Cascadia today: Local wingnut quits feds over Iran + will Seattle pause surveillance? + new novel from Willy Vlautin

Good morning. As the US continues to descend into fascism and war, now more than ever it's important to stay informed about how our region is pushing back. Every weekday at Cascadia Journal, I collect news and environmental reporting from across the bioregion, and at least one story about the vibrant arts scene in Cascadia. I also write opinionated articles each week about the Pacific Northwest, including last week's reporting on how Cascadia should adopt permanent standard time.

Cascadia should make standard time permanent

This will be the last year residents of British Columbia will have to move their clocks forward an hour – last week, the BC government announced it will adopt permanent daylight savings time. Premier David Eby sent a letter to his colleagues on the west coast of the US urging those

Cascadia JournalAndrew Engelson

I also spend a lot of time organizing Cascadia Democratic Action, a grassroots group pushing non-violent strategies for regional autonomy. It's a lot of work, and I need your support to help pay the bills. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. It's only $5 per month and I'm still 19 subscribers short of my goal of 100 paid supporters by the end of March. Thanks! --Andrew

Local right wing guy Joe Kent quits feds over Iran

All over the national news today is the announcement that Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center and a former right-wing candidate for Congress in southwest Washington, quit his job in protest, saying the the war in Iran is unjustified. Yes, but. Joe Kent has a notorious past of being affiliated with far-right groups, and as the Guardian detailed in February of last year, Kent had connections to many white nationalists, including giving an interview with American Virtue, a group allied with Nazi Nick Fuentes, in which Kent said the current culture in America is “anti-white” and “anti-straight-white-male."

If Kent is coming back to run for the third district seat against incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez again, Cascadia will make sure to defeat him.

Seattle council member's bill pauses surveillance cams

The Stranger reports that Seattle city council member Alexis Mercedes Rinck has introduced a bill that would pause use of the city's automatic license plate readers and other surveillance cameras for 60 days if subject to a federal request or subpoena. Send an email TODAY to all city council members in support of CB 121179, pausing surveillance cameras at: council@seattle.gov.

WA state ferries still won't travel to Vancouver Island

Washington State Standard report that the Washington state ferry route from Anacortes through the San Juan Islands will not travel onward to Sydney, British Columbia for the seventh year in a row, and won't likely resume until 2030. These leaves only the Black Ball line from Port Angeles, the ferry from the Vancouver suburb of Tsawwassen, and the Victoria Clipper passenger ferry as the only options for travel between Vancouver Island and the Puget Sound region.

Local governments push protection of Rainbow-Jordan forest

CBC reports that the city of Revelstoke, BC has passed a resolution in support of provincial protections for the Rainbow-Jordan valley, an endangered inland rainforest under threat of logging. The Narwhal recently wrote an in-depth feature on the need to protect the rare forest, home to caribou and endangered lichens. The land is on Sinixt terrritory, and the Valhalla Wilderness Society has been working on a wilderness designation since 2017.

Willy Vlautin's fiction is immersed in north Portland

Willamette Week profiles Willy Vlautin, longtime local fiction writer whose latest novel The Left and the Lucky is set in the dive bars and strip clubs of the St Johns neighborhood of Portland. He's obsessed with the neighborhood, even though Vlautin now lives in Scappoose, north of the city.