EVERETT — The Snohomish County PUD is reminding customers about potential scams that aim to steal customers’ identity and bill payment information.
If a PUD customer receives a phone call asking for financial information related to their bill, they should never provide this information. The PUD never calls customers to collect credit card information over the phone. The only time a credit card number is taken over the phone is through an outside bill payment service. In this case, the phone call and payment are initiated by the customer, by calling 1-888-909-4628.
If a customer receives a phone call, supposedly from the utility, and isn’t sure if it actually came from the PUD, they should call PUD Customer Service at 425-783-1000 to verify the information they were given. The PUD representative will be able to tell them whether or not the call was legitimate.
If a person comes to a customer’s home or business claiming to be a PUD employee, the customer should ask to see their PUD identification. Employees carry an ID card with their picture on it, and will gladly show it to customers.
It’s again a federal crime for people to lie about having received military decorations or medals.
President Obama signed the Stolen Valor Act of 2013 into law yesterday, June 3. The bill, sponsored by Representative Joseph Heck (R-Nevada), passed both the House and the Senate with overwhelming majorities (390-3 in the House, unanimous consent in the Senate) and was sent to the president on May 28.
Heck’s bill revised a broader 2005 version, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2012. SCOTUS ruled that the First Amendment protected a person who lied about being a military hero, unless that person did so with intent to fradulently gain from the deceit. The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 addressed that, including a provision that makes it illegal to make those claims to obtain money, property or other tangible benefits.
“I’m pleased that the valor and integrity of our military awards, along with the men and women who have earned them, are once again protected by law. Today’s bill signing marks the end of a process that began with a meeting of my local veterans advisory panel and has ended at the White House. It has been an incredibly rewarding process and I thank all of those who have helped along the way in making this bill a law,” Rep. Heck said in a press release.
“While the Stolen Valor Act has reached the end of the process, I look forward to continuing my work on behalf of those men and women who have worn the uniform and made great sacrifices to keep our nation safe.”
Veterans organizations are pleased that both Congress and the president acted quickly to produce this new law.
The public is invited to a dedication at 5 p.m. Wednesday of three interpretive panels depicting the early culture and history of the Snohomish peoples at Legion Park Bluff, 140 Alverson Blvd., Everett.
The late Hank Gobin and staff at the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip provided source material for artist Jim Englehardt’s renditions of life on Port Gardner and the Snohomish River and estuary.
This project is a collaboration between the Northwest Neighborhood Association and Historic Everett. It was funded by the Tulalip Tribes, the city of Everett Parks Department and Cultural Commission.
The Salish Sea Research Center, located on Northwest Indian College’s main campus on the Lummi Reservation, will take environmental research by the region’s tribal college students and faculty to new levels. Photo courtesy of NWIC
The Salish Sea Research Center will be fully operational by July 1
– Northwest Indian College
This summer, Northwest Indian College (NWIC) will open a new $2.2 million building on its main Lummi Reservation campus that will take science research capabilities at the college to new heights. With the new building, students and faculty will be able to conduct environmental research that supports healthy, clean, and vibrant environments that sustain tribal people.
The new 4,200-square-foot building was aptly named the Salish Sea Research Center. The Salish Sea has sustained tribes along its coast for centuries, and now research at NWIC will help support the health of the Salish Sea’s waters and shorelines.
“While the name of the center contains ‘Salish Sea,’ we are by no means exclusively marine focused. We are also laying the groundwork for an outdoor teaching and research program for native plants on campus,” said Dr. Marco Hatch, Associate Director of the National Indian Center for Marine Environmental Research and Education (NICMERE), which is located on NWIC’s campus.
The facility will support research in all programs of study – particularly the college’s Bachelor of Science in Native Environmental Science program. It increases opportunities for hands-on research giving students the experience needed to succeed in the workplace and in graduate school. It also helps foster partnerships with federal, state and tribal organizations.
“The Salish Sea Research Center provides our students the opportunity to work with faculty to engage in research projects and develop their science and technical skills,” NWIC President Justin Guillory said. “Of course, the building itself is great, but the learning that will occur inside the building is where our mission as a tribal college comes alive. New buildings help us build more students.”
Research already planned for the facility includes an examination of Bellingham Bay nutrient and oxygen dynamics, which is going on its seventh field season this year – that project is being done in partnership with Western Washington University and Washington State University’s Whatcom County Extension. Also, in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and Lummi Natural Resources, NWIC researchers have begun a project examining the dynamics of red tides.
“Because of the increased capacity of this center, we are able to work with Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Friday Harbor Laboratories to study the relationship between the loss of eelgrass and increased harmful algal blooms,” Hatch said. “The center has already resulted in a leading expert in eelgrass planning to come to the college and spend a quarter here co-teaching a course on eelgrass and working with the students.”
The building includes five main laboratories a biology room, a wet lab, a live lab, an ecology room, and an analytical chemistry room.
“We also have a dedicated room for microscopes to sort samples and count phytoplankton,” Hatch said. “And I know everyone is excited about the mud room, so now we don’t have to drag the muck and mire from the intertidal through our offices.”
In addition to environmental research, another focus of the center’s research will be on the history of human interaction with Salish Sea lands and waters.
“People have always been here, and in this center we ask what lessons can be learned about how they promoted sustainability, about how they interacted with this place in a respectful manner,” Hatch said. “One example of this work is the partnership with the Heiltsuk First Nation looking at the ecological impacts of a traditional form of aquaculture called clam gardens.”
The Salish Sea Research Center was funded by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation and by NWIC’s $44 million capital campaign. The campaign has led to significant growth at NWIC in recent years. Since it began in 2005, eight new buildings have been constructed on the college’s main campus alone and two more buildings will open within a year as a result of campaign contributions. All of that physical growth supports the college’s evolution as a bachelor degree granting institution.
“I want to acknowledge the Kwina Family for providing the land to grow the NWIC campus,” President Guillory said. “This new building would not be possible without the land to build upon.”
A grand opening was held for the Salish Sea Research Center April 30 and the facility should be fully operational – with all necessary equipment – by July 1, according to Hatch.
The new building will support all programs of study at NWIC, especially the college’s Bachelor of Science in Native Environment Science (BSNES) degree program. BSNES students, such as Aissa Yazzie, conduct research that explores issues of importance to the region’s and nation’s tribes. Photo courtesy of NWIC
In addition to projects already underway at the facility, the following research is planned for the building:
Eelgrass student research: project partners are Friday Harbor Laboratory, University of Washington, and Washington State University Extension San Juan County
Eelgrass and reduced harmful algal blooms: project partners areNorthwest Fisheries Science Center, Friday Harbor Laboratory, University of Washington, and Washington State University Extension San Juan County
NOAA / ESP remote harmful algal bloom monitoring: partners areLummi Natural Resources, and Northwest Fishery Science Center
Olympia Oyster larval study: project partners are Samish Indian Nation, University of Washington-Tacoma, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Telling the Story of the Land, Revitalizing Traditional Plant Knowledge and Harvest with a View toward Sustainability: project partner isWashington State University Extension
Northwest Indian College is an accredited, tribally chartered institution headquartered on the Lummi Reservation at 2522 Kwina Road in Bellingham Wash., 98226, and can be reached by phone at (866) 676-2772 or by email at info@nwic.edu. We have seven Pacific Northwest locations and offer a variety of bachelor’s and associate degrees.
Nisqually natural resources technician Jimsan Dunstan samples water at Johnson Point in Olympia.
– Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
The Jamestown S’Klallam, Nisqually and Stillaguamish tribes are participating in the SoundToxins monitoring program to provide early warning of harmful algal blooms (HAB) and outbreaks of bacteria that could sicken humans.
“We want to make sure shellfish are safe to consume, not just for tribal members, but for all seafood consumers,” said Sue Shotwell, shellfish farm manager for the Nisqually Tribe.
During the shellfish growing season from March to October, tribal natural resources staff sample seawater weekly at designated sites. Additional sites across Puget Sound are monitored for toxin-producing algae by various citizen beach watchers, shellfish farmers, educational institutions and state government agencies. The monitoring results are posted in an online database.
The SoundToxins program helps narrow down the places where shellfish should be sampled for toxins, which is more expensive and time-consuming than testing the water.
“Just because we find algae that produce toxins doesn’t necessarily mean there are toxins in the seafood, but it could mean there will be soon,” said Stillaguamish marine and shellfish biologist Franchesca Perez. “If high numbers of an HAB species are found, then a sample of the water is sent to SoundToxins for further analysis, and appropriate parties are contacted to protect consumers and growers. We also look for Heterosigma, a flagellated plankton that causes fish kills.”
The Stillaguamish Tribe is sampling Kayak Point in Port Susan. Nisqually is monitoring the water at Johnson Point in Olympia, and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is taking its samples from the dock at Sequim Bay State Park, a popular shellfish harvesting site.
“Sequim Bay has had a number of harmful algal blooms historically,” said Neil Harrington, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe environmental biologist. “When we see the phytoplankton cells increase in the water column, we know to start increasing shellfish sampling for toxins.”
All three types of plankton that cause HABs in Puget Sound have been measured at toxic levels in Sequim Bay.
“The SoundToxins program aims to provide sufficient warning of HAB and Vibrio events to enable early or selective harvesting of seafood, thereby minimizing risks to human health and reducing economic losses to Puget Sound fisheries,” said Sound Toxins program director Vera Trainer of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
SoundToxins is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Science Center, Washington Sea Grant and the Washington Department of Health.
Recent tests of salmon from Washington’s waters show no signs of a fish virus that can be deadly to farm-raised Atlantic salmon.
Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus was not detected in tissue samples taken from more than 900 wild and hatchery-produced Pacific chinook, coho, sockeye, chum and steelhead, as well as farm-raised Atlantic salmon, according to a press release from state, tribal and federal resource managers.
The virus is not harmful to people.
Specific strains of the virus have caused a deadly disease in farm-raised Atlantic salmon. Outbreaks with significant losses have occurred in farmed Atlantic salmon in Maine, Eastern Canada, Chile and several European countries.
The virus has not been documented in farmed, wild or hatchery salmon in Washington.
John Kerwin, Fish Health Program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said concerns about the possibility of the virus occurring in Washington’s salmon prompted the recent tests, which are part of a two-year monitoring program specifically designed to detect the virus.
“Our traditional testing protocols would have detected most — but not all — of the disease-causing strains of ISA virus,” Kerwin said. “So, we expanded our program to better detect whether any strain is present in a variety of fish species in Washington. The good news is all the samples came back negative for the virus.”
Elsewhere on the West Coast, there have been no confirmed reports of the virus in wild, hatchery or farmed salmon. In 2011, a Canadian researcher reported detecting the virus in some British Columbia Pacific salmon. However, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the federal agency with authority for fish health in Canada, tested fish tissue samples and found no ISAV present.
Bruce Stewart, Fish Health Program manager for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, said the sampling and monitoring program is a great example of tribal, state and federal managers working together to address concerns about the health of salmon and steelhead stocks in Washington.
“While this first year’s results are encouraging, we hope to increase our level of confidence that the virus is not present in Washington by continuing our efforts and including testing of pink salmon,” said Stewart, who noted that most pink salmon return to Washington’s waters only in odd-numbered years.
Andy Goodwin, Fish Health Program manager for Region 1 of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the ISAV surveillance program is an important addition to an already comprehensive fish health monitoring effort by the agencies.
“Protecting the health of Pacific salmon populations is a high priority for us,” Goodwin said. “This ISAV surveillance collaboration has really complemented the regular testing that we do on many thousands of fish every year.”
The tissue samples taken for the ISAV monitoring program were analyzed at the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Pullman, and at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service laboratory in Idaho.
The monitoring program — funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — is expected to continue for at least one more year. Participants include the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Additional monitoring programs are under way in Alaska and Canada.
Treaty Indian tribes in western Washington are disappointed to learn that the state has filed an appeal in the culvert case ruling.
Federal District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled on March 29 that the state must fix fish-blocking culverts under its roads in western Washington because they violate tribal treaty-reserved fishing rights. The court found that more than 1,500 state culverts deny salmon access to hundreds of miles of good habitat in western Washington, harming salmon at every stage in their life cycle.
“But instead of implementing the ruling as a win-win for the salmon and everyone who lives here, the state has chosen to appeal the case in a further attempt to ignore tribal treaty rights,” Frank said.
As part of his ruling, Martinez issued a permanent injunction against the state’s continued operation of fish-blocking culverts under state roads in western Washington. The injunction was necessary, he ruled, because of the slow pace of state corrections, which has led to an increase in the number of barrier culverts in the past three years. At the current pace, the state would never complete repairs, Judge Martinez said, because more culverts were becoming barriers to salmon than were being fixed.
The state and its Department of Transportation (DOT) were given 17 years to complete repairs. Other state agencies were already planning to have their blocking culverts corrected within the next three years.
Culvert repair cost estimates being provided by the state are higher than the actual repair costs presented in court, Martinez ruled. The state claims that the average cost to replace a state DOT culvert is $2.3 million. But the evidence showed the actual cost of DOT culverts built to the best fish passage standards has been about $658,000. Repairs will be funded through the state’s separate transportation budget and will not come at the expense of education or other social services.
“It’s also important to understand that state law already requires that culverts allow fish passage. The culvert case ruling directs the state to do nothing more than what is already required,” Frank said.
“For decades the state has tried to ignore tribal treaty-reserved rights, even when that means ignoring the best interests of the resource and its citizens,” Frank said. “But the federal courts have consistently upheld our treaty rights.”
By Billy Frank, Jr, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Chairman
Winter snows are melting up in the mountains and soon the only white stuff we’ll see floating in the air will be cottonwood fluff, a sign that the salmon are beginning to return and a reminder that it is time to celebrate the fish that sustains us as a people.
In gatherings large and small, tribes throughout western Washington will celebrate First Salmon ceremonies this spring and summer to welcome home the salmon.
It is an honor for a tribal fisherman to be asked to harvest the First Salmon, a scout for the Salmon People who live in a village under the sea. With drumming and singing the First Salmon is welcomed and shared. The First Salmon’s bones are then returned to the water to allow his spirit to go home. If the First Salmon was shown proper respect, he will tell the Salmon People how well he was treated, and lead them back to the tribe’s fishing area for harvest.
The return of the salmon means tribal fishermen will be returning to the water as well. As part of the First Salmon Ceremony, many tribes also include a Blessing of the Fleet for protection of tribal fishermen and their boats.
But it is getting harder every year to put our tribal fishermen on the water. While careful harvest management by the tribal and state co-managers is making a strong contribution to the recovery of wild salmon, the keys to rebuilding those runs have always been to protect and restore salmon habitat.
Yet day after day we see salmon habitat being lost and damaged, and little being done to stop or fix it. Our declining salmon populations and resulting lost fishing opportunity are mirrors that reflect the increasingly shrinking quality and quantity of salmon habitat in our region. Conservative fisheries are effective only when they go hand-in-hand with equally strong efforts to protect and restore salmon habitat.
The lack of action on protecting and restoring habitat has gotten to the point that we can no longer make up for declining salmon runs simply by reducing harvest. Those days are gone. Even if we stopped all salmon fishing everywhere in western Washington, most weak wild salmon stocks would still never recover. There simply isn’t enough good quality habitat to support them.
But despite everything that’s thrown against them – dams, pollution, predators and much more – the salmon never stop trying to make it home. We can’t stop either. We all need to work harder to make sure the salmon has a good home when he returns.
We don’t want to ever find ourselves contemplating a Last Salmon Ceremony.
Everett, Wash., May 31, 2013—Want to help keep Mt. Baker pristine? Mountain Steward volunteers are needed this summer to teach day hikers, backpackers and climbers to care for and protect this delicate alpine ecosystem.
Forest Service staff will train volunteers July 13 and 20 in low-impact recreational skills, natural history and back country management. Mountain Stewards commit to work three weekend days during July 13-Sept. 22 on the three busiest trail systems: Skyline Divide, Park Butte/Railroad Grade and Heather Meadows/Artist Point. An optional training is offered Aug. 3 for those who want to volunteer at Heather Meadows.
Apply by June 28. Find applications online and email to brichey@fs.fed.us, fax to 360.856.1934 or mail to Mt. Baker Ranger District, Mountain Stewards, 810 State Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284. Call 360-854-2615 or brichey@fs.fed.us for more information. Volunteers must be 18 years or older with hiking and outdoor recreation skills.
Peter D’Errico, Indian Country Today Media Network
Berlin’s Museum of Medical History has entered the controversy about exhibition and repatriation of human remains. As The New York Times reports, the curators are “re-evaluating the principles that govern their displays as they confront a growing debate over what cultural organizations should be doing to preserve the dignity of the dead.”
Museums around the world have been grappling with consciences and protests about this for several years. Indigenous peoples bodies in particular have been the object of scientific collection and study, sometimes while they are alive—witness Ishi in the University of California: he was a research subject and assistant at the same time.
A truly bizarre chapter of science and bodies was discussed in a letter from Clark Mills, a 19th century American sculptor, in the Times, on May 22, 1882. Mills referred to the then-current debate about whether Indians could be “civilized or Christianized” after they were adults, or only while they were children, at the Hampton Institute. An Indian boarding school/concentration camp of the worst kind.
Mills’ first attempt to answer the question involved comparing casts of heads of “wild” Indians imprisoned in Fort Marion, Florida, under Captain R.H. Pratt, with casts of heads from “New York Indians, who had been civilized for a hundred years.” He made a subsequent effort with casts of “wild Indian children” brought to Hampton, to be compared with casts made after some period of “education.” Believe it or not: The catalog of Clark’s casts is at the Smithsonian Institution, with an explanatory letter from Pratt.
Nowadays, phrenology is considered a joke, if not a delusion. The fact that many 19th century thinkers took it seriously is just another pimple on the face of the history of science, although there is a “new phrenology” today, wherein neuroscientists are trying to pinpoint cognitive functions within the head (more precisely, within the brain). It seems that the lure of reducing everything to physiology still appeals.
The lure of dead bodies still appeals. A typical statement in opposition to the Berlin reevaluation and to repatriation efforts is that scientists have “more to learn” from the remains, especially now that DNA testing is available. DNA, by the way, is also a mode of science on living bodies, as evidenced by the Human Genome Diversity Project.
There are many examples of an unquestioning belief in the rightness of science. We hear them all the time. Sociologist Tiffany Jenkins, author of “Contesting Human Remains in Museum Collections,” quoted by the Times, says, “There’s a whole host of research that isn’t being done because it’s too sensitive.” The assumption seems to be that “sensitivity” is bad and “research” is good.
But look at the history of what we call scientific knowledge: it is not a straight line and it is not only and always “progress.” The brutality of some events—the Nazi medical experiments and the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service—are well-documented and generally denounced today. What do they imply about science in general? At a minimum, they raise larger, deeper questions: What is science for? What role should it play in our lives?
Amidst the debates about skulls and blood and bones in museums and laboratories, not many people focus on these big questions. They argue about particular situations and specific museum collections, the small questions of science that may obscure the big issues.
The atrocities of science are enough to demonstrate that “scientific” is not synonymous with “good.” The atrocities prove we cannot say that whatever scientists want to do should be done, or whatever they want to study should be studied.
Odd as it may sound to those who think that science is the root of understanding, the real task is to understand science. And that means doing something “sensitive,” like asking moral and social questions, philosophical and ethical questions. We must have a standpoint of knowledge outside science, a way to evaluate what we know or think we know.
These questions bring us into the domain of what has been called epistemology, the theory of knowledge. It’s enough to make your head spin. I’m not arguing that science is “bad” or “good.” I’m not suggesting that there is a way to answer the deep questions once and for all. I am arguing that blindly following scientists is the blind leading the blind. I am suggesting that no scientific inquiry is exempt from question.
Much science is aimed at control and destruction: how to dominate and how to blow things up. How did we get here and where are we going? How much of what we are doing in the name of life is bringing death? The fact that money dominates science means that science is pursuing greed. There are those who say that greed and domination and destruction are inevitable. I say that’s open to question. It’s just another belief, not a scientific conclusion.
Peter d’Errico graduated from Yale Law School in 1968. Staff attorney in Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe Navajo Legal Services, 1968-1970. Taught Legal Studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1970-2002. Consulting attorney on indigenous issues.
