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Cascadia Weekly #2.17 04.25.07 Do it 3 | Letters 4-5 | Views 6-7 | CURRENTS Currents 8-16 | Get Out 18 | Words & Community 19 | On Stage 20 | Art 21 | Music 22-25 | Film 26-29 | Classifi eds 30-38 | Food 39
16
news commentary briefs
BY TIM JOHNSON
Ferndale retail
fallout?
04.18.07
WEDNESDAY
Ferndale’s city planning director resigns
to work as a planner in Blaine for
$14,772 less a year. Tom Black, who has
worked as the planning and building director
since 2000, announced his resignation
along with another planner, Cory Smith,
who will take a position elsewhere.
Former Deputy City Administrator Don
Keenan misses getting on our cover as
the seventh candidate to announce he
is running for mayor of Bellingham.
Keenan is endorsed by two former mayors—
Mark Asmundson and Ken Hertz.
Jobless fi gures for the Bellingham area
are approaching record lows, according
to a release by the Washington Dept.
of Employment Security. Bellingham’s
unemployment rate for March was 4.2
percent, almost a half-percent lower
than last March. Unemployment across
the state is the lowest it’s been in more
than 30 years.
Meanwhile, state revenue fi gures
show Whatcom retail sales were up 4.4
percent in the 4th quarter of 2006 compared
to the same time period a year
earlier. Statewide taxable retail sales
grew by 6.7 percent. Data suggests the
largest increases occurred in construction,
general merchandise, restaurant,
hotel and car purchases.
04.19.07
THURSDAY
eeTHE
THAT WAS
Bellingham School District introduces
four possible replacements for Superintendent
Dale Kinsley, who will retire at
the end of June. The four fi nalists include
superintendents Gary Cohn, Port Angeles
School District; Cynthia Sickman Simms,
Mercer Island School District; and Kenneth
Vedra, superintendent of a school
district in Colorado Springs. The fourth
is Fred Poss, deputy superintendent of
Mukilteo School District.
St. Joseph Hospital names Nancy
Steiger as the facility’s new CEO effective
July 1. Steiger currently manages
a 509-bed hospital in San Mateo, Calif.
St. Joe’s is in the midst of a 20-year expansion
that will bring the number of
beds up to almost that number. Steiger
replaces Nancy Bitting, who’s retiring
this summer.
Ferndale Police catch four people who
may be involved in a multi-state credit
card scam. Police say several Whatcom
County banks have reported being victimized.
The scammers allegedly fl y into
communities and try to get cash advances
on fraudulent credit cards, then
fl y out before they’re caught. It’s estimated
that $370,000 has been stolen in
nine western states.
04.20.07
FRIDAY
Gov. Chris Gregoire signs a bill making
the Walla Walla sweet onion the offi
cial vegetable of Washington state.
04.21.07
SATURDAY
Whatcom County celebrates Earth
Day through the weekend. In a special
noontime ceremony, the Environmental
Protection Agency recognizes the City
of Bellingham as a leading Green Power
Community at the Farmer’s Market.
Western Washington University joins
the festivities with a series of ecoevents
and music on campus.
04.22.07
SUNDAY
On a vote of 41 to 6, the Washington
Senate approves sweeping reforms, demanding
prisons do more than warehouse
inmates. In their fi nal day in Olympia
this session, the House agrees on a 64
to 33 margin. Under the proposed prison
reforms, each felon is to have a “re-entry”
plan that addresses their problems, such
as education, drug dependence or lack
of job skills. The bill also improves community
services, while enacting tougher
penalties for violating probation.
In their fi nal act this session, the Senate
agrees to a $4.3 billion capital budget
in support of local community programs,
including organizations in Whatcom
County. Under a bill championed by Sen.
Dale Brandland, the Ferndale Boys and
Girls Club will receive $1,063,000; Bellingham
Food Bank and the Brigid Collins
Family Support Center will each
get $400,000; with $500,000 directed to
Bowen Field in Sumas.
04.23.07
MONDAY
Ferndale’s city planning director is
abruptly fi red by Mayor Jerry Landcastle,
although he had already resigned
and would have fi nished his last day this
week. Tom Black, was fi red after a letter
he sent to Landcastle explaining why he
was resigning became public. “Your apparent
desire to dominate every aspect of
government and every level of management,
in reality, hampers your organization
instead of strengthening it, because
it discourages your employees from offering
you candid opinions or frank advice,”
the letter to landcastle states.
Yet another scorecard places Bellingham
on its list of top 100 places to
live, this list the ominously named Relocate-America.com
04.24.07
TUESDAY
Ferndale City Council members begin
calling for an investigation into Mayor
Jerry Landcastle’s conduct after fi ring
the planning director. “It is unfortunate
that you have never been able to
understand or accept the fact that, I
have responsibilities to the law and to
the citizens of Ferndale that at times
transcend your authority as mayor—and
I have paid a heavy price for reminding
you of that fact.” Council member
Keith Olson—whom Landcastle disparaged
last December—said he intends to
contact the Attorney General’s Offi ce.
Gas prices in Bellingham—the highest
in the state—continue to creep into
record territory.
PASSAGES
‘AGENT LIFE’
Michael Anthony Mullen, 36, died in
an Aberdeen prison on April 15, with details
of his death shrouded in mystery.
Mullen killed two registered sex offenders
in August 2005 and afterward issued
a manifesto that began:
“I am Agent Life! And I alone am responsible
for the deaths of the two level
three pedophiles in Bellingham, Washington,
and they are not the last to be
executed unless things change for the
better to protect ‘our’ children.”
Mullen was sentenced in March 2006 to
44 years in state prison for posing as an
FBI agent and shooting Victor Vazquez,
68, and Hank Eisses, 49, in their home on
Northwest Avenue.
Ironically, Mullen’s obsession actually
caused concerned law enforcement
offi cials to reduce the amount of information
they distribute about the whereabouts
of registered sex offenders.