photo: Matt Benoit © 2020

Fate of fall sports remains uncertain in haze of COVID-19 pandemic

July 17, 2020
Matt Benoit

After a spring of no sports for students across the region, summer is giving school districts a chance to plan for what may happen come fall.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2020

Former Public Market on fast track for refit as emergency shelter

July 9, 2020
Max Brunt

The City of Bellingham, Whatcom County and Lighthouse Mission Ministries are working to meet a July 15 deadline for refurbishing the former Public Market building at 1530 Cornwall Avenue into a “Base Camp” facility that can provide adequate care for area residents needing housing that enables following social distancing guidelines.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2020

Community Voices / The coronavirus pandemic adds new twists to the ‘good death’

June 4, 2020
Floyd McKay

In our time of pandemic, the hackneyed phrase, “a good death,” has come to have new meaning and, yes, a new life.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2020

Economic recovery, shrinking local budgets, Cherry Point moratorium in the news for the week of May 29

May 29, 2020
Mike Sato, Managing Editor

Economic recovery, a shrinking budget and the Cherry Point fossil-fuel shipping moratorium were among topics discussed by Whatcom County and City of Bellingham councils this week.

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photo: Island Adventures © 2020

Whale watch industry sits dockside during COVID-19 pandemic

May 16, 2020
Kimberly Cauvel

Like much else in the time of COVID-19, searches for black-and-white orcas, speckled grays and humpbacks were interrupted in early March. Dozens of whale watching boats, from Vancouver Island to San Juan Island, from Everett to Edmonds, bob in place dockside.

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photo: City of Bellingham © 2020

In-person comment is out, for now: local governments adapt to life under COVID

May 1, 2020
Stella Harvey

City and county councils and commissions across Washington state are finding new ways to conduct their public meetings since Gov. Jay Inslee issued the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order March 23, requiring local governing bodies to temporarily halt their in-person meetings.

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photo: Carlos Rexach © 2020

San Juan, Skagit and Whatcom nonprofits refocus to meet basic needs, uncertain future

April 27, 2020
Matt Benoit

For the 375,000 people living in San Juan, Skagit and Whatcom counties, community foundations and other nonprofits are adapting to provide the most essential services to people affected by COVID-19 and unemployment. Throughout the region, many organizations are seeing dramatic increases in demand. People need help ranging from mortgage and rent relief to mental health support to deliveries of food and medicine.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2020

The things we do for COVID: iconic local businesses change their ways

April 21, 2020
Kimberly Cauvel

At several local companies, trying new things has been essential for keeping dollars coming in and meeting their missions of serving the community.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2020

Community Voices / Kids in the time of COVID

April 17, 2020
Salish Current Editorial Staff

Very few kids would trade being able to see and hang out with friends, participate in football and other sports, go to restaurants now and then, and even go to school every day for being confined at home with their families, all day, every day. But that’s where they are for now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools around Washington state.

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photo: William Dietrich © 2020

Community Voices / Safe on a ‘plague’ ship in the time of COVID-19

April 6, 2020
William Dietrich

Our once-in-a-lifetime, 50th anniversary world cruise was sunk by a coronavirus somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Nobody had COVID-19, but our vessel was treated like a plague ship nonetheless.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2020

Community Voices / Life in the time of COVID-19

April 1, 2020
Salish Current Editorial Staff

We asked Salish Current readers and writers to share their stories about how the COVID-19 virus is affecting them in this time of the evolving “new normal” — virtual coffees and happy hours, worries about the vitality of the arts and cultural sphere, isolation and social-distancing rules, and more.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2020

Virus versus visitors: San Juan residents weigh health risks of tourism amid pandemic

March 26, 2020
Hayley Day

In the San Juan Islands, locals bank on a bustling tourism economy to generate business and provide wages, particularly during the sunny summer months. But with a growing pandemic, islanders, like others in small vacation destinations, are realizing fewer visitors might mean healthier locals.

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A wood stove swap-out is helping clear the air in rural Whatcom County

March 5, 2020
Matt Benoit

The tree-dense Columbia Valley, flanked by Red Mountain to the east and Sumas Mountain to the west, contains at its center around 1,600 homes. Many rely on wood stoves as a primary heat source. As a result, the valley’s large amount of wood smoke often combines with specific weather conditions to produce the county’s worst air quality.

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San Juan Islands’ fresh-water supply sustainability is in question

January 7, 2020
Mike Sato, Managing Editor

Back in the ’70s, the Lopez Island water witch and other old-timers would rattle a newcomer’s cage by telling him the water feeding wells in the San Juan Islands came from a large undersea aquifer reaching to Mount Baker. The water witch and the old timers are gone, and the specter of climate crisis is here. No one jokes about fresh water in the islands coming from Mount Baker. Instead, talk is in earnest and concerns the question of sustaining the islands’ supply of fresh water.

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photo: Amy Nelson © 2019

Whatcom plans as climate crisis threatens shorelines, homes, livelihoods

January 7, 2020
Kimberly Cauvel

The worst impacts of climate change in Whatcom County are yet to come, scientists say. Researchers say that while some changes may seem to be emerging slowly, swift action is needed to curb and prepare for them.Residents are already seeing impacts on the waterfront, air quality and fisheries they treasure.

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Grassroots groups work to save habitat, keep streams cool for Nooksack salmon

January 7, 2020
Kimberly Cauvel

As local streams get less water from lower snowpacks and grow warmer during hotter summers, some local grassroots organizations are working to reverse or soften the damage to habitat and the fish that rely on colder water.

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