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Feds rescind order that allowed legal pot in Cascadia
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced today that he was revoking an Obama-era order that forbid prosecutors from enforcing federal prohibitions on cannabis in states that have decriminalized pot. The order will allow individual prosecutors discretion on enforcement. Oregon and Washington both have legal marijuana sales, which generated a combined $360 million in tax revenue last year.
WA AG sues Motel 6 for giving customer data to ICE
Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson announced his office will sue the Motel 6 chain for what it alleges was an illegal sharing of customer data with immigration officials. The state claims the chain shared more that 9,000 driver’s license numbers, names, and other data with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, in violation of the state’s anti-discrimination law.
Lindy West: fixing sexism is up to men, not women
Seattle writer Lindy West, in an opinion piece for the New York Times, claims too much attention on how to end sexism is directed toward women. It’s men, she asserts, who need to make changes: “Only 2.6 percent of construction workers are female. We did not install this glass ceiling, and it is not our responsibility to demolish it.”
Tactics for fighting BC’s Site C dam
Now that British Columbia’s premier John Horgan has announced he’ll proceed with building the $11 billion Site C dam in northeast BC, it’s time for opponents to organize and take action, writes Andrew Nikiforuk in The Tyee. He suggests letters to MLAs, support for orgs such as the Peace Valley Landowner Association, and attending the Site C Accountability and Action Summit in Victoria Jan. 26-27.
How Spokane is booming
Spokane, WA is rapidly growing, and The Inlander has a detailed summary of the ways in which Spokane changed for the better in 2017, whether it’s new affordable housing, tribal economic improvement, dozens of new restaurants, or fairer treatment for convicted felons.
Poetry online: “A Few Preexisting Conditions”
Kevin Craft is this month’s poet in residence at the Seattle Review of Books, and you can read his full poem “A Few Preexisting Conditions,” which plays with tropes from the news:
“…We ate too much red meat.
We ate too much corn syrup.
Our vote wasn’t counted after all.
Our vote was packed into safe districts.
We lost track of the days
we didn’t have to work overtime
to make rent. The rent woke up…”
That’s all the latest news and arts coverage from Cascadia. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: Bob Ferguson announcement courtesy WA attorney general’s office