Cascadia today: Progress in avoiding Seattle teacher strike + ICE arrests surge in Cascadia + reclaiming the name Tahoma

"Promising progress" on contract for Seattle teachers West Seattle Blog reports that the Seattle Education Association, the union for the city's public school teachers made "promising progress" on a new contract with Seattle Public Schools in marathon negotiations last night that went well into

Cascadia book bingo: Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach

One book I read earlier this summer is the Cascadian classic, Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach. The futurist novel first published in 1975 was for many the first time they'd considered the idea of an independent, environmental utopian nation in the Pacific Northwest.

Cascadia today: ICE kidnappings climb in WA + Seattle teachers set to strike + progressives may split vote in Vancouver mayor race

ICE kidnappings in WA climb The Seattle Times reports that ICE kidnappings reached a new high in Washington state last month and that seizures are increasing in the Puget Sound region and central Washington. Arrests are also up at SeaTac airport, part of a nationwide surge by immigration goons in

Cascadia today: Tacoma detention center commits human rights violations + OR economy grows + poetry by Serena Chopra

Rep Randall says NWDC commits "human rights violations" KUOW interviews Congressional representative Emily Randall, whose district includes Tacoma's Northwest Detention Center, and who says conditions inside the immigration prison, especially lack of adequate medial care, constitute "human rights violations." She's visited the

Cascadia today: Court OKs feds meddling in elections + Seattle improves pedestrian safety + a Log Lady lookalike contest

Cascadia Democratic Action's Cascadia Day poetry reading went so well in May we've decided to start a monthly spoken word and performance series! It's called Subduction, after the geological process in which a coastal tectonic plate sinking deep below the continent creates the volcanoes,

Cascadia today: Trump's trade war will hit Cascadia hard + Spokane wildfire damage to top $1 billion + a Seattle coffee shop trains at-risk youth

Trump's trade war on Canada will hurt Cascadia After a week of negotiations between the US and Canadians failed, Donald Trump has announced he'll impose 50% duties on a range of Canadian imports, and prime minister Mark Carney said Canada would respond with equal tariffs of

Cascadia today: Hunger strike at ICE camp ends + OR public universities face budget crisis + new bio of Elliott Smith

Hunger strike at Tacoma ICE camp ends The Stranger reports that a hunger strike by 140 detainees at the the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma has ended after GEO and ICE have said they'll improve meal quality and consistency. The strike was called by immigrants held at the

One day, the Northwest Detention Center will be shut down

The Tacoma prison camp is a grim place, situated between a maze of railroad tracks and surrounded by razor wire. It looks exactly like what it is: a concentration camp where 1,500 people are held, many indefinitely.

Cascadia today: Cascadia has spent $380 million on fires + Spokane bans data centers + dark history of the Klan in OR

Lawsuit in OR challenges feds expanding grazing Oregon Capital Chronicle reports that the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Oregon opposing the Trump regime's plan to vastly expand cattle grazing on 24 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

Cascadia today: Hunger strike continues at Tacoma ICE camp + Portland blows up water tower + Rasheena Fountain writes about Black environmentalism

Member of Congress visit Tacoma ICE camp Oregon Live reports that two Democratic members of Congress from Cascadia, Maxine Dexter of Portland, and Emily Randall, whose district includes Tacoma, paid an unannounced visit to ICE's Northwest Detention Center this past weekend. The ICE detention camp was the focus

Cascadia today: Tribe works to save sunflower stars + Pike Place to be clogged with cars + BC wildfires more intense

Tribe works to save endangered sunflowers stars KUOW reports on work wildlife biologists and the Samish tribe are doing to breed and release sunflowers stars, which have been devastated by a bacterial pandemic that has wiped out 5 billion of the Pacific coast creatures. Members of the Salish Sea tribe

Cascadia today: Will Tacoma ICE camp be sold to feds? Union at Vancouver Amazon warehouse under threat + hiking with drag queens in Portland

Concern that ICE camp in Tacoma will be sold to feds KUOW reports on speculation that ICE is looking to purchase the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma from the private company GEO Group. The ICE camp, which has been at the center of hundreds of complaints of unsanitary food, inadequate