Cascadia today: Will OR put wealth tax on ballot? + Feds suspend visas for Microsoft + WA fails to protect mature forests to fund schools
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OR progressives seek wealth tax on 2028 ballot
Oregon Capital Chronicle reports that unions and progressive organizations in Oregon plan to gather signatures for a statewide vote on a wealth tax in 2028. The measure would impose a tax of up to 1.2% on stocks and financial assets valued at $30 million or more. It's expected to generate about $1.5 billion for each two-year budget cycle and affect about 4,500 residents. This is great news, and can help to address Oregon's critical needs, including transportation and education. In other tax news, the BC Conservatives' plan to slash BC income taxes could leave a $4 billion hole in British Columbia's budget, the Vancouver Sun reports.
Feds suspend visa approvals for Microsoft
The Trump regime this week suspended approval of H-1B visas for foreign workers at Redmond-based Microsoft, KUOW reports. The feds hate immigration and have attempted to tack a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, which often go to foreign software industry workers. A court struck down the fee earlier this year.
Another ICE shooting as OR sees surge in seizures
ICE goons shot a man with his 5-year-old kid in the back seat in New York City yesterday as ICE's mass deportation surge continued in Oregon. The Statesman Journal reports on 21 abductions by ICE in Oregon in the past few days. ICE continues to needlessly terrorize immigrant communities across Cascadia.
Want to help defend our immigrant neighbors? The South Seattle Emerald has a great guide to how you can help monitor ICE and help vulnerable neighbors.
Roxy Robles
Expansion of BC LNG project will break emission limits
The Tyee reports on findings that a proposed expansion of an LNG terminal outside of Vancouver will exceed Canadian limits on emissions of nitrogen dioxide. In related news, CBC reports that the Alberta-based Cold Lake First Nations are suing the Canadian government to block the proposed Pacific Link oil pipeline connecting Albert and British Columbia.
Plans to protect WA forests stymied by budget woes
Columbia Insight reports on how Washington department of natural resources director Dave Upthegrove promised in his campaign to protect 77,000 acres of mature forests but hasn't delivered on that plan. That's because the state's education system is heavily dependent on timber sale revenue. All the more reason to defeat Brian Heywood's ballot measure that would repeal the millionaires' tax.
Traditional heron dance performed in Seattle's Kubota garden
Seattle Dances has a great review of a traditional Sagimai (heron dance) performed at Kubota garden, Seattle's largest Japanese garden and park, in August. Choreographer Leah Okamoto Mann talks about her modern interpretation of a dance that has been performed as a Shinto practice in Japan for more than a thousand years and calls for peace and health in times of warfare.
“On the heels of the 81st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, carrying the yukata in procession felt palpably tender. In Gaza, the phrase ‘only clothes left’ refers to recoveries from the rubble where there is nothing left to identify the person but their clothes.” --Leah Okamoto Mann
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