Cascadia today: How Cascadia can limit ICE + abandoned ships + 8 great books by BC authors

Opponents look to limit ICE in Cascadia

As nine protesters arrested on federal felony charges related to protests against ICE in Spokane pleaded innocent yesterday, activists are ramping up options to limit the federal government's campaign to kidnap and terrorize immigrants in Cascadia. Demonstrators interrupted a Portland city council meeting demanding that the use permit for an ICE facility in Portland be revoked.

Meanwhile, according to Washington State Standard, activists are calling for King County to be more transparent about how many flights immigration authorities are using for deportation out of Boeing Field in south Seattle. Immigration advocated claim these flights have soared in number, with 52 flights carrying 1,222 departing the field this year. In 2019 the King County executive stopped ICE flights out of Boeing Field, but an appeals court sided with the feds. King County council member Teresa Mosqueda has expressed interest in further transparency and limits. You can email her at teresa.mosqueda@kingcounty.gov to let her know you support limiting deportation flights out of Boeing Field.

And if you missed it, take a moment to read this week's essay on the long list of abuses the Trump administration has made against the rule of law and why these are grounds for peaceful independence for Cascadia.

Portland pedestrian improvements halted by feds

A $38 million proposed improvement to streets, sidewalks and bike lanes in the lower Albina neighborhood of Portland – the heart of the city's Black community – will be cancelled, OregonLive reports, because Trump's OBBA budget eliminated funds for the Transportation Department's Neighborhood and Equity Access program. Because apparently this federal government only wants to spend money or projects that benefit white people.

In related news, despite federal cuts to food banks, Seattle is stepping up its summer free lunch program for kids, the South Seattle Emerald reports. How about funding free lunches and breakfasts, statewide in the next session, legislators?

US abandons ships in Cascadia and we foot the bill

Investigate West has a detailed feature on a disturbing trend – the US Navy and Coast Guard are auctioning off their derelict federal to private interests and these in turn are being abandoned in Washington state waterways. The cost of remediating pollution in these abandon wrecks has climbed into tens of millions of dollars. I think it's only fair the Washington state Department of Ecology sends the Navy a bill.

“My question for the federal government is, why are you selling these into private hands when you know that the vessels are at the end of their life?” – Troy Wood, manager of Washington’s Derelict Vessel Removal Program.

A BC book list and Portland's beautiful new library

In Cascadia-related book news, The Tyee has a list of eight books by British Columbia authors you should check out this summer, including A Season in the Okanagan, a travelogue of central BC by Bill Arnott and I Want to Die in My Boots, a historical novel that tells the story of Belle Jane, a notorious female cattle rustler, by Natalie Appleton. Meanwhile, Willamette Week writes about the renovation and re-opening of Portland's Albina library – a beautiful Carnegie-era library in the center of the city's historically Black community. The grand opening is this weekend: multcolib.org/hours-and-locations/albina-library.

--Andrew Engelson