Cascadia today: No teacher strike in Seattle + spotted owl extinct in BC + last speaker of diitiidʔaaʔtx̣ dialect dies
Teacher strike averted in Seattle
West Seattle Blog reports that the SEA teachers' union and Seattle Public Schools came to an agreement last night on a new contract, averting a strike. Teachers, who authorized a strike if no deal was made, had taken issue with the district's plan to eliminate up to 100 special education assistant instructor positions. There are few details yet about the contract, which was hammered out last night with the help of a mediator.
Evacuations from Spokane wildfires were problematic
RANGE Media reports that the evacuation of neighborhoods in north Spokane during catastrophic wildfires last month was plagued with problems, but luckily there were no fatalities. RANGE found that these neighborhoods have grown faster than much of Spokane, and evacuation routes were clogged with traffic as residents fled. In other fire-related new Stateline reports that the Washington town of Roslyn in the Cascades has been setting prescribed burns around the town to improve forest health and decrease the risk of more destructive wildfires.
Want to help residents of Spokane impacted by wildfires? At Cascadia Democratic Action's Subduction spoken word reading in Seattle tonight at 7 pm, we'll be raising funds for Second Harvest, a food bank in Spokane that's providing critical assistance to those affected by wildfires.
Portland Mercury sues city councilor to obtain records
The Portland Mercury reports that it's suing Portland city councilor Dan Ryan to obtain texts and emails he's sent since January 2025. The Mercury reported in November that Ryan was seen during a council meeting receiving talking points which included racist and sexist comments from wealthy real estate broker Brian Owendoff. Since then, the Mercury repeatedly sought access to those and other communications from wealthy power brokers in Portland, but have been told no such communications exist. Good for the Mercury for forcing elected officials to be transparent.
Spotted owl is extinct in BC, province continues destruction
The Tyee reports on how the last known wild spotted owl in the forests of British Columbia died in 2023. The province and Canadian government never acknowledged the extinction of the spotted owl in Canada, and the Tyee notes that 2,600 other species, including caribou and western screech owls, are threatened with extinction in the province.
BC has repeatedly broken promises to protect old growth and just last month announced plan to log old growth in the Fire Lake forest – what would have been prime spotted owl habitat. And every week seems to have a new announcement from the province on a new environmentally destructive project: the Narwhal reports on a proposed massive expansion of a climate-killing LNG project in Delta outside of Vancouver. B
Project tests generating power from waves on OR coast
OPB reports that a project from Oregon State University is testing generating electric power from waves off the Oregon coast for the first time. The PacWave projects off the coast near Newport use buoys cabled to generators to produce electricity from wave motion. The project had been delayed for years by pauses in federal funding. As the federal government slashes funds for clean energy projects like this, it's time for Cascadia to assert its fiscal and political independence and take the creation of sustainable energy sources seriously.
Andrew Engelson
Last speaker of diitiidʔaaʔtx̣ dialect passes away
Ha-Shilt-Sa reports that Michael Thompson (Kwiibaalaah), an elder of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation on Vancouver Island, has passed away. Thompson was the last living fluent speaker of the diitiidʔaaʔtx̣ (Ditidaht) dialect of the Nuu-chah-nulth language, a huge loss for passing on the language to future generations. Nuu-chah-nulth linguist Bernice Touchie says the death of the dialect's only fluent speaker is a huge blow for Ditidaht culture.
“Language changes all the time, but there will be drastic changes without hearing the original, everyday language; the pronunciation, the accent, the body language, all of that was part of communicating at one time. Now they won’t see the actual use of it." --Bernice Touchie
Thanks for reading. Keep loving and keep fighting. --Andy
