Cascadia today: ICE jail contractor awarded $1.5 billion + Seattle tries to tow its way out of homelessness + Sasquatch trackers gather useful data
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Do you appreciate Cascadia Journal's exclusive reporting on the ways the Pacific Northwest is pushing back against US fascism? If you have the means, please consider a paid subscription of just $5 per month. Each subscription helps me produce original reporting and opinionated notes on Cascadia's fight to build a more resilient and autonomous bioregion. And to those who already subscribe, thank you! --Andrew
$1.5 billion to contractor running NW Detention Center
KUOW reports that the feds have agreed to a $1.5 BILLION contract awarded to GEO Group to run the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma for the next ten years. The ICE detention center has been at the center of complaints over abuse, inadequate medical care, and unsanitary food and living conditions. Cascadia's main ICE concentration camp can hold 1,635 people and has been at the center of a cruel mass deportation campaign in Washington and Oregon.
Washington bans private prisons, but a federal court in 2024 ruled that the law didn't apply to the NW Detention Center. GEO has defied attempts by the WA state department of health to inspect the facility.
Part of that $1.5 billion is your tax money.
I wrote about this prison recently at Cascadia Journal. I'll repeat what a believe strongly: if Congress and the feds don't shut down this cruel, inhumane place, Cascadia should declare our autonomy and shut it down ourselves.
Andrew Engelson
Why did the New Democrats lose BC's election?
They Tyee talks to political insiders about David Eby's disastrous decision to call a snap election and give up what could have been two more years of NDP leadership. Meanwhile the Georgia Straight has a rundown of what happened in all of Vancouver's ridings. And today at Cascadia Journal, I analyzed the NDP's defeat. The NDP abandoned any hint of a pro-environmental program, attempted to seek voters in the center, and lost ground to the BC Greens. They also didn't energize their base: turnout, at 48%, was the lowest since 1949.
Andrew Engelson
Seattle trying to tow its way out of homelessness
The Stranger takes a hard look at the Seattle city council's new program that bans living in parked RVs in the city and creates a complicated permit process that effectively eliminates sleeping in RVs as an option for those who are without permanent shelter. Mayor Katie Wilson has a choice to veto, approve, or allow the bill to go into effect without her signature. The compassionate choice is clear: veto this legislation.
Sasquatch seekers provide helpful data to biologists
The hairy humanoid creature known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch in Cascadia may or not be real, but wildlife biologists are finding that the data that Bigfoot trackers have gathered can be very useful, the Narwhal reports. A researcher at the University of Montreal has analyzed the abundant data from Sasquatch trackers and used it to create models for tracking other, known species.
Do you appreciate Cascadia Journal's exclusive reporting on the ways the Pacific Northwest is pushing back against US fascism? If you have the means, please consider a paid subscription of just $5 per month. Each subscription helps me produce original reporting and opinionated notes on Cascadia's fight to build a more resilient and autonomous bioregion. And to those who already subscribe, thank you! --Andrew
