Cascadia today: Are goons ICE agents or imposters? + data centers suck + bill would ban octopus farming

Goons tried to kidnap Portland man: were they ICE?

The Portland Mercury has a disturbing story of three men in tactical gear trying to kidnap a man in southeast Portland. In the video, they leap out of an unmarked SUV guns drawn, attempted to seize a resident, laughed and then said they had the wrong person. What this demonstrates is that a masked police force that refuses to identify itself is impossible to distinguish from imposters.

ICE needs to be abolished and kicked out of Cascadia.

If you're in Seattle, there are several community ICE monitoring meetings this weekend, including one the Douglass-Truth Library meeting room, 2300 E Yesler Way, at 10 am, Sunday Jan 18, and one at at Stoup Brewery at 1158 Broadway on Capitol Hill at 4 pm, Sunday Jan 18.

Business leaders quiet on BC First Nations land issue

The Tyee reports on how British Columbia's business community has been silent on several court rulings that asserted that First Nations lands south of Vancouver were deceptively taken and that title was improperly granted to colonists. The article has a great summary of the two court cases, if you're unfamiliar: in August, the BC Supreme Court found that the Cowichan tribes were deceived by settlers and that they improperly lost the village of Tl’uqtinus on the Fraser River. First Nations are asking for compensation, but BC premier David Eby has waffled in response. In addition, a recent court ruling Gitxaala v. BC Gold Commissioner found that BC's minerals policy is inconsistent with the 2019 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Clearly, BC needs to do better to heal the wounds of colonization.

I-5 bridge plan would pay $140 million to companies

OPB found through records requests that the plan to rebuild the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, offered more than $140 million to companies impacted by the construction of the bridge. Costs for the controversial project have ballooned to more than $13.6 billion. Meanwhile, the Oregon Journalism Project found that governor Tina Kotek's plan to jettison her own transportation budget passed late last year, in response to a ballot initiative challenging it, may be unconstitutional.

Feds investigate school districts over trans kids in sports

Demonstrating that the Trump administration is sticking to the fascist playbook by demonized marginalized groups, the Dept of Education's civil rights division is investigating school districts in Cheney, Sultan, Tacoma, and Vancouver, Washington for daring to allow trans kids to play sports, KUOW reports. Meanwhile, a stupid ballot initiative in Washington that would ban trans kids from playing sports won't get a hearing in Olympia during the legislative session.

Stop harassing trans kids and get to work addressing real issues in Cascadia.

Data centers suck up Cascadia's energy & water

OPB reports that the massive Google data center in The Dalles uses one third of the city's water supply, and expansion plans are forcing the city to look at a new reservoir near Mount Hood. In related news, KUOW looks at Microsoft's massive data center in the tiny town of Quincy, WA, where promises of more jobs have been elusive. And AI is surging, and in response the Washington legislature is proposing limits on AI chatbot use by children.

WA looks to ban octopus farming

In other legislative news, a bill was introduced in the Washington legislature that would ban the farming of octopus, Washington State Standard reports. If you've read the amazing book The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery, or seen the documentary film My Octopus Teacher, you know. They're amazing, intelligent and emotionally aware creatures that shouldn't be raised for food. And don't forget that Inky the Octopus, who escaped from a New Zealand aquarium in 2016, is a symbol of resistance to, well all of the garbage happening in the world right now.

CORRECTION: the WA bill would ban the sale of farmed octopus. The legislature banned octopus farming Washington in 2024.

Keep fighting and keep loving. – Andrew