Daily digest: Feds fault protesters + China to build BC ferries + cults of Cascadia
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Feds continue to provoke fights with protesters
As protests against ICE facilities in Portland have drawn the attention of Trump administration officials (including this unhinged press release claiming the protest movement is full of "anarchists and rioters") the battle over the narrative of who exactly is at fault for scuffles has started, OPB reprots. Hint: if you don't send masked secret police and goons in tactical armor to Home Depots to kidnap gardeners looking for work, you might not get so much push-back. Meanwhile, KUOW reports that a Portland-area woman and her four kids (all born in the US) were wrongfully detained for two weeks at a facility on the Washington - BC border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And Washington State Standard looks at how nonprofits are tying to support central and eastern Washington Latino communities as their mental health is negatively affected by ICE's fear campaign.
New BC ferries to be built in China
CBC reports that four new ferries that will sail on some of the most popular routes that BC Ferries serves, will be built in China. That's stirring some controversy at the national level among the Conservatives but in fact no Canadian companies bid on the project. The aging fleet of ferries requires an upgrade, and Sechelt mayor John Henderson noted, "we need them built yesterday." In other transportation news, a new four-lane highway between Moscow, Idaho and Lewiston recently opened, not long after Washington governor Bob Ferguson showed up in Spokane to praise the near-completion of a new multi-lane highway project north of the city. Turns out these huge highway expansion are breaking transportation budgets in Washington and Oregon despite the need to reduce carbon emissions.
Oregon shifts from affordable housing to shelters
Street Roots breaks down the recent biennial budget that passed in the Oregon legislature and finds that funds for affordable housing were slashed by $1 billion and eviction prevention funding came in $139 million less than governor Tina Kotek had proposed. The budget included $2.6 billion for shelter and services for the homeless. Meanwhile, Tacoma may find its programs for the homeless threatened by the Trump administration freezing housing grants until cities promise to eliminate diversity programs.
Cults and hate groups connected in Cascadia
Cascade PBS speaks with Oregon-based journalist Leah Sottile, whose new book Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age documents the long connection between cults, fringe religions, and right-wing hate groups in the Pacific Northwest. Sottile talks about how fascists groups in the 1930s in Seattle were first seen as spiritualist movements and how cults today such as Love Has Won are mixing New Age spirituality and conspiracy theories in a toxic blend that's gaining more mainstream acceptance in the age of Trump.
