SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE NEWSLETTER
Suquamish Tribe challenges US Navy pollution
Cascadia Magazine is proud to publish an investigative feature by journalist John Stang looking at how the US Navy dumped tons of copper-laden paint and barnacles into Puget Sound. In 2017 the Navy scraped the hull of decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Independence, leaving the barnacles and paint chips at the bottom of Sinclair Inlet. Copper can be toxic to wild salmon and other sea life in the Salish Sea.
In a detailed feature Stang reports on the coalition of environmental groups, including the Suquamish tribe, which is suing the Navy to stop the practice and require it to clean up the polluted site at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. Read the full article online here at Cascadia Magazine. And thanks to the Fund for Investigative Journalism for providing a generous grant for this reporting. We also depend on readers like you to bring you award-winning journalism like this. Please help make it possible by visiting our donate page.
California quakes a wake-up call for Cascadia
Recent earthquakes in California and off the coast of BC south of Haida Gwaii have prompted discussion of emergency planning for residents of Victoria, Vancouver, and Portland. CBC reminds us that Vancouver and Victoria face a one in five chance over the next 50 years of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Oregon emergency management officials also emphasized the need to be prepared in anticipation of the Big One –– this follows after the state’s recently dubious overturning of a prohibition on building schools and other large public structures in the tsunami-inundation zone.
Working to reduce rising youth suicide rate in WA
Levi Pulkkinen at Crosscut looks at the alarming rise in the youth suicide rate in Washington, and how state legislators are working on a bill that will bring mental health resources into schools to assist students in crisis as well as launching an interdisciplinary team to take lessons from past incidents. If you or a loved one are in need of help, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. In Canada, visit this website.
Canadian government spied on BC pipeline protesters
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is under fire for allegations of spying and sharing information on peaceful protesters of the Enbridge Northern Gateway project in nothern BC without any justifiable threat. The BC Civil Liberties Association released reams of documents that were previously sealed by court order about the spying on protests against the pipeline, which was ultimately rejected by the federal government in 2016.
Drawing attention to “map camps” & risk to Indigenous women
According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, a new report draws attention to the fact that Indigenous women are most vulnerable to “man camps” created to build projects like the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline across BC. The Georgia Straight notes that Ecojustice, the Living Oceans Society, and Raincoast Society have all filed for a judicial review of the Trans Mountain pipeline approval, citing endangered orcas and rising carbon emissions.
Portland’s “Drammys” awarded
Oregon Arts Watch covers the annual “Drammy” awards, Portland’s annual bash honoring the best of the city’s live theater. Fuse Theatre Ensemble’s production of Cabaret was a big winner of the night, inspiring lots of quips about fighting fascism and the importance of queer voices in theater. Paula Vogel’s play Indecent, which had its origins at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and went onto success on Broadway, also got a nod for its Portland production.
“Revenge,” poetry by Elisa Chavez
In honor of Independence Day, the Seattle Review of Books, re-ran Elisa Chavez’s blistering poem “Revenge,” first published on the site in 2017 and which attracted a huge amount of global attention for its taunting challenge to Trump-era right-wing politics:
“Since you mention it, I think I will start that race war.
I could’ve swung either way? But now I’m definitely spending
the next 4 years converting your daughters to lesbianism;
I’m gonna eat all your guns. Swallow them lock stock and barrel
and spit bullet casings onto the dinner table…” Read the full poem here.
That’s today’s selection of news, arts and culture from across Cascadia, curated by Eun Hye Kim & Andrew Engelson. Have a great evening!
Photo credit: pipeline protesters in Vancouver by Kent Lins via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0