Governance

After more than a decade of discussion, planning and cleanup of an industrial waste site on Bellingham Bay, the city’s partnership with the port and a contract with a Dublin-based company are putting the waterfront’s future on the ground.

Journalism that embraces a larger vision of the international corridor will best serve the Cascadia bioregion’s constituents by setting up the region up to tackle the big challenges of the next century.

An oil train derailment spilling more than 29,000 gallons of Bakken crude in Whatcom County is prompting officials lobbying for state and federal oil train regulations in recent years to consider whether more can be done.

A combination of potent social and political turmoil made many people eager to close the book on 2020 and emerge into a fresh year.

We live in tumultuous times. Last weekend Salish Current asked people of various political persuasions to write about the state of our country’s democracy in advance of the inauguration.

Last weekend I asked people of various political persuasions to write about the state of our country’s democracy in advance of the inauguration.

Salish Current asked 40th and 42nd District legislators a few questions about how they see the legislative session that convenes on Monday, Jan. 11; their answers follow.

A law to make state education funding more equitable has had the opposite effect in the San Juan Islands. While San Juan property owners are paying more in state education taxes, less funding is going towards local schools.

In Bellingham, some local racial justice advocacy groups transitioned their demands from over the summer to budget season, looking for tangible proof that their representatives heard their calls for change over the last six months.

While we as citizens may chafe at what seems like an inordinately slow process, this waiting period offers an opportunity to reflect on the brilliance of our elections system.

Community Voices: “Restoring public confidence in elections is a concern for every one of us, regardless of party.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in shifting hours and sales, to comply with shifting state-ordered public health mandates to keep businesses and their customers safe from the virus. But not every business complies.

For over a century, hydroelectricity has provided the Pacific Northwest with clean energy. Can we meet the challenge of living better electrically with greener energy?

The one thousand unique and fragile acres of the San Juan Islands National Monument wait for a plan to outline the next 20 years of protection and recreation.

An effort to steer future development at Whatcom County’s primary industrial center away from fossil fuels while providing regulatory certainty is inching closer to completion with the help of an unlikely partnership between environment and industry interests.

The Padilla Bay Freshwater Tributary Fecal Coliform Total Maximal Daily Load (TMDL) Report is due to be submitted by Ecology to the Environmental Protection Agency at the end of 2020 and lists fecal coliform bacteria sources and strategies for cleanup.