Cascadia Daily Digest 4-10-25
[Good morning! This week and next, I'm giving everyone in the Cascadia Journal email list a free taste of the "Daily Digest," a curated selection of news, politics, environmental stories, and arts & culture from across the bioregion. For $5 a month you'll receive this regional roundup in your inbox every morning. My weekly essay are always free. -AE]
Thousands protest Trump policies across Cascadia
Over the past weekend there were 128 different protests across Cascadia against the Trump administration, part of the national "Hands Off" movement demanding and end to "the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration" as well as attacks on trans people and cuts to Medicaid and Social Security. More than 20,000 showed up in Seattle, at least 10,000 demonstrated in Portland, while thousands lined streets in Spokane, Bellingham, Juneau, and Eugene. 800 protesters even turned out in Sandpoint, Idaho, not exactly a place known for its radical leftist politics.
Is WA governor Bob Ferguson a "ratfink"?
Halfway through the Oregon legislative session, lawmakers have avoided addressing a host of pressing issues, including housing permit reform, fighting wildfires, and addressing a huge shortage of public defenders (which I wrote about last year for ABA Journal). Meanwhile, in Olympia, union members flooded the state capitol yesterday as legislators debated how to eliminate Washington's $16 budget deficit. Gov. Bob Ferguson, who says proposals for new wealth tax should be a "last resort," has proposed furloughs for state workers in order to balance the books. A union official called Ferguson a "ratfink" for proposing wage cuts for state workers – and, based in conversations I've had with progressives, I think that nickname might stick.
Federal policies could hurt forests, another baby orca born
According to the Seattle Times, new federal Forest Service policies would open 60% of national forests to logging – in defiance of the 1994 Northwest Forest plan, which grew out of battles to protect northern spotted owls from extinction. In Oregon, a bill advanced in the legislature would be a gift to logging companies, setting a minimum cut of timber set each year. In British Columbia, The Tyee has an in-depth look at how clear-cuts are threatening marten habitat in northern BC. And in the Very Good News department, the endangered J Pod of southern resident orcas now added a second young whale to its pod.
Poetry online: "The Cove" by Seth Rosenbloom
Over at Poetry Northwest, Seth Rosenbloom's poem "The Cove" is a lovely meditation on coastal ecology and human pregnancy, "Listen to the wind rush into this mouth of salinity."