Cascadia today: Seattle hotel strike ends + feds still trying to force WA coal plant to pollute + sacred figure returned to Tsawwassen First Nation

Seattle hotel strike ends

Washington state's longest hotel worker strike ended over the weekend, the Seattle Times reports, with workers at the Embassy Suites in Pioneer Square gaining an hourly wage of $31 an hour and year-round health insurance. Housekeepers and other staff were on strike for 85 days --including during World Cup matches– in Seattle. When workers fight, we win. Thankfully, Washington has the third most unionize workforce in the US.

Feds order WA coal plant to stay open for fourth time

KUOW reports that the Trump regime has for the fourth time ordered Washington state to keep open a climate-killing coal plant in Centralia that has been slated for closure thanks to the state's climate action plan. Courts have already sided with the state, which is closing the plant because it was previously the state's largest single source of CO2 emissions. Trump can go ahead and lose for a fourth time in the courts as Cascadia continues to defy this corrupt regime and its campaign to ignore climate change and anything that limits its corporate cronies in the fossil fuel industry.

In other energy-related news, OPB reports that a developer of geothermal energy has reached a deal with private forester Weyerhauser to develop clean energy using heat from deep in the earth's crust on sites in Oregon and Washington. This is the way.

OR governor's race gets underway

OPB reports on the race for Oregon governor, between incumbent Democrat Tina Kotek and Republican state senator Christine Drazan. Despited Kotek's low approval ratings, Drazan has several things dragging her down: most notably, the incompetent, doddering old president of the US, Donald Trump and his illegal Iran war that's driving up gas prices for Oregonians.

In other state political news, Washington state's longest serving member of the legislature, Sharon Tomiko Santos, is at serious risk of losing her seat to Kelabe Tewolde, a teacher and planning commissioner who fared well in the primary. Tomiko Santos has represented the 37th district in south Seattle since 1999 and frankly has taken her re-election chances for granted.

Sacred figure returned to Tsawwassen First Nation

CBC reports on the return of a sacred carved figure to the Tsawwassen First Nation in coastal British Columbia. The carved female figure, known as Sqəmáθia and considered sacred to the Tsawwassen, was stolen in the 1920s and housed in the Canadian Museum of History, near Ottawa, until being returned last week. A longhouse ceremony welcomed back Sqəmáθia (skwa-MAH-thee-ah) on Friday.

"It's been an emotional journey. This has been something in the works for literally generations." – Tia Williams, archaeology director, Tsawwassen First Nation.

Children's book on coho salmon wins award

Columbia Insight reports that author illustrator Annie Chen has won the National Museum of Wildlife Art's annual illustrator award for her children's book on the life cycle of coho salmon, Salmon Run: An Epic Journey to the Ocean and Back. The book beautifully documents journey from egg to smolt to full-grown coho and then return to natal streams. Chen, who lives in Massachusetts, learned about coho on a trip to Alaska. Coho salmon in Cascadia are being decimated by 6PPD, a chemical in car tires that is extremely toxic to the fish.

Tell legislators in WA to pass HB 2421, which would place steep fines on tire manufacturers that use 6PPD in order to push them to use alternatives that don't kill coho.

Thanks for reading. Keep loving and keep fighting. --Andy