Editor,
In light of the allegations against Northwest Youth Services’ previous CEO (see CDN articles) concerning “inappropriate relationships with youth” and investigations with the state and local law enforcement, I would highlight his membership on the Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence (CDSV).
I personally experienced and witnessed the intimidation tactics utilized by Jason McGill. These tactics are very commonly used by abusers to control their victims. It was incredibly inappropriate for him to be on the commission. In my opinion, he utilized the credibility bestowed on him by his appointments to various task forces, boards and commissions to give the aura of being untouchable by criticism and accountability. He would regularly flaunt the backing of the City of Bellingham in my interactions with him.
The CDSV membership includes two City of Bellingham attorneys, the state regulator (the Department of Children, Youth, and Families) for NWYS, the county prosecutor, various police chiefs and the sheriff. Mr. McGill’s behavior went on unaddressed by these various groups for years.
There were plenty of warning signs in the operations of NWYS and I have been highlighting much of them to various governmental agencies since 2021. They were all ignored. It is no wonder why it took his resignation for the allegations to come out of NWYS … the staff of NWYS were afraid to speak out.
Even though his membership with the CDSV may be moot after his resignation from NWYS, he still is listed as a member on the website. The City of Bellingham should publicly and immediately revoke his appointment.
Adam Bellingar
Bellingham
Editor,
I appreciate CDN’s deeper dive into the proposed development project in Everson within a FEMA floodplain (CDN, Oct. 23, 2024). This is a timely piece as Whatcom County has just experienced the second wettest October in history as of Oct. 27. The highway is closed due to a landslide [as of writing], and there is standing water in my yard from the 2 inches of rain that just fell in under two hours.
Where do we think global warming is taking us? We are certainly not fixing the global warming issue or making any real headway. Still, development reigns king. I understand the need for housing, but the idea that this development project will help “farm worker housing” is rich! Due to the critical areas ordinance, ag producers cannot develop any of their land for worker housing in the floodplain.
This is a major problem for producers right now, so why not provide ag exemptions for housing on farms? Lastly, council should consider the full liability scope in allowing this development to move forward. All of our insurance rates go up after natural disasters and the flood rating score of the county goes down when developments like this take place. Remember that water has to go somewhere. By continuing to alter natural floodplains, we are merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Liz Stockton
Bellingham
Editor,
Today on the Bellingham waterfront we have the City of Bellingham Parks & Rec Department trying to clean up the waterfront for recreational usage, while the Port Commission is busy trying to industrialize the adjacent property ASAP. As an example, the Port Commission now wants to build a rail-fed container shipping terminal that “will enable us to compete with the Port of Vancouver for cargo.”
This is not going to be a UPS shipping store: It will require multiple cranes, storage space for containers, plus space for all the idling diesel trucks and railroad engines and railcars, etc. All of this will bring much more traffic to our already congested downtown streets. Plus, who will buy the seven-figure condos under development that overlook all this activity day and night?
Of all the dumb, ill-conceived things the Port Commission has done in the last 20 years, this takes the cake! Next, they’ll be trying to convince someone to build a new paper mill on our waterfront! Sadly, the federal government has jumped into the fray with millions of misguided tax dollars to fund their latest folly. If Whatcom County “needs” this sort of development it should be built in the Cherry Point Industrial District.
So the first step that B’ham residents and city politicians must take is to tell Sen. [Maria] Cantwell to either keep the money, or allow us to reinvest those funds in more mutually beneficial ways, such as helping to finish cleaning up the remains from the past industries that still plague our waterfront today.
Jack McBride
Bellingham
Editor,
Cascadia Daily News should be showered with praise for the wealth of resources you applied to recent election coverage.
CDN deserves commendation for making all that work available to the entire community free of charge, outside the paywall, with stacks of paper Voter Guides available for the taking at libraries and other locations.
I must take exception, however, to the wording used in several of the “Citizen Agenda Questions” which your voter agenda program collected from readers and then posed to candidates. Several of the questions were slanted, biased, loaded and meant to force/elicit a particular reply. They boldly implied what the question’s writer wanted to hear. They were not opaque, unbiased and fair. The result was to taint the whole question process with personal agendas and a corruption of the original intent.
I would suggest the CDN staff exercise the same editorial review responsibilities it claims to apply to letters to the editor. Clean up the accusatory tone of a question and repost it in even, transparent and unbiased terms. The questions can and should be posed free of the thinly implied bias of the person asking it.
Dave Wolf
Bellingham
Ron Judd responds: Thanks for noticing our election coverage. CDN does apply minimal editing standards for submitted Citizens Agenda questions, mainly for clarity and length. But we also try to preserve the original voice and intent, even if it qualifies as “accusatory.”
Muting the “tone” of a pointed or even openly angry question would actually be contrary to the intent of the program, which is to serve as a conduit between voters and candidates with minimal filtering. Readers ultimately make the choices about which questions are “appropriate” both in tone and content by voting for those they agree with — or submitting their own.
Editor,
Whatcom County Jail (WCJ) must reinstate in-person visitation immediately.
Almost three years ago on Jan. 28, 2022, the jail canceled in-person visitation with the public promise “We will resume visitation as soon as possible.” It has clearly been too long. The failure of the Whatcom Sheriff’s Department to keep this promise, and the failure of Whatcom County’s elected representatives to say anything about this exceptionally cruel condition demonstrates the push for a new jail in Whatcom County was never about “improved” conditions for our community members incarcerated in the Whatcom County Jail.
The provided alternative of video calls from kiosks in the jail lobby, provide no privacy, are difficult to use, and are only in English, making it impossible to use for our community members who don’t speak or read English. Besides this alternative, other forms of communication, such as video/phone calls, are contracted out to private companies, who share the revenues from these expensive calls with the county! The county makes money off the isolation it enforces on our community members! This isolation negatively impacts both the incarcerated and their loved ones.
Moreover, this is an issue that can be solved immediately by reinstating in-person visits. We’ve had in-person visitation before, I have done it before this three-year cancellation. Lawyers can still visit with clients, so it is possible. All community members both inside WCJ and out, deserve to see their friends and family in person.
Sara Glebe
Bellingham
Editor,
RE: “Mabel the cow settling into farm life after two months on the loose in Bellingham” (CDN, Oct. 23, 2024).
It’s great news that Mabel is safe and enjoying her new life at the Whatcom Humane Society’s farm. Her two months on the run show just how much animals value their freedom.
While we celebrate Mabel’s happy ending, her story should make us think: Why are animals like her used and abused for food? Cows, chickens, pigs, and others want to live just as much as our animal companions. Yet millions suffer in cramped trucks, slaughterhouses, and factory farms every day —without any chance of escape.
If we applaud Mabel’s survival, why not extend that same compassion to the billions of animals trapped in the food system? With so many delicious vegan options available, it’s easier than ever to stop supporting industries that exploit animals for profit.
Every animal is someone. So, let’s honor Mabel’s journey by leaving animals off our plates. Check out PETA.org for tips on how to go vegan.
Rebecca Libauskas
The PETA Foundation, Norfolk, Virginia
Editor,
The current politics here are depressing; I watch as many of my fellow citizens are beguiled by the romantic notion that all cultures are the same and claim progressiveness and, by doing so, betray Western Post-Enlightenment values and on the other side, I see people obsessed with the concerns in a faraway place that has obsessed the world’s imagination for 5,000 years — a place where most people do not share our values, where women are treated like possessions, gay people are stoned or forced to have sex reassignment operations.
Cui bono?
Progressives are unmoored from facts, unmoored from history, and unmoored from an understanding of how fascist they sound. One example: The majority of the top 30 most dangerous cities in the U.S. are led by the left.
Trumpists are unmoored from facts, unmoored from history, and unmoored from an understanding of how fascist they sound. One example: Trump’s economic plan is based on mercantilism, not modern economics.
Meanwhile, China eats our lunch, Chinese graduate students come here unfettered to spy, the most murderous regime in history threatens Western democracies, our deficit spirals, Iran and KSA slowly start a nuclear arms race, AI eats all our power, salmon stocks continue to suffer, there is no high-speed train from Vancouver to Portland, I-5 is a mess, anti-social media destroys our communities, the cost of living is sky high, etc. …
All this identity politics, tribalism, east/west, urban/rural …
Cui bono? Not us, not Americans.
It is time to (continue) moderation and derive decisions based on facts and outcomes, not rhetoric and emotion.
Cui bono? Salus populi suprema lex esto!!!
Nathan Tableman
Bellingham
Editor,
Children across our state are benefitting from a small excise tax on Washington’s elite billionaire class. Child care centers, early education programs and vital school construction projects are going forward due to the millions of dollars raised on a small 7% tax on stock and bond profits that exceed $250,000. Exempt from the tax are all retirement accounts, all real estate, including business property and vacation homes, small family businesses under $10 million, farms and livestock, timber and timberlands and commercial fishing rights.
Fewer than 4,000 wealthy Washingtonians pay this special capital gains tax. Hedge fund manager Brian Heywood and his friends in King County have spent millions to end these critical educational programs. If they can afford to place this harmful initiative on our ballots, they can easily afford the small tax. The Washington State Supreme Court rejected their argument, and the Supreme Court of the U.S. refused to take the case because it has no merit. They lost in court, and now they are asking average Washingtonians to cheat our children in order to further enrich the greedy few. Organizations including the Washington Education Association, PTA, Moms Rising Together and the League of Women Voters have studied the issue and ask you to please vote NO on I-2109.
Mira Kamada
Bellingham
Editor,
As wildfires become more frequent and devastating in Washington state, the race for Public Lands Commissioner has turned its focus to wildfire prevention and forest conservation. Dave Upthegrove is the clear choice for this critical role because he has a forward-looking plan to manage our state’s forests and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
Upthegrove’s commitment to preserving up to 77,000 acres of mature forests is essential for both wildfire prevention and fighting climate change. These legacy forests trap significant amounts of carbon, providing a natural defense against more intense fire seasons. His approach balances environmental protection with economic realities, as he correctly points out that there are younger forests available for timber harvest, safeguarding the revenue that supports our schools and local governments.
Jamie Herrera Beutler’s logging plan will exacerbate the climate crisis. Her claim that protecting mature forests will lead to overgrowth ignores the scientific understanding that older, larger trees are more fire-resistant. Instead of clearing out these important forests, we need to embrace Upthegrove’s strategy of thoughtful forest management that prioritizes both fire safety and sustainability.
Furthermore, Upthegrove’s support for Washington’s cap-and-trade law shows his dedication to addressing the root causes of climate change. By maintaining the carbon-pricing law, he’s ensuring that Washington continues to lead on climate solutions that will reduce long-term wildfire risk.
For the health of our forests, our communities and our planet, Dave Upthegrove is the right choice for public lands commissioner.
Cally Huttar
Sedro-Woolley
Editor,
Jaime Herrera Beutler presents herself as a viable candidate for public lands commissioner. She is utterly the wrong choice if you care about Washington’s precious lands and water. In Congress, she consistently opposed environmental health and voted against a $1 billion investment to restore wildlife and plant species. Check her actual record.
Herrera Beutler mirrors the claim of timber industry’s powerful lobbyists that clearcutting our state’s last standing tiny percentage of mature forests is the solution to school funding. No wonder, as Herrera Beutler’s campaign is funded by timber corporation dollars, while Dave Upthegrove has refused these revenue streams. Logging revenues fund merely 1.5% of annual school construction costs and only a tenth of 1% of K-12 operating costs.
Obviously we must fund our schools with predictable and stable tax dollars, particularly our rural districts. We need to shift from the false idea that timber is supporting our schools, and innovate better funding sources for the small balance now funded by cutting old and irreplaceable biodiverse forests, our best natural climate solution. Mature forests serve as a source of beauty, recreation and cultural heritage that is iconic in our state.
Upthegrove stands committed to implementing real solutions to our school funding gaps while stewarding our public lands and waters for our citizens, not a few corporate pockets. Upthegrove supports logging and wood industries as an essential part of our economy, but will steward lands and sea with scientific knowledge and care for current and future generations.
Elizabeth Kerwin
Deming
Editor,
Timber companies claim logging is endemic to community cultures and necessary to preserve a way of life. They demand their “right” to cut trees — big trees — and maintain their heritage. The industry has received hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies, and taxpayer monies to sustain their way of life.
Timber workers, who make a living cutting trees on public land, have received retraining opportunities and economic support, paid for by taxpayers, during the pandemic and the spotted owl restrictions. Other professions, which also perform roles vital to the economy and contribute to community cultures, regularly suffer layoffs with no federal bailouts.
Teachers, nurses, tech employees, public employees, Amazon and Boeing workers lose jobs regularly, and neither the government nor the public bats an eye. Faced with house payments or rent, car payments, student loans and children to feed, they’re forced to relocate and retrain on their own.
Concerned about Dave Upthegrove’s run for public lands commissioner, the DNR has accelerated the auction process and increased the number of legacy forest parcels for auction in fear that Upthegrove will take power. Legacy forests serve as carbon sinks for our planet and prevent sedimentation and phosphorous runoff into our impaired lakes and streams. Why is the DNR working so hard to expedite legacy timber sales?
The timber industry has cozied up to Jamie Herrera Beutler because they know Dave Upthegrove wants to do what Herrera Beutler won’t — protect legacy trees, address climate change, fund schools and still keep the timber industry employed
Susan Kane-Ronning
Co-chair of Washington Sierra Club Wildlife Committee, Chelan
Editor,
I have been watching the barrage of political ads and am completely dismayed by the false impressions created by Jaime Herrera Beutler (R) and her corporate timber-funded PAC in her bid for Commissioner of Public Lands. She slams Dave Upthegrove for not being an environmentalist, instead positioning herself as a faithful friend of the environment. These ads are highly misleading.
Herrera Beutler has a terrible environmental voting record. She was just named to the League of Conservation Voters List of “Dirty Dozen.” This list highlights 12 of the worst environmental candidates in the nation at state and local levels. While in Congress, she repeatedly voted to weaken clean air and water protections.
She opposed the Paris Climate Accord and she is now opposing the Climate Commitment Act. It is cynical and damaging to public trust, for her to create these false impressions. Upthegrove helped create The Puget Sound Partnership to restore and protect Puget Sound ecosystems, has a strong record working on salmon recovery and was named Conservation Legislator of the year.
He is endorsed by The Sierra Club, The Center For Biological Diversity, WA Education Association and the WA State Council of Firefighters, among many others. Look at more than the ads. Look at the records. Vote Upthegrove for lands commissioner.
Pam Turner
Bellingham
Editor,
The annual precipitation [has begun] Tuesday, Oct. 22. The priority has just got to be the landscape tree that has grown up to the very voltage of the telephone line, there on Orleans, turning right onto Sunset Drive. I promise the winter will correct itself based on the ice-like humming; bad for electricity.
The decibel of traffic has made it too difficult for a hike.
John Dean
Bellingham
Editor,
Thank you, Ellyn Murphy (CDN, Oct. 21, 2024) for de-mystifying and clarifying what Initiative 2066 is about, and the risks that supporting this would pose to energy efficiency programs, local control of climate action programs, and to our energy bills. Like the other three “greed” initiatives on the ballot, the amount of fear-mongering and misinformation circulated by the proponents of 2066 is staggering.
I urge you to vote “NO” on 2066 as well as Initiative 2109 (to repeal the Capital Gains tax paid by less than 0.02% of Washingtonians, and which funds crucial funding for public schools, child care and early learning); Initiative 2117 (to repeal the Climate Commitment Act, which collects fees from the state’s worst polluters and applies the money to protect air, water, farmland and make important transportation infrastructure investments): Initiative 2124 which ruins the WaCares program providing in-home care and payment for a family caregiver by making contributions voluntary. WaCares helps people with disabilities or pre-existing conditions to live at home with dignity and stability.
Vote “NO” on all four initiatives.
Marian Exall
Bellingham
Editor,
As I am considering who to vote for as governor it seems to be a clear choice to elect Bob Ferguson. Bob has been working tirelessly as attorney general to make Washington a better place to live. He has supported public safety by winning $1 billion to fight the fentanyl epidemic, expanding the states Identity Theft Task Forces, passing laws to combat mass shootings, forming an Organized Crime Task Force to prosecute crime rings and leading the coalition to eliminate the backlog of testing rape kits from 14 months to 45 days. These are just a handful of his actions.
As governor, Bob plans to continue efforts in public safety by hiring more law enforcement officers to anticipate issues and respond quickly to improve public trust. Violent crimes, mass shootings, fentanyl crimes, car theft, hate crimes, and sexual assault are issues the public wants to see action [on], and Bob has put together a detailed agenda to address these issues. This requires training, improved technology and mental health resources for the people who take on the responsibility of law enforcement.
Bob Ferguson has the energy, foresight and experience to support the citizens of Washington. A vote for Bob will continue his record of pursuing justice for Washingtonians.
Doris Wunsch
Bellingham
Editor,
My kids rolled their eyes. Friends were skeptical. But back in the late 2000s, I did it anyway — offered homemade treats to Halloween visitors. It was so well received that I’ve never looked back.
Here’s why: Candy is expensive, bad for one’s health, and packaged in nonrecyclable, nonreusable, polluting plastic that’s supposedly there to protect us, but then ends up in ecosystems and back into our body cells. These products haven’t been produced locally and benefit only multinational candy companies when we could be buying closer to home and cutting down on petroleum-fueled miles.
The claim that it’s less safe to offer home treats is untrue. For the above reasons, and because there’s a level of accountability and perhaps even liability on the household that makes and offers homemade treats. Why would our friendly neighbor want to harm us? (Don’t visit the unfriendly or creepy ones or accept candy from strangers.)
We have choices. Trick-or-treaters should have good choices, too, preferably not just between broccoli or pencils at your house and Snickers at the neighbors’. Offer a few types of treats — some fall-themed items are a crockpot of spiced cider with paper cups and a ladle, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (I use dark chocolate, sneak in wheat germ, and lower the sugar a bit), mini-pumpkin cheesecakes, gluten-free homemade meringue treats, apple muffins and dried fruit-nut mixes.
Gillian Grambo
Bellingham
Editor,
I am a student at Options High School. My name is Bode and I want to encourage people to support health care by voting “no” to Initiative 2124.
In Washington state, Medicaid is called Apple Health. Initiative 2124 will allow people to opt out of paying our state’s health care payroll tax which funds Apple Health. I care about health care because my grandpa died of lung cancer but was able to afford health care because coverage was provided by the government through the Veteran’s Administration.
My grandfather was a model citizen. He fought in Vietnam as a medic, he provided for a family of six with my grandma, and was a loving friend, father and grandfather. I believe all Americans deserve the same health care benefits my grandfather was able to access, regardless of service in the military.
Apple Health provides preventative care, like cancer screenings, treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure, and many other health care services. According to the Washington State Standard, “The tax that funds [Apple Health] is now automatically deducted from the paychecks of most workers in Washington.” Evidence suggests Initiative 2124 “would push the program toward insolvency and make it unsustainable in the long term” (Demkovich).
Michael Moran, a lobbyist for TV Washington’s Capitol Classroom program, claims Washington could lose approximately $350,000 for long-term health care. Voters have the power to stop Initiative 2124.
Bode Walston, 16
Options High School
Letters to the Editor are published online Wednesdays; a selection is published in print Fridays. Send to letters@cascadiadaily.com by 10 a.m. Tuesdays. Rules: Maximum 250 words, be civil, have a point and make it clearly. Preference is given to letters about local subjects. CDN reserves the right to reject letters or edit for length, clarity, grammar and style, or removal of personal attacks or offensive content. Letters must include an address/phone number to verify the writer's identity (not for publication).
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