community voices test

Commentary: Shutting down Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery will not stave off the decline of local orca and salmon populations — but it will have devastating effects on hundreds of fishing families and businesses.

Commentary: There are many good reasons for protecting the Skagit River headwaters; high on the list is the ongoing health of the larger Skagit watershed, a defining element of the region’s geography and cultural heritage.

Commentary: Three years after the Summer of Racial Reckoning, a divided populace still grapples with damaging and sometimes deadly effects of racism, and with how to talk about the issues.

Commentary: It takes a community to raise and harvest an oyster.

Commentary: Constant worries about being attacked or robbed are in the past for a woman who has found housing — for now — in a tiny home village.

Commentary: Proper disposal of food waste is something every household can do to limit climate change, advise teens engaged in climate action.

Commentary: Bellingham’s challenges are in recruiting and retaining police officers, not lack of funding.

Commentary: Meet Sandy Hart, who may have one of the most interesting jobs in Bellingham.

Commentary: Knowledge and awareness of the challenges Indigenous peoples face are good; what matters is action.

Commentary: Collaboration is the only way to solve the twin problems of too little water at one time, too much at another, in the Nooksack Basin.

Commentary: A Whatcom County Council vote established a racial equity commission; now, the challenge for supporters is to engage others in the conversation, an organizer writes.

Commentary: Even though everyone wants to give their children more and better opportunities than they had, the deck is stacked in favor of babies born to families steeped in “social capital.”

Commentary: Recent letters to editors and from local officials demonstrate misunderstanding of “water rights adjudication.”

Commentary: On the verge of homelessness at a crucial time, Jack Westford considers himself to be “one of the lucky ones.”

Commentary: With the current San Juan Island Library building bursting at the seams, some islanders are urging votes in favor of a bond to pay for an upgrade.

Commentary: Inaction on ferry service issues guarantees that what we know is bad will almost inevitably get worse.