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Historic Everett and the Northwest Neighborhood Association will be honoring the earliest inhabitants of the Everett community with the installation of three interpretive signs depicting the early culture and history of the Snohomish Peoples.
Legion Park Bluff, June 5th, 2013 at 5PM
140 Alverson Boulevard, Everett WA
Gale Courey Toensing, Indian Country Today Media Network
Indigenous organizations attending the 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) criticized the United States federal government for trying to make an end run around the human rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) and voiced concern that state actions will sideline Indigenous Peoples at the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples scheduled for September 2014. The UNPFII took place at the U.N. in New York from May 20-31.
In a day long discussion on the World Conference during the Permanent Forum on May 28, speakers expressed opposition – and indignation – at a statement made by Laurie Shestack Phipps, advisor for economic and social affairs of the United States Mission to the United Nations, regarding the federal government’s position on the Declaration.
Phipps’ statement, or “intervention” as it is called at the U.N., was presented May 22 in opposition to a suggestion that the Permanent Forum establish a monitoring and complaints mechanism for the Declaration. But most offensive to indigenous organizations was Phipps’ reiteration of parts of the State Department’s white paper of December 16, 2010 – the day President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. was “lending its support” to the Declaration.
“We would like to take this opportunity to note that the Declaration is a non-binding, aspirational document,” Phipps stated. “We would also like to reiterate the U.S. government’s view that self-determination, as expressed in the Declaration, is different from self-determination in international law.”
The statement set off a red alert among North American Indigenous Peoples when it was first announced. “We’ve been involved in these issues for a while now and making sure that the United States doesn’t try to domesticate the international Declaration—that’s going to be the challenge,” Penobscot Indian Nation Chief Kirk Francis said at the time. And the statement outraged people again at this year’s Permanent Forum. (Related story: Next Step: ? Implementation)
“The most objectionable [part of the U.S. statement] was their reiterated position that the rights of self-determination as recognized under international law for ALL PEOPLES is somehow a different right for Indigenous Peoples,” Roberto Borrero (Taino People of Boriken – Puerto Rico), said in an impassioned statement that he read on behalf of the International Indian Treaty Council. “At that time [2010] Indigenous Peoples did not accept this attempt to redefine international law as affirmed in the U.N. Charter and the Covenants, or to diminish the internationally recognized minimum standard of the Declaration. We do not accept it now.”
The IITC statement acknowledged that the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples has the potential to move forward the full and effective implementation of the inherent rights affirmed by the Declaration. But IITC and other indigenous organizations are concerned that some states might use the World Conference “in an attempt to diminish, qualify or redefine the rights affirmed in this hard fought minimum standard, or to limit the intended scope of its implementation,” Borrero said. “We are firmly resolved and will stand united with the Indigenous Peoples of the world to ensure that this will not happen. Discrimination must not be tolerated in any body or process of the United Nations which is based on the fundamental principles of international human rights law and the tenants of the U.N. Charter which include non-discrimination.”
The IITC has asked the Permanent Forum to issue a formal statement expressing its concern and joining with Indigenous Peoples in rejecting discriminatory attempts by the U.S. or any other state to diminish the rights affirmed in the Declaration by the U.N. and at the World Conference. “This is an historic opportunity for full and effective implementation, in good faith and partnership,” Borrero said. “The time for racial discrimination and all doctrines which justify it is the past. Their proper place is in the dustbin of history. “
Indigenous representatives from Africa, Asia, the Arctic, North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and the Pacific as well as the Indigenous Women’s Caucus and the Indigenous Youth Caucus, both of which presented interventions at the Permanent Forum, will attend a preparatory conference in Alta, Norway June 10-12 to consolidate indigenous Peoples’ strategies and positions for the World Conference, which is described as “a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly.”
Kenneth Deer, representative of the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus (NAIPC), said the caucus agreed to take part in the World Conference under certain conditions, including advancing “the rights of Indigenous Peoples as peoples and nations with rights equal to all other peoples, that we have and confirm the inalienable right to self determination as recognized in various international instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … as well as our rights to our lands, territories, resources, treaties, languages and cultures.” He said the Alta Conference outcome document should assert these rights and support the implementation of the Declaration and that the NAIPC will review the document “to determine what positive and negative impacts it could have and also to assess NAIPC’s involvement in the World Conference.”
Steve Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape), an Indian Country Today Media Network columnist, presented an intervention on behalf of the Indigenous Law Institute that began with an acknowledgment that the U.N. building stands on the traditional territory of the Lenape, Munsee and Delaware ancestors. Mincing no words, Newcomb said that the U.S. position for a ‘different” right of self determination for Indigenous Peoples in international law “is racist and predicated on ancient theological-political bigotry” – namely the Doctrine of Discovery that allowed Christian nations to claim as their own land that was not inhabited by Christians and to kill or enslave the indigenous inhabitants or those lands. The World Conference “will not result in positive and fundamental reform for our Nations and Peoples unless it is used as an opportunity to engage in the kinds of moral discussions that took place in the 16th century … regarding Aristotle’s theory of natural domination or slavery and whether our ancestors were human. The difference today, of course, is that we have our own voice,” Newcomb said.
Tonawanda Seneca Chief Darwin Hill read a statement on behalf of an umbrella group including the National Congress of American Indians, United South and Eastern Tribes, the California Association of Tribal Governments, 72 Indigenous nations and seven Indigenous organizations. Violations against indigenous are actually increasing in some states, Hill said. And the Declaration, which is supposed to protect those rights, cannot be effective without implementing measures and without international monitoring, he said. The group recommended, among other things, creating a new U.N. body to promote and monitor implementation of the Declaration and giving Indigenous Peoples “a dignified and appropriate” permanent status through their constitutional and customary governments to participate in all U.N. activities.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/05/31/us-government-under-fire-permanent-forum-ahead-world-conference-149637
By Noah Haglund and Scott North, The Herald
EVERETT — Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon left public office about 4 p.m. Friday, ending nearly a decade as the county’s top elected official.
He did not speak with Herald reporters seeking answers about harassing records requests linked to his staff, or how he could explain evidence that he crossed lines intended to keep his political campaigns separate from taxpayers’ money.
A statement attributed to him was posted on the county’s website: “I extend my best wishes to our county officials as they continue their work at the direction of this county’s residents. Finally, and most importantly, I want to sincerely thank the voters of Snohomish County for choosing me on six separate occasions to represent you. It has been a great honor and a sincere privilege to work on your behalf.”
Reardon’s departure cleared the way for other county leaders to focus on hopes that a new executive would bring productive working relationships back to county government.
“I’m very excited about the future,” said County Councilman Brian Sullivan, whose relationship with Reardon, a former ally, soured over the years.
Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe said he’s hopeful that Monday will bring word that Sheriff John Lovick, of Mill Creek, has been chosen to be the next county executive. Other likely nominees are state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, and Everett attorney Todd Nichols, a longtime Democratic Party leader at the state and county level.
Reardon’s departure is a significant step in a story with chapters yet unfolding. They include:
•King County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation — Detectives still are trying to determine whether any laws were broken by Reardon’s staff. The people on the receiving end of public records requests, made anonymously by aides Kevin Hulten and Jon Rudicil, believe they were targets of harassment, surveillance and retaliation for cooperating with a 2012 investigation of Reardon. The State Patrol investigation eventually cleared Reardon of using public funds to carry on a private affair with another county employee.
•Public Disclosure Commission — Two investigations are underway, both focusing on campaign activity in Reardon’s office during his 2011 run for office. One inquiry is examining Reardon’s conduct, including hundreds of calls he made to people who worked on or funded his re-election campaign. The other case is focused on Hulten, and work-day calls he made to state election watchdogs about issues later used to attack Reardon’s opponent, state Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens.
•Political changes — The departure triggers reshuffling among county leaders and likely will mean changes for one or more office holders. If Lovick gets the nod, the council will need to name a new sheriff. New leadership also may mean shifts in county priorities.
•More lawsuits — The county could face litigation over some of the controversies that have swirled around Reardon. Some have been threatening lawsuits for years.
Reardon’s parting statement claimed multiple successes in managing the county.
“Together, we have modernized and transformed Snohomish County government from a silo-based bureaucracy to a more dynamic, network-driven organization focused on outcomes as opposed to processes.”
At the same time, Reardon left office by delivering an unwelcome surprise to his County Council counterparts just before he left.
Reardon’s spokesman informed the council that Reardon had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tulalip tribes regarding land-use planning. That was news to the council. The county’s rules require the executive to first seek the council’s agreement before any intergovernmental agreements are signed. The council planned to take up the issue next week.
Deputy County Executive Gary Haakenson is now the acting county executive until Reardon’s replacement is named.
Because Reardon is a Democrat, it’s up to Snohomish County Democrats to nominate three candidates to take his place. The party plans to convene a special caucus Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Everett Labor Temple’s Warren Rush Hall, 2812 Lombard Ave., Everett. The meeting is public.
The party’s central committee will forward the names to the County Council, which then has 60 days to agree on a successor. The council has scheduled public interviews with the nominees for 8:30 a.m. Monday.
The new regime is sure to usher in sweeping personnel changes.
By last week, some of the closest members of Reardon’s staff already had begun making their way toward the exit doors.
Reardon’s finance chief, Roger Neumaier, is in line to be appointed finance director for the city of Edmonds. He awaits the Edmonds City Council’s confirmation on Tuesday. More staff changes are expected.
Voters first sent Reardon to the Legislature in 1997 and he became the youngest county executive in the nation in 2004, at age 33.
His time as the county’s top elected administrator was marked by public feuds with other county leaders and scandals related to his staff and himself. The investigation into his use of county resources while carrying on the affair began in November 2011. And in February he was back under scrutiny after Hulten and Rudicil were linked to the anonymous public records requests, attack websites and other activities targeting people considered the executive’s political rivals.
A week after the story broke, Reardon announced plans for his resignation.
After spending 15 years as an elected public official, Reardon so far hasn’t discussed what he plans next.
To Sullivan, that was typical of Reardon and part of his undoing.
“He’s not a very open person and it’s hard to be a secret person in a public life,” Sullivan said. “I wish him and his family well.”
On Friday, Roe said he is looking forward to a time when the good work being done by Snohomish County government workers has a chance of attracting more attention than serial scandals.
“For the last couple of years I’ve had to listen to Snohomish County jokes from colleagues and friends and family relations, and I’m ready for that to be over,” Roe said.
Saturday-Sunday: Tulalip Tribes Stickgame Tournament. An exciting event with games and vendors. The games are located on 27th Ave, across from the Boom City Swap Meet and there is plenty of parking.
The games will be going on all night and tomorrow. There are 120 teams in the tournament. Stickgames are a long tradtion that has been revived over the years and brought back to Tulalip in order to, “bring families and friends from all tribes together in this long running tradition,” said Tulalip Tribal member Nessie Hatch.
Source: Washington Post, Associated Press
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — American Indian leaders who have criticized the federal government for years over the way authorities handled major crimes on reservations can mark progress with the release of newly tracked statistics from the U.S. Justice Department.
The number of Indian Country cases charged in federal court has increased by 54 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2012, from 1,091 cases to 1,677 cases, according to a DOJ report released Thursday.
The report marks the first look at government investigations and prosecutions on tribal lands. It comes as a result of the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, which requires the Justice Department to publicly release such figures.
Justice officials acknowledge that their work is far from done, but they say the numbers demonstrate the government’s commitment to combating violent crime on reservations where rates are higher than the national average.
Also, the report shows that prosecutors secured convictions in about two-thirds of nearly 6,000 reservation cases between calendar years 2011 and 2012. Of the 5,985 cases, about one-third were declined for prosecution.
Some others were resolved administratively or sent to another prosecuting authority and didn’t end up in federal court.
The numbers show “that we’re walking the talk at the Department of Justice,” said Tim Purdon, U.S. attorney in North Dakota.
Arizona, home to part of the nation’s largest American Indian reservation, had the highest number of total referrals with more than 2,000, followed by South Dakota with nearly 1,000 and Montana with more than 500.
Purdon leads a subcommittee that reports to Attorney General Eric Holder on American Indian issues. He said federal officials “want to improve public safety” and added that they are working to “remove those most dangerous predators, the most dangerous criminals from Indian Country.”
The federal government and tribes have concurrent jurisdiction in crimes where the suspect and victim are both American Indian, but federal prosecutions carry much stiffer penalties. Among recent U.S. government prosecutions:
— A man was found guilty of sexually abusing a teenager he met while working as a counselor at a summer camp on the Rocky Boy’s reservation in Montana. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
— A woman on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota was convicted of beating her 4-year-old son with a plastic clothes hanger. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.
— A man was sent to prison for 10 years for kicking the woman who was pregnant with his child on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The unborn child died after suffering a skull fracture and other injuries.
Still, nearly 2,000 cases were declined for prosecution over the two-year span, a matter for which the DOJ has been criticized in the past.
“There are cases that are legitimately declined, and that is appropriate and expected,” said Leonhard, of the Umatilla tribe’s Office of Legal Counsel.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — An Australian energy company has cleared a key hurdle for a terminal on the Oregon side of the Columbia River that would ship coal from the Great Plains to Asia.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on Friday issued draft permits regulating coal dust at the Coyote Island Terminal LLC at the Port of Morrow in Boardman.
The department will hold public hearings on the air and water pollution permits July 9 in Portland and Hermiston.
Ambre Energy plans to build a totally enclosed facility to unload coal trains from Montana and Wyoming and load the cargo onto barges for transport downriver to the Port of St. Helens, where it would be loaded in huge ships to carry it to Asia.
T he marketing of Navajo arts and crafts has a complex history with deep ties to economics and tribal identity, but one thing remains simple: the Navajo name belongs to the people.
That’s according to Brian Lewis, an attorney with the Navajo Department of Justice who has headed the tribe’s case against Urban Outfitters since the company began marketing Navajo-themed clothing and accessories in 2011.
The Nation “has the exclusive right to use its Navajo name and trademarks on products that are marketed and retailed as being authentically Navajo,” Lewis said. “People who buy products with the name and trademark ‘Navajo’ expect that those products will have valid association with the Navajo Nation and Navajo people.”
The case, which last week was placed on hold as the parties work toward a settlement, is expected to set precedent as the Nation seeks to curb the theft of intellectual property and emerge as the sole and rightful owner of its name.
Although the case appears novel, it is not, Lewis said.
The Indian Arts and Crafts Act, passed in 1990, came as a response to individuals and corporations that misrepresented products as Indian-made. The law prohibits any marketing or sale of items in a manner that falsely suggests they are made by American Indians.
“Corporate theft of property from Indians … is old school,” Lewis said. “It was non-Indian corporations’ profiting from posing their products as having been made by Native Americans that led to the enactment of the (law) in the first place.”
The point of the law, and of the Navajo Nation’s lawsuit against Urban Outfitters, is to maintain credibility with consumers, he said.
The tribe is seeking monetary damages from the company of up to seven or eight figures, Lewis said. It also “looks to stop this kind of deceptive behavior to keep the integrity of its property and protect consumers from getting tricked.”
“The first appropriate outcome if for Urban Outfitters to stop making money off the unlawful use of the Navajo Nation’s intellectual property,” Lewis said. “The second appropriate outcome here is for Urban Outfitters to compensate the Navajo Nation for the profits the company made.”
In short, the tribe wants consumers to rest assured that when they buy products labeled “Navajo,” they are, indeed, manufactured by members of the tribe.
Ownership of the Navajo name – and of the arts and crafts associated with it – is complicated, however.
According to author Erika Marie Bsumek, who researched Navajo culture in the marketplace from the return from Fort Sumner until the 1940s, many of the traditional crafts became symbols of a romanticized and primitive culture.
The Navajo historically worked in silver and wool, creating items for household uses or adornment, Bsumek wrote. Yet with the arrival of Anglo settlers – and their discovery of the Navajo crafts – the industry shifted into a complex framework where arts and crafts became part of a broader economic landscape.
This resulted in complicated links between the tourism industry and Navajo identity, which often was portrayed as primitive and vanishing despite the tribe’s growing numbers, Bsumek wrote. The tourism industry and anthropologists constructed a Navajo identity “with little or no input from Navajos themselves.”
“For a good majority of consumers, goods made by Indians were infused with symbolic, material and cultural capital,” she wrote. “Navajo blankets and jewelry were prestigious in that they conveyed a set of racialized beliefs, represented a financial investment and transmitted a series of meanings about modernity and civilization to the whites who purchased them.”
With such a history, it is no surprise that the tribe guards its name and strives to protect it from companies that might further dilute its identity, said Richard Stim, a San Francisco-based trademark attorney who is watching the Nation’s case against Urban Outfitters. The Navajo Nation has proven to be a leader among tribes in protecting its name, he said.
“The whole point of trademark law is to not confuse the consumer,” he said. “The Navajo Nation has been very active. It has taken the initiative to protect its name.”
In its lawsuit, the Nation claims the Pennsylvania-based Urban Outfitters violated trademark laws and marketed items that were disrespectful to the Navajo culture, including underwear and a liquor flask. Urban Outfitters is an international retail company that markets and retails its merchandise in more than 200 stores and online. Its brands include Anthropologie and Free People.
The company claims American Indian-inspired prints have shown up in the fashion industry for years and that it’s common for designers to borrow from other cultures. The company claims the term “Navajo” is generic and it is seeking a declaration of non-infringement and cancellation of the tribe’s federal trademark registrations.
“The term ‘navajo’ is a common, generic term widely used in the industry and by customers to describe a design/style or feature of clothing and clothing accessories, and therefore, is incapable of trademark protection,” the company said in court documents. It argues that the Nation has not taken action during the years third parties used the term, therefore abandoning its rights to the name.
The company also asserts that it sells “hip clothing and merchandise” to “culturally sophisticated young adults” and in no way competes with Navajo arts and crafts, which generally are not sold in “specialty retail centers, upscale street locations and enclosed malls.”
“Nothing in the title of the store, the layouts of the stores or the manner in which any of the goods are marketed or sold suggests in any way that Urban Outfitters is marketing or selling products supplied by the Navajo Nation,” the company said in court documents. It argues that many other upscale clothing retailers also are marketing American Indian-themed merchandise.
The tribe holds at least 10 trademarks on its name, covering clothing, footwear, household products, textiles and online retail sales. It has used the name “Navajo” since 1894 and has 86 trademarks registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Urban Outfitters, however, contends that the Nation does not hold those trademarks.
The two sides have wrangled over rights to the name since 2012 when the Nation filed a lawsuit against Urban Outfitters, which was marketing more than 20 products, including jackets, earrings, scarves and sneakers, as “Navajo” or “Navaho.”
In January, the court denied Urban Outfitters’ motion to have the case transferred from New Mexico to Pennsylvania. Last week, a U.S. District Court judge in Albuquerque threw out all deadlines for discovery and responses in the case. The two sides have until July 29 to agree on a mediator for settlement discussions.
The case has gained notoriety not only because of the absurdity of the Navajo-themed underwear, which has sparked outrage and controversy from other tribes and activists, but also because it raises questions about who can profit from a name.
“This case is about a multi-billion-dollar corporation having profited from misrepresentations that its products were associated with the Navajo Nation and American Indians,” Lewis said. “Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation and American Indians lost out from consumers’ having being duped.”
The stakes are higher in a trademark case when the name describes a community or ethnic group, Lewis said.
Some consumers “have an affinity with the Navajo Nation and its people and they purchase Navajo products, which they know are associated with the unique and distinctive institution and its members,” he said. “This expectation of a connection is undermined when a company puts the same Navajo name and trademark on its products … in competition with the products that are authentically connected to the Navajo Nation.”
Stim hopes the case sets precedent and forces big retailers to think twice before they use the names of ethnic groups in marketing.
“It’s like Walt Disney saying ‘Don’t mess with Snow White,'” he said. “I hope this sets a big precedent. I hope it sends the message to other clothing retailers so they don’t go near this.”
– Indianz.com
President Barack Obama will nominate James B. Comey, a former Bush administration official, as the new director of the FBI, according to news reports.
Comey, who served as the second highest-ranking official at the Department of Justice from 2003 to 2005, became notable for refusing to reauthorize a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program. He objected when White House officials tried to secure approval from then-attorney general John Ashcroft, who was in the hospital recovering from surgery at the time.
If nominated and confirmed, Comey would replace Robert Mueller, who has served as FBI director since 2001. By law, Mueller’s term expires in September, The New York Times reported.
The FBI investigates crime in Indian Country. The agency has 100 special agents assigned to more than 200 reservations.
By Noah Haglund and Scott North,The Herald
EVERETT — The Aaron Reardon era is expected to end for Snohomish County government at 5 p.m. today.
Reardon, 42, was in the office Thursday, keeping a low profile but speaking with television reporters.
“I’m probably the most thoroughly vetted candidate in the United States of America,” he told King 5. For months Reardon has refused interview requests from The Herald.
In keeping with the county charter, Deputy County Executive Gary Haakenson said he expects to take over after midnight Friday and will serve as acting executive until a new executive is appointed and sworn in. That could happen early next week.
Reardon was 33 when he first took county office in 2004, then the youngest county executive in the nation. He was re-elected to a third and final term in 2011, despite word that he was the focus of a Washington State Patrol investigation into his use of public money in pursuit of an extramarital affair with a county worker.
Reardon emerged from the investigation claiming he’d been exonerated after Island County’s prosecutor determined there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. The probe documented Reardon’s affair and also turned up evidence that Reardon used public resources in his campaign. The state Public Disclosure Commission is investigating.
On Feb. 21, Reardon used his 10th State of the County speech to announce he was stepping down. His prepared remarks were slim on details but full of blame. Reardon claimed political enemies had peppered him for years with what he called “false and scurrilous allegations.” The cost of defending himself from the attacks, he said, had just become too high.
Reardon’s resignation announcement came the day after the County Council voted unanimously to remove his authority over the county’s public records and computer system.
That happened as the council called for an independent investigation into evidence that two people on Reardon’s staff were behind a series of anonymous public records requests, attack websites and other activities targeting people considered the executive’s political rivals.
As The Herald reported Feb. 14, those on the receiving end believed they’d been subjected to attempts at harassment, surveillance and retaliation. A number of those targeted had cooperated with the patrol’s investigation. It is against the law to harass witnesses in criminal cases.
The King County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating whether any laws were broken. Reardon’s legislative aide, Kevin Hulten, and his executive assistant, Jon Rudicil, were placed on administrative leave in March.
At least for now, Rudicil remains on the county payroll. Hulten resigned earlier this month after sexually explicit images, including homemade porn, were found on the hard drive of a county laptop computer he’d been assigned. The device, which was checked as part of the King County investigation, also contained “background check” files on County Council members, records show.
In his television interview, Reardon denied misusing any taxpayer money for campaigns or on an affair. He wasn’t asked to explain bills from his government phone showing hundreds of calls during business hours to his 2011 campaign staff and to people who contributed financially to his re-election effort.
Reardon was coy with the TV reporter about his future plans.
“I’m an elected official today, I’m a private citizen on Saturday,” he said. “I’m going to elect to keep that private.”
Reardon is a Democrat in a partisan elected office. In keeping with the law, Snohomish County Democrats on Saturday were scheduled to pick three nominees to replace him. The special caucus is open to the public, and is set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Everett Labor Temple’s Warren Rush Hall, 2812 Lombard Ave., Everett.
The party’s central committee will forward the names to the County Council, which then has 60 days to agree on a successor. The council has scheduled public interviews with the nominees for 8:30 a.m. Monday.
Whomever is picked to follow Reardon will serve unchallenged at least into November 2014, when results are certified in a special election expected next year.
An election for a full, four-year term is expected in 2015.
The likely nominees are: Sheriff John Lovick of Mill Creek; state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip; and Everett attorney Todd Nichols, a longtime Democratic Party leader at the state and county level.
Lovick is said to have locked up support from a majority of local Democrats. On Wednesday evening, he was the opening speaker at “Humanity not hatred,” gathering sponsored by the Snohomish County Human Rights Commission. Lovick told the crowd he was asked to stand in for Reardon at the event.
Published: May 30, 2013
The Bellingham Herald
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Washington Department of Transportation officials have installed a webcam at the site of the collapsed Interstate 5 bridge on the Skagit River so residents can monitor the progress on repairing it.
Nearly all the materials for a temporary bridge have arrived at the site and DOT hopes to meet Gov. Jay Inslee’s goal of spanning a collapsed section by mid-June, officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board is still finishing its site investigation, The Skagit Valley Herald reported.
A section of the bridge collapsed May 23 after a girder was struck by an oversize load on a truck. Traffic currently is detoured through Mount Vernon and Burlington
.A temporary bridge will replace the 160-foot section that fell into the water. That will reopen two lanes in each direction. A permanent replacement this fall should restore the bridge.
To get to the DOT webpage that also includes traffic cameras for the George Hopper Road exit and Highway 20, click here. The webcams should automatically reload every 2 minutes, DOT said.
