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Now online at Cascadia Magazine: “Interloper,”
fiction by Matt Briggs
In a nuanced short story, “Interloper,” by Matt Briggs, a man living out of his car arrives outside the suburban home of Maureen Hough, a teenager who practices an act of kindness by offering the man a Creamsicle. But after the car breaks down and the man seems set to stay indefinitely, Maureen’s father is less than supportive, and a slow-burning conflict develops. It’s a timely vignette as the Seattle area faces a crisis of homelessness. Read the full story online at Cascadia Magazine.
What would it cost to help Seattle’s homeless?
The Seattle Times tries to tally up what it would cost to make a deep dent in the city’s homelessness problem, including housing, drug treatment, mental health services, and job search assistance. It’s not cheap. Meanwhile, the world’s richest man, Seattle’s Jeff Bezos, pledged $2 billion of his Amazon wealth toward solutions to homelessness and funding nonprofit preschools for families in poverty.
Last Washington teachers’ strike ends
According to OPB, teacher strikes in Tumwater and Tacoma, Washington ended and students were back in school after unions reached an agreement with school districts. Meanwhile, the candidates for governor in Oregon are offering competing plans for improving the state’s high school graduation rate, which is one of the worst in the US.
Canadian government weighing options on BC pipeline
The Vancouver Sun reports that the Canadian federal government is deciding whether to appeal a recent court ruling that quashed the plan to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline across British Columbia or to re-do environmental analysis and consultation with First Nations. Andrew Nikiforuk at the Tyee quotes an economist who believes the National Energy Board needs to completely recalculate its estimate of increases in oil tanker traffic as a result of the expansion.
A hermit on Vancouver Island’s Oyster River
Hakai Magazine has a lovely profile of Charles Brandt, a 95-year-old Catholic hermit who meditates, works as a bookbinder, and has been instrumental in protecting salmon streams on the east coast of Vancouver Island. “We really have to fall in love with the natural world. Only the sense of the sacred will save us.”
The Nostalgia of the Pendelton Round-Up
Over at OPB, photographer Emily Cureton has a photo essay on the long-running Pendleton Round-Up rodeo, which serves of a healthy dose of Western nostalgia and swells the eastern Oregon town to a population of 50,000 during the event. You can view the photos here and at OPB’s Intstagram site.
“Mercury 1984,” poetry by Rob Arnold
Poetry Northwest has Seattle-based poet Rob Arnold’s “Mercury 1984” available online — a recollection of risky behaviors as a youth, including playing with firearms and liquid mercury.
“The smell the burn the clash
the muzzle flash sear and kick
clay birdies arcing overhead…”
Read the full poem online here.
That’s today’s assortment of news, environmental reporting, culture, and poetry. Enjoy your evening! -Andrew Engelson
Photo credits: homeless encampment in Seattle by David Lee via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0