Cascadia today: SCOTUS blocks fed election plot + Seattle cement plant burns car tires + a scrappy Seattle art gallery
US supreme court blocks fed election meddling for now
The US supreme court yesterday blocked implementation of the Trump regime's plan to use the US postal service to impose restrictions on vote by mail and require states to hand over voter rolls to the feds. Washington attorney general Nick Brown said in a statement online that "Today’s ruling is a huge win for orderly elections this November," and in an online statement Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield said "Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a win for Oregon voters, and a win for free and fair elections. The U.S. Constitution is clear: no president has the authority to interfere with our elections, and today the Supreme Court affirmed that basic fact."
US president Trump complained about the ruling today on social media, and the AP reports that federal agents are still poking around state voter files, possibly violating state laws. The postal service remains underfunded and inefficient: as I've written previously, use a dropbox if you can before election day.
Trump nominates lackey Serrano for western WA attorney
Washington State Standard reports that Donald Trump has nominated loyalist Pete Serrano as US attorney for western Washington, after he failed to place him in the same position in eastern WA earlier this year. US senator Patty Murray says she'll block Serrano's nomination. This summer, courts appointed Roger Rogoff, a former prosecutor, to the Seattle-based US attorney role, but Trump fired him hours later. “The people of Washington state deserve a serious U.S. Attorney who will follow the law, not a political loyalist who thinks the law is whatever the President says it is,” Murray said. Serrano was leading of the eastern WA US attorney's office when it charged and convicted three protesters against ICE in Spokane with federal conspiracy – the protesters are appealing their conviction, claiming it violates their first amendment rights to dissent.
Tacoma immigration court limits impact Cascadia
The Oregonian reports that new limits on the ability of immigration attorneys to appear remotely in Tacoma immigration court proceedings is having huge negative implications for immigrants from across Cascadia who are held at the Northwest Detention Center. The new restrictions, put in place in August, are making it extremely complicated to provide legal assistance to immigrants from across the region, as the NWDC is the only ICE prison camp in the Pacific Northwest. The University of Washington's Center for Human Rights has extensive documentation of insufficient food and medical care, abuse, and inappropriate use of force within NWDC.
Andrew Engelson
Seattle cement plant plan to burn more tires blocked
KUOW reports that a plan by a cement plant in one of Seattle's most polluted and vulnerable neighborhoods to burn even more car tires to power its plant has been blocked by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Still, the Ash Grove plant will continue burn 1.5 million used car tires each year, emitting toxic air pollution in the Duwamish River valley, a neighborhood with a high BIPOC population that has long been subjected to environmental injustice. The environmental justice organization Front and Centered celebrated the win in a statement on its website, noting that
"The permit would have removed the 30% limit on tire burning at Ash Grove; records show Ash Grove would have combusted up to 3.7 tons of tires (about 43% of total fuels) per hour to heat their cement kilns."
Studies show that the burning of tires increases the presence of cadmium – a proven carcinogen – into the air. To address pollution inequities in communities that have higher BIPOC populations and more low-income residents, Front and Centered supports a bill introduced in the Washington legislature, the CURB Pollution Act (HB 1303) that would direct the state department of ecology to include environmental justice in its review process of major projects.
Which data centers will get approval in BC?
CBC looks at the permitting process that British Columbia power company BC Hydro is undertaking to review which energy-sucking data centers will get approval in the province. CBC say the agency has received 15 total permit applications that involve more than 800 megawatts of power. The BC Greens have called for a moratorium on new data centers in British Columbia, but the ruling NDP has made no moves to restrict them.
Inside a scrappy Seattle art gallery in Pike Place Market
Seattle has plenty of bougie art galleries, but one tucked away in the heavily touristed Pike Place Market offers weird, wonderful, and affordable art: Gallery ERGO. The Stranger profiles Matt Midgley, the gallery's operator and curator about finding balance in order to pursue or support creative endeavors. He's definitely not one to support the starving artist stereotype:
"What’s more, if you can find a day job that you don’t hate and that gives you some free time to make art without the need for that art to also pay your rent, sometimes that’s actually the better path." – Matt Midgley, Gallery ERGO
Thanks for reading. Keep loving and keep fighting. --Andy
