Cascadia today: Amazon lays off 16,000 + SPD's records request system illegal + new book on a battle for citizenship

Good morning! If you appreciate the feisty coverage of the Pacific Northwest you find in Cascadia Journal, please recommend this newsletter to a friend. And if you can, please consider a paid subscription of just $5 per month. It helps me continue to do this work. Thanks! --Andrew

Amazon lays off 16,000, will close all small groceries

Seattle-based retail behemoth Amazon announced it will lay off 16,000 corporate employees, many of them in Seattle, where unemployment is already at more than 5%, KUOW reports. The article notes that some former employees noticed a shift to focus on AI to replace some corporate work. KUOW also reports that Amazon will shut down all of its smaller groceries – Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh– in favor of new "supersized" stores.

That's exactly the wrong direction Cascadia's cities should be headed – we need lots of smaller, walkable corner stores, not huge megastores that force us to shop with our cars and sit in traffic. There's a bill (HB 2313) in the Washington legislature that would allow cities to create public grocery stores in "food deserts" and another, already approved in the House, that would allow corner cafes and small groceries in residential neighborhoods statewide (HB 1175).

Vague answers from officials in BC safe supply trial

The Tyee reports on the trial in Vancouver of activists from the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) who provided access to medical-grade heroin and cocaine to drug users in an attempt to address British Columbia's fatal overdose crisis. The judge in the trial was frustrated with vague answers from Health Canada officials about whether they believed compassion clinics like DULF's saved lives. Meanwhile, The Stranger reports on an effort by Washington legislator Jesse Salomon (D-Shoreline) to legalize ibogaine, a pyschoactive drug that's showing promise for treating depression, addiction, and PTSD. In 2020, Oregon voters legalized psilocybin for medical use.

Court rules Seattle police records request policy illegal

PubliCola reports on a King County court ruling that found that the Seattle Police Department's policy of grouping requests for public records and only working on one at a time violates the state's public records law. The Seattle Times has more on the lawsuit, which they filed against SPD. In several years of police accountability reporting in Seattle, I'm very familiar with the issue – requests move at a snail's pace and the department would often refuse to answer simple questions and instead ask reporters (at least, reporters critical of the department) to file requests.

Judge dismisses Trump's attempt to get OR voter data

OPB reports that a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the US Department of Justice attempting to get unredacted voter rolls from the state of Oregon.

“Oregonians deserve to know that voting laws can’t be used as a backdoor to grab their personal information.” – Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield

Meanwhile, The Burner has an account of the US government's cruel mass deportation campaign, offering a first person account of an ICE abduction in front of a preschool in Shoreline, WA.

Could a backup plan help recover Columbia salmon?

Columbia Insight looks at the $300 million Northwest Power and Conservation Council annual plan for salmon recovery on the Columbia River as a possible alternative to the Columbia River Basin Restoration Plan, which was jettisoned by the Trump administration. Warming water and dams have decimated runs of native salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake River watersheds.

New book on Pakistani immigrant's battle to gain citizenship

The South Seattle Emerald has an interview with Melissa Chaudhry and Zahid Chaudhry, who have collaborated on a a new book, Service and Sacrifice, about Zahid's long efforts to gain citizenship. It's the story of the disabled veteran's 20-year struggle, which included a four-month detention at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma:

"What’s the worst is not the living conditions. It’s taking somebody's liberty away and putting them in a cage. Mentally and psychologically, it breaks people." --Zahid Chaudhry

Thanks for reading. --Andrew