Cascadia today: Ferguson plans austerity budget + OR fails to fight real terror + retrospective of OR painter James Lavadour
Good morning! Here's today's roundup of news, environmental reporting, and arts coverage from across the Cascadia bioregion. Please take a moment to support Cascadia Journal with a paid subscription if you can, I'm hoping to reach a goal of 100 paid supporters by the end of the year, thanks! --Andrew
WA governor promises austerity budget
According to Washington State Standard, Washington governor Bob Ferguson has pledged to propose a state budget in the current legislative session that doesn't raise taxes and will use budget cuts to deal with a multi-billion-dollar deficit. The centrist governor continues to offer austerity budgets in the face of a regional economy hit by tariffs and a safety net eviscerated by slashed federal budgets. A battle is shaping up between Ferguson and progressives such as Rep Shaun Scott (D-Seattle), who has proposed taxing large corporations to generate an additional $2 billion in revenue.
If you live in Washington, please contact your legislators and let them know you are opposed to Ferguson's austerity budget at that you support:
- SB 5796, which would tax companies over $7 million in revenue, adding a 5% tax on employees making over $176,100 per yer
- SB 5233, establishing the Washington Health Trust, a step toward universal health care
- SB 5754, creating a Washington State Bank
Starbucks workers continue strike
Starbucks workers across the US remain on strike as the Seattle-based coffee corporation agreed to a $38 million settlement with workers in New York City, which accused the company of violating labor laws. Meanwhile, the Guardian has a detailed look at baristas' long battle to unionize and the company's vigorous campaign to shut it down. For more on how you can support striking Starbucks workers, visit No Contract, No Coffee.
“It’s still shocking to me to wake up and have them every day still fighting us the way that they’re fighting us. Because we have proven time and time again that we’re not going anywhere.”
--Michelle Eisen, Starbucks Workers United
Oregon faces counter-terror cuts for opposition to ICE
Proving that the feds are only interested in cruel, racist attacks on immigrants and not in the safety of Cascadia's residents, a report published at Oregon Capital Chronicle finds that funding for counter-terrorism efforts in Oregon are being held back in retaliation for being a sanctuary state opposed to Trump mass deportation efforts. The detailed article finds that funding for efforts to track down and arrest violent right-wing and neo-Nazi militants is taking a backseat to immigration crackdowns.
Fed up with the fascist government in the US? Sign up for alerts from Cascadia Democratic Action, which is organizing a peaceful independence movement for Oregon and Washington:
DULF conviction appealed to Supreme Court
The Tyee looks at the arguments the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) is making in its appeal to the Supreme Court of British Columbia over the convictions of founders Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum for drug trafficking. DULF's compassion club in Vancouver provided medical-grade heroin and meth to drug users in an attempt to prevent fatal overdoses. In related news, recent decreases in fatal overdoses in Washington state could be at risk after the Trump administration slashed funding for addiction services by more than half. For PubliCola, I wrote about how evidence finds that small-scale drug trafficking arrests actually increase the risk of overdose and that the best harm reduction approaches are increased access to treatment and overdose reversal medication naloxone. [CORRECTION, 12-3-25: The Supreme Court of BC, not the Canadian Supreme Court, is hearing the appeal of the DULF founders' conviction.]
The legacy of OR artist James Lavadour
Oregon Arts Watch looks at the long career of Oregon-based painter James Lavadour, whose deeply colored, slightly abstract, slightly surreal landscapes have helped shape a generation of artists in the Pacific Northwest. There's a retrospective of Lavadour's work at the University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene through January 11.
“Exposure and sensual perception and the daily accumulation of bits and pieces of knowledge that sticks with you is what I made the paintings out of.” – James Lavadour
--Thanks for reading! --Andrew
_-_0515.jpg){kind=link}