The Gristle
KICKING THE CAN, FILLED WITH CEMENT: With a new voice and new alliances, Whatcom County Council this week extended its ban on subdivisions in the Lake Whatcom watershed. Their six-month moratorium was laudable, but simply continues to delay ultimate and final decisions about how to best repair the City of Bellingham’s municipal water supply.
In a similar vein, Bellingham City Council kicked two responses to Lake Whatcom down the road.
City Council took public testimony on a proposed increase on water rates to fund the city’s property acquisitions program in the watershed, with provisions that would expand the program to include stormwater projects. The proposal would double the utility charge from $5 per month to $12 month. Ironically, the increase would then match a fee proposed in a 1998 citizen’s initiative to create a similar acquisitions program that failed at the polls by a handful of votes. Given that history and support, few spoke against the proposal Monday evening.
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Food
In the course of 24 hours, I went from cavorting on a beach in shorts and flip-flops to donning wool socks and a turtleneck and digging through the pile in the back of my bedroom closet to unearth my burly snow boots. I was not amused by the turn of events.
During the four or five days that the “snowpocalypse” brought the region to a standstill, I stayed inside as much as possible and did the things ones does when forced to hibernate—I made an enormous batch of chicken soup, watched a lot of movies and spent quality time under the covers dreaming of spring (and not-so-quietly mourning the end of my vacation).
During the lockdown, I never dreamed that, come the weekend, I’d be back in the garden. But after rain and elevated temperatures eventually rinsed away the white stuff, I thought I’d do a walk-through of the beds to assess the damage. What I found surprised me.
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Film
Neeson conveys an effective mix of authority, intelligence and anxiety, along with a generous dose of despondency, in his compelling lead performance as John Ottway, a sharpshooter employed at a remote Alaskan oil refinery to scare off (or, when need be, kill) wolves, grizzlies or any other wild beasts that might threaten other employees.
As The Grey begins, Ottway appears perilously close to turning his rifle on himself, sinking ever deeper into a suicidal depression evidently triggered by an irreconcilable separation from his wife (played by Anne Openshaw in teasing flashbacks). But when he and a handful of other refinery workers are stranded in the middle of a snow-blanketed nowhere as the only survivors of an airplane crash, Ottway must yank himself out of his funk and take charge.
Early on, Ottway guesstimates they’ve landed on the home turf of some very large and hungry rogue wolves, so he encourages the other men to trek to safer ground, all the while pursued by lupine predators. Diaz (Frank Grillo), the token ex-con badass in the group, is the only fellow to seriously challenge Ottway’s leadership, but even he evolves into a team player as wolves and wounds take their toll on the survivors.
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On Stage
A quick glance through the history books shows the French royal was anything but a footnote in the annals. Born around 1122—and educated far beyond the norm—Eleanor was a headstrong lass who, upon her father’s death when she was 15, found herself with the title of the Duchess of Aquitaine. Soon thereafter, she married well and became the Queen of France and, eventually, the Queen of England. Along the way, she expressed her opinions, stood up to men in power (including her husbands), supported the arts and generally kicked ass.
“I’ve had a crush across time on her for awhile,” says director John Gonzales, who was the one who suggested the play make the Bellingham Theatre Guild seasonal roster. “In an era when women were largely excluded from power and education at every level, she was forceful and intelligent enough to go head-to-head with kings and popes.
“It’s hard to say just how much influence she had,” Gonzales adds, “but she definitely made the males of her time rethink what it meant to deal with a woman.”
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Words
It is difficult to describe all of the riches Derek Hayes’ latest atlas project offers to the armchair historian. Its 200-plus pages brim with more than 500 maps, photos, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, illustrations, advertisements and other historical ephemera, all succinctly explained and consolidated in Hayes’ descriptive yet succinct text. The journey begins with the earliest known maps of Washington and Oregon drawn up by explorers like Quadra, Barkley, Quimper, Gray, and Vancouver—scrawled yet often elegant relics reflecting the limits of knowledge of the first Europeans venturing in to this rugged landscape—and gains sophistication as missionaries, railroad workers, miners, loggers and other settlers begin to push into the territory. Later pages are devoted to the development of the interstate road system, national parks and forests, irrigation and hydropower, floating bridges and atomic and aerospace industries. Open to any page of Hayes’ bursting compendium and you’re likely to be engrossed by the diversity of materials and depth of research.
Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, by Thor Hanson (Basic Books)
Winner of the 2011 Northwest Booksellers Association book of the year award and a Library Journal Top 10 Science Book, Feathers tells the natural and cultural history of the feather—one of the most highly evolved objects in nature. Hanson is a conservation biologist with experience in the field studying everything from trees and songbirds in Costa Rica, bears in Alaska and gorillas in Uganda, and he possesses the rare gift of translating scientific concepts into prose both captivating and poetic. Writing from his home on San Juan Island, Hanson takes the reader back to the Chauvet Cave in southern France, through Greek and Hindu mythology, up to recent discoveries using DNA fingerprinting, all the while exploring the development and uses of this evolutionary marvel.
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Outdoors
“Rise and shine, old timer,” she barked, doling out a spanking for emphasis. “You’ve got 15 minutes to gather your ski gear and shove a bagel in your pie hole. Party Bus leaves at 06:00 sharp.”
“What the blazes is going on?” I queried, squinting confusedly into the predawn dimness.
“I’m taking you to a cabin in the woods,” Telemark Girl proclaimed, hefting a towering backpack over her shoulder.
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Visual
Blame Mat Hudson, a 24-year-old graphic designer whose display, dubbed “Danger Island,” started with a large map on the front wall of the eatery.
Week by week, the exhibit is steadily growing to encompass a story about three siblings who, after gathering in their aunt’s home to celebrate her death, are sucked through an enchanted painting into a mysterious world full of terrors, challenges, adventure and locales with odd names such as Ocular Lake, the Edge of Danger, Plains of Regret, Undead Wood, and Fort Xian.
Hudson says the exploits of Rocky, Lydia, and Elliott are the direct result of his love of books by the likes of C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia) and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit)—in other words, fantastical tomes that involve being transported to another world.
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Music
Every year, a few weeks before the annual What’s Up! Awards shows, Cole, usually by phone, but sometimes via the worldwide web, utters this sentence, “I’m pretty sure no one is coming to the awards show this year.”
How a man who has been throwing this particular party for more than a decade could believe such a thing is always beyond me. But, rest assured, this is no posturing in the interest of having his ego stroked. Cole is dead serious when he says this. Dead serious, and totally insane.
As anyone who has attended any of the What’s Up! Awards shows is well aware, the risk inherent in this entertainment outing isn’t that the room, in this case both the Jinx basement and the Wild Buffalo, will be empty, it’s more that if one doesn’t arrive early—and I mean 8pm early, not 10pm “early”—one won’t be able to get in at all.
News
Bellingham officials took a stand against medical marijuana dispensaries within the city, revoking the registration of those businesses and establishing a policy that the city will accept no further applications for cannabis dispensaries.
Marijuana is legal in Washington if prescribed by a doctor, however federal law makes no provision for medical marijuana. State law also allows for collective co-op gardens, or for a grower to provide for a single patient.
After looking at the application and the purpose of the business, the city attorney’s office decided that it wasn’t compliant with state and federal law and denied the application.
“The city does not believe these businesses are lawful,” said Shane Brady of the city attorney’s office. “And we can’t issue a license to what we view as an unlawful business.”
Brady explained that while procedures may be unclear, “what is clear is that it is unlawful to possess, manufacture or deliver marijuana. The law does provides an affirmative defense if they are charged criminally.”
It remains unclear how the city will respond to dispensaries that continue to operate without registrations. Without that registration, businesses would be violating municipal code that requires any business operating in the city to register with the city for tax purposes.
One dispensary has appealed the policy. The appeal will be considered by the city Hearing Examiner in March, Brady said.
“I don’t fault them,” Michael Drechsler admitted. Drechsler is co-owner of DojaRose, a medical cannabis collective in Bellingham. His license was among the five revoked by the city. The city has made no threats against his business, he said, and his doors remain open.
“They’re holding to state law. Their hands are tied. They’re just as confused about this as everyone. It’s hard to know how to move forward. You have a law that says people are entitled to use this product, and other laws that prohibit its use.
“It does create a bit of a ridiculous situation,” Drechsler admitted. “In the City of Bellingham, cabbages are now more regulated than medical cannabis.”
The DojaRose collective does not have a storefront and serves just a few patients as a private, members-only association.
“We were actually the first group to be granted a business license in Bellingham for the retail sale of cannabis,” Drechsler said.
“I want to be a licensed, recognized business,” Drechsler said. “I want to pay taxes like other businesses, but frankly I’m not happy about paying taxes without getting the same protections for my business that other businesses have.”
A hurricane of conflicting state and federal crosswinds in response to marijuana for medical use has opened up a great eye in which these dispensaries continue to operate, unlicensed (and untaxed) as businesses but granted the ability to remain open to patients for whom marijuana has been prescribed as a drug by a physician.
Storefront cannabis shops are neither explicitly permitted nor banned under a 1998 voter-approved state law that legalized pot in Washington for medical purposes, but they have widely proliferated nevertheless.
State law does allow collective medical marijuana gardens of up to 45 plants, or a maximum of 15 plants per patient. DojaRose operates at a fraction of that, Drechsler said.
Governor Christine Gregoire in April vetoed most provisions of a bill that would have established a new regulatory system for medical marijuana. The governor said she was swayed by a legal opinion from U.S. prosecutors threatening to target not only dispensary owners but also state regulators who would enforce the proposed new law.
The medical marijuana movement was knocked down earlier this year after the Obama Justice Department released a memo declaring that it might prosecute medical marijuana cultivation operations and dispensaries even in states where they are operating in compliance with state laws. Advocates reacted with dismay and disappointment, even as they plotted strategies about what to do next.
The memo represented a shift from earlier federal enforcement lenient to patients and providers operating in compliance with state laws. That leniency touched off a medical marijuana cultivation and dispensary boom in the Western states, some operating as little more than state sanctioned head shops.
The Justice Department responded with increased federal raids and threats to governors and legislators in states considering or implementing medical marijuana distribution programs. In November, federal agents raided medical marijuana dispensaries across western Washington, targeting storefronts deemed to be engaged in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.
The dispensaries singled out by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were essentially operating under the state’s medical marijuana law to conceal criminal activity, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said in a statement.
“Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law,” federal prosecutors argued in their brief. “Those who engage in transactions involving the proceeds of such activity may also be in violation of federal money laundering statutes and other federal financial laws.”
“The emphasis should be on making sure patients receive a clean, healthy product in appropriate doses,” Drechsler said. “We’re interested in cultivation without herbicides, and delivery systems that can actually reduce the amount of cannabis our clients need to use.”
DojaRose operates as a member organization that can deliver medical marijuana to up to 10 patients, a limit proscribed by state law. In January, DojaRose added walk-in hours to their regular consultations by appointment.
“Let’s face it, the government is dragging their feet with this whole health care overhaul and people need care, so we’ve decided to take care of our local community and provide a much-needed service,” Dreschler said.
He praised the Bellingham Police Department.
“They have been professional and patient,” Dreschler said. “I think they understand what we are doing, which is dispensing a product a doctor has prescribed to a patient. Some shops do a lot of buying and selling of large amounts of product among their members, and are little more than head shops. They’re not in control of the quality of what they are dispensing. That is not what we are doing.”
An initiative heading for the ballot in November would decriminalize possession of marijuana and tax the product. Initiative 502, a measure to legalize and regulate marijuana sales in Washington, acquired enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. While I-502 might assist in clarifying how and where cannabis might be distributed and obtained, the law would carry very negative consequences for users of medical marijuana, he said.
“The proposed law includes pretty severe penalties for driving with tiny amounts of THC in your bloodstream,” Dreschler said. THC is a psychoactive chemical in cannabis. “The problem is, medical marijuana users are going to have THC in their blood. They are using the product for an ongoing medical condition. The real emphasis,” he said, “ should be on impairment. If you are a longtime user of cannabis, you can develop a higher tolerance without impairment.
News
Six years of multi-party water rights negotiations in the Nooksack basin of Whatcom County have been suspended while the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe seek federal support to quantify their water rights.
The Nooksack basin supplies water for a number of competing needs, including cities, industries, farms, homes, fish and other animals. Most of the Nooksack basin is closed to new water rights for all or part of the year. At issue is how much water should remain in various reaches and streams of the Nooksack River, and how much should be available for other uses.
The tribes have asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to file a lawsuit that will result in a declaration of their treaty-reserved water rights and protection of those rights.
If Interior grants the request, the federal action would provide clarity about the quantity of water reserved for the tribes. It also would be the starting point for quantifying water available for other uses and be a major step forward in resolving long-standing water allocation challenges in the Nooksack River.
Details of the negotiations are protected by a confidentiality agreement signed by the negotiating parties—the tribes, the City of Bellingham and the Washington Department of Ecology.
“Treaty-reserved water rights are outside the state system, and the only way that the tribes can have documented and clearly defined water rights is through a quantification judgment,” said Merle Jefferson, director of the Lummi Natural Resources Department. “We encourage others to support our request to resolve this long-standing issue so that we can all have certainty and can plan accordingly.”
“There is no surprise here,” said Bob Kelly, Nooksack tribal chair. “We all knew that federal court action would be needed to establish the Indian water rights. We made a lot of progress together, and, if the parties continue to cooperate, this can be noncontroversial.”
“We recognize that adequate stream flows protect salmon, an important cultural and economic resource that the tribes and the people of Washington state depend on,” said Richard Grout, manager of Ecology’s Bellingham office. “At the same time, the state has a responsibility to regulate water that is not part of federal or tribal reserved rights.”
Negotiations began in 2005 for Bertrand Creek and the Middle Fork. In 2008, after reaching an impasse in the Bertrand Creek effort, the parties focused instead on the North, Middle and South forks in the upper watershed.
“Our hope throughout the negotiations was that we could reach an agreement that satisfied all those needs and we believe that all parties worked in good faith to achieve that goal,” Grout said. “We remain hopeful that, if a federal action is initiated, all of the complex issues involved will be resolved in a way that is acceptable to all the affected parties.”
Devil’s Workshop: View six new works by six playwrights—and performed by six actors—when the “Devil’s Workshop” shows at 8pm Thurs.-Sat. at the iDiOM Theater, 1418 Cornwall Ave. Tickets are $10 and additional showings of the short plays happens Feb. 2-4. more »
Tartuffe: Moliere’s classic tale of hypocrisy, Tartuffe, shows at 7:30pm Thurs.-Sat., and 2pm Sunday at Western Washington University’s Old Main Theater. Tickets are $8-$12 and additional showings take place Feb. 1-5. more »
Tartuffe: Moliere’s classic tale of hypocrisy, Tartuffe, shows at 7:30pm Thurs.-Sat., and 2pm Sunday at Western Washington University’s Old Main Theater. Tickets are $8-$12 and additional showings take place Feb. 1-5. more »
Evolution and Cagematch: Watch two teams of improvisers create brand-spanking-new improv show formats at “Improv Evolution” shows at 8pm at the Upfront Theatre, 1208 Bay St. At 10pm, stick around for competitive “Cagematch” bouts. Tickets are $8-$10. more »
Busybody: The British murder mystery and comedy dubbed Busybody opens this weekend with showings at 7:30pm Fri.-Sat. and 2:30pm Sun. at Oak Harbor’s Whidbey Playhouse, 730 S.E. Midway Blvd. Tickets are $16 and additional shows take place Feb. 3-12. more »
A Shayna Maidel: The Alger Lookout Thespian Association presents showings of A Shayna Maidel (Yiddish for “a pretty girl”) at 7pm Fri.-Sat. and 2:30pm Sun. at the Alger Community Church, 1475 Silver Run Lane. Tickets are $10-$14 and additional showings take place at various dates Feb. 3-11. more »
Becoming Eleanor: Learn more about the young life of Eleanor of Aquitane when Becoming Eleanor opens this weekend with showings at 8pm Fri.-Sat. and 2pm Sun. at the Bellingham Theatre Guild, 1600 H St. Tickets are $8-$12 and additional showings of the serio-comic dramatization happen through Feb. 12. more »
Eagle Viewing Season: Educational programs, speakers, guided walks and more will be part of the feathered fun when the Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center opens from 10am-4pm Fri.-Sun. every weekend through Jan. 29 at Rockport’s Howard Miller Steelhead Park. more »
Eagle Viewing Season: Educational programs, speakers, guided walks and more will be part of the feathered fun when the Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center opens for the final weekend from 10am-4pm Fri.-Sun. at Rockport’s Howard Miller Steelhead Park. more »
VIGIL FOR PEACE: Join the longest-running Peace Vigil in the country—48 years and counting—from 4-5pm every Friday afternoon at the corners of Cornwall Avenue and Magnolia Street. more »
Winnie the Pooh: Students from the Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth present showings of Winnie the Pooh at 6pm Friday and Saturday at the venue’s digs at 1059 N. State St. Tickets are $8-$10. more »
Dangerous Game: Colleen Mondor reads from The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska at 7pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St. more »
The Poet as Art: Nationally recognized poets Christopher Howell and Megan Snyder-Camp will read from their respective works at the Whatcom Poetry Series’ “Poet as Art” gathering at 7pm at the Lucia Douglas Gallery, 1415 13th St. Entry is by donation. more »
Rogue: Hear a variety of French music when the renowned ensemble Rogue performs at 8pm at Mount Vernon’s Lincoln Theatre, 712 S. First St. The cabaret/burlesque troupe Jezebel Rebels will be the featured guests. Tickets are $9-$18. more »
Winter Rummage Sale: More than 25 families will sell their goods under one roof at a Winter Rummage Sale happening from 9am-12pm at the Bloedel Donovan Community Building, 2214 Electric Ave. more »
