March 20
Help Us Help You Help Him: Can someone launch a GoFundMe page to get Whatcom County Council member Todd Donovan a headlamp and a bunch of extra batteries?
Not Like a Coal Miner One: But one of those handy Petzl units from REI would do the trick.
Or Maybe Just a Couple Emergency Candles? It’s not a PSE power outage thing, but we keep seeing stories — the latest about the firing of Health Department head Erika Lautenbach — containing a subhead indicating Donovan and other council members are “in the dark.”
This Week: It was Donovan professing to be “in the dark, again, here.” For the sake of pure accuracy, shouldn’t that really be still?
Reality Check: He and other council members have had legit reasons to be miffed; he’s just the messenger here. Conversely, in fairness to the administration, once lawyers enter the room in any personnel tiff, only so much can be said.
Still, It’s Tempting: To add a standing CDN feature called “County Council: In the Dark About …” — updated weekly — to make it more convenient for regular readers. In the meantime, those who want to know how the council feels about the latest actions from the county’s top office can just do a CTRL+F and search for “dark.”
Hey, Speaking of PSE: Raise your hand if a property near you in Whatcom or Skagit has PSE power lines with trees grown 30 feet above, around and through them since they haven’t been trimmed since 1875. What could possibly go wrong?
And Finally: Sloth, We Hardly Knew Ye: Semi-sad to see the famous Interstate-5 Sloth get pulled down from its hangout by a giant bucket/ladder rig this week. Suggestion: Give the sloth a shampoo and perch him down at the courthouse as a mascot for the Nooksack water rights adjudication process.
March 13
Up, Up and Away: Sezhere in CDN that the price of a Washington state “Discover Pass” may rise to $45. Well, harumph to that.
Speaking from Experience: As a crusty vet of covering the issue of public-lands fees, it may bear repeating at least once more: Hammer is continually amazed that people who live in the world’s greatest multibillionaire’s Onshore Tax Haven (Washington state) allow themselves to be nickel/dimed to death by slow cuts from countless use taxes. Pay no attention to the pool of blood beneath you on the floor, folks.
Speaking of That: Is this likely to change? Not without amending the state constitution to allow for an equitable, or at least slightly less-regressive, tax structure. Prognosis: Don’t hold your breath.
Note to WWU: Hammer is proud not to be an attorney. But if the person you wrongfully fired looks like a whistleblower, has a job that by nature involves whistleblowing, acts like a whistleblower, is determined by a jury to be a whistleblower, and has successfully blown the whistle on your apparent fraudulent misdoing, she probably is, in fact, a whistleblower. Maybe pay her what’s due and move on.
Meanwhile in WA the Lesser: By the end of the week, the traditional panic over tense negotiations to avoid a government shutdown was neutered by millions of Americans reading the headlines and asking, “Wait, we still have a government?”
Logical Followup: His Royal Highness the Right Honourable DJT quickly instructed his team of DOGE Synchronized Chainsaw members to restore enough of a government to shut down if needed.
And Finally: A big Hammer sendoff to former colleague Dominic Gates, the longtime ace aerospace reporter at The Seattle Times, who is retiring. His work made the world a better and safer place.
March 6
The Effort Was Appreciated, But: The little video reel put out by the Port of Bellingham this week, telling people why they should not be concerned about the occasional absence of human beings in the air traffic control tower of Bellingham Intergalactic Airport, was marginally instructive, answering many of the questions already posed and answered by CDN’s previous coverage of same.
Please Note: Hammer does not feel the situation at BLI is unsafe; it’s sort of the norm at similar-sized operations, and more controllers are being added. In fact, he would fly out of BLI often if planes from there went somewhere useful, and airlines involved could occasionally get them in and out on time.
More on That: The above left Hammer wondering: Was this a down payment on local hotelier/PR whiz Peter Frasier’s $100K contract with the port, or the full product? We keep waiting for the “outreach to local media” portion to kick in.
Friendly Advice: To new members of the Sedro-Woolley School District board: When you cut your superintendent loose, with 18 months pay, and offer no reasons, you’ve still got some serious ’splaining to do. Don’t expect the restless locals to stop asking anytime soon. People tend to get protective of their kids, and their money.
Speaking of Schools: It surely will draw some local interest that California Gov. Gavin Newsom split with mainstream progressives by announcing that he’s opposed to allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls high school sports. Yes, he’s running.
Rethinking Things Dept.: The big media were agog this week with reports that the U.S. was “cutting off intelligence” deliveries to Ukraine. Sort of upsetting until one faces the fact that it does seem to be in short supply internally of late.
Not Willing to Grovel Over This: But Hammer might consider minor genuflecting or even kissing the ring of the POTUS if the outrageously stupid 25 percent tariffs on/off Canada get extended to imported Timbits.
“Never Been Anything Like It”: Around 36 million people reportedly tuned in to some or all of the never-ending Donald Trump Celebrity Apprentice/Non-State of Union event earlier this week, which may in fact still be going on. It is unclear whether this number includes folks who used it specifically for heavy-drinking games.
The Hammer, posted monthly and updated somewhat regularly, is the alter-ego and collective consciousness of CDN’s executive editor and staff, informed and inspired by the feisty, humor-capable readers of Cascadia Daily News. Don’t take him too seriously. Send comments, complaints or ideas for Hammer items to ronjudd@cascadiadaily.com.
Whatcom County students reflect on life during the heights of COVID