federal officials had already tried to exert pressure and impose regulations, but that his sheriff’s office had said no and that they would continue to say no to federal mandates. Continue reading →

Accounting of the 6/27/17 afternoon Whatcom County Council Special Committee of the Whole RE: the jail agreement / Noisy Waters Northwest

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scotw 062717 cob letter

Click the graphic to  access the complete 6/20/2017 letter from the Bellingham City Council to the Whatcom County Council

July 1. 2017  Dena Jensen

On June 27, 2017 the Whatcom County Council’s Special Committee of the Whole (made up of all seven council members) met for an afternoon session to discuss the letter they had been sent by the Bellingham City Council regarding the currently proposed Jail Facility Finance and Use Agreement.  I listened to the audio of the meeting and wrote up fairly detailed summaries of the comments and discussions during the meeting that I had posted in the comment section to a Facebook post. I thought I would share that material here to give more people access to the information, since it might come in handy over the next few weeks while the JFFUA is under consideration and the potential looms of a .2% tax to finance a new Whatcom County Jail going on the November 2017 ballot.  Here is the link to the audio for that meeting: Special Committee of the Whole PM June 27 2017.mp3

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The “Illusion of Inclusion” series of reports on the Whatcom County Jail / NorthwestCitizen, Juliette Daniels

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illusion of inclusion series

Click this graphic to go to the search results page on NorthwestCitizen where you can access any of these reports.

Keep reading this series of reports on NorthwestCitizen to get an in-depth look at the history of the plan for a horizontal mega-jail. The next installment after those shown in this screenshot of search results for “Illusion of Inclusion” on NorthwestCitizen is also available on their website (it has a slightly different title). Continue reading →

Who’s the threat: Stand.earth or LIberty Road and Common Threads Northwest? / Noisy Waters Northwest

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stand letter to wba members

First page of Stand.earth letter that was linked to on the KGMI Saturday Morning Live show webpage for the May 27, 2017 show, [update 1/12/20: this link is no longer viable, however here is a link to another copy of the Stand.earth letter: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/5a71f88fdb9d4d3551330c913/files/c061068d-e7a3-46fd-b3c1-8cd922f1fba4/Stand.Earth_letter_to_Tradewinds.pdf]

June 1, 2017  Dena Jensen

Time to talk to your friendly local businesses who are members of the Whatcom Business Alliance, but are unlikely to want to be part of a strongly pro-fossil-fuel-dependancy organization, and back up Stand.earth’s wise appeal to them. LIberty Road’s Kris Halterman is calling the request send out by Stand as (pretty sure caps are in order) a “THREAT LETTER!”  Continue reading →

Is Skagit County’s Sr. Deputy Prosecutor Honea spreading rumors about Swinomish leadership? / Noisy Waters Northwest, Dena Jensen

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sml 5:20

May 29, 2017: This article has been updated at the conclusion of the original post with additional information about material attributed to Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Chairman Brian Cladoosby and used out of context by Skagit County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney William Honea and KGMI conservative radio show host Kris Halterman.

May 22, 2017  Dena Jensen

Skagit County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney William Honea said in one of his May 22, 2017 comments on a Facebook comment thread: “…Swinomish, which represents 0.4% of the [Skagit] County’s population, is claiming superior jurisdiction over much of the land base, and its leadership is talking about how great it will be when everyone else leaves. Can you blame the people at Willman’s lecture for being a little freaked out?”   Continue reading →

State senator Doug Ericksen’s EPA employment: An ethical and potential legal dilemma / Noisy Waters Northwest, Sandy Robson

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Ericksen Emergency exit

Senator Ericksen positioned by the Emergency Exit.  Screenshot from October 10, 2014, YouTube video, Doug Ericksen – Seth Fleetwood Debate at the Northwest Business Club

April 4, 2017  Sandy Robson

After Washington state Senator Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) has professed to news media multiple times that he did not know what his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compensation/salary amount would be for his appointment to the agency in January, by the Trump Administration, it appears that he is either not telling the truth about that, or that he never looked at his employment letter from the EPA. Either case does not bode well for Senator Ericksen.  Continue reading →

A Tea Party by any other name / Noisy Waters Northwest, Sandy Robson

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rip whatcom tea party

March 26, 2017  Sandy Robson

The Whatcom Tea Party is ostensibly defunct.  A March 12, 2017, email newsletter sent by the Whatcom Tea Party’s “Town Crier,” to the group’s email mailing list subscribers, stated in part:

“It is with some regret, but also the knowledge that it was a great catalyst, that the Whatcom Tea Party closed its doors effective January 27, 2017, so that we can continue to move forward with our new projects. The tea party lives on, but with new names and new organizations.

Continue reading →