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Mistrial declared in Bundy wilderness refuge standoff case
A federal judge in Las Vegas has declared a mistrial in the case against Cliven Bundy and various armed property-rights activists who occupied Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2014. Prosecutors had been criticized for mishandling evidence and missing deadlines. A Portland judge threw out a previous case against the Bundys in 2016.
Oregon lawmakers prepare cap-and-trade bill
OPB reports on details of Oregon Democrats’ plan for an ambitious cap-and-trade proposal to reduce the state’s dependence on fossil fuels. The measure would seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and generate $1.4 billion in tax revenue each two-year budget cycle.
In other climate news, a state superior court judge ruled that Washington governor Jay Inslee’s rules requiring the state’s largest polluters to reduce emissions is unconstitutional.
BC Green Party leader on controversial dam, coalition with NDP
British Columbia Green Party leader Andrew Weaver talked with the Tyee about his disappointment with the continuation of the $11 billion Site C dam project, the necessity of a coalition with left-of-center NDP, and the referendum for proportional representation in British Columbia. And on the subject of the Site C dam, writers Hiromi Goto and Rita Wong imagine a letter from the future Peace River country minus an environmentally destructive hydro project: “without a healthy planet and clean waterways, we are all lost.”
A teen’s struggle with and recovery from addiction
The Inlander has a harsh but ultimately hopeful story of a teen girl’s struggle with meth addiction. Teen girls sometimes quietly slip into addiction, says the CEO of Daybreak Youth Services, a treatment center: “… because girls fly under the radar with their drug use for a much more extensive period of time, it allows for more progression.”
Gift ideas support local authors, POC & indigenous artists
Still need some last-minute holiday shopping ideas? Seattle Review of Books has been asking area writers for their book recommendations suggestions, plus you can watch a video by booksellers at Phinney Books for the local author recommendations. Or check out Read BC Local’s picks for best environmental books by authors in the province. And the South Seattle Emerald has suggestions for supporting indigenous and POC businesses with your holiday shopping.
A multimedia meditation on the art of reconciliation
Michelle Sylliboy, an artist from the Mi’kmaq territory of the We’koqmaq First Nation, offers a video of text, images and music at The Capilano Review on the difficult work of reconciling a painful past with the present:
“Did you know reconciliation only happens when you are ready to meet/hands shaken to a rhythm/after sound dropped an unwanted memory/into a pool of silence…”
Happy solstice from the frosty winterland of Cascadia! ☃️ –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: screen cap from Michelle Sylliboy’s video “Art of Reconiliation” at The Capilano Review,