Cascadia today: OR wins tariff case against Trump + land-back to Yurok Tribe + Bruce Lee immortalized on a stamp
Good morning! If you appreciate this roundup of news, environmental reporting and arts & culture from across the Cascadia bioregion, please recommend us to a friend!
And if you missed this week's essay, I wrote about thinking of the Cascadia movement for autonomy as an opportunity for a postnational nation that seeks to reform border controls, movement of workers, restrictions of human rights for immigrants, and the inability to tax wealth at the international level.
Andrew Engelson
Supreme court tosses Trump's tariffs
The obsequious, fawning US supreme court majority decided to grow a spine for once and declare Trump's emergency declaration of tariffs illegal, OPB rerports. The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of states, was led by Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield, who posted on Bluesky that "today, the Supreme Court made it clear that no president gets to levy taxes on Americans disguised as tariffs." The tariffs hit Cascadia hard, which relies on international trade: Oregon and and Washington's combined economy relies on $222 billion in exports and imports annually, and supports more than 600,000 jobs in our region.
Portland debates what to do with unspent housing funds
OPB reports that the Portland city council is debating what exactly to do with $106 million in unspent housing-related funds recently discovered. In related news, the Vancouver Sun reports that even though the NDP insists their latest budget isn't about austerity, a fund that provides more than $1 billion to cities for affordable housing will be suspended. The Oregon Journalism Project finds that half of Oregon's renters are "rent burdened," meaning they pay more than 30% of their income for housing.
WA legislature fails to pass farm worker unionization bill
According to Washington State Standard, the Washington state legislature failed to pass a bill sponsored by senator Rebecca Saldaña that would have allowed farmworkers to organize unions. Incredibly, the state's labor laws don't support unionization of hard-working farmworkers. Of course, they need no permission to organize, negotiate, and strike if needed. The United Farm Workers is currently trying to organize workers at Windmill Farms in Sunnyside, WA and has called for a boycott of mushrooms from Windmill Farms. And remember – baristas at Starbucks are still on strike. Don't buy coffee from them until they offer workers a fair contract!
Land-back plan returns salmon habitat to Yurok Tribe
High Country News report on a record return of lands to the Yurok Tribe in the Klamath Valley of northern California. 73 square miles of forest and salmon habitat were returned to the tribe through land purchases made by the Western River Conservancy.
Seattle superstar Bruce Lee on postage stamp
Martial arts movie star Bruce Lee, who attended the University of Washington and spent his formative years in Seattle, is being honored with a US "forever" postage stamp, KUOW reports. Want to learn more about Bruce Lee? Seattle's amazing Wing Luke museum has an ongoing, interactive exhibit about Lee's life and philosophy called Be Like Water My Friend. Buy tickets here.
Have a great weekend! --Andrew
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