EVERETT — Comcast Arena was awhirl with flashing lights, fog and the pounding rhythms of the most popular songs coming out of Bollywood’s biggest movies.
Most Bollywood films are about love, so the crowd was treated to a four-hour concert featuring hits such as “I Will Love You 12 Different Ways in 12 Months (Barah Mahino Mein Barah Tareekon se),” “Desi Girl,” and “Hit On Me While Dancing” (Dance pe Chance).”
It was all for a good cause: To raise awareness about a Seattle group that is working to fight domestic violence against women in Washington’s South Asian communities.
The event last Sunday was the result of a partnership between the non-profit API Chaya, of Seattle, and concert production company Krazy2Seattle, of Federal Way.
“The first goal was to come out in the open and talk about (domestic violence),” said Arun Sharma, of Bothell, one of the organizers. “The intent was to raise awareness, raise some money and bring the South Asian communities together.”
Horrific incidents in Pakistan and India spurred the local groups to action. The Pakistan Taliban shooting of 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai for speaking publically about the right to education for girls and women, and the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old college student on a bus in New Delhi, Sharma said.
In the South Asian community, which includes immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, rape and domestic abuse are not spoken about openly, or even easily discussed within families, Sharma explained.
API Chaya, formed in 2011, provides advocates who work directly with South Asian women and families who have experienced abuse, and others who work in the community to educate and organize support for survivors and ways to end violence, said Sarah Rizvi, the group’s program manager.
“We provide direct advocacy and supportive services to survivors in crisis and raise awareness of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking,” Rizvi said.
The concert started coming together in January, with about 50 volunteers working “to address cultural-based incidents of domestic violence that are prevalent in communities in Washington State,” Sharma said. “Part of the concert’s aim was to create awareness among people as well as overcoming religious barriers to serve our communities.” Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists all came together for the event.
Although the amount of money raised is still being sorted out, those in the audience — estimated to be about 3,000 — were happy for the opportunity to help raise awareness.
Nedhal Ahmed, of Everett, said the event was an opportunity for him to support the cause. “I have come here to chip in my share to help stop any kind of crime against women,” Ahmed said. The same issues exist in other countries, said Ahmed, who is from Yemen.
“I am here to support suffering women,” said his friend Nasr al Mahshi, also of Everett. “Some women are denied their fundamental rights.”
Rakesh Maini, the runner up in Indian Idol season 5, was the night’s first singer. He hopes that in India the culture will change, and people can begin to openly address rape and domestic violence.
“I am happy to perform for a social cause. I have sisters, mother, and family like everyone does. I therefore would do whatever it takes to hand women justice and basic rights,” he said.
Dan Bates / The Herald Eastbound Marysville traffic, coming off I-5 from both northbound and southbound ramps, jams up at the Fourth Street train crossing April 9.
MARYSVILLE — When it comes to traffic backups from more coal trains, Marysville is Snohomish County’s ground zero.
Of 33 street crossings on BNSF Railway’s north-south line in the county, 16 — nearly half — are in Marysville.
Many of them already are congested.
Even now, at Fourth Street downtown, trains cause drivers to wait through the equivalent of three or four red lights, according to one traffic study.
Adding trains would make it that much harder for people who live in the city to get in and out, would delay access to businesses and cause serious problems for fire, ambulance and police service, Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said.
The proposed $650 million Gateway Pacific terminal would serve as a place to send coal, grain, potash and scrap wood for biofuels to Asia. Trains would bring coal from Montana and Wyoming across Washington state to Seattle and north to Bellingham. Supporters point to the jobs that would be generated by the new business.
The terminal also is expected to generate up to 18 more train trips through Snohomish County per day, nine full and nine empty.
This would roughly double the number of trains that currently travel between Everett and Bellingham each day.
Other cities that could be affected by delays from more trains are Edmonds and Stanwood. In Mukilteo and in Everett, the tracks run through underpasses or tunnels at major arterials.
Marysville is in a unique position because the city is long and skinny north and south. The tracks run its entire length, right between Marysville’s two busiest north-south routes, I-5 and State Avenue.
In the case of State, at some crossings, the tracks are right next to the arterial. And State Avenue and I-5 are only about a half-mile apart through much of the city.
How much money will be needed for bridges, underpasses and rail improvements — and who would pay — is a long way from being determined.
Railroads are obligated by federal law to pay only a maximum of 5 percent of the cost of new bridges or tunnels deemed necessary to offset delays from added train traffic, according to Courtney Wallace, a spokeswoman for BNSF Railway in Seattle. The railroad owns the tracks from Seattle to the Canadian border.
“We would work with city officials to identify funding and work with them to see where the funding could come from, whether it’s federal dollars, state dollars or local dollars,” she said.
Wallace said she didn’t know if the company proposing the plan, SSA Marine of Seattle, would pitch in to cover any of the costs. Craig Cole, a spokesman for SSA Marine, declined to comment on the topic.
Even if money is available for road fixes, Marysville’s choices are limited.
Because of the closeness of the tracks to State Avenue and I-5, building overpasses is not even an option, city public works director Kevin Nielsen said.
Officials with Marysville and the state Department of Transportation — to name just a couple of agencies that submitted letters during last fall’s comment period on the plan — asked that potential improvements and costs be addressed in upcoming environmental studies.
From September through January, about 14,000 people registered comments in hearings and in writing with the three agencies reviewing the plan — the state Department of Ecology, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Whatcom County.
It’s too early to tell exactly what subjects the studies will include, said Larry Altose, a spokesman for the ecology department. It will likely be at least a few months before the topics for study are determined and a year before the first draft of the study is done, Altose said.
This would be followed by another comment period and the final study, which would likely take at least another year.
Many environmental groups, local governments and individuals have come out against the plan. Their concerns, in addition to traffic at crossings, include pollution from coal dust and climate change.
One of the rail crossings is at 271st Street NW in the heart of Stanwood. Mayor Dianne White, however, doesn’t believe the extra trains would cause major problems.
“I don’t see it messing it up that much. They don’t stop, they keep going,” she said.
She added, however, that “I really feel for Marysville. It could completely block the whole city.”
Other crossings in the Silvana area and north of Stanwood could face some rush-hour delays but traffic is lighter there than in Marysville.
On the positive side, the plan is projected to create 4,400 temporary, construction related jobs and 1,200 long-term positions, according to SSA Marine.
“If they don’t build that Cherry Point terminal, (the trains) are going to keep going into Canada like they are now and we don’t get 2,000 jobs,” White said.
Rep. Rick Larsen, whose district includes Marysville as well as Bellingham where the project is planned, came under fire in his re-election campaign last year for backing the coal terminal. At the time, he called it a difficult decision, but said he supported the terminal because of the thousands of unemployed people who live in Whatcom County.
He said in a statement on Friday that “potentially negative outcomes” should be determined in the environmental review.
“If the (study) identifies traffic impacts, the project sponsor would and should be responsible for paying for improvements to mitigate those problems,” he said.
In Edmonds, the city has only two crossings, but one of them sits at the entrance to the ferry dock at the foot of Main Street. The other, at Dayton Street, controls access to much of the waterfront, including the Port of Edmonds marina.
State transportation officials, in written comments on the Gateway Pacific plan last fall, said two of 25 sailings per day were recently eliminated from the Edmonds-Kingston run because waits for trains were causing the boats to run behind schedule.
A plan proposed long ago, but shelved by a lack of funding, called for building a new ferry terminal at the south end of Edmonds where a bridge could be built over the tracks to carry ferry traffic.
The transportation department, in its letter, asked that this plan be re-examined in the environmental study, as well as the possibility of a bridge or tunnel at the Main Street crossing, and restricting train traffic during busy travel periods.
More than twice as many trains run per day on weekdays in south county than from Everett north — 49 compared to 19. Very few of the roads north of Everett, however, have bridges or underpasses at the train tracks.
Of the trains running in both directions between Everett and Seattle, about 35 are freight trains, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said. Amtrak Cascades and Empire Builder trains add another six every day, while Sounder commuter trains add another eight on weekdays. Mudslides have canceled an increasing number of these trains in recent years.
Adding 18 trains per day would bring the Monday-Friday total to 67.
About 15 freight trains run per day between Everett and Bellingham, Melonas said. Amtrak Cascades trains add four more for a total of 19 each day.
Adding 18 to this total would bring the total to 37.
Currently, up to four trains per day already carry coal on tracks between Seattle and Canada, Melonas said. Several terminals in British Columbia already ship coal, according to the Coal Association of Canada.
Trains are restricted to 30 mph in Marysville for safety reasons, meaning the barriers are down for six to eight minutes — the equivalent of three or four stoplight cycles — for the longer trains, according to the Gibson study.
The study was done for a group of business owners and residents in Whatcom County, said Tom Ehrlichman, an attorney for Salish Law of Bellingham, the group’s law firm at the time.
In downtown Marysville, the crossing at Fourth Street is less than a quarter-mile from I-5 — too close for an overpass, which would take up four blocks, Nielsen said.
Engineers have looked at tunneling under the tracks, but the dip would have to be steep because of the proximity to the freeway. Also, high ground water at that location would make the underpass susceptible to flooding, he said.
At 88th Street NE, the tracks are just a few feet from State Avenue.
“We could go over it, but you would end up way over on the other side of State Avenue in a neighborhood somewhere, and you’d have to have loop-back ramps over people’s houses to get back to State,” Nielsen said.
Because the tracks at 88th and 116th Street NE are so close to I-5, sometimes, when a long train goes through, traffic backs up onto the freeway, according to the Gibson study.
In fact, the extra trains could negate the benefits of the city’s $2 million widening of 116th completed a few years ago, the study says.
The study shows the street having carried 20,000 automobiles per day in 2011. For 88th Street NE and Fourth Street, the numbers are 30,000 each. Of this 80,000 total, about 7,000 of those were in the evening rush hour.
Because of the problems with building overpasses, city officials feel the best solution is to build an off-ramp from northbound I-5 directly to Highway 529 and the new Ebey Slough Bridge. This ramp would carry northbound drivers over the tracks as they exit the freeway, dropping them directly into the city and keeping them from having to sit at crossings at Fourth, 88th or 116th.
This project would cost about $1.8 million, said state Sen. Nick Harper, D-Everett.
So far in this year’s session of the Legislature, no money has been included for the ramp. Nehring said the project could potentially be included in a package to be sent to voters.
Developing story: In 2010, the United Kingdom denied the Iroquois Nationals entrance into the country to compete in the 2010 FIL World Lacrosse Championships because they refused to recognize the valid Haudenosaunee passports the Native squad travels with. As a result, the Nationals couldn’t play in the tournament, which is staged every four years, and Germany was placed in their spot in the elite Blue Division, which is home to the top six squads from the previous world championship.
Now, the FIL has ruled that the Nationals, a member nation, will not be restored to their legitimate place in the Blue Division for the 2014 World Championships, which will be held in Denver, because of what happened in 2010. Instead, Germany will again compete in the Blue, while the Nationals will be seeded 30th and placed in a lower division. This controversial decision by the FIL, which is falling back on “past precedence and bylaws” to justify the exclusion of the Nationals, is, the Iroquois say, an unfair and inconsistent move.
And the Nationals are appealing the decision.
In an April 18 letter to the FIL Board of Directors in Toronto, Nationals Chairman Oren Lyons and Executive Director Denise Waterman appealed, asking for the sport’s governing body’s general assembly to rule on the situation. Here is the letter.
With just over a year to go until 2014 Denver opens, the Nationals are pushing to get the FIL to reverse this decision and restore one of the sport’s best squads to its rightful spot among the elite nations. Morevoer, this controversy transcends sport or politics: Oren Lyons, Onondaga Faithkeeper, spoke at a seminar in 2010 about how lacrosse , or Deyhontsigwa’ehs (‘they bump hips’) was played in the sky world before the world was created. It is a game that was given as a gift to the Haudenosaunee and they play it for the pleasure of the Creator.
Burke Museum
Sat., Apr. 20, 2013 – Sun., Apr. 28, 2013
11 am – 3 pm
Included with museum admission; FREE for Burke members
Saturdays and Sundays in April, 11 am – 3 pm
Photo (c) Jack Storms/Storms PhotoGraphic.
Every weekend in April, enjoy Coast Salish art activities at the Burke. See Coast Salish artifacts not normally on display, and try your hand at a large weaving loom. Also join us for guided exhibit tours every Saturday at 1 pm.
The Burke Museum offers weekend activities throughout the year with themes changing monthly. Check our events page for updates on other upcoming weekend activities.
Fair organizers hope to draw larger crowds with a “community event” that has “something for everybody.”
By Noah Haglund, The Herald
MONROE — Snohomish County’s springtime mini-fair will sport more than just a new name when it opens this coming weekend.
Live bands, beer gardens and better carnival rides figure among the expanded offerings at the Evergreen State Spring Festival on Saturday and Sunday.
There’s some earthy star power, too, with an appearance by Northwest gardening maestro Ciscoe Morris.
“We had a discussion after last year about how to make it a lot more of a community event so there’s something for everybody,” fair manager Hal Gausman said. “… We talked about how to make it more fun, more exciting.”
Snohomish County’s spring fair debuted in 2010. It was formerly called the Recreation and Sportsmen Expo. Organizers hope attendance this year will top the approximately 9,000 from 2012.
Organizers in the county parks department hope they’ve resolved one of the biggest gripes from last year, when patrons were unable to taste entries from a barbecue cook-off even as they were teased by mouth-watering aromas.
That owed to a contract issue with fairgrounds concessionaires, Gausman said. It won’t be a problem this time around.
The Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association has sanctioned the contest. It’s dubbed the Washington State Spring BBQ Championship and is expected to attract more than 20 competing teams.
Meanwhile, root beer and microbrews will be offered at beer gardens. Live musical acts span genres of classic rock, country, Latin rock fusion and indie rock.
Returning this year will be vendor booths showcasing the outdoors and related products. Everett Steelhead and Salmon Club is hosting a youth casting pond to be stocked with 1,000 trout. Les Schwab Tire Centers is sponsoring the event, which is for first-time anglers ages 12 and under.
While festival admission is free, rides and games cost money. Parking is $5 per vehicle.
The schedule includes:
Festival hours are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
A ceremony for the 50th anniversary of Snohomish County Parks is scheduled from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Evergreen Events Center.
Ciscoe Morris is scheduled to take the Events Center stage from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
The carnival starts Friday, remaining open from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday carnival hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday hours 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Butler Amusements of Fairfield, Calif., is providing the rides.
For more info on the Spring Festival or to purchase advance ride bracelets, call 360-805-6700 or go to www.evergreenfair.org.
The annual Evergreen State Fair is scheduled Aug. 22 through Sept. 2.
By Stephanie Woodard, Indian Country Today Media Network
The decision of U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) not to run in 2014 means that the state’s Native vote could be very important next year. Just as tribal members pulled Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) across the finish line in his neck-and-neck 2012 race, they may decide the upcoming contest, says Blackfeet tribal member Tom Rodgers, of Carlyle Consulting and voting-rights group Four Directions. That, in turn, will help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. “If the 2014 senatorial race is anything like 2012, there may be a two-to-three-point difference between the candidates, and the Native vote can easily make the decision,” Rodgers says.
Native influence will be even greater if an ongoing lawsuit (Mark Wandering Medicine v. Linda McCulloch, now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) to require satellite election offices on Montana reservations succeeds, according to Rodgers. “With satellite registration and voting, Indian turnout will skyrocket—and the only way to get political power is to affect political outcomes.” (Related story: NCAI, DOJ Weigh in on Behalf of Native Voting-Rights Plaintiffs)
Both major parties see the potential of the Native vote. The Montana GOP is talking to the Republican National Committee about funding a staff position to do outreach in tribal communities, according to state party executive director Bowen Greenwood. “When a race is close, every vote counts,” says Greenwood, who argues that Native beliefs in tradition and caring for the land and their desire for economic development match Republican ideals.
The Montana Democratic Party has long had voter-registration, get-out-the-vote and voter-protection efforts in Native communities, spokesperson Chris Saeger says. “Increasing participation in American Indian communities will always be a top priority for us. We are confident that we’ll hold Senator Baucus’s seat, because we have a deep bench [of candidates] and a strong record in statewide elections.” (Related story: Montana Democrats Rebuff Native Voting-Rights Lawsuit)
Baucus will be missed in Indian country. “We are very sad to lose Senator Baucus’s leadership. Federal policy is often imposed on tribes, and we rely on our representatives in Washington to advocate for us,” says Gordon Belcourt, Blackfeet, executive director of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. “And since both major parties want to reach out to tribes in the race to replace Senator Baucus, they should both support the on-reservation satellite voting offices we’re requesting via the lawsuit.”
Four Directions legal director Greg Lembrich, of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, says his organization wants both parties to embrace the Indian vote. On that front, Belcourt offers some advice to would-be senators, and to the parties as a whole: When they arrive on reservations, they will face pointed questions about their platforms and policies and will need to produce well-thought-out action plans to deal with issues like decades of high unemployment—in the 50 to 80 percent range for the tribes his group represents—and the effect of sequestration on programs that are already severely underfunded, such as the Indian Health Service. “It’s not a question of Democrats v. Republicans for Native people; it’s how the candidates address the issues.” (Related story: Montana Taxpayer Questions High Cost of Battling Against Native Voting Rights)
Belcourt says Baucus was “very receptive” to meeting with tribal leaders, so in the upcoming race for his seat, a record of personal involvement is going to count a lot with the tribes.
Lembrich notes that in 2014 Indian country will also be pivotal in South Dakota, where Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat, has announced his retirement, and in Alaska, where Democratic Senator Mark Begich faces a tough race. “With no presidential race to distract anyone, we’ll see media saturation and lots of feet on the ground registering voters and getting them to the polls.”
Hanging over all this, he adds, is the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming Voting Rights Act decision (Shelby County v. Holder), and a Native voting-rights suit in South Dakota (Chris Brooks v. Jason Gant). “We have some real drama ahead surrounding voting equality for tribal members.”
Meet The B-52s & The Go-Go’s! Select From Three Different VIP Experiences!
Don’t miss your chance to meet both legendary artists! Select from three different VIP experiences which can include a premium ticket, Meet and Greet with The B-52s and/or The Go-Go’s, exclusive merchandise and more.
MARYSVILLE — Marysville Parks and Recreation is seeking vendors for an ultimate flea market called, ‘Junk in the Trunk.’ The annual event takes place on Saturday, July 13, at the Municipal Courthouse at 1015 State Ave.
Interested vendors can sell garage sale items, house hold, tools, vintage, antiques, collectibles, crafts and more. Park your car in one space and then sell from the open space next to it for just $25. Call for an application or email the city at mburgess@marysvillewa.gov. For complete details call 360-363-8450.
Canadian grower has bought up 1,500 acres along the Snohomish River to grow the tart berry.
By Noah Haglund, The Herald
SNOHOMISH — The largest cranberry crop in Washington could be sprouting from the Snohomish River Valley a few seasons from now if a Canadian berry-grower’s plans take root.
Golden Eagle Farms for more than a year has been buying up farmland, hundreds of acres at a time, in the floodplain south of Lowell-Snohomish River Road.
The company wants to turn most its newly acquired terrain into cranberry bogs, with a few hundred acres set aside for growing blueberries.
While blueberries have long been grown here, cranberries would be something new. Moreover, Golden Eagle’s plans would put Snohomish County at the forefront of the industry statewide.
“We’re excited about it,” said John Negrin, who oversees the renewable energy division of Golden Eagle Farms’ parent company. “This is going to be a fascinating project.”
The words “exciting” and “fascinating” came up a lot Wednesday after Negrin gave a presentation to stakeholders in Snohomish County’s Sustainable Lands Strategy. The initiative to boost farming and fish habitat in local river valleys includes farmers, environmentalists and tribal leaders, as well as members of state and local government.
Many of them liked what they heard about remaking a patch of the valley into productive berry fields, potentially bringing dozens of full-time jobs and tens of millions of dollars in investment.
“It increases land in production, using the land for the highest and best use,” said Linda Neunzig, Snohomish County’s agriculture coordinator.
Before planting, Golden Eagle Farms must convince federal, state and county authorities that it can clear regulatory hurdles.
The company can expect to spend up to a year obtaining required federal and state permits related to water quality and wetlands, said Sheila Hosner from the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Assistance.
“We’re working step by step and working with all the appropriate agencies,” Negrin said.
So far, Golden Eagle Farms has acquired about 1,500 acres in the floodplain between Everett and Snohomish. It paid more than $3.3 million a year ago for the largest piece, 900 acres that has been used for growing poplar trees. Other parcels in the area, which is known as Marshland, have been used previously for growing peas, sweet corn and broccoli, or for livestock pasture.
The areas’s abundance of water and peaty soil — drawbacks for other crops — might benefit cranberry production.
“There’s a huge investment out there in the diking and drainage systems that needs to be utilized,” said John Misich, whose family has been farming in the area since the late 1800s.
Golden Eagle Farms’ proposal would eventually put more than 1,000 acres into cranberry cultivation. The plans include more than 30 bogs of 40 acres each, Negrin said.
To put that into perspective, all current Washington cranberry farms combined total about 1,800 acres, mostly in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties.
“It would be a large farm by any stretch of the imagination,” said Kim Patten, a Washington State University Extension professor based in Long Beach. The Pacific County community is known for cranberries.
Washington’s existing cranberry farms are small and, for the most part, have been in the same family for generations, Patten said. The largest is probably about 100 acres.
Washington’s overall cranberry crop is far smaller than states such as Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Regionally, British Columbia’s production exceeds Washington’s many times over.
“The bulk of the industry in the Pacific Northwest is in Canada,” Patten said.
Growing cranberries is a tricky business. For starters, it takes a lot of money and know-how to get started.
The cost of establishing cranberry bogs runs up to $60,000 per acre, Negrin said. That means investment in the Snohomish County proposal could easily exceed $50 million.
Once up and running, the Snohomish Valley operations would employ an estimated 35 full-time workers, Negrin said. About 100 workers would be needed come harvest time, in September and October. Those figures do not include construction jobs.
Cranberry bogs generally need three to five years to start yielding a commercial crop.
“This is not your average farm production,” Patten said. “There is a lot of very specialized nuance here. You have to know what you’re doing. The learning curve is very steep, so I make it my job to talk people out of the business.”
That said, Golden Eagle Farms is coming to the game with lots of experience — and capital.
It already has extensive, well-established blueberry and cranberry farms in British Columbia. It’s a member of the Ocean Spray cooperative.
The landscape around its farms in the Pitt Meadows area east of Vancouver, B.C., looks remarkably similar to the Snohomish Valley, with view homes overlooking the low-lying agricultural area.
Golden Eagle Farms isn’t likely to have any trouble securing financial backing. It’s part of the Aquilini Investment Group, a multibillion-dollar Vancouver, B.C., conglomerate.
The company was founded more than 50 years ago by Italian immigrant Luigi Aquilini, who now runs the company with his three sons.
Currently, the group’s vast interests include hotels, restaurants and renewable energy projects. It also owns the Vancouver Canucks NHL team, vineyards and resorts.
Pulling off the Snohomish County project won’t come without challenges.
Cranberry production requires flooding the bogs at harvest. More water is needed for irrigation, to ward off frost damage. That means extra regulatory scrutiny, particularly for any fertilizers or pesticides that might wind up in the runoff.
There are economic unknowns, as well.
At current prices, independent cranberry growers struggled to break even, Patten said. If the berry market softens further, many could be operating at a loss.
“Right now, there’s an oversupply of cranberries on the market,” he said. “There’s been a huge planting in Quebec.”
Still, if the project comes to fruition, it could give Snohomish County a real economic boost, Patten said.
Obstacles aside, the prospect of a deep-pocketed agriculture investor who’s willing to bring a new crop to the Snohomish Valley has local farmers buzzing.
“I think everybody should be excited,” said Brian Bookey of Arlington, a member of the Snohomish County Agricultural Advisory Board. “These are folks who have their act together. I hope everybody gives them a fair shake.”
