Associated Press Seattle insurance adjuster Henry Liebman with his possibly 200-year-old, nearly 40-pound rockfish caught off Alaska.
Source: Indian Country Today Media Network
This fish tale is no lie: A Seattle fisherman plying the waters off Sitka, Alaska, snagged a record rockfish that might be as much as 200 years old.
Besides being 40 pounds it was at least a century old, and quite probably two.
Weighing in at 39.08 pounds, the shortraker broke the previous record of 38.69 pounds, which had been the biggest such fish ever caught on sportfishing gear, the Sitka Sentinel reported. To boot, it might have been as much as 200 years old, said Troy Tidingco, Sitka area manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, to the Sitka Sentinel.
“The rougheye is the oldest-aged fish at 205,” Tydingco said, adding that shortrakers don’t tend to live longer than 175 years, but that this fish was much bigger than the previous record so has a shot at being older.
“I knew it was abnormally big [but I] didn’t know it was a record until on the way back we looked in the Alaska guide book that was on the boat,” said Henry Liebman, the Seattle insurance adjuster who caught the fish, speaking to the Sitka Sentinel.
Liebman caught the long-lived animal in about 900 feet of water, the newspaper said. It was probably dead by the time he brought it to the surface, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“When a rockfish caught in 900 feet of water is brought to the surface it usually dies,” said Julie Speegle, a spokesperson for the Alaska region of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to the Los Angeles Times.
The reason, the L.A. Times said, is that the fish’s swim bladder, a gas-filled organ that helps them remain buoyant, bursts when the gas expands as they are brought toward the surface. This can kill the fish.
The fish’s exact age is being determined by studying the otolith ear bones, which are housed in a cavity just under the fish’s brain and contain formations akin to tree rings that help determine age, according to LiveScience.com.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups sued BNSF railway and coal companies in federal court today, charging that they pollute the Columbia River and other water bodies with coal dust from uncovered coal trains. This water sample from the Columbia is an example of it, they say.Motoya Nakamura/The Oreognian
Scott Learn, The Oregonian, June 5, 2013
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups sued BNSF railway and coal companies in federal court Wednesday, charging that they pollute the Columbia River and other water bodies with coal dust from uncovered coal trains.
It’s the first lawsuit filed in the Northwest’s coal export controversy. Developers are pursuing three train-fed export terminals to ship Montana and Wyoming coal to Asia, two in Washington and one in Boardman at the Port of Morrow.
The lawsuit focuses on pollution from roughly four uncovered coal train trips a day through Washington’s side of the gorge to a coal-fired power plant in Centralia and export terminals in British Columbia.
Approval of the Northwest export terminals could add about 20 train trips a day and increase water pollution, the environmental groups charge. They want a federal judge to require Clean Water Act permits for the uncovered, mile-plus trains.
In statements, BNSF, union backers and the trade group representing coal companies and others pursuing Northwest coal export called the lawsuit frivolous and said it threatened to delay the export projects and jeopardize the jobs that go with them.
The lawsuit is “nothing more than a publicity stunt meant to stop the permitting of multi-commodity export terminals,” the company said.
The Sierra Club had a laboratory test debris in several places including alongside the tracks and the Columbia River, and the lab found it was coal, the suit says.
BNSF has estimated about 500 pounds of coal blowing off a single open car, the environmental groups note. But terminal and rail officials say most of the dust is lost near the mines, and the railroads are taking steps to limit dust, which can undermine track ballast and derail trains.
BNSF officials say the company has clamped down on coal dust from the trains in recent years, spraying sticky surfactants to keep dust down and having mines load coal in a “bread loaf” shape that reduces coal dust losses.
With U.S. demand flagging, coal terminal developers want to ramp up exports, carting in Montana and Wyoming coal on mile-plus, uncovered coal trains. The terminals could bring hundreds of millions in investment and hundreds of jobs, they say.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.
COAL CARS SPEW DUST AS THEY RUMBLE DOWN THE TRACKS 500 pounds to a ton of coal can escape from a single car.
Everybody knows that coal trains are bad for our health, our economy, and our planet. So how do we stop them?
Cienna Madrid, Seattle Stranger
You might have heard the talk: Coal interests are pushing to make the Pacific Northwest a 24-hour conveyor belt linking coal mines in Montana and Wyoming with Asian markets clamoring for cheap, dirty power. The most urgent fight is currently taking place just north of Bellingham at Cherry Point, the site of a proposed coal-export terminal that would be the largest in North America.
Why should someone in Seattle care about a coal terminal 100 miles north of the city? Because coal combustion is the leading human-caused increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, which is largely responsible for global warming. Because shipping dirty coal to China while piously shutting down the last coal-fired power plant in Washington State (as the state is doing) would simultaneously mock and cheapen our forward-thinking, tree-humping pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent by 2050. And because there is not just one but five coal terminals—five!—currently proposed in the Northwest, each of which could bring 1.5-mile-long coal trains rumbling through our region daily, blocking traffic, interfering with other business at Seattle’s port, and leaving clouds of coal dust in their wake.
State and federal agencies are currently wrapping up a three-month public comment period to determine which environmental, economic, and health impacts should be studied before issuing or denying the Cherry Point terminal’s permits. Thousands of Washington residents have flocked to seven scheduled public meetings held around the state to oppose the proposal, 10,000 have submitted comments to the state Department of Ecology, 25,000 have submitted comments to the Army Corps of Engineers, and more than 40,000 people have signed a petition that’s been sent to the state’s land commissioner.
And yet, a lot of people still don’t know about the issue, don’t understand it, or don’t have an opinion. Not having an opinion on coal is like not having an opinion on climate change. And this isn’t just an environmental issue. It’s an economic issue. It’s a health issue. It’s an issue of priorities. Here’s all you need to know before the public comment period ends on January 21.
The Largest Coal-Export Terminal on the Continent
In February 2011, international shipping- terminal firm SSA Marine applied for permits to build a $500 million coal-export terminal outside Bellingham at Cherry Point, right next to a state-protected aquatic reserve and smack on top of a Native American burial ground (more on that later). The proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal would occupy nearly 1,500 acres of land, about 100 acres of which would be converted into a large open-air coal stockyard with stunning panoramic views of the Strait of Georgia and its closest neighbor, the state aquatic reserve, home to more than 300 blue heron nests and a metric fuckton of fish.
Roughly five million tons of coal is currently transported through Washington State each year to Canadian ports. This translates to about six coal trains per day (three full, three empty). The Gateway Pacific Terminal would dwarf that, shipping out 48 million tons of coal annually, circuitously hauled from sprawling strip mines in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Montana and Wyoming. Calls to the company behind the Gateway Pacific Terminal were not returned, but the facts of its proposal are well known. Each day, 18 trains (nine full, nine empty), stretching 1.5 miles long each, would complete the journey to the Washington Coast, trundling at average speeds of 35 miles per hour through Spokane and the Columbia River Gorge, and up the coast through Longview, Tacoma, Seattle, Edmonds, Everett, Mount Vernon, and Bellingham, and back. Each train would delay traffic at railway crossings five minutes on average. (Gateway Pacific Terminal estimates delays at four minutes, while other groups have estimated seven minutes.) According to a city-commissioned traffic impact study, traffic along Seattle’s waterfront could be cumulatively delayed between one and three hours each day, significantly impacting commuter traffic, emergency vehicle response times, and freight operations at the Port of Seattle.
“It would create a wall along our waterfront,” said Mayor Mike McGinn. “The data suggests there will be more frustrations, with more bikers, drivers, and pedestrians ‘shooting the gap’ to get across—which means the potential for more accidents.”
Toxic Dust, Derailments, and Spontaneous Combustion
Coal cars are typically uncovered, constantly spewing dust as they rumble down the tracks. As BNSF Railway acknowledged in a startlingly frank 2011 coal dust fact sheet, “The amount of coal dust that escapes from PRB coal trains is surprisingly large… from 500 lbs to a ton of coal can escape from a single loaded coal car.” According to BNSF, as much as 3 percent of the coal loaded into a coal car can be lost in transit: “In many areas, a thick layer of black coal dust can be observed along the railroad right of way and in between the tracks.” Aside from the health risks of inhaling coal dust, the railway explains that accumulated coal dust on tracks may cause derailments. At least 22 coal trains jumped the tracks in the United States in 2012.
Coal proponents argue that the dust can be mitigated by installing new, better coal chutes and applying “topper agents” to the coal cars. But there’s another risk when shipping PRB coal: It’s notoriously spontaneously combustible.
“Operators familiar with the unique requirements of burning PRB coal will tell you that it’s not a case of ‘if’ you will have a PRB coal fire, it’s ‘when,'” notes a 2003 article published by the coal industry group Utility FPE Group Inc. The article continues, “Although prevention is cheaper than repairing fire and explosion damage, its costs always seem difficult to justify.”
“Spontaneous combustion of coal is a well-known phenomenon, especially with PRB coal,” states an industry research paper called “PRB Coal Degradation—Causes and Cures.” “This high-moisture, highly volatile sub-bituminous coal will not only smolder and catch fire while in storage piles at power plants and coal terminals, but has been known to be delivered to a power plant with the rail car or barge partially on fire.”
It’s probably inaccurate to picture mile-long flaming coal train cars inching across the state, says the Northwest environmental research organization Sightline Institute: “The threat is likely to be more insidious—slowly smoldering coal that is perhaps emitting noxious gases into neighboring communities. Yet the severity and toxicity of these gases are largely unknown.”
Some of the worst health effects would be felt in the communities surrounding Cherry Point. The terminal’s port would be large enough to berth three cargo ships at once. Coal would be conveyed from the 100-acre coal stockyard along a 1,250-foot trestle linking ships to shore. Heavy machinery would troll the coal piles, continuously rotating them to discourage combustion, kicking up even more coal dust with each turn.
Pneumoconiosis, Bronchitis, Emphysema, and Lymphoma
Common sense and science tell us that working with coal will shorten your life span. The US Department of Labor links coal dust to pneumoconiosis, regular bronchitis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, “rapidly developing lung damage,” and premature death in exposed workers. It’s also been known to cause lymphoma and adrenal tumors in test animals.
But alarmingly, very little research has been done on the nonoccupational environmental health effects of coal dust on people. Here’s what we do know: Coal dust contains concentrations of heavy metals including arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium. Furthermore, rainwater runoff from coal stockpiles can leach into the soil and contaminate groundwater that people and animals drink.
“We’re concerned about increased air pollution and the effects it can have on patients,” testified Dr. Melissa Weakland at a public hearing on the Gateway Pacific Terminal held in Seattle’s convention center on December 13. Speaking on behalf of the Washington Academy of Family Physicians, Dr. Weakland also echoed concerns about delays in emergency response time, heavy metal poisoning, pulmonary problems, and cancer. “Many health specifics in this proposal are left unanswered,” Dr. Weakland said.
Growing Public Opposition
The Seattle public hearing was the last of seven held around the state. The meetings were crowded, tense, and predominantly packed with protesters—including heavy hitters like Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, a handful of Tacoma and Seattle city council members, King County executive Dow Constantine, and state representatives Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34) and Reuven Carlyle (D-36). But the most moving testimony came from a 12-year-old.
“I appreciate the natural wonders of this state,” testified Rachel Howell of Queen Anne to a packed convention center ballroom. “I like salmon. I like oysters. Global warming is threatening salmon and oysters. I like to ski at Snoqualmie Pass. In my lifetime, I will not be able to ski at Snoqualmie Pass because of global warming. This is the future you’re creating for us, and this is not the future we want. It’s pretty simple, even I understand: If you make coal more available, more people will use it.”
We can’t fight global warming by exporting our carbon: It’s an issue that’s simple enough for a 12-year-old to understand. The rest of us? That remains to be seen.
Lobbying in support of the coal terminal is the Alliance for Northwest Jobs & Exports, a pro-coal group formed last July to counter all of the bad press about heron habitat, heart disease, and spontaneous combustion. The Alliance is composed of 54 organizations representing almost 400,000 employees in Washington, Oregon, and “around the country,” according to spokeswoman Lauri Hennessey. The group has downplayed health and statewide environmental concerns.
“It’s impossible to consider the cumulative impact of coal trains; it’s purely speculative,” said labor union representative and Alliance member Herb Krohn at the December 13 public meeting. “Coal is a naturally occurring mineral, the coal dust discharged is minimal, and this argument that it impacts health is specious at best.”
Hennessey would not address specific environmental or health risks raised by citizens directly, saying only: “If people have concerns, they should write those concerns in.” If the government’s environmental impact study sees fit to address those concerns, “we’ll do whatever mitigation is necessary,” she adds.
Meanwhile, the group is purported to have spent $1 million in television ads in the Northwest to transform coal trains into huggable, huffing economic engines (Hennessey would neither confirm nor deny the amount spent, only calling it “sizable”). They claim the terminal will bring in $25 million in new tax revenue once built, as well as 4,400 new jobs, most of which would be two-year construction jobs. Gateway Pacific Terminal has promised the project would create 294 to 430 permanent local jobs.
But critics say that the job numbers don’t take into account the many careers the Cherry Point coal terminal would destroy.
“Anyone who claims that this massive coal project is about jobs had better learn to subtract,” testified Pete Knutson, a 40-year career fisherman, owner of the Loki Fish Company based out of Ballard, and a commissioner on the Puget Sound Salmon Commission (WSDA). “We have 15,000 fishery jobs in Puget Sound; now our marine livelihoods are at stake. A job is not necessarily a livelihood. We’re weighing jobs based on the one-time exploitation of a fossil fuel versus livelihoods based on a sustainable resource. We have a moral obligation to reject this proposal.”
Cargo operations at the Port of Seattle would also be threatened, both from the increased traffic through Sodo and from competition for scarce rail capacity. Washington’s freight rail system is already pushing its limits—18 additional coal trains a day would drive up prices for other shippers.
Opposition to the terminals is mounting: More than three dozen cities, counties, and ports, close to 600 health professionals, 220 faith leaders, and more than 450 local businesses have either voiced concern or come out against coal export off the West Coast. Many tribal governments, including the Lummi Nation, have also organized to oppose coal export after terminal contractors were issued a cease-and-desist order in June 2011 for bulldozing sacred Lummi burial grounds without permits.
“Cherry Point is flagged as a cemetery. That’s not oral history, that’s fact,” Lummi Nation spokesman Jay Julius says. “That is our Jerusalem. That is our holy ground.”
Three dozen municipalities, including the Seattle City Council, have passed symbolic resolutions in outright opposition to the proposals or at the very least demanding that state and federal agencies execute a full, comprehensive environmental impact study (EIS) on the cumulative impacts of coal trains and exports.
“I’m here speaking on behalf of dozens and dozens of state officials who’ve all called for a comprehensive, cumulative impact analysis to this proposal,” testified Representative Carlyle at the December 13 Seattle hearing. “That means a thorough, data driven analysis of the economic externalities of this proposal—the transportation, the health, the safety impacts that our communities will face. We’re asking you to acknowledge that most communities don’t have the resources to do their own economic analysis. It’s critical that this EIS be thorough, be data driven, and recognize the profound implications on our quality of life.”
What You Can Do to Stop the Coal Trains
Interstate commerce laws prevent local authorities from outright blocking coal trains from passing through their jurisdictions, so the only way to stop the trains is to stop the terminals. But the path to blocking the Gateway Pacific Terminal and other terminal proposals in Longview, Washington, and Boardman, St. Helens, and Coos Bay, Oregon, is murky. Each terminal is being pushed by separate coal interests and each faces its own timeline and permitting process for approval. Opponents fear that if one proposal goes through, the amount of coal they plan on shipping will increase exponentially to meet market demands.
“The coal industry has already lied about the amount of coal they were planning on shipping out of Longview,” says Krista Collard, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club. “When that was discovered, they had to pull permit applications and refile.” A spokesperson for Millennium Bulk Terminals, the organization behind the Longview proposal, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
In order to proceed with the coal terminals, companies must first secure development permits from local county councils, aquatic lease permits from public lands commissioner Peter Goldmark, and approval for the projects from the state Department of Ecology and federal Army Corps of Engineers. The biggest challenge, opponents say, is to orchestrate killing all five of the proposals at once—not just the terminal at Cherry Point.
“It’s not about one entity, it’s about the big picture,” explains Kimberly Larson, a spokeswoman for Climate Solutions, which is working with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups to organize Northwest opposition efforts in both Oregon and Washington. “They’re all in play at the same time, and that’s why it’s important to show the collective resistance across the region. If one goes through, it will affect all of us.” For instance, coal trains headed to Oregon would still trundle through Spokane and the Columbia River Gorge, impacting communities along the way and clogging Washington’s freight rail system. You can help Climate Solutions and the Sierra Club by writing letters opposing the terminals to Commissioner Goldmark (cpl@dnr.wa.gov), the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington State Department of Ecology (eisgatewaypacificwa.gov/get-involved/comment), as well as to your state, county, and city representatives.
Protesters already helped kill one coal terminal last summer, slated for Grays Harbor. “After hearing from the community, the terminal said that they wanted to ship friendlier, healthier items than coal out there,” Collard explains.
That’s the sort of victory coal train opponents hope to achieve throughout the Northwest. “We share a vision for a better future,” testified King County executive Dow Constantine at Seattle’s public hearing on the Cherry Point terminal. “Our vision doesn’t include 18 trains a day pulling those coal cars through the heart of Washington. This isn’t just a regional issue; it’s a global issue and a generational issue. In Washington, we have done away with coal-fired plants, but shipping overseas will overwhelm the gains we’ve made here at home.”
American Indians in the state of Washington are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system according to Chris Stearns, which has made it difficult to find a job upon release – not anymore. On June 10, the Seattle City Council unanimously (9-0) passed a new law that will allow people with criminal records to have a fair shot at getting jobs.
Stearns, chairman of the Seattle Human Rights Commission praised the passage that will prevent employers in Seattle from simply rejecting them outright or denying them work solely on the basis of a conviction (not an arrest) unless the employer believes there is a direct connection between the crime and the work sought.
“We are grateful to Council Member Bruce Harrell who took a chance on this bill way back when it was not popular at all but who saw the need for justice nonetheless. We are grateful to the women of Sojourner Place who came to the Commission over three years ago asking for help in changing the laws so they could be reunited with their children and start off a new life with dignity and hope. And that is what this new law is all about. It’s about hope, dignity, and redemption,” Stearns said.
“The legislation is important in making our local economy work for everyone, removing barriers to accessing jobs and creating a pathway for re-entry and success,” Harrell said in a Seattle Council release following the passage.
With the bill’s passage comes the banning of any ads by employers stating that people with criminal records need not apply.
“This bill helps create the opportunity for a real second chance by giving people with criminal records an opportunity to get their foot in the door, to meet a potential employer and to make their case for why they should get the job. It creates this opportunity while still allowing employers to use criminal history in hiring decisions,” Councilmember Mike O’Brien said in the Council release.
“The Commission believes that this bill is especially important for Native Americans because they are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system,” Sterns (Navajo) said. “For instance, Native Americans comprise only 1.5 percent of the total state population, yet they account for 4.3 percent of those in Washington prisons. While African Americans make up only 3.6 percent of Washington’s population, they account for nearly 19 percent of the state’s prison population. In Washington State 80 percent – 90 percent of all felony defendants are in extreme poverty at the time of charging. Native Americans have the highest rates of poverty nationwide (27 percent) and in Seattle (33 percent).”
The statistics are staggering and are not just connected to Seattle. According to a 2011 article at Crosscut.com, “an arrested Native American had a 4.1 times greater chance of getting prison time than a similar white arrestee. That chance was 7.2 times as much in King County (Seattle). Other ratios were 4.7 in Pierce County (Tacoma), 3.6 in Thurston County, 3.5 in Kitsap County, 2.7 in Snohomish County and 27.3 in Chelan County.”
“The new law gives all people looking for work, including those who have made mistakes, the chance to be considered on the basis of their strengths not their weaknesses. We are so proud of this law and what it says about Seattle’s heart,” Stearns said.
SEATTLE — Heroin use and related deaths have increased significantly across Washington over the past decade, especially among people younger than 30, according to a new study released Wednesday.
Young people are finding it cheaper and easier to get heroin than prescription opiates these days. Both kinds of drugs offer a similar high, and a similar addiction danger, said Caleb Banta-Green, author of the report and a researcher at the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute.
The data from Washington mirrors a national trend, but the most up-to-date national research is a few years behind Washington, according to Tom McLellan, CEO of the nonprofit Treatment Research Institute and President Barack Obama’s former deputy drug czar.
A National Institutes of Health study cites national numbers from 2009 that show a national rise in opiate addiction and overdoses. The authors of that study, which was published in February 2013 in the Public Library of Science journal, predicted heroin use would likely increase as a result.
“The state of Washington has by far the best and the most comprehensive and the most up-to-date statistics, way better than the national government,” McLellan said.
Banta-Green found the largest increases in heroin use and abuse in Washington state were outside of metropolitan areas, where drug treatment and awareness are lowest.
Overdose deaths from heroin or related prescription drugs more than doubled in Cowlitz, Snohomish, Grays Harbor, Chelan, Lewis, Mason, Thurston, Benton and Kitsap counties between 2000 and 2011.
“It’s a big change,” Banta-Green said, adding, however, that he’s not surprised by the data.
He attributed part of the increase to new state rules that make it harder to get pharmaceutical opiates because of better prescription tracking.
Washington is ahead of the nation in that trend, Banta-Green said. He expects other states also may see an increase in heroin use after they tighten their prescription rules.
“This is a state manifestation of the broader national picture,” McLellan agreed.
Since 1997, doctors and pharmacists have done a better job nationally of treating pain, but the unfortunate side effect of that medical improvement was the more prescription pain medication was getting in the wrong hands because of theft or resale, he explained.
The diversion of drugs has led to an increase in overdoses, especially among young people, and has also led to more interest in heroin, McLellan said.
Washington is also setting an example for the nation with new pharmacy rules that allow pharmacists to distribute overdose response kits, including a medical antidote to heroin, naloxone, without a prescription from a doctor. So far, only one pharmacy in Washington is participating in the program, but Banta-Green expects that will change.
“What we are seeing and the pharmacy work is leading the country, for good and bad,” he said.
Banta-Green used three sources of data for his study: police drug evidence testing, treatment statistics and county death certificates. Here’s what he found:
— The number of pieces of police evidence that tested positive for heroin totaled 842 in 2007 and increased statewide to 2,251 in 2012.
— Drug treatment admissions for heroin increased statewide from 2,647 in 2002 to 7,500 in 2012. The majority of 18- to-29-year-olds seeking drug treatment for the first time in 2012 were being treated for heroin use.
— The number of accidental deaths statewide involving heroin and prescribed opiates doubled from an average of 310 a year between 2000 and 2002 and 607 a year from 2009 to 2011. In King County, almost three-quarters of drug-caused deaths involved heroin or a prescription opiate between 1997 and 2012.
Banta-Green believes the pharmacy program and a relatively new 911 overdose Good Samaritan law, along with increased awareness, could turn at least the overdose statistics around.
Washington passed the Samaritan law three years ago to encourage people to seek professional help when someone is overdosing. The law gives the person calling for medical help immunity from prosecution for drug possession charges.
Undergraduate students at the UW will be required to complete a class in some area of social, political or economic diversity before they can graduate.
By Lornet Turnbull, The Seattle Times
Saying it has an obligation to prepare students for a more global society, the University of Washington will require undergrads to complete a course in some area of diversity — economic, cultural or political — before they can graduate.
The new policy, initiated by a group of mostly minority students, followed three failed attempts over the past 22 years to introduce changes meant to ensure that all graduating students know a little more about other cultures and people who differ from them than they did when they first arrived.
The three-credit course won’t add to the number of hours students now need to obtain a bachelor’s degree. And it won’t apply to current undergrads, only to the incoming class in the year the policy takes effect — possibly next fall.
Helen Fillmore, a graduating senior majoring in environmental science and resource management, is a member of First Nations @ UW and of the UW Students for Diversity Coalition, which began pushing for these changes nearly three years ago.
“Students come from different places with different backgrounds and … arrive at the university where we’d become part of this huge melting pot,” she said. But the differences that students bring with them aren’t always positively recognized.
“Here we are in a place where we have a lot of ability to grow, not just while we’re here but after we graduate and enter the workforce. We’re so much more connected than ever before … yet there’s still so much bickering.”
The new requirement is tailored around a broad definition of diversity, covering areas such as sexual orientation, disability, class, race, age, gender, religion and politics.
To satisfy it, students on the UW’s Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma campuses would be able to choose from among 400 and 500 courses that are already part of the curricula, such as Peasants in Politics, Class and Culture in East Asia, Gender and Spirituality and World Music. Two-thirds of UW students already take classes that satisfy the diversity requirement.
The three credits would count toward the general-education requirement students already must meet to graduate.
Fine-tuning proposal
To be sure, the UW isn’t blazing any new trail here, and in fact may be behind the curve with this requirement, which has been approved by President Michael Young.
A majority of four-year institutions across the country, including Washington State University, already have a diversity requirement for graduation.
At least three other times in the 1990s, UW student groups tried, but failed, to get a similar policy implemented. Fillmore said at first she worried this effort would fail as well.
Some faculty members thought the definition of diversity in the proposal was not broad enough, excluding areas such as politics and economics, and some raised concerns that it put too much emphasis on concepts such as power and privilege.
Fillmore said initial questions also suggested some faculty members felt the minority students were angry about something or that their effort amounted to a political statement of some kind.
Over two years, faculty members in various committees worked with the students to fine-tune the proposal and expand the definition of diversity. The requirement also was changed from five credits to three.
James Gregory, chairman of the Faculty Senate, which must approve all such changes, said “there was a lot of wordsmithing and adjusting the resolution at various stages.”
“There were changes in executive committee, more changes on the floor of the Senate,” said Gregory, a history professor. “A lot of the things that bothered certain faculty members were worked out.”
In retrospect, Fillmore believes it helped, too, that students met repeatedly with faculty members to make sure they understood the significance of what the students wanted to accomplish, even before the proposal was brought up for a vote.
“In the last part of last year and first part of this year I spent more time in meetings with faculty than I spent with my friends,” Fillmore said.
The Faculty Senate approved the measure in April.
Now, the dean of each school and college within the UW must approve a list of courses to satisfy the diversity requirement for their students.
Some opposition
Comments on a UW student newspaper article about the new policy reflected some opposition, including from one person who noted the UW is not a liberal-arts school and referred to the requirement as another hoop students with coursework-heavy majors would have to jump through.
Gregory, though, characterized the final policy as “a very modest curriculum requirement.”
“It doesn’t complicate the curriculum,” he said. “We were careful not to do that.”
Universities, Gregory said, are preparing young people for adulthood and for jobs that in many cases will involve visits to countries around the world and interactions with people of different cultures abroad as well as at home. UW students “have a chance to explore that in a classroom environment,” Gregory said.
“The fact that so many students are already taking courses that deal with some aspect of diversity shows a recognition among students that this is valuable.”
Richard Walker, Indian Country Today Media Network
SEATTLE – For months, murals depicting Chief Joseph, Chief Seattle, and Natives in regalia and on horseback have been threatened with demolition—but a grassroots effort to save them may yet prove successful.
Supporters say the murals on the outside walls of the Seattle School District’s Wilson-Pacific Building are more than art. They are symbolic of the indigenous presence in the Pacific Northwest’s largest city.
Artist Andrew Morrison, Haida/Apache, painted the murals to honor the area’s Native peoples and historical leaders, such as Chief Si’ahl, the Duwamish-Suquamish leader for whom the City of Seattle is named.
Since 1974, Wilson-Pacific has been the home of American Indian Heritage School, now called American Indian Heritage Middle College High School. The school is located in Seattle’s Licton Springs neighborhood, which takes its name from the Lushootseed word “Liq’tid” (LEEK-teed), for the reddish mud of the springs that are still visible today.
So when the school was threatened with demolition to make way for construction of a new elementary and middle school—and Indian Heritage School students moved to a classroom at a nearby mall—the indigenous community rallied.
As of this writing, it appears their voices are being heard. Construction of a new elementary and middle school will still happen, but there’s a chance the walls containing the murals will be incorporated into the new school buildings. The project architect, Mahlum, has a reputation for engaging communities in the design process and incorporating into the final design those things that are important to the community. Mahlum’s previous Native-community projects include the Puyallup Tribe’s Chief Leschi School.
“The district wants to honor this work and has reached out to have ongoing discussions with the artist on how to preserve the murals,” Seattle School District project manager Eric Becker told ICTMN through the district’s public information office. “It is the district’s intent to honor the murals. Art historians have suggested several ways that this might happen. We will continue to work with the artist, design team and community to determine which option will be selected.”
Regarding how the campus’s role in Native education and racial integration might be represented in the new school buildings (as Wilson-Pacific School, it was one of the first integrated schools in Seattle), Becker said, “The School Design Advisory Team, comprised of district staff, the architect and community members, will meet to discuss all aspects of the new [elementary and middle school].”
Superintendent Jose Banda wrote in a May 10 letter to Indian Heritage School families, “a design team will be formed to look at future uses and design of the campus.” In addition, he invited applicants for a new Native American Advisory Committee to advise the district on implementing Native American education in local schools.
Tracy Rector, a filmmaker and mayor-appointed member of the Seattle Arts Commission, participated in the rallies to save Indian Heritage School and the murals.
“Andrew has rallied and inspired people to come around and support this sacred historical space for Native American families,” said Rector, Seminole/Choctaw. “It’s been powerful. It sounded like the school district was bent on tearing [the school and murals] down. This has changed the game quite a bit.”
Morrison, his brother and sister attended American Indian Heritage School, one of five local schools in which students receive more individualized attention and can take community college courses. In addition, Indian Heritage School offers culturally-based classes, and hosts an annual pow-wow, Native Youth Conference, and Native basketball tournaments. Morrison remembers the school being “the nucleus of the community.”
According to Morrison, “By 1992, the success of Indian Heritage [School] could not be denied. Not only did Indian Heritage graduate every student, but graduates also enrolled in post-secondary or vocational school.” When the school celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1994, it was noted that every student that graduated from Indian Heritage School in the two previous years enrolled in college.
In 2001, after his freshman year of college, Morrison volunteered at the school and painted the first of his 25-foot murals, often enlisting the help of students and community members.
The controversy began last year, after the district proposed a tax levy to replace the 60-year-old Wilson-Pacific buildings with a new middle school and elementary school. The Urban Native Education Alliance and the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation called for the district to renovate Wilson-Pacific, rather than demolish it, in so doing ensuring the Indian Heritage School would continue and the murals would be preserved.
The tax levy was approved by voters. The school district made plans to move Indian Heritage School students to the middle college program at Northgate Mall for the 2013-14 school year, and proposed making digital images of the murals so they could be replicated later. Morrison wouldn’t consent to the replication of his work. On March 6, the school board approved the contract for construction of a new school and recommended only a Native American honoring of Wilson-Pacific prior to its demolition.
On May 15, an Idle No More rally was held at school district offices. At the school board meeting that followed, Urban Native Education Alliance chairwoman Sarah Sense-Wilson, Oglala Lakota, said the district has withdrawn resources and removed Native instructors from Indian Heritage School over the years, “rendering the program a shell of what was once a vibrant, successful, visible program.”
Sense-Wilson said merging Indian Heritage School with the middle college program at the mall would be an act of institutional racism and classism, “assimilating Native learners and further distancing them from their cultural identity, heritage and connection with the Native community, and ultimately a poignant loss of a distinct, unique Native-focused program, which at one time bridged culture, tradition, history, Native perspective and connection with the community.”
She asked that Indian Heritage School be moved to another campus. “We do know there is space at various schools,” she said.
Dr. Carol Simmons, a retired Seattle educator, alluded that destroying a Native school program and Native art on a historically indigenous site would be a continuation of the “historical devastation and destruction of Native culture and the mistreatment of Native students in our schools.”
She said, “These murals must be preserved with dignity and not disrespectfully digitized. This important school must be treasured and not demeaned by placing it in a shopping mall.”
Other speakers included former state Sen. Claudia Kauffman, Nez Perce, who also asked that a permanent home be found for Indian Heritage School. “This is more than just an educational institution. It’s [a place] for the community in which we gather together.”
Banda said he met the day before with concerned residents about Indian Heritage School. He said he will continue to meet with Native American families and a new coalition “to discuss the next steps” regarding the school. “We truly value our relationship with our Native American families and we look forward to working with our families and community members to more effectively support our Native students,” he said.
He referred to the murals as “artifacts” and said the district will work “to ensure we protect those artifacts.”
On May 22, Morrison and Banda had a conversation and made amends; their relationship had been strained by months of protests and press coverage. Morrison is creating a portrait of the late Bob Eaglestaff, principal of Indian Heritage school in the 1980s and ’90s, as a gift to the school district. He’s also offered to paint, at his own expense, mural portraits of Geronimo and Sitting Bull at the current Indian Heritage School campus.
“Chief Seattle, Chief Joseph, Chief Geronimo and Chief Sitting Bull will complete our four directions and this will solidify a commitment between the Seattle Public Schools, the Native American community, my family, and me,” Morrison said.
Artist Andrew Morrison talks to Native Youth Conference participants about the murals he painted at American Indian Heritage Middle College High School. The conference was April 16-18 at the school. The walls with the murals may be incorporated into the new school that is proposed to be built at the site. Photos courtesy Andrew Morrison.
Courtesy Andrew Morrison.
Courtesy Andrew Morrison.
Courtesy Andrew Morrison.
An Idle No More rally was held May 15 at the Seattle School District offices. Photo by Andrew Morrison.
Photo by Andrew Morrison
Students hold signs calling for the Seattle School Board to move American Indian Heritage Middle College High School to another campus. Photo by Andrew Morrison.
Science EXPO Day is a festive, one-day event featuring over 150 booths, activities, demonstrations, and performances that celebrate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and show how integral they are to the region’s culture and prosperity. In addition to Science EXPO Day, Seattle Center will host the Seattle Mini Maker Faire and the Pagdiriwang Philippine Cultural Festival.
Program Highlights
Science EXPO Day is filled with fun and educational programs, including over 150 engaging exhibits, an introduction to Geocaching, the 2013 Laser Roadshow, “an Amazing Glimpse into Lasers, Optics, and Photonics!” and a full day of Stage Programming.
Exhibit Highlights Organizations from across the region will be on-site to demonstrate how the STEM fields contribute to their work. Don’t miss the amazing exhibits and activities, including a submarine, near space satellites, underwater robots, real-time 3D modeling withMicrosoft Kinect and a bilingual inflatable colon.
Now comes our season of daylight low tides, and the pleasure of beach walks. Volunteer naturalists with the Seattle Aquarium have kicked off a season of naturalist-led walks on beaches all over Puget Sound, beginning over Memorial Day weekend.
Alan Berner / The Seattle Times A -3.3 low tide draws beach explorers to Constellation Park in West Seattle on Saturday for one of the lowest of the year.
As spring waxes to summer, our season of daylight low tides is under way, revealing wonders of Puget Sound right at our feet.
Volunteer naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium over the Memorial Day weekend kicked off a series of low-tide beach walks offered all over the Puget Sound area. The walks will continue through July, and some of the best low tides are yet to come.
On Sunday, the Sound waters slid down the clean, gray sand at the aquatic reserve at the Constellation Park Marine Reserve at Alki. Clams jetted their silvery squirts, and jet-black crows strutted the tide flats, probing for tasty morsels. The pearly light and hush-shush of the tide made this stretch of beach feel far away from the bustle of Alki’s commercial strip, just around the point.
The signature scent of low tide — tangy saltwater and algae — and a cooling breeze off the water beckoned visitors to come under the spell of another world: the intertidal zone, usually out of our reach, but right there to explore during a -3.6 low tide.
Sea stars clung fiercely to the rocks, their soda-pop purple color contrasting with the bright-red shells of rock crabs. Their diminutive size belies pincer power 10 times the might of Dungeness crabs.
The smooth, curved gray collars of moon snail shell egg casings lay amid jade-green eel grass and heaps of nubby, bronze algae aptly named Turkish towel for its pot-scrubber texture.
Everywhere was the sound of children’s laughter as they peeked under rocks and into tide pools. Oliver Straley’s eyes got big as Craig “Mac” MacGowan, a retired Seattle teacher, put a nudibranch in Straley’s wetted palm.
He gently touched the shell-less mollusk with a wetted finger, then carefully replaced it on the clean, gray sand. “It was sort of slimy,” said Straley, 9. “Gooey and soft. It was cool!”
His sister Georgia, 10, was just as enthralled. “We saw sun stars and clam shells and moon snails,” she said. “I like finding different stuff that I wouldn’t normally see.”
That went for the adults, too.
“This place is so rich in life,” MacGowan said. “And we didn’t even touch a fraction of it. This is a rocky beach. But there’s also sand, mud, all of it’s different. There are more different types of animals on these beaches than there are people in Seattle. No matter where you go, it’s all good, you just have to get out and look at it.”
Volunteer naturalist Rebecca Gamboa said she has been leading walks on Seattle beaches for years, partly just to make sure she gets outside herself.
“We’ve had people come on walks say they’ve lived here 25 years and didn’t even know this existed,” Gamboa said. “I’ve met third- and fourth-graders who say it’s their first time at the beach.
“It’s a huge opportunity to see a whole new world.”
Low-tide walks with naturalists
Free beach walks occur during low tides throughout June and July at Richmond Beach Park, Carkeek Park, Golden Gardens Park, Constellation Park/South Alki, Lincoln Park, Seahurst Park and Des Moines Beach Park, and even Blake Island.
Look for trained, volunteer beach naturalists courtesy of the Seattle Aquarium in red hats at the beaches.
This is a Call to Action for a Non-Hierarchical Occupation of Monsanto Everywhere
Source: Occupy-monsanto.com
5/25, 2 p.m. EST, Everywhere.
Seattle info: It’s time to take back our food. It’s time to March Against Monsanto! Schedule:
– 11:00 am Rally at Westlake Park
– 12:30 pm March to Gates Foundation
– 1:15 pm Rally at Gates Foundation
– 1:45 pm Continue March to Seattle Center
– 2:00 pm Disperse at Seattle Center & Folklife
Whether you like it or not, chances are Monsanto contaminated the food you ate today with chemicals and unlabeled GMOs. Monsanto controls much of the world’s food supply at the expense of food democracy worldwide. This site is dedicated to empowering citizens of the world to take action against Monsanto & it’s enablers like the FDA, USDA, EPA, GMA, BIO, and the processed food companies that use Monsanto’s products.
We urge you to help organize and attend the closest March Against Monsanto taking place on Saturday, May 25, 2013!
Why do we march?
Research studies have shown that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.
In the United States, the FDA, the agency tasked with ensuring food safety for the population, is steered by ex-Monsanto executives, and we feel that’s a questionable conflict of interests and explains the lack of government-lead research on the long-term effects of GMO products.
Recently, the U.S. Congress and president collectively passed the nicknamed “Monsanto Protection Act” that, among other things, bans courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds.
For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup.
Monsanto’s GMO seeds are harmful to the environment; for example, scientists have indicated they have caused colony collapse among the world’s bee population.
What are solutions we advocate?
Voting with your dollar by buying organic and boycotting Monsanto-owned companies that use GMOs in their products.
Labeling of GMOs so that consumers can make those informed decisions easier.
Repealing relevant provisions of the US’s “Monsanto Protection Act.”
Calling for further scientific research on the health effects of GMOs.
Holding Monsanto executives and Monsanto-supporting politicians accountable through direct communication, grassroots journalism, social media, etc.
Continuing to inform the public about Monsanto’s secrets.
Taking to the streets to show the world and Monsanto that we won’t take these injustices quietly.
We will not stand for cronyism. We will not stand for poison.
That’s why we March Against Monsanto.
