Port issues RFP for events that could shut down any of three public parks, up to three times per year / Facebook post, Noisy Waters Northwest

Click the graphic to access this post on the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce website

April 30, 2019 Dena Jensen

Folks may remember discussion last year of the Port of Bellingham allowing some of their public parks to be shut down to non-paying members of the public for private events due to requests from event organizers. Port Commissioners decided to try a “pilot program” that resulted in, I believe, ultimately just one event in August of 2018 that shut down Zuanich Point Park. 

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Port Commissioners’ comments on Cherry Point amendment process and Climate Strike youths, at their 3/19/19 meeting / Letter to Port of Bellingham Commissioners

Click the graphic to access the full platform of the US Youths Climate Strikes

April 23, 2019 Dena Jensen

I sent off an email today to the Port of Bellingham Commissioners about statements they made at their March 19, 2019 Port Commission meeting about the Cherry Point amendment process of the Whatcom County Council and about the youths that participated in the Climate Strike in Bellingham on March 15, 2019.

I was discouraged and disappointed in the Commissioners’ rehashing of Whatcom-Business-Alliance-promoted, pro-Cherry-Point-Industry (at the expense of community members and the environment) talking points.

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First tiny home permit approved for Safe Haven in Bellingham / Noisy Waters Northwest

Click the graphic to view Jim Peterson’s fundraising post with his 4/19/19 announcement.

April 19, 2019 Dena Jensen

At the April 8, 2019 Bellingham City Council meeting Jim Peterson, President of HomesNOW!, gave a public comment letting the Council know, among other things, that HomesNOW would not be doing any more tent encampments, but would be focusing on tiny homes. Jim explains why in his comment included in this post.

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Bellingham City Council Members express resistance to establishing workgroup to specifically address immigration issues / Noisy Waters Northwest

Click the graphic to access the Boards and Commissions page on the City of Bellingham website

April 18, 2019 Dena Jensen

On some occasions when attending Dignity Vigils at Bellingham City Hall, some of us who attend them gain some hints into the current positions of City of Bellingham elected officials regarding their position on addressing the injustices immigrants are facing in our community.

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Bellingham Heron Colony Threatened by Development – Again / Northwest Citizen, Jamie K. Donaldson

Click the graphic to access “Bellingham Heron Colony Threatened by Development – Again” on Northwest Citizen

April 4, 2019 Northwest Citizen Jamie K. Donaldson

There will be a Public Hearing—at the request of heron advocates— on a subdivision application of the last undeveloped plat in Shorewood in Edgemoor, adjacent to the heronry at Post Point in Fairhaven.

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Contact House Appropriations Committee to support SB 5438 protections for farm workers / Noisy Waters Northwest

Click the graphic to access the two minute discussion and vote for SB 5438

April 3, 2019 ACTION Dena Jensen

Yesterday Senate Bill 5438 was successfully moved out of the WA state legislature’s Labor & Workplace Standards committee with a do-pass recommendation! SB 5438 would provide measures to offer more adequate protections for the rising number of H-2A farm workers being recruited by Washington state farms.

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2019 Farmworker Tribunal and Latino Legislative Day on Community Voz / Noisy Waters Northwest

March 30, 2019 Dena Jensen

Click the graphic to access a recording of the 3/20/19 Community Voz radio show

For those who didn’t catch it on air, the March 20, 2019 Community Voz radio show on KMRE centered on the trip that members of the Bellingham women-led , grassroots organization, Community to Community Development (C2C), made to Olympia on March 18, 2019 for the 6th Annual Farmworker Tribunal and Latino Legislative Day. 

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‘26,000 bucks a door is just a hard pill to swallow’: delinquent renovations of the Whatcom County Jail / Noisy Waters Northwest

Click the graphic to access the YouTube video of the Whatcom County Council March 12, 2019 meeting.

March 20, 2019 Dena Jensen

County Council Member Rud Browne expressed the sentiment twice at the Whatcom County Council March 12, 2019 regular meeting during the Council committee reports segment near the end of the meeting. One exact quote was: “Yeah, so anyway, anyway, so, I just, 26,000 bucks a door is just a hard pill to swallow.”

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2/26/19 Community Voz radio show on SB 5438, offering protections to farm workers / Facebook post, Noisy Waters Northwest

March 14, 2019 Dena Jensen

Click the graphic to access The Western Front article, “Community to Community Development Takes Fight for Agricultural Workers, Immigrants Rights to State Legislature”

I just listened to a recent Community Voz radio show on SB 5438 – which recently passed the state senate – a bill that would provide a source of funding and resources to provide better oversight to help prevent abuses of the H-2A visa agricultural program. You all should listen too. There’s a ton of information and analysis packed into the hour-long show that will help you better understand the bill. (Great music too!)

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