Farmworkers return to the Capitol for the 11th Annual Farmworker Tribunal: La Lucha Sigue! The Struggle Continues! / Press Release

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Photo by Edgar Franks – Image download available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TI5VI1Z0vlMXxBhZMG0pvqL8NbxfrEtI/view?usp=drivesdk

January 17, 2024 Press Release, Community to Community Development and Families Unidas por la Justia

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON- 

Media Contacts: Edgar Franks – edgar.franx@gmail.com   (360) 972-5412 

Rosalinda Guillen   rosalindag@foodjustice.org  (360) 381-0293

Liz Darrow – Jan 23rd on site in Olympia (360) 220-9065

Farmworkers are essential to our food system. Yet they are still the poorest in the state. Just four years ago during the pandemic they were declared essential; while farmworkers kept food on the table for you during that crisis their wages did not go up.  

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Tuesday meeting focus will be suspension of Bellingham’s first advisory board on immigration / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Video Capture of the opening slide in the City of Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board November 7, 2022 presentation to the City Council’s Committee of the Whole on a proposed Immigrant Resource Center

January 13, 2024 Dena Jensen

Just after the New Year, on January 2, 2024, during the Bellingham City Council’s reorganization meeting, where Council Members take on their committee, board, and commission assignments, the Council took the unusual step of holding their first public discussion of a completed draft ordinance to suspend the City of Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board (IAB). There was no option provided for open public comment at this meeting, and a translator, having only been sought out related to a request for one, was not available. The discussion that day was for information only, with potential to revisit the ordinance on January 29.

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People of under-represented communities and their advocates continue in struggle for services over jail / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image containing pages from “No New Jail in Whatcom County” to access the complete September 2023 online zine.

October 28, 2023 Dena Jensen

It’s closing in on a year ago since Whatcom County’s Justice Project evaluated their needs assessment process according to a toolkit provided by the Local and Regional Government Alliance on Race and Equity.

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Whatcom jail locks up more unserved BIPOC people: Vote no on a 2023 tax for an unplanned new jail / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screenshot of a section on page 14 of the 2023 Whatcom County Justice Project Needs Assessment to access the information in the full document.

October 18, 2023 Dena Jensen

[Editors Note: I submitted this commentary to Cascadia Daily News two weeks ago on October 4, 2023, after they had published a three-week string of guest commentaries praising the 2023 ballot measure sales tax to build a new Whatcom County jail. After 2 more weeks of pro-jail-tax commentaries and finally, two jail-tax related ones today, one for it and one that opposed the tax, I noticed on the two published this morning there was an editor’s note on both, saying CDN would not be publishing any more guest commentaries about the jail tax, “with most relevant issues seemingly covered.” So here’s mine right back here in my own publication with issues related to the tax that seem relevant to me.]

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Satpal Sidhu responds to PDC Complaint regarding 2023 ballot measure to fund Whatcom jail / Noisy Waters Northwest

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October 13, 2023 Dena Jensen

A little further down in this post I am going to include images, links, and text related to the Public Disclosure complaint I filed against Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu on September 25, 2023, citing a potential violation of RCW 42.17A.555, for supporting or opposing a ballot proposition during a public meeting.

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Sales tax for new Whatcom jail requires working against incarceration reduction recommendation / Noisy Waters Northwest

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October 11, 2023 Dena Jensen

This week there have been at least a couple of presentations of Washington State University’s independent review of progress on addressing the recommendations and strategies in the 2017 Vera Institute of Justice report. One was given to the Incarceration Prevention Task Force (IPRTF) at their special meeting held on Monday, October 09, 2023 at 9:00 a.m., and one to the Whatcom County Council Committee of the Whole at their meeting on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, at 2:15 p.m.

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Whatcom County’s 2023 pro-jail PAC lets their inaccurate allegations stand/ Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the 9/28/23 screenshot to access https://www.facebook.com/VoteYesSafeJailHealthyOutcomes where this 9/15/23 post can be found
Click this 9/28/23 annotated (red oval) screenshot to access the Local Media Coverage list near the bottom of the https://www.yeswhatcomjail.com home page

September 28, 2023 Dena Jensen

We can try, right? And keep trying. Because even when we fail, we learn.

If elected officials and those leading the charge in the political campaign to promote funds to prioritize building a new jail – and in a few years a few new services don’t make amends for inaccuracies in media assertions that can marginalize and discredit, not only people they have worked with on the Justice Project, but an array of voices promoting an end to injustice against themselves and/or their communities, then we discover a bad sign, on top of others, regarding at least some of those pro-new-jail political action committee (PAC) members and the project they are pushing. It helps offer another confirmation to our sense that there is some bad faith in the mix, and to an increasing degree.

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Comparison: sales-tax constant for Whatcom Executive is we may have too many funds for behavioral health services / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Image of a chart used by Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu’s remarks at the June 12, 2023 Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force

October 22, 2023 Dena Jensen

🟥🟩Comparison of our County Executive’s remarks, one month apart, related to the amount of funding from the 2023 ballot measure sales tax that was to be made available for non-jail projects.🟥🟩

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What County Council Members were told last week about Whatcom County’s District Court Probation / Noisy Waters Northwest

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September 18, 2023 Dena Jensen

At their September 12, 2023 Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee meeting, committee members Barry Buchanan and Carol Frazey, along with County Council Member Kailey Galloway received a report from District Court Probation. Notes from the report using language that is fairly close to that used by presenters are included further down in this blog post.

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